Dalai Lama continues China talks

Two of Dalai Lama's envoys left Thursday for Beijing for the eighth round of negotiations with the Chinese government since 2002.

Also, the Dalai Lama has started on Friday his week-long visit to Japan to speak about spirituality. This is his first trip since recovering from health problems.

"The Dalai Lama, who has lived in India since fleeing Tibet in 1959, is a frequent visitor to Japan where he enjoys an active following.

However, unlike many Western nations, Japan - which has an uncomfortable relationship with China - has almost always refused high-level official contacts with the Dalai Lama and no officials are scheduled to meet him on the current trip."

Clarifications on the Dalai Lama's recent remark

The Dalai Lama clears up the recent comment about giving up on talks with China on Tibet. Thanks to Rev. Danny Fisher and the Philip Ryan from the Tricycle for posting this update on their respective blogs.

"Since the Chinese Government has accused His Holiness of orchestrating these protests in Tibet, he called for a thorough investigation to examine these allegations, even offering access to Central Tibetan Administration files and records here in India. So far, this offer has not been taken up, but the situation in Tibet becomes graver by the day. Therefore, His Holiness said that it is difficult for him to continue to shoulder such a heavy responsibility when the present Chinese leadership does not seem to appreciate simple truth, reason and common sense. In the absence of any positive reciprocal response from the Chinese leadership, His Holiness feels that if he cannot help find a solution, he would rather not hinder it in any way. His Holiness feels he cannot afford to pretend that his persistent efforts to find a mutually satisfactory solution to the Tibetan problem are bearing fruit.

Therefore, on 11 September His Holiness called a special meeting of Tibetans from all parts of our community in exile to engage in wide-ranging discussions with the aim of identifying realistic and non-violent options for the future course of our struggle. His Holiness concluded that when all is said and done it is for the Tibetan people themselves to decide about their collective future. "

Dalai Lama gives up on China talks

The Dalai Lama has given up on trying to negotiate with China over Tibet. According to AP, the Dalai Lama said in his speech:


"I have been sincerely pursuing the middle way approach in dealing with China for a long time now but there hasn't been any positive response from the Chinese side," he said in Tibetan at a public function Saturday in Dharmsala, the north Indian town that is home to Tibet's government-in-exile.

"As far as I'm concerned I have given up," he said in an unusually blunt statement.

"The issue of Tibet is not the issue of the Dalai Lama alone. It is the issue of 6 million Tibetans. I have asked the Tibetan government-in-exile, as a true democracy in exile, to decide in consultation with the Tibetan people the future course of action," the Dalai Lama said.

Week 5: Dharma Talk and Upcoming Retreat

Hello UBA friends,

A few things to announce this week...

As usual, we continue our regular meetings this Tuesday, October 28th from 5:30-7 pm at the UCC (633 Gayley Avenue, across from the UCLA campus). Our meetings are facilitated by Reverend Kusala, who leads us in a dharma discussion followed by a chance to ask questions and a meditation. Previous dharma discussions are available in podcast format Rev. Kusala's website: www.dharmatalks.info.

Also, the weekend after next we will be traveling to Escondido, CA (San Diego area) for the annual Deer Park Monastery weekend retreat for college students, Nov. 7-9th. We plan to leave by 1 pm Friday and return by 4 or 5 pm Sunday, depending on traffic. The retreat is a great chance to experience a taste of life in a Buddhist monastery and we generally participate in activities such as meditation, dharma discussions, hiking, and enjoying delicious vegetarian meals. More info can be found at http://www.deerparkmonastery.org/events/retreats/college-retreat.ics.

The retreat will cost $40 for students for the weekend, which includes room and board in dormitory-style housing and all meals.

If you are interested and have not already done so, please RSVP as soon as you can so that we can get a head count - we will try to provide rides but we are extremely limited on car space, so let us know if you would like to go and if you are able to drive, how many people will fit in your car besides yourself. It will be very much appreciated!! After we get an idea of who is interested in coming, we will send more information on how to register.

Please email us at ucla.uba.online@gmail.com if you have any questions. Thanks and happy 5th week - best of luck on those midterms! Don't forget to take a relaxing and centering breath beforehand to remain focused...

Colbert says Buddha isn't a god!

Stephen Colbert corrects a pastor who claims Buddha as a god. Click here for the video clip.

Film: What Remains of Us

Here is a new movie coming soon called What Remains of Us. It's about the struggling Buddhist culture of Tibet and the journey a person takes to deliver a message from the Dalai Lama to all his followers.

Watch the trailer here.

Official Webiste.

Movie Night Reminder

Hi there UBA friends!

Just a quick reminder about our Buddhist-themed movie night tomorrow, Friday 24th at 7:30pm featuring the film "Groundhog Day". Snacks will be provided and the movie starts right at 8:00. Let us know if you want to come and we will send you the directions.

Hope to see lots of you there!

Animated Dharma

Here's a youtube clip called "Buddha Speaks of Amitayus Sutra:The Larger Sukhavati Vyuha" from an animated series from Life of Shakyamuni Buddha, by Jodoshinshu West Hongwanji Japan. It was originally in Japanese, but this clip is narrated in Mandarin with Chinese and English subtitles. This was posted on Youtube by "mofreedom".

Week 4: Movie Night and Deer Park Retreat

Hello UBA friends,

Lots to announce this week!

I'll try to keep the email brief. First off, we continue our regular meetings this Tuesday, October 21st from 5:30-7 pm at the UCC (633 Gayley Avenue, across from the UCLA campus). Our meetings are facilitated by Reverend Kusala, who leads usin a dharma discussion followed by a chance to ask questions and ameditation. Previous dharma discussions are available in podcast format Rev. Kusala's website: www.dharmatalks.info.

Next, we invite you all to come to our first social event of the year with a movie night featuring the (loosely) Buddhist-themed movie Groundhog Day. The movie starts at 8 pm this Friday, October 24th,but we're starting at 7:30 with snacks! RSVP to ucla.uba.online@gmail.com so we can get a head count and for directions.

Finally, in a couple of weeks we will be traveling to Escondido, CA (San Diego area) for the annual Deer Park Monastery weekend retreat for college students, Nov. 7-9th. We plan to leave by 1 pm Friday and return by 4 or 5 pm Sunday, depending on traffic. The retreat is agreat chance to experience a taste of life in a Buddhist monastery and we generally participate in activities such as meditation, dharma discussions, hiking, and enjoying delicious vegetarian meals. More info can be found at http://www.deerparkmonastery.org/events/retreats/college-retreat.ics. If interested, please RSVP as soon as you can so that we can get ahead count - we will try to provide rides but we are extremely limited on car space, so let us know if you would like to go and are able to drive. It will be very much appreciated!!

That seems to be it - hope to see you on Tuesday and please email us at ucla.uba.online@gmail.com if you have any questions. Thanks and happy 4th week!

Global Faith-Based Organization Forum in Turkey

The Global Faith-Based Organization Forum will begin on Oct.20 and host 75 organizations, including Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim groups. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) will gather religous leaders from these organizations and meet in Istanbul, Turkey to discuss global issues such as "HIV-AIDs, reproductive health, gender equality, and measures to prevent violence against women and maternity death and strength women's status." This interfaith global forum is organized for the first time.

Handling stress

As UCLA students, I think we can safely say that we are quite familiar with stress throughout the academic quarter. Here's a Daily Bruin article about therapy for stress.

"To address this issue, researchers at UCLA are diving in to get a full understanding of the many different types of anxiety to develop more effective treatments and to get the word out to the public: that anxiety exists but can be minimized to improve one’s quality of life.

The newest project coming out of the UCLA Anxiety Disorders Research Clinic is a study assessing the differences between two forms of treatment: cognitive behavioral therapy as well as the new application of mindfulness meditation as therapy to treat anxiety.

The study uses a functional MRI brain imaging tool to assess the changes in brain activation after patients received one of the two treatments during a 12-week period, Niles said.

The study will be done of people suffering from social anxiety, the fear of being severely judged in social situations, and general anxiety disorder, which is the excessive worrying about areas of life that can be trivial and out of one’s actual control."

Catholics attracting youth

Here's an interesting article about how Catholicism is working to attract the youth. Despite a continuously declining Catholic monastic life, new religious communities have formed as part of a reform in rethinking the Vatican II document dealing with monasticism.

"One such community with a young population, nestled in the Ozarks, is a place that could symbolize Catholicism's true hope for renewal in our time. Founded in 1999, the Clear Creek Monastery has grown from 13 to 30 monks who are intent on building a community that will "last for a thousand years." Clear Creek is also part of the "reform of the reform," a rethinking of Vatican II that has led a number of religious orders—such as the Dominican Sisters in Nashville, the Sisters for Life in New York, and Benedict Groeschel's Franciscan Friars of the Renewal—to rediscover their original mission and flourish."

"The growth in these orders provides a striking contrast to the continuing decline in Catholic monastic and religious life generally. In 1965, there were twice as many religious priests and brothers as today. There are just one-third as many nuns. According to Sister Mary Bendyna, executive director of the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, the average monk is in his early 70s, the average nun in her mid-70s. The mission of many orders has become simply caring for their aging populations as they sell properties and consolidate with others. "

"The emergence of Clear Creek and other growing monastic communities suggests there will always be young people who ask whether their devotion to God should take precedence over their own personal ambitions and even the natural desire for a family. (The A&E special
God or the Girl was an insightful documentary about this.) Today's young people, who have grown up in a highly commercialized and manipulated landscape, are particularly eager to connect with a more authentic way of living. Far from being pressured into pursuing religious vocations, they find their families often protest, feeling they are losing their children to a life that's too isolated."

Two different Desires

Phillip Moffitt of The Huffington Post discusses the two kinds of desire, wholesome and unwholesome. The way I understand the terms "wholesome" and "unwholesome" is that one consists of actions not causing suffering and the other causing suffering. Ultimately, Moffitt brings up these two forms of desire to show that Buddhism isn't nihilistic, as many people have labeled it as.

"People often mistakenly believe Buddhism is nihilistic or anti-life because they have the misconception that the Buddha taught that desire is bad. Certainly, the Buddha instructed that the arising of desire is a critical link in the chain of mental events that leads to suffering, but he also made clear that desire itself is not the problem. It is our attachment to obtaining and keeping our desires that creates our suffering."

World Interfaith Concert

Who: University Religious Conference

Where: Bruin Plaza

When: Thurs. 10/23/2008, 2:00pm

What: Come celebrate peace, harmony, and faith with many diverse groups of UCLA! For more information, contact the University Religious Conference at (310)208-5055 or email us at urc@ucla.edu.

First Buddhist Symphony

The Chinese Harmonious Music is the first Buddhist symphony in China's Buddhist history. It is composed of a chorus, soloists, and an orchestra. The orchestra uses Buddhist, Western, and Chinese traditional instruments to create a unique mix of music and religion.

"Composed in 2006 for the World Buddhist Forum held in China, the symphony started under the slogan "the world of harmony starts from the heart'' and decided to visit Korea as part of a cultural exchange project between the Taego Order of Korean Buddhism and its Chinese counterpart."

Oprah interviews Pema

Here is an interview with Oprah and Pema Chödrön, one of the first Western women to be ordained as a Buddhist nun in the Tibetan Vajrayana tradition. She is also an author and holds workshops, seminars, and meditation retreats in helping others apply Buddhist teachings in everyday life. She is currently a resident teacher at Gampo Abbey, a monastery located in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada. No Time to Lose (shown above) is one of her books.

"Oprah: Yes. And what does it mean to be a Buddhist?"

"Pema: Well, a lot of people might say different things about that, but in my opinion, the essence of it is trusting that the nature of your mind and heart is limitless, boundless, openness, free of prejudice, free of bias, and you could stay in that space and open your eyes and your ears and all your sense perceptions to what's happening without narrowing down into a prejudice or a bias or a view, a kind of solid view that says, no, no, it can't be like that, it has to be like this. So somehow that seems to lead to seeing the humanity of even the worst people and seeing—"

Week 3: Dharma talk

Hello UBA friends!

It was great to see so many new and old faces at our 2nd week meeting! Just as a reminder, we continue our regular meetings this Tuesday,October 14th from 5:30-7 pm at the University Catholic Center (633Gayley Avenue, across from the UCLA campus) Our meetings are facilitated by Reverend Kusala, who leads us in a dharma discussion followed by a chance to ask questions and a meditation. Previous dharma discussions are available in podcast form at Rev. Kusala's website: www.dharmatalks.info. Hope to see all of you there!

Stay tuned for updates as to our schedule of events for the Fall Quarter, including a movie night social, a weekend sleepover retreatat a Buddhist monastery, and a beach cleanup day! Any questions, comments, or ideas for discussion topics you'd like to see can be directed to ucla.uba.online@gmail.com.

Best,
UBA staff

Buy a UBA T-Shirt!

UBA is selling T-Shirts this year! They are $15.00 each, 100% Cotton, and available in sizes from Small to X-Large. The T-Shirts are black. The front says "University Buddhist Association at UCLA" with a image of the Buddha. The back says "Where Suffering is Optional".

Please help support the UBA. The T-shirts are not only a source of fundraising but also a way of letting people know that the UBA is around for anyone interested in learning about Buddhism. We welcome UBA members as well as those not part of UBA or UCLA to buy T-shirts. Thank you for your support.

To purchase, please contact eriku@ucla.edu.

Dalai Lama recovers from surgery

The Dalai Lama went through an operation on Friday to remove gallstones from his body. He was hospitalized in New Delhi.

"He will probably spend two days in hospital, then a few days in Delhi while he recovers. At the end of the month he will resume his schedule," aide Tenzin Taklha said."

San Francisco's Buddhist Pilgrimage

Here's a picture slideshow on the New York Times "Escapes" sections specializing on San Francisco's Buddhist Pilgrimages.

"Today, a spiritual tourist, whether Buddhist or not, can find inspiration if not enlightenment following in the footsteps of American Buddhism on a pilgrimage throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. "

Religions rally for an end to hunger

In Indianapolis, groups from Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, and Sikh backgrounds gather with Jim Morris, former executive director of the U.N. World Food Program, to create the Interfaith Hunger Initiative. The IHT aims to:

"To raise awareness of the significant and unnecessary problem of hunger in Indianapolis and around the world we will hold a series of public events beginning in October 2008.

Our goal is to raise $300,000 of new money in gifts and pledges by the end of 2008 from Indianapolis congregations and community partners to help feed hungry children. "

"We often think that people who are hungry must be different from the rest of us. Our religious traditions teach us that all people, rich or poor, are created in the image of God. By neglecting the poor, by turning our backs on the hungry, we turn our backs on God. There is no difference between them and us. Every person who lives in poverty impoverishes us all because we share a common humanity."

For more information about the Interfaith Hunger Initiative please visit http://www.interfaithhungerinitiative.org/.

Rolling Stone: Chrissie Hynde

The Rolling Stone features an interview with Chrissie Hynde, the Pretenders singer, who talks about what she's been up as well as her new record Break Up the Concrete, the first Pretenders disc in six years.

Her first question refers to her album's opening line, Nam myoho renge kyo. Sound familiar? This is the same line that Amy Winehouse has currently adopted in her chanting practices. This line also makes other appearances in Western pop culture, such as The Simpsons and Boy Meets World.

Click here for my previous blog entry introducing the origin of this line.

"The opening line on your album is a Buddhist phrase, "Nam myoho renge kyo." Where did you learn that?

About 1971, this guy and I were hitchhiking through Canada. We thought we were John and Yoko. Somebody told us that if we got to Toronto, we should stay with this woman Georgia Ambrose, who held Buddhist ceremonies at her house. We called her and she said, "What sign are you?" "Well, we're both Virgos." And she goes, "Come over, I need some Virgo energy." When we got there, that's what they were chanting. It means, basically, that every drop that goes to the vein comes back to the heart.'"

First International Buddhist Film Festival

The first International Buddhist Film Festival will be located in Mexico City starting from October 29, continuing for ten days. The festival will showcase more than 40 films, including Little Buddha and Dreaming Lhasa.

This event is organized by the Mexico-based Fundacion Cultural Samaya and the Garuda Tibetan Culture Association, the California-based Buddhist Film Society and the Boston-based Prajnopaya Foundation.

I wish I could go!

Week 2: Dharma Talk

Hello UBA friends!

Our weekly meditations continue this Tuesday, October 7 as we invite you to join us for an evening of dharma discussion, a time to ask questions, and a chance for practicing meditation with Rev. Kusala (whose podcasts can be found at http://www.dharmatalks.info/). These meetings are every Tuesday from 5:30 pm to 7 pm at the University Catholic Center (UCC) at 633 Gayley Ave (try our website, www.theUBA.org for directions).

The UBA is a great place to learn more about Buddhism as well as meet others with similar interests at all levels of experience - last week, for instance, we explored the concept of karma. This week, lookforward to some basics of Buddhist meditation! We hope to see all of you there, returners and new members alike.

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for future discussions or club events, we'd love to hear them - send them our way to ucla.uba.online@gmail.com. Have a great week!

Study Shows Meditation Helps Immune System

Although this article was dated a while back. When I first read it, I thought it was so interesting that I clipped it from the Daily Bruin and saved it. I hope you guys like it! Here's the link for the article.

http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/news/2008/aug/04/study-shows-meditation-helps-immune-system/

Buddhist pilgrimage sites

I learn something new everyday from writing this blog and here's something new about Buddhism I didn't know before. This article lists seven historically important Buddhist sites that people can visit. The image above is a picture of the first site listed on this article, Bodhgaya. It is there that the Buddha attained his enlightenment.

"India is the country where the seeds of Buddhism were first sown. It was here that Lord Buddha first propagated the doctrines of this noble religion. There are around 16 Buddhist pilgrimage sites, among which 4 deserve a special mention for their religious importance. Embarking on Buddhist tours will make you have an idea of the origin and growth of the religion in the country. Some of the renowned pilgrimage sites of Buddhism are located in the Ganges Valley in the northern part of India. It is in these places that Lord Buddha imparted his first teachings on the doctrines of Buddhism."

Oprah and enlightenment

"In just half an hour, Oprah earns enough money to buy a car."

Watch the slide show to see how much celebrities earn and what they can buy with their earnings. Though not directly Buddhist related, it's interesting to think about this (and money in general) from a Buddhist perspective. In order to reach enlightenment, the Buddha relinquished his life of luxury in the palace for a life of asceticism among monastics. I wonder if anyone nowadays would be able to sacrifice that.