Emily Thomas
The Magnolia Grove Monastery can be found in Batesville, Mississippi in the Northwest region of the state. It was recognized as a mindful practice center in October 2005 and is located on one-hundred-and-twenty acres of forested woodland. It is self-described as a place to: “sit and relax, listen deeply to the sounds of life and the sound of our hearts, and work together to build a community of love and understanding”(“About Us”). The monastery also has a large meditation hall, which can accommodate up to one-hundred-and-twenty people for larger gatherings of meditation.
Magnolia Grove Monastery is a residential monastery and a Meditation Practice Center founded in the tradition of Vietnamese Buddhist monk and peaceful activist Thich Nhat Hanh. Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh was born in central Vietnam in 1926 where he entered the Tu Hieu Temple as a novice monk when he was sixteen years old (“Thich Nhat Hanh”). He was actively engaged in the movement to revive Vietnamese Buddhism and his work is “dedicated to the inner transformation for the benefit of individuals and society (“Thich Nhat Hanh”). He has traveled many times to the United States and completed impressive work while teaching at Princeton and Columbia as well as publishing many works about Buddhism. He is well known as one of the main Zen Masters to work to bring Buddhism to the West and has started many schools of Buddhism all over the world including the School of Youth for Social Service, Van Hanh Buddhist University, and the Order of Interbeing (“Thich Nhat Hanh”). He recently founded “Wake Up”, a worldwide movement of young people who are learning and training in the practices of mindful living (“Thich Nhat Hanh”). In addition to all of this, Master Thich Nhat Hanh has founded multiple monasteries all over the United States. He now resides at a community he developed in France known as Plum Village. Although he has suffered from health complications recently he still provides a welcome presence in this community and continues to live by his key teaching: through mindfulness, we can learn to live happily in the present moment-the only way to truly develop peace, both in one’s self and in the world. (“Thich Nhat Hanh”).
Members of the Magnolia Grove Monastery practice in the tradition of Mahayana Buddhism. More specifically, they concentrate on engaged Zen Buddhism and The Mindfulness Teachings. The Five Mindfulness Trainings are one of the best ways to practice mindfulness. Their nature is universal (“The Five Mindfulness Trainings”). The Five Mindfulness Trainings are reverence for life, true happiness, true love, loving speech and deep listening, and nourishment and healing. In one of his books, Happiness, Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh delves into his interpretations of these teachings and explains them as follows: “The first training is to protect life, to decrease the violence in one-self, the family, and the society. The second training is to practice social justice, generosity, not stealing and not exploiting other living beings. The third is the practice of responsible sexual behavior in order to protect individuals, couples, families and children. The fourth is the practice of deep listening and loving speech to restore communication and reconcile. The fifth is about mindful consumption, to help us not bring toxins and poisons into our body or mind” (Hanh). These teachings or trainings are seen as a way to promote the global Buddhism ethic and happiness both in one’s self, and in the world around them.
The community at Magnolia Grove provides a place to quiet the mind and look within in order to achieve these goals. This is primarily achieved through the practice of meditation. The members of this community intentionally practice their meditation in order to live happily and enjoy the peacefulness and interconnectedness of the world around them. They accomplish this practice through the acts of sitting meditation and walking meditation. The monastery describes sitting meditation as “returning home to give full attention to and care for ourself” (“Meditate”). Sitting meditation also provides a way for practicing members to radiate peace and stability with dignity (“Meditate”). It also is an important practice as it allows oneself the chance to simply be in tune with whatever is within them (“Meditate”). The concept depicted here is somewhat connected to the larger scope of Mahayana Buddhism that states that everyone has an inner Buddha nature that they must tap into. The Magnolia Grove Monastery thus uses meditation as a way to uncover this nature. They also use walking meditation as a way to practice in order to feel harmonized with the larger body (“Meditate”). This devotion to mindfulness and meditation provides the basis for practicing Buddhism in the Magnolia Grove Monastery sangha.
This monastery also offers specific Days of Mindfulness in which anyone from around the world is welcome to join them in their practice of mindful living (“Come for the Day”). Thursdays and Sundays are their typical Days of Mindfulness and these usually involve siting meditation and chanting, walking meditation, a dharma talk, precepts recitation, and dharma-sharing (“Come for the Day”). In addition to these days, those who are looking for a more in-depth experience can register to go on a retreat with members of the sangha. The retreats are normally approximately a week long and involve activities such as sitting meditation, dharma talk, walking meditation, dharma sharing, personal practice time, and noble silence (“About our Retreats”).
All the monastic members of the community are direct disciples of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh and are trained under his close direction; however lay membership in this community is open to almost anyone who is interested. This openness to share in their practice represents Magnolia Grove’s commitment to creating a diverse community of lay people. By allowing anyone who is interested to learn more about their Sangha and their beliefs, Magnolia Grove is promoting Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh’s work to spread Buddhism throughout the entire world. This monastery even posts talks that they have on sites such as YouTube, which allows their teachings to be accessed by thousands of practitioners who would otherwise not be able to experience them. Initiatives such as this highlight this community’s strong commitment to inclusivity and dedication to teaching.
This community is even more diversified and spread throughout the world because it is part of the larger Plum Village community. As mentioned earlier, the Magnolia Grove Monastery was founded in the tradition of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh who also founded Plum Village in France. Plum Village was the first sangha founded by this Master and is one of the largest Buddhist communities, welcoming thousands of meditation practitioners every year (“About”). In addition to the location of Plum Village in France and the Magnolia Grove Monastery in Mississippi, The Plum Village Community also includes monasteries in other places of the world. For example, there is a Plum Village in Thailand, the European Applied Institute of Buddhism in Germany, and two other monasteries in America: Blue Cliff Monastery in New York and the Deer Park Monastery in California (“About”). These are the Buddhist communities that Magnolia Grove Monastery is most closely connected to. All of these monasteries were founded in the tradition of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh and therefore practice the Mindfulness Teachings. These commonalities make these communities interconnected but do not make them exclusive of other practicing Buddhist communities. Plum Village and it’s other monasteries including Magnolia Grove openly encourage everyone to find a sangha near them to begin practicing Buddhism, it does not matter to them that one’s practice may not begin at a Plum Village monastery, they simply want you to begin your journey with mindfulness anywhere you feel comfortable.
It is hard to concretely and succinctly pinpoint what exactly Buddhism means to members of the Magnolia Grove Monastery community. It is clear that this sangha possesses an unwavering commitment to promoting Mindfulness, peace, and happiness throughout the world around them. It also seems rather evident that there is a strong dedication to welcoming and encouraging the growth of their sangha to include anyone who may be interested. I think after learning about the openness and the commitment to promoting Master Thich Nhat Hanh’s teachings within this community, it becomes apparent that the Mindfulness Teachings have a profound impact on those who come to study them through meditative practice within this sangha. Magnolia Grove Monastery not only works to include new members into their community, as well as continuing to foster relationships with other monasteries in the Plum Village community, its community works to make the bonds of its sangha strong. This commitment to meaningful relationships within a community gets at the heart of the Mindfulness teachings. This monastery works to celebrate their reverence for life by protecting all those who join their community; true happiness by welcoming anyone no matter their race or status in life; true love by promoting the creation of deep, meaningful relationships as opposed to those which are superficial; loving speech and deep listening by compassionately promoting peace within yourself and others in addition to mindful speech and listening; and nourishment and healing through the practice of sitting and walking meditation. The Magnolia Grove Monastery truly embraces it’s own Buddhism through many acts of Mindfulness.
Magnolia Grove YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/MagnoliaGroveMPC
Works Cited
“About.” Plum Village. WordPress, 1 Dec. 2012. Web 19 Nov. 2016. http://plumvillage.org/about/plum-village/
“About Our Retreats” Magnolia Grove Meditation Practice Center. Web 19 Nov. 2016. http://magnoliagrovemonastery.org/about-our-retreats/
“About Us” Magnolia Grove Meditation Practice Center. Web 19 Nov. 2016. http://magnoliagrovemonastery.org/about-us/
“Come for the Day” Magnolia Grove Meditation Practice Center. Web 19 Nov. 2016. http://magnoliagrovemonastery.org/come-for-the-day/
Hanh, Thich Nhat. Happiness: Essential Mindfulness Practices. The Unified Buddhist Church, INC. Parallax Press. 2009.
“Meditate” Magnolia Grove Meditation Practice Center. Web 19 Nov. 2016. http://magnoliagrovemonastery.org/meditate/
“The Five Mindfulness Trainings” Plum Village. WordPress, 1 Dec. 2012. Web 19 Nov. 2016. http://plumvillage.org/mindfulness-practice/the-5-mindfulness-trainings/
“Thich Nhat Hanh” Plum Village. WordPress, 1 Dec. 2012. Web 19 Nov. 2016. http://plumvillage.org/about/thich-nhat-hanh/biography/