To Wake Up Together

This letter is written by a dear friend of Wake Up – Gijs ‘Jazz’ Van den Broeck (he/him), and his reflections about what is alive for young people in the Sangha today, and what we want our elders to know. After the large retreat in June, it was clear that communication and harmony of the global sangha was something to celebrate and enjoy deeply. Perhaps we share the same aspirations, dreams, and fears as one community. Only when we understand each other deeply we can be aware of the similarities between us as one community. Please enjoy the reflections of Jazz, and feel free to contribute your own.

What is alive for young people today?

Dear Respected Thay,
Dear Respected Su Co,
Dear Noble Community,

Today is a beautiful day. The sun is shining, the sky is blue, and the Mahasangha has come together from all 10 directions, practicing joyfully together in this June retreat. The ‘Spring Light’ family has just received the 14 Mindfulness Trainings and the Order of Interbeing received a stream of fresh energy, with a lot of young people joining the Order. I am so grateful our community is able to bring us together and offer conditions for practice and transformation to such a diverse group of people from all generations.

I was invited to reflect on what is alive for young people in our community today. What are our deepest desires? What is of ultimate concern? I am happy to share my thoughts, based on being part of the Sangha and the Wake Up community for over 10 years. Even though – for poetic reasons – I may be using the ‘we’ form in this letter, please know that what I’m sharing is just my personal impression. I hope my reflections can be meaningful and relevant.

We are so happy and blessed to be here. We have arrived, we feel at home. We are able to touch our deepest joy and our deepest suffering. We feel cared for. We are heard, we are listened to. In the midst of the many challenges we face today, we have found a path that allows us to respond to them with grace and ease, and that helps us to transform our suffering; a path that is at the same time deeply rooted in ancient wisdom and relevant for today.

The young people that are drawn to our community, I feel, are driven by a deep desire to belong. Many of us grew up struggling to find a sense of belonging and to make sense of the world around us. We were born into societies and power structures that we may have a hard time relating to, and, we feel, more often than not, do not reflect our concerns and values. There is a sense of disenchantment and loss, a lack of meaning. With this comes a deep-seated fear of being left out, of not being heard, of being irrelevant. Plum Villages allows us to touch our true home and give us a real sense of community.

We want to find out who we really are, beyond the names and labels transmitted to us by society. We want to be our true selves. We want to be accepted as we are. We care about identity. We care about equality, diversity and inclusion. We want to transform the ancestral suffering handed down to us through the bonds of patriarchy and colonialism. We have been hurt because we have been mislabeled. We are afraid to be misunderstood, because we may express ourselves in a different way than our parents. We come to the Sangha to find a place where we are deeply listened to, and can be our beautiful selves.

We care deeply about the Earth. We are afraid of an insecure future with looming climate breakdown and rising oppression. We do not want to stand by idly while the world around us may be falling to pieces. We want to act. We want to engage. We want to speak out against injustice and violence, out of a deep love for everything that is alive and all the ways it chooses to express itself. We are a global family. We want to bridge the gaps between North and South, East and West, top and bottom. We want to nourish and cherish the life of all beings. We are afraid our cries may not be heard. We come to Plum Village, because we feel Plum Village cares.

We want to wake up collectively. We do not want to do this alone. We deeply value friendship, because we know what loneliness feels like. We want to touch joy. We don’t want to navel-gaze or get stuck in the mud. We want to be creative and have some fun too. We want to celebrate life. We want to find ways to remain fresh and creative in the face of crisis. We are happy Wake Up exists as a place for us to experiment. We ask our elders to give us space to find out who we are and what we want, and deeply value their spiritual friendship. We want to hang out with you, learn from you and get to know you intimately. We want to be invited to the table. We come to Plum Village because of our teacher’s vision to renew Buddhism and – above all – build siblinghood.

These are some of the themes, that I feel are alive for young practitioners today. Thank you for inviting in this reflection. I apologize for any inaccuracies or unskillfulness in my words. Thank you for receiving my sharing.

In love and trust,
Gijs ‘Jazz’ Van den Broeck