Deer Park Buddhist Center

Deer Park Buddhist Center and Monastery is devoted to ensuring that Tibetan Buddhist teachings and the monastic way of life, as well as Tibetan culture, remain available as a vibrant part of our common human legacy.

Deer Park’s mission is to provide a stable foundation in America’s heartland to continue Tibetan Buddhism’s unique contribution to human culture and wisdom, by way of:

– Supporting people’s moral and spiritual growth, as a means to bring about temporary and lasting peace for them individually and throughout the world.
– Educating, training, and inspiring local and international monastic and lay students in the philosophy and practice of Tibetan Buddhism.
– Serving as a monastery where Tibetans and non-Tibetans alike can observe and experience Buddhism as a complete living tradition in a tranquil rural setting that is particularly conducive to the contemplative monastic lifestyle.

While a growing number of Tibetan Buddhist centers across the United States and in the Midwest offer study and meditation programs, Deer Park does so under the guidance of a resident monastic community. As such, Deer Park is uniquely positioned to provide an experience of this integral part of the Buddhist path, and to teach by its example as well as by its words.

“It should be understood that wherever the monastic lifestyle exists together with the sincere practice of the prescribed monastic activities, there the Buddha’s teaching abides. Likewise, it should be understood that wherever the monastic lifestyle does not exist or exists but without sincere engagement in the prescribed monastic activity, there the Buddha’s teaching has perished. The demarcation between the existence and non-existence of the Buddha’s teaching should be based on whether or not followers of the monastic tradition (ordained sangha) exist and whether or not, among the collection of the holy Buddhist teachings the Vinaya teachings (the prescribed monastic rules and activities) exist.”

A passage from the Vinaya Sutra (the Buddha’s explanation of the monastic life) as quoted in a commentary by Gendun Drup, the 1st Dalai Lama.

The Deer Park collection, developed from the bequest of Prof. Robinson’s Buddhist Studies library as well as other generous gifts, includes many original Tibetan texts in traditional woodblock prints and modern formats, books on Tibet and Buddhism in English and other European languages, and a complete set of audiotapes of teachings that have been given at Deer Park over the years. All works are available for consultation, and many can be lent out.

The new temple which was opened officially in 2007 is being used extensively for large and small teachings and ceremonies, including long life pujas and tantric initiations. The Kalachakra Temple which is now only to be used for small, special events was initially built as an open pavilion for the Kalachakra initiation given by H. H. the Dalai Lama in 1981–the first such initiation bestowed in the West. The temple is furnished in traditional Tibetan style with many beautiful paintings (tankas) and tapestries depicting the life of the Buddha and other religious figures. The altar is enhanced by Buddha images, offerings and a complete set of the Tibetan Buddhist scriptures, the Kangyur and the Tengyur.