SUMERU » Death

Euthanasia? Just Say No! (a Canadian Buddhist perspective)

Yönten — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 11:22:23 +0000

Suwanda Sugunasiri, well-known Canadian Buddhist community organizer, ethicist and author, recently published an article about end-of-life ethics in the Sunday Island, Sri Lanka.

Here’s the link: http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=32888

Buddhist Prayer Service for Japan: Toronto 5.11.11

Yönten — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 23:19:18 +0000

Natural Appearances, Natural Liberation published

Yönten — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 23:04:30 +0000

Sumeru is pleased to announce publication of:

NATURAL APPEARANCES, NATURAL LIBERATION
A Nyingma Meditative Guide on the Six Bardos
of Living and Dying
By Master Tam Shek-wing
Translated by Samten Migdron
Foreword by Tulku Thondup Rinpoche

ISBN 978-1-896559-10-0 $24.95 US/CAN €17.50 EUR
Perfect bound paperback, 180 pages, 6” x 9″

Available worldwide at
www.amazon.com, www.barnesandnoble.com and other online vendors.

This commentary is based on the six bardos teachings from a series of hidden treasure texts known as the Profound Dharma of Natural Liberation through the Intention of the Peaceful and Wrathful Ones (Zab chos zhi khro dgongs pa rang grol), discovered by the great terton Karma Lingpa in the fourteenth century. The word “bardo,” made popular in the West through the English translation of the Bardo Thodol or The Tibetan Book of the Dead, which also belongs to the same series of treasure texts, means an intermediate or in-between state. The practice of the six bardos, according to the hermeneutics of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism, is essentially the meditative practice of living and dying.

Natural Appearances, Natural Liberation not only contains very practical advice, but also has many teachings of the Nyingma tantric tradition embedded in it. The original text is not intended as a study of spiritualism or psychology. Neither is it intended to be viewed as handbook for taking care of the deceased, nor as a treatise on emptiness. The intention is to condense the very deep and profound tantric teachings of the six bardos into practices approachable by all sentient beings so that many can swiftly attain various states of liberation. This book offers a scholarly but accessible explanation of the ancient wisdom embedded in this ancient Buddhist classic.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tam Shek-wing (1935-) is a Buddhist scholar, painter, poet, writer and social critic. He is the founder of the Vajrayana Buddhism Association and Sino-Tibetan Buddhist Studies Association in North America.

Master Tam was born in Guangzhou, China. As a young man, he received systematic training in the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism under the guidance of H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche. In 1986, Master Tam emigrated from Hong Kong to Hawaii, and then to Toronto in 1993. As early as the late 1970s, Master Tam began publishing writings on Buddhism, with an emphasis on the teachings and meditative practice in Vajrayana Buddhism.

To establish Sino-Tibetan Buddhist studies as a legitimate field in Buddhology, Master Tam helped organize publication of the Monograph Series in Sino-Tibetan Buddhist Studies. The published works sparked interest in establishing new curricula in Buddhist Studies in a number of universities in China, including Renmin University of China in Beijing, Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou, and Nanking University in Nanjin. Since 2008, Master Tam has been a visiting professor at these universities, where he lectures on the tathagatagarbha doctrine and its practice.

Obon Ceremonies, July 30 & 31

Yönten — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 12:06:01 +0000

From The Comox Valley Echo:

This year, on July 30 and 31, Reverend Grant Ikuta, the resident minister for the Steveston Buddhist Temple and recently-elected Bishop of the Jodo Shinshu Buddhist Temples of Canada, will be visiting five Japanese-Canadian cemetery sites on Vancouver Island and performing an additional Obon service at a private residence.

The Buddhist service at each location will be quite brief, but the minister will spend some time before and after the services tidying graves and monuments.

The public is invited to help with the cleanup and attend the services.

Full details here: http://www.canada.com/Traditional+Obon+ceremony+July+Cumberland/5159010/story.html

Danh Danh Phung, a founder of Victoria’s Chùa Vạn Hạnh Temple

Yönten — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 23:13:14 +0000

From the Victoria Times Colonist: http://www.timescolonist.com/Deaths+Funerals/4881306/story.html

Edmonton Buddhists remember slain community member

Yönten — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 23:08:26 +0000

From the Edmonton Sun: http://www.edmontonsun.com/2011/06/05/anniversary-of-temporary-foreign-worker-stabbed-to-death-in-2010

Natural Appearances, Natural Liberation

Yönten — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 12:17:13 +0000

Coming soon from The Sumeru Press Inc.

NATURAL APPEARANCES, NATURAL LIBERATION:
A Nyingma Meditative Guide on the Six Bardos of Living and Dying
by Master Tam Shek-wing

Translated by Samten Migdron and with a Foreword by Tulku Thondup Rinpoche

ISBN: 978-1-896559-10-0

180 pages, 6″x9″ paperback

Self-Immolation in Buddhist Tradition

Yönten — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 11:46:28 +0000

CNN recently ran a story on their website entitled… An Act of faith, desperation or protest: Self-Immolations through time, featuring the famous picture of Thich Quang Duc burning himself to death while meditating in Vietnam in 1963. Here is the link to that story: http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/01/19/self.immolation.history/

The article makes reference to a book by James A. Benn entitled… Burning for the Buddha: Self-immolation in Chinese Buddhism. Mr. Benn is an Associate Professor of Religion at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. The book was published in 2007. Portions of it are available on Google Books; here is the link: http://books.google.ca/books?id=dWL6EEkL8goC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Burning+for+the+Buddha:+Self-Immolation+in+Chinese+Buddhism&source=bl&ots=uWxRf0cuKk&sig=ouCtIBzMgk-dxLvdJETaUyKgQ7Q&hl=en&ei=qbU-TeyTAYnagAeFydjkCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CDQQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q&f=false

The book was reviewed by the Journal of the American Academy of Religion. Here is the link to that review: http://jaar.oxfordjournals.org/content/76/1/198.full

Glenn Mullin @ U of T

Yönten — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 23:15:07 +0000

Living in the Face of Death: The Tibetan Tradition with Glenn Mullin

Glenn H. Mullin is a Tibetologist, translator of classical Tibetan literature, and Buddhist writer and teacher. He is the author of over 20 acclaimed books on various aspects of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, including the lives of the fourteen Dalai Lamas, tantric meditation systems, pilgrimage in Tibet, Buddhist art and ritual dance. In addition to his work as a translator and author, he has worked as a field specialist on several feature length films and several television documentaries dealing with Tibet, co-produced five albums of Tibetan ritual music, and organized Tibetan and Mongolian artist and monk tours across North America and Europe. Glenn Mullin continues to publish and tour regularly, as well as lead pilgrimage and cultural tours through Tibet, Nepal and Mongolia.

Free public lecture, Monday, May 3rd, 2010, from 7-9 pm
Jackman Humanities Building, Rm 100 (170 St George Street)

This event at the U of T is sponsored by the
Centre for the Study of Religion

Life with death

Yönten — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 12:22:46 +0000

Stephen Jenkinson is a Canadian counsellor who specializes in death. The NFB recently made a movie, called Griefwalker, about his work…

http://www.nfb.ca/film/griefwalker-trailer/

His website is
www.orphanwisdom.com