Week 6: Picture Day & Staff Recruitment

Hello UBA friends,

A few things to announce this week...

As usual, we continue our regular meetings this Tuesday, February 10th 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 form at Rev. Kusala's website: www.dharmatalks.info.

A special note about our meeting this week is that we are planning to take b of the UBA to replace the rather outdated one on our website. Come be a part of this historic event and feel free to wear your UBA t-shirt if you have one! (Don't have a UBA t-shirt yet?
A situation that can certainly be remedied! Visit our other blog at theuba.blogspot.com for more information.)

Another special and very important note: we are recruiting new staff members for the UBA for the upcoming year! Being on staff is a great opportunity to help bring Buddhism to the wider UCLA community and offers great leadership experience, so give it some thought! No prior experience is necessary and all talents and skills are appreciated and needed. We will have a sign-up sheet available at the next meeting for anyone who is interested.

Thanks everyone! Have a great week and we hope to see you Tuesday.

Obama's new faith-based initiative

"Obama said the office would work with nonprofit organizations "both secular and faith-based" and would help them determine how to make a bigger impact in their cities, learn their obligations under the law and cut through government red tape.

Groups that were critical of the Bush faith-based office — including the American Civil Liberties Union, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and People For the American Way — issued statements Thursday expressing disappointment in the Obama version. All said that by failing to repeal Bush policies, the White House will allow participating religious groups to continue discrimination in hiring.

Obama's advisers want to be certain tax dollars sent to the faith-based social service groups are used for secular purposes, such as feeding the hungry or housing the homeless, and not for religious evangelism. The administration doesn't want to be perceived as managing the groups yet seeks transparency and accountability."

Read full article.

Corporate/Poltical leader now, Asura tomorrow

The six realms of Buddhism are rebirth as a deva, an asura, a human being, an animal, a hungry ghost, or a being in Naraka (hell). Can we make any metaphorical connections from these realms to our life here as a human?

O'Brien writes about how being reborn as an asura may very much be like being a corporate or political leader.

"I believe these days most of us (including, I understand, His Holiness the Dalai Lama) do not believe in the Six Realms as actual locations. Instead, they are more often understood as metaphors for our psychological projections. As such, it seems to me the Six Realms teachings shed light on our ongoing financial crisis."

Read full article.

Photo from The Buddhist Channel.

Master Sheng Yen dies at age 80

Tuesday, Feb. 3, Venerable Dharma Master Sheng Yen died of renal disease at National Taiwan University Hospital at the age of 80.

Read full article.

Photo from The Buddhist Channel

According to The Buddhist Channel, he wrote this poem before he passed away:

無事忙中老，
空裡有哭笑，
本來沒有我，
生死皆可拋。

Busy with nothing, growing old.
Within emptiness, weeping, laughing.
Intrinsically, there is no "I."
Life and death, thus cast aside.

Huffington Post: The Groundhog Day Buddhism Sutra

UBA has actually watched The Groundhog Day during a movie night event so I thought this article from the Huffington Post was more than relevant to our readers and members. I actually haven't watched this movie so I cannot offer much insight. But this article explores the possible interpretation of the movie using the Four Noble Truths.

"I was interviewing Ramis for a Buddhist magazine called the Shambhala Sun because, it turns out, many Buddhists read the Buddha's truths (or dharma) between the lines of the script. Ramis gets a kick out of the fact that many religious groups claim the film is for and about their particular sect. I suspect Ramis and the Buddha would agree: 'The more, the merrier."

Ramis himself is not a Buddhist, does not meditate but is well read on the principles and consciously practices the simple tenets that weatherman Phil Connors comes to embody (picture a bald Bill Murray in saffron robes). Ramis, I learned from hanging out with him and interviewing many around him, is somewhere between a mensch (a really good guy) and a boddhisatva (a really good guy whose mission is to help other people become really good guys)."

Read the full article.

Week 5: Midterm Stress!

Hi UBA friends,

Wow, it's the middle of the quarter already! If you're finding yourself caught in the midst of midterms stress (or even if you're not!) why not try a nice evening of dharma discussion and meditation with the UBA?

We continue our regular meetings this Tuesday, February 3rd 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 form at Rev. Kusala's website: www.dharmatalks.info.

It is likely that we will be in the downstairs room at the UCC again this week; so just keep that in mind and see if we're around in the room downstairs before coming up the stairs if you don't catch us when we meet at 5:30.

And as always, if you have any questions, comments, or ideas for events you'd like to see us put together, email us at uba.ucla.online@gmail.com. Have a great week!

Dalai Lama may choose his own reincarnation

The Dalai Lama may choose the reincarnation set to replace him as leader of the Tibetans.

"The Dalai Lama has openly speculated about his next life, his reincarnation, musing that he might upend historical and cultural practice and choose his reincarnation before his death, the better to safeguard his exiled people."

Read the full article.