A Day of Mindfulness and Meditation
Saturday, June 7th; 12:30 to 3:30 p.m.
Unitarian Universalist Church
1818 Reservoir Road
Little Rock, Arkansas

Free and Open to the Public!

The Ecumenical Buddhist Society will be hosting Arkansas ‘fourth “Change Your Mind Day” on Saturday, June 7th, from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church at 1818 Reservoir Road in Little Rock. “Change Your Mind Day” is being held in approximately 50 cities throughout the United States and around the world in June. The event’s purpose is to celebrate a day of mindfulness and meditation, and to introduce different types of meditation practices to the general public in a friendly, public setting, free of charge.

The event will include instruction/guidance in sitting and walking meditation as well as visualization, chanting, yoga, and drumming.  You are welcome to attend the entire event or drop in at your convenience.  It’s a great way to explore different types of meditation techniques!

Although the event is sponsored and led by volunteers, who represent primarily Buddhist traditions, it is open to anyone who approaches spirituality in a compassionate, mindful way.  We look forward to seeing you on June 7th!

“By bringing meditation practice into a public forum, we hope to demonstrate that sitting quietly for a short time is a powerful way to ‘change your mind’ and serve the community,” said George Crook, former president of EBS.  “And, because more and more Arkansans are expressing interest in Buddhism, this event offers a unique opportunity to experience Buddhist meditation practices and philosophy.”

For more information, visit www.ebslr.org

The Vesak 2008 Ecumenical Buddhist Picnic will be held this Sunday, May 18 from 3:30 to 7:00 pm at Agri Park in Fayetteville, with dinner beginning around 5:30 pm.  All area Buddhists and all those interested in Buddhist theory and practice are cordially invited to attend. 

This is a wonderful opportunity for members of the various local practice groups to get acquainted and share the Dharma with others.  Your participation will help make this event a success. 

Please bring food and drink, plates, cups, and utensils to share with those attending, as well as lawn chairs, frisbees, games, etc.  Local practice groups are invited to bring information about their group’s practice and activities to share with others.  Those who wish may bring offerings of fruit, flowers, incense, or candles to be placed on the altar.  Talented musicians are invited to come prepared to share their music with the group.

The event will feature one or two periods of silent meditation, dharma talks, and readings.  At the close of the event, Ven. Geshe Thupten Dorjee will offer to those interested the Eight Precepts Vow for observation on Tuesday, May 20, the official date of Vesak.  A copy of the Eight Precepts Vow is available online at http://www.nwabuddhist.info/vesakprecepts.pdf

Full details of the event are available at http://nwabuddhist.info/news/archives/125

A Special Preview Screening of
Dalai Lama Renaissance
June 28th from 4:00PM to 6:00PM
Arend Arts Center, Bentonville

A special “sneak preview” of the “Dalai Lama Renaissance,” a feature documentary film narrated by Harrison Ford and including Michael Beckwith (from “The Secret”), and Fred Alan Wolf and Amit Goswami from “What the Bleep Do We Know,” will be presented by The RabBoar Studio on June 28th from 4:00PM to 6:00PM at the Arend Arts Center in Bentonville. 

Fifty-percent of the proceeds will go to the film’s creators who will donate 1/3 to the Preservation of the Tibetan Culture.

“Dalai Lama Renaissance” has screened for enthusiastic sold out audiences throughout the U.S. and world, and has won 10 awards, and is the official selection at 35 film festivals around the world.

“Dalai Lama Renaissance” is an 80 minute documentary film about forty of the world’s most innovative thinkers who travel to India in the Himalayan Mountains to meet with the Dalai Lama to solve many of the world’s problems. What happened was surprising and unexpected.

Narrated by actor Harrison Ford, the film also features Quantum Physicists Fred Alan Wolf and Amit Gowami from “What the Bleep Do We Know,” and Michel Beckwith and Fred Alan Wolf from “the Secret,” Social Scientist Jean Houston, and New Thought minister Harry Morgan Moses. The film also includes other New Thought authors and thinkers who were also a part of these “Synthesis Dialogs” with the Dalai Lama.

You can read more about “Dalai Lama Renaissance,” including watching three different trailers for the film, here: www.DalaiLamaFilm.com

For more information or to purchase tickets, visit http://www.rabboar.com/studio/DalaiLama.htm

Vesak 2008
Ecumenical Buddhist Picnic
Celebrating the Buddha’s Birth, Enlightenment, and Paranirvana
Sunday, May 18, 2008;  3:30 - 7:00 pm
Agri Park, Fayetteville

Northwest Arkansas Buddhists will celebrate Vesak 2008 with a potluck picnic beginning at 3:30 pm (dinner starts around 5:30 pm) on Sunday, May 18 at Agri Park in Fayetteville.  All area Buddhists and all those interested in Buddhist theory and practice are cordially invited to attend. 

Sometimes informally called “Buddha’s birthday,” Vesak celebrates the birth, enlightenment (Nirvana), and passing (Paranirvana) of the historical Buddha Sakyamuni. An official state holiday in many Buddhist countries, Vesak is also known as Vaisakha, Buddha Jayanti, and Saga Dawa. The exact date of Vesak varies according to the various lunar calendars used in different traditions.  For many of those traditions, Vesak falls on May 20 in 2008.

Please bring food and drink, plates, cups, and utensils to share with those attending, as well as lawn chairs, games, etc.  Local practice groups are invited to bring information about their group’s practice and activities to share with others.  Those who wish may bring offerings of fruit, flowers, incense, or candles to be placed on the altar.

The event will feature a period of silent meditation, and perhaps a Dharma talk or two.  At the close of the event, Ven. Geshe Thupten Dorjee will offer to those interested the Eight Precepts Vow, to be honored for the 24-hour period beginning at sunrise on Tuesday May 20.  Participants who take the vow undertake to abstain from: taking life (both human and nonhuman); taking what is not given (stealing); all sexual activity; telling lies; using intoxicating drinks and drugs which lead to carelessness; eating at the wrong time (the right time is eating once, after sunrise, before noon); singing, dancing, playing music, attending entertainment performances, wearing perfume, and using cosmetics and garlands; and using luxurious places for sitting or sleeping.

Located on Garland Avenue north of the University of Arkansas and Deane Street, Agri Park features a covered pavilion; in the event of rain, the event will proceed as planned.

Click here to download a flyer for the event.

Anam Thubten Rinpoche, a Tibetan Buddhist lama rooted in the teachings of the Nyingma lineage, returns to Fayetteville on Monday, April 21 for “Spiritual Discourse”, a heart to heart dialogue, which invites the audience to join in an exploration into the realm of truth which is always available to us. In this meeting, he will challenge those core beliefs which have chained us to our misery for far too long. Freedom is knocking on our door.

Sponsored by by the University of Arkansas Department of Religious Studies, the talk will be held at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 224 N. East Avenue in Fayetteville at 7:00 pm.  The talk is free and open to the public, but a donation of $10 is suggested to help cover Anam Thubten’s travel expenses and other costs.

Anam Thubten Rinpoche was born in Tibet and undertook Buddhist training in the Nyingma tradition at an early age. Soon after entering the monastery he was recognized as the reincarnation of Anam Lama. He has studied with many dharma teachers in Tibet. He has been teaching in the West since the 1990’s and currently serves as the spiritual advisor and dharma teacher for the Dharmata Foundation, headquartered in Point Richmond, California.

The reason I’m teaching is not because of having been recognized as a Tulku, or out of adherence to title and position within the Buddhist institution, but from a passionate love of true Dharma.  Dharma is pure and perfect.  Through it, we can transform our lives. This is neither theory or speculation.  It has been demonstrated in the lives of many of us, who have taken refuge in it.  Dharma is always aligned with truth, since it goes beyond all of the concepts one can have.    ~Anam Thubten

Rick Ray, the director of “10 Questions for the Dalai Lama”, will hold an informal chat session at RZ’s coffeehouse in the University of Arkansas Student Union on Monday, March 31 starting at 1:30 pm.  Anyone interested is welcome to attend.

The University Programs Cultures & Concepts Committee in partnership with The Fulbright College Honors Program and The Religious Studies Program will present a documentary film showing of “10 Questions for the Dalai Lama” with director Rick Ray on Monday, March 31st, 2008 in Giffels Auditorium, 2nd floor of Old Main, at 7:00pm.
 

The film “10 Questions for the Dalai Lama”, presented by director Rick Ray, will be shown in Giffels Auditorium on the 2nd floor of Old Main, instead of in the Arkansas Union, as previously announced.

The University Programs Cultures & Concepts Committee in partnership with The Fulbright College Honors Program and The Religious Studies Program will present a documentary film showing of “10 Questions for the Dalai Lama” with director Rick Ray on Monday, March 31st, 2008 in Giffels Auditorium, 2nd floor of Old Main, at 7:00pm.

Rick Ray examines some of the fundamental questions of our time by weaving together observations from his own journeys throughout India and the Middle East, and the wisdom of an extraordinary spiritual leader. This is his story, as told and filmed by Rick Ray during a private visit to his monastery in Dharamsala, India over the course of several months. Also included is rare historical footage as well as footage supplied by individuals who at great personal risk, filmed with hidden cameras within Tibet.

Part biography, part philosophy, part adventure and part politics, 10 Questions for The Dalai Lama conveys more than history and more than answers - it opens a window into the heart of an inspiring man. Ray will briefly talk about his experience and answer questions following the documentary film showing.

The event is free to all students, faculty, staff, and guests. For more information about the Cultures & Concepts Committee, contact Roberto Noensie at (479) 575-5255.

[Please note the venue change from the previous announcement] 

The University Programs Cultures & Concepts Committee in partnership with The Fulbright College Honors Program and The Religious Studies Program will present a documentary film showing of “10 Questions for the Dalai Lama” with director Rick Ray on Monday, March 31st, 2008 in Giffels Auditorium, 2nd floor of Old Main, at 7:00pm.

Rick Ray examines some of the fundamental questions of our time by weaving together observations from his own journeys throughout India and the Middle East, and the wisdom of an extraordinary spiritual leader. This is his story, as told and filmed by Rick Ray during a private visit to his monastery in Dharamsala, India over the course of several months. Also included is rare historical footage as well as footage supplied by individuals who at great personal risk, filmed with hidden cameras within Tibet.

Part biography, part philosophy, part adventure and part politics, 10 Questions for The Dalai Lama conveys more than history and more than answers - it opens a window into the heart of an inspiring man. Ray will briefly talk about his experience and answer questions following the documentary film showing.

The event is free to all students, faculty, staff, and guests. For more information about the Cultures & Concepts Committee, contact Roberto Noensie at (479) 575-5255.

University of Arkansas Students for a Free Tibet will host a candlelight vigil in support of the Tibetan people this Tuesday, March 25, in Giffels Auditorium on the 2nd floor of Old Main at approximately 7:15-7:30.  The student group’s advisor and Tibetan Buddhist monk Geshe Thupten Dorjee will speak, and his student Rinzin Dorjee will perform a chant and blessing for Tibet.  There will also be a short film.

Prior to the vigil, beginning at 6:00 pm in Giffels Auditorium, Professor Sidney Burris will present a lecture on His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama and the history of Tibet leading up to the 1950 Chinese invasion. 

The lecture and vigil are part of the U of A History of Non-Violence class taught by Professor Burris and Geshe Dorjee; but this event is open to the public.  All are welcome to attend.

University of Arkansas Students for a Free Tibet will host a candlelight vigil in support of Tibetans this Tuesday, March 25, in Giffels Auditorium on the 2nd floor of Old Main at 7:00pm.  The student group’s advisor and Tibetan Buddhist monk Geshe Thupten Dorjee will speak, and his student Rinzin Dorjee will perform a polyphonic chant.  There will also be a short film.

Demonstrations in support of religious freedom and independence began in Tibet on March 10, Tibetan National Uprising Day. The government of China responded harshly, provoking responses from leaders around the globe. U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is flying to Dharamshala, seat of the Tibetan government in exile, to meet with His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama about the situation.  Recently Fayetteville Mayor Dan Coody declared March 10th Tibet Day, which was celebrated in Fayetteville on the University of Arkansas campus.   Presidential candidates Clinton, McCain, and Obama have all issued statements on the situation, as has U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

The national office of Students for a Free Tibet is posting regular updates of the situation on its weblog, located at http://blog.studentsforafreetibet.org/ .  An aggregated news feed from over 30 news sources and weblogs, detailing news from around the world regarding the Tibetan situation is available here.