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Dharma Talk to Conclude the Rains Retreat
Only three days remain until the end of our 90-day retreat, a precious time like birds gathering together. Even though after the retreat each person will return to their own life, we still maintain our connection within the spiritual sangha, continuing to practice stability and clarity. Throughout the retreat, organizing celebrations such as Christmas or Tet has become a way of practice, learning through organizing and working together, creating a deep brotherhood, which is our “home” and a beautiful past to carry with us on the journey of life.
At Deer Park Monastery, the inauguration of the solar energy system, presided over by Venerable Phuoc Tinh, has enabled the monastery to operate entirely on natural energy, only using city electricity on very hot days; when there is surplus electricity, the monastery gives it back to the state, creating “credit.” The monastery also pioneers the use of vehicles running on vegetable oil, improves the composting system to produce odorless fertilizer, and supports solar energy for about 15 families in the area. This is evidence of “not just speaking, but doing,” leading truthfully through concrete action.
- Practice is prioritized over preaching: organizing retreats helps people live fully with the Dharma; from the second day, they begin to relax, feel joy, and do not want to leave.
- Studying the Buddha’s teachings is a continuous journey: reading sutras such as the Avatamsaka Sutra and the Lotus Sutra many times to discover new depths; translation must preserve the original spirit, avoiding changes according to popular taste.
- Relationship with ancestors and the sangha: “the shadow of flowers fills the earth, their beauty stretches across the sky” reminds us to contemplate so that even in suffering we can see precious values, continuing and handing them back to our ancestors; living happily in the present moment, nurturing the bodhi mind in each moment.
- The final oracle of the retreat (number 139): “All within the sound of one harmonious string… If you trust what came before, what comes after will follow” encourages faith in the transformative energy of the sangha, joining together in one harmonious sound so that faith and actions of the past may guide success in the present and future.
