Duration (time period)*

One Year, August 2017 – July 2018

Course format: (30 days of contact teachings and practices)

Three in-residence retreats (11 days)

• One 5-day retreat: Aug. 9-13, 2017
• Two 3-day retreats: Jan. 19-21 and April 13-15, 2018

Days of Mindfulness: Nineteen (19) days of mindfulness on Saturdays from 10:00 AM 5:00 PM on:

     2017: 26/8, 09/9, 30/9, 14/10, 28/10, 11/11, 02/12, 16/12
     2018: 03/2, 24/2, 10/3, 24/3, 28/4, 12/5, 26/5, 09/6, 23/6, 7/7, 21/7

Daily mindfulness practices (2 hours/day) for the whole duration of the program. Practicing with a Sangha is recommended.

Reading and writing assignments

Minimum 10/ Maximum 30

HKD 25,000.00

(including accommodations, food and tuitions for retreats & DOMs)

Monastic Dharma teachers of Plum Village Mindfulness Academy

Principal instructor: Chan Phap Kham

Assistant instructors:   Chan Phap Chi , Chan Phap Dung, Chan Luong Nghiem, Chan Trang Nghiem

Title of Course:         Mindfulness Born Peace and Happiness: A Joyful Way to Well-Being

Description of the course:

About 2600 years ago, the Buddha, a wise and compassionate teacher, discovered Mindfulness as a method to calm body and mind, and to develop concentration and insight as the way to overcome greed, hatred and delusions, which are the main causes of pain and suffering. The Buddha’s teachings and practices of mindfulness were recorded in the Anapanasati Sutta (Discourse on the Full Awareness of Breathing) and Satipatthana Sutta (Discourse on the Four Establishments of Mindfulness). The Manifestation-Only Psychology was based on teachings of the mind by the Buddha, further developed by generations of Buddhist monks, systematized by Vasubandhu, an Indian Buddhist monk and philosopher in the 4^th century C.E. Works on the Manifestation-Only Psychology were further developed by Xuan Zang, Fa Zang in the 7^th and 8^th century. In the late 20^th and early 21^st century, Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh has updated the teachings, made them accessible and relevant to the modern society. The Five Mindfulness Trainings (5 precepts) are guidelines for living a happy life, also taught by the Buddha in his time.

The teachings and practices of the training program are based on the above mentioned texts, as taught and practiced in the Buddhist tradition for thousands of years. They have been updated, made relevant, and integrated into daily activities by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh and the Plum Village Monastics for the past 40 years. Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, widely considered as the father of modern mindfulness, helped start the interest of mindfulness in the West with the publication of “The Miracles of Mindfulness” in 1975. The teachings and practices cover three themes: Cultivating Peace and Happiness, Transforming Pain and Suffering, and Guidelines for living and creating a healthy and compassionate life style for ourselves and for society. The three themes cover three essential elements of meditation: mindfulness, concentration and insight.

We will learn how to bring our mind back to our body with mindful breaths which helps us to be present in the here and now, to calm our body and mind, to stop our discriminated thinking, and to cultivate peace and happiness. The stopping and slowing down of thoughts, speech and bodily actions leads to the tranquility of the mind. Mindful breathing is integrated into daily activities such as walking, eating, exercising, taking a shower, cooking, driving, working, etc…so that mindfulness can be practiced every moment and everywhere. These mindful activites are as formal and as effective as sitting in the mediation hall.

With our mind in tranquility and concentration, we will practice listening and looking deeply into our feelings, perceptions, mental formations and consciousness, in order to see the causes of our pain and suffering and to transform them into peace and joy (develop insight). We will learn how the mind works through the teachings of Manifestation-Only Psychology of the Yogacara Buddhist School, which considers all physical and mental phenomena as manifestations of the store consciousness (unconscious, sub-conscious or subliminal conscious in Western Psychology). We will see the connection between body and mind, and how our consciousness affects our learning and behavior, thinking, memory and the quest for meaning of life. We will see that there are seeds of sickness and wellness within us, and whether we will be well or sick depends not only on the seeds but also on the environment (i.e. our life style and the collective health of society).

In the learning process we will examine the connections between mindfulness teachings and practices with specific areas of neuroscience, cellular biology, quantum mechanics, and Western psychology. Manifestation-Only Psychology can be seen as a holistic foundation for biological, behavioral, cognitive, psychodynamic , humanistic, social, and developmental psychology.

Having learned how to cultivating peace and happiness, transforming pain and suffering for ourselves, we will look into the 5 essential mindfulness trainings (global ethics), which help establish a healthy and compassionate living environment for ourselves and for society. We will learn how to build a practicing community to help us going on the path of peace and happiness. There will be sessions on applying mindfulness in the fields of education, mind-body medicine, non-profit organization and business.

Even though the teachings and practices are based on Buddhist tradition, they will be presented and implemented in a non-sectarian way. The course is held in a retreat environment to strengthen practices of mindfulness in daily life.

Training outcomes

The materials presented in this training program represent teachings of the Buddha in the field of mindfulness, enriched and updated by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh for modern time. By the end of this training, participants should be able to:

• Identify essential element of mindfulness practices: mindful breaths, mindful steps, stopping and calming.
• Carry out daily mindfulness practices to help nourish body and mind, and to help transform pain and suffering into peace and happiness.
• Understand how the mind works from the Manifestation-Only perspective, and how to use them to free our mind from discriminative and judgmental thinking.
• Reflect on the interdependent nature of individual and collective well-being.
• Support the practices activities facilitated by the local sangha.
• Design and implement mindfulness practices in education, healthcare or community service… contexts according to the fundamental mindfulness teaching as introduced throughout the training.
• Hold session of mindfulness practices for others.

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Plum Village Mindfulness Academy, Hong Kong

Email address

Application enquiry
Application form

Venus Wong, Ph. D
Program Development Office
E-mail: venuspyw@mindfulnessacademy.org