The Deer Park Dharmacast

Dear Thay, Dear Sangha, Dear Virtual Community Today, we close our Three Month Winter Retreat and our Moment by moment class.  The Third Noble Truth--the end of suffering is discussed by our teachers.  We are encouraged to look into our suffering and to be aware of what is real and how much we create in our own mind.  What is our real experience and what is suffering because that is what we label it?  We are reminded that the path is not a straight line and our view of our suffering can change depending where we are on the path. We are reminded that we are not just one thing, we are many things.  We can look deeply to see where we have a skillful relationship with our suffering and where we have a not-yet-skillful relationship. As our monastics recite, 'when a monk goes into the world, he looks straight ahead and walks mindfullly'.  May we all cultivate the ability to stay compassionately on the path--walking with mindfulness and concentration.  In this way, we offer our beauty, presence, and practice each ot

Last week, we learned about the first turning of the wheel-the recognition of our suffering and our situation.  With the second turning of the wheel, Thich Chan Phap Hai encourages us to explores the causes of our suffering.  We learn more deeply about the three poisons-- Greed (or 'ever-seeking' or 'always wanting'), Hatred (or ill-will or 'closed-down heart') and ignorance or delusion (not ignorance as in lack of learning but in the inability to see things as they really are).  These are the three roots of suffering that the 4 noble truths offered by the Buddha will transform leading to liberation. The weekly practices focus on 'bare recognition' or 'bare experience' and handout includes many important readings. Tonight's talk is a beautiful offering of the dharma that is practical for us to use.  It offers guideposts that help us on the journey in the Dharma that each of us must experience for ourselves.  We hope you will find it immediately useful and effective.

Dear Virtual Family: For the past 8 weeks, we have studied the Noble 8-fold path, the 4th of the 4 Noble truths.  In a kind of Zen order, we have studied the last, first.  Tonight, we look into the first of the Four Noble Truths- The Existence of Suffering/Stress.  Thich Chan Phap Ho (Protection of the Dharma) guides us to look deeply into the fact that we have suffering, what it is, and how to handle it.  We can bring our awarness to the reality of our suffering and bring our courageous Buddha nature in us to face it and not run away any more. If we can cultivate the courage and stability in ourselves necessary to turn toward our suffering, we are closer to the peace and freedom offered by our practice.  We aren't afraid and we don't need to run away any more.  We can look at the base situation and see what is the real suffering and what is our mind adding to the situation.  Our teacher discusses the three poisons and the things that our suffering is often attached to.  Remembering the original fear and the

Today's talk is a talk and a practice.  A chance to come back and touch the moment.  A chance to cultivate the evenness and concentration of our mind and to connect our body and our mind.  We learn new ways to enjoy being ourselves and nourish ourselves with right concentration.   Concentration also means 'to dwell with'.   We learn how to keep the weather within the same, no matter what the weather outside is. Please enjoy this wonderful practice.

Tonight we learn about another step on the Noble Eight Fold Path- Right Livelihood. The way we make a living has an impact on our world and society, but also on us.  As we make a living, we are also making ourselves.  Tonight's class discusses the many ways the practice can nourish our work life and allows up to help ourselves, our co-workers and the people we serve all at once. Phap Ho is joined by two panelists from the Order of Interbeing who share about their path of practice and livelihood.  We are also reminded that whereever we work, we can aspire to bring kindness to our workplace.  As we celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. today, may we all reflect on the work we are doing and how if is serving the Beloved Community and a more compassionate society.  The study materials can be found here  http://deerparkmonastery.org/teachings/moment-by-moment/course-material-week-7/view  

Dear Friends Tonight we are offered a very inspiring and empowering teaching on Right Effort.  Right Effort is the first in the Concentration Triad of steps on the 8-fold path, the place where we are able and ready to collect our mind.  At this point in our training, our mind begins to calm down.  Right effort in Buddhist teaching is not hard labor.  It is appropriate attention or appropriate effort.  We will learn how to examine what we are being fed by others and what we are feeding ourselves.   We are offered a clear, basic definition of mindfulness and you will share in the creation of helpful new acronyms-- THNYA and THAA.  There is also a pop-quiz on the Prajana Dyad so be mindful!  Best of all, you will be given the best homework in the world history of teaching-- the requirement to be lazy. The handout is here http://deerparkmonastery.org/teachings/moment-by-moment/course-material-week-6/view  Enjoy 

Welcome Back and Happy New Year to our virtual Dharma classmates! We hope you enjoyed your holiday and were offered many beautiful opportunities to cultivate, enjoy, and share your practice. Tonight's class is on Right Action.  Sr. Bich Nghiem shares that the practice of Right Action can help us be happier.  Right action means right action of the body, the practice of being in touch with love and preventing harm,  non-violence, and doing everything in mindfulness. She shares that our actions need to be good for ourselves and for others to be right action.  If it is good for others and not good for ourselves or good for ourselves and not good for others, then it is not right action yet.  We review the 1,2,3, and 5th mindfulness trainings.  You will also learn how to share the  dharma with snakes and our other animal friends. Enjoy your practice and see you next week.

Dear Friends Just in time for the holidays we have an opportunity to look deeply at Right Speech. The materials prepared for this talk are very useful and insightful. You can find them here: http://deerparkmonastery.org/teachings/moment-by-moment/course-material-week-4/view  Thich Phap Ho shares about ways to make our speech loving, kind, and using speech that grows our community in a harmonious direction.  Sister Quynh Nghiem shares about the important practice of Noble Silence.  We are sorry it took extra time to post this weeks class, we had a bit of technical difficulty but due to the great commitment of our dedicated dharma teacher Phap Ho, he has ensured that this class could manifest and we are very grateful. Please enjoy this deep and timely class.

Today we offer a very useful and moving dharma talk given here at Deer Park Monastery by Brother Phap Dang, in which he speaks about depression and dark states of the mind, and the mind’s obsessions that can lead to these dark places.  We know it will bring benefits to many people.  

Dear Friends:  Tonights podcast includes three amazing gifts-- 00-8:00 a sitting meditation (there is a little additional resonance that makes the bells very long around minute 7:00) 8:00    Intro to the class 13:00   A beautiful song offering, Can't Stop Love,  by Washuntara (www.washuntara.com) 18:00   The teaching by Thich Phap Hai on Right Thinking/ Right Intention.   Enjoy this amazing offering.

Dear Dharmacast Family: We hope you are having a wonderful winter (or summer depending on where you are) and are enjoying the fruits of your practice. We continue with the Moment to Moment exploration with today's class on Right View.  The handout can be found at http://deerparkmonastery.org/teachings/moment-by-moment/course-material-week-2/view and it is highly encouraged that you download and review this.  It provides much wonderful information and insightful suggested practice ideas and reflection questions that can be put to very beneficial use by an individual or a sangha.  We learn from Sr. Bich Nghiem how to bring the joy of practice into our daily life.  She also offers a reminder that, at their base, all views are wrong views (having only one point of viewing) but that, through practice, the quality of our views can always be improved.   

Moment by Moment: A  90-day journey in the landscape of Buddhist Teachings & Practices This winter a group of Monastic Dharma Teachers here at Deer Park will offer a course based in the Buddhas Teaching on the Four Noble Truths and Noble Eightfold Path. Nov 27, 2011  This winter's course - Moment by Moment: will be an opportunity to enjoy walking meditation through some of the vistas of central Buddhist teachings and practices.  If we look deeply at the Buddhist Dharma, we see concentric circles- at the very heart of the circles lies the Four Noble Truths. All of the foundational teachings and practices spring from this source. Out of the Four Noble Truths emerge the Noble Eightfold Path, the Buddha's guidance for realizing transformation in body, speech and mind at a fundamental level. From the various steps of the Noble Eightfold Path spring a multitude of sutras, practices and commentaries. During this course, we will enjoy sharings on each of the Truths and the steps of the path; we will be offered co

This very special Dharma Talk by Thay is offered by the wonderful Plum Village Monastery Online.  We encourage you to visit http://pvom.org/ for more of these wonderful teachings. Here is an excerpt from the website. "This is the final Dharma talk offered by Thay in the Together We Are One Retreat at Deer Park Monastery on the North American Tour, on September 11th, 2011. Thay shares compassion, love, and great understanding: Understanding of suffering allows compassion to arise, and the energy of compassion can be very healing. You feel much better after having understood your own suffering.  And your own suffering reflects somehow the suffering of the world. That is why once you have understood your own suffering, it is much easier and easier to understand his suffering, her suffering.  And when you are able to see the suffering in him and in her you're no longer angry.  He goes on to share about right view and how it can free us from notions of being and non-being. He finishes the talk discussing what is r

Dear Community Every year in summer,  Deer Park Monastery hosts a 5-day Teen Camp. The teens camp out, sleeping in tents, gathering around a camp fire in the morning, play and practice.  This year was a wonderful experience for over 50 teens.  Here is a wonderful Dharma talk from the Teen Retreat. Enjoy you peaceful breath, Enjoy your peaceful step

Dear Friends Today's talk is from the annual Meditation and Education Retreat at Deer Park Monastery.  Dharma teacher Sister Huong Nghiem shares insights about the practice and offers beautiful teachings for the group of students and educators gathered at the retreat. She urges us to look for and find the teacher in ourselves and to find ways to be in the drivers seat of our own lives.  We meditate to see what should be done and doesn't need to be done.  She asks us to look to see if we want to react to life or respond to life.  If we practice, we can see what we want from our lives. We hope you enjoy this beautiful talk.

Dear Friends, We are happy today to bring you a wonderful dharma talk on the Discourse on Loving-Kindness by Thay Phap Hai.  In this talk, Thay Phap Hai guides us in a deep introduction not only on the text, but also how to use it in our daily lives.  He urges us, in this and in all the teachings, to always ask ‘how does this apply to my situation?’  He also touches on the Four Divine Abidings and how to practice the ‘radiations’ or metta meditations.  We are urged to look deeply into, What is it that separates us?  What is it that brings us together?  There is a handout that you may wish to print out as you study this talk.  The Pali Language version, an English Translation, as well as the version in our Chanting Book (Chanting from the Heart) Can be found here: http://www.deerparkmonastery.org/teachings/discourse-on-loving-kindness/view May you benefit from and enjoy this talk and may your face be radiant like a ripe fruit just plucked from the tree.

Dear friends, The Deer Park Podcast team hopes you enjoyed the Course on the 14 Verses of Meditation. Now, we are happy to resume our schedule of offering talks from Days of Mindfulness at Deer Park. Thich Phuoc Tinh, known to the Sangha as the Venerable, here offers a forthright guide to everyday practice. The Venerable shows us how a steady mindfulness practice can whither away our sorrow and anger, and allow us to understand that all our reactions and emotions come from within us. This dharma talk was offered for 2011’s New Year, during the Holiday Retreat, and reminds us to be sure that our practice isn’t only for when were on retreat. Please enjoy these offerings, and may they guide us through a wonderful 2011.

Dear Friends After 14 weeks, we have come to our last verse.  We hope you have enjoyed this course.  We hope you will offer your thoughts and comments, especially how this course has helped deepen your practice.   Verse 14 Supported by the Sangha Body my practice flows easier, allowing me to swiftly realize my great determination to love and understand all beings. Alternate Translation: With the support of the Sangha one can practice successfully with ease and accomplish quickly the Great Aspiration to help all beings. Reflection Questions: What do I rely on and take refuge in? Who is my Sangha? What supports me in the practice of awareness? What is my deep aspiration in life? Practices: Attend a local Sangha or start one! Readings The Three Refuges The Four Recollections Discourse on Taking Refuge in Oneself

Verse 13   Not Discriminating Between the practice offered by the Tathagata and that of the ancestral teachers, the Four Noble Truths perfectly interwoven should serve as the foundation of an authentic transmission.   Thay Phap Hai offers a deep class today reminding us that the universe has a way of teaching us the lesson we are ready to learn.  We alsways want to ask, "How does this teaching help me to transform?"  If it doesn't it is not the right teaching at this time.  The dharma should be immediately useful and effective. The reflections for this week are: What is my experience of giving and receiving? Is it easier for me to give or to receive? Why do I think this is? Enjoy this wonderful class.

Dear Friends Sorry for the long delay in posting this class.  Our podcast limits were exceeded but we should be able to post more now. Enjoy bathing in the stream! Verse 12 The Mahayana sutras and teachings open many fresh, wide gateways allowing me to enter the depths of the stream of meditation flowing from the Original Source of the Buddha's teachings.