Deer Park Monastery
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Deer Park Monastery (Vietnamese: Tu Viện Lộc Uyển) is a 400-acre (1.6 km2) Buddhist sanctuary in Escondido, California. It was founded in July 2000 by monastic and lay practitioners from Plum Village, France.
The monastery is under the direct guidance of Nobel Peace Prize Nominee Thich Nhat Hanh and his Order of Interbeing in the Vietnamese Zen tradition. Deer Park follows the same practices and schedule as Plum Village and its sister monastery Blue Clif Monastery in New York and Magnolia Grove Monastery in Mississippi. Since its founding the monastery has grown to be very active. In addition to its regular monastic schedule, Deer Park hosts twice-weekly days of mindfulness which are open to the public as well as a variety of themed and general retreats. Deer Park hosts an annual retreat when Thich Nhat Hanh travels to North America. Over the years the ordained Sangha has been growing and currently consists of 14 monks and 23 nuns. Lay practitioners also live at the monastery. The monastery is composed of two hamlets; Solidity Hamlet for monks and laymen and Clarity Hamlet for nuns and laywomen. After years of planning, work has begun on the Clarity Hamlet Nunnery project. The monastic sisters have left their unhealthy and inadequate living quarters and will be living in temporary quarters until we have enough funds to complete the project. The new Clarity Hamlet will provide a healthy living and practice environment. Its passive solar design and rice straw bale construction will serve as an earth friendly model for the local community. The planned space will accommodate approximately 40 sisters. More space will be open for guests as we renovate accommodations for lay women, couples, and families. The monastery has saved the materials from the existing structure hut including windows and doors, bricks, and wood, for recycling. Trees that had to be cut down will be used to create a pavilion in the central courtyard. Straw will be sourced from local growers. And the walls of the building will be finished in that ancient and efficient substance – mud. Clarity Hamlet Nunnery will be a role model in sustainable living for the community. The buildings will use strawbale construction and passive solar design, and will be integrated into the surrounding nature. The final four buildings will be energy efficient, requiring little heating or cooling, and will be dry, warm, and safe. This is the cause I hope to help. To learn more about it, please watch the youtube video above. To donate to this worthy project, please click here. Every amount helps, even a few dollars or 50 cents. To learn more about the Deer Park Monastery, please visit their site at http://deerparkmonastery.org/. *information and photo from wikipedia.org |