Order of Interbeing | Tiep Hien

Tag: ordination

  • North American Ordination (2015 Only)

    North American Ordination (2015 Only)

    Dear Dharma Teachers, Dear Order Members, Dear Aspirants,

    In 2015 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) 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…)

  • Learning from Ordination

    The newly ordained order members have been asked to share their ordination experience, and I am happy to do so. But in reality the experience was much less about me than about those around me. My experience was about the Deer Park staff family with whom I worked during the late summer. It was about my blood family and how they supported me. And it was about having my home sangha, Organic Garden, there with me and with the other brothers and sisters from our sangha who were also ordained.

    I did not expect any of these things to be so important next to the joy of receiving the
    fourteen directly from Thay. My greatest aspiration is to continue Thay; to embody
    whatever small piece of him I can for others. But these parallel experiences taught me
    lessons that might support that aspiration, so I am going to share them with you. And I
    am also going to tell you a little about a lesson I learned during my year as an aspirant. (more…)