DeerPark Wednesday 3/19/2025

Thầy wrote in Fragrant Palm Leaves

New York City 20 January 1963 on Page 109

As I write these lines, no one else has read them yet.

These lines that contain my thoughts, feelings, paper, ink, time, space, and handwriting, as well as all the other phenomena that have contributed to their existence, exist only in my consciousness.

Readers who may one day read these lines also lie within my consciousness.

All phenomena—Vietnam with her flowering grapefruit and orange trees, graceful coconut trees, and towering areca palms, and the lively city of New York, the sun, snow, clouds, moon, and stars—lie within my own consciousness.

They are merely concepts.

My world, including all my friends and readers, all the grapefruit and starfruit trees I have ever touched or thought about, is a world of concepts.

When you read these lines, will you see me in them? This city, as well as my thoughts and feelings, will then become concepts in your consciousness.

For you, these concepts are not the result of direct contact with the objects of my consciousness.

Void of physical reality, these concepts are shared through the medium of consciousness.

The physical basis of consciousness, both personal and collective, has disappeared.

I wrote to Thầy Pháp Lưu that when I read this passage while traveling down the Mexican Riviera last Thanksgiving in the middle of the night, it was like receiving the energy of a twinkle of a star that has been shining brightly and eternally for 62 years. I asked for permission to come paint at Deer Park. I was hesitant, not sure how he would respond. Deer Park belongs to the Monastics and practitioners, not painters. I told him an abstractionist can only paint where there are feelings. I tried to paint at Chùa Vinh Quang and couldn't feel a thing. San Diego by the coast is mostly flat. He said OK and would text me the gate code on the day of. I asked to come one day a week to start.

I woke up at 5 AM as I normally would, cleaned out the kitchen, and emptied the dishwasher. Bryan texted me if I wanted to hit the ocean today. I replied next Monday would be better. I will reserve Wednesday to come paint at Deer Park and Monday and Friday to go swimming with John's Tri group when the season starts in April. All good. The week is lining up now with Tuesday and Thursday for Dryland with Cedric. Picking up Isabelle every day at 3:30 PM except Wednesday. Oliver is OK because he would be on his e-bike.

By 6 AM, the teams from NYC/NJ/JP/India/Brazil/Canada/Cary/Tampa would be calling in and kept me busy all the way through noon. Hopefully, I can then get a nap after. I texted Thầy that I would be coming and waited for his reply.

By 3 PM, I received his reply and got in the Beamer. Top down, of course. The sun is super bright with not a speck of cloud in sight. Waze told me how to drive the backroad all the way from Seabreeze Farms to Escondido. It would be the first time. Happy to skip the 15. The drive was just unbelievable as the road would wind through the most lush part of San Diego that no one except convertible drivers would know. Nothing but endless horse farms winding through the backside of San Diego with nothing but faraway distant mountains that the best California can offer. The sun hitting down on me and I would receive the energizing rays like Clark Kent becoming Superman. Almost 50 minutes later with some light traffic. I am happy to see the 15 on the side, though it would have been only 32 minutes, but who knows about the beginning of late afternoon traffic, which I was glad to avoid. Part of the drive would be what I would imagine driving in Northern VN to be like. A bit of a stretch, but the landscape with all can be comparable in some part :-) I think. One would be surprised at how much vegetation Escondido does have.

Arriving at the gate, I punched in the code that Thầy had sent, and it gently opened. So hi-tech, and it closed behind me as I passed.

No matter how many times I had driven through the path up the mountain to the parking lot, I am always amazed. It always felt like entering another dimension of another time and space. No wonder when Thầy first arrived, the Vietnamese family that happened to be living next to it said that her mother had dreamt of the arrival of the brown robe monks. I always wonder what is the difference between this landscape and everywhere else? It is the intention. It is the intention that creates the reality. The reality stays the same without intention.

I drove silently like the sign says "be a Zen driver" 5 mph. You have to be; otherwise, you would be going off the cliff as your eyes would be constantly glued to the stunning distant view. I drove very slowly as I would be the only one today, and with the top down, I can see clearly every magical natural event. I wanted to take everything in very slowly and deliberately. With deep breaths through the nostrils, of course. It's the only way to truly experience the visual gift.

A sister was walking down with her friend whom I recognized from the first sharing group with Brother Peace last summer. I said Chúc Mừng Năm Mới as this would be the first time that I had been back since Tết. I reached for the Lì Xì package, the small one, and saved the big one for the senior brother and sister. She was happy to see me, and I was happy to see her. I told her how special I was feeling to return after being away for some time. She agreed and appreciated that I reminded her of what it would be like coming in from the outside. I imagined the cloistered life of a monastic.

I drove quietly into the parking lot with only 1 or 2 cars there. The scene is very different than Sunday when it would be full and overflowing. The place has changed so much in only a few weeks. Most construction is now done with the start of Happy Farm.

I walked slowly to pick my spot.

When the evening bell started, I cleaned up and walked up to see the waning sun.

By 7:30 PM, I drove out to pick Isabelle up from water polo in La Jolla, taking the 15 this time.

The day ended just as it had started.