Welcome to Plum Village Practice Center!

During the whole year Plum Village offers retreats within Plum Village as well as outside of Plum Village. Please always arrange your stay with us before coming. In order to deepen your practice and for mindful living to take root and become a vital part of daily life, we ask you to stay for a minimum of one week, and would recommend you to stay for at least two weeks. If you wish to stay for more than two weeks (up to a maximum of three months), please arrange with us in advance, by writing to us expressing your motivation and your wish for staying extended time at Plum Village. During the Spring Retreat and Fall Retreat (outside of any Special Retreats), if you cannot stay for a week, you can participate in our weekend program, which starts on Friday afternoons and ends on Sunday afternoons. You can come for a Day of Mindfulness (every Thursday and Sunday) to listen to a Dharma Talk, participate in walking meditation and enjoy a silent meal with us.

To help make our practice stable and solid, Friday is our one arrival/departure day each week. Exceptions on this may occur in the Special Retreats, but we always request you to come on the arrival day in order for us to offer you an orientation about our practice.

During the Summer Retreat and the Christmas Season Plum Village opens its doors to families with children. During the rest of the year Plum Village practices and observes a monastic way of life, with the Winter Retreat as its main monastic retreat. Since the teachings emphasize practicing with the Sangha in order to enjoy its collective energy, retreatants are encouraged to participate fully in all scheduled activities. We also ask our guests to observe the Five Wonderful Mindfulness Trainings, and thus to refrain from smoking and drinking alcohol. Please do not bring non-vegetarian foods or alcoholic beverages to our practice center.