Food for thought at Buddhist retreat

More than 700 followers of Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh, 85, have taken over a convention centre and most of a hotel in Killarney this weekend for a private retreat of mindfulness and meditation.

The Mindfulness Ireland “Living Mindfully Today” event is taking place at the national event and conference centre attached to the Gleneagle Hotel, where the INTO teachers’ conference has just finished.

The centre hosted the Fianna Fáil ard fheis in 2005, but unlike Fianna Fáil’s mantra of the time, “A lot done, more to do”, the venerable Thich Nhat Hanh stresses the joys of the present moment.