Journey to Zanskar

Screening of Journey to Zanskar

USC, Taper Hall 202
Los Angeles, CA 90089
Free and open to the public
Refreshments will be served
Time: 7:00PM - 9:00PM
Please RSVP: uschina@usc.edu uschina@usc.edu>

Filmmaker Frederick Marx, producer of Academy Award nominated "Hoop Dreams," will be premiering a rough cut of his new film.

This screening features an advance preview of Journey to Zanskar. The film will be completed and released in the fall. It focuses on Zanskar, in the northernmost part of India, one of the most isolated regions of the Himalayas. Inaccessibility and isolation has protected Zanskar - also known as "Little Tibet" - from cultural change. Today, it is considered the last place on earth where traditional Tibetan Buddhist norms and ways of life still exist. This will change when the Indian government completes a modern paved road into Zanskar to provide its military with access to India's fragile borders with Pakistan and China.

Several years ago the Dalai Lama asked two senior monks upon the completion of their training to devote themselves to educating the children of Zanskar so their rich cultural heritage could be preserved through reading and writing. The two monks selected 17 of the brightest children from among the poorest families and began a ten day trek over the snow covered Himalayas from Zanskar to a school on the other side of the mountains. The children's journey is the focus of the film.

Marx will introduce the film and take questions after the screening.

Parking is available for $8 in Parking Structure D (on Jefferson Boulevard, west of Figueroa Boulevard). Click here to see the USC University Park Campus interactive map < http://web-app.usc.edu/maps/> .

Project Trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdkCMqqrlww <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdkCMqqrlww> )
Project Website (http://www.fmarxfilm.com/17paths.html <http://www.fmarxfilm.com/17paths.html> )
Project Blog (http://vcr.csrwire.com/node/12341 <http://vcr.csrwire.com/node/12341> )
Project Donation Page (http://www.fmarxfilm.com/donate.html <http://www.fmarxfilm.com/donate.html> )

Contact: US-China Institute
Phone: 213-821-4382
Email: uschina@usc.edu

Sponsor(s): USC US-China Institute, Religion, Identity and Global Governance, The Office of Religious Life

Vesak Day 2009 is in TWO days!

Vesak Day 2009 is two days away, this Saturday at UCLA!! If you are in the Los Angeles area, please come to our FREE event. Below is all you need to know plus an updated schedule of who's speaking, performing, and leading the discussion. Also, if you have facebook, please RSVP on our event page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?sid=657edc3b662d97cfd68ac50c970aeea8&eid=76892984253&ref=search

If have any questions, contact me at eriku@ucla.edu. Hope to see you there!

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Who: Southern California University Buddhist Association (SCUBA) 

What: Vesak Day (or Buddha Day) celebrates the birth, the enlightenment, and the passing away of the Buddha. It is celebrated by Buddhists all over the world as a remembrance of the Buddha and his universal message of peace to humankind. 

Come out and learn more about Buddhism with the University Buddhist Association! Everyone is welcome - Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike. The event is FREE and will consist of cultural performances, speakers, a Bathing of the Buddha ceremony, and a Q&A session. 

Performances by: Chinese Cultural Dance Club and Nam Giao Do

Speakers: Don Farber, a renowned photographer of the Dalai Lama and Buddhist Life; Venerable Miao Hsi, of Hsi Lai Temple; Venerable Pannaloka of Dharma Vijaya Buddhist Vihara

Discussion Leaders: Venerable Kusala of the International Buddhist Meditation Center; Professor Natasha Heller; former UBA president Aaron Lee

When: Saturday, May 23, 2009
10:30 - 2:00pm

Where: Kerckhoff Grand Salon, UCLA
308 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90024

Why: To watch amazing performances, listen to great speakers, learn something about Buddhism, and eat delicious and free food.

More information about Vesak Day:

Significance of Vesak - Buddha Day
http://www.buddhanet.net/vesak.htm

Wikipedia - Vesak
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesak

What is Vesak?
http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=6,4043,0,0,1,0 

Vesak Message from British Prime Minister Gordon Brown
http://theuba.blogspot.com/2009/05/vesak-message-from-british-prime.html

Against the Stream - Dharma Punx

The Los Angeles Times features an article about Noah Levine, founder of the Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society. 

Levine is the founder of the Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society, which has centers in East Hollywood and Santa Monica and more than 20 affiliated groups nationwide. He and his students practice a unique incarnation of Buddhism infused with punk rock's anti-establishment ethos. They call themselves Dharma Punx. 

Dharma Punx don't wear robes and they don't bow to statues of the Buddha. Anyone can form a group -- as long as he checks with Levine first -- and there isn't the emphasis on hierarchy found in many forms of Buddhism (there are no Zen masters or Tibetan lamas). The idea, Levine said, is to make Buddhist teachings accessible to punks -- and to reconnect Buddhism with what he sees as its radical roots. 

Both punk rock and Buddhism, according to Levine, began as a rebellion against the status quo. "The first noble truth of Buddhism is that there is suffering in life, that there is an unsatisfactory quality to living in a world where everything is constantly changing, and to living in a world where there is so much greed and hatred and delusion," he said. "Punk rock's foundation is dissatisfaction, acknowledging greed, hatred and delusion and rebelling against sexism, racism, political corruption and war."

Read full article. 

Celebrate Vesak Day at UCLA!

The Southern California Univeristy Buddhist Association (SCUBA) presents: Vesak Day celebration at UCLA! This is happening the during Memorial Day weekend so save the date!

What: Vesak Day (or Buddha Day) celebrates the birth, the enlightenment, and the passing away of the Buddha. It is celebrated by Buddhists all over the world as a remembrance of the Buddha and his universal message of peace to humankind. 

Come out and learn more about Buddhism with the University Buddhist Association! Everyone is welcome - Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike. The event is FREE and will consist of cultural performances, speakers, a brief Bathing of the Buddha ceremony, and a Q&A session. 

Performances by: Chinese Cultural Dance Club; and more to come.

Speakers: Don Farber, an acclaimed photographer of the Dalai Lama; and more to come.

When: Saturday, May 23, 2009
10:30 - 2:00pm

Where: Kerckhoff Grand Salon, UCLA
308 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90024

Why: To watch amazing performances, listen to great speakers, learn something about Buddhism, and eat delicious and free food.

More information about Vesak Day:

Significance of Vesak - Buddha Day
http://www.buddhanet.net/vesak.htm

Wikipedia - Vesak
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesak

What is Vesak?
http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=6,4043,0,0,1,0 

To learn more about the University Buddhist Association at UCLA, please visit our:
Website: http://www.theuba.org/

UCLA Buddhist Scholar Gregory Schopen

From our very own UCLA:

"As one of the world's leading authorities on Buddhism, Gregory Schopen has shattered many myths, notably the notion that Buddhist monks in ancient India renounced money and property.

Schopen finds the widespread Western fascination with Buddhism "highly artificial and a little bit silly because it takes place completely in the abstract." The average Westerner is not interested in the "totality of what Buddhism is – a way of interacting and being human – but with a certain set of free-floating ideas that have been connected with Buddhism," he explained, adding: "I have a problem with that."

One of his favorite images of Buddhism as it's practiced in America is from a photograph of devotees in a Thai Buddhist temple in Los Angeles: "All the local Thai people are doing worship to the Buddha image in the front; in the back is a whole row of white guys meditating," said Schopen. "These are completely different approaches to the same phenomenon – the picture is worth a thousand words."

Read full article.

UCLA Center for Buddhist Studies

We are pleased to announce an upcoming talk titled "Asian Images Inside-Out: What Can We Learn From the Contents of East Asian Statues?" given by Prof. James Robson of Harvard University.

Friday, December 05, 2008
3:00 PM - 4:30 PM
243 Royce Hall, UCLA
Los Angeles, CA 90095

Open to the public. Campus parking is available for $9.

"Museums throughout the world are filled with a variety of Asian religious images and icons, depictions of Buddhas, guardian deities, and saintly figures, which are usually rendered in stone, metal, wood, clay or lacquer. The icons and images in those collections tend to be examples of what is termed “elite” or “high” art and are often representations of gods and deities from a standard pantheon comprised of popular national deities and common Buddhist figures. It is now clear, however, that a different class of images and icons also circulated at a more diffused level of society and we are now also aware of a variety of images that were filled with different kinds of contents. The contents of those images might include Buddhist texts, relic fragments, symbolic organs, or consecration certificates. In this talk I intend ask what can we learn when we shift our gaze from external aesthetics to explore what is found inside images? How did the practice of interring things inside of images develop? How has the discourse on idolatry and iconoclasm conditioned the reception of these images? What new insights can be gained when we shift our concerns from traditional issues about the genesis and aesthetics of images, to the function of icons as they are deployed in social and ritual contexts? A satisfactory engagement with any of those questions will entail a substantial reorientation of our previous views about those objects and what inspired their production."

For more information, please go to http://www.international.ucla.edu/buddhist/.

Thank you for your interest.
UCLA Center of Buddhist Studies

Friday Lecture & Weekend Workshop @ LMU

Hi UBA friends,

Here's something about a local Buddhist event I forgot to announce yesterday; it may be of interest to some of you. The Friday evening lecture (this Friday) is free, and there may be a limited number of scholarships available for UCLA students wishing to attend the weekend retreat. Let us know if you're interested and we'll get you in touch with the full details.
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Touching Enlightenment: Lecture & Weekend Intensive

"To discover the body is to discover our deepest self, and, in turn, to arrive at the genuine spiritual fulfillment we all seek."

In the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, the body is considered the gateway to enlightenment - to discover the body is to discover awareness, and eventually, the awakened state. When we look at the body from the outside we see something ordinary, but viewed through the eye of meditation we find that it is the harbinger of our inconceivable life as it is coming to birth.
In this weekend intensive, accessible to beginning through advanced practitioners, we explore body-based practices drawn from Tibetan yoga, examine inner and outer meditation posture, as well as how emotions manifest in the body and how to receive the wisdom they hold. Here is a unique opportunity to study with Reggie Ray and come face-to-face with your own deepest unfolding journey.

LOS ANGELES

Friday Night Talk: November 21
8–10pm - Free Friday Night Talk

Weekend Workshop: November 22-23
Saturday 10am-6pm; Sunday 10am-5pm
$235 at the door

Location: Loyola Marymount University
St Robert’s Hall, 1 LMU Dr. Los Angeles 90045

*Online Registration Discount*
$195 for entire weekend (until November 22)

Email: Deborah@unfoldingbody.com
For more information and to register, visit www.DharmaOcean.org

UCLA Buddhist Art Symposium

Recent Developments in the Study of Buddhist Art

This symposium is intended to survey some of the most important recent developments in the study of Buddhist art throughout Asia.

Friday, November 21, 2008

9:00 AM - 5:00 PM for Friday's conference:
Faculty Center Hacienda Room
UCLA
Los Angeles, CA 90095

The Friday, November 21 sessions will feature several lectures open to the public. While scholarly in content, these lectures will be accessible to interested members of the university community and the general public.

For participants that will speak at the event, please click here.

This event is co-sponsored by the Paul I. and Hisako Terasaki Center for Japanese Studies, Center for Buddhist Studies, Center for Chinese Studies, Center for Korean Studies, and Center for Southeast Asian Studies.

No registration is required for the Friday conference.

RSVP will be required for the seminar on November 22, 2008.
Please RSVP at mccallum@humnet.ucla.edu.

Cost: None

Tel: 310 - 825- 8681
www.international.ucla.edu/japan/

Special Instructions
RSVP for Saturday sessions. Location TBA.

For more information please contact
Donald McCallumTel: 310-206-6974
mccallum@humnet.ucla.edu

Buddhism around LA

Here are some pictures of places I've noticed Buddhism randomly appear. It's interesting to see how Buddhist terms and icons are among us, though many times not in the proper religious sense.

This is a menu from "Socko's Subs". The #7 sub is called the "Dharma Bum: Our fantastic hummus sandwiched between cheddar & provologne cheese garnished with lettuce, tomato, cucumber, mayo & sprouts. Dharma Bum? I guess so...

Here's some soap products from a soap store called "Lush" on Third Street Promenade. It's called the Karma fragrance, with "the fragrance of pure, innocent orange and worldy mysticism of an eastern spice market."

Here's an Asian restaurant called Buddha's Belly...kinda cute