March 20th, 2012
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Buddhist monks sit next to candles and chant en masse during a lantern lighting ceremony to mark Makha Bucha Day at Dhammakaya Temple in Pathum Thani province, Thailand, on February 25, 2013. Makha Bhucha Day is observed during the full moon of the third lunar month and commemorates the day when Buddha personally ordained 1,250 Arahant disciples.
A procession of Buddhist monks wearing ochre robes take part in a parade to celebrate the 2,600th anniversary of the enlightenment of Lord Buddha in Bangkok, Thailand, on January 4, 2013.
via Marking the anniversary of Buddha’s enlightenment « Hungeree.
This excerpt is from Melanya Helene’s award winning one-woman performance inspired by the writings of Pema Chodron. The Samurai Story offers glimpse of the simple magic and power of this celebration of exhaustion, uncertainty, and the art of giving up hope.
For the past two years, Dorje Denma Ling has offered a very special winter holiday family gathering, which begins December 26th and culminating in a New Year’s Eve banquet and dance party. Each day begins and ends together with chants and meditation, with children from age 3 to 15 learning how to ring the gong, drum the drum, and offer incense for a daily lhasang. After morning chants, as the adults go off to their respective days of intensive shamatha and vajrayana practice (which fulfills group practice requirements), the children go to their own program activities, which are different each day. View the video below!
Highlights of this year’s retreat included a beautiful “basic goodness” book that was handmade by the kids; a profound and lively discussion about Shambhala household practice; a traditional Maritime “kitchen party”; and a number of snowball sneak attacks, although the snow levels did not meet the kids’ high expectations from last year.
This film was recorded and produced by Anna Weinstein.
via What the Children Say: Everybody Has Basic Goodness | Shambhala Times Community News Magazine.
Kobun Chino Otogawa, Steve Jobs’ Zen teacher.
Isaacson does a fine job of showing how Jobs’ engagement with Buddhism was more than just a lotus-scented footnote to a brilliant Silicon Valley career. As a young seeker in the ’70s, Jobs didn’t just dabble in Zen, appropriating its elliptical aesthetic as a kind of exotic cologne. He turns out to have been a serious, diligent practitioner who undertook lengthy meditation retreats at Tassajara — the first Zen monastery in America, located at the end of a twisting dirt road in the mountains above Carmel — spending weeks on end “facing the wall,” as Zen students say, to observe the activity of his own mind.
via What Kind of Buddhist was Steve Jobs, Really? | NeuroTribes.
Everything in life is temporary. So if things are going good, enjoy it because it wont last forever. And if things are going bad, don’t worry. It can’t last forever either.
via i can read.
Buddhist teacher, former inmate and founder of several prison service organizations Fleet Maull talks about life behind bars. Even in the hostile prison environment, Fleet found that people would eventually reveal their humanity, which inspired him to rededicate his life to spiritual practice and service.
