Art Prize runs between September 22, and October 10, 2010. Exhibits are located throughout the city of Grand Rapids.

Artist Bio:
Venerable Gyudmed Ngarampa Thupten Tsondu (Tashi) was born in Tibet but fled to India in 1959 to seek political asylum along with his parents and the Dalai Lama. At age 13 he entered Gyudmed Tantric University to become a monk according to his wishes. In 1995 he was given a dialectic exam in front of 400 monks which resulted in the Geshe Ngarampa degree, a Ph.D. in Tibetan Tantric Buddhism.

He has visited the USA, Canada, Switzerland, England, Mongolia, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, Nepal and India and has taught ritual chanting, sand mandala construction and dialectic debate to monks at the Gyudmed Tantric, Gaden Jangtse and Drepung Gomang Monasteries of India and the Pethub Stengeyling and Gyud Monasteries of Mongolia. Tashi also served as chief administrator of Gyudmed Tantric University and wrote a book on tantric ritual.

Venerable Gyudmed Ngarampa Thupten Tsondu (Tashi) is currently a Buddhist spiritual teacher in Florida.

About the work
Title: The Sacred Art of Sand Mandala
Art form: 3-D, Performance
Medium: colored sand on wood
Year created: Work not created yet
Description of work: ‘Mandala’ means ‘cosmogram’ in sanskrit and the painting of mandalas with sand is a Tibetan Buddhist art thought to have originated in India during the middle ages. In Tibetan ‘dul-tson-kyil-khor’ means ‘mandala of colored powders’. The most common substance used is colored sand, ground from stone.

Sand mandalas are created whenever a need for healing of the environment and living beings is felt and there are different types, each with different lessons to teach and blessings to confer. Most mandalas contain a host of deities; symbolic archetypes of the landscape of the mind. In Tibetan Buddhism mandalas are imaginary palaces contemplated during meditation.

When finished, to symbolize the impermanence of all that exists, the colored sands are swept up and poured into a nearby river or stream where the waters carry the healing energies throughout the world.

Following the Saturday, October 2nd lecture will be
Tibetan Tantric Chanting for Peace (approx. 7:00 p.m.)

Donation based series – suggested $12 per or $65 for the series.

About Ven. Thupten Tsondu (Tashi):
Venerable Gyudmed Ngarampa Thupten Tsondu (Tashi) was born in Tibet but fled to India in 1959 to seek political asylum along with his parents and the Dalai Lama. At age 13 he entered Gyudmed Tantric University to become a monk according to his wishes. In 1995 he was given a dialectic exam in front of 400 monks which resulted in the Geshe Ngarampa degree, a Ph.D. in Tibetan Tantric Buddhism.

He has visited the USA, Canada, Switzerland, England, Mongolia, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, Nepal and India and has taught ritual chanting, sand mandala construction and dialectic debate to monks at the Gyudmed Tantric, Gaden Jangtse and Drepung Gomang Monasteries of India and the Pethub Stengeyling and Gyud Monasteries of Mongolia. Tashi also served as chief administrator of Gyudmed Tantric University and wrote a book on tantric ritual.

Venerable Gyudmed Ngarampa Thupten Tsondu (Tashi) is currently a Buddhist spiritual teacher in Florida.

Ven. Tashi is in the Grand Rapids area for the creation of a Sand Mandala as part of the Art Prize 2010 exhibition.

Sister will give a public talk from 2 -4 p.m. on Saturday September 11, 2010; lead a day of mindfulness on Sunday September 12;  and then continue with a full seven day retreat for more advanced practitioners.  The public is invited to any and all events.   All events are  at Amitabha Village Retreat Center near Williamston (15 min. east from Lansing, 50  min. west from Ann Arbor).   There is no retreat fee.  Free will donations are welcome.   To register or for more information please contact Lansingbuddhist@gmail.com or call 1-517-292-3110.

All are welcome!

About Sayalay Sister Susila:

Born and educated in Malaysia, Sayalay Susila ordained as a Theravada Buddhist nun in 1991 at the age of 28, and has trained with two renowned Burmese meditation masters – the Venerable Sayadaw U Pandita and the Venerable Pa-Auk Sayadaw, under whose guidance she continues to practice today.

Sister mastered the Burmese Vipassana meditation systems from these two venerable Sayadaws.  She is well known especially for her teaching of the Theravada Buddhist Abhidhamma, which she taught initially in Taiwan, Malaysia, and Singapore, as well as in Buddhist centers across Canada, the United States, and Australia.

Sister has two books in print: The Nine Attributes of the Buddha (in
Chinese) and Unravelling the Mysteries of Mind and Body Through
Abhidhamma (in English).  She speaks fluent English, Mandarin Chinese, and Burmese, and has translated widely from English to Chinese for Venerable Pa-Auk Sayadaw in Malaysia and Taiwan.  When not traveling and teaching Sister lives at Sayadaw’s meditation center in Burma (Myanmar).

For this retreat, Sister Susila will guide students in the practice of
Samatha and Vipassana (Concentration and Insight) as taught at
Pa Auk Tawya Meditation Center. Meditation instruction to the group will  be given in English, however, interviews can be in Chinese or English.

About Amitabha Village Retreat Center:

Amitabha Village, the Retreat Center of the Lansing Buddhist
Association, is located in peaceful Michigan countryside amid meadows, woods, and farmland. The retreat will take place in a newly finished, comfortable, energy efficient meditation hall (The Great Hall) built with donations and much volunteer labor. The indoor sleeping accommodations for the retreat are rustic dormitory style, camping is available in a pine forest or on meadows, and food is Chinese vegetarian.

Come join us for five days of mindfulness practice
in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh.

Michigan Mindfulness Retreat
September 15,16,17,18,19 Wednesday to Sunday
Song of the Morning Yoga Retreat Center
Vanderbilt, Michigan

Mindfulness practice in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh

We will enjoy sitting and walking meditation, the Five and the Fourteen
Mindfulness trainings, some silent meals, early morning walks to greet
the sunrise, yoga, dharma discussions and other activities.

* Vegetarian meals

* Clean and modern accommodations

* Only forty-five dollars a night plus tax for
a bed in the dormitory domes

* 15% discount for more than a three night stay

A few private rooms are available. Please see the Song of the Morning
website for more information about the accommodations:

http://www.goldenlotus.org

Students receive a 25% discount and there is plenty of room for tents
and campers. Camping is encouraged and is only thirty dollars a night
per person plus tax. Two or three “loaner” tents are available.

Song of the Morning is located nine miles east of I-75 in Vanderbilt,
Michigan, about a four hour drive from Detroit or Grand Rapids.

Please register for the retreat by emailing the office at the Song of
the Morning office: office@goldenlotus.org, or you can telephone
them at 989-983-4107. The office is closed on Tuesdays.

Sponsored by the Bluewater Community of Mindful Living
Port Huron, Michigan http://www.bluewaterbuddhist.org

I had a bit of trouble getting the code to calm down, but things are looking “OK” for now. If you have troubles, please let me know: webmaster@michiganbuddhist.com.

Thank you!

By Maryanne Kocis MacLeod
Macomb Daily Staff Writer

Addiction recovery, like most puzzles, has many pieces. In his book “The 12-Step Buddhist” (Beyond Words, $16), Portland-based author Darren Littlejohn explores the integration of Buddhist philosophy/spirituality into more familiar, Western recovery models.

“For me, 12-step programs alone focus mainly on the day-to-day struggle,” Littlejohn said. “Psychotherapy alone doesn’t recognize spirituality. And Buddhism, in and of itself, does not understand addiction. For me, I had to come up with my own system and work it all together to be successful.”

Littlejohn will share his unique approach to recovery from 12–3 p.m. Saturday at SHAR, 6902 Chicago Road, in Warren. Cost is $10 per person; $25 tickets include a copy of his book with a portion of the proceeds benefiting Greater Macomb Project Vox. GMPV is a recovery advocacy group aimed at reducing the stigma attached to substance use disorders.

“We need more people (like Littlejohn) who are willing to slap (their) picture on the back of a book and identify (themselves) as a person with a substance use disorder,” said Deborah Garrett, Greater Macomb Project Vox chairwoman, adding that she is impressed that he was willing to do that.

“People in recovery can utilize Buddhist principles and mediation techniques, which are already part of 12-step recovery, but not spelled out as such” to effectively work on their recovery/remission, Littlejohn said.

Littlejohn first achieved sobriety in 1984 at the age of 22. But his interest in Buddhism started when he started reading books on the Eastern religion in the sixth grade.

It wasn’t until the mid- to late ’80s, however, that he truly began seeking the Buddhist path, which in some ways, contributed to his relapse in 1994.

“That’s when I started questioning everything, and suddenly, nothing has any meaning,” Littlejohn explained. “The Christian (spiritualists) describe it as ‘the dark night of the soul.’ You get into a very dark spot, like a funnel, a depression.”

Littlejohn said he wrote the book in hopes of helping others avoid the relapse from which he came out of in 1997. He has been sober for 13 years.

Buddhism teaches that all suffering is caused by attachment and can be avoided by practicing compassion, Littlejohn said.

“Addiction is attachment gone wild,” Littlejohn said.

Tickets are available at the door, at www.careofmacomb.com/events.php or by calling or visiting The 12 Step Buddhist

There has been interest in locating someone to help celebrate their wedding and perform the ceremony with their Buddhist beliefs in mind.

I’m happy to announce that Rev. Sokuzan Bob Brown of Battle Creek, MI offers his services as a wedding officiant. He has conducted ceremonies for practitioners in the Zen and Shambhala traditions, both in Michigan and out of state, and for Buddhist inmates when asked. Please contact Sokuzan Bob Brown at (269) 213-4813 to make arrangements.

On Tuesday, July 20th, visitors can enjoy guided tours of the Temple ornamental and vegetable gardens beginning at 3:00 pm. At 7:30 that evening, Carolyn Putney, Interim Deputy Director and Curator of Asian Art at the Toledo Museum of Art, will speak on the migration of Buddhism across the Orient, using illustrations from the Museum’s Asian collections.

On Friday, July 23rd, garden tours will again be available starting at 3:00 pm. Benjamin Brose, Assistant Professor of Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Michigan, will discuss dharma transmission in the Zen tradition; the presentation will begin at 7:30 pm.

The Temple will also offer an exhibition of Buddhist works of art, featuring items from its own and private collections. The exhibition will be open to the public during the hours of the garden tours and before and after the evening presentations.

All events will take place at the Temple, which is located at 1214 Packard Street, just north of the intersection of Packard and Granger Street in Ann Arbor.

These events are open to the public. A donation of $10 is suggested for the evening programs.

For additional information, contact the Ann Arbor Zen Buddhist Temple at 734-761-6520, or visit the web site at: http://www.zenbuddhisttemple.org/