Please join us for a special Monday evening practice on January 19 at 7PM, when we will welcome Thay Phap Tu, a senior monastic and Dharma teacher in the Plum Village tradition. Together, we will begin the new year with teachings on how to cultivate our practice in 2026.
In addition to the Dharma talk, we will enjoy a guided meditation, Dharma sharing, and stories about recent developments and news from Plum Village.
Stay tuned in the coming weeks as we share more info through the email group. Not yet subscribed? Add your email now to join the group.
Please join us for a special Monday evening practice on December 22 at 7:00 pm, where we’ll be welcoming Alexa Singer-Telles to lead us in a celebration of the Winter Solstice. A Plum Village Dharma Teacher, Alexa has offered many retreats for our sangha over the years, and her guidance, mentorship, and friendship have supported countless people in our community.
About the event
The Buddha said, “Be a light unto yourself.” Winter Solstice is the darkest night and the time where new light begins to grow toward spring. We will spend some time sitting in darkness to realize how it nourishes us, then touch our inner light to bring it forth into the new year. We will practice sitting, listening to poetry, hear a dharma talk, take time to contemplate tending our light and find ways we can send our light in the ten directions, a bit of writing, and sharing.
We will start here, a poem by Wendell Berry: To go in the dark with a light is to know the light. To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight, and find that the dark, too, blooms and sings, and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings.
About Alexa
Alexa met Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh in 1991 and was encouraged to start a sangha. She immediately co-founded River Oak Sangha in Redding, CA and began practicing regularly. She was ordained into the Order of Interbeing in 2004. Alexa received Lamp Transmission (dharma teacher authorization) in 2014, from the Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh in Plum Village. Alexa practices as a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and an expressive artist. Her joy is to bring the beauty of spirit into form. Her retreats and days of mindfulness encourage your creativity by including ceremony, poetry, creative writing, movement, and art. She has led retreats from California to Calgary. Her new sangha, MotherRoot, practices weekly, in person, in her art studio.
On Saturday, November 29, members of our sangha gathered in Confederation Park for an outdoor walking meditation along the cool creeks and among the snowy trees — with hot chocolate to close. This month’s walk was a special one, as we joined people from across the global Plum Village manyfold sangha in the shared aspiration to walk together at 11 am local time. Sanghas in more than 80 countries and 170 cities took part this year, practising with the power of small actions.
We are delighted to announce that we will be hosting a spring retreat in Canmore as part of the 2025 Plum Village Tour of Western Canada. From May 9 to 11, we’ll enjoy meditation, hiking and other mindfulness practices at the Alpine Club and area. A wise, warm and fun group of monastics from Plum Village France will be joining us as retreat teachers. Registration is open!Learn more and register.
View of the Three Sisters Mountains from Canmore Alpine Club
