Action Wake Up (AWU) is a new 15-month residential training program in Buddhist spiritual practice, applied ethics, community living, mindful service, and leadership development. Deer Park Monastery welcomed the first Action Wake Up cohort of young people (aged 18-35) to live and train in Escondido, California in October 2025.
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Donations are our main source of support, so every offering is greatly appreciated. Your contribution helps us to keep the monastery open to receive guests throughout the year.
Donate- Thich Nhat Hanh, The Heart of Understanding“When you produce peace and happiness in yourself, you begin to realize peace for the whole world."
Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh and Sister Chan Khong forged a vision of engaged youth working side-by-side with communities in 1960s Vietnam. Based on Buddhist principles of non-violence and compassionate action, this vision became a reality with the School of Youth for Social Service. It continues today in Wake Up, a worldwide movement of young people building healthy and compassionate societies.
Five members of the inaugural Action Wake Up cohort received the Five Mindfulness Trainings after three months of practice on the Rains Retreat at Deer Park.
For the first three months, participants will attend the Rains Retreat at Deer Park Monastery to deepen their mindfulness practice.
Sample Daily Schedule
5:00 AM Wake up bell
5:45 AM Sitting meditation
6:45 AM Exercise time
7:30 AM Breakfast
9:00 AM Working meditation
11:30 AM Walking meditation
12:30 PM Lunch
2:00 PM Rest period
3:00 PM Class or meeting
4:30 PM Walking meditation
6:00 PM Light dinner
7:30 PM Class/personal time
9:30 PM Noble silence
10:30 PM Lights out/bedtime
Mindful Service & Applied Ethics: After the initial 90-day Rains Retreat, AWU participants will work on action-oriented projects for 9 months on initiatives like the Happy Farm, Wake Up Retreat, and the Thich Nhat Hanh School of Interbeing. They will also work on action-oriented projects with community-based organizations in San Diego, California.
Spiritual Practice & Community Living: Monastics, lay Dharma teachers, and Order of Interbeing core members will continue to provide mentorship throughout this phase. Participants will continue taking classes and engage in mindful service at Deer Park Monastery. They will have opportunities to connect with existing Plum Village sanghas (“community”) and learn how to build and facilitate their own.
Leadership Development: At the end of the 9-month service period, participants will finish the program through the next Rains Retreat. Participants will evaluate the impact of their work, reflect on their personal transformation, and help guide the next generation of Action Wake Up participants.
Successful participants may also be invited to receive the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings and become a core member of the Order of Interbeing, subject to the discretion of the advisory team and monastic community.
– The Twelfth Mindfulness Training of the Order of InterbeingAware that much suffering is caused by war and conflict, we are determined to cultivate nonviolence, compassion, and the insight of interbeing in our daily lives and promote peace education, mindful meditation, and reconciliation within families, communities, ethnic and religious groups, nations, and in the world...
Program Eligibility:
Cost:
Application Process:
Action Wake Up is actively developing the next generation of bodhisattvas. Your donation contributes to our mission to learn, practice, and teach the art of mindful living in the Plum Village tradition in order to realize Thay’s vision for a vibrant and healing Beloved Community of happy people who live in peace and harmony with each other and the Earth.
The Action Wake Up House is located at Simplicity Hamlet at the foothills of the Hidden Mountain (just a few miles down the road from Deer Park). The Action Wake Uppers live, eat, and practice here, requiring donations for basic living expenses such as food, maintenance, and furnishings. Your donation also supports the start-up costs for the program as well as transportation to community service projects at a local hospital.
From time to time we offer multi-week courses related to mindfulness, the teachings and life of Thich Nhat Hanh, and a variety of similar subjects. Please see our schedule of upcoming courses.
Take the Deer Park Monastery and Plum Village community with you wherever you go. The Plum Village app is designed to cultivate mindfulness, compassion, and joy through guided meditations, deep relaxations, practice poems, bells of mindfulness, and other practices — all through a mobile device.
