The Deer Park Dharmacast

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?

Now we are two weeks into Thay's second trip back to Vietnam. The delegation has left TP Ho Chi Minh for Prajna Temple in Bao Loc, about five hours northeast of the city. After a three day visit to Da Lat we are back at Prajna for the Lay Practitioners' Retreat. This Dharma talk is Thay's second talk in TP Ho Chi Minh on Feb. 23, at Vinh Nghiem temple, to an audience of a few thousand. Included are questions about maintaining mindfulness in daily life, about the film based on Old Path White Clouds, and information on the reconciliation ceremonies for those killed in the wars of the past century in Vietnam.

This week we offer the first of Thay's talks in this year's trip to Vietnam. This talk was given at the Phap Van Temple in TP Ho Chi Minh on Feb. 22, 2007 to an audience of lay and monastic practitioners. The translation into English was done by Sister Dang Nghiem.We will do our best to keep talks and other material from this three-month trip available, but please understand if there are lapses. These are due to a lack of internet connection. We leave tomorrow for Prajna Temple in Bao Loc.

This week Thay offers a teaching on how to maintain beginner's mind even when we are years into the practice. Also, how do the precepts support our practice?On Feb 18 we plan to leave for a three month trip in Vietnam, Hong Kong and Thailand. We will do our best to maintain the podcast during this time, but there may be gaps when we do not have regular internet access. Please understand, and stay tuned.

Welcome to this month's question and answer session on the Deer Park Dharmacast. Sister Dang Nghiem (photo) and Sister Hanh Nghiem answer questions that have been sent in over the past few weeks. How do we practice with jealousy? What distinguishes Thay's tradition from Zen and Vipassana?Brother Phap Luu hosts.

This week we invite you to listen to an evening of sharing which took place during the second night of the Order of Interbeing Retreat this past week at Deer Park Monastery. Monastics and lay friends share about the current situation of energy consumption in relation to our practice and global warming. Also included is a new chant for the Gatha for Inviting the Bell offered by Sisters Mai Nghiem and Thai Nghiem, which you may download separately here.

This week's offering is the talk given by our teacher in Plum Village on New Year's Eve. Thay encourages us to make a deep aspiration for the New Year, and to put it into practice.Please write to us and tell us your aspiration to practice here in the comments on www.dpcast.org, or at our e-mail dpcast@gmail.com.Happy New Year!

This holiday week we offer you the audio from one of the Dharma Teacher Lamp Transmissions during the recent Beauty and Well-Being Great Ordination Ceremony in Plum Village, France. Four lay dharma teachers from Italy were chosen to receive the lamp this year, including Diana Petech (right), the teacher on this week's dharmacast.Enjoy.

This week we offer a chant recorded by Sister The Nghiem of Green Mountain Dharma Center: Discourse on Love. This chant is a common one in the Pali tradition of Theravadan Buddhists. The English translation was done by our teacher Thich Nhat Hanh with the help of Plum Village monks and nuns. The text and music can be found here in PDF format.This chant and other songs by Plum Village Monks and Nuns are on the Oasis CD.Enjoy your breathing.

Dear Friends, This week we offer the recitation of the Five Mindfulness Trainings that was offered by Thay Phap Lai this past Sunday. Please use this in your own practice of these trainings week to week. Smile.

Dear Friends,This week we share a dharma talk that our teacher Thay gave in Plum Village on October 29, 2006, shortly before the recent U.S. elections.  It offers a deep view into both the nature of our current world situation and the nature of this path of practice.Thay Phap Tri hosts.

Dear Friends,This week we have our monthly question and answer session with two monks recently arrived from Plum Village, Thay Phap Lai and Thay Phap Thanh (right.) Sister Susan also joins us to answer a number of questions sent to us via e-mail in the past few weeks. Brother Stream moderates.Enjoy.

Dear Friends,This week we offer the orientation given on the first night of the recent Retreat for College Students at Deer Park. Sister Thuan Nghiem (Harmony, right) and Brother Phap Luu (Stream) cover the basic practices of mindful breathing, sitting and walking, in addition to sharing from their own experiences in college. This talk is a good introduction to the fundamental practices of the Plum Village tradition.Please enjoy this offering, and thank you for your comments and feedback.

Dear Friends,This week we publish one of the talks from our recent college retreat. Our abbot Thay Phap Dung speaks about his own path of practice, and what it means to bring meditation into our lives. Brother Phap Huu hosts.May you be well.