Freedom Is A Daily Choice | Sr. Huong Nghiem
In this intimate and spontaneous Dharma talk offered at Deer Park Monastery in 2025, a monastic elder returns from Plum Village and reflects deeply on the meaning of “freedom” in the practice. Through gentle humor, personal memories, and sincere reflection, she explores how we can be imprisoned by our emotions, perceptions, and inherited notions—and how mindfulness, spiritual friendship, and ethical training can lead us toward liberation.
Themes include:
- The power of spiritual intention and why we come to practice
- Emotional resilience and healing ancestral wounds
- Perceptions and internal "hooks" that keep us stuck
- The deep value of community and the mindfulness trainings
- Freedom as a spiritual path and a daily choice
The talk also includes a moving Q&A about helping family members caught in suffering, and closes with the soundscape of coyotes and meditation bells—reminding us of the sacred presence of nature and the rhythm of practice.
Explore Online Courses
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.
Plum Village App
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.
