At Home in Our Hearts, At Home in the World: Continuing Thay’s Life of Applied Buddhism
2020 OI Retreat at Blue Cliff Monastery
Wednesday, April 22nd to Sunday, April 26th

In Good Citizens: Creating Enlightened Society, Thay writes:

[T]he Buddha was very clear and practical about how we can transform our difficulties, both individually and collectively. He focused on how we put the teachings into practice in our everyday lives. That is ethics. Practice is key because practice generates mindfulness, concentration, and insight. These three energies are the foundation of all Buddhist practice and Buddhist ethics. ...

Now, as well as engaged Buddhism, we are using the term “applied Buddhism.” “Applied” is a word that is often used in science, and we deliberately use it here as a way of saying that our understanding of reality can be used to help clarify and find a way to transform every situation. In Buddhism, there is something that can be used in every circumstance to shed light on the situation and help solve the problem. There is a way to handle every situation with compassion and understanding so that suffering can be lessened. That is the essence of applied Buddhism.

The OI Retreat at Blue Cliff Monastery offers OI members and formal aspirants an opportunity to practice as a Sangha together with the Blue Cliff monastic community. The retreat will be held April 22nd to 26th. Our theme will be At Home in Our Hearts, At Home in the World. Throughout the retreat we will focus on the essential practices taught by Thay: mindfulness, concentration, and insight. We will also explore together how our deep looking can help us resolve our  individual and collective difficulties and bring more understanding, compassion, and joy into the world.

You are invited to join us.

We look  forward to practicing with you.

You must be a member of the Order of Interbeing or a formal aspirant to the Order of Interbeing in order to take part in this retreat.  An aspirant must have already begun their aspirancy and must have a current OI mentor who is an ordained Dharma teacher in the Plum Village tradition.