The 3rd Annual Peace on Earth Music Festival invites everyone in the NW Arkansas Community to a celebration of peace through music and the spoken word.

Come to the Greek Theater on Dickson Street at the U. Of A. Campus in Fayetteville on Saturday, September 15th, from 5:00 - 11:30 pm for a performance of international artists.  Musical entertainment includes Rochelle Bradshaw, vocalist from Kingston, Jamaica, Radio Free Earth playing their personal genre of “Crossover” music, the Afrique Aya Dance Company led by Angelo from West Africa, Kenyon “The Dawn” Lowe, UA student and rising hip-hop artist, and Susan Shore playing original classic folk.  The steppers from the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority will perform an art which has its roots in Africa.  Spoken word artists include two poets from Poets in the Streets, based out of Little Rock, AR.  Geshe Dorjee and Rinzin Dorjee, Tibetan monks in exile, will open the festival with a blessing in the form of an ancient multi-phonic chant.  In case of rain, the festival will be held at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in the Parish Hall at Dickson and College.

The Peace on Earth Music Festival will also feature a “Tapestry of Cultures” Ceremony with representatives of various cultures coming forward to “speak their truth” of peace and war in their native countries. 
                               
In addition to a children’s bike give-away, El Camino Real’s Mexican food will be served for free thanks to the sponsorship of University Programs.  The event will be accented with hands-on crafts and vendors to include henna tattooing and jewelry-making to tie-dyeing and face painting, as well as an array of informative non-profit booths presenting a variety of ways that each of us may take action, helping to create a peace in our own communities.

The Peace on Earth Music Festival began as an idea from University of Arkansas music student, Stephen Coger, feeling that we are all connected and interdependent.  While helping to prepare for the first annual festival, UA student April Love was killed in an act of domestic violence, and so this year’s festival will benefit the April R. Love Scholarship.  Students and members of the NW Arkansas community have rallied together to create an event that glorifies peace and celebrates it.

Sponsors of the Peace on Earth Music Festival include: the Bank of Fayetteville, Jammin’ Java, the Jones Center for Families, Nature’s Water, the Omni Center for Peace, Justice & Ecology, OMNI UA, Associated Student Government, University Programs, and other businesses, organizations, and individuals throughout NW Arkansas.
The 3rd Annual Peace on Earth Music Festival’s schedule:

 5:00, Geshe Dorjee and Rinzin Dorjee
 5:20, Susan Shore
 5:40, Tapestry of Cultures (ToC)
 5:45, Alpha Kappa Alpha Step Show
 6:05, ToC
 6:10, Poets in the Streets
 6:40, ToC
 6:45, Afrique Aya Dance Company
 7:30, Kenyon “The Dawn” Lowe
 8:00, Radio Free Earth
 9:00, Ochito
 9:25, Rochelle Bradshaw

The Press Conference will be in front of the Fayetteville Town Center at 2pm on September 11, 2007.  Performers will be present, and we will hold a moment of silence before a brief performance by Geshe Dorjee and Rinzin Dorjee.

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.

Geshe Thupten Dorjee, of the Tibetan Heritage Institute of Arkansas, will lead a tsog offering for the benefit of the Tibetan people on Sunday, August 5 from 11:00 am - 12:30 pm.  The ceremony is open to the public and will be held at Dramis Hardwood Floors; 2275 S School Avenue in Fayetteville. 

Tsog offering pujas are ceremonies that involve making offerings of food and drink to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in conjunction with prayers, chanting, and meditation. They are an excellent method for accumulating merit, purifying negativity, and receiving and giving blessings.   Participants are encouraged to bring an offering of fruit, drink, or flowers to the ceremony.

This summer will witness the largest demonstration of solidarity with the cause of Tibetan freedom in the history of Tibet.  On July 8, 14 Tibetans began an indefinite hunger strike in Delhi, India in an attempt to force the People’s Republic of China to meet certain demands related to religious and human rights within Tibet.  On August 8, hundreds of thousands of Tibetans in India will begin a mass demonstration based on the principles of nonviolence and Gandhi’s tradition of satyagraha, meaning “insistence on truth”.  For more information on the hunger strike and upcoming demonstration, visit the web site of the Tibetan Youth Congress at www.tibetanyouthcongress.org.