The Deer Park Dharmacast

Dear Friends,

Welcome to the Deer Park Dharmacast - Dharma flowing from the Ocean of Peace. Today, we bring you Thich Nhat Hanh's new translation of the Heart Sutra as chanted by monastics at Deer Park Monastery. To read about the Heart Sutra and Thich Nhat Hanh's reasons for the new translation, head to the article at plumvillage.org.  May this new translation bring us closer to clear understanding and may everything be illuminated.

Now,  enjoy this moment to stop and look deeply.

Dear friends,

Welcome to the Deer Park Dharmacast -- Dharma flowing from the Ocean of Peace.

Before the talks of the Miracle of Mindfulness Tour, the monastics offered chanting in both English and Vietnamese. Today, we offer those to you. May they fill your heart with joy and peace.

Now, enjoy this moment to stop and look deeply.

Dear Friends,

 

Dear friends, 

This week we continue with Sister Dang Nghiem's sharing on the first four exercises in the Buddha's teaching on mindful breathing. Dwelling in the body grounds us. With our breath, solid concentration and kind relaxation, we can begin to walk towards freedom and begin deep healing.  

Dear friends, 

This week we share with you the first part of Sister Dang Nghiem's talk from the Miracle of Mindfulness retreat. For the children, our sister gives a teaching on patterns in nature and in our families. Then with the adults, she illuminates the ordinary nature of mindfulness in our everyday lives. The interbeing of all things comes to light as she prepares to discuss the Buddha's teaching on awareness of breath.

Now, enjoy this moment to stop and look deeply. 

 

Now, enjoy this moment to stop and look deeply. 

 

Today we continue a talk given by Sister Hang Nghiem. She offers The Four Diligences as a way to practice taking care of the seeds in garden of our mind. So often we are concerned with the seeds and gardens of others; our sister reminds us to take time to recognize and tend to our own seeds. 

Dear friends,

In addition to the podcasts, which are usually offered as 30 minute sections of talks, we wanted to offer full length talks as requested by some Dharmacast listeners.

This is the second talk in a series of talks on the Eight Verses of Mind Training by Brother Phap Hai. This is the full talk for those who would prefer to listen to talks in their entirety.

The second talk on the Eight Verses is available here. To stream, click the link.  To download, right-click and select 'Save as.'

Enjoy!

Dear friends,

In addition to the podcasts, which are usually offered as 30 minute sections of talks, we wanted to offer full length talks as requested by some Dharmacast listeners.

Brother Phap Hai is offering a series of talks on the Eight Verses of Mind Training and we felt it was a good place to start offering the full talks for those who would prefer to listen to talks in their entirety.

The first talk on the Eight Verses is available here. To stream, click the link.  To download, right-click and select 'Save as.'

Enjoy!

Today we share a talk by Brother Phap Hai, shortly after his return to Deer Park from Europe. Our brother reminds us of the the meaning of the word: gratitude. To feel gratitude is to know what has been done for us. May we look back and look inside to remember. 

Dear friends,

We're taking a break this week! Our staff is going sailing/opening a new theater show/etc. What are you doing? Let's all take a break together!

Every year on Lunar New Year's eve, Thay recites a poem and gives a dharma talk with insights into Vietnamese poetry, culture, and tradition. This year, as our teacher receives treatment in the hospital, Venerable Thich Phuoc Tinh continues the tradition. He recites a poem of Thay's and gives us a rare glimpse into the life of our teacher. 

Dear friends,

Today we continue to explore the Five Mindfulness Trainings with the second half of sharings by lay friends at Deer Park during the Holiday Retreat. Our friends share their experience with the two trainings on Loving Speech and Deep Listening, and Nourishment and Healing. May these sharings fill your heart and nourish your practice.

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. 

 

The Dharmacast is taking a day off!  Enjoy this archived talk from Fall 2014, where Sister Kinh Nghiem connects the Four Immeasurable Minds and the Four Mantras. http://deerpark.libsyn.com/the-four-immeasurable-minds

 

Dear friends,

Happy Friday to you! Another week for exploring our podcast archives.http://deerpark.libsyn.com/healing-in-our-relationships

We can learn so much from our lay teachers and fellow practitioners. In this Q&A session from a couples retreat last year, three lay teachers help us understand how to heal ourselves and our relationships. 

I've been going through some transitions (moving and new job) but our team will have a new podcast out to you next Friday. Stay tuned!

This week, we invite you to enjoy our archives of talks. One such lovely talk is one given by Thay last year at Deer Park. Our teacher shares on The Better Way to Live Alone. Enjoy!  http://deerpark.libsyn.com/arriving-and-being-alive

 

Dear friends,

Dear friends,

Dear friends,

We are happy to offer the full talks from the People of Color Retreat at Deer Park in 2014.  The orientation, dharma talk, and question and response session are available for download at the links below. 

POC Retreat 2014 Orientation

POC Retreat 2014 Dharma Talk

POC Retreat 2014 Question and Response

Enjoy.

 

 

Dear friends,

Dear friends,

 Dear friends,

The Dharmacast is taking a breather this week -- our coordinator, Cathy, is celebrating her continuation day!

Enjoy a talk from the archives; Br Phap Hai's Dharma in the Kitchen talk is one of Cathy's favorites!

Dear Friends,

When did you last listen to the children in your life?  Today we have a chance to listen to the children at Deer Park's New Years Retreat ask questions to the monastics.  Their questions about meditation practice, family life and school show us how perceptive and sensitive they are to the messages in the world around them.  We invite you to approach this podcast with an open heart, listening to hear the voices of the child in you and the children in your life.  May we embrace all our children to heal the generations before us and the generations to come.

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,

Today we're happy to share a talk from Brother Phap Nha, translated by Sister Quynh Nghiem.  Our brother has a clear and direct style of teaching that we hope you enjoy. 

In this talk, he speaks to the three difficulties we may encounter while sitting: sleepiness, restlessness, and dreaminess.  He also shares with us how best to read the sutras.  He recommends that we start with two basic sutras and, most importantly, that we apply the teachings to our practice and our lives.  

May your practice be ever-changing and ever-growing.  No mud, no lotus.

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 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.

Dear friends,

This week, we continue to share from the dharma talks given by Thich Nhat Hanh at Deer Park Monastery.  In this segment, our teacher shares the first eight exercises of mindful breathing taught by the Buddha.  These exercises are key to helping us us to learn the art of suffering, enabling us to suffer less and to transform our suffering.  Then, Thay shares the first two of the Four Nutriments taught by the Buddha: edible food and sense impression.  He encourages us to consume edible foods in a way that preserves our compassion and to consume media, conversations and other sense impressions carefully to protect ourselves and our families.

We’ve noticed the Dharmacast’s listenership has jumped quite a bit in recent weeks. If you’re a new listener, welcome. And if you’re enjoying the podcast, please let your friends know. They can always find the Deer Park Dharmacast at dpcast.net, on Facebook, Twitter and iTunes.  Now, enjoy this moment to stop and look deeply.

Dear friends,

This week, we continue to share Thay's first dharma talk at the recent Deer Park Monastery retreat.  Our teacher shares with us his practice, particularly how he walks and breathes, to connect each one of his steps to the here and now. He invites us to practice with him to touch the Pure Land and Kingdom of God with awareness of the miracles of life -- the beautiful flower, the connection of our bodies to Mother Earth, and the presence of our ancestors in and around us.

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.

Dear friends,

For the past week, the Ocean of Peace meditation hall at Deer Park Monastery was filled to the brim with over one thousand members of the sangha: monks, nuns, lay practitioners and our teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh, who we affectionately call Thay. Over the next several weeks, we will offer his talks divided into our usual thirty minute segments.  If you heard about the Dharmacast at the retreat and are just tuning in: welcome. We hope you enjoy this chance to hear the Dharma from Thay a second time.

In this first segment, Thay looks deeply into the Sutra on Knowing the Better Way to Live Alone.  He shows us that to live alone is to be free of the past and the future and to arrive in the present moment.  He continues on to share that by practicing mindful breathing and walking meditation, we can awaken to the miracle and joy of being alive.

Remember that 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.

For reference, the essence of the Sutra on Knowing the Better Way to Live Alone is below.  The complete text can be found here.

Do not pursue the past.
Do not lose yourself in the future.
The past no longer is.
The future has not yet come.

Looking deeply at life as it is
in the very here and now,
the practitioner dwells
in stability and freedom.

Dear friends,

This week, the Dharmacast team is on retreat with Thay at Deer Park Monastery.  We're looking forward to bringing the energy of peace and mindfulness back with us next week.

While we're gone, we wanted to offer you the second half of the dharma talk given by Sister Kingh Nghiem at this year's Wake Up retreat.  With Thay touring this year, many of us may have gone on a retreat or heard him speak at a public talk.  We're often deeply moved by experiences at mindfulness practice centers, but how do we take that energy home with us to sustain our practice?  Sister Kinh Nghiem offers us loving advice and many practical ideas for continuing and deepening our practice at home.

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.

Dear friends,

This week we have the first half of a dharma talk given by Sister Kinh Nghiem at this year's Wake Up Retreat.  She tells a light-hearted story about traveling with Thay and then shares the four mantras we can use in order to be truly present.  She encourages us to use these mantras with the people in our lives, the animals and plants around us and with the earth.

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.

Dear friends,

Welcome to the Deer Park Dharmacast.  This week we have two wonderful surprises for you.  

First, we're excited to present to you a fresh new logo. Our team is feeling a lot of gratitude to our wonderful Dharmacast sister, Joan Wong, all the way in Singapore, for her graphic design.  It represents all our Dharmacast listeners, hearing the Dharma and opening peacefully as a lotus.  If you look carefully, you'll see the beautiful shape of the meditation hall at Deer Park monastery, which Thay named the Ocean of Peace.  Since almost all our talks are recorded in this hall, we truly feel that the Deer Park Dharmacast is Dharma flowing from the Ocean of Peace.

Secondly, this week's podcast is a special feature from Brother Phap Ho's blog, Earth Protection Here and Now.  This week, he shares about edible foods, the first of the four nutriments.  He shines the light of awareness on his experience with food and shares how it affects his practice, his community, and our Earth.  Where are you in your journey and relationship to edible foods? 

For more insights, visit his blog at earthprotectionhereandnow.wordpress.com. 

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

Dear Friends,

The end of summer is officially here and seasons are beginning to change.  Let us bring our attention to the Earth, as Sister Mat Nghiem begins her sharing with the story of The Lorax.  She goes on to look deeply into our interconnectedness with Mother Earth, both as children and as adults.  When was the last time you were in touch with nature as your five year-old child? 

Remember you can find the Deer Park Dharmacast online at dpcast.net, on twitter, facebook, and iTunes. Enjoy this moment to stop and look deeply.

Dear Friends,

This week we're happy to share the closing talk of the recent Deer Park retreat for couples.  Three dharma teachers, Jerry Braza from Oregon, Tony Sylvester from Pennsylvania and Peggy Rowe from California, led couples in a weekend of developing mindfulness in their relationships.  They share their reflections on their experience at the retreat and reflect on the nurturing effect that the practice has had on their own relationships.

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

Dear Friends,

Today's sharing is from a Question and Response session earlier this summer at Deer Park Monastery.  Sister Hang Nghiem responds to a short, yet profound, question, "What is important?"  She shows us that with mindfulness, we can see that this present moment is important, especially if a difficult emotion is arising.  Then, Sister Hang Nghiem and Brother Phap De share on the roots of frustration and resentment and how we can begin to better understand ourselves and others.  

Remember you can find the Deer Park Dharmacast online at dpcast.net, on twitter, facebook, and iTunes. Enjoy this moment to stop and look deeply.

Dear Friends,

Today we have a dharma talk given by Sister Quynh Nghiem.  Before the dharma talk, Brother Man Tue leads us in some mindful songs and a short guided meditation.  Then, our sister shares with us the wonderful basics of the connection between our mind, mindful breathing.  

Remember you can find the Deer Park Dharmacast online at dpcast.net, on twitter, facebook, and iTunes. Enjoy this moment to stop and look deeply.

Dear Friends,

Today we return to sharing question and response sessions from recent retreats at Deer Park Monastery.  Today we combine related questions from two different sessions to help us understand, "How do we forgive others and how do we forgive ourselves?"  Sister Hang Nghiem shares her experience of forgiveness and invites us to continue to practice with her every day.

Remember you can find the Deer Park Dharmacast online at dpcast.net, on twitter, facebook, and iTunes. Enjoy this moment to stop and look deeply.

Dear Friends,

Recently, a listener emailed us to ask the question, "As an engaged Buddhist, how can I stop the destruction of Mother Earth and leave my children a clean planet?" In the very same week, Brother Phap Ho offered for us to feature the first recording of his blog, Earth Protection Here and Now.  We hope that you find today's podcast a wonderful response to our listener's question.  Sometimes we want to know what to do, but Brother Phap Ho shares that the very first step to environmental conservation is to look deeply and reframe our perspective on this planet and our relationship to it.  

For more insights, visit his blog at earthprotectionhereandnow.wordpress.com.

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

Dear Friends,

Today, we continue to offer excerpts of recent Question and Response sessions from this year's retreats to help us bring the practice into our daily lives.  This week, we present questions and responses on practicing mindfulness at home with our families.  How do we best guide our children?  And how can we practice when our family is not practicing?  Brother Phap Ho and Brother Phap Tuyen share from their experiences before and after becoming monks and give real examples of how to approach specific situations.

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

Dear Friends,

Recently on the Dharmacast, we've heard our monastic brothers encourage us to bring the practice into our daily lives.  But the question arises: How do we *actually* do that?  So for the next few weeks, we'll offer segments from recent Question and Response sessions at Deer Park to answer that question.

This week, our focus is work.  How do we apply the practice at work?  Brother Phap Ho and Sister Karen, a lay dharma teacher, offer practical examples of mindful work and share how to achieve a healthy work and home life balance.

On the topic of work, The Deer Park Dharmacast team has a great time putting together the podcasts for you each week.  Thank you for listening.  If you love our podcasts and want to get involved, please join our small team of volunteers!  Whether it's selecting content, editing audio, or managing our social media, we need more help to keep the Dharmacast going.  All of our work is virtual, over the internet, so wherever you are in the world, and whatever your skills are, you can help!  Send us an email at dpcastlove(at)gmail.com; we'd love to hear from you.

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

Dear Friends,

Today we share the first half of a talk given a few weeks ago by Brother Phap Hai at Deer Park Monastery.  Having recently returned from Korea and Hong Kong, he shares the importance of putting the Dharma into practice. What is preventing our life from becoming our practice?  Brother Phap Hai likens three pots of kim chi to the three qualities that hinder our ability to truly practice.  

Remember you can find the Deer Park Dharmacast online at dpcast.net, on twitter, facebook, and iTunes. Enjoy this moment to stop and look deeply.

Dear Friends,

In this week's segment, we continue with Brother Phap Ho's dharma talk from the 2012 Mindfulness Retreat.  He shares why mindfulness by itself is not enough; we need to discover a spiritual path and a community to walk with to transform our suffering.  He also delves into how to understand our mind consciousness and nurture our well-being.

After hearing the Dharma, we invite you to share your experience with other listeners online at dpcast.net or on our Facebook page.  Enjoy this moment to stop and look deeply.

Remember you can find the Deer Park Dharmacast online at dpcast.net, on twitter, facebook, and iTunes. 

Dear Friends,

This week we offer the first half of a dharma talk given by Brother Phap Ho at the 2012 Mindfulness Retreat.  He explores the questions, "What is suffering?" and "How do we transform ill-being and nourish well-being?" from his own perspective, but also from the perspective of three great teachers and role models for him, the Buddha, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Thich Nhat Hanh.  

Remember you can find the Deer Park Dharmacast online at dpcast.net, on twitter, facebook, and iTunes.

We invite you to share your thoughts and experiences of hearing the dharma with other listeners this week online at dpcast.net or on our facebook page.  

Enjoy this moment to stop and look deeply.

Dear Friends,

This week we have a continuation from last week's podcast, as we listen to the second half of Brother Phap Hai's talk from Deer Park's 2012 Mindfulness Retreat.

Brother Phap Hai shares lessons from Master Dogen's 13th century Zen text, "Instructions for the Cook".  Furthermore, he shares that to go with the three roots of suffering, three different minds can be cultivated: joyful mind, magnanimous mind, and parental mind.

Enjoy this moment to stop and look deeply.

Dear Friends,

This week's dharma talk was given by Brother Phap Hai at the 2012 Mindfulness Retreat at Deer Park Monastery.  

Known for his poetic and engaging dharma talks, he shares the Buddha's teachings about the three roots of our suffering; greed, ill-will, and delusion; and the eight winds or worldly dharmas; gain, loss, status, disgrace, praise, blame, pleasure and pain.  

Brother Phap Hai challenges us to look critically at our lives and ask two questions: what is practice? and are we sure?

You will notice the sound of the wind and a lovely baby during the talk.  Enjoy the imperfectness of the recording.  =)

Enjoy this moment to stop and look deeply.

Dear Friends,   

This week's dharma talk was given by Brother Phap Don at the recent People of Color retreat at Deer Park Monastery on the concept: "I have arrived, I am home."  

How can we arrive and find our true home?  Brother Phap Don first offers us the repetition and mindfulness of the daily mundane activities and then describes the Buddha's 12 mindfulness exercises. 

Join the DP Dharmacast team in welcoming (back) Soren Kisiel, who is kindly recording the introductions for the weekly podcasts.

Enjoy this moment to stop and look deeply.

Dear Friends,

During the New Year's retreat, Brother Phap De gave a wonderful dharma talk on gratitude.  Although it's the middle of the year, I thought it would be a good time to revisit the message.  Brother Phap De delves deeply into gratitude to our parents.  With Mother's Day having just passed and Father's Day coming up, I thought we might have our parents on our minds.

Enjoy this moment to stop and look deeply.

"When we're addicted to our own thinking, it is the cause of almost all of our suffering. And that experience kills the possibility of gratitude."

"A quote from the Buddha: I tell you, there are two people that are not easy to repay. Which two?  Your mother and father." 

Dear Friends,

Welcome to the Deer Park Dharmacast -- the podcast that puts the Dharma in your pocket.

Deer Park recently hosted a People of Color retreat.  Part of the retreat was a question and answer session where retreatants were invited to ask questions from the heart to a panel of laywomen, laymen, monks and nuns.  Today, we offer you an excerpt of the question and answer session.

Perhaps you have asked yourself these questions at one point in time?

-- How can we share the importance and need for dedicated People of Color or Wake Up (young adult) retreats?

-- How do we practice when the people around us are not practicing?

-- What can we do to stop ourselves from speaking out of anger?

We hope you enjoy this moment to stop and look deeply.

Remember, you can always find the Deer Park Dharmacast online at DPcast.net, on iTunes, Twitter, or Facebook

Dear Friends,

Thank you for listening to the Deer Park Dharmacast.  We hope it has brought you much peace and understanding whether you have been listening for years or for a few days.

It is with great joy that I share that I am joining the DPcast team as the new coordinator for the podcast.  I have much to learn, so please do provide feedback on the podcasts during this transition time either through the individual podcast comment feature on dpcast.net or by email at: dpcastlove@gmail.com.

May you be happy and well,

Cathy

Dear Friends,

When our sangha brother Washuntara visits Deer Park, we often sing this beautiful song together.  Here is a lovely video of Can't Stop Love.  Please enjoy this beautiful musical offering.

If you want to hear more of Washuntara, please visit http://www.washuntara.com.

Thay Phai Hai explains the meaning behind the Chinese characters for mindfulness.

Preview: "A new understanding can emerge..."

Michael provides the listeners with a visual for their reference.  

Kiss the ground with your feet as Thay Phap Hai takes us on a journey to meet a gentleman of the past.

Preview: "Allow your path to be an expression of who you are."

Make sure to download the bonus content "Discourse on Love," contact the Deer Park bookstore if you are interested in the full album in addition to similar works.  

Breathe with me as Sister Kinh Nghiem shares her story mixed in with a Buddhist story.  Self-described as a city girl, she scatters the seeds we need to grasp the true nature of the practice.

Preview: "100%, this is your ticket!"

This time the artwork was submitted by none other than myself, Michael Nguyen.  I'd like to ask for experienced audio editors to join our team.  Please get in touch because we have many dharmacasts which needs tender love and care.

Stay seated as Thay Phap Khoi shares about the good sight meditation, the 8 fold path and a rewritten song that by coincidence shares the same name as the retreat he is speaking at.

Preview: "Be here now, be here now, savor your tea and drink your cloud.  Sit with ease, walk in peace the path will turn to joy you'll see."

Enjoy the artwork submitted by Jeffery Levan, 12 years old of Houston.  He says he will learn how to meditate.  Let's support young Jeffrey by supporting ourselves.

Come a bit closer as Thay Phap Ho shares from his life experience and a well of knowledge at the 2012 Family Retreat.  The winter winds may be sneaking up on us but rays of light continue to be transmitted around us.  

Preview: "Full blown anger will take us away."

If you use Twitter, follow us @dpcast to get the dharma instantly in your pocket. 

This is the opening Dharma Talk with two special guest dharma teachers:  the most Venerable Suhita Dharma, the first ordained African American Buddhist monk, and the Rev. Angel Kyodo Williams, founder of the Center for Transformative Change in Berkeley.  The teachers share about the retreat theme, Transforming Suffering: Touching Peace & Freedom.

If you would like to attend a retreat to practice in the Plum Village tradition, please check the following websites for retreat information in your area.  

www.deerparkmonastery.org 

www.bluecliffmonastery.org 

www.magnoliagrovemonastery.org 

www.plumvillage.org 

Peace

Dear Friends

Here is part two of this wonderful talk from the People of Color retreat at Deer Park.  Our guest teachers are joined by Sister Huong Nghiem to respond to written questions from retreatants.  The topics cover how we might approach reconnection with those we may be separated from, compassionate eating, addressing grief and how to avoide being an 'angry activist'.

Please accept this offering for the benefit of all beings.

Dear Friends

On July 27-29, 2012, Deer Park Monastery hosted its first People of Color Retreat in five years.  The retreat weekend came together with two special guest dharma teachers:  the most Venerable Suhita Dharma, the first ordained African American Buddhist monk, and the Rev. Angel Kyodo William, founder of the Center for Transformative Change in Berkeley.  This first podcast is the first dharma talk session given Saturday, July 27, by both Rev. Angel and the Venerable inspired by the retreat theme, Transforming Suffering: Touching Peace & Freedom.

The next 3 podcasts are comprised of the closing dharma talks(part 1) and Question & Answer session of the 2012 People of Color Retreat Weekend (Part 2), Transforming Suffering: Touching Peace & Freedom.  The Rev. Angel Kyodo Williams and the Most Venerable Suhita Dharma speak of our responsibility to transform our anger and suffering, as well as our call to bear witness. The closing talks are followed by a Q/A panel session where they are joined by Sr. Huong Nghiem of Deer Park Monastery.   Please enjoy these insightful and healing sharings.  

Bowing in gratitude to wonderful teachings.

Today we learn about the 5 Hindrances and their antidotes from our wonderful teacher, Thich Chan Phap Ho--Protector of the Dharma.  Phap Ho encourges us to have the courage to do the things in life that we want to do and reminds us that living our life mindful of interdependence and interbeing will bring us to the right path.  We also learn how to turn neutral feelings into happiness.  For example, if you have ever experienced anger, you can see that the state of not being angry is always a great happiness!  

Please enjoy this wonderful talk

Dear Friends

We had a special session during the family retreat on mindful parenting.   Our sister Nomi Green shares her insights as a parent and as a professional about children and our relationship with them--and ourselves.

Please enjoy!

With this podcast, we also welcome a new editor to our Podcast Family--welcome Genevieve!

Dear Friends

This wonderful talk is by our beloved Phap De, Younger Brother.  Phap De offers many deep insights about the nature of suffering and offers practical methods to transform it.  He reminds us that our perceptions are mostly wrong and mostly made up of our past.  He shares deeply about the nature of judgement and forgiveness reminding us that the more we can forgive, the more we can feel forgiven.

Enjoy this deep talk. 

Dear Friends

As summer begins, we thought we would offer a musical treat from Joe Reilly's new CD--Hello Ocean.  This CD is dedicated to the True Ocean Family who ordained as order of Interbeing Members in September of 2011.  The CD also includes a wonderful song called 'Monkey Mind' that might help you change your relationship with your own monkey mind too.   If you would like more info on how to purchase a copy of the CD, you can email Joe at joereillymusic@gmail.com. 

Smiling to the Sun and the Ocean, within us and outside of us

Dear Friends, welcome to the Deer Park Dharmacast. Today we offer a dharma talk from Brother Phap De on Mother Earth, given here at Dear Park with the approach of the Christmas holiday.  Brother Phap De is an American born monk, to whom Thich Nhat Hahn gave a monastic name meaning “Young Monk.” Here Thay Phap De speaks about his Christian upbringing and beliefs, and describes how Thich Nhat Hahn taught him to bring his heavenward attentions down to a loving and peaceful Mother Earth.

Please find a solid, upright, and relaxed position to enjoy today’s dharma talk.

Dear Friends

Deer Park is offering a series of theme weekends during the year.  The first weekend was a wonderful offering from Dharma Teacher Eileen Kiera.  Eileen is a resident Dharma teacher at Mountain Lamp near Bellingham Washington.  http://mountainlamp.org/  Eileen Kiera is an ecologist by training and a vegetable gardener by passion, but the practice and support of the Dharma has been her primary focus for the past 24 years. She's a student of Thich Nhat Hanh and Robert Aitken, Roshi. Thich Nhat Hahn acknowledged her as a dharma teacher in 1990, and since then she's led retreats in many places in the U.S., Europe and Australia.  This wonderful weekend Alive as a Bodhisattva Eileen shared about the practice and the path of a Bodhisattva.  This talk was the opening orientation.   If you would like more information on the theme weekends at Deer Park, please visit http://deerparkmonastery.org/events/theme-weekends 

Please find an relaxed, upright, and stable position and enjoy this beautiful offering.

On the second talk of the weekend, Dharma Teacher Eileen Kiera shares about the practice, presence, body, and  great vows of three powerful bodhisattvas-- Avalokiteshvara, Manjusri, and  Samanthabhadra.  We learn that if we can cultivate the energy and practice of compassionate listening, looking deeply, and responding with appropriate action we can embody these bodhisattvas in our lives.  When they are embodied in us, it can be said that they live in the world.

We hope you enjoy these talks.  Please explore other talks by Dharma teacher Eileen Kiera at the Mountain Lamp website at http://mountainlamp.org/audio/eenkiera.html

 

                 

                        

 

 

 

 

 

 

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 other.  Our practice is not a conceptual exercise, it is one to be lived in real life, moment by moment, each and every day. 

Our teachers ask, does anything really end?  With Right View we see there is no beginning and no end.  Our course has ended, but it has also just begun as the 3,000 practitioners in 40 countries who are following the course walk mindfully into the world.  We bow in gratittude to all of you and to our wonderful teachers who show us the way in this life. 

Find your path. Enjoy your step. Enjoy your breath. Treasure your life. 

 

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 original desire, we can liberate ourselves in this life.  Together, we can reflect on how transformation happens within us, and how we can be as alive and transformative as  the beautiful Deer Park compost pile! 

Please, sit with stability, breathe deeply, and enjoy this talk.  It can bring a lot of healing to ourselves, our families, and our world.

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 concrete practices to apply at home and we will have suggested readings and reflections, as appropriate. These will be available on the Deer Park Monastery website.

The three month winter retreat is a time of focused attention and deep looking. It is also a time of simplifying, of settling... a time of recognizing how we use our energy in our daily life. Most of all it is a time of allowing ourselves to settle- to settle into our experience of the moment.

Making the commitment to attend this class- even knowing all of the challenges- is one way to bring that element of focused intention into our lives- even if we cannot spend ninety days in a practice center.

When:

Sunday afternoon at 3 pm, weekly

first session: November 27, last session: February 19

Where: in the Ocean of Peace Meditation Hall, Deer Park Monastery

or online Deer Park Dharma Cast: http://deerpark.libsyn.com/

How long: each session will be one hour

Why: because we like to

You can follow the course offerings and suggested ‘homework’ by going to http://deerparkmonastery.org/community/moment-by-moment

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 right action.'

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.

 

 

Hi Friends

Here is Verse 11

The basic meditation sutras,

such as the Full Awareness of Breathing and the Four Establishments of Mindfulness,

show us step by step,

how to transform the body and the mind.

We are encouraged to focus on one set of 4 exercises from the Discourse on Full Awareness of Breathing during our daily sitting meditation.

We can also look deeply to reflect on 

What is suffering in by body and mind?

What noursihes these sufferings?

What can help heal these sufferings?

Please enjoy this beautiful teaching.

Dear Friends

We are so happy and thankful to Thay Phap Hai for this beautiful teaching.  The readings are also a wonderful reminder how much all of us non-monastics owe Anathapindika.  He is the one who, on his deathbed, shared with the sangha that us laypeople could understand the deep teachings of the dharma.  Let us live in such a way as to be worthy of his confidence.

Verse 10:

 

Nirvana is non-attainment

Sudden or gradual enlightenment are not different.

True realization is to live in freedom

right now in this moment.

 

Reflection Questions:

1) Do I notice times when I feel the need to be right? How does this manifest in thought, word and action?

2) What situations do I notice more of a push to be right, or to prove my point? How does this feel in my body? In my mind?

3) If I can sit with that experience, am I able to discover anything underneath?

 

Readings:  Discourse on Teachings to be Given to the Sick

Dear Virtual Study Group

We apologize for the delay in posting.  We are only able to upload 250 MB a month so when we exceed our limit we have to wait a bit.  We hope you will understand as the podcast is run on donations and volunteer time.

Here is Verse 9:

Emptiness, signlessness, and aimlessness

liberate me from suffering,

so that in my daily practice

I am not caught in mere intellectual understanding.

Our Sister reminds us that we can learn to let go, that we already have everything we need inside of us.  We can stop running, stop aiming, and make use of what we already have.

A good reflection is to look at our life right now and find out what is making us feel not free.  

This beautiful sharing is closed with the deep insight, "Thank you for allowing myself to see myself more."

 Enjoy

Dear Friends

Tonight, we are introduced to the concepts that can, with practice, become our reality.  Thay Phap Hai reminds us that intellectual understanding is not one with wisdom and that whatever we learn we always have to ask 'how does this apply in my life?'  We also are introduced to interdependent co-arising which is at the core of the buddhist teaching. This is, because that is.

Verse 8

Impermanence is one with nonself.

Nonself is one with interdependent origination,

is one with emptiness, is one with conventional designation,

is one with the middle way, is one with interbeing.

Please enjoy this very deep teaching on Verse 8

Dear Thay, Dear Sangha

Tonight's teaching is on the 7th Verse.  Thay Phap Ho shares that we can be aware that our happiness depends on my mindful attitude and not external conditions.  We review the 4 recollections and we are encouraged to seek to recognize what is bringing happiness and joy to our lives.  The Mindfulness Trainings are discussed and we can see that if we are practicing and living according to the Mindfulness Trainings we are at peace because we are not regretting anything.

Verse 7

To dwell in the present moment,

to transform all habit energies,

to give rise to understanding,

liberating ourselves from all afflictions.

The additional practice of a Minute Meditation is introduced as a means to slow down when we see that we are being carried away.  Slowing down is a compassionate teaching.

We hope you enjoy this beautiful talk

Dear Friends on the Path,

Here is the teaching on Verse 6.

Verse 6

Looking deeply into the heart of reality

to see the true nature of things,

practicing vipashyana enables me to let go

of everything I am searching for, my desires, and my fears.

Our sister shares the teaching with us that the practice is to be closer to our hearts. The more I know myself, the more I can connect with what is outside.

There are some wonderful suggestions for reflections that we can all benefit from too for the new year.

Reflections:  Ending a year and starting a new:

- what nourishment did 2010 offer

- what were the challenges

- how do I aspire to continue

Happy New Year Everyone!!  May your year be filled with peace and stability of living in the Present Moment.

Dear Friends

Tonight's wonderful class provides many insights into why we meditate and how we can better be masters of our own practice.  Here is the link for the materials http://www.deerparkmonastery.org/teachings/fourteen-verses-on-meditation-course-nov-21-2010-feb-20-2011

Verse 5:

To calm, to relax the body and mind.

To nourish, to heal, 

to protect the 6 senses,

and to maintain right concentration.

This week's homework also includes the wonderful, restful practice of Deep Relaxation--perfect for those of you entering the holidays....what a gift for yourself and the ones you love!

May you and your family be well. 

Dear Classmates on the Path

Tonight's transmission is on the 4th Verse.  We begin the podcast after those present in the class all shared how our practice was progressing with each other.  Maybe you, too, would like to reflect how your practice has been going for you.

4th Verse:

My breathing and my steps

Enable me to generate the energy of mindfulness,

So that I can recognize and touch

the wonders of life within and around me.

Our teacher, Thay Phap Hai, reminds us that stopping and calm abiding allow us to uncover what is already there. We also will benefit if we can ask, 'We're stopping what?'

Another wonderful practice that our teacher urges us to try this week is 'Lazy Hour'.

Enjoy your breath this week--and your laziness.

Dear Friends

Here is Sister Su Co Bich Nghiem's beautiful transmission on Verse 3.

Third Verse:

The practice of Vipashyana is to Look Deeply

into the nature of the five skandas

so that I may develop understanding

and transform suffering.

 

In this sharing, our sister encourages us to "Give yourself time to be with yourself more so that you can know yourself more.  So that we can better know ways to care for ourselves."

Enjoy your week of beautiful breathing.

Dear Friends

What a great fortune to have been born a human, to be in harmony with others, and to have a chance to take this wonderful course!  The second session is offered to us by Thay Phap Hai and is rich with insights into our beautiful practice.

The Second Verse:

Stopping (Shamatha) means to be still

In order to recognize, to be in contact,

To nourish, to heal,

To calm, to soothe, and to refocus the mind.

Thay offers us a guided meditation, an introduction to the five hindrances, and three means to plunge ourselves into the cool water of the present moment.

The reading materials for this class are available on the Deer Park Monastery website at www.deerparkmonastery.org

May all enjoy calm abiding in the present moment during the week ahead. 

Dear Friends

The 3-month Winter Rains Retreat began today at Deer Park.  Also, today this course on the Fourteen Verses on Meditation course held its first class.  A group of around 30 people have joined together to be taught by Thay Phap Hai, Thay Phap Ho, and Su Co Bich Nghiem and we have all committed to following the course during the coming 14 weeks. We hope that you will join us online.  In this way you can join us in our study, reflection and practice when and where it is suitable for you.  The text material for the respective classes and the outline of the course can be found on this website under Teachings, Fourteen Verses on Meditation here: http://www.deerparkmonastery.org/teachings/fourteen-verses-on-meditation-course-nov-21-2010-feb-20-2011 or go to http://www.deerparkmonastery.org

First Verse on Meditation: Just as a bird has two wings, the practice of meditation has "stopping" and "deep looking." The two wings depend on each other.  Stopping and deep looking go in tandem.

The Podcast team will do our best to put the recording online as soon as we can after the class.  Because we want to keep up with the class, these podcasts will not have the usual introductions so we hope that is acceptable.   

May we all enjoy our stopping and looking together during this winter reflection time.

 

Dear friends,

Brother Phap Dung, the Abbott of Deer Park Monastery, here offers a wonderfully casual talk with the children at this summer's Family Retreat. From Pokemon to Deer Park's ravens to an introduction to inviting the bell to sound, Brother Phap Dung encourages children to be present with, and appreciate, their surroundings and family.

Please enjoy these offerings with your family, and may there be great joy in your mindful togetherness.

 

Dear friends,

Thich Nhat Hahn shows us very clearly that while we practice for our own transformation, it is just as important to practice for our relationships with those we love. In this dharma talk Bother Phap Dung, the Abbott of Deer Park, encourages us to be present with exactly who we are, with all our strengths and weakness, rather than an impossible image of how we should be. He shows us how, by being present with ourselves and families in this way, we can clearly see the time, space, and attention needed to care for ourselves and our loved ones.

Please enjoy these offerings, and may they guide us toward acceptance of the miracle of this present moment.

 

Dear friends,

In this playful dharma talk given to the children at this summer's family retreat, Brother Phap Ho shares a story of a frontier boy learning the ways of the local Native American tribe and the lessons of diligence. Learning, he reminds us, for both children and adults, can be the same thing as playing.  

 Please enjoy these offerings with your family, and may your present moment be inspired with playfulness.

Waking up this morning I smile
24 brand new hours are before me
I vow to live fully in each moment
and to look at all beings with eyes of compassion

Dear Friends

Gathas are short verses to recite in the routine moments of our lives - waking up in the morning,  brushing our teeth, turning on a car – to bring mindfulness and connection to those moments. In this dharma talk, Sister Huong Nghiem encourages us in our practice of using these gathas, showing us how to use them to cultivate gratitude and stoke the fires of understanding, directing our hearts and minds toward the wholesome seeds stored in our consciousness.

Please enjoy these offerings, and may they be nourishing to your practice.

 

Sister Dang Nghiem shows us the proper way to invite the sound of the bell. She also teaches us how to cultivate that peacefulness when we hear noises that might otherwise cause stress.

Lay practitioner Patrick Burke made the video.  A higher resolution version is at www.burkepost.com.

This is the full audio version of the Bells of Mindfulness video.

 

Dear Friends

Thich Phuoc Tinh, known to the Sangha as The Venerable, here offers a wonderfully direct talk to encourage us forward in our practice. He reminds us that if we stop practicing when we are feeling good, we are like a person rubbing sticks together to start a fire, and stopping just as the sticks grow warm, before the real fire begins. The Dharma, he tells us, is a dharma of action, not of intellect.

This dharma talk is offered for Tet, the Vietnamese lunar new year. May the renewal and rejoicing that is going on at the Monastery carry deeply into your life.

A collection of The Venerable’s dharma talks is available as 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 OI Member Karen Hilsberg, and the book is available at lulu.com and amazon.com.

Please enjoy these offerings, and may there be renewal in your every mindful breath. 

 

Dear Friends,

We hope you will enjoy this short interview with a local Deer Park practitioner.   J.C. Earle practices with the Compassionate Heart Sangha in Los Angeles, and he's a frequent visitor to Deer Park.  In this video, J.C. discusses his understanding of mindfulness, using his garden as a metaphor for consciousness.  A higher-quality version of this video is available at burkepost.com.   This Vidcast was created by another Deer Park practitioner, Patrick Burke, and we are very grateful to him for this offering.

Please enjoy cultivating your garden as you watch this offering.

 

Dear Friends,

Last night at the Dharma Nectar Hall of Lower Hamlet in Plum Village, lay and monastic practitioners from around the world gathered to concentrate our energy into a new song which could represent the Wake Up movement. Thanks to the good conditions of a visit from Joe Reilly, Melina Bondy and many talented monks, nuns and lay friends, the fruit of our practice is posted here.

To learn more, or to join the Wake Up movement look no further than the website at http://wkup.org.

For more of Joe Reilly's songs, follow the link to his website at http://joereilly.org.

Open your eyes!

Dear Friends,

Often at the end of retreats at Deer Park, a panel of Monks and Nuns will offer a question and answer session with the retreat’s participants. These sessions are always a precious opportunity for the retreat participants to seek guidance in their practice, and for our monastic brothers and sisters to share their unique insights.  This question and answer session was offered on the last day of Deer Park’s recent Mindfulness and Education retreat. The panel of monks and nuns answer questions from the college students and other visitors at the retreat on loneliness and connection, monastic life and values, and mindfulness of habit energies, cravings and addictions.

Please enjoy these offerings, and may the support of our monastic brothers and sisters be felt deeply in our practice.

Dear Friends,

 In our next focus on the Elements of Practice we look at the first of two basic practices of the dharma: stopping and looking deeply.  In this dharma talk, Brother Phap Ho guides us in Stopping – coming to rest in the present moment, allowing our minds to become clear and rest in awareness.  We are then able to look deeply, to see that there are so many conditions for our happiness right around us that we might not notice otherwise, that we lose in the busy-ness of our lives.  And through this awareness, we are also able to look deeply into ourselves, to look at how we are constrained by the habits of our lives and minds, as so find freedom.

Please enjoy these offerings, and may they guide us toward the crystal clarity of the present moment.

 

Dear Friends,

In this dharma talk Sister Dang Nghiem explores neurologist Paul MacLean’s idea that our brains actually consist of three brains layered by evolution atop one another – the reptilian brain, the mammalian brain, and the intellectual Neocortex. Through the practice of mindfulness, Sister Dang Nghiem shows us how we can train ourselves to react from the highest level of our brain’s evolution, and so cultivate our minds to bring us greater happiness and peace, and to be a calm presence in the world.

Please enjoy these offerings, and may they guide us toward the peace of a carefully cultivated mind.

 

Dear Friends,

The situation at Bat Nha Monastery has reached an apex in the past 24 hours. One hundred policemen have shown up at Bat Nha Monastery. Three of our brothers, Phap Hoi, Phap Tu and Phap Sy have been taken and have not been seen. The rest of the monastics have been pulled out into the rain, and are apparently waiting for a truck to bring them away--where we don't know. Please practice to send your energy of peace and support. Your help now is more urgent than ever. If any of you can help in any way, especially those who might be present in Vietnam, thank you. Let the Bodhisattvas protect our young brothers and sisters.

We are trying to keep the latest information posted at http://helpbatnha.org

With palms joined,
The Monks and Nuns of Deer Park Monastery

Dear Friends

Our practice is to learn to listen to the innate wisdom that is inside of us, instead of the voices of judgment and expectation that battle for our attention.  In this dharma talk, through sharing of very personal stories of care-taking for her mother, Sister Tue Nghiem helps us to see this wisdom within ourselves and to listen to, as she calls it, “our voice.” In this talk she shows us that by being present with ourselves we are able to keep from taking for granted the precious elements in our lives that support us – our health, family, friends, sangha, and our spiritual practice.  The dharma talk concludes with a guided meditation in which Sister Tue Nghiem teaches us to make room inside ourselves to listen for this voice of wisdom.

Please enjoy these offerings, and may they guide us toward who we really are.

Dear Friends

In this out-of-the-ordinary edition of the Deer Park dharmacast, we would like to share two songs by singer/songwriter Joe Reilly.  Joe, a practitioner in the Plum village tradition, is a face commonly seen visiting Deer Park when his touring takes him through the region.  But his music can be heard at the monastery much more often, as his light-hearted, meaningful songs have become regular staples at any programs and retreats involving children and families. To learn more about his music please head to www.joereilly.org . The songs shared here are I Love Nature, and Peace Love and Unity, from his cd Children of the Earth.

We present these playful songs to celebrate the family retreat at Deer Park.  Relax, and enjoy.

Dear Friends,

The 21-Day Retreat is now underway in Plum Village. Thay offered this talk to the newly arrived retreatants, beginning with a sharing on his meetings with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and continuing on to discuss how we can support President Obama in his practice of using loving speech and deep listening.

"When Barack Obama manifested, I regretted a little bit, because Martin Luther King, Jr. was not there to witness the fruit of our efforts. ... But finally, I saw that we are the continuation of Martin Luther King. He is happy to know that everything he has done has borne fruit.

Obama is not an individual, Obama represents a Sangha. So our work is to keep the Sangha close to Obama, to offer our support. I offer this for you to reflect on it. There must be a way. Wherever there is a will there is a way."

Dear Friends, We often experience our emotions like waves, crashing on the shore.  But a wave’s beginning can be miles away, or thousands of feet underwater.  The same is true for our emotions.  In this talk, Sister Dang Nghiem shows us that while we may not notice emotions until they crash upon us, looking deeply we can see that their origin is far below the surface.  In this way we can be mindful of our habitual reactions and responses, recognizing them before we are swept away with them.    Please enjoy these offerings, and may they inspire the depth of your practice.

Dear Friends, 

This Dharma talk is the final talk of Deer Park’s Heart of the Winter Retreat, a time of intensive study and practice for the monastics.

To bring this three-month time of retreat to a close, Sister Huong Nghiem, or Sister True Fragrance, here offers an insightful and very pragmatic talk on looking deeply and skillfully into our practice and our lives. She offers many insights on how we can fine-tune our practice to best serve us, to identify what the root of our suffering is on a very personal level and so transform our lives at the base. The talk ends with a question and answer session with the community.

Please enjoy these offerings, and may they be nourishing to your practice.

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 available at lulu.com and amazon.com.  

Please enjoy these offerings, and may there be renewal in your every mindful breath.

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 month to help nourish your practice. Please enjoy!

If you would like to read the text of the trainings please visit http://www.deerparkmonastery.org/mindfulness-practice/the-fourteen-mindfulness-trainings

 

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 peaceful step on the Earth.

Dear friends, please download and read over this sheet, which we have been distributing at many of our retreats during this past tour. It lists actions we can take in our daily lives to reduce our impact on our ecosystems and the planet. If you like, fill it out and send it back to us at Deer Park Monastery so we may collate and enter your commitment to a growing list of the commitments of practitioners all over the world. Our actions inspire others, which inspires us. Thank you.

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?

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.

Dear Friends,

This week's edition of the Dharmacast includes an introduction to the practice of walking meditation offered by Sister Chau Nghiem (Jewel) and a session of evening chanting led by Br. Phap Khoi. Br. Phap De hosts this Halloween broadcast.

May you touch peace and solidity with each step.

Dear Friends,

This week we are happy to share with you a question and answer session that we participated in this past Thursday afternoon in the Ocean of Peace Meditation Hall here at Deer Park. Brother Stream hosts, and Thay Abbot Brother Phap Dung (see photo), Brother Phap Ho, Sisters Chau Nghiem and Viet Nghiem answer questions posed over e-mail to the monks and nuns. We ended spontaneously with the song, The Island Within.

If you would like to send in a question for an upcoming Q&A session, feel free to write us at dpcast@gmail.com. All names are kept confidential.

Enjoy the brisk autumn air.

This week Brother Stream interviews Thay Phap Dang, a Dharma Teacher and the Abbot of Maple Forest Monastery in Vermont. Thay Phap Dang was invited by the Deer Park Sangha along with Thay Vo Ngai to support us during the recent Vietnamese Retreat. He shares about his life and practice as a monk of 17 years, about his experiences teaching in Vietnam, and also shares a song, "Close to Thay."

The broadcast ends with the flute solo, "Song for the Buddha," by the Basque musician Laurent Bernays, from the Refuge Tree CD.

May you be well.

This week Brother Phap Luu offers readings of two sutras on mindful breathing translated from Chinese by our teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh. These sutras were the main texts used during the 21-day retreat this past June entitled "The Breath of the Buddha." Included as well are some recent news items from Deer Park, and a brief introduction to sitting meditation.

We look forward to a Question and Answer session to take place in the coming week, so please e-mail us any questions you may have about the practice of mindfulness in daily life. A panel of monks and nuns will share based on these questions. You may also put a question in the comments to this week's show.

A PDF of Sutra 803 is available here, and of Sutra 810 here. The Chinese texts with Pinyin and Sino-Vietnamese are available here (803) and here  (810).

May you breathe in peace.

In this talk from Plum Village on 01 Oct 2006, Thay investigates the true nature of power in the light of the Buddha's teaching, and he describes how we may realize this power in our present-day lives. Also: what are the powers of a true teacher?

A two part release, in this talk from Plum Village on 01 Oct 2006, Thay investigates the true nature of power in the light of the Buddha's teaching, and he describes how we may realize this power in our present-day lives. Also: what are the powers of a true teacher?

Tree Meditation is the title of a song from the album Refuge Tree.  Please enjoy, the whole album can be purchased at the Unified Buddhist Church Gateway.  To find more information about the singer please visit Joe Reilly's webpage.

We have a week left before Thay speaks to UNESCO (Oct 7th, 2006), We can use all the help we can get to spread spread the word far and wide. 

Lyrics to Tree Meditation

No Car Day petition

UBC Gateway

A Lotus for You,
Michael Nguyen

Another gift from the hidden mountains of Escondido, CA. This time we can enjoy a talk from Sister Chau Nghiem (Jewel) which she gave on the first full day of the POC Retreat.

I was surprised by words of thanks I recieved this past weekend.  It gave me a warm feeling.  In the mist of our busy schedules we might forget to say a few words of gratitude which can make someone's day.  Lets try this one and remember to use it now and again.

I know you are there and I am happy

Please enjoy our podcast!

A Lotus for You,
Michael Nguyen

We need your help, we have until October 7th to get more than 10,000 people to sign and support the No Car Day initative!  Please pass this message the world over by sending the following link to as many people as you can.

http://www.deerparkmonastery.org/petition/index.html

CLICK HERE TO SIGN PETITION!

Lets do what we can to make a difference.

Thay talks about No Car Day in this embedded video:


A Lotus for You,
Michael Nguyen

Embedded Video of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh

Order DVD from UBC Gateway 

Watch More TNH from Google Video

3 post in a day, I hope you enjoy.

A Lotus for You,
Michael Nguyen

A little treat for the e-community.  Laura Hunter, a regular at DP loves this song and I thought it would be a nice gift.  If you have attended a retreat hosted by the Plum Village Sangha then you should be familar with this song.  For those who haven't, I am sure you will enjoy this treat!

You can order the full album "A Basket of Plums" from the UBC Gateway.

A Lotus for You,
Michael Nguyen

Did we keep you waiting?  Here is the 2nd installment of the Soul of Gratitude retreat: the practice of Touching the Earth. Brother Larry Ward gives the introduction, and he is joined in the readings by Brother Phap Khoi (right), Sister Chau Nghiem (Jewel) and Sister Susan. This show is hosted by Brother Phap Ho.

Friend of DP,
Michael Nguyen

It has only been a week since our first DPCast but it feels as though Deer Park has been apart of my life forever.  We have had some wonderful feedback from the e-community and we have read every word!  Thank you so much for such encouraging e-mails and comments.

Not to keep you, our second DPCast is hosted by Sister Jewel.  This is the talk the Dharma Teacher Larry Ward offered on the third day of the retreat. I haven't listened to it yet, so lets breathe in together, breathe out together and enjoy this wonderful gift from the Hidden Mountains of Escondido, CA.

Be sure to check the Deer Park website for more information about living in the present moment.

Friend of DP,
Michael Nguyen

This is our first attempt, please give us feedback so we can improve upon what we offer to you and the e-community. Brother Phap Luu chants the morning chant, and Brother Phap De (right) offers a guided meditation.

In our first dpcast you'll find some chanting, sutra reading, etc...  just give it a go.

To find out more information about Deer Park Monastery itself please visit the following link.  Deer Park Monastery Website

For a pdf file of the sutra that is read on the dpcast you can download it by following this link.  Chanting P Download

Friend of DP,
Michael Nguyen