Winding Path Sangha

07/24/2024

Here is the core schedule of retreats that will be held at Plum Village France in 2025. We will continue to share more information and registration details in the coming months. We aim to open the…

05/01/2024

Join us tonight at 7 pm for in-person meditation at Trinity Episcopal Church. 🙏🏽🧘🧘🏽‍♀️🧘🏽‍♂️

03/19/2024

Please join Winding Path Sangha at 7 p.m. this Wednesday night, March 20, at Trinity Episcopal Church for meditation, reading, sharing, and friendship. We meet in-person on the first and third Wednesday of every month. Here's an excerpt from our reading tonight from Thich Nhat Hanh's "Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet:" “Just as a lotus flower is made of many molecules, and all the molecules come together in harmony to produce beautiful leaves and flowers, so, too, can a community bring together all the particular individuals to bring about a universal whole. If you want to produce a society that is peaceful, happy, and compassionate, you have to visualize the universal community. You learn to go as a river. If you can do that, you will change the world.” 🙏🌻

12/08/2023

Wonderful final night at Deer Park Monastery featuring a delicious dinner with colleagues, new friends, and the lovely nuns at Clarity Hamlet followed by a celebration of the first day of Hanukkah.

11/17/2023

Good medicine for those who are tired of the pressure to spend and over-consume during the holiday season.

11/10/2023

Journalist Jo Confino interviews Thích Nhất Hạnh on how we can practice with and relate to insights arising from contemplating the Earth as our Mother.

10/23/2023

Dear friends. From 6-7:30 p.m. Thursday, October 26, Winding Path Sangha and the Garchen Mila Buddhist Center will offer a special Meditation for Peace in the upstairs lounge of the Englert Theater, 221 E. Washington St.

The event is a peaceful response to the unspeakable violence in the Middle East, which follows more than a year of brutal war in Ukraine.

As practitioners, we know we live in an interconnected world and that when others are suffering, we’re also suffering.

Please join us for a period of silent meditation, prayers, poetry, and a chant for peace, with offerings from both the Tibetan and Thich Nhat Hanh’s Plum Village traditions. Refreshments, and time for fellowship, will follow.

The event is free and open to the public.

NOTE: During the evening a small group of singers and musicians will lead the singing of Thay’s Namo’valokiteshvaraya chant of compassion. If you are interested in joining the chant "choir" Thursday night, and/or if you can help set up the space, please arrive by 5 p.m. Thursday. Also, please feel free to bring cookies (especially vegan and gluten free) to share, if you can. 🙏🏽

10/16/2023

Wonderful to have so many of our Sangha members at this weekend’s Snowflower Sangha retreat in Dodgeville, Wisconsin, led by lay Dharma teacher Jack Lawlor. ❤️🙏🏽

09/25/2023

Sunday, October 1 at City Park.

09/11/2023

A wonderful gathering of Winding Path Sangha members last night to enjoy member Janis Russell’s breathtaking garden (after the rain abated), delicious snacks, and each other’s company.

09/05/2023

A rich and nourishing dive into Plum Village practices and a path for determine how to face the many planetary challenges ahead from a place of peace, mindfulness, and joy.

The International Plum Village Community is happy to be continuing Thich Nhat Hanh’s teachings on the Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet online course.

Registration is now open for the next cohort. We invite you to embark on this 7-week learning journey, which is designed to empower the human resilience we need to face our current situation.

Find out more at: https://plumvillage.org/courses/zen-and-the-art-of-saving-the-planet

09/02/2023

Present moment, joyful moment. Grateful to have Winding Path Sangha friend Jan and members of the Midwest Order of Interbeing Members and Aspirants group with me as I (Stephen) received the 14 Mindfulness Trainings this morning at Magnolia Grove Monastery this morning. 🙏🏽

08/28/2023

Winding Path Sangha is considering offering an in-person book discussion this fall and we're looking for your suggestions. Please feel free to offer titles of books you'd love to read and discuss (by Thich Nhat Hanh or other "adjacent" authors in the Buddhism/Mindfulness space). Once we settle on a title, and a meeting time/day and location, we'll be sure to let you know!

08/28/2023

Dear Sangha: After a three-year hiatus, Snowflower Sangha of Madison, Wisconsin, is resuming its in-person weekend retreat at the Bethel Horizons Retreat Center in Dodgeville, Wisconsin, Friday to Sunday, October 13-15. Led by Lay Dharma Teacher Jack Lawlor, the theme this year is "Mindfulness, Concentration, Insight, Compassion and Generosity in Divisive Times: What Thich Nhat Hanh’s Teachings on Impermanence and Interdependence Offer Us Today." Spots are limited. To learn more, visit this link:

08/17/2023

🙏🏽

A scientist surrounded by urban sprawl, Chau Nguyen connects to her grief of losing her father while she asks: How can I practice mindfulness to connect to nature, see through grief, and transform climate despair?

https://www.parallax.org/mindfulnessbell/article/deep-listening-in-the-urban-forest/

"peaceful with snail" illustration by Alfonso Montellano Lopez

05/29/2023

Walking meditation is a lovely way to get acquainted with Winding Path Sangha and a wonderful practice for taking refuge in your breath, in community, and with each mindful step on the Earth. Join us at 10 a.m. Saturday, June 3, at the Conklin Lane entrance of Hickory Hill Park, followed after by coffee, tea, and conversation at Press Coffee.

05/09/2023

🙏🏽

Are you looking to do something meaningful and rewarding this summer?

We need volunteers who have attended a retreat at a Plum Village monastery for our Summer Opening. In particular for our English-language children's program and our program for teenage boys.

It's a chance to support hundreds of people to experience a healing and transformative retreat, whilst developing your mindfulness in the midst of action and service!

05/08/2023

05/07/2023

Offering a deep bow of gratitude for a wonderful, rich, deep, and delicious day of mindfulness today with members of the Winding Path Sangha, especially to Jan Goss for facilitating and to Brian Glidewell for opening his beautiful home to us. 🙏🏽❤️🌻

04/27/2023

Happy news, dear friends. Thay is continuing in so many lovely, creative ways.

The Thich Nhat Hanh Center for Mindfulness in Public Health will launch April 26 at the Harvard Chan School. The Center’s mission is to empower people around the globe to live with purpose, equanim…

04/11/2023

Dear Friends, we want to share two wonderful upcoming opportunities for practicing mindfulness in community.

Now that the weather is consistently warm, we’re resuming our third-Saturday walking meditations this Saturday, April 15, at 10 a.m., at the Conklin entrance of Hickory Hill Park. This is in addition to the year-round first-Saturday walking meditations at the same location. We hope to see you there!

And from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday, May 7, please join Winding Path Sangha for a half day of mindfulness at the Coralville home of Sangha member Brian Glidewell. This will be followed by an informal shared lunch for those who wish to stay a while and socialize.

Led by Winding Path and Order of Interbeing member Jan Goss and other facilitators, the time together will include guided, silent, and walking meditations; a short reading; Dharma sharing; and tea meditation.

Space is limited to about 10 people, so please RSVP only if you are certain you can attend. While there is no cost, dana (a free-will offering) will be accepted and will be given to the Thich Nhat Hanh Foundation to continue Thay's work.

Some meditation cushions will be available, but please feel free to bring your own if you wish.

To RSVP, please email Jan Goss at [email protected]. Additional details will be sent soon to those who RSVP.

03/09/2023

A wonderful event and opportunity to support Plum Village monastics!

02/01/2023

Join Winding Path Sangha for in-person meditation 7 p.m. tonight (Wednesday) at Trinity Episcopal Church. Everyone is welcome! 🙏🌻🙂

01/12/2023

Dear friends, the wonderful new film we shared about at Wednesday’s meditation. 🙏🏽

Made specially for the first anniversary of the passing of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, "I Have Arrived, I Am Home" is a new documentary from filmmaker Max Pugh (A Cloud Never Dies, Walk With Me). The film includes footage and commentary on Thich Nhat Hanh's return to his native Vietnam, where he lived from 2018 until his passing on 22 January 2022.

The international Plum Village community is making this film available to everyone for free to honor our dear teacher and inspire viewers to walk the path of mindful living: https://youtu.be/mkJLqq6j0Ic

It premieres at 1:30am on January 22 in Vietnam time, exactly 1 year after Thich Nhat Hanh's passing. (On most other continents it is January 21 – 10:30am PST / 1:30pm EST / 7:30pm CET.) The film will be freely available to view at any time after the premiere.

01/05/2023

Take your meditation practice into the woods by joining Winding Path Sangha for our Walking Meditation at 10 a.m. this Saturday, January 7, at Hickory Hill Park's Conklin Lane entrance (just north and kitty-corner from the North Dodge HyVee). As Thich Nhat Hanh said, "When you walk, arrive with every step. That is walking meditation. There's nothing else to it.”

01/05/2023

Join Sangha member Kathleen Darling for a four-week discussion of Thich Nhat Hanh's book, The Mindfulness Survival Kit: Five Essential Practices (available from Parallax Press at https://www.parallax.org/product/the-mindfulness-survival-kit-five-essential-practices/). The group will meet via Zoom from 5:30-6:30 p.m. on four consecutive Thursdays, from January 19 until February 9. To learn more, register, and get the Zoom link for the event, email Kathleen at [email protected].

01/03/2023

Start your new year on a mindful foot by joining the Winding Path Sangha for its in-person meditation Wednesday, January 4, at 7 p.m. at Trinity Episcopal Church in Iowa City. Everyone is welcome, regardless of background or experience with meditation. More information at

Breathe, you are online. Welcome to the Winding Path Sangha in Iowa City, Iowa, founded in the Plum Village tradition of Vietnamese teacher Thích Nhất Hạnh, or 'Thay', in 2016. We know you are there and we are happy. New Virtual Half-Day of Mindfulness January 15 Join Dharma teachers Jack and

12/23/2022

We wish all those celebrating a wonderful Christmas, but we know it is not always an easy experience for everyone. For those who will spend time with loved ones, we share advice on not being "triggered" given by Sister Tu Nghiem in an article in our "Mindful Christmas" series from last year.

You can read the full article here: https://plumvillage.org/articles/a-mindful-christmas-part-1-difficult-relationships/

There is also a discussion of loneliness and how to be with others at Christmas time in the latest episode of The Way Out Is In Podcast with Brother Phap Huu, Jo Confino, and Sister Jina, you can find it wherever you listen to podcasts or here: https://plumvillage.org/podcast/transforming-loneliness-episode-43/