Burmese Buddhist Association has first-ever ordination ceremony
Burmese Buddhist Association has first-ever ordination ceremony |
- Burmese Buddhist Association has first-ever ordination ceremony
- Point Of View Makes The Difference
- Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche remembers Arbie Thalacker
- ‘Embrace Love’ Valentine’s Dinner & Retreat
- Bombarded by Coconuts of Wakefulness
- Arbie Thalacker: Great Gathering of Merit
- Cherishing Living Beings — Seen and Unseen
| Burmese Buddhist Association has first-ever ordination ceremony Posted: 10 Jan 2012 08:00 AM PST  Home of the BBA. The Burmese Buddhist Association in Elmhurst, IL — a fledgling community when it was first founded by immigrants in 1984 that has grown "remarkably" since — recently held their first-ever ordination ceremony. Seven men were ordained as Buddhist monks, including Yan Naing Lwin, a physics professor emeritus at Western Illinois University. The Chicago Tribune covers the event here. Read More @ SourceLight at the Edge of the World-The Science of the Mind [2/4] 
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| Point Of View Makes The Difference Posted: 10 Jan 2012 05:00 AM PST  Wet walking - treat for the eye Mud mud glorious mud! There is a lot of it about. In the woodlands, fields and paths where I walk each morning there's lots of mud and much opportunity. Mud and wet paths can be an opportunity to complain, to struggle through and long for drier weather. Complaining at ones lot and wishing it to be otherwise is a very common habit. Bending my knees, camera in hand, to view the path from a different angle it was transformed. The sky reflected in the puddles, the texture and the going on-ness of the path. Now I am wondering how it would be viewed from above. But no! I am not going to climb trees to find out. It is hard to conceive when life seems to be doing it to us in harsh and mucky ways that how we view life is a choice. And choice changes with conditions, over time. Here is somebody reflecting on what she does and finding beauty in it. Read More @ Source 
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| Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche remembers Arbie Thalacker Posted: 09 Jan 2012 07:00 PM PST We shared the news of the passing of Arbie Thalacker here earlier; now we share a remembrance of him by Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, dharma teacher and president of the Karmapa Foundation. I have known Arbie Thalacker for many years. He was a wonderful person and a devoted practitioner, full of wisdom and love. Arbie worked tirelessly for very many years to enable, befriend and protect the development of an American dharma in the United States. He gave most generously of his time, talent and financial resources. The establishment of the dharma in the West is also one of my heart aspirations, and so I am very grateful to Arbie for his efforts and contributions. At the request of His Holiness the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, Arbie joined the board of the Karmapa Foundation in 2010 and has been serving as Chairman. His work ensured that the Foundation will continue His Holiness's activity without obstacle. I worked closely with Arbie in this capacity for His Holiness. It is safe to say that Arbie was instrumental in preparing for His Holiness's visits to the United States. In particular, he worked closely with me on both visits, in 2008 and 2011, to ensure that everything went smoothly. He was also invaluable in supporting the whole spectrum of individuals who welcomed His Holiness to the U.S., from dharma students to government representatives. It was here that Arbie's qualities of equanimity and love shone, for he was equally at home with all sorts of sentient beings. I know that Arbie served the Vidhyadhara, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, and Shambhala International with great devotion, love and care. He was also an important supporter and servant to Karma Triyana Dharmachakra (KTD), North American seat of His Holiness Gyalwang Karmapa. For many years, Arbie worked with KTD to ready the home for Karmapa in the U.S. As a lawyer, he and his firm represented KTD through enormous obstacles and challenges, guiding it safely into continuous service as the Karmapa's seat in North America. Arbie has a kind and loving family and my thoughts are with them at this time. He and his wife Deb created a welcoming space, in which the dharma in the U.S., especially focused in New York, has come to flourish. I understand, as well, that Arbie was a highly acclaimed lawyer for a large firm in New York. I have always been impressed with Arbie's skill and professionalism whenever I have had to call on him. Accordingly, I imagine that his clients benefited enormously from his work. We are all now benefitting from Arbie's devotion to Karmapa, and from the wisdom that continues in the hearts of those he touched and in the organizations he built. May his aspirations and wishes be fulfilled. May his legacy continue to shine in this world. —Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche Read More @ Source
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| ‘Embrace Love’ Valentine’s Dinner & Retreat Posted: 09 Jan 2012 04:00 PM PST This special event includes a delicious full-service candle-lit vegetarian dinner for two, 1 night accommodations in your own private Cottage (featuring jacuzzi bath, fireplace and private balcony), a yummy Sunday brunch and a heart-opening morning Tibetan Yoga class. Only 13 tickets available! Cost per couple: $ 275 if you register by February 1st. Add $ 25 thereafter if space is still available. One night not enough time to truly unwind? Add an additional night and receive our week-day rate! To register: Contact Chelsea at (510) 809-4987 or e-mail publicrelations@ratnaling.org 35755 Hauser Bridge Road Cazadero, CA 95421 Read More @ Source You are only alive in THIS moment! 
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| Bombarded by Coconuts of Wakefulness Posted: 09 Jan 2012 01:00 PM PST
In the garden of gentle sanity A broken heart sucks. I won't lie and say it doesn't. However, it can also be a golden opportunity to wake up to your life and realize a new way of being. In the lines of the poem Timely Rain quoted above, we see one Buddhist teacher's take on this concept. These few words point out that most of us spend our time wandering through our daily routine, our own garden of gentle sanity, relatively unaware of the fact that at any moment we can be knocked about the head with an incident that snaps us out of this innocence. These coconuts of wakefulness are moments when the rug is pulled out from under you and there is nothing to hold on to. These "coconut moments" are the ones when your lover rejects you, or a family member passes away, or you lose your job. Your heart breaks and you feel deflated. These are the times when you are completely groundless and are not sure what to do next. Yet within this moment of sudden change we are given a beautiful opportunity. When your normal life hits a major upset, you have two options. One is to curl up in pain, wondering why you have been made the sole recipient of uncertainty and change. You can hide out that way, hoping that change will get bored and go pick on someone else. You can drink, or sleep around, or smoke any number of things but once the hangover/ecstasy/high passes all that you are left with is the same pain as before. Another way forward is to face your heart-break head on. You can lean into the pain, exploring it, almost daring it to overwhelm you, to realize just how strong you are. Imagine standing at the shore of an endless beach. As you wade into the water a giant wave comes bearing down on you. You have no time to run from it. When it hits, you can kick and fight against the wave but doing so will only drag you further out to sea. Instead, you can dive in directly, facing the wave head-on, and come out the other side refreshed. The same can be said for any strong emotional upheaval. If you try to hide from it you will be unsuccessful. The more you struggle against the pain, the longer you end up wallowing in it. Instead, you can dive into your turmoil and experience it fully, allowing it to wash over you like a wave, and see if you come out the other side revitalized. From my experience, I have found Buddhist meditation to be the tool for acknowledging, analyzing, and working through strong emotions. The technique I engage is called shamatha, or calm-abiding meditation. The beauty of meditation practice is that it is just that: practice for the rest of your life. The more time you spend on the meditation cushion you more you learn to befriend yourself and learn to cut through habitual patterns. It is then up to you to allow that practice to be put into action during the hours that you live the rest of your life. Through shamatha meditation you can learn to be kinder and more mindful in your day-to-day life as well as moments when you are bombarded by coconuts. Through the practice of meditation you begin to relate to difficult situations in a different way. You see that they are not as solid as you originally thought. For example, you may experience a moment on the meditation cushion where you realize the basic Buddhist truth that everything changes. The bright side of impermanence is that it's not only good things that change; difficult situations are impermanent too. Whatever difficult situation you are facing you can trust that it will eventually shift or fade, and that your heart will heal. In the Tibetan language there is a word for "warrior" which is pawo. A more direct translation would be "one who is brave." Bravery, in this case, is not referring to someone who will go out and propagate aggression. "Warrior" is not the typical warrior who battles others. Instead, this term refers to someone who is brave enough to battle their own neurosis and strong habitual patterns. Pawo is someone who bravely addresses their heartbreak and, through relating fully with their present experience, comes out the other end a kinder, better person. We can all be warriors. We can all be brave. When a coconut hits us and we feel our whole life is out of control we just have to remember that this is a beautiful opportunity to practice opening up to wakefulness. Read More @ Source Be Your Own Therapist 
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| Arbie Thalacker: Great Gathering of Merit Posted: 09 Jan 2012 12:00 PM PST
Arbie's combination of devotion, ability, and connections made him a unique and powerful force on behalf of the dharma. He was an important figure in the Shambhala mandala as a long-standing and influential member of its board. He was deeply devoted to His Holiness the Karmapa, and used his skills as a key behind-the-scenes advocate during negotiations with the federal government preceding the Karmapa's two trips to the U.S. Later he became chairman of board of the Karmapa Foundation and was long an important supporter of Karma Triyana Dharmachakra, the Karmapa's North American seat. And his good work was not limited to the dharma; he was an important supporter of the arts, contemplative education, and historical preservation as well. Arbie was the very definition of a "high-powered lawyer." I don't know precisely what he did, but it involved things like arranging bond issues with the government of China. He not only knew people like the late Richard Holbrooke—he had a long-standing feud with him. That's big league. These are the skills this warm, big-hearted, devoted, powerful man brought to the service of the dharma. I will miss him. We all will miss him. The dharma will miss him. There will be a small sukhavati for Arbie's family and close friends at the New York at the Shambhala Center of New York on Thursday. A public celebration of his life is planned for March in New York, which will undoubtedly bring together people from the many spheres Arbie touched. Here are the first two of what I'm sure will be many tributes to this man with such a big heart, who accomplished so much. —Melvin McLeod, Editor-in-chief, the Shambhala Sun and Buddhadharma: The Practitioner's Quarterly Great Gathering of Merit One of the names bestowed on Arbie by his Buddhist teachers was "Complete Gathering of Merit." I would often refer to him by this name when we served together on the Sakyong's Council, established by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche in 2005 as the governing body of Shambhala during the period of reconstruction of the mandala initiated with the first Shambhala Congress. He was an endearing, enduring, and unshakeable reservoir of insight and guidance to us all. Arbie, on hearing his "lineage name," would smile bashfully. Everyone else's eyes would light up. But it did not take that for us to understand, both intuitively and in a very practical way, how perfectly this breathtaking name matched the inner character of this great dharma warrior. I hold him with profound respect in my heart and practice as he makes his way into the great expanse. —Richard Reoch, President of Shambhala I had the pleasure to serve with Arbie Thalacker for several years on the board of Shambhala International. When you think of Arbie, the very first thought that springs to mind is kindness. That's striking, because it's not the very first trait one expects to see in top-flight, high-powered, midtown Manhattan lawyers. But Arbie showed himself to be so much more than a lawyer. He was, for one thing, a delightful companion. After long sessions wrangling with the intractable challenges involved in running a far-flung dharma organization, I enjoyed sitting on the porch of a cabin in the mountains and just hanging out. Arbie displayed not only a great sense of humor and the ability to tell a good story, but also the ability to listen and pay attention and offer honest, helpful counsel. Arbie was gifted with wisdom indeed, but also with great merit. He did not seek it, but he earned it. An extraordinary lover and devotee of the dharma, he did a great service to the lineage of teachers who have brought dharma to the West. His assistance and support were invaluable. He was a true son of noble family. —Barry Boyce, Senior Editor, the Shambhala Sun and Buddhadharma: The Practitioner's Quarterly Read More @ Source
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| Cherishing Living Beings — Seen and Unseen Posted: 09 Jan 2012 10:44 AM PST  From the first-ever video footage of the newly found Yeti Crab. The first time I chanted the Metta Sutta — the Buddha's teaching on lovingkindness — I was a retreatant at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts and I got caught up in the inflection marks that appeared above the words; I couldn't quite figure out when my voice should go up and when it should go down. I felt self conscious about not getting it right and awkward each time we chanted the sutta (in Pali, the language of the Buddha, sutta means "thread" and its presence in the title of a text indicates that it is a sermon of the Buddha or one of his major disciples). Still, at each sit I looked forward to the collective chant. I listened carefully and chanted along with the group following the rhythm, tempo, and pitch. Eventually the sutta seeped into my bones, resonated in my body. In short order, I loved it. These days, one of my favorite aspects of a retreat with Sylvia Boorstein and Sharon Salzberg is our coming out of silence by reciting together this sutta and discussing the lines we love. Usually my mind settles on "contented and easily satisfied" or "so with a boundless heart should one cherish all living beings." For there, seven thousand feet beneath the sea surface, are "black smokers" — hydrothermal vents in the ocean floor — that spew hot, mineral-rich water into cold deep and build chimneys of a sort. Around them, living beings seen and unseen, cluster–species of giant tube worms and clams feeding on microscopic organisms, species sharing this spot on Earth over millions of years.
Not that I'm trying here to suggest that either the microscopic organisms or the larger animals at the vents are sentient and feel what human beings call contentment; rather, these critters are simply eking out a living — making the best out of their (sub)station in life. And I guess that to me, this is another manifestation of the wisdom of the Earth System; at these black smokers we see other beings that live within the constraints of their situation –"contented and easily satisfied." I'm inspired by these beings that make their own food not from sunlight (photosynthesis) but from chemicals in the water (chemosynthesis)! They're not grazing on golden hills like the deer Sylvia has described that wander near Spirit Rock Meditation Center. They are what biologists call extremophiles. They dwell under pressure, in the dark, making their food from the Earth's hot effluent! Amazingly, but perhaps not surprisingly given that three-quarters of the Earth is ocean and we've explored precious little of the floor beneath, there seem to be plenty of living beings we've yet to meet. A few days ago, published research on newly discovered deep sea hydrothermal vents in the Southern Ocean near Antarctica revealed some entirely new species. Check out this previously unknown species of hairy-armed crustaceans called "yeti crabs" living tightly packed together on and around the vents.
In the aftermath of various insults to the salty portion of the Earth's hydrosphere such as the recent oil spill off the Nigerian coast, and in anticipation of damage from hydrofracking to unknown beings that undoubtedly reside in deep regions of the lithosphere, I offer these observations. Perhaps one day we may, in the words of the sutta, cherish with a boundless heart all living beings, omitting none. Read More @ Source
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A guest post by Lodro Rinzler, author of the new book, The Buddha Walks Into a Bar.
We have just received word that a true friend and an important figure in the dharma has died. Arbie Thalacker was a big man, with a big heart, with many big accomplishments to his credit. I knew him and his wife, Deborah Garrett, herself a powerhouse for the dharma, for twenty years. We worked together in the Shambhala organization and I enjoyed their generous hospitality many times when I was in New York. I loved and admired them both.
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