September 20, 2025 @ 10:00 am – 4:00 pm
Save the date for a Day of Mindfulness at Pho Tri Wisdom Meditation School.
More information TBA closer to the date of the event.
Chau Yoder
925-708-8662
PhotriDOM@gmail.com
Vacaville Day of Mindfulness
March 22, 2025 @ 10:00 am – 4:00 pm
Save the date for a Day of Mindfulness at Pho Tri Wisdom Meditation School in Vacaville.
Details TBA later!
Chau Yoder
925-708-8662
PhotriDOM@gmail.com
Paramita movie screening
Saturday, October 5 @ 3:00 pm – 3:30 pm
The short film Paramita has been selected to show at the Mill Valley Film Festival! Paramita is a short film by fellow practitioner Kirthi Nath about OI member Prajna Paramita Choudhury‘s coming out journey, intergenerational healing, and the transformational power of mindfulness practice.
Practicing in the Plum Village tradition is a big part of this film, and it would be wonderful if folks from our practice community could make it out for the Bay Area premiere.
It will be part of the Freedom Shorts program on Saturday, October 5 at 3:00 pm and Wednesday, October 9 at 3:30 pm in San Rafael.
Tickets go on sale to the general public on September 18 @ 4 pm, and they may sell out.
If you can’t make it to the Bay Area premiere*, we hope there will be other opportunities in the future, but likely not until next year. If you know about a film festival, event, conference, school or community organization that may want to screen Paramita, please contact paramitafilmdirector@gmail.com. Screening updates will be posted on the film website, https://www.paramitafilm.com. You can sign up to receive updates and can also support the film – it takes a lot to make a film, and then to get it out into the world! Thanks in advance.
Hope to see you there,
Prajna
*There will be a New York City premiere in September!
Silent Peace Walk
Saturday, September 21 @ 7:00 am – 8:30 am
Dear community — please see below for details on a peace walk in Jerusalem, organized by Dharma teachers in the Plum Village tradition.
All are encouraged to practice where they are, with awareness of this walk in Jerusalem…Blue Cliff, Deer Park, EIAB, and many sanghas are participating, for a world-wide silent peace walk on Saturday Sept 21– International Day of Peace–the walking meditation can occur any time… individually and with others…
Resources:
Thay’s poem: Walking Meditation
Song: The Mind Can Go In A Thousand Directions
Book: Thich Nhat Hanh, The Long Road Leads to Joy: A Guide To Walking Meditation
Invitation from Shelagh and Baruch, Dharma Teachers in Jerusalem–
“We are walking without slogans or banners from and back to the YMCA in Jerusalem, through parks and King David Street. From 5pm to about 6:30pm, Jerusalem time. (7am-8:30am PT)
Free
Veteran’s Day Weekend Retreat
Friday, November 8 @ 3:00 pm – Monday, November 11 @ 12:00 pm
We are delighted to invite you to register for the Winter 2024 retreat held at the Quaker Center in Ben Lomond, California (80 miles from the Bay Area). The retreat will take place from Saturday, November 9 – Monday, November 11, with an option to arrive on Friday, November 8 for an additional cost. All retreat meals will be provided by the wonderful chef Tod Nysether.
The theme is “Creativity as Refuge.”
We are excited to share that Maxine Hong Kingston has agreed to lead the writing workshop on Friday, together with Earll Kingston and Wendy Johnson.
NOTE: This retreat is now full. You can still register to be added to the waitlist. We will invite registrants from the waitlist if others are unable to attend.
Registration link: https://forms.gle/agLxDbgBTMajWefu8
Please fill out the information requested in this Google Form. The retreat organizers, Dylan and Melanie, will review all completed registration forms and confirm your waitlist/registration status. When we do, we will send details on payment and lodging.
We currently estimate costs of $150 per night for dorm room beds and $100 per night for camping/futons. (Camping in your own tent, or sleeping on floor pads, will only be available if we have a sufficient number of people registered — we need to fill the beds first.)
We aspire to create a retreat body that represents the diversity of the many people and communities practicing in the Plum Village lineage, including race/ethnicity, age, and gender. Please be patient with us as we do our best to accommodate your needs and to create the conditions for a supportive and inclusive space.
Our draft health plan is outlined in the registration form, but here it is for ready reference:
1. We will request everyone to rapid test negative on their day of arrival.
2. We will leave windows open and run HEPA air filters wherever possible.
3. We will structure activities to make it comfortable to mask at any time and to eat outdoors.
4. We will ask anyone with symptoms to (K)N95 mask, even if rapid testing negative.
5. We will provide a supply of high-quality (K)N95 masks and extra rapid tests.
6. If you test positive at the retreat, we will ask you to leave early or self-isolate, depending on conditions.
$300 – $400
(estimated)
Dylan Tweney
+1 650-315-9607
dylan@tweney.com
EMBRACE Workshop
Friday, September 13 @ 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm
Dear Plum Village Community,
EMBRACE brings a neuro-informed and trauma-sensitive lens to mindfulness as it is practiced in the Plum Village Community of Engaged Buddhism in order to support a resilient and harmonious community. We do this by educating practitioners, individually and collectively, to gain deeper understanding of themselves and the practices through this lens, so that they can derive the maximum benefit from the practice, and address certain challenges that may arise due to a lack of understanding of the practice.
We will be hosting ONE EMBRACE Intro Workshop on:
Friday, September 13th, 2024 from 2:00pm-3:30pm Pacific Time
(that’s 5:00-6:30pm Eastern Time, and 9:00am – 10:30am on Saturday, September 14th New Zealand Time)
The Intro Workshop is an introduction to neuroscience and trauma informed mindfulness practice. Those who wish to participate in an EMBRACE Study Group are asked to attend this workshop or watch a recording, which can be found on our youtube.
You can register for the Intro Workshop here. Afterwards, we’ll send you the link and a google calendar invite.
Remember, either attending the Intro Workshop on zoom in real time or watching a recording is a prereq for the EMBRACE Study Groups happening later this fall.
Please let us know if you have any questions.
Santa Cruz Mountains Day of Mindfulness
Saturday, October 12 @ 10:00 am – 4:00 pm
Please save the date for this Day of Mindfulness coming up on October 12, at a beautiful monastery in the Santa Cruz mountains. There will be an opportunity to receive, or renew, the Five Mindfulness Trainings in a special Transmission Ceremony.
If you would like to participate in planning please contact Jim Scott-Behrends at jsbehrends@aol.com.
More information will follow.
Free
Donations appreciated
Logan Payne
loganpayne@earthlink.net
14 Mindfulness Trainings Transmission
Sunday, November 17 @ 8:00 am – 5:00 pm
Deer Park has announced that there will be a Fourteen Mindfulness Training Transmission Ceremony in English with Vietnamese and Spanish translations at Deer Park Monastery on Sunday, November 17, 2024.
If you have been an Order of Interbeing aspirant for a few years and your mentors determine you are ripe and solid enough, you may consider receiving the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings this fall.
More information is at this link.
Activism as a Vehicle for Awakening (online)
Friday, July 19 @ 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm
NorCal Dharma Teacher Jo-ann Rosen will be offering a free online workshop, “Activism as a Vehicle for Awakening,” on Friday July 19, online.
For more details and to register, please see the Deer Park website:
Free
Deer Park
An invitation to Shantideva Sangha
Dear community,
We are happy to share that a new practice center in the Plum Village tradition is available for Plum Village sanghas to organize days of mindfulness and similar activities.
Shantideva Monastery is located on a few beautiful, hilly acres in Castro Valley, just east of Hayward, and about a 1-hour drive from San Francisco, Berkeley, or San Jose. The address is 30345 Palomares Road, Castro Valley, CA 94552.
If you want to arrange a practice day for your sangha at Shantideva, please email Ven. Thich Tu Luc (thichtuluc@yahoo.com) and cc Dylan Tweney (dylan@tweney.com).
There is also a monthly meeting of Shantideva Sangha at this location. We are a group of lay mindfulness practitioners who enjoy practicing in the Plum Village tradition, with chanting in both Vietnamese and English. We invite anyone in the community to join our practice from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the following dates (generally the 3rd Saturday of each month):
- July 20
- September 7
- October 19
- November 16
These dates are all listed on the NorCal Sanghas event calendar.
We extend a special invitation to OI members, OI aspirants, OI-curious people, sangha facilitators, and anyone interested in helping build the NorCal sangha community.
We aspire that Shantideva (the sangha and the monastery) will become a resource and anchor for our broad and diverse Bay Area and Northern California community.
May you be happy,
Thich Tu Luc, Dylan Tweney and Isabelle YenChi Chappuis