Brother Trời Đức Niệm reflects on his monastic journey and on the important role of Plum Village in supporting the climate movement.
My journey to ordaining in Plum Village
In 2013, my job at a solar energy company in Germany ended, and I began to seriously consider ordaining as a monk in Plum Village. I attended a conference in Berlin on renewable energies in developing countries, and on my way back,
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Brother Trời Đức Niệm reflects on his monastic journey and on the important role of Plum Village in supporting the climate movement.
My journey to ordaining in Plum Village
In 2013, my job at a solar energy company in Germany ended, and I began to seriously consider ordaining as a monk in Plum Village. I attended a conference in Berlin on renewable energies in developing countries, and on my way back, I read one of Thầy’s books on the train. Thầy wrote that in order to be more effective as activists, we must be able to write a love letter to our politicians. I had a deep aspiration to help protect the planet and support the people of the Global South, but I realized that something was missing in my work and life: a spiritual dimension and peace within my heart and body. In the summer I was staying in Plum Village, France for six weeks. I was going through the pains of burnout and a breakup, and the time in Plum Village helped me tremendously to heal. Thầy’s talks, the deep peace during the collective walking meditations, and witnessing the transformations and healing of the friends in my Dharma sharing circles nurtured my monastic aspiration.
One moment stood out for me. Thầy shared in a question and answer session: “Maybe in one hundred years there will be no more humans on this planet if we continue to live as we do now.” I was deeply impressed—not only by the clarity with which he described this reality, but especially by the way he said it. Thầy radiated such peace, lightness, and calmness when he spoke this heavy truth, and it had a deep and lasting impact on me. One big question and kōan for me is: How can we have deep peace inside while not closing our eyes to the unprecedented suffering caused by the unfolding climate crisis? And, on the grand scale, does my cultivation of peace actually make a difference?
I found that living in a practice community—cultivating and offering peace and healing—could align my aspirations to protect the planet and reduce the suffering in myself and in the world. After one year of training as an aspirant, I was ordained in 2016 with the Plum Tree ordination family. In Plum Village, France, seventeen new novices from ten different countries and four continents were ordained together, reflecting beautifully the international diverse nature of Thầy’s Beloved Community.
Embracing stopping and simplicity
During the years of my novice training, the practices of stopping, coming back to myself and the present moment, and enjoying the beauty around me have helped me immensely. The energy of thinking and planning for the future—even when it is only thinking about the next few hours ahead—used to be quite strong in me and prevented me from being deeply in touch with Mother Earth. But the simple lifestyle as a monastic, with a regular schedule of sitting and walking meditations and with limited use of electronic devices and other distractions, supported me to transform much of the pain, stress, and restlessness in my heart. This allowed me to dwell more deeply in the present moment. Drinking tea with my elder brothers in the early morning, sitting on Thầy’s deck savoring the magical spectacle of colors during a sunrise, and touching the beauty of the trees, moss, and nature during walking meditations—these moments helped me feel more deeply connected with Mother Earth and grateful for the gift of being alive on this beautiful planet.
In recent years, the wish in my heart to help protect Mother Earth has manifested in very concrete and meaningful ways: we have co-organized Earth Holder retreats, like the 2021 Action from the Heart online retreat for over nine hundred activists, and the Love is Freedom Global Earth retreat in 2023. Since 2022, Plum Village has offered the Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet (ZASP) online course and climate retreats on a regular basis.
In this article, I would like to share my experience joining these retreats. I will also reflect on the role and contribution of Plum Village and the monastics in the climate movement. To expand on some of these questions, I had a chance to interview Sister Hiến Nghiêm and Jo Confino.
Transforming fear
In 2022, I spent a year in Thai Plum Village. While there, I watched a video about tipping points with powerful images, which stirred a deep fear in me because I could sense how quickly things might unravel. The practice that helped me embrace and be with that fear was slow walking meditation: Breathing in, I take one step, breathing out, I take another step. If thinking arises, I stop, recognise it, smile to it, and only when it subsides, I continue. Sometimes I had to stop many times, but this practice helped my mind become calmer, more concentrated, and peaceful. Walking there among the fragrant plumeria trees near Thầy’s hut, with the beautiful mountains of nearby Khao Yai National Park in view, brought me much happiness and peace.
In the second week of the ZASP course, I experienced another transformation happening in regard to fear. I watched a video in which Thầy taught that in order to overcome fear, we must be courageous to face the potential end of our civilization. I found this video to be extremely powerful and I was happy that I could pause it at certain moments and watch the video in my own time to really allow the tough truth to sink in.
I have been practicing the Five Remembrances regularly and this practice has helped me to be more at peace with this unsettling prospect of a potential breakdown of our societies and ecosystems. It feels less scary, and I am now less overwhelmed by the thought of it and the underlying fear. I feel a new sense of freedom and clarity emerging.
The Five Remembrances
I am of the nature to grow old. There is no way to escape growing old.
I am of the nature to have ill-health. There is no way to escape having ill-health.
I am of the nature to die. There is no way to escape death.
All that is dear to me and everyone I love are of the nature to change. There is no way to escape being separated from them.
I inherit the results of my actions of body, speech, and mind. My actions are my continuation.
I asked Sister Hiến Nghiêm, who was part of the team that created the ZASP course and edited the book with the same title, and Order of Interbeing member Jo Confino:
What do you see as the role and contribution of Plum Village in the climate movement and in helping to save the planet?
I remember one time when Christiana Figueres was here, and I asked her, ‘How can we support you?’ And she said: ‘You just need to keep Plum Village going. Because the climate movement needs a place of spiritual refuge; we lack a place where we can take care of ourselves and take care of each other and touch deep healing and peace.’ So primarily, what we offer as Plum Village is spiritual sanctuary, a sort of wide-eyed, brave, fearless, deep-seeing spiritual sanctuary. And that means that as a community, we also need to stay well informed about the climate to understand the situation. So when we are with the activists, researchers, and policymakers, we can offer real, deep understanding of their pain and struggle, and bring the Dharma to embrace that suffering. I think that’s really our primary role.
—Sister Hiến Nghiêm
I see that many, many people in the environmental sustainability movement are burning out, they are feeling powerless, they are feeling an urgency of time. They are experiencing so much grief and a feeling that they can’t win. And now Thầy and Plum Village is coming along and offering balm to all those wounds and showing that actually the best way to be effective in the world is to slow down, and offering simple practical practices that allow people to embrace their suffering and to find a pathway through.
—Jo Confino
What they share resonates with me very much. When climate activists come to Plum Village’s climate retreats, I also sense that there is so much pressure and stress on the people in the climate community who are on the front line of saving the planet. A number of them have shared that it has made all the difference to be part of the sangha they had at COP (the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change), and to know that they are part of a bigger global sangha. For the young activists in particular, I feel a great deal of sympathy and admiration for their courage to speak truth to power and to not give up on helping the world to wake up.
It turns out that some of the people leading the exclusion of fossil fuels in the last COP28 text had been to one of our climate retreats at Plum Village. So all the courage to persist and to endure and that faith and idealism to do that new thing came from people who’ve been in Plum Village, who then help each other. Some of them said it has really helped shift the landscape at the COP because there’s basically now a body of people who know how to breathe together, and touch their idealism, presence, and solidarity.
—Sister Hiến Nghiêm
Beauty and hope at the climate retreat in Costa Rica
I was fortunate to go with a group of monastics from Plum Village, France, and the United States to offer a retreat for climate leaders from Latin America in Costa Rica earlier this year. Even though Buddhism was very new for many of them, they were so open and curious about Plum Village and monastic life, and they put their whole heart into learning and practicing Thầy’s Dharma. This really touched me. The retreat was held in a place that just thirty-five years ago was a cattle farm with almost no trees, but now has regrown into a full-blown, colorful, and splendid rain forest. It was very moving and uplifting to see how nature can bounce back so marvelously within this short time. Monkeys were jumping from tree to tree, and the most colorful and beautiful butterflies were flying around us while we practiced Dharma sharing, sitting, and walking together. One of the most powerful and moving moments of the retreat was at the very joyful be-in, when a group of young activists sang the song “Latino America” by Calle 13. The song is an ode to the beauty, resilience, and strength of the people of South America. Seeing these young friends singing full of joy, determination, and siblinghood despite the many struggles and obstacles they face moved me to tears and fills my heart with a lot of hope every time I recall it. There are many divisions within and between countries, but witnessing this display of unity and solidarity, I could see that a more beautiful future for our world is possible indeed.
In 2008 and 2009, Thầy would regularly touch the earth three times after sitting meditation and pray that we may be able to contribute to a global spirituality and ethics. This touches me very deeply, because it feels very close to my aspiration. So I asked:
How can we as a sangha continue to realize Thầy’s dream of helping a global spirituality and ethics to manifest?
An important part of Thầy’s legacy was that not only did Thầy embrace all other kinds of religions and cultures, but Thầy was even ready to kind of transcend Buddhism. And especially in Thầy’s later teachings about the Earth, he said our love for the Earth has the capacity to unite us and help us transcend all our division, hatred, and discrimination. As Thầy’s spiritual children, this is such an important heritage and legacy that we have, which is to create a more universal spirituality and ethics.
—Sister Hiến Nghiêm
Global Earth Retreat “Love is Freedom”
For me, the Global Earth Retreat in June 2023 was a wonderful expression of this spirit of unity, togetherness, and solidarity across traditions and continents. It was the first hybrid retreat we offered in Plum Village—seven hundred retreatants joined in person in Plum Village, and eight hundred friends participated online from around the world. It emerged as a real co-creation of the global multifold sangha of the international Earth Holder communities and Plum Village. A number of local sanghas also met to follow the retreat together in Berlin, at MorningSun Retreat Center in Vermont, US, in Singapore, and Santiago, Chile. It was very touching to see so many people from different corners of the planet practicing together and sharing the same aspiration to protect Mother Earth.
One highlight of the retreat for me was the inter-spirituality solstice celebration, where indigenous leaders from the Amazon, Mexico, and Africa led the community in a very deep, serene, and also joyful ceremony around a big bonfire under the bright shining stars in the Upper Hamlet in Plum Village. In this moment, I could really feel the deep connection we share with all humans, our Mother Earth, and the cosmos. Another great joy was the wonderful and joyful team spirit and siblinghood in the organizing team (consisting of monastics and lay Earth Holders); we all supported each other wholeheartedly and cheered each other up during long days and nights while responding to many emails and requests. A few of us have been practicing together with the Wake Up Earth Holder online sangha since 2021. But even though some of us on the organizing team have never met in person, working together like this with joy, determination, and solidarity made us feel very close to each other. I am grateful that we can experience this kind of siblinghood in our multifold sangha across different countries and cultures.
True siblinghood can heal the world
Whenever Thầy shares about siblinghood, it resonates strongly with me. He says that nothing, no ideology or religion, is more important than brotherhood and sisterhood. From my own experience in the sangha, I feel the same. The care, love, and spiritual friendships with my monastic brothers and sisters, and some long-term friends, have helped me through many ups and downs in my monastic life. Whether I have some happy or sad news, I know there are always siblings I can go to and share with. I have developed a strong bond of trust, love, and siblinghood with many brothers and sisters.
I believe that one of the secrets of the success and strength of the monastic community is that we all share the aspiration to transform our suffering and find peace, and help others to do the same. We try to care for each other and support each other with our difficulties and our dreams. I believe that true siblinghood can heal the world and is what our societies and planet so urgently need. In Plum Village, we are doing our best to cultivate true siblinghood and share this with the world. We are offering a place of spiritual refuge to many people around the world. I feel very aligned with this vision of Thầy, and that is why I feel very nourished and grateful to be a monastic in this beautiful community. It also makes me very happy and nourishes my bodhicitta and monastic path that we have found ways to help the climate movement to build a Plum Village-inspired sangha within the wider climate community. I believe that this will have far-reaching positive impacts and will help to change the world.
Free as a bird
In recent days, many flocks of wild geese have passed by Plum Village on their way from Northern Europe to Africa. It is one of the happiest and most joyful moments of the year for me when I hear the cries and honks of the geese for the first time in the season; it touches something very deep in me. When I look up at the sky and see these beautiful birds flying so elegantly and harmoniously together, I feel very connected and at peace. I sense that this is because, a long time ago, we may have been wild geese as well, flying freely from continent to continent. Contemplating this in the light of impermanence makes my heart feel lighter and more peaceful, as I am able to touch in the present moment the deep and long stream of life that has come before us and will continue after us. In the future, will we manifest again, free as birds, flying harmoniously as one sangha body through the blue sky and white clouds?
Touching peace and acceptance
I still keep the question and kōan in my heart about how we can have deep peace inside while not closing our eyes to and being overwhelmed by the suffering of the planet and its many crises. By engaging with this topic through Thầy’s teachings and the climate retreats, I have learned that I can touch peace and acceptance by taking care of my body, feelings, and mind in this present moment, being aware of the impermanent nature of myself and our civilization, and embracing the suffering in myself and in the world with love and compassion in my heart. Being in touch with the beauty of Mother Earth and hearing the birds still singing nourishes my heart. However, if I do not act, I will experience what scientists call “cognitive dissonance,” a feeling of unease because there is a big gap between what we know and what we do—or, as Thầy says, insight needs to be followed by action. So only when I am able to contribute something concretely to protecting Mother Earth—for example, by supporting the climate movement by offering the ZASP course and climate retreats—can I be fully at peace, because I know in my heart that we have done our part. I am convinced that the peace we cultivate individually and collectively is one of the greatest contributions we can make to bring more balance back to our societies and the planet and to the healing of our dear Mother Earth.
Photos of Plum Village, France, summer 2024 courtesy of the Plum Village monastic sangha.
