ABOUT US

Two Palms Up Vision

The busy, complex and alienating world in which we live can only be transformed and preserved for humanity’s survival by our individual and collective awakening, compassion, understanding, kindness, peace and love. We therefore aspire to create a community in which we practice for ourselves and all beings . . . human, animal and mineral.

Two Palms Up Mission

Two Palms Up Sangha is actively creating a community of awakening, understanding and compassion that manifests in the world through the practices of Sati*, mindful living and Zen meditation.

• We offer guidance and opportunities for embracing the Dharma in daily life, including sitting and walking meditation, as well as a variety of mindfulness practices offered in regular sangha meetings, on days of mindfulness and on meditation retreats. 
• We practice according to the teachings of the Buddha, Thich Nhat Hanh and other noble teachers of many spiritual traditions. We are guided in our meditation practice by three primary sutras: 
  • The Discourse on Knowing the Better Way to Live Alone; 
  • The Satipatthana Sutra on the Four Establishments of Mindfulness; and 
  • The Sutra on the Full Awareness of Breathing (Anapanasati Sutra).
• We practice the Bodhisattva ideal, which is to live for the benefit of all beings. 
• We aspire to be a community that lives in harmony and awareness, characterized by openness, honesty, understanding and kindness.

* Sati is a Pali word typically translated in Thich Nhat Hanh’s Plum Village tradition as mindfulness. 

Through observation, study and practice of the Dharma we walk together on the path of awakening, understanding and love.

Two Palms Up Values

• We value personal and collective awakening as taught by the Buddha, the sutras, Thich Nhat Hanh, and noble teachers from various Buddhist and spiritual traditions.
• We acknowledge and embrace the Buddha’s teachings on Dukkha as outlined in the Four Noble Truths. Dukkha is a Pali word most often translated in English as suffering. 
• We value living according to the Buddha’s Noble Eightfold Path, the Five Mindfulness Trainings (the Buddha’s Five Precepts), and the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings of the Order of Interbeing.
• We value nourishing and supporting local and maha sangha, providing a refuge for individual, family and collective growth in a community of practitioners dedicated to personal awakening, transformation and liberation.
• We value assuring that all have access to welcoming and peaceful physical and virtual locations appropriate to the deepening of practice.
• We value endeavoring to resolve all conflicts among sangha members, however small.

GUIDING PRACTICE LEADER

Michael Melancon, Chan Niem Quang is an ordained member of Thich Nhat Hanh’s Order of Interbeing. Michael serves as our primary practice leader for Two Palms Up Sangha. He came to Zen practice in 1990, after an extensive yearlong study of the world’s spiritual traditions. Michael says of that exploration, “Many of the world’s spiritual traditions seemed to be about having all the answers, inviting us to believe or believe in this or that doctrine or deity. My encounter with Zen was so refreshing, as Zen is the practice of literally sitting in the questions. Holding space, curiosity and inquiry; allowing truth to arise in this moment of awareness and awakening; exploring life’s big questions with curiosity and open heartedness.”


Michael’s primary teachers have been Thich Nhat Hanh and Dharmacharya Eileen Kiera, who ordained him into the Order of Interbeing in 2005. He also owes a deep debt of gratitude to Roshi Jack Duffy, with whom he has practiced 21-day retreats, as well as sesshin and dokusan. Over the years Michael has learned the value of including other voices in his spiritual training. He is therefore also indebted to the many nuns, monks and Dharmacharya of the Plum Village tradition, who have offered light on the path. He is especially grateful for his long friendship with Dharmachrya Trish Thompson, founder of the Loving Work Foundation, with whom Michael offered meditation and work retreats in the homeland of Thay Thich Nhat Hanh, Viet Nam. Finally, he studied with his beloved teacher Roshi Joan Halifax and the broad faculty of Upaya Zen Institute’s Chaplaincy Program, where Michael was ordained as a Chaplain with a specialty in end of life care in 2011. He also enjoyed an extensive career as a human resource and organizational effectiveness strategist. 


Michael is meditation teacher and guiding practice leader for Two Palms Up Mindfulness Community in Palm Springs, as well as for daily online Morning Light Sangha. He is a board member, practice leader and meditation teacher for Radiant Light Zen and Wise Caregiving, though which he and Jonathan Prescott teach Zen practitioners and caregivers contemplative care techniques and tools. 

JOIN US

TPUS Weekly Practice
Hybrid Zoom & In-Person Meetings
Thursday afternoons from 1:30 to 3:00 pm PST
Two Palms Up Zendo on Dry Falls Road in Palm Springs, California

Enter your email here to request the physical address and Zoom Link and to be added to our weekly Sangha Email that describes the planned practice meeting for the upcoming week.

Our Practice Meetings

Two Palms Up Sangha meets once each week on Thursday afternoons from 1:30 to 3:00 pm. Officially, the sangha meets at Two Palms Up Zendo, our meditation hall located in a private residence on Dry Falls Road in the Vista Las Palmas neighborhood of Palm Springs, California. 

However, during the period of isolation resulting from the Covid Pandemic we quickly adapted by continuing to meet weekly using the Zoom platform since April 2020. Meeting weekly in the Zoomdo provides a safe respite of connection and practice for those of us who had been practicing together in person prior to the pandemic. Using Zoom made it possible for folks residing outside of Palm Springs and nearby desert cities to join us for our weekly practice sessions. All our sangha members are profoundly grateful that Zoom made it possible for us to continue meeting throughout the periods of Covid-related sequestration.

Hybrid In-Person / Zoom Practice Meetings

Since the advent of Covid vaccines, some practitioners are choosing to be present in the physical TPUS zendo meditation hall in Palm Springs, while others join us virtually via Zoom . . . in the Zoomdo. 

• Proof of Covid vaccination and boosters is required if you would like to meet with us in person.
• During January and February each year, only the virtual zoom meeting is offered while Michael is in Mexico.
• We at Two Palms Up would love to have you join us either by Zoom or in person

The Weekly Program

Each week we open both the in-person zendo as well as the virtual Zoomdo at 1:15 pm Pacific Time.

• Please arrive in person by 1:15 pm PST and on Zoom no later than 1:25 pm PST, in order to settle and be ready to begin practice promptly at 1:30 pm PST. 
• Please adjust times for your time zone. 

At 1:30 pm PST, we welcome everyone and begin with sitting meditation for 25 minutes, followed by walking meditation in person or in your home space until 2:10 pm PST. From 2:10 to 3:00 pm PST we engage in various practice forms, including: live or recorded Dharma Talks; Dharma Sharing (each of us speaking personally about what is alive for us in our practice); Guided Deep Relaxation; Sutra Service; Reciting the Five and Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings; Touching the Earth; Tea Ceremony; reading one of Thay Thich Nhat Hanh’s books; etc.
As a sangha we also understand the value of including other voices. So, in addition to Dharma talks and practices of the Plum Village Tradition, we also enjoy Vipassana, Insight Meditation and historically Japanese Mahayana Zen teachings, dharma teachers and practices. 

Daily Practice – Morning Light Sangha

Two Palms Up sangha members and meditation students studying with our guiding practice leader Michael are also invited to practice with Morning Light Sangha [MLS]. Inspired by the Covid pandemic, OI Members Jonathan Prescott and Michael Melancon established Morning Light Sangha in April 2020, during the second month of Covid sequestering. Since then, 20 to 35 practitioners have been meeting on Zoom from 7:00 to 7:30 am PST, six days a week (Sunday through Friday). We practice 25 minutes of silent sitting meditation, followed by 5 minutes of Dharma Sharing in which members reflect on what is alive for them in the practice. Come help establish your practice as a daily habit at the same time each day.

We do not publish the Morning Light Zoom link publicly. If you would like to try practicing with Morning Light Sangha, please click here to receive an email with the Zoom Link. 

• Note: the Zoom link for Morning Light Sangha is different from the Zoom link for Two Palms Up Sangha.

Practice Periods

Every few months we take up a new Practice Period, in which we devote ourselves to a topic of Dharma exploration for two to three months. Sometimes we collaboration with practitioners from our sister sanghas: Morning Light Sangha, Anacortes Mindfulness Community and Mindfulness Community of Victoria. 

Examples: In May, June and July of 2021 we studied the Eight Realizations of Great Beings including weekly Dharma Talks with practice leaders Jonathan Prescott and Michael Melancon. We then engaged in a three-month investigation into the Nature of Dukkha, exploring ways we each define and experience suffering, as well as the ways we work with our own suffering, and how we respond to the suffering of others and suffering in the world. We also periodically engage in an informal practice period, in which Sangha members take responsibility for coordinating presentations on a Dharma topic that is alive for them in their own practice, typically in January and February.

Days of Mindfulness

Two Palms Up offers regular whole day or partial day Zoom or In-Person Days of Mindfulness, sometimes in conjunction with Deer Park Monastery and, or other sanghas. 

• A Day of Mindfulness is like a one-day retreat, in which we practice mindful breathing, sitting meditation, walking meditation, eating meditation and Dharma Study.
• Days of Mindfulness are In-Person or on Zoom, and typically not hybrid. 

Zen Meditation Retreats

At least a couple of times each year, Two Palms Up offers Zen mediation retreats in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh, often in conjunction with Deer Park Monastery or other sanghas. 

• Retreats are generally 3 to 7 days in length, offered at a rural retreat or practice center.
• Retreats can be residential (in-person with lodging) or on Zoom, and are typically not hybrid. 

Covid-Era Practice

In normal times, we practice together at Two Palms Up Zendo, located in the Vista Las Palmas neighborhood of Palm Springs, California. Like so many others sanghas, since the beginning of the pandemic we have taken our practice meetings online with Zoom. Virtual practice has allowed TPUS to include regular weekly sangha members that do not necessarily live in near proximity to our Palm Springs zendo

Coachella Valley Snow Birds

The Coachella Valley attracts fall, winter and springtime snow birds from the Northern US and Canada. Seasonal practitioners are welcome at Two Palms Up.

Unique Meditation Opportunities/Swimming Pool Meditation

Our sunny and warm desert setting at the base of the San Jacinto Mountains affords us the opportunity to sit solid as a mountain, meditating on the mountain range above and walk mindfully together in the foothills in which we are located. In late spring we practice a unique practice of “Swimming Pool Meditation,” sitting mindfully and silently in the 90+ degree water on the pool’s meditation shelf. Reflecting all that is, we meditate on the swaying palm trees and the smooth dry falls overhead, as well as on the wide variety of birds that come to feed and drink in the garden and in the canyon. We also plan hikes in the foothills, as well as in nearby Joshua Tree

Gifts of Service to the Sangha

Sangha is the Buddhist word for community of practitioners. Our sangha members serve the sangha as practice leaders, each community member participating in leading and contributing to our weekly sangha meetings as expressions of their own practice and paths of awakening. For example, Bell Minders offer a welcome at the beginning of each Sangha meeting, then with the three sounds of the bell, they invite us into sitting meditation, walking meditation, as well other practices.

BEGINNINGS

At the turn of the 21st century our guiding practice leader Michael lived in the Pacific Northwest, where he practiced with the Mindfulness Community of Puget Sound and Three Treasures Sangha in Seattle. He also practiced with his Dharma Teacher Eileen Kiera and Mountain Lamp Community, a rural practice center in the Mount Baker Foothills near the Canadian Border. He practiced regular retreats at Plum Village, Deer Park Monastery and Blue Cliff Monastery. Michael knew that he would one day retire to Southern California’s Coachella Valley. For over 20 years Michael held a vision and aspiration to establish a sangha in Palm Springs, California to practice in the Mindfulness Tradition of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. 

In 2017 that vision was realized when Two Palms Up Sangha was established as a Sangha community practicing in the Plum Village tradition, and listed in the Plum Village Global Sangha Directory of the Mindfulness Bell.

TPUS founding members are Order of Interbeing member John Daugirda, his spouse Meredith May and our guiding practice leader Michael Melancon. They practiced together for six months before being joined by senior sangha member Bob Doren. TPUS has been practicing with an evolving group of between 6 and 12 regular sangha members ever since.