this morning we would like to share our immense happiness with all of you: Our aspiration to organize a Wake Up Retreat based on Mindfulness, Deep Ecology and Permaculture is becoming a reality today. How wonderful that all the favourable conditions have come together, that the individual and collective consciousness have made it possible for this to happen! With deepest gratitude we smile to everyone and offer this small gift to all those, who cannot be present at this retreat today: THE WORLD WE ARE RETREAT BOOKLET.
Sending you an autumn breeze from Germany which is filled with the sweet fragrance of apples,
the organizing team (EIAB & PV monastics, Claudia, Ishi, Aurelia, Bas, Simon, Han)
The Abbot of Tang Hoi Monastery and the European Wake Up Sangha planting the second Wake Up Tree in Vietnam
Dear Friends,
I'm feeling inspired by trees tonight and wanted to share that with you.
I’m very inspired by the planting of trees. The 22 Wake Up trees we’ve planted in Vietnam at a monastery, the School of Youth for Social Service (founded by Thay and Sr. Chan Khong in the 1960s) and a Love and Understanding kindergarden showed me there’s so many meanings to it. Planting the tree at the monastery near Saigon after having spent a weekend retreat with our new friends of the local Sangha there was a great joy. Planting a tree that represents the newly planted seeds of brotherhood and sisterhood during that weekend and the hope of sweet fruits growing out of it in the future. Planting a tree at the SYSS, which feels so strongly as the roots of our Wake Up family now was also a very beautiful moment representing the continuation we would like to be of these wonderful people with amazing aspiration, practice and compassion.
What should we do when we feel overwhelmed by despair, despair coming from inside of us, and despair about the situation of the world? How can we find the energy, the strength to do something about it?
