The Deer Park Dharmacast

Dear friends, 

This week, we continue with talks given by Thich Nhat Hanh at Deer Park Monastery in October.  In this talk, Thay delves deeply into conciousness, both individual and collective.  As individuals, we can selectively water our positive seeds and take good care of our negative seeds. Thay invites us to also be selective in our relationships and the community that we live in, as they contribute to the collective conciousness that we consume every day. With this care, we can create a foundation where transformation of our suffering is possible.

Please take a moment this week to visit deerparknunnery.org and donate to the building of a place where the Deer Park sisters can live. The volunteers at the Deer Park Dharmacast thank you.

Remember, you can always find the Deer Park Dharmacast at dpcast.net, Facebook, iTunes and Twitter.  Now, enjoy this moment to stop and look deeply.

Dear friends,

This week, we return to talks by Thich Nhat Hanh, given this October at the Deer Park retreat.   Thay shares on many interconnected topics:  the workings of our conciousness, the transformative power of volition, the importance of sangha, and how our suffering and happiness are truly inseparable. May we all recognize our mud, and the lotuses that grow from our mud. 

We so appreciate you, our dear listeners. Thank you for your love and support over the course of this year. During the month of December, we invite you to donate to the Thich Nhat Hanh Foundation. They are urgently needing support to break ground to build a safe, warm nunnery for our sisters at Deer Park Monastery. For more information and to donate, visit deerparknunnery.org. 

Remember, you can always find the Deer Park Dharmacast at dpcast.net, Facebook, Twitter, and iTunes. Now, enjoy this moment to stop and look deeply. 

Dear friends,

This week, we take a break from Thich Nhat Hanh's talks to bring you another great teacher, the Venerable of Deer Park Monastery, Thich Phuoc Tinh.  Here in California, it's fall and the Venerable begins by sharing a folk song in Vietnamese and French about autumn leaves falling.  He shares that we can choose the way that we are in touch with the things inside of us and around us.  The emotions and mental formations that arise in our heads are like the seasons of the year, rising and falling.   As practitioners, we can become observers, whether of the changing leaves of fall or changing feelings in our hearts, rather than being defined or overwhelmed by them.  We are not these emotions, we are the energy of mindfulness that peacefully watches them float by on the stream of our lives.

We're grateful to have Sister Mat Nghiem translate the Venerable's talk into English for us.  Our monastic brothers and sisters do so much at Deer Park Monastery to create a peaceful refuge for us where we can share from our heart and listen deeply to their teachings.  Right now, the Thich Nhat Hanh Foundation is urgently raising funds to build new living quarters for the nuns.  Currently, the sisters' living quarters are not winterized and unsafe to the point that some sisters are living outside in tents.  The foundation has raised only $400,000 of the $1.7 million needed to build environmentally-sensitive straw-bale buildings for the nuns and a new hut for Thay. Over 40% of the estimated cost is for basic infrastructure needed even before building the nunnery.  

If you are able to donate this holiday season, please go to deerparknunnery.org.  Even the smallest amount will help them to have enough funds to break ground this winter.  The Dharmacast team is made completely of volunteers and in place of asking for donations for the podcast, this holiday season please consider donating so that the Deer Park sisters have a warm and safe place to lay their heads.  For more information and to help, go to deerparknunnery.org.

The Dharmacast team wishes you and your family a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend and holiday season.  We are always here for you at dpcast.net, on Facebook, iTunes and Twitter.  Now, enjoy this moment to stop and look deeply.

Dear friends,

This week, we continue to share Thay's teachings from the recent Deer Park retreat. He speaks to a number of important questions that apply to our daily lives: How do we come back to ourselves?  How does that effect others around us? And how do we reconcile difficult relationships through compassion and deep listening?  With mindfulness, what was previously impossible can become possible. 

Remember, you can always find the Deer Park Dharmacast at dpcast.net, on Facebook, iTunes, and Twitter. Now, enjoy this moment to stop and look deeply. 

Dear friends,

This week, we continue to share the talks given by Thich Nhat Hanh at Deer Park Monastery in October.  Thay reviews the second and third of the Four Nutriments taught by the Buddha, Sense Impressions and Volition.  Volition has always surprised me on the list of nutriments. How is volition something we consume? Thay explains it very well.  

He shares that we often use mindless consumption and production as a way of running away from ourselves.  When will we start to come back to ourselves?  The time is now.  It is always: now.

A big thanks this week to our newest audio editor, David Nelson!  Enjoy his skillful work on this podcast!

Remember, you can always find the Deer Park Monastery at dpcast.net, on Facebook, iTunes and Twitter.  Now, enjoy this moment to stop and look deeply.

Dear friends,

This week, we continue with Thay's dharma talk on the Four Nutriments taught by the Buddha.  Our teacher shares about the third nutriment: volition, or our deepest desire for what we want to accomplish in our lives.  It is a kind of nutriment that gives us energy to take action in our lives.  He applies this teaching to our modern world of business and corporations.  Whether we are a corporate leader or a busy employee, we need to examine the volition that directs our lives and ensure that it creates true happiness for ourselves, our families and our society.

Remember, you can always find the Deer Park Dharmacast at dpcast.net, on Facebook, Twitter and iTunes.  Now, enjoy this moment to stop and look deeply.