Another Step on the Path

All are welcome to WMC, whether you come to the Sunday sit every week, or once a month or so. But after a while, many people choose to make a firmer commitment to this practice, another step on the path.

At some point, many sangha members decide that they will formally take the Five Mindfulness Trainings of the Plum Village tradition. The Five Mindfulness Trainings have their root in the Five Precepts offered by the Buddha. They have been expanded and updated so that they represent a way to bring mindfulness into every area of life. Rather than serving as hard and fast rules, they provide an aspirational framework to reflect on our actions, speech and thinking, so we can create more happiness for ourself and for the world around us.

The Five Mindfulness Trainings are one of the most concrete ways to practice mindfulness. The first training is to protect life, to decrease violence in oneself, in the family and in 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. You can read them on the Dharma Teachings page of this website.

One Sunday each month, sangha members recite the Five Mindfulness Trainings together, at our evening meeting.

The Order of Interbeing, or OI, was formed by Thich Nhat Hanh in the mid-1960s, at a time when the Vietnam War was escalating and the teachings of the Buddha were desperately needed to combat the hatred, violence, and divisiveness enveloping his country. On the full moon day of February 1966, Thay ordained six members into the Order, three men and three women. Today, the OI is an international community of monastics and lay people who have committed to living their lives in accord with the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings - a distillation of the Bodhisattva teachings of Mahayana Buddhism. This includes a commitment to sangha building.

In his book Interbeing, Thay writes: “An Order member should be a pillar, a source of inspiration. The brown jacket of the Order member is a symbol of humility. Brown is the color of the earth and of the peasants’ clothes in Vietnam. So when we put on the brown jacket, we must be humble. Brown also represents a silent, inner strength which, though silent, is very powerful. Whether we wear the brown robe of a monk or the brown jacket of a lay practitioner, we need to represent the virtues of humility and silent strength. We do not consider ourselves to be better than others or to have more authority.”

Currently, six members of our sangha are OI members, three of them living in the immediate DC area. Two more have gone on to become nuns in the Plum Village monastery in France.