The Plum Village Tradition is a school of Buddhism named after the Plum Village Monastery in France, the first monastic practice center founded by Thích Nhất Hạnh, Chân Không, and other members of the Order of Interbeing. It is an approach to Engaged Buddhism mainly from a Mahayana perspective, that draws elements from Thiền, Zen, and Pure Land traditions. Its governing body is the Plum Village Community of Engaged Buddhism.
It is characterized by elements of Engaged Buddhism, focused on improving lives and reducing suffering, as well as being a form of applied Buddhism, practices that are a way of acting, working, and being. The tradition includes a focus on the application of mindfulness to everyday activities (sitting, walking, eating, speaking, listening, working, etc.). These practices are integrated with lifestyle guidelines called the "five mindfulness trainings", (a version of the Five Precepts), which bring an ethical and spiritual dimension to decision-making and are an integral part of community life.
History
The Plum Village tradition grew out of the teachings and community building of Thích Nhất Hạnh (born Nguyễn Xuân Bảo) and Chân Không (born Cao Ngoc Phuong), and other members of the Order of Interbeing. The tradition is rooted in traditional Vietnamese monasticism but was also influenced by the reform movements happening in Vietnam during the 20th century.
During the Vietnam War Nhất Hạnh and Không developed and headed the School of Youth for Social Service (SYSS), a neutral corps of 10,000 Buddhist peace workers who went into rural areas to establish schools, build healthcare clinics, and help rebuild villages.
Members of the SYSS would later form the Order of Interbeing, named after the concept of interbeing and the Brahmavihara, to bring Buddhist principles into modern practice. This version of the Brahmavihara is grounded in what Plum Village calls the Four Spirits including "the spirit of non-attachment from views, the spirit of direct experience of the nature of interdependent origination through meditation, the spirit of appropriateness, and the spirit of skillful means. All four are to be found in all Buddhist traditions". Nhất Hạnh ordained six social workers into this new order, including Nhất Chi Mai, and provided them with fourteen precepts of Engaged Buddhism, now known as "mindfulness trainings". The precepts represented an adaptation of the traditional bodhisattva vows.
Nhất Hạnh traveled to the United States to teach and rally opposition to the war while Không managed the SYSS. Nhất Hạnh and Không then represented the Unified Buddhist Church (Église Bouddhique Unifiée) with Nhất Hạnh acting as the leader of the Vietnamese Buddhist Peace Delegation which became involved in the Paris Peace Accords. The Unified Buddhist Church would go on to assist refugees, assist children through Pour les Enfants du Vietnam and Partage avec les Enfants du Monde, and address disaster relief, technical training, schools, meals, and salaries for teachers and childcare workers. Exiled from Vietnam for refusing to take a side in the war, Nhất Hạnh and Không worked to help boat people in the Gulf of Siam then established the Sweet Potatoes Meditation Centre at Fontvannes near Troyes.
Outgrowing the Sweet Potatoes Meditation Centre, Nhất Hạnh, Chân Không, and other community members established Plum Village as a practice center in the Dordogne region of France and opened up the Order of Interbeing to the growing Vietnamese diaspora in France and Westerners. The tradition is named after this monastery which was named for the one thousand plum trees of Agen (prune d’Agen) planted there. The group formalized as a tradition while emphasizing the equality of laypeople and monastics and a nondenominational approach to Buddhism. The tradition grew to several monasteries across three continents, many lay-person sanghas across the world, and the eventual return of Nhất Hạnh to Vietnam where he established a presence at his root temple near Huế while the tradition remained headquartered in France.
Analysis
The tradition includes an emphasis on adaptation, typical of Buddhism, as it is said that the Buddha taught 84,000 versions of the Dharma, each one adapted to the needs of a different audience. The traditional includes a "post-merit model" approach for sustaining the organization that focuses on monastics working without financial gain, in an effort to improve the world, thus not relying solely on dana from lay people.
Scholar and member of the Order of Interbeing Adrienne Minh-Châu Lê notes it is an oversimplification to paint Thích Nhất Hạnh and the tradition as just about breathing, smiling, and living in the present moment. Scholars note the tradition is a product of Vietnamese Buddhism and a response to experiences of war, colonialism, and violence. Lê also notes that "Engaged Buddhism" in English is a translation of a concept that already existing in 20th century Vietnamese Buddhism and reforms in Asian Buddhism such as those introduced by Taixu. Scholars also note that view of collective karma written about by Nhất Hạnh contrasts with more individualistic western framings of Buddhism.
Core tenets
Plum Village Dharma Seals
The four dharma seals of Plum Village were proposed by Thich Nhất Hanh to determine whether a teaching is in line with that of the Plum Village tradition. "I have arrived, I am at home"
"Go as a river"
"The times* and the truths** inter-are".
"Ripening, moment-by-moment"
Noting *the three times are the past, present and future **the truths are the four Noble truths and also conventional and ultimate truthThe statement "I am at home" involves finding happiness in the present moment and that mindful breathing, walking, eating, and working are practices that help us arrive fully in each moment, no matter the situation. Even in times of suffering, staying "at home" with that suffering can bring freedom. To "go as a river" emphasizes living harmoniously within the sangha. This requires learning to function as a part of the "sangha body," both nourishing and being nourished by it. The Buddha devoted his life to building the sangha because it is through the collective strength of the sangha that their teachings can endure and thrive into the future. When challenges arise, we stay with our sangha, embrace the difficulty, and work together to transform it, continuing to flow as one unified river.
40 Tenets of Plum Village The 40 Tenets of Plum Village are an attempt by Nhất Hạnh to summarize the teachings that are maintained, taught, and transmitted in the Plum Village Tradition. In this tradition, Nirvāṇa is viewed not as a phenomenon but as the true nature of all phenomena. It is the absence of ignorance and afflictions, yet not the absence of existence, aggregates. Practices for attaining this liberation include mindfulness, concentration, and insight, which work together to recognize suffering, prevent wrong actions, and transform negative seeds. With the Four Foundations of Mindfulness one can transform habit energies such as store-consciousness and fully realize the Seven Factors of Enlightenment and the Noble Eightfold Path. These practices are grounded in the core teachings of impermanence, non-self, and Nirvāṇa, which are the Three Dharma Seals.
The Buddha, as taught in this tradition, is not a single, fixed being but exists in multiple forms and dimensions, including in the sangha, as is the interconnectedness of all things. Each person has the potential to become a Buddha, and the path to awakening involves recognizing the impermanent, interconnected nature of all phenomena, including the self. Rebirth is understood not as the continuation of a permanent self but is understood within impermanence, no-self and interbeing and the Four Noble Truths are viewed as both conditioned and unconditioned.
Within this view, the consequences of our actions (karma) are not limited to a single individual or aspect of existence. It encompasses the interconnectedness of body, mind, and the environment, as well as the collective impact of our actions on the community and the larger world. In line with the Bodhisattva path, each Arhat is also a Bodhisattva and any real Bodhisattva is an Arahat.
Other Tenets
Ethics Ethics within the Plum Village tradition are based on active engagement with the world to reduce suffering. The tradition states that wrong-view (the inability to see impermanence, non-self, and interbeing) is the root cause of ill-being. The roots of discrimination, conflict, and war lie not in the external world but within our own mindset and perspective. The true adversary is our ignorance, our clinging to beliefs, complexes and our misguided perceptions. As such, behavior is not viewed as good or evil but as skillful or unskillful.
With right mindfulness, one can achieve right concentration and right view leading to right thinking rooted in compassion, interbeing, and understanding. Karma, being all actions, includes thinking, speaking, and bodily actions. Ethical choices should be made on the criteria of beneficial vs. un-beneficial, happiness vs. suffering, and delusion vs. awakening. Rooted in interbeing, and seeing others as also us, violence against others or the environment becomes impossible. Views are not rigid and should be practiced with non-attachment, for example, the five mindfulness trainings may not be understandable to people in the future or appropriate to the situation of the world and may need to be revised.
Ethics are related to the core teaching of mindfulness, which is deeply intertwined with the concept of Buddha-nature. Nhat Hanh emphasized that mindfulness practice is essential for transforming unwholesome seeds and nurturing wholesome ones, thereby overcoming obstacles to enlightenment. This transformation is possible because the seed of awakening, or Buddha-nature, is inherently present in all sentient beings. This aligns with the tradition's view on consciousness, including stored consciousness and mind consciousness, and using mindfulness and right action to improve them, their habit energies, and their seeds.
Teachings are also rooted in interbeing as the tradition states “Whether from our family or friends, from our society or education, all seeds are, by nature, both individual and collective". Plum Village also acknowledges the individual consciousness is affected by the collective consciousness causing people to absorb and reflect the world around them.
The tradition has made efforts to express teachings in a way that meets the needs of various cultures and addresses contemporary issues that cause harm. The tradition, in line with many modern and historic traditions, formally accepts LGBT individuals starting an initiative called "The Rainbow Family". The tradition is working to reduce gender disparities, address climate change, and other forms of engaged Buddhism in an effort to reduce suffering and support collective awakening. While vegetarianism isn't mandated, Plum Village practice centers and retreats have always been vegetarian, in line with Mahāyāna teachings and environmental consciousness, and are now vegan. Monastics make decisions based on deep listening and nonattachment of view.
Ancestry