May 12, 2021

Boas, Ants and Laughing Buddhas

By the Monastics of Deer Park Monastery • Issue #7 • View online

Dear Friends,

The hidden mountain quickens with life—the rosy boa making an appearance along with a giant ant. We enjoyed deeply the monastic retreat here at Deer Park, listening to talks filled with laughter and lightness from our elder brothers and sisters, taking mindful steps on new paths, and creating art and cooking food together.

Now we’re preparing to host the Wake Up Earth Online Retreat, from May 26 – 30. Why not invite the young person dear to you to join?

As the last moon of spring begins to wax, we offer to you inspiration for your daily practice and contemplation. Thay’s poem Message rekindles hope of a revitalized spring of understanding even in an encounter with death. Sara Henry recounts how she grew and flourished before the pandemic as a long-term guest at Clarity Hamlet. Brother Phap Chung teaches us how to touch the Buddha nature in us in the presence of a Buddha statue by getting in touch with the virtues and actions of bodhisattvas.

In this week’s short teaching from Thay in 2011 we learn that by seeing ourselves as empty of a separate self we get in touch with the fullness of the whole cosmos within.

This is a legendary moment. Please enjoy it with a loved one near you.

In joy and gratitude,

The Monks and Nuns of Deer Park Monastery

Wake Up Earth Online Retreat

May 26 – 30

How can we handle the feelings of dread, loneliness and anger within us and around us? There is no “back to normal” in such an uncertain and complex world, so let’s not go back, let’s come together to build a more compassionate future.

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Rosy Boa Near the Gatehouse

One of the slowest snakes in the world searching for small animals near Deer Park Road

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Message

Poem by Thich Nhat Hanh

Life has left her footprints on my forehead. But I have become a child again this morning. The smile, seen through leaves and flowers, is back to smooth away the wrinkles, as the rains wipe away footprints on the beach. Again a cycle of birth and death begins.

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Belonging to Sanghas

By Sara Henry

I owe a lot of the happiness and thriving energy in my life in this present moment to the time that I spent with the monastics and laypeople in Deer Park Monastery. The gifts I received and cultivated are still unfolding—they are hard to understand and express because they are so deep. There are many favorite moments, too many to recount, but I would love to share some of them.

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Giant Ant Foraging in Clarity

A giant ant missing one antenna foraging on the road in Clarity a few days ago.

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The Buddha Statue Reminds Us to be Compassionate

Q&A with Brother Phap Chung

Looking at Buddha statues or Bodhisattva statues we can see their compassion and loving kindness through their virtues and actions. We want to learn from them and receive peaceful energy from them. So, when we have a Buddha statue at home, we may like to put it in a very solemn place; whenever we see it, we remember to practice.

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Invoking the Bodhisattvas’ Names

We invoke your name, Avalokiteshvara. We aspire to learn your way of listening in order to help relieve the suffering in the world. You know how to listen in order to understand. We invoke your name in order to practice listening with all our attention and openheartedness. We will sit and listen without any prejudice. We will sit and listen without judging or reacting. We will sit and listen in order to understand.

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To Be Means To Inter-Be

Short Teaching Video by Thich Nhat Hanh

In this teaching, Thay teaches us the true meaning of emptiness—it does not mean non-existing. The question to ask is: what are we empty of? Just like a cup that is empty of tea but full of water, we are empty of a separate existence but full of the entire cosmos. By concentrating on emptiness, we see that we cannot be by ourselves alone. Existing means co-existing. To be means to interbe.

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By the Monastics of Deer Park Monastery

Writing, art, music and meditation from the monks and nuns of Deer Park Monastery. Make your inbox a Dharma door.

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