We’re pleased to announce another new sangha in Michigan:
Battle Creek Karma Kagyu Study Group
for information or directions:
Matt (269) 275-0090
info@battlecreekkagyu.org
http://battlecreekkagyu.org/
Wednesdays 7:00pm to 9:00pm – Sitting Meditation and Book Study
Sundays 8:00am to 10:00am – Chenrezig Sadhana and Book Study
Every Third Sunday 8:00am to 9:30am – Green Tara Sadhana
Steve Sampson from The Mindfulness Meditation Community of Grand Rapids writes:
The Mindfulness Meditation Community of Grand Rapids will hold a two day retreat the second week-end of February. Saturday, February 13, 1:30 to 9:00 pm and Sunday, the 14th, 9:00 am to 2:00 pm.
The retreat will be guided by Sokuzan Bob Brown of Battle Creek. Bob is a priest in the Soto Zen lineage.
We will practice sitting and walking meditation both Saturday and Sunday. Individual interviews with Bob Brown are available.
The retreat will be held at Expressions of Grace Yoga Studio. The studio is located at 5270 Northland Dr. NE, Grand Rapids, MI., 49525. (616) 361-8580
Dinner on Saturday will be a supplied by the Grand Rapids Sangha. Sunday, people will brown-bag their lunch.
Come for one day or both.
Out of town guests can spend the night in the homes of members of the Grand Rapids Sangha. If you need overnight accommodations contact Steve at steve.sampson@comcast.net
The event is free, but donations to support the work are very much appreciated.
To register please contact Steve at steve.sampson@comcast.net
Sam Ewalt from The Blue Water Community of Mindful Living writes:
Dear Friends,
Our monastic brothers and sisters in Vietnam are in great difficulty.
The 379 monks and nuns who were forced from Bat Nha monastery in September now face immediate violent eviction from their current sanctuary.
Details about this grave situation may be found at the respected web site Human Rights Watch.
More information may be found at the website Help Bat Nha.
A sister at Deer Park Monastery in California has forwarded to us a letter from Sister Chan Kong and I would like to share part of it with you.
Chan Kong writes:
“Please forgive me for disturbing you during this holy season of family and homecoming. But our Bat Nha monks and nuns are now in a position not unlike Mary and her baby Jesus–they do not know where to take shelter, to practice and be together in safety…”
“…the situation has gone from bad to worse, our 379 very young monks and nuns have undergone a kind of baptism by fire, and have achieved a great sucess in training to understand, accept, and have genuine compassion for those who abuse them. Over the past several months they have been verbally assaulted over loudspeakers 24 hours a day and threatened with being bludgeoned to death. Policemen came demanding the monastics’ identification every night from 7 pm to 11:30 pm and cut off their electricity and water for three months.”
“Then, hired mobs arrived on the stormy night of September 27, 2009 to forribly and violently eject 147 monks, smash doors and windows and torment the 232 nuns. They all escaped and sought shelter at Phuoc Hue Temple. At Phuoc Hue the monks and nuns continue to be harrased, and the most compassionate and elderly abbot of that temple, after much resistance, also has been violently forced to sign a letter evicting our monastics. As of December 31, 2009 these brothers and sisters will have absolutely no place to go, and in fact may be drafted by the government into the armed forces. Even if they return to their familial homes the harassment is not likely to cease unless and until they disrobe and abandon their monastic life completely.”
“Now is the most crucial moment for our monks and nuns. Please quickly go to Religious Freedom in Vietnam and sign the petition…
Please sign and write to five friends asking them to sign to achieve the greatest number we could before December 31, 2009. You have come through for me, for us, many times before. I know I can count on you in this, our hour of greatest need.”
“With all our most heartfelt blessings and wishes of peace to you–
—Sister Chan Kong”
via badgods.com:
via Friends of the Western Buddhist Order:
New Dharma materials at FreeBuddhistAudio
Candradasa writes from FreeBuddhistAudio with news of new on-line Dharma resources:
Dear Friends,
We’re delighted to let you know that – after a wee summer hiatus – we have a rush of new modules just posted for the FWBO’s Dharma Training Course for Mitras. The permanent web address to bookmark for the new course is:
http://www.fwbomitracourse.com/
Read the rest of this entry »
via the New York Times:
John D. Loori, 78, Zen Abbot and Photographer, Dies
By DOUGLAS MARTIN
John Daido Loori, a photographer who found that snapping a picture mirrored the instant of spiritual enlightenment, inspiring him to start an influential Zen monastery in the Catskills, died on Friday in Mount Tremper, N.Y. He was 78.
John Loori founded an influential monastery in the Catskills.
The cause was complications of lung cancer, Vanessa Zuisei Goddard, his assistant, said.
In addition to being abbot of the monastery he started, Abbot Loori founded a worldwide Zen order, was a respected photographer and teacher and wrote 20 books on Buddhism and art.
He is to be buried in the cemetery of his Zen Mountain Monastery in Mount Tremper, where each year a “Hungry Ghost” ceremony honors the dead. In 49 days, according to Buddhist belief, he will be reincarnated. The funeral will be held then, Ms. Goddard said.
Although there are many Zen centers, some larger, Abbot Loori created one of the few Zen orders based in the United States that has members from Brooklyn to New Zealand. He published a 120-page quarterly journal and offered Zen instruction on the Internet, and on an online radio station (WZEN.org). Read the rest of this entry »
via the Associated Press:
MEMPHIS (AP) — The Dalai Lama says his visit to the site where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated was sad but also inspirational.
The Tibetan spiritual leader was in Memphis, on Wednesday to receive the International Freedom Award from the National Civil Rights Museum, which incorporates the site of the Lorraine Motel.
The Dalai Lama draped a white shawl over a wreath that hangs over the balcony that marks the spot where King was standing when he was shot in 1968. Read the rest of this entry »
From Jewel Heart Tibetan Buddhist Center – Ann Arbor:
For the benefit of Jewel Heart we will be holding a holiday craft and art sale on Sunday, November 22nd. We are looking for all creative members of Jewel Heart, and our extended “friends and family” as well, to create crafts and artwork for this fundraising event. Most of the arts and crafts items will be sold at our Arts and Crafts sale. It is the artists’/crafters’ choice, within the minimum of 20%, of how much of the proceeds to donate to Jewel Heart.
More elaborate crafts and artwork can be offered at a silent auction, and bid on throughout the evening. A few of the larger items may be live auctioned at the end of the evening.
This is a great opportunity for creative folks to earn a little cash, and benefit Jewel Heart at the same time. If you or your friends are interested, please start crafting now! Questions? Contact Colleen Retherford at mediajewelheart@gmail.com Thanks in advance!
From Agence France Presse:
DHARAMSHALA, India — Tibetan prime minister-in-exile Samdhong Rinpoche on Tuesday accused the United States and other Western nations of appeasing China in regard to the mountain territory.
The charge came after aides to The Dalai Lama said the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader would not meet President Barack Obama on a planned visit to Washington next month.
Every US president since George H.W. Bush in 1991 has met the Dalai Lama, who enjoys a wide US following. The Nobel Peace Prize winner was reportedly hoping to see Obama in the United States.
“A lot of nations are adopting a policy of appeasement,” Rinpoche told a group of journalists late Tuesday.
He was speaking in the northern Indian hill town of Dharamshala, which has been home to the government-in-exile since the Dalai Lama fled to India 50 years ago after China crushed an uprising in Tibet.
“Even the US government is doing some kind of appeasement,” Rinpoche said. Read the rest of this entry »
I stumbled across these and thought others might find them useful. Sometimes it’s hard to focus on your meditation practice when trying to keep your eye on a clock. Play this mp3 file and the sound of a bell will help you keep time.
Click the link to play (or right click to download it to your own computer):
Mindfulness of breathing, 20 minutes, bell every 5 minutes
The Wildmind Buddhist Meditation site has several more examples, ranging in length from 20 minutes to an hour.
