A Business Retreat in Plum Village

By Paule

Touched with a full heart by a Dharma talk from Thay that invited everyone to transform themselves through their practice in the summer of 2012, I talked to Marc, a French Dharma teacher, about my work in the corporate world. 

I brought leaders of change together for a dedicated space where they could share, support one another, and find resources among themselves to continue moving forward despite the obstacles of the corporate models. I was looking for other people who, like me, lived in the complex world of large organisations and wanted to bring the fruits of their practice to participate in a shift towards more responsibility, environmental awareness, and respect for men and women in the business field.

Marc then told me about Thay's request to Dharma teachers to enter the world of business, education, and health. Marc had chosen the world of business, and we created a Sangha called Work’Inspir. He had another person in his Dharma sharing family who wanted to do this, and we were sure that others would be interested. In fact, I had met many times in the past several business leaders and consultants who asked about navigating the business world. Thay's books, The Art of Power and Work, could guide us in our approach.

My heart was filled with joy and hope—I was no longer alone on the path. About six of us met for our first Work’Inspir meeting in my Paris office in June 2013. We shared who we were, our aspirations, and how Thay’s request touched our hearts. We worked in small entities, in large organisations, as a head of a company, or as a consultant. We walked in silence on the avenue of Champs-Elysées, ate in silence in a small park nearby, and then shared further. 

From then on, it became clear that what connected us was a deep gratitude for Thay and a deep solidity of the practice he had brought into our lives, which we wanted to bring to the business world along with a common aspiration to participate in an engaged movement with Plum Village. Corinne, one of the Work’Inspir members, shared an insight the organising team for the monastics’ visit in Paris in 2012 received from Thay: "The essential is your path of friendship." It was a phrase that often came to mind when I was tired, overworked, or affected by a decision that did not go in the direction of what I thought or wanted for the group. Sometimes, I thought about withdrawing from Work’Inspir. A path of friendship… 

After several days of meetings, three-day retreats and Skype sessions during a five-year period, this path of friendship led to the International Business Retreat: Mindful and Compassionate Leadership in June 2017. Almost after two decades from the first retreat in 1999, the retreat brought together 200 people from all over the world to contribute to Thay’s vision to better understand the business world and water the seeds of love and understanding. Seventy retreatants took the Five Mindfulness Trainings with the support of the fourfold Sangha. A great moment, a profound moment of joy. 

In our organisation team meetings during the business retreat, we realized how much this path of friendship bore fruit. We had arrived. The retreat took place, although not exactly as we imagined it at the beginning with the same target and programme, but it was much better than we expected since everything was fluid, solid, and stable, and each participant had entered the retreat with intensity and aspiration. The faces were transformed as the days passed. Those who came to find tools realized that they were there to reconnect with themselves, touch their joy, and transform their sufferings so they could share their insights with their families and their business circle.

It was also an opportunity to remember some strong moments, like the one at the end of an afternoon during our first mini-retreat with Work’Inspir in Plum Village in October 2013. Everyone had a bit of a stance on their position, desires, and practice. Even though we tried to write an invitation to future participants together, we felt the differences. A heavy atmosphere momentarily seized the group. Then someone looked up, and a rainbow had filled the sky right in front of us. After the storm, a blue sky and transformation, especially since this rainbow was taking place at the same time as the arrival of Thay and the monastics who returned earlier from the United States. 

The next morning, we attended a Dharma talk, in which Thay shared his trip to Google and Silicon Valley, which made us appreciate him more because it was totally unexpected. He watered our seeds of compassion and understanding, and this strengthened our common aspiration to organise the business retreat in Plum Village. I remember the moment his eyes turned to our group, and he invited the community to host a retreat for the people in the business world in Plum Village. I remember the meditative walk afterwards, a moment of intense transformation for our group, as we walked up the hill in New Hamlet, step by step, aware of the path we had traveled and still had to travel. Another solidarity was born: the path of friendship had deepened and materialised.

On several occasions, we had doubts, especially with two cancellations of the dates proposed by Plum Village, because of Thay’s health first and then because the monastic community did not feel ready. We welcomed, practiced, transformed, and kept this deep aspiration. The Work’Inspir group evolved: some stayed, and others stepped down to devote themselves to other projects, their families, and their personal lives. A solid core group continued. We welcomed new people and kept in touch with the former members, leaving them the choice to return if they wished. The different personalities contributed to the richness of the group. Tensions sometimes appeared: personality clashes, differences of view, and differences in organisations and working methods. However, the group was able to breathe, practice, walk, find a suitable modus vivendi, and anchor together in gratitude to the practice, to Thay, and to the whole community.

At another mini-retreat at Maison de l'Inspir in June 2015, we chose to reflect on our own way of organizing and the leadership we wanted for Work’Inspir. We adopted the second-body practice, and participants who were present for this proposed practice accepted it. The group was solidified since no more suspicion occurred about who wanted to take the leadership. In each sub-working group, whether in communication with Plum Village or external communication, the second-body practice was also adopted. We also adopted a principle of trust: knowing that not everyone could be present at every Skype session or in person meeting, we accepted for the group to make the decisions and move forward.

When the date of the international business retreat was finally announced after we submitted a joint letter of intent to Sister Chan Khong in July 2016, a new impetus was propelled with even stronger contact between the fourfold Sangha and us. It first started as an intention to organise a French business retreat, but it became international. Contacts were made with other Sanghas, especially with Kai from Germany, and our intention grew as well as our hearts and our letting go.

Our path as a fourfold Sangha with monastics and lay friends, which started during a fourfold Sangha meeting in April 2016, is one of the jewels I have learned from this phase of long preparation. It has been an opportunity for us to deepen our respective knowledge of life and constraints, and to better understand Plum Village’s life, our aspirations, the pace of decisions, and the basis for these decisions. We had the joy to see the monastic community agreeing to host this retreat in a new way: three days in Upper Hamlet, three days in Lower Hamlet, men and women, monks and nuns together in the same Dharma family during the day. This was evidence for our group as a reflection of the business world, in that it required a capacity to adapt to Plum Village and the community, and put the strength of a fourfold Sangha at the service of the participants. This undoubtedly brought harmony, depth, and joy of being together and discovering one another during this retreat.

The path of friendship and the community of participants have widened. We all felt a great joy in making this retreat possible and immediately associated in our hearts those who came and supported for this project to became a reality. And especially to Thay, whom our gratitude is even greater today.

This path as a Sangha was extremely rich in teachings, and I carry the strength of this path and retreat, and the atmosphere of friendship, solidarity, commitment, and depth in my heart. It helps me to continue to work in my daily life for a more responsible and compassionate leadership.

In gratitude for those who were, at one moment or another, part of the Work’Inspir Sangha: André, Anna, Anne-Geraldine, Bernard, Corinne, Dat, Jeanne-Do, Kai, Paule, Marc, Michael, Michel, Vincent, Yannick, Brother Phap Linh, Brother Phap Dung, Brother Phap Luu, Sister Dao Nghiem, and Sister True Dedication.

For more information, visit the website at wakeupbusiness.org.

Paule, True Light of Spring, enjoys practicing at Plum Village, France, at Maison de l'Inspir near Paris, and at home with her two sons and her husband. She went to Plum Village for the first time in 2000 and was ordained in the Order of Interbeing there fifteen years later.