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

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.

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,

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.