The Deer Park Dharmacast

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 w

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.  

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 Hilsb

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.orgWith 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.