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New Buddhist Temple in Boulder / Denver!

1/8/2023

New temple opening near Denver!
Great Dharma Chan Monastery - Chung Tai Zen Center of Boulder Colorado (Pu Fa Temple 普法禪寺)
https://www.greatdharmachanmonastery.org/

Same family as Atlanta's Dharma Jewel Monastery - Chung Tai Chan Monastery, the Great Dharma Chan Monastery is now open in Boulder CO! Zen meditation classes in English and in Chinese!

Great Dharma Chan Monastery Lunar New Year Event

Great Dharma Chan Monastery will have a Lunar New Year Celebration on Jan. 22nd (Sunday) from 10:00am-2:00pm. There will be a GuanYin Chanting Ceremony, Zen talk, blessing bell striking, new year lamp lighting (you can write down your wishes), and vegetarian meal. If you would like to celebrate the lunar new year the Zen way, and enjoy a delicious meal at a monastery, this is the place to be.

On January 22, Great Dharma Chan Monastery will host multiple activities to welcome the Year of the Rabbit in with peace and prosperity.
You will be able to strike the blessing bell, light a new year’s lamp (including wish writing), and enjoy a vegetarian meal.
Please visit https://www.greatdharmachanmonastery.org for more information.

中台山美國科羅拉多州分院普法禪寺新春活動
普法禪寺大年初一（1/22）將舉辦不同的活動讓大家有機會來寺院開始吉祥平安的兔年。
大家雖然人在美國，但可以把握難得的因緣來叩吉祥鐘，用平安齋，點燈為自己和家人祈福。
以下為活動資訊。
活動及素齋費用全免，歡迎大眾隨喜布施。
普法網站：https://www.greatdharmachanmonastery.org/zh

Great Dharma Chan Monastery Boulder Zen Chinese Buddhist Temple

Happy Thai, Lao, Khmer New Year!

5/12/2022

It’s the New Year in Southeast Asia coming up! Here are various celebrations at Theravada Buddhist temples around town. If you’re new, the largest ones to check out would be April 10 at Wat Buddha Bucha – Thai temple in Decatur, or April 16 & 17 at the Cambodian temples Wat Khmer in Lithonia and Wat Trairatanaram in College Park. In the morning, monks will be chanting inside in Pali, an ancient Indian language, while vendors will be outside. Cultural performances will be mostly after lunch. Not much is in English usually. Please bring cash to support the family-run food and gift vendors, consider making a donation to the temple, and please do not bring alcohol or drugs or smoke.

Dalai Lama Movie in Cinemas

5/1/2022

Never Forget Tibet: The Dalai Lama's Untold Story
One Night Only in Select Theaters
Thursday, March 31, 2022 at 7pm
Never Forget Tibet: The Dalai Lama's Untold Story: A new feature documentary that explores one of the most significant moments in 20th Century history, His Holiness 14th Dalai Lama's incredible escape into exile from occupied Tibet in 1959, which he tells in his own words for the first time on film.
Includes the previously unknown private diary of the Indian political officer who led him to safety, Har Mander Singh. Incorporating interviews with the Dalai Lama's family, the Tibetan Community living in Exile and those with historic ties to Tibet, this culturally significant story offers insights into the importance of our shared worldwide humanity and reveals the incredible details of the Dalai Lama's escape and his wider message of compassion firsthand. It also documents the rich art, culture, and traditions of the region.
"We've received a lot of interest in Never Forget Tibet from around the world and it's more timely than ever this film goes out and shares the first-hand account of the dramatic escape of His Holiness. By combining this incredible story with Tibetan music, prayers and ancient mantras we hope the film conveys some of the beauty and depth of Tibetan culture for audiences to enjoy and experience for themselves. In these strange times we are all living through, it's essential we share our love and compassion with each other and the natural world. This is at the heart of the Dalai Lama's message."
7:00 pm, March 31, 2022 World Premiere is open to everyone to attend at 800+ participating theaters across the U.S. and Canada. Please book in advance.
https://www.neverforgettibet.com/

Never Forget Tibet Dalai Lama Movie Freedom

Positive news on mindfulness topics

3/24/2022

Interesting News and Buddhist tidbits from late 2021 / early 2022

- Burmese Buddhism Under Siege
There are few means available to send very badly needed donations to support families, communities, monasteries, and nunneries in Burma (Myanmar).
https://www.buddhistglobalrelief.org/burmese-buddhism-under-siege/?

- Covid Crisis: Donate to help monasteries in India through the Tibet Fund
The pandemic has brought Covid-19 to the Tibetan monasteries in India -- please donate to Tibetan Buddhist monasteries, who often have no major financial support other than Western donors like us. The Tibet Fund is one reputable option:
https://tibetfund.org/

- Dharma Realm Buddhist University now enrolling for 2022
In person classes for Bachelor's and Master's degrees in northern California at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas!
http://www.drbu.edu

- Atlanta college students stepping up during the pandemic
Members of Atlanta Tzu Chi Collegiate Youth help tutor the community virtually this past year:
https://tzuchi.us/blog/atlantas-tzu-chi-collegiate-youth-association-launches-free-online-tutoring-amid-remote-learning

- May We Gather honors lives cut short due to violence
Today, on the 100th day memorial of the Atlanta-area shootings, join us in honoring lives cut short due to anti-Asian violence and racial/religious animus. Please watch and share this short highlights video from May We Gather: A National Buddhist Memorial Ceremony for Asian American Ancestors. Released one hundred days after the tragedy in Atlanta and marking an important memorial period in many Buddhist traditions, this video can be a resource for classrooms, sanghas, and other communities. After watching the video, you may wish to make a ritual offering of light, incense, or flowers; to recite a chant; or to simply observe a moment of respectful silence.
https://www.maywegather.org/

- Congresswoman Lucy McBath introduces gun safety legislation and universal background checks
AtlantaBuddhism.org was invited as an interfaith representative on a panel with US House of Representatives Congresswoman Lucy McBath (Georgia's 6th Congressional District representative, which includes Atlanta suburb areas like Chamblee and Alpharetta) as she described her efforts to reduce violence and deaths by eliminating loopholes that allow guns to be sold without background checks.
https://mcbath.house.gov/gun-safety

Mindfulness Practice in Lilburn

11/18/2021

Day of Mindfulness Retreat
Saturday October 30
Chua Quan The Am
Vietnamese Buddhist Temple in Norcross/ Lilburn
4180 Arc Way, Norcross GA 30093

All welcome. Suggested minimum donation of $25 to help cover costs of supplies and vegetarian lunch.

Activities include making your own small Buddha statue!
(Crafting Buddha images with Plaster / quick-concrete / fiberglass mold)

Emory Tibet Week 2021 Compassion Contemplation

4/9/2021

Emory-Tibet Week 2021 is online only! STARTS THIS WEEK!Celebrating 23 years of academic collaboration between Emory University and His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the Compassion Center is excited to virtually host the annual Emory-Tibet Week!
We will kick off with a day-long film festival on Sunday, March 21st followed by a week of a live mandala exhibition, and daily meditations and chants with the Drepung Loseling monks of the Mystical Arts of Tibet from March 22-27.

Please register to receive the Zoom link for free. There are TWO zoom link registrations, one is for the Tibetan Film Festival on Sunday, and the other works for all the rest of the events.

Sign up at: https://www.compassion.emory.edu/news-and-events.html

Tibetan Film Atlanta Mindfulness

Emory Tibet Week Atlanta

Discrimination against Asian Americans and Buddhists in the United States

3/5/2021

Commemorating the Day of Remembrance February 19:

While we are not aware of any Japanese Buddhist temples in Georgia (though there are several groups that practice in various Japanese Buddhist and Zen traditions), it is important for us to mark the historical discrimination that Japanese-Americans and Buddhists faced:

The forced removal and incarceration of roughly 125,000 persons of Japanese ancestry, two-thirds of them U.S. citizens, into various kinds of confinement sites during WWII began with the arrest of Buddhist priests even before the smoke had cleared at Pearl Harbor. The prewar surveillance of Buddhist temples and the targeting of Buddhist and Shinto priests as threats to national security was based on a long-standing presumption that America is essentially a White Christian nation. The first federal immigration law that targeted a particular group for exclusion was the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act that deemed the predominantly Buddhist/Taoist Chinese immigrants as the “heathen Chinee,” a group religiously and racially unassimilable. Despite this long history of religion-racial animus, Buddhists drew on their teachings, practice, and community to not only survive the wartime incarceration, but advocate for a vision of America that is multi-ethnic and religiously free. The incarceration experiences of Japanese American Buddhists offer a way to heal and repair America’s racial and religious fractures that endure in different ways even to the present. At a time when the karmic legacy of America’s racial past has put into question what becomes monumentalized, Prof. Williams will outline a major new initiative to remember the names of those incarcerated in the form of a Buddhist monument that he is creating.

Excerpt from: Duncan Ryūken Williams, Professor of Religion/American Studies & Ethnicity/East Asian Languages & Cultures at the University of Southern California and Director of the USC Shinso Ito Center for Japanese Religions and Culture. Williams is the author of the LA Times bestseller American Sutra: A Story of Faith and Freedom in the Second World War (Harvard University Press, 2019)

He will give an academic talk, A REMEMBRANCE OF NAMES: A BUDDHIST MONUMENT TO THE WWII JAPANESE AMERICAN INCARCERATION

One Mind Zen Movie set in China

10/27/2020

ONE MIND
"Incredible footage. To be any closer you’d have to shave your head."
— Bill Porter (Red Pine)

Online Film Screening: ONE MIND is a cinematic meditation on life inside one of China’s most revered and austere Zen Buddhist monastic communities.

About the movie: http://www.commonfolkfilms.com/onemind
Can't join us? Buy or rent it here online http://onemindmovie.com/

ONE MIND is a rare cinematic portrait of life inside one of China’s most austere and revered Zen communities. The monks at Zhenru Chan Monastery continue to uphold a strict monastic code established over 1200 years ago by the founding patriarchs of Zen in China. In harmony with the land that sustains them, the monks operate an organic farm, grow tea, and harvest bamboo to fuel their kitchen fires. At the heart of this community, a group of cloistered meditators sit in silence for 8 hours every day. Suggesting a Zen version of the critically acclaimed film Into Great Silence, ONE MIND offers an intimate glimpse into a thriving Buddhist monastery in modern China.

Director Edward A. Burger (Amongst White Clouds) has lived and studied with Buddhist communities in China for over 15 years, and is the first Western filmmaker to be granted such unprecedented access to the daily rituals and traditions practiced in this remote mountain monastery.

But more than a portrait of life within this monastic community, ONE MIND is an experiment in Buddhist filmmaking. A markedly quiet and contemplative film, Burger has set forth to craft a documentary that is not ‘about’ Buddhism, but rather a ‘Buddhist film’. Taking inspiration from traditional Zen stories and lessons told to him by elder monks and teachers at Zhenru monastery, each chapter of the film explores the trials and challenges we all must face when we set forth to become wiser, kinder human beings. In ONE MIND we learn that this journey begins when we turn our gaze inward. That no matter how far we have traveled and how many mountains and valleys we have crossed, the true adventure awaits us within the landscapes of our own mind.

One Mind Chinese Zen Buddhist Movie Meditation Film

WWGYD

10/21/2020

We are EXCITED to announce WWGYD:
“What Would Guan Yin do?” is Georgia Buddhist Summer Camp's weekly virtual session with Bhikshu Jin He from Berkeley Buddhist Monastery (a branch of Dharma Realm Buddhist Association) in California. We welcome you to join this weekly session for adults to discuss ways of interpreting the Dharma to a modern & relevant perspective, as we identify principles from culture, tradition and popular opinion. We are using the Universal Door Chapter of the Lotus Sutra to see how the Dharma plays a role in our daily lives. Suitable for beginners and advanced practitioners alike.

Fridays at 8pm Eastern time via Zoom

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82908864838?pwd=NEhsTjl0empFbVBLa3FVN1pJK1pIUT09

Meeting ID: 829 0886 4838
Password: 777456

On hiatus temporarily October 20 - November 2020

Guan Yin Bodhisattva- She Carries Me (Buddhist Prayer)

8/16/2020

Guan-Yin is a figure in Buddhism who is said to have more responses than any other figure.
We can rely on her whenever we need any assistance - prayers are efficacious when our hearts and minds are whole-heartedly compassionate.

Rev. Heng Sure sings "She Carries Me" by Jennifer Berezan and tells the story of Gwan Yin Bodhisattva at Teance on 10/28/2014 for a "Tea and Dharma" gathering, a Berkeley Buddhist Monastery community outreach event.

She Carries Me
Melody and Lyric by Jennifer Berezan

She is a boat, she is a light
High on a hill in dark of night
She is a wave, she is the deep
She is the dark where angels sleep
When all is still and peace abides
She carries me to the other side,
She carries me to the other side...
And though I walk through valleys deep
And shadows chase me in my sleep
On rocky cliffs I stand alone
I have no name, I have no home
With broken wings I reach to fly
She carries me to the other side,
She carries me to the other side...
A thousand arms, a thousand eyes
A thousand ears to hear my cries
She is the gate, she is the door
She leads me through and back once more
When day has dawned and death is nigh
She'll carry me to the other side,
She carries me to the other side...

Song here:
https://youtu.be/WitKbWX_voI
and downloadable at http://www.cttbusa.org/audio.asp

Prayer Guan Yin Bodhisattva buddha Hong Kong Pray

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