In 2013 there will be three opportunities for aspirants from North America to be ordained into the Order of Interbeing. In order to facilitate the process, the Care-taking Council of the Dharma Teachers Sangha of North America (including both monastics and lay) have clarified the requirements, criteria, and procedures for North American students of Thich Nhat Hanh.

The Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings offer clear guidance for living simply, compassionately, and joyfully in our modern world. They are a concrete embodiment of the teachings of the Buddha and the Bodhisattva ideal. Anyone who wishes to can live his or her life in accord with these fourteen trainings.

To formally join the Order of Interbeing means to publicly commit oneself to studying, practicing, and observing the trainings and, also, to participating actively in a community which practices mindfulness in the Plum Village tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh.

The minimum requirements for joining the Order of Interbeing, as established by the Charter of the Order, are that the aspirant:

• Be 18 years or age or older
• Has received the Five Mindfulness Trainings and the Three Jewels
• Practices with a local Sangha in this tradition
• Is committed to observing at least sixty days of mindfulness a year
• Has been mentored by members of the Order of Interbeing for at least a year, and,
• Is ready to begin the work of an Order Member: Sangha building and support, explaining the Dharma from personal experience, and nourishing the bodhichitta (the mind of love) in others while maintaining a regular meditation practice in harmony and peace with one’s family.

The process of becoming an aspirant and receiving support and training varies depending on the region and on local circumstances. In a region in which the Order of Interbeing has been established for many years, there may be clearly defined procedures; Dharma Teachers and Order Members available to train and support aspirants; and a community of Order Members that meets regularly for recitation ceremonies, study, and days of mindfulness. In other regions an aspirant may have to travel a considerable distance to practice with an Order Member or Dharma Teacher and the training of aspirants may be much more informal. In the past year the Care-taking Council and the Dharma Teacher Sangha of NA has developed and adopted an OI aspirant process that is starting to be used through out North America.

The decision that an aspirant is ready for ordination is a joint decision involving the aspirant, the aspirant’s local sangha, the OI mentors, and one or more monastic or lay Dharma teachers who either have been directly mentoring the aspirant or who have been working with the OI mentors.

It is not possible to exactly specify the criteria that determine whether as aspirant is “ripe enough” for ordination – for ultimately it depends on heart-to-heart insight and recognition of a mature Bodhisattva spirit – however, some general guidelines can be stated. To be eligible for ordination into the Order of Interbeing, there is the expectation that the aspirant:

• is a stable practitioner who has learned to transform suffering and embodies the practice of mindfulness in his or her own life,
• practices with a spirit of generosity, attentive to the needs of others,
• is committed to continue deepening his or her practice of the fourteen mindfulness trainings,
• is able to teach the basic practices to others,
• participates (and will continue to participate) regularly and harmoniously in his or her local practice community and in the Order of Interbeing community, and,
• has the intention and capacity to be an active Sangha builder.

In order to be ordained at a retreat in 2013 it is requested that the aspirant and his mentors put together a packet containing the following:

• OI ordination application form (sent to the mentor of the applicant)
• letters of support from OI mentors and
• letters of support from Dharma teacher(s)
• letters of support from local Sangha members and family members (when available)
• original letter of aspiration to join the OI (if there is one)
• a letter to Thay presenting the aspirants desire to be ordained into the OI. This letter should include a brief spiritual history and a clear commitment that the aspirant will be a Sangha builder in a community which practices in the Plum Village tradition.
• a copy of the 5MT certificate, or at least the date, place, teacher of that transmission and the name you received

If the aspirant wishes to ordain at Blue Cliff Monastery Retreat (August 25-30, Ordination on August 29), please send a copy of the packet no later than 60 days prior the ordination date (Deadline: June 29) to: Br. Phap Vu, Blue Cliff Monastery, 3 Mindfulness Rd., Pine Bush, NY 12566. If you have any questions or concerns regarding ordination at Blue Cliff Monastery please contact Br. Phap Vu: orderinterbeing2013@gmail.com

If the aspirant wishes to ordain at Magnolia Grove Monastery Retreat (September 21-28, Ordination on September 28), please send a copy of the packet no later than 60 days prior to the ordination date (Deadline: July 28) to: Br. Phap Uyen, Magnolia Grove Monastery, 123 Towles Rd., Batesville, MS 38606. If you have any questions or concerns regarding ordination at Magnolia Grove Monastery please contact Br. Phap Uyen: office@magnoliagrovemonastery.org

If the aspirant wishes to ordain at the Deer Park Monastery Retreat (October 11-16, Ordination on October 15), please send a copy of the packet no later than 60 days prior (Deadline: August 15) to: Br. Phap Ho, Deer Park Monastery, 2499 Melru Lane, Escondido, CA 92026. If you have any questions or concerns regarding ordination at Deer Park Monastery please contact Br. Phap Ho: shstaff@dpmail.net

In addition, the aspirant should also bring a copy of the full packet to the retreat at which he or she wishes to be ordained.

We thank you for your nourishing mindfulness, understanding, and compassion in North America.

Sincerely,

The Care-Taking Council of the Dharma Teachers Sangha of North American

• Brother Phap Ho
• Brother Phap Vu
• Jack Lawlor
• Cheri Maples
• Rowan Conrad
• Bill Menza
• Lyn Fine
• Anh Huong Nguyen
• Chan Huy
• Mitchell Ratner
• Eileen Kiera
• Leslie Rawls

One example is in the Fifth Mindfulness Training which reads in part “We will practice mindful consuming, not using alcohol, drugs, and any other products that bring toxins into our own and the collective body and consciousness.”  I love movies!  So when I see a new movie that looks good, I usually watch it. Usually the movie gives clues about the theme and where the plot is going.  Sometimes the movie leads to scenes of violence or cruelty.  I have realized that movies like this damage my spirit and make me feel awful about myself and the world.  I don’t want to feel this way!

So, I have learned that the Mindfulness Trainings are more than trainings.  They are also guidelines to protect us from unhealthy practices and thoughts.  Now when I sense that a movie will be unhealthy, I can easily decide to avoid it.

In my sangha, members read out loud the Mindfulness Trainings on a regular schedule.  I have noticed that the trainings speak to me in different ways from time to time.  Some trainings have a deeper impact on me at a different time than they did some months go.  Clearly the words did not change over the months, so I must have changed!  In a similar way, we may crave certain foods for their vitamins or tastes at one time and not care  about them at another time.

As the years have gone by and my awareness of the trainings have deepened, I more easily note when people around me are unaware of certain of the behaviors that the trainings speak to.  When certain people get angry and yell at another person, because of my awareness of the trainings, those people become my teachers.  I have begun to thank them silently for helping me understand the mindfulness training Number Six.

For the past three years, I have lived in a small retirement community in Philadelphia.  It is common that residents and staff share information about each other and developments in the community.  Sometimes I have seen this information sharing becomes hurtful when it is inaccurate and misleading.  This is when I have been grateful for a statement in The Ninth Mindfulness Training: “We will not spread news that we do not know to be certain nor criticize or condemn things of which we are not sure.”  The training helps me reconsider statements I might say.  The longer I am a member of the Order of Mindfulness, the more grateful I am of the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings.

Nancy and I camped at Blue Cliff, in a tent village with hundreds of others, in simple, silent harmony. How beautiful to see many dozens of colorful tents grouped naturally together, each with just enough space around it, without fuss or clutter.  When we rose in the early mornings the only noise to be heard was the unzipping of tent doors as we made our way in ones and twos under the bright stars to the great Dharma Hall.

So many “strangers,” yet as the days passed we came to know each other so well, to see each other with compassion and friendship, usually without a single word spoken.

The fourfold sangha became real for me, as the brown-robed nuns and monks wove themselves into the fabric of the community of lay practitioners; though really it was the other way around, as the dozen monastics who reside at Blue Cliff generously – almost incredibly – gave of themselves and stretched the resources of their monastery to accommodate a thousand lay practitioners, and did so with remarkable efficiency and grace.  Each monastic in his or her unique way contributed their particular skills, energies and presence to the sangha body: Vietnamese or Westerner, young or old, tall or short, serious or smiling, silent or vocal. The monastics chanted for us, beautifully, before each of Thay’s Dharma Talks.

Thay’s teaching – over two hours daily for the five days of the retreat – was clear and complete. His voice, his words, and the Dharma flowed through him like the cool limpid water of a mountain stream, pure and refreshing and utterly clear. He gave us everything we need to know, and showed us how to make it real in our lives.

Thay had the dozens of children attending the retreat sit in the front rows in the Dharma Hall, and began each talk speaking directly to them, never with the slightest condescension, before asking them to bow to the sangha and depart to their own activities.  Then Thay taught the adults the sixteen contemplations of full awareness of the breath, the Noble Eightfold Path, and so many other of the skilful teachings of the Buddha.  After he was done, Thay gathered the children around him again for walking meditation, holding hands with the young ones as the slow column of walkers kissed mother earth with their feet, arriving home with every step.

The extended OI sangha also became real for us. Every afternoon at 4 pm our family of ordinees – more than two dozen in all – the “Amusing Avocadoes” as our discussion group was named, gathered to share our names, our home sanghas, our aspirations for the retreat, and what had touched us deeply in each day.  Brother Phap Tri facilitated our talks, and we all came to know and enjoy each other.  I got a much better sense of the geographic breadth of Thay’s sanghas, and of the wonderful sangha builders and sincere practitioners that would be ordained with us.  A new family, each of us marked with our own suffering and our own happiness.

Even before the ordination we were welcomed by our brown-jacketed OI sisters and brothers.  One day after lunch we all met in Harmony Hall, the ordinees in a circle in the center, the ordained OI in a larger circle around us.  The ordinees each introduced ourselves by name, location and 5 mindfulness trainings transmission name, and then the ordained OI gave us their silent and sincere welcome and support.  Their loving kindness was palpable and warming.

The ordination ceremony began at 6 am on the next to last day of the retreat.  Brother Tri had encouraged the ordinees on the first day to be careful to maintain in ourselves a silence and stillness, to make of ourselves empty vessels to receive all that would be offered at the transmission ceremony.  He also advised us to come to the Dharma Hall at least 30 minutes before the ceremony, to settle in and release any anxiety.

Nancy and I didn’t sleep much the night before, and by 4:30 am we were up walking in the quiet, black spaciousness of the starry pre-dawn sky.  By 5:15 I was seated in my assigned place in the Dharma Hall, and began a mindful inhaling and exhaling that quickly became as deep and stable as I have ever experienced.  I felt very calm, centered and present throughout the sitting, chanting, prostrations and Heart Sutra, and then for Thay’s introductory words and the reading of the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings, our wonderful and by now familiar guides and protectors.  After each Mindfulness Training was read, Thay stared at us intently as he asked if we made the commitment to receive, study and practice it, waiting for our response.  As Brother Tri had told us, it was a wedding ceremony, and as we all said “Yes, I do,” we felt the solemnity and exaltation of marriage vows.

My OI mentor Andy had generously sent me my new brown jacket, and after the transmission ceremony Bill presented Nancy and me with our jackets to put on for the first time, instructing us to ask ourselves each time we put them on:  “Do I have enough humility to wear this jacket?”  It was wonderful to share the ordination with Mary and Nancy and Chris and Martina, with Barb and John and Bill there in support, as well as with our new wider family of fellow ordinees.  Our ordinee family name is “Collective.”  My new name is True Collective Healing, which I like very much, as healing is very central to my practice and my aspiration, for myself and all beings.  Nancy’s new name is Truly Living Together (a variant on Collective).

The next morning, the last of the retreat, we took our places for the first time among our OI brothers and sisters for the transmission of the Five Mindfulness Trainings.  Hundreds of people, almost all the non-OI folks at the retreat, received the transmission.  What a joyful multitude!

Thay’s final Dharma Talk that morning seemed to pull everything together in a way that was so simple yet so profound and inspiring.  I already felt tears of joy before he exhorted all of us to continue the career of the Buddha, each a cell in the sangha body, the dharma body, the Buddha body.  Then Thay called the monastics and the OI to the front of the Dharma Hall, and we stood, linked together, one swaying brown organism as the whole assembly sang “No Coming, No Going” and “Happiness is Here and Now.”

Winter storm,
Into the sea,
Snow dissolves silently.

In the Plum Village tradition there are wonderful, mindful paths of practice laid out for lay people. These are the Two Promises for children, the 5 Mindfulness Trainings for all, and the 14 Mindfulness Trainings for Thay’s Order of Interbeing (OI). The Promises and Trainings are Dharma doors through which one may enter formally by a transmission ceremony supported by monastic or lay Dharma teachers, one’s sangha and the wider community.

Some time after I received the transmission of the 5 Mindfulness Trainings I noticed that my commitment to training and practicing in their direction became more solid. I had found the public commitment and the support of the community during the ceremony both helpful and joyful. Reading and studying the trainings after the transmission ceremony created a deeper path of practice for me.

This experience with the 5 gave rise to an aspiration in me to go further on the path and commit to the 14 Mindfulness Trainings. This I did by studying and practicing the trainings for 18 months with two OI mentors and a small community of fellow aspirants. It was wonderful to have this supportive network.

At Thay’s retreat in Killarney last April, a number of young people received the transmission of the Two Promises, and a great number of all ages received the 5 Mindfulness Trainings. I watched a young teenager accept his transmission certificate from Thay. The teenager was very joyful and radiating confidence. I felt inspired by his commitment, joy and confidence.  It reignited my own commitment to studying and practicing the 14 Mindfulness Trainings.

Along with our group of aspirants I received the transmission of the 14 mindfulness Trainings last October. To my joy I experienced the transmission with a great feeling of solidity, joy and confidence. In the months since I have experienced that similar shift of commitment in my practice as an outcome of the transmission.

During the aspirant process as mentoring, practice and study progressed, I began to feel a shift in my orientation. This shift in focus meant I was more available to others. I felt I could now be present for some of the joy and suffering of others. A beautiful new door was opening to me. After a period of further mentoring, consultation and practice with my local sangha, the national sangha and international sangha, I felt ready to ask sangha members and my mentors to support my aspiration to receive the transmission by writing letters of support which would be sent to Plum Village along with my own letter of aspiration. I happily/gratefully? received their support in this.

I had long hoped to receive the transmission in Ireland if that was possible. To my delight the community supported holding the transmission ceremony here during the bi-annual Retreat. As a result our letters of application were sent first to EIAB, Germany and then onto Plum Village, France to ensure we met the requirements for transmission.

Then, in October 2012, Sr Bi Nghiem offered the first transmission of the 14 Mindfulness Trainings on Irish soil. She was supported by another sister, two lay dharma teachers and five Order of Interbeing members (from the UK, Ireland and the USA) and over 100 mindfulness practitioners from Ireland and beyond. Five aspirants received the transmission that day. How Amazing.

I experience the practice of the trainings as a reconnection and continuation of deep multilayered roots of aspiration within my ancestors (family, spiritual and land). This  aspiration for peace, joy, stability and my personal pain had propelled me onto the path of understanding and love over 20 years previously. I continue to open up with the study and practice of the trainings. I’m supported by my local sangha in Sligo town, by the larger sangha in Ireland and by the Plum Village community worldwide. My life feels like a winter storm into which the practice of mindfulness and the trainings dissolve silently, like snowflakes, and transform me.

True Path of Practice 2012 (Martin Whelan)
Open Circle Sangha Sligo

This application assists your local Sangha and supporting Dharma Teacher as they begin formal mentoring with you. In deciding whether conditions are ripe for formal acceptance and mentoring to begin, your mentoring Dharma Teacher will use this form and consult with your sangha and any other OI Mentors as appropriate.

View or Download the Application to Become an Aspirant to the Order of Interbeing Core Community (PDF Document)

Our basic goal in mentoring has always been to to support each other in deepening our practice and strengthening our Sanghas. A mentor’s practice needs to be fresh and alive to mentor an aspirant effectively. To support both mentors and aspirants, the North American Dharma Teacher Care Taking Council has integrated our order’s past extensive experience into the following qualification statement for mentors. The underlying requirement for mentoring is that a Dharma Teacher must be involved as part of mentoring, as set forth in the aspirant application.

There are three situations which qualify one to mentor.

To accept an Order of Interbeing Aspirant for mentoring, one must:

1. Be a Dharma Teacher.

– OR –

2. Have been Ordained as a Core Community Member of the Tiep Hien Order (OI) for at least five years, during which time the Mentor has been consistently practicing with a Tiep Hien Sangha and have the agreement of a Dharma Teacher to provide support, assistance, and as necessary, supervision for mentoring this Aspirant.

– OR –

3. Have been Ordained as a Core Community Member of the Tiep Hien Order (OI) for at least one year with extensive previous OI Sangha and personal practice experience, and have the agreement of a supporting Dharma Teacher to supervise the Mentor and actively participate with both the Mentor and the Aspirant during the Aspirancy process. This would assume not less than significant quarterly contact among the Dharma Teacher, Mentor(s), and Aspirant, and personally practicing together in a formal setting of at least one day’s duration (Retreat or Structured Mindfulness Day led by a/the Dharma Teacher) at least two (and preferably more) times during the Aspirancy.

–

It is the responsibility of the Dharma Teacher involved with team mentoring to assure that any formal Mentor who is not a Dharma Teacher is qualified for the role before signing off on the Aspirancy.

We also recognize that Mentoring is a maha sangha process. Dharma Teachers and OI Mentors are not the only resources to support the mentoring process. Sangha members who practice regularly with the aspirant, other Dharma teachers, and every Order member in the region may be useful support for the aspirancy. The mentoring team is encouraged to use all resources to develop and encourage deepening practice in this process.

Mentor Qualifications Revised February 16, 2012
Mentor Qualifications Finalized April 10, 2012

• I practice regularly with my local sangha.
• I formally received The Five Mindfulness Trainings one or more years ago from Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh or a Tiep Hien Dharma Teacher.
• I am aware that by aspiring I am committing to  practice 60 days of mindfulness each year; to  study, practice, and observe the 14 Mindfulness Trainings; to regularly recite the trainings, and to  actively participate in and support my Sangha.
• I recite the Five Mindfulness Trainings at least monthly.
• I study, practice, and observe all five mindfulness trainings.
• I have a daily practice that includes meditation.
• I am alcohol- and recreational chemical-free and will remain so.
• I have the support of my partner for becoming an Aspirant.
• I am familiar with the Order and the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings and the Charter of the Order as reflected in the book Interbeing and use and study the book.
• I have begun to observe regular Days of Mindfulness.
• I am working with the reflection questions that are to be written as part of this application. [see the Dharma Teacher for application]
• I have identified a Dharma Teacher or a qualified Order Member(s) who is/are willing to serve as mentor(s).
• A Tiep Hien Dharma Teacher has agreed to support my Aspirancy and work with my mentor(s). [This is necessary when the mentor is not a Dharma Teacher]

In a future post, I will share the recommended mentoring qualifications document. If you have any questions or comments about the pre-aspirant checklist, please comment below.

Our SammaSankappa Sangha (California Medical Facility State Prison) was approaching its first Five Mindfulness Trainings Transmission (June, 2009).  As facilitator, I wanted the sangha to appreciate the honor of having three Dharma Teachers join us for our Transmission.  I spoke with the inmates about the designations within the Order of Interbeing.  I described what it meant to receive The Five Mindfulness Trainings, receive The Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings and receive Lamp Transmission.  I explained that I had received both The Five Trainings and The Fourteen Trainings but that I was not a Dharma Teacher.At our next week’s gathering, as we were settling in for our evening, a young Vietnamese member of this sangha came to see me.  He knelt down in front of me, we offered lotuses for each other and then he said, “I have a question for you.”  I offered a “go ahead” nod after which he asked, “May we call you Thây?”

My perception was that the previous week’s comments regarding “status” had not been adequately clear.  Not wanting to misrepresent myself, I began to explain that I was not a Teacher.  As I began to go through our Order’s designations once again, he stopped me and said, “You need to understand – you’re the only Thây we have [here].”  I bowed to him and thanked him for helping me better know what it meant for him to want to call me Thây.

For me, this young man had touched the essence of our collective engaged/applied practices.  His comments were a good response to, “Why do we practice?”

In some situations, we are fortunate to have the physical presence of other sangha members to help us manifest “Thây-ness.”  In other situations — although we have the support of the Sangha — our solo, personal presence needs to achieve this manifestation.

Before the next sangha gathering, that young man was transferred to another facility.  I hope that wherever he is, in this present moment, the Thây he needs is available.