Who We Are
SnowFlower Sangha is a community of people from many backgrounds dedicated to practicing mindfulness and meditation in the tradition of our beloved teacher and Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh and in the spirit of Plum Village which he founded. SnowFlower was established in 1991 and has grown to encompass six weekly meditation gatherings, on Zoom, in person and in hybrid sessions.
The Sangha
In SnowFlower, we come from many faiths, many cultures, many professions, spanning ages, gender identities, sexual orientations, and levels of education. Long-term practitioners practice mindfulness meditation alongside beginners. The only requirements to participating in SnowFlower gatherings are a willingness to be curious, to learn, to step away from daily life for a few moments, or, as Thich Nhat Hanh writes, “to stop our thinking and talking, and go back to ourselves, with a smile and breathing.”
Read How SnowFlower Got It's Name
Read The Creation of SnowFlower
The Tradition
The sangha, or a community practicing together, is one of core principles of and activities in Buddhism. Thich Nhat Hanh (he is often called Thây, or teacher in Vietnamese) has said everyone needs a sangha to practice together in peace and joy, to help each other through difficult moments, and to be nourished and supported in the practice of meditation. “A Sangha is also a community of resistance,” he wrote in “Touching Peace,” “resisting the speed, violence and unwholesome ways of living that are prevalent in our society.”
While we follow the Mahayana Buddhist tradition, those of all faiths are welcome and many continue to follow other spiritual paths.
Dharma Teachers
Jack Lawlor, True Direction, has been practicing Zen meditation in organized groups since 1975. In 1992, Jack received authorization to teach from Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh in a Transmission of the Lamp ceremony in the Plum Village monastery in France. Jack is a co-founder of Lakeside Buddha Sangha in Evanston and has led many retreats and Days of Mindfulness in the Midwest and in Rocky Mountain states. He has also served as President of the Buddhist Council of the Midwest, as the initial president of the Plum Village North American Dharma Teachers Sangha, and as a member of the national Dharma Teacher’s Sangha’s Council of Elders and Past Presidents’ Advisory Committee. Jack has also served on the national board of directors of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. He has been married over 50 years and has two adult children and four high-school aged grandchildren.
Greg Grallo, True Abiding in Peace, discovered the Plum Village tradition in graduate school for Environmental Studies in a course called "Buddhism and Ecology" at the University of Montana in Missoula, MT. He ordained into the Order of Interbeing in 2005 and received the Lamp Transmission in Plum Village in 2018 with his wife and two children as his attendants. Greg completed the Upaya Zen Center Chaplaincy program and serves as a hospital chaplain in addition to serving Open Way Sangha (Missoula), Snowflower Sangha (Madison), and Mountain Lamp Sangha (Puget Sound, WA).