Lecture by H.E. Phakchok Rinpoche

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 18 | 2:00pm to 4:00pm
I.K. Barber Learning Centre | Dodson Room, 1961 East Mall, UBC

Lectures are free and open to the public. Please reserve seats by contacting Jessica Main (bcsprogram@gmail.com). 5 minutes prior to start, any extra seating will be made available.

http://ubcbuddhism.wordpress.com/2010/09/01/979/

http://ubcbuddhism.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/phakchok-poster.pdf

“In Insight Dialogue, Gregory Kramer breaks new ground in applying the Buddha’s teachings to our lives, relationships, and meditative understandings … Drawing on years of experience leading Insight Dialogue retreats, Gregory has masterfully united the breadth of people’s mindful interaction with the depth of dharma fundamentals.” —Joseph Goldstein

The Metta Foundation has never before offered an Insight Dialogue retreat in BC. Many thanks to Lucy Leu, Judy Witheford and Raj Gill for organizing this. Details from Lucy follow.

from Lucy Leu:

My friends Judy Witheford and Raj Gill and I have invited Vipassana Insight teacher Gregory Kramer to offer the first Insight Dialogue Retreat in the Vancouver community. Gregory is the founder of Insight Dialogue, which incorporates speech into our meditation practice as a support for liberation. Raj, Judy, and I (as well as now thousands of meditation practitioners around the world) who spend a lot of our waking hours in relationship have found Insight Dialogue to be eye- and mind-opening and profoundly beneficial to our practice and how we live it in daily life.

We organized the upcoming retreat in order for local sanghas to have an opportunity to experience Gregory’s teachings. Ironically though, most of the registrations now coming in are from far afield (where Insight Dialogue is already known) … I would so appreciate your passing on this information to those you know who might benefit from what I believe to be a precious opportunity to practice the dharma while cultivating wise speech.

RESIDENTIAL INSIGHT DIALOGUE (ID) RETREAT: “Cultivating the Factors of Awakening”

DATE: August 28-Sept. 3, 2010

OPTIONAL FACILITATOR TRAINING: The retreat will be followed by an optional facilitator training (Sept. 3-5) for those wishing to share ID with their sanghas. (To participate, you must have completed this or another 5-day residential retreat with Gregory.)

COST: CAD or US $500 for 6-night retreat, $150 for 2-night facilitator training
NOTE: Retreatants will be invited to offer dana to support the teachers who are offering these teachings freely.

LOCATION: Sea to Sky Retreat Centre on 40 secluded acres near Whistler

REGISTRATION: lucyleu [at] mac [dot] com

INFORMATION ON INSIGHT DIALOGUE: www.metta.org

I am attaching the flyer for the retreat in both color [PDF] and black-and-white [PDF] in case you know of some auspicious spots to post it. (Please note that there is NO prerequisite for the retreat itself. Prerequisite applies ONLY to the optional facilitator training that follows.)

Thank you for receiving this information and your support.

Sending metta and wishing you ease and peace of mind,

Lucy

The Joy of No Opinions

Ayya Medhanandi reflects on suffering, its causes, liberation and the way to freeing our hearts, drawing from her experiences as a Buddhist nun over the last 23 years and more recently as a bhikkhuni practicing in the Theravada tradition.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Doors open at 6:30pm … talk 7:00pm
Location: Langara College 100 West 49th Avenue – Newberry Hall (Room A130) [directions]

Admission by donation
Open to all
No one turned away for lack of funds

Aldergrove Retreat: July 14–18

from Jennifer:

We are pleased to inform you that Ayya Medhanandi will be returning to the Vancouver area this July to present an evening talk and lead a 5-day silent retreat.

She currently resides at Sati Saraniya Hermitage in Ontario, a Theravada Buddhist sanctuary and monastic community for women training in the bhikkhuni lineage, the first of its kind in Canada. For her background and training please visit her site:

http://www.satisaraniya.ca

Five-day Silent Meditation Retreat

6234 – 264 St Aldergrove

To register please go to the site below if you have any questions or do not receive a registration confirmation (in about 24 hours) please email register.retreat [at] gmail.com

http://www.ssumm.net/Ayya/

Due to the limited number of spaces available please register as soon as possible to ensure your spot. Day visits are welcome, please don’t drop in unless you are attending her tea time talk at 5pm. Please register through the site for a day visit so we’ll know how many to expect for lunch.

The Buddhism and Contemporary Society Program of the Institute for Asian Research at UBC is planning its first full conference this October: Buddhism in Canada: Global Causes, Local Conditions. A call for volunteers is included in this announcement:

The Buddhism and Contemporary Society Program at UBC is pleased to announce its first full conference this coming October! With the new publication of the book Wild Geese: Buddhism in Canada, the conference will address relevant topics pertaining to Buddhist teaching and practice to the needs of modern people today who struggle to balance work, family life, personal career and religious practice. Every form of Buddhism practiced today participates in this encounter with modernity.

Along with formal discussions there is an opportunity for local Buddhist groups to gather and display a thriving and diverse Buddhist community that exists here in Vancouver. Volunteers are invited to attend an upcoming organizing committee meeting to develop a way to showcase what the Buddhist community has to offer Greater Vancouver.

Please contact Jessica Main – jessica (dot) main (at) ubc (dot) ca – if you would like to attend this meeting, now confirmed for 6:30pm on Thursday, May 27 at the Steveston Buddhist Temple.

Join us for an evening talk with James Baraz, cofounder of Spirit Rock Meditation Center and renowned meditation teacher for more than 30 years. James will discuss his 10-step program “Awakening Joy” and how we can reorient our minds away from dissatisfaction and distraction and toward the contentment and delight available in our everyday lives.

When: Thursday, June 3 at 7:00 pm
Where: Masonic Hall, 1495 West 8th Avenue, Vancouver

No preregistration is required. Cost is $10 at the door (with no one turned away for lack of funds).

via Brenda Batke-Hirschmann

“Human civilization is a construct … This construct has led to a collective sense of alienation from the natural world, which causes dukkha … This dukkha involves a collective anxiety about what it means to be human – that is, a fundamental confusion about what we as a species should be doing … Our response to that alienation and anxiety – the collective attempt to secure or ‘self-ground’ ourselves technologically and economically – is making things worse … We cannot ‘return to nature’ because we have never left it, but we need to realize our nonduality with the rest of the biosphere, and what that implies … This will resolve our collective existential problem about what it means to be human. With us the biosphere becomes self-conscious. Our role today is to heal it, and thereby ourselves.”

Sunday, 7 March 2010
Doors open at 3:30pm … talk 4:00pm … Q&A 5:00pm
Location: Langara College 100 West 49th Avenue – Newberry Hall (Room A130) [directions]

http://www.google.com/search?q=david+r+loy

Admission by donation
Open to all
No one turned away for lack of funds

Last updated on February 27 at 5:31 pm

Taking part in the event gives you personal access to the following inspiring spiritual leaders:

Abdul Aziz-Said, Andrew Harvey, Angeles Arrien, Dr. A. T. Ariyaratne, Ariel Spilsbury, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Bhikku Bodhi, Bishop John Shelby Spong, Chunyi Lin, Dattatreya Shiva Baba, Gangaji, Genpo Roshi, Grandmother Agnes Baker Pilgrim, Grandmother Flordemayo, Isha Judd, James O’Dea, Jean Houston, Julia Butterfly Hill, Jyoti, Kali Ma, Kyriacos Markides, Leslie Temple Thurston, Luisah Teish, Marianne Williamson, Matthew Fox, Michael Tamura, Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb, Rabbi Yehuda Berg, Rev. James Trapp, Rev. Michael Dowd, Sadhguru, Saniel Bonder & Linda Groves Bonder, Sequoia Trueblood, Sheikha Ayshegul Ashki, Shiva Rea, Sobunfu Some, Stanislav Grof, Stephen Dinan & Devaa Haley Mitchell, Swamiji Chidananda Saraswati, Tenzin Robert Thurman

via Brenda Batke-Hirschmann

A conference which draws on faith traditions to present alternatives in the context of the global economic crisis – presented by the Interfaith Summer Institute

March 5 to 7, 2010

Maritime Labour Centre
1880 Triumph St, Vancouver (Coast Salish Territory)
British Columbia, Canada
[map]

$35 – $100 sliding scale; no one will be turned away for lack of funds

[details + registration]

Meanwhile, be sure to check out the latest David Loy article in the Shambhala Sun. Thanks to the Jizo Chronicles for the heads-up on this article.

Saturday, Jan 23
10:00am–5:00pm
Doors Open at 9:00am
[details + registration]

Vancouver Public Library: Central Branch
Alice MacKay Room
350 West Georgia Street

lunch included :: free admission :: registration required