During the COVID-19 pandemic, it has not been possible to attend meditation and mindfulness retreats. But like many others, the monks and nuns of the Plum Village meditation tradition have been exploring online alternatives.
They are now live streaming many of their practice sessions around the world for free, so that you can join a meditation session or Dharma talk from your home. There are sessions from a number of Plum Village-affiliated monasteries around the world, including Deer Park and Blue Cliff Monastery in the US, Plum Village Thailand, and the original Plum Village in France. You can watch many of the live-streams later, if you cannot make the session live.
Plum Village has also started running online retreats. You can join for a 3 day weekend retreat, with meditation sessions, deep relaxation, Dharma talks, and an option for sharing with other participants. There is a cost for these retreats, helping to provide some income for the monastics at a time when they have lost all income from in-person retreats.
Another option during this period is to access Plum Village meditations, talks, songs, and chants via the Plum Village app for iOS and Android. (Recently I joined the team working on this app. I’m very happy to be able to help improve this resource, for the existing community of practitioners as well as for many people who are discovering the Plum Village tradition for the first time.)