Beginning April 3, 2008, the Buddhist Meditation and Spiritual Support Group will meet in the downstairs room of the Arkansas Yoga Center at a new time: 7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m..

For more information, contact Josh Newman at (479) 422-6526 or Geoff Oelsner at (479) 521-2395

The Tibetan Cultural Institute of Arkansas will hold an informal public organizational and informational meeting on Wednesday, March 12, 2008 at 6:00 pm.  The meeting will be held in the Willard and Pat Walker Community Room of the Fayetteville Public Library, located at 401 W. Mountain Street in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

The Tibetan Cultural Institute of Arkansas, founded by Ven. Geshe Thupten Dorjee and Professor Sidney Burris, is dedicated to helping the Tibetan people preserve their culture and religion within the emerging global village. The Institute pursues its objectives through education, through providing the public with teachings, demonstrations, exhibits, lectures, films, study trips - in short, with any activity that artfully showcases one of the world’s oldest and most comprehensive civilizations.

This meeting is free and open to all interested members of the public.

Fayetteville Soto Zen Center has changed its name to Fayetteville Soto Zen Meditation Group, and has moved its meeting place from United Campus Ministries to the Arkansas Yoga Center.

As of May 7, 2007, FSZMG will meet at Arkansas Yoga Center, 1949 Green Acres, Fayetteville, Arkansas, 72703, which is located behind the Fayetteville AQ Chicken Restaurant on College Avenue. Weekly meetings of FSZMG are held upstairs at AYC, Mondays from 7:30 pm sharp to 9:00 pm.

The practice of Zen involves focusing the mind on nothing while being totally aware during meditation (zazen). Participants sit zazen facing the wall for 30 minutes, do a brief period of walking meditation, and go back to sitting for another 20 minutes. This is usually followed by a Dharma talk and a short discussion. Cushions are provided.

For more information, call group leader Jack McDowell at 479-789-2531. For a collection of Jack’s Dharma talks go to zentalks.blogspot.com. Writing under his Zen name, Kan-za, he hits the timeless bull’s-eye every time.

Ven. Geshe Thupten Dorjee, University of Arkansas Professor Sidney Burris, and others are in the process of founding the Tibetan Heritage Institute of Arkansas.  The Institute is devoted to education and the preservation of Tibetan culture.  The following excerpt is from their new web site, located at http://www.tibetanheritageinstitute.com/ :

The Tibetan Heritage Institute of Arkansas is dedicated to helping the Tibetan people preserve their culture within the emerging global village. This is a task that requires both a facility with the technology that supports such a village and the practical hands-on management skills that characterize the most productive relief efforts. We are convinced that the preservation of Tibetan culture is more than an act of historical preservation.  The Tibetan voice has proven itself over the millennia to be a vital voice, and one whose counsel and vision should be a major component of our attempts to solve the unique problems that confront us as we enter the 21st century.

The Institute believes that the most effective way to accomplish our purpose is through education, through providing the public with teachings, demonstrations, exhibits, lectures, films, study trips — in short, with any activity that artfully showcases one of the world’s oldest and most comprehensive civilizations. Accordingly, we share many of the same goals of similar organizations both in this country and around the world, and we are convinced that, working together, we can make real progress in reaching those goals.

We are currently a fledgling organization. But with our two resident monks, Geshe Thupten Dorjee and Rinzin Dorjee, who are teaching at the University of Arkansas and working both within the larger community of Fayetteville and the state of Arkansas, we believe that we are establishing a firm foundation on which to grow.

For more information about the Institute and to learn about ways you can support their work, visit http://www.tibetanheritageinstitute.com/

Students for a Free Tibet
University of Arkansas Chapter
Organizational Meeting
Wednesday November 1, 2006 at 4:00 pm
Old Main 203

Students for a Free Tibet (SFT) works in solidarity with the Tibetan people in their struggle for freedom and independence. We are a chapter-based network of young people and activists around the world. Through education, grassroots organizing, and non-violent direct action, we campaign for Tibetans’ fundamental right to political freedom. Our role is to empower and train youth as leaders in the worldwide movement for social justice.

The University of Arkansas chapter of SFT has been inactive for at least a year-and-a-half.  The purpose of this meeting is to elect officers, discuss the constitution, and other activities necessary to reactivate the local chapter.   Faculty Advisors are Professor Sidney Burris and Geshe Thupten Dorjee.

Additional information about the U of A chapter organization is available at http://www.nwabuddhist.info/sft/ .  There’s also a contact form if you will be unable to attend the meeting, but still want information about joining.

For information about the national organization, visit their web site at http://www.studentsforafreetibet.org/

Geshe Thupten Dorje, a highly educated and experienced spiritual guide of the Tibetan Buddhist Gelugpa order, will guest-teach at the Buddhist Meditation and Spiritual Support Group on Thursdays September 28, October 5, and November 2, from 7-8:15 pm.  Meeting time will be divided between meditations, and discussions  with Geshe-la in which he addresses questions and topics posed by group members.
 
Contact Geoff Oelsner at 521-2395, for more information.

Sunday mornings at 11:00 am, Geshe Thupten Dorjee leads the meditation and teaches on the Four Noble Truths from the text The Four Noble Truths by the Venerable Lobsand Gyatso. Contact Karen Chotkowski at 530-7868 or 587-8920 or Pam Dramis at 409-3349 to confirm the schedule and get directions.

Tibetan monks Geshe Thupten Dorjee and Renzin Dorjee will lead the regular session of the UU Buddhist Fellowship on Tuesday, September 5 at 7:00 pm.  The session will probably run later than it’s usual 1 hour, probably until 8:30 or 9:00 pm.  The meeting will include a demonstration of Tibetan polyphonic chanting, a meditation, and a teaching.

Geshe Thupten Dorjee was born in Tibet and escaped the Chinese Communist occupation with his family at the age of 3.  He entered Drepung Loseling Monastery in Karmataka, South India at the age of 13, intensively studying the vast body of Tibetan Buddhist scriptures for the next 22 years.  Geshe-la was ordained a Buddhist monk by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 1986; in 1994, he received the degree of Geshe Lhatampa (meaning “Spiritual Guide”), the highest scholastic honor available within the arduous Tibetan educational system (roughly equivalent to, but a lot harder to earn than the western Ph.D.) He’s teaching 2 classes in Tibetan Culture and Buddhist philosophy at the U of A this Fall.

The Unitarian Universalist Buddhist Fellowship meets every Tuesday evening from 7:00 to 8:00 pm at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Fayetteville (901 West Cleveland Street.)  Meetings are free open to any and all who feel an “affinity with both Unitarian Universalism and Buddhism”. For more information, see their web site at http://buddhist.fayettevilleunitarian.org.  For a map and driving directions, visit http://www.fayettevilleunitarian.org/contact/

The Buddhist Meditation and Spiritual Support Group has met weekly for over a decade.  It  will begin meeting at a new location from 7-8:15 pm Thursdays, on September 7, upstairs at the Arkansas Yoga Center,1949 N. Green Acres Rd., (right behind the AQ Chicken restaurant in Fayetteville). Geoff Oelsner, Joshua Newman, and John Meadors will rotate as group facilitators.  Some meetings will feature guest teachers.
 
Geshe Thupten Dorje, a highly educated and experienced spiritual guide of the Tibetan Buddhist Gelugpa order, will guest-teach at the Buddhist Meditation and Spiritual Support Group on Thursdays September 28, October 5, and November 2, from 7-8:15 pm.  Meeting time will be divided between meditations, and discussions  with Geshe-la in which he addresses questions and topics posed by group members.
 
Contact Geoff Oelsner at 521-2395, for more information.