Our Story
In May 2025, six of us - Christian, Jerome, Jina, Sheryl, Susan, and Tanya - gathered in San Francisco to recite the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings together and hold our last fireside chat, just weeks before traveling to Plum Village in France for the June Retreat, marking the 60th anniversary of the Order of Interbeing.
During that gathering, Tanya raised a point about how OI members really don't know who else is near them, walking this same path. We don't know who else has received the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings, who else is holding space for a sangha, who else carries this same OI commitment - until, sometimes, we happen to stumble onto them.
We also recognized something else missing: a way to reach out to another OI member when facing a difficulty, or simply a question on the path - someone who has taken the same vows, and who might understand in a way that's hard to explain to those outside this commitment.
Out of that conversation, and in the weeks before the June Retreat, Christian took that spark and built it into brownjackets.org.
Who It's For
Brownjackets.org is built for Order of Interbeing members and lay Dharma Teachers in the Plum Village tradition - those who have received the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings and carry the ongoing commitment of living with them on this path.
It's also a resource for two other groups walking alongside us:
- Traveling Plum Village monastics, who can use the site to find an OI friend nearby wherever they are.
- Practitioners seeking a mentor, who can use the site to find a sangha where an OI member or lay Dharma Teacher is already practicing - the natural starting point for a mentorship relationship.
But at its core, this site exists for OI members and lay Dharma Teachers, first and foremost, to find each other.
Our Purpose
We take the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings as a shared commitment, not an individual one. That commitment doesn't end when a retreat ends or a ceremony is over - it's something we carry, often quietly, and sometimes alone.
Brownjackets exists because that shouldn't have to be a solitary path. When we don't know who else nearby has taken these same vows, we lose something the trainings themselves point toward: interbeing, mutual support, community as practice.
This is also why the site isn't allowed to quietly disappear. Letting it fade would mean letting go of the very thing it was built to protect - our ability to find and hold each other up on this path.
As long as there are OI members and lay Dharma Teachers looking for one another, this site has a reason to keep going, even when the work of maintaining it feels like just one more thing on top of everything else we carry.
Our Mission
We are committed to keeping brownjackets.org active, accurate, and easy to use for as long as OI members and lay Dharma Teachers need a way to find one another - updating it as our community grows, and, when it is time, transferring the care to those who come after us.
Brownjackets.org itself is an interactive map directory for Order of Interbeing members and lay Dharma Teachers in the Plum Village tradition. It exists so that we can find one another - not through chance encounters at retreats, but intentionally, wherever we are.
This isn't a general sangha directory. It's built specifically for OI members and lay Dharma Teachers, for a few reasons:
- Mutual support. So that another OI sibling on this path is reachable when we need support, connection, or simply to know we're not alone in carrying this responsibility.
- Finding each other by location. So we can discover the OI members and lay Dharma Teachers near us, or find one when we travel.
- A resource for monastics. So that traveling Plum Village monastics can find an OI friend nearby.
- Mentorship. So practitioners looking for a mentor can first find a sangha where an OI member or lay Dharma Teacher is already practicing - the foundation from which mentorship naturally grows.
How It Works
When you register, you choose how much to share. Some information, or a little - the choice is yours. You can also share which sangha or sanghas you practice with, whether they meet in person or online, and whether they're currently open to new members, so that others seeking a mentorship path have somewhere to start.
Simply being counted here - even with no contact information listed - is itself a form of practice: a small act of showing up for the wider, global OI family.
Tea & Jacket Exchange
There's a quiet tradition among Plum Village monastics of passing a robe on to a sibling in need - a way of caring for one another that doesn't need much explanation among us.
We'd like to suggest something similar for the OI family. If you'll be at a Plum Village-led retreat or event where other OI siblings are gathering, consider starting a "tea and jacket check" - simply a good excuse to meet one another in person. It's just an easy way to find each other.
If you happen to have an extra brown jacket - new or well-loved - a "tea and jacket exchange" is a natural next step to consider for a gathering. Think of it as an opportunity for a hand-me-down, or just as easily a hand-me-up, from one OI sibling to another.
It's a small, practical suggestion, but it echoes the same spirit as the map itself - that we're here to take care of each other, jacket included.
An Invitation
Being an OI member or lay Dharma Teacher can, at times, be a quiet path. We carry a responsibility to the practice and to those we support, without always knowing who else nearby shares that same commitment.
Please know we'd be honored to have you join us on brownjackets.org. The next step, as a member of the Order of Interbeing or a lay Dharma Teacher in the Plum Village tradition, is simply to register.