You are invited to join Thich Nhat Hanh and the monastic sangha for a journey to Vietnam. First Segment
Feb 21 to March 12 (20 days)

Two days in Ho Chi Minh City, which is fairly warm, then 16 days in Bat Nha (Prajna) Monastery in the highlands, very cool but not cold like in Hanoi, more like spring in France. Surrounded by tea and coffee groves, Prajna Monastery has two hamlets: Fragrant Palm Leaves Forest Hamlet with 110 monks, and Rosy Hearth Hamlet with 220 nuns.You will be housed in several hotels near the famous and beautiful Dambri waterfalls, 3 kilometers from the monastery, and you can either walk to the monastery or ride on buses. We will spend one day in Dalat and visit one of Thây’s friends, the Vietnamese Zen Master Thich Thanh Tu, in his very beautiful monastery. There will be one full six-day retreat for lay people in Prajna, and another day when the monastics are having a monastic retreat. You may also spend a few days at the Phan Thiet Mui Ne beach. There are also 102 preschools in remote mountain areas nearby that you have supported via Plum Village and that you can visit.

Second Segment
March 12 to March 30 (18 days)

Meet up with our delegation in Ho Chi Minh City on March 12; we will arrange your flights from Ho Chi Minh City to Nha Trang, then to Hue on March 22, and return to Ho Chi Minh City March 30.

We will spend five days in Ho Chi Minh City, taking part in a Great Ceremony of Chanting with many holy High Monks to send energy to those who died unfairly during and after this war, and receive a profound teaching every evening. We then go to Nha Trang and Cam Ranh, two beautiful cities with wonderful white sand beaches where the water is very limpid and warm. Then we spend eight days in Hue City, at Tu Hieu, Thây’s root temple, where he spent his happy novice time, now housing 100 monks, and in Dieu Nghiem nunnery, 50 nuns who live and practice in the Plum Village style. You will stay in one of several hotels in Hue not far from these two monasteries. We may spend one day in Da Nang. There are also 567 preschools in remote mountain areas of Thua Thien and Quang Tri nearby that you have supported via Plum Village and that you can visit.

Third Segment
March 30 to April 18 (20 days)

Meet up with our delegation in Hue City. You should arrange your flight to arrive in Hanoi March 30, with a connecting flight to Hue the same day; then on April 10 fly back to Hanoi.

This segment begins with 11 days in Hue City with Thây and 150 young monastics at the root temples, followed by a Great Ceremony of Chanting together with many holy High Monks to send energy to those who died unfairly during and after this war. This city suffered a lot from massacres during the war. Thây will offer his characteristic deep teaching every evening. Hue also has the peaceful and romantic Perfume River, where we can spend a day riding boats, liberating fishes. Hue is also not very far from a wonderful beach, a beautiful landscape of mountains, lake, and waterfalls. There are also many humanitarian projects you have supported not far from Hue, in Thua Thien and Quang Tri. Then we will fly to Hanoi to spend six more days, including a visit to Ha Long (Dragon) Bay, featuring amazing and wonderful caves with stalactites and stalagmites in a magical setting.

Fourth Segment
April 18 to May 9 (21 days)

Meet up with our delegation in Hanoi on April 18 and return back to your country from Ho Chi Minh City on May 9.

There will be lively public talks featuring exchanges between Thây and Communist party members in Hanoi; Buddhism is very new for these people. There are also wonderful caves with stalactites and stalagmites in other places with magical beauty in Ninh Binh or Ha Tay, and the cave of the Vietnamese Avalokiteshvara on the Fragrant Mountain. We also will have a Great Ceremony of Chanting together with many holy High Monks to send energy to those who died unfairly during and after this war. We will spend eight days in Hanoi, with Thây teaching every evening. There will be two days of mindfulness for business leaders on a weekend in Hanoi. We fly back to Ho Chi Minh City April 26, where we will have another two days of mindfulness for business people. The Vietnam trip ends in Ho Chi Minh City on May 9th.

We Need the Support of Your  Practice

Please join Thây on this trip and support Thây with your practice of the Five Mindfulness Trainings, to show the Vietnamese people that Western practitioners approach Buddhism through the three very practical doors of Mindfulness, Understanding, and Compassion, and not through blind devotion and superstition. We humbly request that during your time in Vietnam with Thây, you refrain from eating meat, fish, or seafood and from drinking alcohol (even beer or wine). This, our only request to those joining Thây’s trip, is the offering that Thây wishes to dedicate to Vietnam. For 32 years there has been no war, but the people are not aware that without keeping the Five Mindfulness Trainings they are engaged in many other little wars—in families, at work, and in society.