The Deer Park Dharmacast

Dear Friends Thích Phước Tịnh, known to the Sangha as the Venerable, here offers a wonderful and direct talk on living deeply as a human being, going inward to find deep meaning in your life, and so transcending happiness and suffering, fortune and misfortune. This dharma talk was offered for Tet, the Vietnamese lunar new year, and leads us toward renewal in our life and in our practice.  We offer a deep bow of gratitude to Sister Dang Nghiem for offering a wonderful translation of this talk.  We are delighted to announce that for the first time the Venerable’s dharma talks are available in a book. Be Like a Tree, Zen Talks by Thích Phước Tịnh is a collection of the Venerable’s uniquely practical and inspiring talks, helping us in our practice with non-fear, recognizing our thoughts and feelings, creating space in our lives, loving and being loved, cultivating our spirituality, and tasting the enjoyment of our own lives. The talks were compiled by Order if Interbeing member Karen Hilsberg, and the book is ava

Dear Friends, Deer Park has been alive with energy these past weeks with the monks, nuns, and visitors joyfully celebrating Tet, the lunar New Year. Celebrations included thrilling dragon dances, and the making of hundreds of traditional earth-cakes. This dharma talk was given by Thay Phap Hai just before Tet at a Day of Mindfulness.  It was offered as the monthly talk for Order of Interbeing Members and Aspirants but all of us can also find great benefits for our practice.  It is on the topic of Appropriateness: appropriateness in a practitioner’s actions, and in the Bodhisattva vow. Remember that the public is encouraged to attend these regular Days of Mindfulness at Deer Park Monastery in Escondido California, Blue Cliff Monastery in New York, and at Plum Village in the south of France. There is information at the end of the podcast on how you can attend.

Happy New Year! Today’s podcast was the result of a wonderful experiment at Deer Park.  Zen Teacher Thay Phap Hai and two Order of Interbeing members, Karen Hilsberg and Kenley Neufeld, shared a dharma talk on self-renewal.  These wonderful teachers offer insights into how we can begin anew with ourselves and practice right away by watering our own flower.  We can also reflect on our relationships and our lives and find new places to be open to experience and to life.  With these insights we can set our intentions for the new year.   We hope you enjoy your flowering watering and have a joyous and happy new year.  

Dear Friends The annual Winter Retreat opened very joyfully at Deer Park on November 15.  From requests in past year's Winter Retreats for more structured study during these three months, the community has planned a number of courses for monastic and lay practitioners this winter.   The Deer Park Podcast will offer the once a month special teachings on the 14 Mindfulness Trainings by senior Dharma teachers in Deer Park. The talks are planned to form one coherent in-depth look into the nature of the trainings of the Order of Interbeing. In this way, as a Sangha, we may enrich our practice and more directly see ways to engage with the practice in ourselves, in our families, and in society.  This podcast is a wonderful offering from Thay Phap Dung on Openness.

Hello everyone Dharma teachers Thay Phap Ho and Sister Dang Nghiem offer a recitation of the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings of the Order of Interbeing.  Thich Nhat Hanh says in this book, Interbeing, “If we practice these trainings deeply enough, we will recognize that each training contains every other training. Studying and practicing them can help us understand the true nature of interbeing-we cannot just be by ourselves alone; we can only inter-be with everyone and everything else. To practice these mindfulness trainings is to become aware of what is going on in our bodies, our minds, and the world. With awareness, we can live our lives happily, fully present in each moment we are alive, intelligently seeking solutions to the problems we face, and working for peace in small and large ways. I hope you will join me in practicing these mindfulness trainings or the equivalent from your own tradition. It is crucial for our own well-being and the well-being of the world.”  You may like to recite these once a mo

Dear Young Friends On September 19, 2008, the Wake Up movement for young Buddhists and non-Buddhists for a healthy and compassionate society was announced.  Wake Up is a community of young Dharma practitioners who want to help their society which is overloaded with intolerance, discrimination, craving, anger and despair.  They practice the Five Mindfulness Trainings, ethical guidelines offered by the Buddha; the most concrete practice of true love and compassion, clearly showing the way towards a life in harmony with each other and with the Earth. If you are a young practitioner we encourage you to learn about the Wake Up movement in your country.  You can learn more at http://wkup.org.  Today’s podcast is dedicated to young people and is taken from our 2008 Teen Retreat- Be True, Be Beautiful.  Let us know if you would like to hear more podcasts for youth.  

Dear Friends. Today we are happy to share a new kind of offering with you.  We are initiating a series of podcasts called the “Elements of Practice”.   We are so fortunate to have our first offering in this series from Thay Phap Hai, one of our wonderful and experienced dharma teachers here at Deer Park Monastery.  In Sitting Meditation, Part 1, he shares the basics of how to sit, why we sit, and other elements of this practice.  We learn how to be 'noble' and that every place you sit can be a place of awakening.  You may also enjoy practicing with the guided meditation included in the talk.  One of the goals of our podcast is to support individual and sangha practice wherever it is occurring.  We hope this offering will help strengthen your practice.  Please also visit our new website at www.deerparkmonastery.org and learn more about our tradition and practice.   Please enjoy your sitting.   May you and all beings be well.

Greetings Friends Here is an excerpt from one of Thay’s talks focusing on some lessons for beginning practitioners.  For example, the practice of leaving behind can bring great happiness.  He also discusses skillful ways to relate to your suffering and shares that whether we suffer a little or a lot, is entirely up to us.   We hope you enjoy this wonderful talk. Please enjoy your peaceful breath.  

Dear Friends This month we offer a wonderful sharing from Dharma teacher Larry Ward at the UN Vesak conference in Vietnam.  “The question is not what may I do to be saved, but rather, what must we do to be saved.  And by ‘we’ I mean the whole planet”.  It is a wonderful talk and we hope you enjoy it.  To Larry’s many gifts already offered to the world a new one is added— Love’s Garden by Peggy Rowe Ward and Larry Ward explores the spiritual dimension of relationship. Larry and Peggy share stories from their own life and offer clear and useful exercises to illustrate how Buddhist principles can help couples navigate difficulties and misunderstandings and deepen their commitment to each other and to their spiritual practice. Love’s Garden is a perfect guide to help cultivate love in all of our relationships. You can learn more about it and order it www.parallaxpress.org/lovesgarden. Please enjoy these offerings and your mindful step- full of life and healing.  

Dear Friends The practice of Beginning Anew is the deep teaching offered by Dharma teachers Sr. Dang Nghiem and Br. Phap An.  It is a wonderful practice that can help heal relationships and improve communication and understanding—the foundations for love. This excerpt from the Stonehill College Retreat in 2007, also offers teaching on the power of our minds and how asking the simple question, “Am I sure?”, can relieve much suffering.  Please enjoy your breath and the beautiful spring days as the dharma rain of Beginning Anew begins to fall.

Dear Friends We hope you are enjoying the beautiful spring.  Here is Part 2 of the 2007 Question and Answer from our College Retreat at Deer Park Monastery.  Dharma teachers offer their insights on many subjects including the impacts of society on our consciousness and how to stay calm and happy.  Br. Phap Ho moderates. Our next college retreat offers students the opportunity to have a different kind of ‘spring break’ by learning the nourishing practices of mindfulness, meditation, and deep relaxation.  EAT:  Mindful Consumption for the Body and Mind for college students of all ages will be held from April 18-20 at Deer Park Monastery.  You can find more information here.  http://www.deerparkmonastery.org/activities/Retreat%20Schedule/2008_Retreat_Schedule.html  Until then, please enjoy the spring flowers and your peaceful breath.  

Dear Friends, This month we offer the first of a two part Question and Answer session held during our most recent College Retreat.  Several monastic Dharma Teachers share their insights in response to questions from our college students.  Sr. Viet Nghiem shares why she was so happy to say goodbye to her camera. Br. Phap Luu discusses life before and after death.  Brother Phap Ho leads the question and answer session.      If you are able, attending a retreat is a very wonderful way to grow solidity and joy in your practice.  All three of our practice centers offer retreats.  If you are interested, please visit the web sites of Deer Park Monastery in Southern California, Blue Cliff Monastery in New York, or Plum Village in France to see when the retreats are offered.  At Deer Park, our next retreats for young people are our Mindful Consumption for the Body and Mind retreat for College students from April 18-20 and our Be True, Be Beautiful retreat for teens from June 18-22.    Please be well and enjoy your

This week we offer you a talk that Thay gave in Denver, Colorado on August 29th, 2007 during this summer's tour. It was entitled "Our Environment: Touching Our Gift of Life," and in it Thay looks deeply at our present situation as human beings on the planet Earth. Please consider filling out the Earth Peace Treaty Commitment Sheet, to help ourselves, our communities and our planet.

The two-and-a-half month trip to Vietnam this year has finished with success. Thay and the Sangha have continued on for ten days of retreats and days of mindfulness in Hong Kong, and we now are in Chiang Mai, Thailand for a five-day retreat. This week we offer you Thay's first talk in Hong Kong, at the University of Hong Kong on 10 May, 2007. Thay fields a number of questions from the audience, including: What can we do to help the situation of global warming? What is Thay's impression of people in Hong Kong? What is the relationship of light to the practice?  

This talk was offered by Thay to foreigners living in Hanoi on April 25, 2007. Included are questions and answers from the audience, and a reading of the letter that Thay offered to the people of Vietnam as part of the three reconciliation ceremonies in Ho Chi Minh City, Hue and Soc Son, north of Hanoi.The delegation traveling with Thay has just left Hanoi for 10 days of talks and a retreat in Hong Kong.

This week we offer a talk for intellectuals and others given at the Sandy Beach Hotel in Da Nang. The quality of the recording is not great due to background noise, but it is intelligible, and the talk is worth the trouble. A number of questions are answered by Thay towards the end. The talk is translated by Sister Dang Nghiem.  

This week we offer a talk from the first day of the Three Day Reconciliation Ceremony in Hue at Dieu De Temple. The ceremony was the second one on this trip, after the one in Vinh Nghiem Temple, TP Ho Chi Minh. Loved ones of people of all nationalities remembered those who died in wars and in boats during the past century in Vietnam by writing their names on hundreds of sheets. These sheets were carried on trays during the ceremony. The ceremonies have given many people here a chance to be released from the suffering caused by the violent death of loved ones. The talk is translated by Sister Gioi Nghiem.

This week Sister Dang Nghiem follows Thay on a tour of the Tu Hieu Temple, where he trained as a novice. The tour begins across the road from the temple, at the Bodhi Stupa in a pine forest, and continues down to the old showering well before heading up to the Buddha Hall. The audio has only been partially edited, so please enjoy your breathing during the walking sections. Today is the last day of the three-day reconciliation ceremonies in Hue at Dieu De Temple. Tomorrow morning the Sangha travels to Da Nang for a nine day visit.

This week we offer an interview with the Venerable Thay Duc Nghi, the founder and abbot of Prajna Temple in Bao Loc, Lam Dong Province, Vietnam. Thay Duc Nghi offered Prajna Temple as a place where young monks and nuns could practice according to the Plum Village tradition during Thay's last trip to Vietnam. Now Prajna has grown to over 300 monks and nuns in residence in just two years, thanks to the support of Thay Duc Nghi and numerous Dharma Teachers from Plum Village. In the interview the Venerable shares about his experience as a monk and, in particular, his experience of renewal in contact with the Plum Village practice. Brother Phap Khoi translates, and Brother Stream and Sister Jewel pose questions.

Greetings from Bat Nha (Prajna) Temple near Bao Loc in Lam Dong Province, Vietnam. Thay and the Sangha arrived here over a week ago and, after a three day trip to Da Lat where Thay lived and taught as a young Dharma Teacher, offered a retreat for lay pracitioners which is finishing today. We will now have a retreat for monastics, followed by the Precepts and Lamp Transmission Ceremonies. This talk is from the lay retreat and is the third talk Thay gave during the retreat. Questions include: How can we continue the practice after Thay and the Sangha leave? What can we do about capital punishment? Can we ordain as monastics, and how do we convince our parents to let us ordain?