plum village rains retreat
shared practice for online sanghas and practitioners
host sanghas
latest activities
A Gathering of the Sanghas
The 90-day Rains Retreat is an annual retreat whose origins date back to the time of the Buddha. It is a time for Buddhist monastics to return to their Root Sangha from their service and their travels, to deepen their studies, practice, heal, and transform. In Plum Village, lay friends are invited to dwell at the monastery, to participate in these days of practice alongside the monastics. This creates a joyful, community experience, and a time for collective healing and transformation.
As householders and members of online practice communities, we can also accompany the activities of our Root Sangha during these three months. Together, we can deepen our personal practice of mindfulness in the context of community. Interested members from the Mahasangha — the community of communities — can take part in regional Dharma Sharing circles, coming together just as the monastics do. With an emphasis on “Going as a River”, we can enrich our practice with others from around the world.
Here are audio and video introductions to the Spirit of the Rains Retreat, by Brother Phap Huu, Abbot of the Plum Village Upper Hamlet:
You may also enjoy watching this video created by the Plum Village monastics, as a brief introduction to the Rains Retreat:
Shared Practice in the lineage of Thich Nhat Hanh
Our aspiration is to gather live or online resources from this year’s Plum Village Rains Retreat here, so that collectively we can use the same practice materials and study the same themes. Practitioners can listen to or read these materials, and meet regularly to meditate and share the Dharma as they experience it.
Lay Sanghas that are sponsoring this online retreat offer weekly or twice-monthly Dharma Practice and Sharing meetings, via Zoom. Those interested in participating can contact them directly to request a space. Participants should commit to attending the full 90 days of the retreat, so that sharing groups feel connected, continuous and accompanied. You might enjoy watching this video about the practice of Dharma Sharing, a unique and wonderful way of building community and embracing and transforming our suffering:
Enjoying Community Online
When we open the door and step into a meditation hall, many wonderful elements present themselves to our senses. There is a welcome stillness: it has been cultivated over many hours of mindful practice. There is a scent of incense in the air: it invites the mind to be truly present. There are bright flowers to remind us to smile and to be fresh. There may be a picture of a respected teacher that inspires us to sit upright. Most wonderful of all, there are many friends seated silently, following their breath and observing their minds; there are spaces open about the hall for others to sit. There is a cushion waiting for you.
These spaces are quite special, in part because we make them so. When we open the door to a meditation hall, it is natural to take a deep breath, and to smile at all of the beautiful elements that are present. The smile, though, does not depend upon the stillness or the incense. It doesn’t depend on the presence of flowers or teacher or the hall itself. The smile is all you, and it is close at hand, just as a single mindful breath is close at hand.
We can smile to the place where we sit with others in retreat. It may be in a corner of the room, or simply a chair in front of your computer. If you look with the eyes of community and of love, you will see the meditation hall in the cushion, and be aware of friends seated in stillness all around you, following their breath, observing their minds.
Your seat is the meditation hall
The magic of technology allows our meditation hall to expand as each new participant joins the call. At one moment, the room has alcoves that open onto Asia, the Americas, Africa, Europe, the Pacific.
Your cushion or your chair is not simply a corner in your home, but part of a circle that may well circle the globe.
Caring for the meditation space
With a flower or a meaningful object, we transform a space that we regularly use for business or entertainment into a place for practicing presence and learning ways to live more compassionately.
Choose an object that is significant to your path, and supportive of your intentions for the period of the Rains Retreat.
Community for the senses
It can be beneficial to bring something to your space that physically represents the other participants in your sitting. Some Sanghas suggest a decorative bowl with the same number of small stones or seeds as are in your sharing group.
You might also invite the presence of others in the form of a lit candle or a stick incense. Don’t forget to invite the Buddha and Thầy to sit with you as well!
At ease with technology
Plumline has a frequent questions section for facilitators. Since the same technical concerns are shared by all online Sanghas and practitioners, it may be useful to read through the suggestions, particularly if you are not comfortable with Zoom or technology.
Let us know if your questions are not answered!
Presence is audible and visible
When we join others in an online meeting, our presence in the circle of participants is transmitted on a wave of information, and on a thread of electrons. Looking deeply into the technology, it is a remarkable invention.
Still, we need to help it present as much of our being as possible. We should try to be visible whenever possible; your online companions may feel uncomfortable when your camera is off. “Is she there? Is he writing email while I share from my heart?”
We also share our voice, with its unique tones and concerns. Not only our voice: every voice and sound around us is transmitted to the meditation hall.
We can help reduce the noise in the Hall by requesting stillness in our homes during meeting times. We can also learn to mute our selves using control-A whenever we are not speaking.
Rains Retreat Host Sanghas
We do not yet have a network of Sanghas in place to host Rains Retreat Dharma Sharing with the public. For next year, Plumline.org will start the conversation early, so that by September we might have options for participants in any time zone.
This year, we will be adding Plumline Sanghas that offer public sitting or practice sessions. Attending regularly can help you bring Plum Village practice more deeply into your daily life.
Below, you will find a list of online Sanghas that are hosting regular meetings.
- all events are expressed in time -
Europe and Africa
Supporting practices:
Rains Retreat Dharma Sharing
time to be determined
Morning Chant and Meditation
Evening Chant and Meditation
Mindfulness Trainings Recitation
More information:
Sangha of the Falling Rain website
Contact the Sangha
The Americas
Asia and the Pacific
Rains Retreat Online Materials
Prior to each week of the Rain Retreat, we will post online videos and related materials, made available by the global monasteries affiliated with Plum Village. We may enjoy videos from prior retreats, or from our teachers. The aspiration is to create a house of Dharma, a quiet and sheltered space in our busy weeks, to read, think and look for deeply into this lovely path.
Plum Village has assembled a Home Practices Page, where they gather the Dharma Talks offered by senior Sisters and Brothers. They also provide helpful suggestions for applying the teachings to our daily lives. We will collect their Dharma Talks here, but you may wish to visit their page for other ideas to support your practice. Also at Plum Village, the Lower Hamlet is live-streaming their Sunday Dharma talks. There is a gentle difference between attending a live event and replaying a video after the event has concluded. You may wish to visit that page and scroll to the next Sunday event for more information.
From the Opening Chant of the Plum Village tradition:
The Dharma is deep and lovely.
We now have a chance to see,
study and practice it.
We vow to realize its true meaning.
Practices For this Retreat Season
Each year during the Rains Retreat, we commit to deepening our practice in the Plum Village tradition. This year, we invite our lay family to enjoy the physical and devotional practice of Touching the Earth in the form of prostrations, as well as a weekly or bi-weekly engaged practice of Beginning Anew. The first supports healthy body and mind in the individual, while the second cultivates healthy communication and compassion in our families and local communities. We hope you will be inspired by these practices, and enjoy them in your community.
Here is audio from Thầy, and a video by Sister Eleni describing the practice of Touching the Earth:
Brother Bao Tang describes the value and practice of Beginning Anew
October 19
Opening Ceremony, 2021
You can enjoy the complete opening ceremony ceremony from the 2021 Rains Retreat.