User:Cloudcottage

Judith and Philip Toy are the founders of Cloud Cottage Community of Mindful Living, a Buddhist sangha formed in the tradition of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh (see www.plumvillage.org or www.cloudcottage.org) whose home monastery is in France. Founded in 1999, Cloud Cottage is a group of mindfulness practitioners who meet regularly to practice seated meditation, walking meditation, sutra study, discussion, singing, chanting and to organize a regular schedule of retreats, evenings and retreats with visiting teachers, plays, silent auctions, healing fairs and other community-outreach events. Judith Toy was ordained by Thich Nhat Hanh as a lay monastic, and is considered a senior Order of Interbeing member. Other members of Cloud Cottage who have been ordained by Thich Nhat Hanh include Philip Toy, Ken Lenington, Susan Hales, Norma Bradley and Laurie Serfas, who rotate leadership duties at Sangha meetings.

The Toys have founded three sanghas, or communities of practice, in the United States, and have been leading mindfulness practice since 1993. They have led retreats in many US States, Ireland and Scotland, as well as teaching annually at Southern Dharma Retreat Center near their home in Black Mountain, North Carolina. Both are poets, writers, and editors, who own Cloud Cottage Editions, a small publishing firm.