Brother Phap Dung

Brother Pháp Dung (Dharma Embrace) is a Vietnamese American monk, ordained by Thầy in 1998. He was born in Vietnam in 1969 and escaped as a refugee with his family to the US when he was nine years old. He grew up in the Los Angeles area, studied and received a degree in Architecture from the University of Southern California, and worked as an architect/designer for four years before becoming a monk.

He helped establish Deer Park Monastery and many other US centers, creating meditation programs and retreats for children, teens, families, and young adults, as well as planning its halls and infrastructures. He was the abbot of the monastery from 2001 until 2010. He received the Lamp Transmission from Thích Nhất Hạnh and became a Dharma teacher in 2004.

He is most inspired by meditation as a method of examining and cultivating the mind of the individual and of the collective and by community building as a method to heal and develop society.