Essential practices in Plum Village and Honey Locust Sangha are based on the Ānāpānasati Sutta, a Buddhist discourse detailing instruction for using the breath as a focus of meditation. The text tells of sixteen stages, grouped into four “establishments” of mindfulness.

The Five Mindfulness Trainings

Sitting Meditation

“In our daily life, we breathe, but we forget that we’re breathing. The foundation of all mindfulness practice is to bring our attention to our in-breath and out-breath [...] While you breathe in and out, feel the flow of air coming in and going out of your nose. At first your breathing may not be relaxed. But after practicing conscious breathing for a while, you will feel how light and natural, how calm and peaceful your breathing has become. You can say to yourself: Breathing in, I know I’m breathing in. Breathing out, I know I’m breathing out. After a few breaths, you may want to shorten this to: ‘In, Out.’ If you follow your in-breath and out-breath all the way through, your mind is no longer thinking. Now your mind has a chance to rest. In our daily life we think too much. Giving our mind a chance to stop thinking is wonderful” (Thích Nhất Hạnh, Happiness, pp. 3-4)

Walking Meditation

“We walk all the time, but usually it’s more like running. Our hurried steps print anxiety and sorrow on the earth. If we can take one step in peace, we can take two, three, four, and then five steps for the peace and happiness of humankind and the Earth. Walking meditation is walking just to enjoy walking. Walking without arriving, that is the technique. There is a Sanskrit word, apranihita. It means wishlessness or aimlessness. The idea is that we do not put anything ahead of ourselves and run after it. We just enjoy the walking, with no particular aim or destination” (p. 13)

Gatha (Practice Poem)

In, out

Deep, slow

Calm, ease

Smile, release

Present moment, wonderful moment

Additional resources

There is a wealth of information about our practice tradition at www.plumvillage.org, and Parallax Press (www.parallax.org) is the affiliated non-profit publisher established by Thích Nhất Hạnh.

Song book

Follow this link to access the booklet of sangha songs.