“More than a book page, the dawn comes for the new day to be possible
like the song of rebirth
of all colours and sounds.
Its manifestation allows for the creation of heaven and earth.”
Namo Shakyamunaye Buddhaya
Dear Respected Venerables
Dear Beloved Friends!
Today, March 1st 2022, marks the ninth anniversary of Thai Plum Village.
This morning, after the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings Recitation ceremony, the Sangha practised invoking the Buddha and Bodhisattva’s names. We sent our peaceful energy to wish all venerables, the Sangha, and our Beloved Friends for peace, good health, and wisdom, so we can continue our Respected Thầy and put his teachings into practice.
“The mission of our Sangha is to present life with the practice of applied Buddhism, which allows us to go into life successfully. Accordingly, the theoretical guidelines and practices are based on our real-life experience that can be realized in this life, at this very moment.
The Buddhism we practise is not a collection of dogmatic teachings but is the path we learn and practise that can be verified. It can eliminate all mysteries. Let’s take the Pure Land as an example. When speaking about the Pure Land, we as practitioners are able to touch its miracles in the here and the now, not longing for a realm far in the future. Mantras can be another example. We only practise mantras that bring immediate effects that we and everyone else can appreciate.
Love, insight, enlightenment, brotherhood and sisterhood, tolerance, non-self, nirvana, etc., are all possible and can be realized in the present moment with our body and mind. Every step, breath, word, and thought according to the Right Dharma, every session of sitting meditation and walking meditation has the capacity to nourish, heal, and transform and can be realized. In harmony with science, this practice of Buddhism can even guide science thanks to the insight of no-birth, no-being, aimlessness, no-action, etc.
Nourishing brotherhood and sisterhood, nurturing the Four Immeasurable Minds, we create conditions for our Sangha to become one of quality or a true Sangha. Whenever the true Sangha manifests, the true Buddha appears. The fact that we are a cell in the body of the Sangha means that we are also a cell in the body of the Buddha …”
On the manifestation day of Thai Plum Village, we would like to express our wishes to the Respected Venerables and Beloved Friends for a lot of peace and good health. We hope that innovations can always be encouraged to allow the torch of mindfulness to penetrate life and continue as an extended arm of the Buddha, of Thầy, and of the local Sangha where you are. Our lasting happiness will be nourished when our connection with all beings is strengthened on the path of serving life.
“Fragrant the agarwood in the forest of concentration
Prosperously grown the sandalwood in the garden of insight
Shaped in the form of a mountain by the sword of precepts
Lit in the burner of the Heart as an offering.”
On behalf of Thai Plum Village Sangha
Abbot
Bhikkhu Thích Chân Pháp Anh
