Community Life in Difficult Moments — Br Phap Bieu, Sr Hien Nghiem, Sr Dao Nghiem  — Plum Village France

How can we be sovereign in our own life? How can we be free, & free from discrimination? Community life can be uncomfortable, and impossible to control: so why do we choose it? How can we help a loved one navigate the process of dying? How can community help? In this panel sharing from December 6th 2020, three Plum Village Dharma teachers share from their heart about their practice during the past 10 weeks of the 2020 Autumn Rains Retreat. They reflect what it’s like to live in community, especially during difficult times. They share insightfully and engagingly on a number of topics, including: — How they practice to arrive in the present moment, to be available to the wonders of life. And how they establish their sovereignty, to be able to respond to life from intentionality and wisdom. — How they practice to embrace and look deeply into suffering, within them and around them. — What they find most helpful about living in a community that lives in simplicity and mindfulness. — How they practice to stop building “castles in the sky”, projecting into the future to try to construct a desired identity and a space of control and comfort. — The nature of true freedom, and the role of social “pressures”, expectations and norms, in society and in an intentional community. — How our perceptions, and language itself, lie at the root of our tendency to discriminate. How we can begin to unravel this in our daily life, such as the way we read news. — How to find common ground in order to be able to understand and accept the differing views and visions of others