Thich Nhat Hanh, Thai Plum Village and Ajanta Cave Wall Paintings

Summary: Mindful meditations in west India's Ajanta cave wall paintings and sculptures antedate those by Thich Nhat Hanh in northeast Thailand's Thai Plum Village.

Meditation Hall, with view of surrounding landscape, at Thai Plum Village International Practice Center, Pak Chong district, westernmost Nakhon Ratchasima province, northeastern Thailand: Thai Plum Village, via Facebook Dec. 6, 2015

The applied aims of Ajanta cave wall paintings and sculptures in central-west India perhaps anticipate chanting, sitting, walking, working mindful meditations by Thich Nhat Hanh for Thai Plum Village International Practice Center.

Thai Plum Village International Practice Center brings the nine-community Plum Village Tradition close to the respective Indian and Vietnamese birthplaces of Ajanta and Thich Nhat Hanh. Its six-year-old campus clusters alongside a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization World Heritage Center site, status claimed by the Ajanta Caves in Maharashtra state. Its design demonstrates a four-plus-decade dedication to Buddhist devotional, instructional, meditational disciplines just as Vakataka dynasty emperor Harishena did for Ajanta between 460 and 480 C.E.

About 180 monastics ensure the existence of Thai Plum Village International Practice Center, just as about 200 effected Ajanta Caves' endurance 1,300 to 2,300 years ago.

Devotional, instructional, meditational Ajanta cave wall paintings and sculptures fill chaitya (memorial monument, from Sanskrit चैत्य) prayer halls and vihara from Sanskrit विहार, "walking [hall]") monasteries.

Thai Plum Village, Pak Chong, Nakhon Ratchasima Province, gets dining facilities, guestrooms, kitchen, library, meditation hall and residences for breathing, eating, sitting, walking, working mindful meditations. Guest laity and guest and resident monastics heed the Plum Village Tradition honed by founder Thich Nhat Hanh about three refuges, five mindfulnesses and eightfold pathways. Buddha (from Sanskrit बुद्ध, "awakened") and his dharma (teaching, from Sanskrit धर्म) and sangha (from Sanskrit ,संघ "multitude") lay and monastic community inspire their mindful meditations.

Thai Plum Village International Practice Center meditators journey mindfully into deep listening and loving speech; healing and nourishment; reverence for life; true happiness; and true love.

Thai Plum Village meditators know non-indulgent, non-mortifying paths of right understanding, thought, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness and concentration away from desire-kindled suffering, toward non-suffering non-desire.

Siddhartha Gautama (from Sanskrit सिद्धार्थ, "successful" and गौतम, "light [dispels] darkness") left his charioteer Channa, horse Kanthaka, parents Mahamaya and Suddhodana, son Rahula and spouse Yasodhara. He managed respective six- and 45-year boating, sitting, walking mindful meditations as enlightenment-seeking 29- to 35-year-old Siddhartha Gautama and as enlightened 35- to 80-year-old Gautama Buddha. He nestled into Bamboo Grove, Banyan Monastery, Isipatana park and Jetavana Monastery non-rainy-season retreats and Hirannavati grove, Neranjara woodland, Parileyya forest and Uruvela wood nightly niches.

Ajanta cave wall paintings and sculptures and Thai Plum Village occur respectively in Indian forest caves and, like Gautama Buddha's seasonal occupancies, in forested northeast Thailand.

Ajanta cave wall paintings and sculptures present banyan (Ficus benghalensis), bodhi (Ficus religiosa), mango (Mangifera indica), rose-apple (Syzygium jambos), sala (Shorea robusta) and simsapa (Dalbergia sissoo).

Ajanta cave wall paintings and sculptures quest the trees quintessential to Siddhartha Gautama's (624?-544 B.C.E.?) lifetime, not necessarily those of their surrounding teak (Tectona grandis) forest. Thai Plum Village, with bodhi trees planted by Thich Nhat Hanh, reaches to dogwood (Cornaceae), false-olive (Elaeocarpaceae), laurel (Lauraceae), mahogany (Meliaceae) and spurge (Euphorbiaceae) family-ruled forests. Ajanta cave wall paintings and sculptures and Thai Plum Village survive respectively in Ajanta and Ellora Caves, and near Dong Phayayan-Khao Yai World Heritage Centre sites.

Thai Plum Village transmits breathing, eating, sitting, walking, working mindful meditations time-tested from Gautama Buddha, through Ajanta cave wall paintings and scuptures, to Thich Nhat Hanh.

Thai Plum Village International Practice Center is located on the edge of Khao Yai National Park, Thailand's third largest national park, which was designated July 14, 2005, as a UNESCO World Heritage Site; Khao Yai's Haew Suwat waterfall (nam tok haeo suwat), made famous in The Beach (2000), drama thriller starring Leonardo di Caprio; Pak Chong district, Nakhon Ratchasima province, northeastern Thailand; Sunday, July 15, 2007, 15:07: Chris huh, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

meditation hall, with view of surrounding landscape, at Thai Plum Village International Practice Center, Pak Chong district, westernmost Nakhon Ratchasima province, northeastern Thailand: Thai Plum Village, via Facebook Dec. 6, 2015, @ https://www.facebook.com/164494073612711/photos/a.1013951892000254/1013963588665751/

Thai Plum Village International Practice Center is located on the edge of Khao Yai National Park, Thailand's third largest national park, which was designated July 14, 2005, as a UNESCO World Heritage Site; Khao Yai's Haew Suwat waterfall (nam tok haeo suwat), made famous in The Beach (2000), drama thriller starring Leonardo di Caprio; Pak Chong district, Nakhon Ratchasima province, northeastern Thailand; Sunday, July 15, 2007, 15:07: Chris huh, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Haeo_Suwat_waterfall.JPG

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