OUTREACH: Events of Interest

EVENT: Spring Seasonal Cleaning - Saturday, April 20, 2013
TIME:  10 a.m.- 1 p.m.
FOOD: Pizza will be delivered after for us to share
SUBJECT: The Benefit of Cleaning Your Center – Wow!

By now we’ve discovered that our beloved Kadampa Center is not a self-cleaning oven!  Just shocking. This is very clear to the incredible volunteers that showed up for the Winter Cleaning.  Thank you so much for your effort!  And thank you to Kim Goll for leading the cleaning since I had to be away.  Given that I missed the first official session, I promise to work doubly hard with the next set of volunteers for the Spring Cleaning.  It’s time to blow the cobwebs (not the sentient spiders) out of the Center and freshen up everything.

I found a letter on the FPMT website that our spiritual Director Lama Zopa Rinpoche, wrote about service to your Center:

Letter from Lama Zopa Rinpoche, our Spiritual Director
“Thank you very, very much for working for the center, arranging facilities and so forth. The Dharma center is to benefit sentient beings, to free them from the oceans of samsaric suffering – all the sufferings – and bring them to enlightenment. So you working for the center means that. You are working for every single animal, even the ants you see on the road and the birds that fly in the sky. You are working for every one of them, from the tiniest insect that you can see only through a machine to the largest ones in the oceans like the whales. There are so many animals living in the depths of the oceans. There are big ones that eat so many small ones and many small ones that eat the big ones. You are working for every single cow and sheep, for all the animals, for them to achieve liberation from samsara and full enlightenment, as well as for every single hell being, every single hungry ghost, every single human being – not only in that state, not only in that country, but every single human being in the universe, in all the universes – and every single sura and asura being. You are working for everybody, EVERYBODY, to bring them to full enlightenment.
People come to the center to meditate on bodhicitta and to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings. You can’t imagine the benefit to everybody who comes to the center to do this, working to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings. So the work can be hard, but can you see the benefit? Can you imagine the benefit? Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow! The benefit to every living being! Can you imagine the benefit of working for the center?
For example, you work for the people coming to the center with the motivation of bodhicitta and they practice Dharma to benefit sentient beings. Can you imagine? Even by that? Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow.
With much love and prayer from crazy Lama Zopa. Getting crazier every second, ha ha!”

If anyone was looking for motivation, this letter does it for me!
Thank you for your support ahead of time,
Big ‘ol love,
Jill Marie

Come join us as we prepare the flower and veggie beds for planting. 
    This will include leveling the new garden area in the gravel yard, 
     weeding, removing dead growth and generally sprucing up.

Many hands and hearts are needed to volunteer for the new Kadampa Center Care Squad. Please come join us on Saturday, March 9, at 1pm, for a one-hour introductory meeting to learn more about volunteering for this program. The program is meant to support our Kadampa Center community members when we  face difficulties of body with one-time/short-term needs.  Initially, we are seeking volunteers to fill our database of potential helpers. For example, tasks might include cooking a meal for someone after surgery or driving someone to a doctor's appointment. Once we have some volunteers committed to the project, we will then begin to match members who have specific needs to those volunteers who may be able to help.

Geshe-la has taught that supporting our community is an important practice. With the Care Squad, we can help provide another layer of support for each other. Please consider joining in this effort.

At this time we are not yet prepared to receive requests from members seeking support. As soon as we have taken the inventory from volunteers of what we can offer, we will send another email announcing that the Care Squad is open for business.

If you have any questions or are interested in volunteering but unable to attend this meeting, please contact Sheila Parker, Care Squad Coordinator, at caresquad@kadampa-center.org.

Losar is the Tibetan New Year. Please join us on Saturday February 9 from 1:30 to 3:30 to learn about Tibetan and Buddhist traditions. Drop in any time for crafts and activities. As a special treat, after 2:00 Geshe Sangpo will be availabe to answer questions and make tormas with you out of play doh. He's also organizing a quick performance of the snow lion dance!

Events like these are fun and casual and a great opportunity to enjoy the center. It's not a drop-off event, so please plan on exploring with your kids. 

A movie about Venerable Robina Courtin's extraordinary life.

In a packed 52 minutes, the extraordinary life of this irrepressible dynamo unfolds, racing through the turbulent early years into a kind of Buddhist calm that is glimpsed only when she is quietly telling her mala beads in a railway waiting room or a plane. The rest of the time the focus, the commitment and the fanatical energy remain. She still bumps headlong into her own anger and impatience; she is still intolerant of phoniness; and she can still cry over the unhappy, lonely death of her father.

In a final scene, Ven. Robina says, “I spent my life trying to get what I wanted and nothing stopped me from pushing obstacles out of the way . I was trying to change whole worlds, (to) give up attachment, give up jealousy, give up anger, for me the most sensible thing is to be a nun and after 20 years it is absolutely what I wanted.”

Excerpted from MANDALA magazine

Venerable Tendron, who has been serving Kadampa Center as Spiritual Program Coordinator and one of our teachers, will be making an exciting change - after visiting with her family, she'll be returning to Chenrezig Institute in Australia to continue her studies in a two-year course. (Of course, she doesn't have her visa yet, so this assumes all will go well!)

In the time Ven. Tendron has been at Kadampa Center, many positive things have happened and she has been a huge help in many ways. Geshe Gelek encourages everyone to come and say thank you and farewell at a party on Sunday, May 20th, from noon to 1:15pm (between the morning teachings and Medicine Buddha puja).

There will be an opportunity to offer her a kata and any gift you'd like - but please be mindful she has very limited luggage and probably can't pack anything more to take with her. The most practical offering would be a monetary gift to help with her expenses.

You can also show your appreciation by bringing food and drink to share to make this a truly festive party, and lend a hand with the setup and cleanup. Please contact program@kadampa-center.org if you'd like to volunteer.

Come learn about a fascinating healing tradition from two prominent scholars and practitioners of Tibetan medicine.

Lunch will be provided. Please RSVP to sarah_rhodes@med.unc.edu.

Dr. Lhusham Gyal is Dean and Professor at the Quinghai University Tibetan Medical College. He is an expert in Tibetan Psychology. He received his Tibetan medical training through many senior teachers throughout eastern and central Tibet, and also obtained bachelor and master degrees in Medical Studies from Tibet University in Lhasa, Tibet. One of the most renowned Tibetan medical doctors in Tibet today, Dr. Gyal has received particular recognition for his book A Systematic Analysis of Tibetan Medical Psychology (2004). He is the author of numerous articles and books, and is the associate editor-in-chief for the textbook series Curricula of National Tibetan Medical University Majors. An inspiration in the classroom, Dr. Gyal has received awards and recognition for his teaching from domestic and international bodies.

Dr. Kunchok Gyaltsen is a Tibetan physician and Tibetan Buddhist monk and has a Ph.D. in Public Health from UCLA. He also holds masters degrees in Primary Health Care Management from ASEAN Institute for Health Development at Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand, and in International and Intercultural Management from the School for International Training in Vermont.

In 2003, he facilitated the opening of Kumbum Tibetan Medical Hospital's first branch clinic in Beijing, China, and has since opened an outpatient clinic in Shenyang City (eastern China) and a small hospital near Xianyang (western China). Kumbum Tibetan Medical Hospital is currently the largest facility of its kind, reputed for its quality care, professionalism, and pharmaceutical expertise. He is also founder of Tibetan Healing Fund, a non-profit organization with offices in both Amdo Province and Seattle, Washington. The mission of the Tibetan Healing Fund is to provide basic education and primary health care to rural Tibetan women and children. Today, a growing number of isolated and impoverished women and children in the Tibetan regions of northeastern China are served by Tibetan Healing Fund projects, which include bilingual and bicultural education, community midwife training, and health education and outreach. In July 2009, the Tibetan Healing Fund opened the first Tibetan Birth Center for rural Tibetan women in Ma-lho Tibetan Prefecture in western China.

This event is sponsored by the AMSA Subcommittee on Alterative and Complementary Medicine, UNC Chapel Hill School of Medicine.

This is a special screening of the new film For The Benefit Of All Beings, a documentary of the life of Garchen Rinpoche.

Garchen Rinpoche is a Tibetan Lama who was imprisoned by the Chinese government for 20 years following the invasion of Tibet. While in prison he secretly engaged in compassion and meditation exercises and he emerged from prison a highly realized being. Today he travels and teaches tirelessly helping people awaken to their compassionate nature. “For the Benefit of All Beings” is beautifully shot by award winning filmmaker Christina Lundberg. The event is a fundraiser for the Garchen Institute - a Buddhist center in Arizona under the direction of Garchen Rinpoche.

You may purchase tickets online or directly through the Arts Center by calling 919-929-2787 ext. 201. Ticket prices start at $10.