Gompa

We are blessed to have a special guest in town, Venerable George Churinoff, who is a highly-respected teacher in FPMT and has agreed to lead our 10:30am session this Sunday, the 24th. He will be continuing Geshe Gelek's discussion about "What is Happiness?"

A little bit about Ven. George:

A physics graduate from MIT, Venerable George earned a Masters degree in Buddhist studies from Delhi University, India. He took ordination in 1975 and studied the Geshe Studies Program at Manjushri Institute, England, where he also served as Spiritual Program Coordinator. Venerable George was instrumental in founding the Masters Program at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa in Italy, where he also served as Program Coordinator. After studying and teaching there for eight years he spent several years at Tushita Centre in Delhil, followed by three years as Lama Osel Rinpoche's English curriculum tutor at Sera Je Monastery in South India. Venerable George has done many retreats in the sutra and tantra traditions and taught extensively in FPMT centers all over the world. He taught the Basic Program as resident teacher at Dorje Chang Institute, New Zealand and at Land of Medicine Buddha, USA. Venerable George now resides at Deer Park Buddhist Center Madison, Wisconsin.

Families are always welcome. Children are invited to sit at the front of the gompa on the blue cushions at the beginning of the Sunday Program, and then can join in our very active Children and Youth Program.

Part of the process of illness in our society is navigating through the medical system. It's a very difficult time to learn about the differences between hospitals, rehab centers, long-term care facilities, hospice, and more. Added to this are pressures of dealing with insurance companies and bills. This workshop will help introduce some of the basic facts you need to know about these issues, so you can be better prepared to make decisions while dealing with an illness, either yourself or with a loved one.

Special guest Steven Warnock, Eecutive Director of Project Compassion, brings his expertise to the center. Project Compassion is a non-profit organization that creates community and provides innovative support for people living with serious illness, caregiving, end of life and grief.

This workshop, the next in our year-long Death & Dying series, will be led by  Stephanie Smith, one of our Discovering Buddhism leaders. Based on her personal experience and Buddhist teachings, she will help us look at several aspects of benefiting those who are dying, such as how to cultivate a peaceful environment (at home, at hospice, in a hospital); communicating and working with family members and those of various faiths; and examining our own attitudes we each bring to our service and interactions.

No registration is required and this series is offered on a donation basis. You do not have to attend the full series -- please feel free to come to any workshop that interests you.

This workshop will focus on the topic of grief and loss. It will be jointly led by Venerable Choekyi and a grief counselor from Hospice of Wake County. Together they will look at aspects of grief and loss from both western psychology and Buddhist perspectives. The goal of the workshop is to help us become more familiar, and therefore more comfortable, with this topic.

Due to time and other limitations, the scope of this 2-hour workshop will not extend to therapy or support for someone actively seeking help to process grief. If you are seeking this type of support, please feel free to contact Ven Choekyi at support@kadampa-center.org for a referral to an appropriate source.

As others are approaching death, we often want to help. This workshop will give us some tools to be of benefit. Geshe-la will lead us in a discussion of prayers, practices, and mantras to do for someone who is dying and also those to do at the time of death. We will also learn about practices to do after someone has died.

Geshe Gelek will be teaching on the Five Powers. According to Lama Zopa Rinpoche, “There are five powers to be practiced near the time of death. They are very important. That is what we need to train in now. We have to remember what they are, at least their names and the meanings. Then we have the possibility of putting them into practice.”

Come learn more about what these forces are, how to think about and practice them in life, and how to prepare to apply them at the time of death.

Kadampa Center is offering a year-long series of workshops on many aspects of death and dying. The first Saturday of each month at 1pm, we will meet to focus on one important topic to help us make our own life more meaningful by preparing for our own death, to support our practice as caregivers, to explore Buddhist tools for approaching death, and prepare all the worldly details that accompany this process here in America: working with the healthcare system and insurance, preparing our will, etc.

The first workshop, entitled "Thinking about Death – A Workshop for All of Us," will be held Saturday, June 1, from 1-3pm at the Center. No registration is required and this series is offered on a donation basis.

Please join us starting in June for this important series of workshops. If you have any questions, please email Venerable Choekyi at support@kadampa-center.org.

Death and Dying Library

Additionally, our Death and Dying Resource team has been hard at work to prepare a library specific to this topic. As part of Kadampa Center's main library, in the bookshelf just to the left of the main library shelves, is a section of books, DVDs, and handouts focused specifically on aspects of death and dying. As with all books in the Center library, members are welcome to check out these resources.

If you have any items you'd like to donate to the Death and Dying Resource Library, we are looking for books and audio and video resources on caregiving, living with illness, dying, death, and grief. We are not in a position to take resources about specific diseases, such as a diet for cancer patients or a cure for arthritis. Items should be either Buddhist or nonsectarian in nature.

Resources to be donated can be brought to the center and marked for Sylvia or clearly labeled "Death and Dying Resources".  We will take a look at your kind donation to determine if it is something we can use in the library. Please clearly indicate if you want the resource back if it is not something we can use in the library. If you would like to purchase something for the library, please contact Sylvia directly.

If you have any questions about donating items, please contact Sylvia Hill at l09h0314@yahoo.com.

From
 the 
Academy 
Award® 
nominated
 director
 Roko
 Belic 
comes 
a
 new
 cinematic 
adventure.
 More about this wonderful movie!

HAPPY 
is 
a 
feature‐length
 documentary 
that
 leads
 viewers
 on 
a
 journey
 across
 5 
continents
 in
 search
 of 
the 
keys 
to 
happiness. 
The
 film
 addresses 
many 
of 
the
 fundamental
 issues
 we
 face
 in today’s
 society: 
how
 do 
we 
balance
 the 
allure
 of 
money, 
fame and 
social
 status 
with
 our 
needs 
for 
strong
 relationships, 
health
 and
personal 
fulfillment?


Through
 remarkable
 human 
stories 
and 
cutting‐edge
 science,
 HAPPY 
leads 
us 
toward
 a
 deeper
 understanding 
of
 why
 and 
how 
we
 can
 pursue 
more 
fulfilling, 
healthier
 and 
happier
 lives.


HAPPY 
takes
 the
 viewer 
from
 the 
bayous
 of 
Louisiana
 to 
the 
deserts 
of 
Namibia, 
from 
the
 beaches
 of 
Brazil 
to 
the 
mountains
 of 
Bhutan.  
Listen
 to 
the
 wisdom
 of 
a 
Kolkata 
rickshaw 
driver,
 the 
compassion
 of 
a 
volunteer 
at 
Mother
 Teresa’s
 Home
 for 
the
 Dying
 and 
the
 knowledge
 of
 some 
of 
the
 world’s 
leading 
happiness 
researchers.  
Witness 
as 
middle
 school
 students
 applaud
 the
 bravery
 of 
their 
classmates 
during
 a 
moving 
presentation 
on 
bullying.


HAPPY 
combines
 real‐life
 human
 drama
 and 
cutting‐edge
 science 
to
 provide
 insights 
into 
the
 mysteries o
f happiness.