The Deer Park Dharmacast

The Venerable offers a lovely dharma talk for the community as we close the 90-Day Rains Retreat at Deer Park. This is a dubbed translation. Editor's Note: The English translation isn't perfectly aligned with the Vietnamese, but the language is present and pretty close

Today we offer a dharma talk from Su Co Dang Nghiem (Sr. D) based on Thich Nhat Hanh's book "How To Live When a Loved One Dies" - the dharma talk is in English. 

During the annual Rains Retreat at Deer Park, we have been hosting a weekly Day of Mindfulness. The overall theme for our 90-Day Retreat is Non-Fear and Non-Anxiety. Each week a dharma teacher uses one of Thay's books as the jumping off place for the teaching. This week is Thay's book Being Peace. 

Translated by Sister Dang Nghiem

Translated by Brother Troi Minh Dia

Translated by Brother Troi Minh Dia

Translated by Sister Dang Nghiem

Translated by Br.Troi Minh Dia

Translated by Br.Troi Minh Dia

Translated by Sister Kinh Nghiem

In Praise of Mother Earth (PDF)

Holiday Retreat 2019 Orientation given by Sister Le Nghiem and Brother Pham Hanh

Sister Dang Nghiem shares on right view

Sister Man Nghiem shares about consciousness and right livelihood.

Thay Phap Tuyen talks about the "Discourse on Knowing the Better Way to Live Alone"

Translation by Sister Dang Nghiem

Thay Phap Luu shares about sense impression and selective watering.

Translation by Sister Kinh Nghiem

Translation by Sister Dang Nghiem

Translation by sister Kinh Nghiem

Sister abbess share about cultivating happiness.

Translated by Sister Huong Nghiem

Sister Kinh Nghiem shares insights on practicing with the body and interbeing with edible food.

This talk was given on the opening day of the 90 Day Fall Retreat.

Translated by Sister Man Nghiem (Sister Brightness)

Thay Phap Ho shares about his pilgrimage to India, practicing for the Earth, and the 16 breathing exercises.

Facilitated by Thay Phap Hai during the second session of Family Retreat 2019

From the second session of Family Retreat 2019.

From the second session of Family Retreat 2019.

Sister Dang Nghiem's sharing with a group of physicians, physical therapists, occupational therapists, etc. at Kaiser Permanente.

Facilitated by Thay Phap Hai

Brother Phap Ho and Sister Truc Nghiem (Sister Bamboo) gives orientation for the first session of Family Retreat 2019.

Sister Dang Nghiem commentaries on the Tale of Kiều.

Translated from Vietnamese by Sister Huong Nghiem.

Talk in Vietnamese: https://youtu.be/xkG8cQZ_Irw

Thay Phap Dang offers guidance to to help us slow down, calm down and flush out unhelpful perceptions in order to wake up to happiness and a clear mind.

Thay Phap Hai offers guidance reflecting personal experiences, current events, dharma teachings & beautiful poetry. We are welcomed to give ourselves permission to be fully present to what is happening, experience ease and also explore any reactivity to situations. There's an invitation to look at darkness' we face individually and as a nation with curiosity & openness, to see what is actually happening in order to wake up to kindness & live fully in the present moment.

Sr. Dang Nghiem reflects on her own transforming suffering, heartbreak, letting go and realizing better health & relationship to oneself & others.

Sr Kinh Nghiem shares her own questions and answers about true love for ourselves and the other. Her reflections come from personal experience and current events.

Translation by Sr Kinh Nghiem

Brother Kai Ly shares about Bodhicitta, the mind of love. There are also several wonderful stories about how he met with Thay and the valuable lessons that he learned from these encounters.

Translation by Sr Man Nghiem

Dharma talk from Venerable Phuoc Tinh on the opening day of the Winter 2017-2018 Retreat.

Translation by Sister Kinh Nghiem.

Dear Beloved Listeners ,
Brother Phap Dung started with a talk for the children, please excuse us for not having the complete recording of this portion. Following this portion, Brother Phap Dung shares his experience of returning to the US during the 2017 US tour.

This is the Third Dharma talk of the retreat offered by Brother Phap Luu at Deer Park Monastery on September 17, 2017. The retreat theme is Awakening the Source of Understanding. The retreat is part of the larger US Tour with the theme Awakening Together.

During this question and answer session with Brother Phap Dung, Sister Huong Nghiem, Lyn Fine, and John Salerno-White we listen to seven questions. The date is September 16, 2017 at Deer Park Monastery. The retreat theme is Awakening the Source of Understanding. The retreat is part of the larger US Tour with the theme Awakening Together.

1. What are the forms/practices in our community that exists for shining eyes on something we witness?
2. Being angry/negative and the use of products like Nestle (which is used at the monastery).
3. How do we honor the tradition of our lineage and recognize and support multiple genders?
4. How do I better recognize and water the seeds of determination and practice?
5. What is the equality complex?
6. Story of suffering.
7. Needing support in finding my tribe, my sangha. How do I heal this sense of not belonging?

This is the Second Dharma talk of the retreat offered by Sr. Thệ Nghiêm at Deer Park Monastery on September 15, 2017. Topics include Mindfulness, Concentration, and Insight and the Four Kinds of Nutriments. The retreat theme is Awakening the Source of Understanding. The retreat is part of the larger US Tour with the theme Awakening Together.

Video: https://youtu.be/2AvpHoBHPIg

This is the First Dharma talk of the retreat offered by Sister Dang Nghiem at Deer Park Monastery on September 13, 2017. The retreat theme is Awakening the Source of Understanding. The retreat is part of the larger US Tour with the theme Awakening Together.

Video: https://youtu.be/mrThKTx-A9M

Translation by Sr Bach Nghiem

The Venerable shares his personal experience along with ancient Buddhist practice methods of successfully handling life’s changes and impermanence. Key components of this talk are creating harmony in relationships by first caring for our own body, mind and feelings. In described marriage ceremony, “mixing earth and lighting a candle” becomes a valuable metaphor of individuals coming together, transcending such differences as cultural backgrounds and race with right effort for a successful union.

We are taught to live with greater happiness by having: faith, precepts/trainings, generosity and insight. The art of happiness is a skill that takes effort; much more effort than the art of fear, despair and anger. We are encouraged to begin practicing when we’re young, to learn and mature the practice of true love, known as the 4 immeasurable minds; cultivating love for ourselves and others. By learning to love ourselves when young, we can avoid the complex of inferiority and take better care of our body, and other 4 skandhas. We learn that deep feelings of self-care are developed during childhood with parental acts of unconditional love. Our self-care and happiness are gifts for those around us.

From Wake Up 2017 Retreat

Sister Kinh Nghiem offers meditation of the body.

In this talk, Brother Phap Ho shares on the theme of this year's Wake Up Retreat, Loving Yourself, Healing the World. He talks about his personal experience with mindfulness, concentration and insight emerging in the light of the four elements of love. With our daily practice guided by the Five Mindfulness Trainings, we can create healing for ourselves, for those around us, and for the wider world. Enjoy.

Sister Kinh Nghiem offers insights on cultivating true love using the Buddha's discourse on love, and including her personal experience. She offers guidance on being at peace by utilizing loving speech and having relationships with qualities of being upright, honest, just, and humble. Weaved within the talk are practices of having reverence for the other, watering each other's positive seeds, and letting go of pride. Practical ways of applying true love are offered by using the 6 mantras.

Thay Phap Dang shares about the thresholds into our personal practice for joy, happiness and compassion.

2017-03-30 Thay Phap Dang

2017-03-31 OI Panel: What is OI?

2017-04-01 Question and Answer

2017-04-02 Thay Phap Hai and Karen Hilsberg

The flowers are blooming in the hidden mountains of Deer Park. Much freshness and aliveness flows through the valley and this sharing. This is the second talk of the Spring Season offered by Sister Man Nghiem (Sr Brightness).

Brother Phap Ho continues to share about the practice of meditation through the Discourse on the Four Establishments of Mindfulness. This is the second half from the Dharma Talk on 2017-03-19 and focuses on the practice of the Objects of Mind in the Objects of Mind, in regard to the 5 Hindrances: sensual desire, anger/ill-will, dullness/drowsiness, agitation/restlessness, and doubt.

This is a translation of Most Venerable Phuoc Tinh's talk on the last day of Winter Retreat. This is an English translation of the talk.

Sister Mai Nghiem shares her practice of recognizing, embracing and transforming suffering. She also shares the teaching of the noble eight fold path, the four nutriments, including how different types of relationship are nutriments.

Sister's Mai Nghiem poem:
☀ Why i don t want to be call an ally, ☀                                               

Ally
From the moment  i first heard the word, i got allergic to it...an ally allergy.
Why?
Well, the first thing is that in my french brain, "les alliés", as we call them,  are the good Americans and British soldiers coming to save us from the evil Germans.
Word of war, violence, and partisan conflicts.

But deeper than that, my brother, if you call me an ally, i'll get offended.
Why?
'cause i expect you, to have a higher expectation of me.
I expect you to expect me to fully embrace who i am.
I expect you to expect me to break open,
I expect you to expect me to show my shit with no shame

This is why i do not want to be an ally
'cause i don t wanna help
I don t wanna be the "good intentionned white folk" feeling so bad about it all
...and yet so disconnected...

For as long as i don't understand how ignorant i am
There is no hope
As long as i don't see myself as a slave merchant, a fanatic missionary or a murderer
There is no hope
As long as i refuse to understand how an entire society can see going on a "picnic" as being a pleasant family outing
There is no hope
As long as i shut my body and mind to the unspoken, unknown, unfelt yet raging pain of a human whipping an other human to death
There is no hope
 For as long as i keep greed, money, power, fame and sex as the only gods in my life
There is no hope
No hope for any of the  rainbow children on our beautiful Blue Mother

I heard the Earth whisper one day, that "Fearlessness is not the absence of fear but the willingness to walk into it".
This is what my white ancestors are asking me to do:
"Walk right into the darkness,
Right into the thick mist of whiteness
And free us from our ignorance
Heal our ancestral wounds....
Centuries of hatred, pride, discrimination, fear and violence.
Who will hear our cries for help if not you?
Who will quench our thirst for true amendment if not you?
Who will deliver our souls from the chains of guilt if not you?
For as long as true healing isn't taking place,
Suffering will remain the world's pace".

This is the voice of the ancestors begging for our courage and love,
Echoing the Angel's song
"It is the willingness to offer our best,
claim responsibility for our worst and
fold it all into the continuous moment to moment practice of
simply being present to what is,
that promises to deliver our future".

That's why i don't wanna be an ally
...I wanna a be a healer

Brother Phap Ho is offering 6 classes during this winter retreat 2016-2017, on the first three foundations of mindfulness: body, feelings, mind. Below is a summary of the sixth class. The recording includes sharing and instructions, as well as practice and some questions and responses at the end. We hope you enjoy listening and practicing with us.

In the third to last Dharma Talk for the Winter Retreat series, Thay Phap Dang shares about how we can return to the present moment, how to relax and encourages us to walk on the Earth. Thay also share about the realm of perception and how to practice to love and accept. How can we look at a person with clear awareness, without judgement, just as when we look at a flower? 

Find a calm place to listen to this talk, enjoy your breathing and the Dharma rain.

May this sharing be of benefit.

Brother Phap Ho is offering 6 classes during this winter retreat 2016-2017, on the first three foundations of mindfulness: body, feelings, mind. Below is a summary of the forth class. The recording includes sharing and instructions, as well as practice. We hope you enjoy listening and practicing with us.