Deer Park Monastery recently offered a holiday retreat dubbed “Love in Action.” This is my second mindfulness retreat. As a retreat, it allows lay people to come, enjoy peace, and learn about mindfulness. To enable peace, one of the aspects is to free people from the need to plan. Here in this retreat, that freedom is created thanks to a very nice daily schedule. I like this schedule a lot – it helps me wake up and cool down with nature, and be mindful with my activities. So I am sharing it with you. May you have a mindfulness-enabled organization of life.

Schedule

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Morning

  • 5:15 AM Wake up peacefully
    • Some monk or nun will go to the big bell on a nearby hill and strike it every minute from 5:15.
    • He or she would also sing some sutra
  • 6:00 AM Sitting meditation
    • Done together with the entire Sangha in a meditation hall.
    • May have guiding sutras.
  • 6:30 AM Personal exercise
  • 7:15 AM Breakfast (Eating meditation)
    • For all meals in Plum Village, everyone is responsible for cleaning their dishes afterwards. The water can be near freezing point, but everyone must still do it.
  • 8:15 AM Mindful service
    • Teams will clean the monastery (bathroom cleaning, meditation hall cleaning, or trash collecting) or prepare for the next meals.
  • 9:45 AM Walking meditation
  • 10:45 AM Dharma talk
    • These are lectures from senior Buddhists about the art of living
  • 12:30 PM Lunch (Eating meditation)

Afternoon

  • 2:00 PM Deep Relaxation
    • Technically it is napping done in groups. Someone will read calming sutras on the speakers. People will snore very quickly.
  • 3:30 PM Dharma sharing
    • Mindful check-in between people in a Dharma family. The discussion is led by a monk or nun. People will first go around to share how they feel and the significant things they have observed after 24 hours of practice. Questions about mindfulness will be raised, and the group will practice deep listening. Answers can be made or not.
    • When someone is ready to speak, they bow with their hands joined together. The group bow back to signal that they are ready to deeply listen.
    • The sharing session is usually ended with three sounds of the bell, when everyone turned to the West and watcht the sunset over the mountain.
  • 5:00 PM Personal time (usually for showering, a mini-hike, or browsing the bookstore) or consultation with a monastic.

Evening

  • 6:00 PM Dinner (Eating meditation)
  • 7:30 PM Some meditation exercises like Sitting meditation, Earth touching, or Be-in (amateur art performances)
  • 9:30 PM Noble silence until the next breakfast is done. Lights out at 10 PM.

Some other events:

  • New Year’s Eve ceremony in Plum Village tradition
  • Hike to Escondido mountain and have lunch there (which is packed before by self)

Small joys I personally had during the retreat

  • I enjoyed being thanked by a gentleman. It was one of the most sincere ways to say thank you that I have seen.
  • A friend in my Dharma family approached me personally to dive deep in my questions I have during Dharma sharing. We talked about the beauty of non-attachments, and loneliness, and the point of being present in the here and the now.
  • I enjoyed my $20 tent as I kept finding out new functions in it everyday. It is the first tent I bought and put up for myself. And it just worked.

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My tent! Notice how small it is compared to the one next to it.

  • After we hiked 45 minutes to Escondido mountain, I enjoyed eating the lunch I packed for myself before the hike. It is extremely gratifying to sit on a remote mountain top and look at a sandwich you packed for yourself.
  • At NYE ceremony, I enjoyed the singing of 40 monks and nuns, woven with the sounds of the big drum and bells. It shook my soul vigorously.
  • In Dharma sharing, I enjoyed learning about how people who are a bit (not a lot) more mindful than me process their thoughts and emotions. I never know I could reach that level of meta-cognition before. I see a path to practice mindfulness for myself.
  • A couple lent me a thin air mattress. It made so much difference in keeping me warm while sleeping in a $20 tent at near freezing temperature.
  • I enjoyed watching the American toddlers and kids play together. I learned that kids are masters of mindfulness. They are always in the here and the now, not worrying about the future or the past, the west or the east.
  • I enjoyed even more to watch how their mindful parents treat them when they are naughty.
  • I met a Facebook friend that I never met in real life before.
  • I enjoyed the laughs of Sister Phu Nghiem, our Dharma facilitator. She has one of the most enjoying laughs ever. They make me feel joyful to hear. At the end, she gave me a caligraphy of her own that says “Joy in every smile.”

My tent again!