Welcome to the Friends of Deer Park

Mission Statement

Our mission is to provide stable support to the four-fold sangha at Deer Park and to mindfully care for and protect Deer Park as a place of practice for current and future generations. We see that a practice center like Deer Park is a common creation of the ancestral teachers, the founders, and all those who come there, walking as free people with a smile strengthened by kindness, a look of inclusiveness, and words of loving speech. We see that Deer Park is a collective creation needing our collective support to sustain it.

Our Vision

As the clouds send the rain to create the waterfall to feed the stream to wake up the frogs in the Deer Park creek, we aspire to teach ourselves and others to live and work together in harmonious balance with each other and the earth. We seek to care for and maintain Deer Park by coordinating and synchronizing with the monastic sangha and the animal, plant, and mineral residents of Deer Park Valley, each playing our role and providing our service.

As the sun shines everyday on Deer Park’s solar panels, shining light into our practice center and residences, the Friends of Deer Park see that there is no high or low job, no better or worse tasks, that changing a toilet is as important as planting a vegetable is as important as doing bookkeeping. All are necessary to sustain and support the monastery and keep its light shining bright into the future.

As the monkeyflower blooms in the valley, slowly, and only when conditions are right, we vow to protect Deer Park and our sangha from too much busy-ness, hurry, worry, and anxiety. We will learn to let go of our ideas so that we can look deeply into all conditions. We will always do our best to work slowly, mindfully without distraction available to enjoy the wonders of life in every moment.

The Friends of Deer Park is coordinated by a core of local residents and monastics. Membership is open to any practitioner in the Plum Village tradition who wishes to practice generosity through volunteering or dana to help sustain Deer Park Monastery. Please contact Laura at earthlover@sbcglobal.net for more information or continue to discover our website