This group will be meeting at my apartment in Okemos and will consist of 20-30 minutes of sitting meditation followed by reading and discussion of the Dhammapada. Call or email if interested.
Nathan Brown
(517) 927-2781 or Victorianoddities@yahoo.com
The Grand Rapids Zen Center will offer an Introduction to Buddhism class starting July 6 at 6:30 pm. The same class will be offered on Sundays after the Sunday morning service. The class will continue for four weeks. For more information please visit the center’s website at http://www.grzen.org
Would you like to help encourage religious communities in Michigan to become more energy efficient? If so, the environmental group Michigan Interfaith Power and Light (www.miipl.org) is looking for a qualified Buddhist who would like to serve on its Board of Directors..
MIPL is a Michigan non-profit environmental group of churches and individuals across Michigan that brings different faith traditions together in caring for the earth. It helps member churches increase the energy efficiency of church facilities, supports green education among congregations, and advocates for green public policies on behalf of Michigan religious communities.
If you know of Michigan Buddhist temples that might join MIPL or of a qualified Buddhist who would have the interest and time to serve on its Board of Directors, please ask them to get in touch with
Julie Lyons Bricker, LEED® AP
MIPL Executive Director
Phone (248) 808-2518
director@miipl.org
This is a dynamic organization with experienced board members who are expert in green building and environmental work. Serving on their Board to represent Michigan Buddhists in an interfaith effort would be rewarding personally and a meaningful service on behalf of green energy for the earth.
Master storyteller and author Rafe Martin will give three programs in Ann Arbor April 8, 9 and 10.
Friday, April 8, 7pm: World Tales of Wisdom and Compassion for children and the young at heart at the Zen Buddhist Temple. Adults $10/Children $8, or families $30.
Saturday, April 9, 9:30am – 12:30pm: A Storytelling Workshop – Jatakas Are Us: Embodying the Way (and Being Embodied by It!)for teachers, librarians, and parents. Learn to understand the transformative power of stories and how to tell them. $75. “The ancient teachings illumine the mind, and the mind illumines the ancient teachings.” A Zen saying
Sunday, April 10, Rafe will give a talk during the morning Service (service begins at 10). Donations appreciated.
Copies of Rafe’s book Endless Path will be available for purchase and signing at each event. You can find further information, including comments from previous audiences at his blog and web site.
The events are co-sponsored by Zen Buddhist Temple and Jewel Heart.
Action By Presence will be offering a unique opportunity to experience what it’s like to live on the streets of mid-town Detroit. A street retreat, based on the work of the Faithful Fools of San Francisco, gives 12 participants a safe, guided plunge into the unknown.
We will experience homelessness firsthand, begging for money, finding places to get food and shelter, to use the bathroom, etc. By bearing witness to homelessness, we begin to recognize our common humanity.
“When we go… to bear witness to life on the streets, we’re offering ourselves.
Not blankets, not food, not clothes, just ourselves.”
-Bernie Glassman, Bearing Witness
The next Overnight Retreat will be offered May 19-22. Please visit the Action By Presence website for details and registration.
Topic: The Stages of Meditation
Please join us for a one day retreat April 16 led by Thai Tue at Great Wisdom Meditation Center. There will be a dharma talk and an opportunity to meet privately with the teacher, if desired, along with plenty of sitting and walking meditation. A vegetarian lunch and dinner will be provided. The Center is located in Wayland, MI, about 25 minutes from Grand Rapids and 45 minutes from Kalamazoo, off US 131.
All are welcome. We need to plan for meals, so if you’d like to attend, request an application and return it with your check for $35. Call 616-877-4075 or email if you would like an application or have questions.
email: greatwisdommeditation@yahoo.com
Friends, I’ve been a little under the weather, as have members of my family lately, which has made significant demands on my time. I’ve just updated both the Ann Arbor and Grand Rapids area sangha listings, and added a link to Ann Arbor Center for Mindfulness in the Websites section on the right side of the site. It is my hope that you continue to find MichiganBuddhist a valuable resource in aiding your practice. Please continue to contact me with your news, website and sangha updates and I will post them as soon as I am able. Remember, you can register as a user and post your own news and information too. Just click the register link on the right side of the site.
May all beings be happy or find the way to achieve happiness.
Jim.
The public is cordially invited
Time: 3–4 pm, third Saturday of each month
(Feb. 19, March 19, April 16 …)
Place: Amitabha Village – Retreat Center of the Lansing
Buddhist Association (LBA)
Ajahn’s teaching will follow LBA’s Monthly
Day of Mindfulness (10 am–3 pm) at the Retreat Center. Those wishing to meditate beforehand are welcome to attend some or all of the day mindfulness (For more information contact lansingbuddhist@gmail.com )
Ajahn Khemasanto. Born & raised Catholic in Midland Michigan, Ajahn went to Thailand as a young man to become a Buddhist monk in the Thai forest tradition. He received higher ordination as a Bhikkhu in 1969, and lived practicing in the forest of northeast Thailand with Thai masters for many years. Ajahn learned and speaks fluent Thai, Cambodian, and Lao, and has translated important Thai forest teachings into English. He returned to Michigan in 1999 to establish and serve as Abbot of Dhammasala Forest Monastery, located on the property neighboring LBA’s Amitabha Village. While a monk in Michigan Ajahn has taught the dhamma and Buddhist meditation to Americans, Thai, Chinese, and Vietnamese at Dhammasala. LBA is honored to offer his monthly series of dhamma teachings at Amitabha Village.
Directions: Amitabha Village Retreat Center
14796 Beardslee Rd, Perry MI 48872
>From E. Lansing—Go east on Saginaw. Bear right at Haslett Road. Stay on Haslett for 9.1 miles. Turn left onto N. Williamston Road. After 2.2 miles, N. Williamston becomes Beardslee, a dirt road. Go about 1/3 mile to Amitabha Village. The meditation hall is the third structure on the left. Check-in is at the house across the street from the hall.
> From Ann Arbor/Detroit. Take I-96 west to exit 117 (Williamston Rd). Go north on Williamston to Haslett Rd, a dead end. Turn right on Haslett, then make an immediate left on next street (N. Williamston), & proceed as in the E. Lansing directions
Winter Mindfulness Retreat
February 16-21, 2011
Song of the Morning Yoga Retreat Center
9607 Sturgeon Valley Road
Vanderbilt, Michigan 49795
989-983-4107
Five days of meditation, Wednesday through Sunday. Come just for the weekend or for all five days.
Enjoy the deep quiet of the north country in wintertime. Song of the Morning offers eight hundred acres of forest land along the pristine Pigeon River and is ideal for meditation. It is about a four hour drive from Detroit or Grand Rapids. The accommodations are clean and comfortable with heated rooms and extra blankets. Meals will be vegetarian. Read the rest of this entry »
Saturday Workshop, February 5 and Sunday Talk, February 6
by Dosho Port at the Zen Buddhist Temple.
Dosho Port began studying Zen in 1977 and is a Soto Zen successor of Dainin Katagiri Roshi. He teaches at Wild Fox Zen in White Bear Township, Minnesota.
Saturday Workshop: Polishing a Mirror to Make a Tile, 10am – 1pm. Cost is $50.
Once Nanyue went to Mazu and said “What are you seeking, sitting there in zazen[meditation]?” Mazu said, “Seeking is making Buddha.” At this point Nanyue took up a tile and began to rub it on a stone. At length Mazu asked, “Master, What are you doing?” Nanyue said, “I’m polishing this to make a mirror.” Mazu said, “how can you produce a mirror by polishing a tile?” Nanyue replied, “How can you make a Buddha by sitting zazen?”
What are you seeking when you meditate? We will start from this old zen tale and examine what we are seeking, and use Dogen’s perspective to tease out what the dialog has to say to us about refining our lives through Buddhist practice.
Sunday Talk: In a World On Fire, Can the Buddhadharma Douse the Flames?
In the 21st century we will face colossal challenges both ecological and economic. We will need plenty of people capable of maintaining a calm, compassionate heart through times of great difficulty and discomfort – a zen-informed revolution of the heart. Come and let’s engage this important issue together. Sunday service starts at 10am and the talk begins at 10:30. By donation.
Zen Buddhist Temple
1214 Packard (at Wells)
Ann Arbor MI 48104
(734) 761-6520
annarbor@zenbuddhisttemple.org
