By Ernestine Enomoto

In June 2018, two hundred monastics and six hundred lay friends gathered for the 21-Day Retreat in Plum Village, France. We were divided into family groups of fifteen to twenty people in each hamlet and met for work meditation, Dharma sharing, and regular dinners together. Through daily practice, close bonds of friendship evolved. At the end of the retreat, we shared the fruits of the practice in a festive celebration called “Be-In,” with families showcasing their talents through songs, skits, and poetry recitation. 

Our family group, Rahula, at the New Hamlet was named after the Buddha’s son. Our work meditation was to clean, prepare, and arrange the meditation hall for daily sittings, Dharma talks, and other gatherings. This was especially challenging when we hosted the three hamlets at the New Hamlet. There never seemed to be enough chairs and cushions to accommodate all the retreatants. We had to count and recount to ensure enough available seats in the hall and adjacent rooms. We often scrounged to locate more folding chairs, and find and clean those left outside in the rain. All of this inspired us to create the sutra for our family’s Be-In celebration. 

Coming up with the sutra was the easy part. Assigning roles, rehearsing the skit, and planning how to share and perform this fruit of practice was much more difficult. In one of our rehearsals, we had a heated disagreement amongst the participants on how to proceed. But as the tensions built up, someone sang, “Breathing in, breathing out,” and we all joined in. That magical moment returned us to the practice, and we continued with the rehearsals. 

Here is the sutra our Rahula family presented at the New Hamlet’s Be-In celebration.

Discourse on Knowing a Better Way to Prepare the Meditation Hall

I heard these words of the Teacher one time when the retreat was happening in the Full Moon Hall of the New Hamlet in Dieulivol. It was a gathering of all the bhikkus, bhikkhunis, laymen and laywomen from all around the world.

The Teacher instructed the Sisters to prepare the meditation hall beautifully. So the Sisters directed the helpers to prepare the cushions on the mats and set out the chairs in neat rows, carefully counting all the mats and chairs to make sure there were enough places for the retreatants.

After all the mats and chairs were laid out, it was found that more cushions and mats were needed. But not all the cushions were of the same kind. Some were bigger than others. Some were firm; others not so firm. Some cushions were darker than the majority. The helpers did not know what to do. Should they set them all out even though there were different shapes, sizes and colors?

The helpers went to ask the Sisters. And the Sisters went to ask the Teacher. Pondering the question, the Teacher said, “Looking around, I see this is a beautiful space for meditation. And if we can accommodate more to hear the Dharma, then let’s try to do so. All cushions and mats will be welcomed. Cushions that are tall or short, big or small, round and firm, or flat and not so firm, all should be set out beautifully.”

The Sisters and helpers heard these words from the Teacher and were delighted to put these words into practice.

Ernestine Enomoto, True Mindfulness of Peace, has been practicing as Thay’s student in Washington, DC, and Honolulu, Hawaii, since the 1990s. As a Dharma teacher, she leads the Honolulu Mindfulness Community, a Sangha that has met continuously for over twenty years.