Dear friends,

I am delighted to announce that we will have six monastics from the Plum Village Blue Cliff Monastery in residence at our Tampa Center the weekend of February 27th-March 1st. It is both an honor and opportunity for our sangha to imbibe Thich Nhat Hanh's Dharma directly from his monastic continuation.

One of their offerings for us will be a monastic-led family retreat from Friday night through Sunday morning for parents and their children ages six to nineteen. The children will be divided into three age-related groupings. Parents with children younger than six will need to provide their own childcare. 

This past summer, two of our sangha families attended a family retreat at Blue Cliff and shared the following about their experiences:

What stood out the most for me was how quickly all members of my family felt comfortable and happy. Miraculously, our 13- year-old son, who typically likes to do his own thing, happily spent almost all day every day with the Teen Program without any complaints. Our 10-year-old daughter joined the children’s program for her age group, where she enjoyed playing outside almost all day and learning about things like the Two Promises and Beginning Anew. The retreat watered and planted seeds in the four of us around kindness and living more harmoniously with others.

And from two teenagers:  This place made me feel I don't need to do anything. I can just exist and It was fun being with a good community and monastics were very welcoming.

Here is a link to an article a member wrote about her time at Blue Cliff (after clicking this link, scroll down to Karuna's August 2025 posting, "A Happy Family Retreat at Blue Cliff Monastery").

I strongly encourage parents and children to attend this retreat as it will be a rare and rewarding experience for all. Parents of children, as well as teenagers who have been reluctant to come to our monthly family program, will find a monastic-led retreat to be a different and highly engaging experience from what they're use to.

The monastics will also be offering a Day of Mindfulness on the 28th and leading Sunday sangha on March 1st.

For more information about the retreat and to register, click here.

In the Dharma, Fred