We arrived at Deer Park on a clear fall Friday morning last October to help the sangha prepare for the ceremony to dedicate Thay Giac Thanh’s stupa. Sunday would be the fifth anniversary of the continuation of the beloved former abbot of Deer Park. The weekend was particularly meaningful and…
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Touching the Blue Sky
The Story of Thay Phap An By Thay Phap An photo by Robert S. Harrison Before I became a monk, I suffered from depression but did not know it. This created a deep need within me to look for something, although I did not know exactly what I was looking…
The Other Shore
Thích Nhất Hạnh teaches us about interbeing, impermanence, no discrimination, and the end of civilization: "Mother Earth does not discriminate. If you throw perfume or flowers on her, she’s not proud. If you throw urine or excrement on her, she’s not offended. For her, everything is perfect. She knows that without this, the other cannot be. Without the mud, the lotus cannot be. So we can learn a lot from Mother Earth."
Continuing after Suicide Loss
Brother Peace reflects on losing both his parents to depression, and grief as a beautiful path of awakening.
Summer Camp of the Pure Land
By David Lawrence Getting to Plum Village was not easy. I had a strong desire to go, but the prospect of leaving my many activities created doubts that I would actually be able to make the trip. Yet the anticipation of being with the greater Sangha and deepening my practice…
Letters
Many thanks for a wonderful newsletter which has given me so many precious gems of thought and being. With each issue I am challenged and uplifted. Patricia WilliamsSanta Rosa, California I'm reading For a Future To Be Possible and am, as usual, deeply moved by Thay's understanding of human life, current Western life, and…
Dharma Talk: True Happiness
Good morning, dear Sangha, today is the twenty-third of June, 2005 and we are in the Lovingkindness Temple in the New Hamlet. Happiness is a practice. We should distinguish between happiness and excitement, and even joy. Many people in the West, especially in North America, think of excitement as happiness.…
Visit to Vietnam
By Linda Spangler I had wanted to go to Vietnam for a long time. I grew up with the Vietnam War on TV and watched the fighting and the nightly list of American dead. Escaping the draft was a frequent topic of conversation in my high school. I could not understand how anyone could…
Letters to the Mindfulness Bell
On my drive home from the Open Way Sangha retreat at Loon Lake, Montana, I stopped in Deer Lodge to stretch and rest from the no-speed-limit limit in Montana. I pulled up nearby the prison and found myself thinking about the people inside, what sort of misdirection, difficult childhood, etc. brought them to such a…
The Gift of True Freedom
We often hear reference to what it means to be free. We speak of the “free world.” We speak of “freedom of speech.” Most of us, at least in the West, as well as in many Eastern cultures, have the freedom to choose our mates, our careers, and even how…