Practicing mindfulness of being in the Deer Park Monastery, feeling the fourfold Sangha, and recognizing the Sangha builder within. The theme of the winter retreat is Sangha building, inviting everyone to participate in establishing a real fourfold Sangha consisting of:

1. Monks
2. Nuns
3. Upasaka (laymen)
4. Upasika (laywomen)
   These groups recite the mindfulness trainings and perform Sangha karman to continue the practice of mindfulness in daily life.

Lay members of the core Sangha share their experiences of transformation, gratitude, and community service during the retreat. These include practicing mindfulness throughout the day through sitting, walking, and eating meditation, as well as working on the soy milk, breakfast, and dishwashing teams. Practitioners describe learning to look past personal ideas to see the goodness in others, caring for sick community members, and shifting their attitude toward meetings to view them as opportunities to simply be together.

The community shares songs on the impermanence of formations and the compassionate heart, alongside reflections on the Sangha acting as a lighthouse where each person reflects the others. The talk concludes with instructions on eating in mindfulness and practicing the Five Contemplations:

1. This food is the gift of the whole universe, the earth, the sky, all species, and much hard work.
2. May we eat with gratitude and mindfulness so as to be worthy to receive this food.
3. May we recognize and transform unwholesome mental formations, especially our greed.
4. May we take in only foods that nourish us and prevent illness.
5. We accept this food so that we may nurture our sisterhood and brotherhood, build our Sangha, and nourish our ideal of serving living beings.