«Love is Freedom» – Earth Retreat

This is a 6-day online retreat, depending on time zone– late Friday through Thursday evening. Ideally, it is best if you can clear your days from other commitments so you can fully participate and savor the peaceful energy of the retreat, even when you are not following a scheduled session.

Please look at the schedule of your time zone to see how much time you need. You don’t need to join all sessions, but we recommend you join at least the sittings, Dharma talks, panel sharings and Dharma sharing sessions, if you would like to get a real retreat experience.

Please note that you can choose to opt-in or opt-out of the four “Dharma sharing” sessions). If you opt-in, we ask that you commit to join all four sessions, on time, so the group can have a strong collective experience. Please also try to watch the Dharma talks of the same day before the sharing. To avoid disturbing the group, we will not be able to admit people to the Dharma Sharing sessions once they have started.

Please also organize some time before the retreat starts, to familiarize yourself with the videos and information in the “How to Enjoy Your Online Retreat” package, and set up a peaceful corner of your home where you can have your best internet connection. We hope that this immersive and interactive experience will help you strengthen your mindfulness practice and establish the spirit of Plum Village right in your home.

We encourage you to attend as much of the retreat as possible to get the greatest benefit from the practice. Please note that if you wish to join the 4 Dharma Sharing sessions, you will need to follow the Dharma Talk in order to “unlock” the Dharma Sharing session later in the day. To support the collective shared experience, it is not possible to join the Dharma Sharing if you have not attended the Dharma Talk.

Yes, the recording of most of livestreams will remain available afterwards at the online retreat platform.

In this retreat, the Dharma Sharing is a smaller break-out group of around 20 participants, led by an experienced facilitator. It gives us a chance to listen deeply, to speak from the heart, and benefit from each other’s insights and experience of practicing mindfulness. We can share our experiences, our joys, our difficulties, and our questions relating to the teachings in the retreat, and the mindfulness practices we are following together.

Please organize your time and commitments, so you have space from late Friday, June 16 to the evening of Thursday June 22, 2023 , to fully participate in the retreat. On Friday 16 there will be a (optional) total relaxation. A few days before the retreat starts, you’ll receive a digital package with information and resources on how to prepare yourself and your environment so you can really enjoy the retreat. Please allow an hour or two before June 16 to familiarize yourself with these materials and set up your computer correctly.

You’re invited to prepare a room or corner in your home where you can be online, undisturbed. It is important that you are not interrupted during the various sessions, so you may like to communicate with loved ones, or other people you live with, to ask for their support in this. If you are participating in the Dharma Sharing groups, it will be important for you to log-on from a private space where you can share without others hearing you.

The Dharma Sharing break-out groups are the ideal time to ask questions from the heart about the teachings you have heard and practices we are following together. There will be a special session of Questions & Answers with the monks and nuns or other experienced Plum Village practitioners on Wed June 21, 2023, live in the Americas.

The Dharma Sharing break-out groups offer a rare opportunity to join a circle facilitated by an experienced facilitator. Because many monastics in Plum Village will be guiding the circle sharing groups on-site, the online circle sharings will mostly be facilitated by experienced lay practitioners (OI members and Dharma teachers). If you are interested in connecting with the monastics, we encourage you to consider joining one of the on-site retreats. However, the online retreat is still a wonderful way to connect with many experienced practitioners – monastic and lay – from around the world.  If you are interested in connecting with experienced Plum Village practitioners, we strongly encourage you to make the commitment to opt-in to the four Dharma Sharing sessions. Our teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh, taught us that Dharma Sharing break-out groups are the most powerful way to learn and grow in our mindfulness practice. Please note that these sessions are not direct question-and-answer sessions, but a group where questions may be addressed collectively.

Yes, you do not need to be in a hut on a mountain to enjoy this retreat. So long as you have a quiet corner or room where you can be undisturbed, and perhaps have space to stretch and do the mindful movements, you will be able to enjoy the retreat fully. You may need headphones, and if you are joining Dharma Sharing, somewhere in the house where you can speak without being heard by others.

You can explain to those you live with your intention in joining the retreat and ask for their support. The idea is not to cut yourself off from them, but to generate a strong energy of mindfulness, peace and presence, during the sessions, that you can bring to your in-person interactions off-screen over the course of the week. You will be able to apply many of the teachings on deep listening, mindful eating and so on, right away!

This retreat is accessible to those new to the practice, and will be a refreshing and deepening experience for those who have been practicing mindfulness for some time. It is a precious chance to connect directly with our spiritual community, and to meet like-minded people.

Please see the schedule of your time-zone. This is an international retreat suited for European, African, Asian and American time zones. It is convenient to follow in American time zones. Please click on your region to see the schedules of your time zone:  Europe/ Africa, the Americas East and Americas West, and Asia/ Pacific.

The Dharma sharings are in times that are suitable for your time zone. Some sessions will be live in your time zone, and for other sessions you can watch the recording on the retreat platform. In the Americas we encourage the participants to watch the Dharma talks (that have been given in France earlier that day) together in a zoom session to create a nourishing collective experience, possibly with a live facilitator.

The retreats will be offered in English with Spanish and French translation. For French speakers, there will be your own French Dharma Sharing break-out groups. Similarly for Spanish-speakers. As we expand our experience and technical capacity, we hope to offer translation into more languages in future. Some local groups are planning to follow this retreat with local translation in Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese, and perhaps others. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

The talks will be translated live from English into French and Spanish. Probably also into Chinese and Italian. If you are bilingual, and have experience offering simultaneous translation for the Dharma talks (teachings) into a language other than French or Spanish, and would like to offer to translate, please email the technical team, and we will see what may be possible: to retreats@earthholder.org

This retreat will be delivered to you through your web browser and the Zoom app. When following the live events you can choose to join via Zoom or via the embedded video in your browser (link will be provided in advance). If you are opting-in to Dharma Sharing (the smaller breakout groups), you will need to install the Zoom software and you will need a webcam on your computer or tablet, so people can see you (just as you will see others). It is also preferable to have headphones, ideally with a microphone.

We try to livestream on 720p, but some of our Plum Village hamlets do not have strong enough internet so it may be limited to 480p. After the retreat we will upload almost all content in 1080p for your enjoyment..

It depends how unstable. Your viewing quality is similar to watching something on youtube. So if that is a pleasant enough experience, then yes you can join this retreat. But for Dharma Sharing others might find it difficult to hear you. You can ask permission to turn off your camera, so others can hear you better.

Yes, when you subscribe you will receive an email with instructions and telephone numbers to join us via Zoom. You will only be able to follow the live sessions; it is not possible to join Dharma Sharing sessions from a phone.

Yes you can join only via audio, you do not have to start your camera, you can also choose only to watch via our platform. Only when you join the Dharma Sharing session, everybody is asked to start their camera to create a safe environment.

All the recordings will be available afterwards on our platform, for you to access for six months. You will not be able to download them. 

You’re invited to breathe, pray, or send an email to retreats@earthholder.org

The groups will be assigned by the organising team, based on our experience of creating diverse yet balanced groups. It is not possible to assign you to a chosen facilitator.

Your contribution will go towards the Online monastery of Plum Village, the food, lodging, and healthcare for our community of 700 monastics in ten mindfulness practice centers worldwide, as well as to the Earth Holder Community, an initiative of Plum Village focused on earth and racial justice, that is co-organising this retreat. It will also enable us to invest in technical infrastructure in terms of internet, cameras, and equipment, so we can offer more teachings live online, with direct contact between monastics and practitioners. Without your support, Plum Village and the Earth Holder Community would be unable to sustain our community or offer the Dharma online.

We can offer a full refund within 30 days of your payment. 

We do not want the financial aspect to keep you from participating. If you want to attend the online retreat and your budget does not allow for it at this moment, we encourage you to fill out the short scholarship application form. Please find the link for it at the registration form on the bottom of the “Payment/ Choose your contribution” page. This will help us understand why you need to offer a different amount and we’ll reply with specific registration instructions.