The Touching the Earth Sangha is a Glastonbury based Buddhist Community of practitioners from the Thich Nhat Hanh tradition of Zen Buddhism. Check the blog for Sangha updates, latest news and articles related to Thich Nhat Hanh and Plum Village UK.

The Sangha meets regularly for Days of Mindfulness practice (see dates below).

Email Kev or Sam for details: touchingtheearth@hotmail.co.uk

The Sangha holds evening meetings every second and last Mondays of the month at the Sweet Track Centre, Glastonbury, 7.30-9.30pm.

Email for details: touchingtheearthmonday@hotmail.com

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Sunday 15 September 2013

Touching the Earth Sangha Retreat - East Down Centre, Dartmoor

Having just returned from our Sangha’s third annual retreat at the scenically stunning East Down Centre in the heart of Devon I feel the urge to write down a report before my rapidly ageing brain cells allow the memory to drift into haziness. I did the same last year so perhaps this will become an annual occurrence.

The Touching The Earth Sangha is based in Glastonbury & Mid Somerset, but also includes people from further afield. Over the past four years we have evolved into a strongly-committed group of practitioners who feel very connected with each other, and confident enough to share the responsibility of leading the various Plum Village practices.

This confidence was very much in evidence this week as the workload was shared around with ease, and everything, more or less, ran smoothly. The pattern of the days, common to most retreats in our tradition, was centred around the usual practices of incense offerings; morning & evening chants; sitting and walking meditations; chi gung & tai chi; working meditation; noble silence and Dharma discussions. The latter including such subjects as ‘transformation’, ‘death and dying’ and ‘spiritual bypass/ deep listening’, and were shared deeply.





To add to the mix we also watched a recording of one of Thay’s question & answer sessions at a recent Nottingham retreat; took part in a bodywork session; and, perhaps most moving of all participated in a ‘Truth Mandala’, based upon Joanna Macy’s work, derived from her world-renowned ‘Council of All Beings’ workshops. In the centre of the shrine room was constructed a beautiful fabric mandala within which were placed four objects representing fear, grief, anger and helplessness. We were invited to enter this space with intent to share our emotional distress at the plight of the Earth and her environment. We could also express our hope and belief that things would change for the better. At times it was very moving and emotional hearing people’s anguish and pleas for loving-kindness and compassion for the planet’s species and ecology, and those who took part felt privileged to having done so.


It was a privilege to be there, and everyone expressed the wish to return to East Down again next year in order to strengthen our Sangha and deepen our connection with each other. So my heartfelt thanks go to Collette, Sam, Kev, John S, John H, Anthony, Diana, our super Tenzo Rose, Victoria, Jeannette, Husamadin, Habiba, Felipe, Julia and dear four year old Tashi, without whom the retreat would not have been as rich.

by Ark Redwood



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