Magnolia Grove Monastery is a monastic practice center in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh and the Order of Interbeing, located in Batesville, MS, United States. It was founded in 2005. Plum Village-lineage monastery in northern Mississippi serving the southeastern US Vietnamese-American Buddhist community. The form here is mindfulness practice woven through the whole day. Sitting meditation is one element; walking meditation, mindful eating, working meditation, dharma sharing in small groups, and total relaxation (a guided lying-down practice) are equally central. The community uses the bell of mindfulness throughout the day, pausing all activity for three breaths whenever it sounds. Resident monastic brothers and sisters lead the form. They hold the precepts of the Order of Interbeing in addition to monastic vows, integrating engaged Buddhism into the Vietnamese Zen lineage. Lay retreatants join the daily schedule and live alongside the monastics for the duration of their stay. Retreats here are not strictly silent; the practice is mindfulness in speech as well as silence. Mealtimes hold the first twenty minutes in silence and then permit gentle mindful conversation. Dharma sharing in small groups is a central element where retreatants speak about practice from their own experience. Capacity is around 80 retreatants. Listed retreat types: Mindfulness retreats, Days of Mindfulness. Languages: English, Vietnamese. Family-friendly retreats welcome children and teens in their own programs alongside adult practice. The broader Plum Village community now spans monasteries on four continents, all running the same form with local adaptation. Sister and brother monastics rotate between centers, carrying the tradition's continuity. Lay practitioners around any Plum Village monastery often form sanghas that meet weekly between visits, holding the practice between retreats and supporting one another in daily life. Engaged Buddhism, the social and ecological dimension Thich Nhat Hanh built into the tradition, is present here. Some retreats explicitly take up themes of climate, racial justice, or work life, drawing on the tradition's framework of interbeing (the radical interdependence of all phenomena). The practice is never abstracted from the world it touches.
Days at Magnolia Grove Monastery begin around 5:30 or 6am with sitting meditation, followed by chanting and a light walking meditation. Breakfast is mindful and partly silent. Mid-morning brings a dharma talk by a senior monastic, followed by working meditation (samu): cleaning, gardening, kitchen prep, all done with attention to breath and body. Lunch is a formal meal taken in silence for the first twenty minutes. Afternoons hold dharma sharing in small groups, total relaxation (guided body relaxation while lying down), and free practice time. Evenings often include a session on a specific topic, beginning anew (a community reconciliation practice), or simply more sitting. Throughout the day, the bell of mindfulness sounds at intervals; everyone stops, breathes three times, and returns to the present before continuing. The schedule is gentler than a Zen sesshin or vipassana retreat, but the mindfulness continuity is unbroken. Walking meditation is led twice a day, often outdoors. The community moves slowly together, each step coordinated with breathing, no destination beyond the walk itself. New retreatants sometimes find this disconcerting at first; by day two or three most settle into the pace and report it as the most memorable element of the retreat.
The lineage runs from the Lieu Quan school of Vietnamese Linji (Rinzai) Zen through Thich Nhat Hanh (1926-2022), who founded the Order of Interbeing in 1966 and Plum Village in France in 1982. Magnolia Grove Monastery is part of the international Plum Village monastic community. Resident teachers are dharma teachers (dharmacarya) who have received transmission from Thich Nhat Hanh or from his senior students, formally authorized to teach within the tradition.
Adults drawn to gentle, integrated mindfulness practice woven through daily life rather than into silent intensives.
Parents and children looking to practice together; the community runs family retreats with programming for children and teens.
Practitioners drawn to the Order of Interbeing's commitment to bringing mindfulness into social, political, and ecological action.
Arrival is in the afternoon before the retreat begins. The community welcomes you, shows you to your accommodation, and orients you to the schedule and the bell. The form is gentler than a silent retreat: you can speak, but speech is offered in mindfulness. Phones are typically discouraged but not surrendered. Practice continues from morning to night without strict silence, anchored in the bell, the schedule, and the presence of the monastic community. Most retreatants describe leaving with a portable practice rather than a peak experience. The community asks retreatants to bring the practice home and integrate it gradually rather than try to hold the retreat schedule in daily life; the bell and the breath travel easily.
Accommodations are typically shared rooms or dorms with shared bathrooms; some centers offer family lodging and tent options in summer. The food is vegetarian (and often vegan), prepared and eaten as part of the practice. Capacity is around 80 retreatants. The grounds are walking-friendly and include a meditation hall, dharma hall, dining hall, and outdoor walking paths used for daily walking meditation. Smaller buildings hold dharma sharing rooms where small groups gather throughout the retreat.
Retreat fees cover room, board, and operations. Listed range: Donation-based. The community offers sliding-scale options and reduced rates for those who cannot afford the full fee, in keeping with the engaged Buddhist commitment to accessibility. Family rates and youth pricing are typically published. Dana to the monastic community is welcomed at the close of the retreat as a separate offering.
At Magnolia Grove Monastery, mindfulness is woven through the whole day, anchored by the bell, the monastic community, and the legacy of Thich Nhat Hanh.
Not fully. Plum Village retreats hold partial silence, especially during the first twenty minutes of meals and during sitting and walking meditation. Speech is permitted in dharma sharing groups, working meditation, and informal time, but always practiced with mindfulness.
Family retreats are a regular part of the calendar, especially during summer openings. Children and teens have their own programming led by monastics, while parents practice alongside the adult schedule. Check the retreat calendar for family-friendly dates.
Dharma sharing is a small-group practice where retreatants take turns speaking from their own experience about a practice topic, while the others listen without commenting. It is one of the central practices of the tradition and a primary place where practice is integrated.
The bell is invited (sounded) at intervals throughout the day. When it sounds, everyone in the community stops what they are doing, takes three conscious breaths, and returns to the present moment before continuing. It is the rhythm that holds the retreat together.
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