Our Name
Tên gọi Tăng thân Phương Bối

When we were trying to find the right name for our sangha, we wanted something that described the first moment of arriving in Darwin. You are often stepping out of the air-conditioned airport or a car. As you step out, your lungs are filled with a thickness of air and the sweet fragrance of the tropics. Your vision is filled with rich dark green foliage, and if you are local you know you are home. 

One night as laying my head on the pillow I remembered Thich Nhat Hanh's book, Fragrant Palm Leaves (Journals, 1962-1966). Over the next few days the name Fragrant Palm kept coming back and a smile would form on my lips. During a cup of tea after our first practice session together I mentioned the name and asked what it meant in Vietnamese. Phương Bối was the reply, Phương = fragrant, Bối = a specific palm which its leaves were used to write the Buddhist sutras on. There were smiles around the table and we knew we had found our name. 

Thich Nhat Hanh teaches that if we are to sustain ourselves while taking action to relieve suffering in the world, we need to come together in community, close to nature. Plum Village in France is a natural continuation of “Fragrant Palm Leaves” (Phương Bối) a spiritual community he and his friends created in the central highlands of Vietnam in the 1950s. 

Tên gọi Tăng thân Phương Bối bắt nguồn từ cuốn sách "Nẻo về của ý", xuất bản năm 1967 của Thầy Thích Nhất Hạnh. "Phương" là mùi thơm ngát, dễ chịu tỏa ra từ hoa cỏ, trầm hương hoặc các vật liệu tự nhiên, "Bối" là loài cây cọ lớn (lá buông). Loài cây này nổi tiếng trong lịch sử Phật giáo vì lá của nó từng được dùng làm nguyên liệu chép kinh văn cổ (gọi là bối diệp kinh).