Order of Interbeing | Tiep Hien

Category: Documentation

  • North American Ordination (2019 Only)

    Dear Dharma Teachers, Dear Order Members, Dear Aspirants,

    In 2019 there will be one opportunity for aspirants from North America to be ordained into the Order of Interbeing at Magnolia Grove Monastery. In order to facilitate the process, the Care-Taking Council of the Dharma Teachers Sangha of North America (including both monastics and lay Dharma Teachers) have clarified the requirements, criteria, and procedures for North American students of Thich Nhat Hanh.

    The Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings offer clear guidance for living simply, compassionately, and joyfully in our modern world. They are a concrete embodiment of the teachings of the Buddha and the Bodhisattva ideal. Anyone who wishes can live their life in accord with these fourteen trainings.

    To formally join the Order of Interbeing means to publicly commit oneself to studying, practicing, and observing the trainings and, also, to participating actively in a community which practices mindfulness in the Plum Village tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh.

    Monastics, Order of Interbeing Members, and Aspirants

    The minimum requirements for joining the Order of Interbeing, as established by the Charter of the Order, are that the aspirant:

    • Be 18 years of age or older
    • Has received the Five Mindfulness Trainings and the Three Jewels
    • Practices with a local Sangha in this tradition
    • Is committed to observing at least sixty days of mindfulness a year
    • Has been mentored by members of the Order of Interbeing for at least a year, and
    • Is ready to begin the work of an Order Member: Sangha building and support, explaining the Dharma from personal experience, and nourishing the bodhicitta (the mind of love) in others while maintaining a regular meditation practice in harmony and peace with one’s family.

    The process of becoming an aspirant and receiving support and training varies depending on the region and on local circumstances. In a region in which the Order of Interbeing has been established for many years, there may be clearly defined procedures; Dharma Teachers and Order Members available to train and support aspirants; and a community of Order Members that meets regularly for recitation ceremonies, study, and days of mindfulness. In other regions an aspirant may have to travel a considerable distance to practice with an Order Member or Dharma Teacher and the training of aspirants may be much more informal. Nonetheless, the Care-Taking Council and the Dharma Teacher Sangha of North America has developed and adopted an OI aspirant process that is now required in the process of receiving the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings in North America.

    The decision that an aspirant is ready for ordination is a joint decision involving the aspirant, the aspirant’s local sangha, the OI mentors, and one or more lay Dharma Teachers who either have been directly mentoring the aspirant or who have been working with the OI mentors.

    It is not possible to specify the exact criteria that determines whether an aspirant is “ripe enough” for ordination – for ultimately it depends on heart-to-heart insight and recognition of a mature Bodhisattva spirit – however, some general guidelines can be stated. To be eligible for ordination into the Order of Interbeing, there is the expectation that the aspirant:

    • is a stable practitioner who has learned to transform suffering and embodies the practice of mindfulness in his or her own life,
    • practices with a spirit of generosity, attentive to the needs of others,
    • is committed to continue deepening his or her practice of the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings,
    • is able to teach the basic practices to others,
    • participates (and will continue to participate) regularly and harmoniously in their local practice community and in the Order of Interbeing community, and,
    • has the intention and capacity to be an active Sangha builder.

    In order to be ordained at a retreat in 2019 it is requested that the aspirant and his mentors put together a packet containing the following:

    1. Completed Application to Become an Aspirant to the Order of Interbeing Core Community (this is the application you completed at the beginning of your aspirant training)
    2. Completed Order of Interbeing Application for North American Applicants (this is a password protected resource and you may obtain the application from your Dharma Teacher mentor, if the Dharma Teacher needs assistance, please contact Kenley)
    3. letters of support from OI mentors and
    4. letters of support from Dharma Teacher(s)
    5. letters of support from local Sangha members and family members (when available)
    6. original letter of aspiration to join the OI (if there is one)
    7. a letter to Thay articulating the aspirants desire to be ordained into the Order of Interbeing. This letter should include a brief spiritual history and a clear commitment that the aspirant will be a Sangha builder in a community which practices in the Plum Village tradition.
    8. a copy of the 5 Mindfulness Training certificate, or at least the date, place, teacher of that transmission and the name you received.

    _____________________________________________

    If the aspirant wishes to ordain at Magnolia Grove Monastery (Retreat is August 7 -11), please send a copy of the packet by June 28, 2019 to Sister Tri Nghiem, Magnolia Grove Monastery, 123 Towles Rd., Batesville, MS 38606. 

    You may also submit the materials via email at the address below.

    If you have any questions or concerns regarding ordination at Magnolia Grove Monastery please contact Sr. Tri Nghiem: office@magnoliagrovemonastery.org.

    _____________________________________________

    The aspirant should also bring a copy of the full packet to the retreat where they wish to be ordained. We thank you for your nourishing mindfulness, understanding, and compassion in North America.

    Sincerely,

    The Care-Taking Council of the Dharma Teachers Sangha of North America and The Monastic Organizing Team

    April 23, 2019

  • North American Ordination (2017 Only)

    Dear Dharma Teachers, Dear Order Members, Dear Aspirants,

    In 2017 there will be three opportunities for aspirants from North America to be ordained into the Order of Interbeing. In order to facilitate the process, the Care-Taking Council of the Dharma Teachers Sangha of North America (including both monastics and lay Dharma Teachers) have clarified the requirements, criteria, and procedures for North American students of Thich Nhat Hanh.

    The Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings offer clear guidance for living simply, compassionately, and joyfully in our modern world. They are a concrete embodiment of the teachings of the Buddha and the Bodhisattva ideal. Anyone who wishes can live his or her life in accord with these fourteen trainings.

    To formally join the Order of Interbeing means to publicly commit oneself to studying, practicing, and observing the trainings and, also, to participating actively in a community which practices mindfulness in the Plum Village tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh.

    (more…)

  • A Road Back

    A Road Back for Lapsed Order of Interbeing
    Core Community Lay Members Who Wish to Renew

    An offering from the North American Dharma Teachers Sangha

    From time to time, Order of Interbeing (OI) Core Community members may fall away from their practice as brothers and sisters in the OI family. Some of these friends retain or rediscover their heart’s connection to the Order of Interbeing core community and practice, but finding a way back into practice with the OI community may be challenging for the practitioner and confusing for the local Sangha that was “left behind.” The Order of Interbeing Charter encourages OI members to develop appropriateness and skillful means, leading “to a capacity to be creative and to reconcile.” The North American Dharma Teachers Sangha offers this “road back” as a means to support local Sanghas and lapsed core community members who wish to renew their commitment to Plum Village practice and the OI core community. We hope it will help lapsed OI core community members reconcile with and rejoin their local Sanghas, reconnect with the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings and the OI core community, and renew their commitment to practicing as an Order of Interbeing core community member.

    Read the Complete Document 

  • Forty Tenets of Plum Village

    Introduction

    The Forty Tenets were formulated and taught by Thầy in Plum Village during the Spring Retreat 2006, the Autumn Retreat 2006 and the Winter Retreats 2006, 2007. They serve as the foundation for the Plum Village teachings and practices and for our Mindfulness Trainings, whether they are the Five of the laity, the Ten of the novitiate, the Fourteen of the Order, or the several hundred of the monastics.

    In the early 90’s, Thầy taught many courses about the history of Buddhist thought in a number of winter retreats, including “The Living Tradition of Meditation Practice,” “The Sutras of the Southern Transmission,” “The Sutras of the Northern Transmission” and in 2005, “The Wheel of the Different Schools Commentary” which discusses the different tenets held by the more than twenty early different Buddhist schools. These teachings give us an overview of the history of Buddhist thought.

    These tenets are Thầy’s attempt to identify and define the teachings that we maintain, learn and transmit in Plum Village and capture our relationship to the various paths in the history of Buddhism. They are the result of Thầy and the Plum Village community’s study and practice of Buddhist teachings and methods, and deep looking into the evolution of the various Buddhist schools and their teachings.

    Thầy has shared many times that as Buddhist practitioners we should, from time to time, return and bathe in the waters of source Buddhism. In Plum Village, we have “a deep desire to understand the original meaning of the Buddha, the teacher who began this lineage, and also a desire to study and practice so that, while being faithful to the original teachings, we can also respond to the needs of our times for spiritual practice and transformation. The different schools of Buddhism from the time of 140 years after the Buddha entered nirvana until the beginning of the Mahāyāna did just that and of course, our community should do the same.”

    Thầy also reminds us: “It is possible that our way of looking today will change in order to adapt to a deeper and more relevant way of looking tomorrow. In being faithful to the open and undogmatic stance of Buddhism, Plum Village always holds the door wide open for change so never has a rigid and dogmatic attitude that only its way of seeing things is right. This way of looking is practiced regularly in order to remove the obstacle of knowledge (jñeyāvarana), and always to have the opportunity to go forward.”

    “In this way Buddhism changes, adapts and progresses in the same way as science does in order to serve humankind more effectively all the time. We have too long been influenced by the maxim: “Repetition rather than creativity.” This attitude belongs to the pious religious believer more than it does to the scholar. We should have the courage to review what we have learnt in the light of our practice and reflection.”

    During this 21 Day Retreat 2016, we will have a chance to reexamine some of the theses that Thầy has put forward; explore how they can inform our practice and how they can be a foundation for applying the Trainings of the Order of Interbeing as we actively engage with society. As practitioners, we invite you to read these theses of Plum Village with a critical, scientific attitude that is based on your own experience of the practice.

    With love and trust,
    Vulture Peak Team
    May 20, 2016

    The Forty Tenets

    1. Space is not an unconditioned dharma. It manifests together with time, matter and consciousness.
    2. In the historical dimension, every dharma is a conditioned dharma. In the ultimate dimension, every dharma is an unconditioned dharma.
    3. Nirvāṇa is the absence of ignorance (Avidyā) and the afflictions (kleśāh), but not the absence of the aggregates (skandhāh), sense spheres (āyatanāni) and domains of existence (dhātuh)
    4. Nirvāṇa is nirvāṇa. There does not need to be a nirvana with residue (sopādiśeṣa) or without residue (anupādiśeṣa).
    5. It is possible to touch Nirvāṇa in the present moment.
    6. Nirvāṇa is not a phenomenon, but the true nature of all phenomena.
    7. Not born means nirvāṇa and it is awakening to the truth of the deathless, the no-coming and no-going, the not the same and not different, the not being and not non-being.
    8. The concentrations on empitness, signlessness and aimlessness help us to touch Nirvāṇa and the Unconditioned.
    9. The Three Dharma Seals are: impermanence, non-self and Nirvāṇa. We can uphold Four Dharma Seals or Five Dharma Seals with one condition: that they include Nirvāṇa.
    10. The basic concentrations (samādhi) are the concentrations on impermanence, no-self, and Nirvāṇa.
    11. Mindfulness, concentration and insight are the essential practices that give rise to liberation.
    12. Precepts are mindfulness. (Śīla is smṛti). Precepts and mindful manners are concrete expressions of mindfulness.
    13. Right diligence is mindfulness trainings (morality, Śīla) and therefore is also mindfulness.
    14. Mindfulness, concentration and insight include each other. All three have the capacity to bring joy, happiness and liberation.
    15. The awareness of suffering helps us recognize the existing conditions of happiness and also helps prevent the creation of wrong actions and the planting of negative seeds that will bring about suffering.
    16. The Four Noble Truths are all conditioned. The Four Noble Truths are all unconditioned.
    17. The Third Noble Truth can be called the truth of happiness.
    18. Free will is possible thanks to the Three Trainings.
    19. You should learn to see the Second Noble Truth as the path of the eight wrong practices. The deep cause of ill-being is not just desire.
    20. A real Arahat is also a Bodhisattva and a real Bodhisattva is also an Arahat.
    21. As a human being you have the capacity to become a Buddha. As a Buddha you continue to be a human being. That is why numerous Buddhas are possible.
    22. The Buddha has many bodies: the body of a living being, the Dharmabody, the body outside of the body, the Sanghabody, the continuation body, the Dharma-realm body, and the true nature of the Dharma-realm body. Since human beings can become Buddha they also have all these bodies.
    23. We can talk of a person as a continuous and ever-changing stream of five aggregates. This stream is always flowing. It is in connection with, receives from and contributes to other streams of phenomena. We cannot speak of a person as an unchanging and permanent separate self.
    24. We can only understand the real teaching of rebirth (samsāra) in the light of impermanence, no-self and interbeing.
    25. Happiness and suffering inter-are. Affliction and enlightenment are both of an organic nature.
    26. The Sangha body, the Buddha body and the Dharma body inter-are. In a true Sangha you can find the true Buddha and the true Dharma.
    27. Since the afflictions (kleśāh) and the awakening (Bodhi) are of an organic nature, the practice needs to be constant in order for transformation to continue and for regression not to take place. Samsāra is a continuation and the beautiful and wholesome things need to be continued for as long as possible, while the not beautiful and unwholesome need to be transformed so that they do not continue. The compost has to be used to nourish the flowers.
    28. Liberation from samsāra does not mean putting an end to the personal self (pudgala), because that person is not a real entity anyway, nor does it mean putting an end to the precepts’ body and the spiritual life.
    29. Birth and death are only manifestation or non-manifestation. Both manifestor and manifested occur at the same time, the manifestation of one thing is the non-manifestation of something else.
    30. A dharma is not a thing, an entity, but a process, an event and above all an object of mind.
    31. Retribution consists of both body-mind and environment, and is both individual and collective. This land is the Saha land for living beings but Pure Land for Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.
    32. There is no self but still there is the cycle of birth and death, there is inter-continuation and the nature of all inter-continuation is interbeing.
    33. Each generation of Buddhist practitioners has to resist the human tendency and need on the one hand to make the Buddha divine and on the other hand to try to find a principle to take the place of a self.
    34. Store consciousness has the capacity of learning, storing, protecting, responding, nourishing, healing and continuing. Its function is to establish a database and unconscious habits of responding to situations, which makes it possible for a human being to act on ‘auto-pilot’.
    35. Manas has the tendency to seek for security and long lasting pleasure. It is ignorant of the law of moderation, the danger of pleasure seeking and the goodness of suffering. It does not see the necessity for insight into impermanence, non-self, inter-being, compassion and communication.
    36. With the practice of mindfulness, concentration and insight, mind consciousness can learn and download its insights to Store consciousness and leave Store consciousness to do the work of maturation and then manifest the seeds of wisdom that are already innate in Store consciousness.
    37. The basic practice of Source Buddhism is the Four Domains of Mindfulness which has the function to recognize and transform the habit energies and fully realize the Seven Factors of Enlightenment and the Noble Eightfold Path.  The Mahāyāna practice of meditation including the Zen of the patriarchs needs from time to time to go back to take a bath in Source Buddhism in order not to lose the essential Teachings of Buddhadharma.
    38. The reality of the Pure Land or Nirvāna transcends both space and time. The reality of everything else is exactly the same.
    39. Conditions, feelings, skandhas, āyatanas, dhātus, vijñāna, etc. are different ways of presenting the teachings. These different ways of presenting the teachings are not in opposition to each other.
    40. The teachings on impermanence, non-self, interdependence, emptiness, signlessness, aimlessness, mindfulness, concentration, insight, etc. constitute the heart of the Buddhist wisdom. They can go together with the spirit of science, they can be used in dialogue with science and offer suggestions and be a support for scientific research. Modern science should try to overcome the tendency of double grasping and scientists should train themselves to develop their capacity for intuition.

  • Conflict Resolution Guide

    The Harmony Committee for the North American Dharma Teachers Sangha has created this Conflict Resolution Guide.

    This document was prepared by the Harmony Committee of the Plum Village North American Dharma Teachers Sangha over three years beginning in 2010. The committee included both lay and monastic Dharma Teachers. The document provides resources for using conflicts for learning and practice opportunities in processes of conflict resolution.

    Everything is seen as an opportunity for practice. This includes conflict.

    The Dharma Teachers Sangha (DTS) views conflict as a disturbance in the balance and harmony of the Sangha and the goal always is to restore the harmony and balance while applying our insight and compassion. The goal is NOT to establish “guilt and innocence,” or in any other way get caught in the adversarial punitive approaches to conflict that prevail in our greater society. One reason we have entered into this practice is to “go beyond” such views and behavior.

    Where persons are unable to meet and resolve a conflict themselves, for whatever reason, there is often a feeling of helplessness, of “what else can I do?” or “what can I do differently?” There are many answers to such questions. What is offered here is one process for moving ahead from the stuck place.

  • Ethical Concerns Regarding Dharma Teachers

    The Harmony Committee for the North American Dharma Teachers Sangha has created this Policy and Procedures for Ethical Concerns regarding Dharma Teachers.

    This policy establishes a process for addressing perceived ethical lapses by ordained Order of Interbeing Dharma teachers in North America who are members of the Plum Village Lineage North American Dharma Teachers Council (“Dharma Teachers Sangha”). The Dharma Teachers Sangha Caretaking Council (“Caretaking Council”) instituted the process and its Harmony Committee implements its use. The process is intended to support Sanghas and Dharma Teachers in their efforts to reach harmony and understanding. The North American Dharma Teachers Council, its Harmony Committee, and the Dharma Teachers Sangha are not adjudicatory bodies and do not control any aspect of Lamp Transmission.

    The ethical stance of the Tiep Hien Order, including its Dharma Teachers, is ahimsa, or “non-harming.” Ahimsa is elaborated in the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings of the Order of Interbeing. (See the Parallax Press book, Interbeing.)

    The approach in this process emphasizes calming, listening with full attention, and looking deeply in order to understand all perspectives. Our intent is to be more mediational than adversarial, and to attend to the continuing well being of all involved.

    This process can be used when there appears to be good cause to address an allegation that a Dharma Teacher’s conduct is causing, or appears likely to cause, injury or suffering. The process is available to North American Sanghas practicing in the Plum Village tradition of Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh, participants in those Sanghas, Order of Interbeing members, and Dharma Teachers who are members of the Dharma Teachers Sangha.

    Historically, neither the Caretaking Council nor the Harmony Committee selects which Order of Interbeing practitioners will be ordained as Dharma Teachers. They do not govern any aspect of Lamp Transmission and cannot revoke Dharma Teacher ordination. Nevertheless, the Caretaking Council and the Harmony Committee offer this process as “Sangha eyes” for guidance. In extreme cases, when recommended by the Harmony Committee, the Caretaking Council may censure, suspend, or expel a Dharma teacher from The Plum Village Lineage North American Dharma Teachers Council. The Harmony Committee, the Caretaking Council, and the Dharma Teachers Sangha are not authorized to void Dharma Teacher ordination.

    Please use our Contact Form and selecting ombudsman with your comments and concerns and you will hear back very soon.