Deer Park Monastery, Escondido, CA

No posts this past busy week. Rainy Season Retreat ended for the monastics on Sunday, and we took three Lazy Days in a row (the nuns only took two, but you know how those lazy, shiftless monks are).

On Monday, we took a fieldtrip to Los Angeles to see the Body Worlds exhibit. I had heard of this exhibit when my brother lent me the book Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, but I never thought I'd have a chance to actually see it. In brief, for those too lazy to peruse the website, the exhibit is of actual human bodies that were preserved using a plasticization process. The exhibit is extensive with over 200 specimens, showing all of the human body's systems and organs, all plasticized from actual organic material. Deep. Heavy.

Anyway, for Christmas, I leave you the Deer Park version of the Twelve Days of Christmas (Everybody sing!!):

- On the first day of Christmas, the Sangha said to me, "The One contains the All"
- On the second day of Christmas, the Sangha offered me: Two Promises, and the One contains the All
- On the third day of Christmas, the Sangha offered me: Three Dharma Seals, Two Promises, and the One contains the All
- On the fourth day of Christmas, the Sangha offered me: Four Noble Truths, Three Dharma Seals, Two Promises, and the One contains the All
- On the fifth day of Christmas, the Sangha offered me: FIVE MINDFULNESS TRAININGS! Four Noble Truths, Three Dharma Seals, Two Promises, and the One contains the All
- On the sixth day of Christmas, the Sangha offered me: Six Paramitas, FIVE MINDFULNESS TRAININGS, Four Noble Truths, Three Dharma Seals, Two Promises, and the One contains the All
- On the seventh day of Christmas, the Sangha offered me: Seven Factors of Awakening, Six Paramitas, FIVE MINDFULNESS TRAININGS, Four Noble Truths, Three Dharma Seals, Two Promises, and the One contains the All
- On the eighth day of Christmas, the Sangha offered me: the Eightfold Path, Seven Factors of Awakening, Six Paramitas, FIVE MINDFULNESS TRAININGS, Four Noble Truths, Three Dharma Seals, Two Promises, and the One contains the All
- On the ninth day of Christmas, the Sangha offered me: nine monks a-lazing, the Eightfold Path, Seven Factors of Awakening, Six Paramitas, FIVE MINDFULNESS TRAININGS, Four Noble Truths, Three Dharma Seals, Two Promises, and the One contains the All
- On the tenth day of Christmas, the Sangha offered me: Ten Novice Precepts, nine monks a-lazing, the Eightfold Path, Seven Factors of Awakening, Six Paramitas, FIVE MINDFULNESS TRAININGS, Four Noble Truths, Three Dharma Seals, Two Promises, and the One contains the All
- On the eleventh day of Christmas, the Sangha offered me: eleven nuns a-cooking, Ten Novice Precepts, nine monks a-lazing, the Eightfold Path, Seven Factors of Awakening, Six Paramitas, FIVE MINDFULNESS TRAININGS, Four Noble Truths, Three Dharma Seals, Two Promises, and the One contains the All
- On the twelfth day of Christmas the Sangha offered me: Twelve Linked Chain of Interdependent Co-Origination, eleven nuns a-cooking, Ten Novice Precepts, nine monks a-lazing, the Eightfold Path, Seven Factors of Awakening, Six Paramitas, FIVE MINDFULNESS TRAININGS, Four Noble Truths, Three Dharma Seals, Two Promises, and the ONE CONTAINS THE ALL