The Plum Village Rewilding Project

So here in Plum Village, Upper Hamlet

the Zen Buddhist monastery founded by
the Zen master, Thich Nhat Hanh

we're intentionally rewilding

over 20 hectares
of old agricultural farmland.

Farmland that every year would have
been ploughed and tilled and so on

with wheat, corn or sunflowers.

And during the pandemic we had
the good fortune to acquire this land.

The community set about
with deep intention

to offer this land back to the Earth

and by returning this land,
rematrifying this land

we hope to do our part for the climate,
ecology, and social crisis that we face.

It's important to share
that this is so much more

than just sequestering carbon dioxide.

There's a deep teaching offered
by Thich Nhat Hanh in Plum Village

"I have arrived, I am home",

coming back to ourselves, our body,
our breath, in this present moment.

We've adapted that teaching

for all the more than humans
that we share this land with

that have been displaced through
our industrial agricultural systems

to say they are arriving,
they are coming home.

And we hope that we are now doing our bit

to create habitat, home
for our more than human kin.

The Plum Village Buddhist tradition

sits within the Zen school
of manifestation

and Thich Nhat Hanh taught
that when conditions are sufficient

phenomena will manifest

and when conditions
are no longer sufficient

phenomena will cease to manifest

There's a beautiful teaching
that within each of us

there are seeds that we all carry

seeds of happiness, joy, mindfulness,

but also seeds of anger, jealousy, envy.

And it's the same
for our planet Earth.

The Earth holds all the seeds,
the seeds of the future forests.

The seeds that can regenerate,

heal and transform
this land that we are rewilding

so we share that
when conditions are sufficient

the oak forest will manifest

and conditions seem to be sufficient

because slowly and surely

the oak forest is returning,

healing and transforming
this old degraded agricultural land.

This land that we're rewilding
in Plum Village, Upper Hamlet

through its healing,
transformation, and regeneration

is acting as a great teacher

to all of us humans who share the land
and come on retreat to Plum Village.

For those of us who spend time on
and with the land

there is healing, transformation,
and regeneration for us.

So we're offering
a multitude of opportunities

for you to come
and be on this land with us,

to be on retreat,

to look into the teachings
of the Buddha and Thich Nhat Hanh,

to explore the themes of deep ecology,

nature connection, and rewilding.

And to take our practice
out into the wild,

back to the forest,
back to the wildflower meadow

just as it was done
in the times of the Buddha.