Blue Cliff Monastery


Blue Cliff Monastery is an Zen Buddhist monastery located in Pine Bush, New York. It was founded in May 2007 by monastic and lay practitioners from the Plum Village Tradition.
The monastery is under the direction of Thich Nhat Hanh's Order of Interbeing in the Vietnamese Zen tradition. Blue Cliff Monastery follows the same practices and daily schedules as its root monastery Plum Village and its sister monasteries Deer Park Monastery in Escondido, California and Magnolia Grove Monastery in Batesville, Mississippi.
Blue Cliff Monastery was created when the monastics moved from Maple Forest Monastery and the Green Mountain Dharma Center. In 1997 Maple Forest Monastery was founded in Woodstock, Vermont and a year later Green Mountain Dharma Center was founded in Hartland, Vermont. Maple Forest was the monks' residence and Green Mountain was the nuns' residence. In May 2007 both centers moved to Blue Cliff Monastery.
The Monastery is located in the lush green Hudson Valley of New York. Inside the property there are two ponds and a creek, and out of its 80 acres 65 are forest. Visitors are welcome to practice mindfulness with the fourfold community of monks, nuns, laymen and laywomen. Typically days of mindfulness are held twice a week. Retreats are held frequently throughout the year.

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