Stages of Awareness
Weekend Retreat With Lama Bruce Newman
Feb. 15th - 17th
Rime Buddhist Center
Kansas City, Missouri

This retreat will be an informal presentation on mindfulness and awareness. Do we really know what these words mean? Do we know when we are really experiencing them? We will study a few short modern Buddhist articles on the subject. The main emphasis will be on discussion to allow participants to air their doubts and present their experiences. Lama Newman will make a few short presentations along with some relevant meditations.

Lama Bruce Newman was born in Los Angeles in 1950 and graduated from UCSB in Physical Chemistry in 1972. Lama Newman’s root teachers for this period were Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey in Dharamsala, India, Venerable Gyatrul Rinpoche in Oakland, California, and Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, Venerable Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, Venerable Zigar Kongtrul Rinpoche and my main teacher, Venerable Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Lama Newman completed the traditional four-year retreat at Kagyu Samye Ling in Scotland under the guidance of H.E. Taisitu Rinpoche, Venerable Akong Rinpoche, Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, and Lama Yeshe Losel. Upon completion of the retreat Lama Newman returned to America and settled near Gyatrul Rinpoche’s retreat center, Tashi Choling, outside Ashland, Oregon where he continued his contemplative life. In 2001, Lama Newman created and began Marig Munsel, a four-year training program at Tashi Choling.

For more information, or to register for this retreat, visit www.rimecenter.org

Six Paramitas Weekend Retreat with Geshe Dorjee
Friday Jan. 25 – Sunday Jan. 27, 2008
Rime Buddhist Center
700 West Pennway
Kansas City, Missouri

 
Ven. Geshe Thupten Dorjee, of the Tibetan Cultural Institute of Arkansas, will lead a weekend retreat at the Rime Buddhist Center in Kansas City, January 25-27, 2008.  This weekend retreat is devoted to the study of the Six Paramitas, also known as the Six Perfections. They include generosity, ethical behavior/virtue, patience, effort, concentration/meditation and wisdom.  
 
Fees:
 
Residential Retreat (all teachings): $120 in advance or $140 at the door, plus $25 per night stay. Stay includes two meals per day (breakfast and lunch). Retreatants are on their own for dinner; there are many restaurants near the Rime Center and the Rime kitchen is always available for use.
 
Non-Residential Retreat (all teachings): $120 in advance or $140 at the door. No meals are included.

For more information or to register for the retreat, visit www.rimecenter.org

Visit by Lama Lobsang Palden Rinpoche, Nov. 16 - 20th
Massage Appointments Available
Rime Center, Kansas City, MO

Saturday, Nov. 17th 

• 9 am - noon - Medicine Buddha Empowerment & Puja
• 1 - 3:30 pm Healing Circle

Sunday, Nov. 18th

• 9 - 10 am Tibetan Yantra Yoga Workshop (Mantras & Mudras)
• 10:30 Dharma talk

Fees:

• Both Saturday events $95 in advance/ $115 at the door.
• Yoga Workshop $15 in advance/ $25 at the door;

*Note: The prerequisite for signing up for the “Healing Circle” is taking the morning Medicine Buddha Empowerment & Puja.

Massage Fees:
$115 - 90 min
$145 - 2 hours
For appointments call:
773-262-8191
773-458-6354

Lama Lobsang Palden Rinpoche was trained as a lama in the Gelugpa tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. Born in Tibet, he entered a monastery as a boy after his recognition as a Nyingma tulku, or reincarnated lama of the Nyingma school. At age 18 he escaped Tibet, which was under military occupation by the People’s Republic of China. He made an arduous three-month journey across the Himalayas, fulfilling his dream of meeting His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He lived in monasteries in India for over a decade, studying Buddhist Dharma and Tibetan Medicine. He studied Tibetan Yantra Yoga in Tibet and in Italy, with its foremost teacher in the West, Venerable Namkhai Norbu. He has traveled extensively, teaching and practicing the precious Dharma. He now considers himself a Rime Lama.

The Rime Buddhist Center is a non-sectarian Tibetan Buddhist center located in downtown Kansas City, Missouri. We are located in a beautiful 7,000 sq. foot, 100-year-old church, that can accommodate up to 250 people. On the second floor is a residential retreat center with twelve beds, divided into a men’s and a women’s dorm. The Rime Center also has a gift shop and bookstore that carries a variety of Dharma books and practice items. For more information, visit http://www.rimecenter.org/

Tibetan Buddhist Monk Passang Gelek will offer a class on “The Making of a Sacred Sand Mandala” at Unity of Fayetteville beginning Monday, October 15 at 7 PM. Passang was trained at Drepung Loseling monastery in South India. He recently arrived in Fayetteville for an extended stay from his previous home in San Antonio, Texas.

A sand mandala is a two, or sometimes three-dimensional (if the sand is sculpted), geometric pattern that is first laid out with compasses and chalk lines and straight edges, and then filled in with colored sand. Mandalas are by no means unique to Tibetan culture, although the Tibetan monks have taken them to a visionary and aesthetic level that has rightly distinguished them on the international stage. It was not until 1988, when the Dalai Lama first decreed that these mandalas could be constructed in public, that anyone in the West was able to view one as it was being assembled. The construction of a mandala is essentially a meditation, and a very powerful one at that, and so they have traditionally been done within sacred environments and only around a very select audience of monks and other clerics.

Class participants will learn this form of active meditation as they become familiar with the mechanics of constructing a sacred mandala.  Depending on interest, the class may be expanded to include the making of other items including traditional Tibetan sculptures and prayer flags.

There will be a fee for this workshop.  Contact Martin Jardon for more information.  He can be reached by email at mjardon(at)uark.edu, or by phone at 575-2509.

A Workshop with Anna Cox
October 6-7, 2007
We Are All one: Following the Path from One to Oneness

This is a weekend of silent meditation led by Anna Cox with yoga and breathing exercises taught by Joy Fox. This retreat will be held October 6-7, 2007 at Wattle Hollow Retreat Center located near Devil’s Den State Park south of Fayetteville.

Cost of the retreat is a suggested sliding scale of $60-$90, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds. It is traditional to offer dana (a donation) to the teacher at the end of the retreat.

For more information on this retreat, visit the web site for Wattle Hollow Retreat Center at www.wattlehollow.com or Anna Cox’s site for Dharma Friends Prison Outreach Project at www.dharmafriendsprisonoutreachproject.com.

THE EIGHTFOLD PATH
A Five Day Residential/Non-Residential Retreat
With Bhante Yogavacara Rahula
Arkansas 4-H Center, Ferndale, Arkansas
October 3-7, 2007

The Buddha’s Eightfold Path, the most standard description of the Buddhist way of practice, provides us with a structure for achieving lasting happiness in this life. Although the Eightfold Path was first taught over 2500 years ago, it is as relevant in our world today as it was when the Buddha first taught it.

This retreat will focus on each limb of the Eightfold Path through sitting and walking meditation, Dhamma talks and conferences with the teacher.

Bhante Yogavacara Rahula was ordained in Sri Lanka in 1975. He has been a part of the Bhavana Society since 1987 and serves as the vice-abbot. He regularly teaches and conducts retreats, including retreats integrating yoga breathing and exercise with vipassana. His approach to meditation emphasizes mindfulness of the body. Bhante Rahula conducts retreats in the United States, Canada and Germany.  He also regularly goes to India to teach Buddhists and give talks in remote villages.

As a self-described “confused youth”, Bhante Rahula served a three-year stint in the army, then traveled in Europe and Asia. He spent much of this time living as a hippie, experimenting with a variety of recreational drugs. Eventually, he encountered Tibetan Lamas in Nepal and, after a month-long meditation course, began earnestly seeking a spiritually fulfilling life. He studied yoga in India, then traveled south and began learning about Theravada Buddhism. He ordained in Sri Lanka and lived there for 11 years, practicing in solitary caves and huts, learning dhamma, and eventually leading retreats. Bhante Rahula describes his transformation from a young hippie and army dropout to a Theravadan bhikkhu in his autobiography, One Night’s Shelter.

He has also written a number of other books. Most recently Meditation: Body and Mind Connection, a manual about the integration of simple yoga and movement with vipassana meditation. Bhante Rahula has also written two other meditation manuals, Cutting through the Self-Delusion and The Way to Peace and Happiness, and a chronicle of his hiking and travels as a bhikkhu in India and Nepal, Traversing the Great Himalayas.

The retreat will be held at the Arkansas 4-H Center in Ferndale, just outside of Little Rock (www.arkansas4hcenter.org) and retreatants may select either a residential or non-residential option. Optional yoga classes will be offered by LouAnn Lawson of Little Rock’s Barefoot Yoga Studio.

For more information, visit http://ebslr.org/event_rahula.html

Ven. Geshe Thupten Dorjee, Ven. Rinzin Dorjee, and Ven. Pasang Gelek will present a public Dharma talk, with chanting and meditation, on Tuesday, August 21, at 7:00 pm at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Fayetteville.

TOPIC: Buddhist Perspectives on Love and Compassion
DATE: Tuesday, August 21, 2007
TIME: 7:00 - 8:30 pm
LOCATION: Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Fayetteville
901 W. Cleveland Street, Fayetteville

The three Tibetan Buddhist monks trained at Drepung Loseling monastery in South India. Geshe Dorjee and Rinzin Dorjee currently reside in Fayetteville, and are founders of the Tibetan Heritage Institute of Arkansas. Pasang Gelek recently arrived in Fayetteville for an extended stay from his previous home in San Antonio, Texas.

The talk, sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist Buddhist Fellowship, is free and open to the public. Donations will be accepted. A selection of Tibetan prayer flags, malas (rosary beads), calendars, and other items will be available for purchase following the talk.

Wattle Hollow Retreat Center has announced their upcoming Fall Schedule.  For more information on the events, visit their web site at www.wattlehollow.com.

October 6 - 7
We Are All One
A weekend of  meditation led by Anna Cox,  of Little Rock, and supplementary yoga with Joy Fox.
Cost: a suggested donation of $60 - 90, (according to your means) but no one is turned away for lack of funds.  It is traditional to offer dana (donation) to the teacher at the end of the retreat.

October 12 - 14
Long Life Retreat
Ven. Geshe Thupten Dorjee and Ven. Rinzen Dorjee will return to lead another exploration into Tibetan Buddhism, this one around Tonglen. We will be making clay tsa-tsas.
Suggested sliding fee scale:  $60 - $90 includes food and lodging. Dana is traditionally offered to the teachers at the end of a retreat.

October 26 - 28
Musical Workshop Weekend with Jack Williams and Still on the Hill
This semi-annual event returns to Wattle, with songwriters from all over the country coming together for inspiration, information of a tremendously good time.

November 17
Dharma Day
A day of  silent sitting and walking meditations, plus metta, in the Vipassana tradition, led by Joy Fox.  We will share a potluck lunch, with peppermint tea and brown rice supplied by Wattle Hollow.  Beginners are welcome, as well as our usual sangha.  No charge for this day, but please reserve ahead.

November 24
Giving of Thanks Celebration
Mark your calendars for this annual community celebration, in which we come together to share food, music, poetry, dance, and give thanks for our lives. You’re welcome to come as early as noon, and stroll around the creekbed, or see the cobspaces at Wattle. We’ll gather around 5 p.m. to have a potluck feast and circle round.

More information on the individual events will be available at www.wattlehollow.com and will be published at www.nwabuddhist.info, as more details become available.

Reiki I Class
Saturday, August 4th 10am-6pm
Facilitated by Nora O’Connor
Unity of Fayetteville
4880 W. Wedington Dr. 
Fayetteville, Arkansas
 
This is the first class in which you learn the history of Reiki, how to give a Reiki treatment, the 12 basic Reiki positions for a Reiki treatment.  You will have a Reiki I Meditation, will practice on each other, receive the 4 initiations, a notebook and instruction on how to use Reiki on animals, plants, crystals, food, medicine, etc.  You will also learn how to use Reiki in emergency situations.  Your spiritual energy will be squared.  Cost is $175. 10 AM till 6 PM. Please call to reserve a space in class and for directions and questions.   479-530-0996

Mindfulness Meditation Day with Ben Worth
Saturday, August 11 2007, 9:00am - 4:00pm 
Potluck lunch, donation
Unity of Fayetteville
4880 W. Wedington Dr. 
Fayetteville, Arkansas
479-442-0680 

The theme for our day together will be “Finding New Meanings for Our Lives on the Spiritual Path.”  Our focus will be to understand how to let go of what our family told us was important and determine for ourselves what is important.  It is a process of letting go of the old and embracing the new, which can be painful but result in more happiness than we knew was possible.

Ben has been a spiritual guide in Kansas City for over ten years, and a spiritual seeker for more than twenty. His unique teaching combines Buddhist and Christian philosophy with the wisdom of science. He is dedicated to creating pragmatic techniques for healing our wounds, learning from our problems and finding peace.The retreat requires no registration or fees. Attend either the morning or afternoon session (9:00 to noon, 1:00  to 4:00 pm) or both. There will be a silent potluck lunch. Donations will be received.
 
For more information, visit www.unityfay.org