Magnolia Grove Monastery

11/12/2025

Dear Friends,

Have you ever attended our annual Holiday Retreat?

This year is particularly special to us because it marks Magnolia Grove Monastery's 15th anniversary and this is the last themed retreat of 2025. If you haven't yet, register soon and join our annual Holiday Retreat!

This year's theme is: Love is Presence.

This 5-day retreat from 12.28.25-1.1.26 is open to families, couples, and anyone interested in mindful living and participating in mindful communities.

This retreat offers a Children's Program (6-12) and a Teens' Program (13-17), alongside a program for adults.
Everyone will have a chance to be with their respective age groups for part of the day and we'll regroup for meal times which we call eating meditation and for certain activities such as walking meditation and our New Year's Eve Celebration.

In this retreat we will learn the art of establishing True Presence, in the spirit of Thay's quote: "When you love someone, the best thing you can offer is your presence.
How can you love if you are not there?"
Thich Nhat Hanh, No Death, No Fear: Comforting Wisdom for Life.

As a mindful community we will hone the art of enhancing our everyday life with mindfulness in every moment: sitting, walking, eating, washing dishes, resting...etc. as we learn to be fully present for ourselves and each other.
Aside from our Dharma talks and Dharma sharing circles, we will also welcome the New Year with a peaceful midnight ceremony and offer a Five Mindfulness Trainings Transmission Ceremony for anyone who wishes to receive them.

We can't wait to see you!

—Magnolia Grove Monastery

Register soon at: https://magnoliagrovemonastery.org/holiday-retreat-2025/

11/04/2025

Dear Friends,

We warmly invite you, your family and friends to come join us for our Thanksgiving Weekend from Wednesday, November 26th-Friday, November 28th!

Our Program for the Thanksgiving Weekend is:

November 26th:

Arrival Day from 3pm-5pm

5:00 pm Sitting Meditation
6:00 pm Dinner
7:30 pm Orientation

November 27th:

7:30 am Breakfast
9:00 am Dharma Talk
10:30 am Walking Meditation to Beloved Community Garden followed by a Gratitude Ceremony
12:00 pm Special Lunch with 5 contemplations

November 28th:

Departure Day.

Please note that our only arrival day for this week is Wednesday, in lieu of our regular Friday arrival days.

To register, please visit: www.magnoliagrovemonastery.org

If you would like to stay until Sunday, please contact our registrar at: office@magnoliagrovemonastery.org

We hope to see you!

—Magnolia Grove Monastery Monastics

10/20/2025

Dear Friends,

Today officially marks the first day of our 90-day Rains Retreat!

We commenced our Rains Retreat with a Counting Sticks Ceremony last night (10-18-25). This serves both as a traditional means of counting how many participants will be present for 90-days whilst also being a reminder and symbol of our commitment to stay in a designated place to delve deeper into our spiritual practice and enrich our monastic studies.

During our ceremony last night there was thunder, lightning, and a heavy downpour. Even after the ceremony was completed, it poured so heavily we had to share our umbrellas to return to our quarters. What an auspicious, fresh start!

This morning, we were graced with a sunny day and after walking meditation we had more rain—this time, dharma rain offered by Br. Pháp Chứng who shared about the spirit of rains retreats and offered concrete steps to take care of ourselves both inside and out, through a self inventory of our material goods and inside our mind.
(Stay tuned for his dharma talk in our YouTube channel!)

Our Face-to-Face Ceremony, or Varṣāvāsa Ceremony (“Rainy-Season-Peaceful-Dwelling) this morning took place in the Rising Tide Meditation Hall with a little over 100 people on attendance. In the end, our happy news is: we have 29 nuns, 9 monks, 4 laywomen and 1 layman who have committed to this 90-day retreat!

We thank everyone who came out to support us today and wish everyone a wonderful peaceful-dwelling, wherever you are.

We hope to see you one of these days!
(www.magnoliagrovemonastery.org)

🙏🙏🙏,
Magnolia Grove Monastery

10/07/2025

Dear Friends,

Thank you everyone for joining our 5-day Silent Retreat!
We enjoyed immersing ourselves in healing silence and connected as a mindful and joyful community. May the beauty of (inner) silence continue to blossom in our everyday life!
We hope to see you again in the near future. 🤗

Deep bow,
Magnolia Grove Monastery monastics

P.S. Our Holiday Retreat registration is now open!

Please visit: https://magnoliagrovemonastery.org/holiday-retreat-2025/ for more details.

Also, a gentle reminder: our Open House is on Oct. 11, 2025. Please bring your family and friends for a Monastery tour and delicious Vietnamese cuisine! Don’t miss it!

10/01/2025

Dear Friends,

October 11, 2025 marks a very special day at our monastery!

It is both our teacher, Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh’s 99th Continuation Day and also our Open House Day!

We cordially invite you to visit our monastery from 5pm—8pm. Enjoy a tour of our monastery grounds, delicious Vietnamese cuisine cooked by our monastic chefs, and meet happy monks and nuns!

Don’t miss out on this precious opportunity and bring your family and friends!

To help us best prepare for this free event, please register at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/open-house-day-2025-tickets-1765612096309?aff=oddtdtcreator&fbclid=PAQ0xDSwNLjDJleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABp3R4-hGEY1UIWO06RnrS-T4wz6eKNoNQZjB3dwLK6wE_wOqm6lM5bfs47Gn6_aem_v_I2vluRTzOipQFEaJTeNg

We hope to see you!

—Magnolia Grove Monastery Monasticss

08/11/2025

More beautiful moments from our Vietnamese speaking retreat! 🥳

Dear friends, we invite you to enjoy some moments from our recent retreat for Vietnamese speaking friends.

08/10/2025

Kính mời quý thân hữu thưởng thức những hình ảnh đẹp từ khóa tu tiếng Việt vừa qua. Những ngày thực tập cùng nhau đã mang lại biết bao nụ cười, sự lắng dịu và sự chuyển hoá của tự thân cũng như không ít sự hàn gắn giữa những trái tim cần ôm ấp và nuôi dưỡng. Nguyện cho bình an và thương yêu luôn tiếp tục nở hoa trong mỗi chúng ta.

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Dear friends,
We invite you to enjoy some beautiful images from the recent Vietnamese retreat. Our days of practice together have brought countless smiles, moments of calm, and transformation within ourselves, as well as much healing between hearts in need of being embraced and nourished. May peace and love continue to blossom in each of us.

08/09/2025

Dear Friends,

Please enjoy some beautiful moments during our Summer Family Retreat in early July. During this retreat we enjoyed arriving within the present moment together in the beloved community, practicing sitting, walking, eating, and relaxation. 🙂

We hope that you enjoy these happy moments and togetherness!

If you are interested in any of our retreats please visit our website: www.magnoliagrovemonastery.org for more information.

06/21/2025

What a joyous singing meditation we had this morning! We hope you’ll join us in the near future and enjoy these nourishing mindfulness practice songs with us!

06/21/2025

Today is the second day of our Buddhist Youth Retreat. We enjoyed walking meditation despite the occasional light shower. What a joy to practice walking meditation with so many young people!

06/20/2025

Dear Friends,

Today is the first day of our Buddhist Youth Retreat for over 500 retreatants! We are so happy to welcome our Buddhist Youth Groups every two years.

Here is a teaser. More photos to come!