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Support Deer Park
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.
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Guests are welcome to visit Deer Park for Days of Mindfulness, multi-day overnight retreats, and other special events.
We welcome people with all levels of meditation experience — including none at all. However, please plan your visit for times when the monastery is open and receiving visitors. If you have registered for an overnight retreat, plan to arrive on your designated arrival day. The monastery gate is closed outside of these times.
We warmly invite you to join Peace Is Every Bite, a four-week online course rooted in the Plum Village tradition that explores mindful cooking and eating as a path to greater peace, nourishment, and connection.
We invite you to join us for The Buddha the Scientist Retreat, co-hosted by UCSD at Lions Camp at Wrightwood, located at Teresita Pines in the beautiful San Gabriel Mountains near Wrightwood, California.
The Buddha the Scientist Symposium (TBTS) is a 1-day event hosted at UCSD inviting scientists from around North America to explore the intersection of Buddhism, psychology, and neuroscience through the embodied practice of mindfulness.
Practicing the Mindfulness Trainings
Please keep in mind that the monastery is a spiritual space intended for relaxation, reflection, healing, and transformation. Observe the Five Mindfulness Trainings to ensure a respectful and harmonious atmosphere for all.
Intoxicants and Drugs on Campus Are Strictly Prohibited
This includes illegal drugs, marijuana, alcohol, tobacco, cigarettes, vapes, as well as illicit use of prescription and over-the-counter medications. Possession of these substances will result in immediate removal from the monastery.
Appropriate Physical Conduct
Respect personal boundaries and avoid behaviors that may make others feel uncomfortable or unsafe, including romantic advances, sexual gestures or comments, inappropriate physical contact (including touching, punching, or hugging), asking another visitor to go to an isolated place away from the Sangha, or disregarding dress code guidelines.
Dress Code
Dress modestly and comfortably in loose-fitting clothes that cover shoulders, midsection, and knees. Avoid wearing shorts, tank tops, and fragrances.
Pets Policy
For the protection and safety of all, guests cannot bring pets to our practice center.
To navigate to Deer Park using a GPS, mobile device, or rideshare service put in either 2499 Melru Ln, Escondido, CA or 1 Deer Park Ln, Escondido, CA.
Once you arrive at our Main Gate, drive up the road about one mile. Go past Clarity Hamlet and park in the Main Parking Lot — a large gravel lot on the left side.
To get more information about your type of visit, see our Types of Visits page. There’s useful information there for you if you are:
We welcome you to attend our Days of Mindfulness on a donation basis. There are donation boxes available in the Dining Hall and Ocean of Peace Meditation Hall, or you can click here to donate online.
Visitors for events and retreats are welcome to donate as they are called to and are able. There is a donation table located near the Registration Office on the day of events or the last day of retreats.
Alms giving (food donation) has connected the monastic and lay communities since the time of the Buddha. If you would like to make a donation of vegetarian food to the monastery, you may come to the kitchen on a Day of Mindfulness so that we can receive your gift.
All donations are greatly appreciated.
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.
Reporting Misconduct
Please report concerning or inappropriate behavior to any monastic resident or email us here.
