Monastery to present night of music, poetry, meditation
In June 2022, the Plum Village Monastery near the French city of Bordeaux held a 40th anniversary retreat that included an evening of musical celebration for an audience of hundreds. The Buddhist monastery founded by Thich Nhat Hanh regularly hosts retreats — multiple days of mindfulness practice — incorporating music and poetry for both monastics and non-monastics. That milestone celebration made an impression on Ofosu Jones-Quartey, a Buddhist and Ghanaian American hip-hop artist who performs as Born I and participated in the performances.
“I was like, ‘We should take this on the road. This is something that other people should experience,’” Jones-Quartey said.
“The Way Out Is In: A Musical Meditation” is the monastery’s first performance tour, and they’re bringing it to Artists for Humanity EpiCenter in Boston on Sunday, April 30. The two-hour performance will feature live music performed mostly by monastics and Born I, selections of Thich Nhat Hanh’s poetry, and meditation.
“The music is definitely centered around the teachings of the Buddha, but it’s being expressed in ways that are traditional and non-traditional,” said Jones-Quartey, who will perform his original song “Koan.”
The monastery is full of musicians of various genres who use music to complement their teachings.
“We collectively decided to create this kind of musical offering to share the Dharma in an inspirational way, especially for [a] younger generation of friends,” Sister Trai Nghiem, a Dharma teacher at Plum Village and violinist, said.
For this tour, monastics from Plum Village’s Bordeaux-area monastery will perform in four cities in North America and educate audiences about Thich Nhat Hanh’s legacy. The internationally renowned Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk, called “an apostle of peace and non-violence” by Martin Luther King Jr., died in January 2022. The monastery in Southwestern France was the first and largest of several Westernbased practice centers he established.
Thich Nhat Hanh, a vocal opponent of the Vietnam War, pioneered the concept of mindfulness and incorporated activism into Buddhism, a practice known as “engaged Buddhism.” According to Brother Phap Huu, abbot of the monks’ community, rapper, and former personal attendant to Thich Nhat
Hanh, the Buddhist leader believed in using musical and artistic expression to make Buddhism relevant for young people.
“He had this insight that Buddhism or even religion, ethics, and so on — they should be renewed in order to adapt and to speak to the suffering of the modern world,” Brother Phap Huu said.
The performers seek to carry on that legacy by addressing current social and political hardships through their art. The monastery often embarks on teaching tours that include musical elements, but this tour is its first to center around music and performance, with teachings integrated into the event.
The performance will be a “super mini-version of a retreat,” Sister Trai Nghiem said, in that the audience will get a condensed introduction to Buddhist practices. Before the event, there will be an optional, outside walking meditation, and the program will open with guided meditation and a song about mindful breathing.
The event will then move into a variety of musical performances. Thich Nhat Hanh published more than 100 books, including poetry, and many of his poems will be set to music for the event. Some of the songs have classical instrumental arrangements, while others are rap songs.
The songs consist of themes ranging from climate change to wartime to fear of mortality. Sister Trai Nghiem said the performers want to acknowledge global struggles but also instill hope for a collective response.
“We really want to present something that can also offer healing and transformation for everyone,” she said.
The goal of this tour is not to convert people to Buddhism, she said, but to encourage people to connect to their own spiritual foundation and find themselves, as Thich Nhat Hanh taught. “We just want to share what’s really, really important in our world that’s suffering so much from polarization,” Sister Trai Nghiem said.
The choice to perform at Artists for Humanity was born out of a desire to “avoid typical, traditional concert halls” and to create an “experiential” environment similar to the monastery’s meditation hall, Sister Trai Nghiem said.
When she learned about nonprofit Artists for Humanity’s arts employment programs for teens, the decision was easy: “Our aspirations are in alignment.”
“I just know that people are waiting and looking and hoping to touch wellbeing and inner happiness,” Brother Phap Huu said. “I hope that we’re able to offer some pathway.”