Deer Park Dharmacast

Brother Phap Luu, the eldest non-Vietnamese American monk in the Plum Village tradition, graduated from Dartmouth College and started meditating after going through a depression.

"What is more satisfying in life than helping people to transform their suffering? I mean, who cares about money and all this other stuff? The biggest happiness I get is if I can help myself, first of all, but others to transform suffering in a real way. My goodness, if we can do that with only a few people in our life, that's already worth a lifetime, right?"

Discourse on the Four Establishments of Mindfulness

2:16 Experiments in Community and Meditation 10:37 Returning to the US, Depression 16:04 Discovering the Four Establishments of Mindfulness 21:00 Returning to Dartmouth, Visiting Maple Forest Monastery 26:09 Decision to Become a Monk 31:00 Life as a Monk, Love for Thay, Ethics 40:10 Projects 51:39 Ideals of Monastic Life, Collective Awakening 1:09:17 The Monastic's Role, Advice for Potential Monastics

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This podcast episode, Meet the Monastics, hosted by Brother Minh An from Deer Park Monastery, introduces Brother Phap Luu (Brother Stream), the most senior non-Vietnamese American monastic in the Plum Village tradition. Brother Phap Luu shares his transformative journey, including his struggles with identity, community, and purpose before encountering the Dharma.

Early Life and Search for Meaning: Growing up in Connecticut, Brother Phap Luu studied English literature at Dartmouth College. He explored anarchist movements in Europe and lived in organic farming communities, experiencing both inspiration and disillusionment. These experiences deepened his inquiry into suffering, community, and personal transformation.

Meeting Spiritual Teachers: His encounter with a Western teacher and later Thích Nhất Hạnh (Thầy) provided clarity and inspiration. The advice, “Don’t be a Buddhist; be the Buddha,” profoundly influenced his approach to the path.

Discovering Mindfulness Practice: Practicing the Four Establishments of Mindfulness during a difficult period helped him overcome depression and cultivate joy. This marked the beginning of his commitment to mindfulness and monastic life.

Becoming a Monastic: Ordained in 2003 at Plum Village, France, Brother Phap Luu describes monastic life as a profound practice of non-self and community living. He values the precepts and ethics as foundational to transformation and expresses gratitude for Thầy’s teachings and legacy.

Community and Projects: Known for his boundless energy, Brother Phap Luu has contributed to initiatives like Wake Up for young practitioners, the Happy Farm, and hiking and science retreats. He reflects on balancing projects with mindfulness, cultivating non-attachment, and fostering harmony in the Sangha.

Role of Monastics: Brother Phap Luu emphasizes the importance of monastics in balancing collective energy in society. He highlights the need for mindfulness, non-ideological approaches, and cultivating community harmony to address modern challenges like polarization and ecological crises.

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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.

This winter a group of Monastic Dharma Teachers here at Deer Park will offer a course based in the Buddhas Teaching on the Four Noble Truths and Noble Eightfold Path.

Nov 27, 2011 This winter's course - Moment by Moment: will be an opportunity to enjoy walking meditation through some of the vistas of central Buddhist teachings and practices. If we look deeply at the Buddhist Dharma, we see concentric circles- at the very heart of the circles lies the Four Noble Truths . All of the foundational teachings and practices spring from this source. Out of the Four Noble Truths emerge the Noble Eightfold Path , the Buddha's guidance for realizing transformation in body, speech and mind at a fundamental level. From the various steps of the Noble Eightfold Path spring a multitude of sutras, practices and commentaries.

During this course, we will enjoy sharings on each of the Truths and the steps of the path; we will be offered concrete practices to apply at home and we will have suggested readings and reflections , as appropriate. These will be available on theDeer Park Monastery website.

The three month winter retreat is a time of focused attention and deep looking . It is also a time of simplifying, of settling ... a time of recognizing how we use our energy in our daily life. Most of all it is a time of allowing ourselves to settle- to settle into our experience of the moment.

Making the commitment to attend this class- even knowing all of the challenges- is one way to bring that element of focused intention into our lives- even if we cannot spend ninety days in a practice center.

When:

Sunday afternoon at 3 pm, weekly

first session: November 27, last session: February 19

Where: in the Ocean of Peace Meditation Hall, Deer Park Monastery

or online Deer Park Dharma Cast:http://deerpark.libsyn.com/

How long: each session will be one hour

Why: because we like to

You can follow the course offerings and suggested ‘homework’ by going to http://deerparkmonastery.org/community/moment-by-moment

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