\”Keeping the Flame Alive\”- Retreat for OI Members, OI Aspirants, and Sangha Facilitators

This retreat is dedicated for OI Members, OI Aspirants, and Sangha Facilitators.

Thich Nhat Hanh has often taught about interbeing and impermanence by using a match to light a candle. “My dear little flame,” he would ask the candle light, “Are you the same flame as before, or are you a totally different flame?” Through his lifetime of teaching and practice, Thầy lit the flame of the Dharma in his students. As Thay’s students, we pick up Thầy’s many teachings on mindful Sangha building. As Order of Interbeing members, aspirants, and Sangha facilitators practicing together during this retreat, we tend the flames of Thầy’s teachings, keeping them alive in our hearts, our communities, and the world.

 This four-day retreat offers OI members, aspirants, and Sangha facilitators an opportunity to rejuvenate and strengthen our practice, deepen our connection as a Beloved Community, and tend the flames of the teachings Thich Nhat Hanh has given us. Practicing together, we support each other and the Sangha at large, so we may continue Thầy beautifully into the future.

A retreat for Order of Interbeing members and formal OI aspirants.

We are so happy to invite Order of Interbeing members and formal OI aspirants to this annual retreat.

The Order of Interbeing is a community of monastic and lay friends who have committed to living their lives in accord with the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings. This four-day retreat is a chance for OI members and aspirants, both monastic and lay, to rejuvenate and strengthen our practice, deepen our connection as a Beloved Community. Our togetherness will support one another and the sangha at large so that we may continue Thay beautifully into the future.

A Brief History of the Order of Interbeing 

The Order of Interbeing (Tiep Hien in Vietnamese), is a community of monastic and lay practitioners who have committed to living their lives in accord with the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings – a condensed adaptation of the Bodhisattva* teachings of Mahayana Buddhism.  Established by the Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh in Saigon in 1966, the Order of Interbeing was founded in the Linji tradition of Buddhist meditative practice and emphasizes the Four Spirits: non-attachment from views, direct experimentation on the nature of interdependent origination through meditation, appropriateness, and skillful means.

The first six members of the order, ordained together on February 5, 1966, were colleagues and students of Thich Nhat Hanh (or Thay, as his students called him) who worked with him relieving the suffering of war through projects organized by the School of Youth for Social Service. In joining the Order of Interbeing, they dedicated themselves to the continuous practice of mindfulness, ethical behavior, and compassionate action in society.

Because of the disruption caused by the war and Thay’s exile from Vietnam, no additional ordination into the Order occurred for fifteen years. Then, beginning in 1981, Thay invited into the Order some of the many lay and monastic students who studied and practiced with him in the West. By 2006 the Order had grown to include approximately 1000 lay practitioners and 250 monastic practitioners outside of Vietnam.

In 2006, during his first visit to Vietnam after 39 years of exile, Thay again offered an Order of Interbeing ordination to committed practitioners in Vietnam. Within a year of Thay’s visit, in conjunction with establishment of monastic centers in Vietnam practicing under his supervision, the Order in Vietnam grew to include hundreds of new monastic and lay members.

* A Bodhisattva is a person who has taken a vow to cultivate loving kindness, compassionate mind and compassionate action to help reduce suffering and liberate all sentient beings. Essentially, anyone who sets as their attention and directs their life to practicing this way of life is a bodhisattva.

To find out more about the OI practice, please visit the International Order of Interbeing website.