Thursday 19 February 2015

Chaplaincy : Faith and Fire

http://faithandfire.co.uk

http://faithandfire.co.uk/bewes-buddhists-engaged-with-emergency-services/

Chaplaincy : Faith and Fire new Website

Faith and Fire is a partnership between the CFOA Chief Fire Officers Association, FRS Fire and Rescue Services and faith communities to develop mutual respect. It also increases the awareness of faiths to FRS staff and volunteers.


East Sussex Fire Services (ESFRS)


http://www.multifaiths.com/public-services/east-sussex-fire-service

http://multifaiths.com/public-services/east-sussex-fire-service

It is also still at the old link

http://www.multifaiths.com/public-services/east-sussex-fire-service

Sakyadhita USA’s New eZine American Buddhist Women: Winter 2015


https://files.ctctcdn.com/6f75804e001/74ebbaee-5955-456e-8b41-ed30e908d671.pdf?utm_source=WINTER+2015+Issue+5%2C+American+Buddhist+Women&utm_campaign=Winter+2015+Issue+ABW&utm_medium=email

Sakyadhita USA’s New eZine American Buddhist Women: Winter 2015

In this issue: 
"Beauty: What's Buddhism got to do with it?" 
From Tibetan Pattern Book of Proportions
From Tibetan Pattern Book of Proportions
  • Buddhaful: Beauty, Buddhism, and the Feminine/Feminist Predicament by Lisa J. Battaglia
  • Lipstick and Enlightenment by Lulu Cook
  • Three Contemporary American Women Artists: How Buddhism Influences Their Work by Karen Gelinas
  • Pat Rogers: Capturing the Boldness of the Feminine by Charlotte Collins
  • The Navatala Standard: A Model of Serenity by M. Jane McEwan
  • Information on Buddhist Council of The Midwest's 10th Annual Women's Conference, Chicago, March 7, 2015
  • Updates and Registration Information for the 14th Sakyadhita International Conference on Buddhist Women, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, June 23-30, 2015

BG 352: Buddhism Unbundled

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZfmZ0TZAV8

BG 352: Buddhism Unbundled

Published on Feb 18, 2015
Vincent Horn is a mind hacker & Buddhist geek. In this keynote from the 2014 Buddhist Geeks Conference Vincent explores the unbundling of components like meditation and mindfulness from contemporary Buddhism. He then explores the process of re-bundling and what the future of both Buddhist and Buddhist-inspired models may look like as new combinations of knowledge come together in novel, and sometimes timeless, ways.

Wednesday 18 February 2015

One Dharma by Joseph Goldstein

http://www.tricycle.com/feature/one-dharma

One Dharma

by Joseph Goldstein


This article appears in 20 Years, 20 Teachings: The Tricycle 20th Anniversary E-Book. It's free to all Supporting and Sustaining Members. Get the e-book.
As different Buddhist traditions take root in the West, is it possible to find an essential teaching that supports them all? In an adaptation from a talk given at Tricycle's recent Conference on Practice and Inquiry, Joseph Goldstein searches for the "One Dharma" of liberation.

THE MONK Buddhism documentary 720p

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6KiwiwFijw

THE MONK Buddhism documentary 720p

Published on Feb 17, 2015
The film is about a holy camp holding in a temple in Fujian, China. More than 100 people around the world, who are at any ages,take part in this camp. Some of them are devout disciples, sincere teenagers, while some of them are lazy young monks. And there is also a German teenager who is curious about Chinese culture. Distinctively, by using peaceful lens language, it wants to tell us a special religious life in temple.

Monday 16 February 2015

If the robes fit...

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/special-reports/475378/if-the-robes-fit

If the robes fit... 


The monkhood has long been off limits to women, but one 'bhikkhuni' is pushing for change, arguing the tradition is based on nothing more than a misguided technicality 

15 Feb 2015 at 06.35 
Newspaper section: Spectrum
Writer: Jeerawat Na Thalang 

Please credit and share this article with others using this link:http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/special-reports/475378/if-the-robes-fit. View our policies at http://goo.gl/9HgTd and http://goo.gl/ou6Ip. © Post Publishing PCL. All rights reserved.

Saturday 14 February 2015

Buddhsim Now : Feb 2015

Buddhism Now

All sensory objects satisfy us temporarily, but then we have to find something else to be absorbed into Crashed out Buddhas, by Ajahn Sumedho.

Here's something worth learning. Try these First steps into Buddhist meditation, and learn to meditate right now.

'The absence of thought' is a method for the wise, but if the foolish were to cultivate it, they would no Longer be Foolish, by Shen Hui.

These manuscripts, found in the caves of Dunhuang, include the only surviving texts of a living 'Tibetan Chan' tradition. The Tibetan Chan Manuscripts

Try to enjoy your practice. Looking Deeply, by Thich Nhat Hanh.

Take a look at these old photos from Japan. There are some marvellous Buddhist pictures from 1865.

A short film What is Present? By the Dalai Lama. About 2 minutes.

No matter how much we think about the past, it isn’t possible to change it... Buddha is only a provisional name By Harada Sekkei Roshi.

Why should I be angry with him? By Acarya Shantideva. Translation by Stephen Batchelor

A very nice Kwan Yin. Nyoirin Kannon. The bodhisattva Kannon (Sanskrit: Avalokiteshvara) manifests in many forms...

Book review Esoteric Buddhism and the Tantras in East Asia.

We all secretly think we're immortal, don't we? Dark Side of Life, by John Snelling.

Imagine that one person wakes up from a dream. Tolerance (part three), by Acarya Shantideva. Translation by Stephen Batchelor

When I first read about walking meditation. The Mind and its Weather, by John Aske.

Suppose we are examining a situation. Intuitive Insight, by Buddhadasa Bhikkhu. Plus PDF eBook

Foundations of Buddhism: Tathata or Suchness, by Ajahn Sumedho.

A bit of Buddhist History. Burmese scenes from the Life of the Buddha 

Exhibition at The Rubin Museum of Art The All-Knowing Buddha: A Secret Guide.

Meditation In Daily Life — Emotional States, by Bhante Bodhidhamma

Part 1: Zazenshin: Acupuncture Needle of Zazen, by Shohaku Okumura.

Part 2: Zazenshin: Part 2 Acupuncture Needle of Zazen, by Shohaku Okumura.

Brothers and sisters in suffering, old age, sickness and death, by Ajahn Sumedho.

A bit of Buddhist history: Tenth-century collection of two Tibetan works on Chan from Dunhuang.

What method must be practised? Birth and Death, by Shen Hui

In the moment of mindfulness, there is no suffering, by Ajahn Sumedho

Good Dose of Dhamma: For meditators when they are ill, by Upasika Kee Nanayon

Have a good read!
Yours in the dharma,

Richard

Buddhism Now
Buddhist Publishing Group

Thursday 12 February 2015

Buddhism and Modernity

http://www.smith.edu/philosophy/docs/garfield_buddhism_modernity.pdf

Buddhism and Modernity 


Jay L Garfield,  Smith College, University of Melbourne, Central University of Tibetan Studies

1. Introduction: Authenticity and Impermanence
2. Historical comparisons
3. Modern Differences
4. The Modern Western Inflection of Buddhism
5. The Problem of Authenticity in Modernity

Also : HH Dalai Lama and Modernity

http://info-buddhism.com/Dalai_Lama_between_Modernity_and_Buddhism_by_Georges_Dreyfus.html

Also from the Tricycle magazine:

http://www.tricycle.com/buddhism-and-modernity

Buddhism and Modernity
With support from the John Templeton Foundation, Tricycle’s Buddhism and Modernity project is initiating a conversation between Buddhists and leading thinkers across the humanities and social sciences. Tricycle is exploring how perspectives drawn from research about the nature of religion, culture, science, and secularism can shed light on unexamined assumptions shaping the transmission of Buddhism to modernity. This project offers Western Buddhists new ways of thinking about their spiritual experiences by demonstrating how reason can be used as a tool to open up—rather than shut down—access to traditional faith.
Linda Heuman, a Tricycle contributing editor who is heading up the project, is a freelance journalist based in Providence, Rhode Island. Below are her online Tricycle pieces that we hope will initiate dialogue on the interaction between Buddhism and modernity.

A More Human Science | An interview with Amadeo Giorgi. The Western intellectual tradition of human science could help recast the dialogue between Buddhism and the contemporary world.

Don't Believe the Hype | Neuroscientist Catherine Kerr is concerned about how mindfulness meditation research is being portrayed in the media. Tricycle speaks with her to understand the significance of an emerging meta-discourse—the conversation about the conversation about meditation.



Meditation Nation | How convincing is the science driving the popularity of mindfulness meditation? A Brown University researcher has some surprising answers.
Given the widespread belief that meditation practice is scientifically certified to be good for just about everything, the results of a recent major analysis of the research might come as some surprise... 


Culture Wars | As science invades the humanities, our understanding of Buddhism hangs in the balanceIn view of Western Buddhists’ eagerness to collaborate with the scientific study of Buddhism, it might be a good idea to consider whether this collaboration is likely, in the long run, to affirm or prove injurious to the very values and understandings...



Eastern Self/Western Self RevisitedMy previous blog post reflecting on Gish Jen’s new book Tiger Writing: Art, Culture, and the Independent Self, generated quite a bit of discussion. Some respondents dismissed as mere “personal observation” the claim that people from Western and Eastern cultures tend toward different types of self-construal...



Eastern Self/Western SelfWe in the West are quite concerned these days with how to make the dharma authentically Western. But caution please, folks. Before we start inventing a new flavor of Buddhism to suit Western palettes, it is important to look closely at the implicit assumptions we are bringing to this project. To start, we might examine more closely our underlying picture...

Friday 6 February 2015

Buddhism is a Religion:

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/americanbuddhist/2014/04/buddhism-is-a-religion-a-guest-post-by-dr-david-brazier-dharmavidya.html

Buddhism is a Religion:


Editor’s note: It is a great honour to introduce this essay by Dharmavidya, Dr. David Brazier. As regular readers will know, I am interested in the question of concepts and how they are used in our study of things (or processes?) like Buddhism. When we call Buddhism a “philosophy”, what does that mean? Well, what do we mean by “philosophy” and what do we mean by “Buddhism”? I explored the question last fall in Buddhism: religion or philosophy? and returned to some of the central issues in my recent post about the Owen Flanagan talk, the Stephen Batchelor and Ajahn Brahmali debate, and the first week of Buddhism and Modern Psychology course. This piece challenges a lot of the lean I often have toward Buddhism as a philosophy, or perhaps rather complements that lean with an appropriate lean in the opposite direction, toward all of the things and people I sometimes look past an around in my search for the meanings of Buddhist terms and concepts. So, without further adieu, I give you, Buddhism is a Religion:

Feminism Awakens In Himalayan Buddhist Art and Meditation

http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=5,12176,0,0,1,0#.VNTtW-486LQ

Feminism Awakens In Himalayan Buddhist Art and Meditation

by Roger Denson, The Huffington Post, Posted: Jan 31, 2015

New York, USA -- In mid-January the British-born Buddhist nun, Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo - the closest thing we have to a Thomas Merton figure today - spoke before a sold-out audience at the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Arts in Manhattan.
<< Stained glass artist Tsunma Jamyang Donma of Yulokod Studios with Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo at Tibet House in NYC, standing in front of two of her designs in the exhibition, TENDREL - Interconnections, curated by Chrysanne Stathacos, and installed permanently at the Dongyu Gatsal Ling Nunnery.











Thursday 5 February 2015

New academically rigorous RS GCSE backed by faith groups

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-academically-rigorous-rs-gcse-backed-by-faith-groups

New academically rigorous RS GCSE backed by faith groups

Pupils to study 2 religions to develop broader and deeper understanding of religious beliefs.

Charity Commission consults on new guidance for trustees

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/the-essential-trustee-cc3-new-version


From: Mark A Hall <Mark1.Hall@communities.gsi.gov.uk>
Date: 3 February 2015 at 10:46
Subject: DCLG Bulletin (February 2015)


cid:image001.png@01CF1371.5C2E63D0
                                                                                            

3rd February 2015                                                                                                                                                                                   
Charity Commission consults on new guidance for trustees

The Charity Commission has launched a consultation on its new guidance for trustees, the closing date for which is 17 February.

The Commission has rewritten guidance note CC3, entitled 'The Essential Trustee: what you need to know, what you need to do'. The new guidance clearly explains what the Commission expects of trustees and the potential consequences if the minimum good practice standards are not met.

The current guidance distinguishes between what trustees must do (i.e. what are legal requirements) and what trustees should do (i.e. what is good practice), but it is unclear whether the good practice standards are optional. The new draft guidance clarifies this position and warns that those who do not meet the minimum standards are at risk of breaching their legal duties as trustees. The new draft follows recent commission guidance on decision making and conflicts of interest. It also reflects other changes such as the introduction of Charitable Incorporated Organisations. In addition to this, we ask you to consider whether the guidance is suitable for charities within the faith/interfaith sector, including places of worship.

Information about how to respond to the consultation on the draft guidance, including the consultation questions, can be found online at https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/the-essential-trustee-cc3-new-version.

Tuesday 3 February 2015

Mindfulness meditation – what’s all the fuss about?

http://home.bt.com/lifestyle/wellbeing/mindfulness-meditation-whats-all-the-fuss-about-11363959359180

Mindfulness meditation – what’s all the fuss about?

Celebs, wellbeing gurus and even MPs are catching the mindfulness bug. Reporter Abi Jackson heads to Westminster for the launch of the Mindful Nation UK interim report to find out more

Trycycle : February 02, 2015 A Tibetan Buddhist Nun Blazes a Trail for Other Women to Follow

http://www.tricycle.com/blog/tibetan-buddhist-nun-blazes-trail-other-women-follow

Tricycle : February 02, 2015


February 02, 2015

A Tibetan Buddhist Nun Blazes a Trail for Other Women to Follow

Founded by Thubten Chodron, Sravasti Abbey is one of the only communities in the US where women can become fully ordained in the tradition.
Tracy Simmons

Founded by Thubten Chodron, Sravasti Abbey is one of the only communities in the US where women can become fully ordained in the tradition.
Tracy Simmons

Monday 2 February 2015

Lankaweb: Buddhist Jātaka Stories and Positive Mental Health

http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2015/01/31/buddhist-jataka-stories-and-positive-mental-health/


Lankaweb: Buddhist Jātaka Stories and Positive Mental Health

Posted on January 31st, 2015

Dr Ruwan M Jayatunge 

Provencher and Keyes (2011) define positive mental health as feeling well, functioning well, and being resilient in the face of life’s challenges — improves quality of life and is integral to overall health and well-being, even when there are on-going limitations caused by mental health problems and illnesses. According to Buddhism mental suffering is due in large part to imbalances of the mind (Gunaratana, 1985; Wallace & Shapiro, 2006). Numerous Jātaka stories indicate the mental imbalance caused by Akusal Chitta (or pathological mind). These pathological elements impact the mental wellbeing.

Sunday 1 February 2015

IFN (Interfaith Network) Jan-Feb 2015 E-Bulletin

http://www.interfaith.org.uk/publications/ifn-e-bulletin

IFN Jan-Feb 2015 E-Bulletin

CONTENTS

UK/National updates
• UK inter faith response to events in France and Germany
• EHRC to produce new legal guidance on freedom of expression
• Reconciliation and tolerance a theme in speeches from HM The Queen and HRH the Prince of Wales
• Charity Commission consults on new guidance for trustees
• Inter Faith Network meetings
• MPs express support for high quality Religious Education

International updates
• Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions

Projects
• Visit My Mosque – Sunday 1 February
• New Hindu temple inter faith reach out
• Sharing of expertise – pioneering new approaches
• Woolf Institute ‘Community Initiative and Austerity’ Facebook Group
• Kendal Peace Garden
• Equally Ours
• Big Lunch Extras
• Unity in motion

Training and resources
• Tackling domestic violence training
• Cambridge Inter-faith Programme Summer School
• Prevent training workshops
• Building Networks across Difference and Inter Faith and Networking
• Edinburgh Inter Faith Association video and publication
• Celebrating Faith video
• Interfaith Explorers website

Jobs, Internships and Volunteering
• 3FF – Director
• Cambridge Inter-Faith Programme – Research Associate

Funding opportunities
• Near Neighbours programme
• Funding Central website
• Comic Relief Stronger Communities grants
• Big Lottery Fund

Calls for information, Competitions and Tenders
• Strengthening Faith Institutions programme
• Inter Faith Week questionnaire – deadline extended
• Equality Act - 5 Years On: Call for Papers 

Special Weeks/Days
• World Interfaith Harmony Week
• Fairtrade Fortnight
• Islam Awareness Week

Diary Dates
• Information on some of the inter faith events taking place around the UK
 Bulletin:
http://www.interfaith.org.uk/publications/ifn-e-bulletin

RE Council Newsletter : Feb 2015

http://us4.campaign-archive1.com/?u=a742773f8f89e11e47d388c29&id=30a5802258&e=a0f1d3deed

RE Council Newsletter : Feb 2015

In This Issue