International Education Week at UCLA

From Nov. 16-20, UCLA will be celebrating International Education Week. There will be many different events happening throughout the week that help promote worldwide educational exchange. The best part is that they even have two Buddhist-related events happening! Here are some of the events I would like to highlight:

IEW 2009: International Opportunities Fair

Tuesday, November 17, 2009
10:00 AM - 2:00 PM
Kerckhoff State Rooms

Study Abroad Fair

Wednesday, November 18, 2009
10:00 AM - 2:00 PM
Pauley Pavilion North Concourse

Buddhist Cave Temples of the Kucha Kingdom

Friday, November 20, 2009
1:30 PM - 4:30 PM
Seminar Room, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology

"Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country" Film Screening

Friday, November 20, 2009
7:00 PM - 9:30 PM
James Bridges Theater

For a full list events, please click here.

Awesome Buddhist / World History Timeline

I've been recently studying historical timelines and stumbled upon a Buddhist historical timeline. It's just about one of the most awesome buddhist resources I've seen so far because not only is it a timeline on Buddhist events since the life of Siddhartha, but also compares the Buddhist timeline side-by-side with "World Figures and Events", many of which are of other religions or related to Buddhism. It really gives you a sense of how Buddhism fits into the world history context, and this, I think, is especially important because we rarely get to see Buddhism in this "bigger picture" - at least in America.

Just as a little teaser, the timeline shows that the First Buddhist Council at Rajagaha after the Parinirvana (death and final release) of the Buddha happened in the same century (5th) as the Greek-Persian Wars and the time of Plato and his contemplations about the ontological, epistemological, ethical, and aestheticestions quof life. Props to Buddhanet for having this on their site.

View Full Timeline

11-year-old becomes high-ranking lama

I wonder when Buddhists found out that reincarnation became globalized...

An 11-year-old schoolboy from Boston, Massachusetts has been made the head of a Buddhist sect in India after he was recognized as the reincarnation of a high-ranking lama who died more than 750 years ago.

Jigme Wangchuk has been anointed as the Rinpoche, the second reincarnation of Gyalwa Lorepa of the Drukpa sub-sect after going into a trance and describing a Buddhist monastery in detail.

Read full article.

Image from Daily Contributor

Buddhist horror film: Mantra

The Worst Horse posts a new Buddhist horror film called Mantra.

I've been getting into horror films lately with my fellow apartment-mates and never have I thought about a Buddhist-themed horror film. I guess anything can be scary as long as you target the right emotions.

Read full article.

UCLA Center for Buddhist Studies - Nov. Events

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Shoji Yamada on his book "Shots in the Dark: Japan, Zen, and the West"

An Informal Lecture
Monday, November 02, 2009
3:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Faculty Center
Hacienda Room
UCLA
Los Angeles, CA 90095

In the years after World War II, Westerners and Japanese alike elevated Zen to the quintessence of spirituality in Japan. Pursuing the sources of Zen as a Japanese ideal, Shoji Yamada uncovers the surprising role of two cultural touchstones: Eugen Herrigel's Zen in the Art of Archery and Ryoanji's dry-landscape rock garden. Yamada shows how both became facile conduits for exporting and importing Japanese culture.

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The Buddhist Arts of Tea in Medieval China

James A. Benn delivers the 22nd Sammy Yukuan Lee Lecture on Chinese Archaeology and Art

Saturday, November 07, 2009
2:00 PM - 3:30 PM

Lenart Auditorium
Fowler Museum of Cultural History
UCLA
Los Angeles, CA 90095

The relatively rapid change in drinking habits that occurred in late medieval China (Tang dynasty, 618–907) cannot be understood without appreciating the crucial role of Buddhist ideas, institutions, and practitioners. While Buddhist texts vividly depicted the dangers of imbibing intoxicating substances, Buddhist monks were also active in spreading an alternative to alcohol—tea—throughout the empire. By the end of the ninth century, tea had become a vital component in the Chinese economy and an essential commodity of everyday life. Tea was valued for its ability to sustain long periods of meditation and for its health-giving properties. It was considered an appropriate offering for Buddhist deities, and a suitable gift for monks and laypeople to exchange. Tea, like alcohol before it, stimulated and inspired poets and connoisseurs.

This lecture will look closely at the surviving artistic, material, and literary evidence for Buddhist involvement in the promotion of tea drinking and the invention of a Chinese tea culture.


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Professor Melanie Malzahn (University of Vienna)

Friday, November 13, 2009
3:00 PM - 5:00 PM

243 Royce Hall

Among the extinct languages merely known by manuscripts discovered along the Silk Road, Tocharian A and Tocharian B, together, constitute one of the twelve branches of Indo-European languages. Although deciphered in 1908 by German Indologists Emil Sieg and Wilhelm Siegling, the main bulk of Tocharian texts scattered through European collections were known by only a few specialists until very recently. Tocharian A and B were closely related, but seem not to have been mutually understandable. Apart from literary texts exclusively related to and based on Buddhist literature, we also have documents of profane nature such as letters and monastery records. In recent years, much effort has been made in publishing texts leading to a better understanding of the languages themselves, especially with regard to their internal stratification. In this respect, both languages differ significantly. Tocharian A texts, which have only been found in the Turfan Oasis and around Shorchuk/Yanqi but not further west, display a very uniform linguistic character (with very few exceptions), and the manuscripts in general seem to be younger than those of Tocharian B. Tocharian B, on the other hand, is found over a far wider range of find spots, especially around Kucha, and displays an internal chronology of at least 400 years (from 5th century CE to 8th century CE), and is also sociolinguistically diversified. The apparent transfer of literacy from Kucha to the east together with the diachronic and socio-dialectal diversification of Tocharian B and the mutual linguistic influence between Tocharian A and B offers some insight into the but rarely known Tocharian society in the 1st millennium CE.


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Buddhist Cave Temples of the Kucha Kingdom

An Afternoon of Presentations and Discussion
Friday, November 20, 2009
1:30 PM - 4:30 PM

Seminar Room, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology
Fowler Museum A222
Los Angeles, CA 90095

RSVP required to the UCLA Asia Institute: eleicester@international.ucla.edu or 310-825-0007

http://www.international.ucla.edu/buddhist/events/showevent.asp?eventid=7718&eventdate=11/20/2009


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"Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country" Film Screening
Armed with video cameras, a tenacious band of Burmese reporters face down death to expose the repressive regime controlling their country.

Friday, November 20, 2009
7:00 PM - 9:30 PM

James Bridges Theater
Melnitz Hall
UCLA Campus
Los Angeles, CA 90095

http://www.international.ucla.edu/cseas/events/showevent.asp?eventid=769
8&eventdate=11/20/2009.


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Chapman University Department of Sociology presents
Venerable Thubten Chodron: "Joyous Effort in Up and Down Times"

Saturday , 11/21/2009
Time: 10:30am - 12:30 pm
Location: Argyros Forum 209

Internationally renowned author and Tibetan Buddhist nun, and abbess of the Sravasti Abbey (near Newport, WA) will be giving a talk at Chapman University on Saturday.Thubten Chodron studied and practiced Buddhism of the Tibetan tradition for many years in India and Nepal under the guidance of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and other Tibetan masters for many years. She has directed the spiritual program at centers in Italy, Singapore and Seattle. Ven. Chodron travels worldwide to teach the Dharma. Seeing the importance and necessity of a monastery for Westerners training in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, she founded Sravasti Abbey and is currently involved in developing it. Ven. Chodron emphasizes the practical application of Buddha’s teachings in our daily lives and is especially skilled at explaining them in ways easily understood and practiced by Westerners. She is well-known for her warm, humorous, and lucid teachings. For information call 714-997-6608 or email: nmartin@chapman.edu

http://web.chapman.edu/Events/calendar.aspx


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Religions push to address environmental issues

So there is something we can all agree on...

Leaders from the Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Baha'i, Jain and Zoroastrian faiths called on G20 nations to cut greenhouse gases.

They said climate change posed a "very real threat to the world's poor".

Their joint call at a meeting at Lambeth Palace in London precedes the Copenhagen summit which aims to deliver a new global climate treaty.

In a statement, the religious leaders urged G20 governments to fight for a deal which would quickly end global reliance on fossil fuels.

Read full article.

Image from BBC News.

Buddhist poet wins the Keats-Shelly Award

As an English major, this is quite interesting. The poem he writes is about a boy who looks within himself and finds a mouse holding a picture of him. This idea, of the story within the story, one that loops infinitely with no particular ending, is such a wonderfully complexing idea. If you would like to read the award-winning poem, click the link below.

"The Keats-Shelley prize, an annual award for the best poem on a Romantic theme, has for the first time this year gone to an explicitly Buddhist poet, DH Maitreyabandhu.

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He also pointed to Keats's refusal to accept Christianity on his death bed, despite attempts by his friend Joseph Severn. "Keats was very steadfast – a very Keatsian word - in not accepting that, and I think that was incredibly brave of him. It's always one of the things I've admired in him particularly, not just because I don't believe myself, but to hold the line when he had days left – there is something steadfastly humanitarian about him," said Motion.

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Maitreyabandhu, who has been ordained into the Western Buddhist Order for 19 years, says his love of poetry began when a friend read him the first five verses of Shelley's Mask of Anarchy. "It was one of those moments when one discovers a new ecstasy, even a new calling. After that I read and re-read Shelley and Keats obsessively and used their poetry to explore ancient Buddhist themes," he said. "WH Auden says, 'The primary function of poetry, as of all the arts, is to make us more aware of ourselves and the world around us'. The same could be said of Buddhism. I approach poetry, in one sense as a distillation of peak experience, in another as finding meaning in the everyday – as such, poetry has become another strand of my spiritual practice."

Read full article and poem.