The Greater Boston Zen Center, part of Boundless Way Zen — whose Guiding Teachers are James Ishmael Ford, David Dayan Rynick, and Melissa Myozen Blacker — opened its doors last night in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The new location is now home to two preexisting BoWZ sitting groups: the Ralph Waldo Emerson Zen sangha & Spring Hill Zen. The guiding teacher of the new location is dharma holder Josh Bartok, who will eventually be installed as abbot there. You can stop by any Tuesday or Wednesday evening or Saturday morning at 288 Norfolk St., 2nd floor. If you are a beginner, there are introductory classes offered by arrangement in advance. Visit this link to make arrangements, and be sure to check out their website at www.bostonzen.org for regular sitting times.

The Insight Meditation Community of Washington will also be opening a new meditation and meeting space in Tenleytown, Washington, DC, on the evening of May 28. Located at 4708 Wisconsin Ave., NW, the newly refurbished space can host 15 to 20 people. The group will gather there every weekday morning and hopes to expand its offerings to days, evenings, and weekends in the future. Practice takes place from 7:30 a.m. to 8:15 a.m. every morning, starting on the 28th, with a suggested donation of $5 to $10. For more information, see the IMCW website.

Photo via www.case.edu

Melvyn C. Goldstein, the first American to earn a doctorate in Tibetan anthropology, will receive the 2012 Frank and Dorothy Humel Hovorka Prize at a ceremony to be held on Sunday, May 20, at Case Western Reserve University’s Veale Center.

The award is given to those who have made “extraordinary contributions to their academic field and to Case Western Reserve.” According to the university’s website, the prize is the highest form of honor a faculty member can receive. Goldstein is the John Reynolds Harkness Professor of Anthropology at CWRU and Co-Director of the Center for Research on Tibet, which he founded.

Goldstein began his prestigious career in the mid-1960s while a graduate student at the University of Washington, where he interviewed many Tibetan refugees. After receiving this country’s first doctorate in Tibetan anthropology, he became a faculty member at Case Western Reserve University in 1968, and chaired the anthropology department there from 1975 2002. In 1985 he became the first Western anthropologists conduct field research in Tibet, and in 1987 he started the university’s Center for Research on Tibet.

To read about all of Melvyn C. Goldstein’s achievements over the years, including his pioneering research on the rare Tibetan marriage custom known as fraternal polyandry, please read the full article in CWRU’s The Daily.

Graymoor Spiritual Life Center (www.atonementfriars.org)

Earlier this month in Garrison, New York, Buddhist and Christian clergy gathered at the Graymoor Spiritual Life Center for the ninth annual interreligious dialogue between members of both traditions (sponsored by the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement). “A Buddhist & Christian Understanding of Greed: Personal and Structural” was the topic for the day. All in attendance agreed that Christian scriptures and Buddhist sutras decry greed, though each offered different solutions to the problem.

“Greed, anger and ignorance are three poisons which control us sometimes,” said Rev. Kenjitsu Nakagaki, a Jodo Shinsu priest and the vice chairman of the Interfaith Center of New York. “Observing the precepts will remove the impurity of greed, concentrating the mind in meditation removes anger and gaining wisdom removes the impurity of foolishness or ignorance.” He goes on to state that the practice of compassion is one effective way to eradicate greed within.

A Catholic priest, Fr. Francis X. Mazur, ecumenical and interreligious officer for the Diocese of Buffalo, described greed in terms of sin, citing St. Augustine, who said that greed is “…a disabling sin that leads to envy, hatred and detraction.” Fr. Mazur believes that greed comes from within and that “clergy should use preaching to challenge people to overcome it individually and within society.”

The purpose of such dialogue is to foster understanding between the two traditions through explorations on how life is to be lived, according to each. Fr. John Keane, a Franciscan who directs the dialogue, said, “We’re not trying to convert each other, but to understand and to try to make the world a safer place to be.”

The book, which Michael Sheehy reviews in the upcoming Summer 2012 issue of Buddhadharma, largely focuses on Japanese Buddhist scholar D. T. Suzuki and his interactions with composer John Cage, who spawned the experimental art movement Fluxus and the “happenings” of the 1960s. Pearlman studies the interactions between Fluxus and Japanese art groups The Hi Red Center and Gutai, and the New York-based abstract expressionist group The Club, which held lectures on Zen Buddhism. And on the literary front, Pearlman chronicles how Beat writers like Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac explored Buddhism in their search for new literary forms.

The book launch will happen Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Rubin Museum of Art at 150 W. 17th St. in New York. Admission is $15 ($13.50 for members.) Pearlman, a multimedia artist and author, has written several works about Buddhism and Asian culture, including a book and documentary about sacred dance in Tibet.

At the ceremony, he said he plans to give most of the prize money, £900,000, to the Indian branch of Save the Children, an international organization dedicated to ending child labor and exploitation, and providing health care, education and other services to impoverished children. Another £125,000 will go to the Mind & Life Institute, a nonprofit that aims to understand the human mind and the way contemplative practices like meditation can benefit it. The remainder of the money will go into a fund to educate Tibetan monks about science.

Templeton Prize organizers said the Dalai Lama was chosen for the award because of his encouragement of scientific research and his engagement with people from many different religious traditions. The prize is the largest monetary award given annually to an individual.

“When I heard your decision to give me this quite famous award, I really felt this is another sign of recognition about my little service to humanity, mainly nonviolence and unity around different religious traditions,” His Holiness said when he was announced as its recipient. For more information on the Templeton Prize and the Dalai Lama, watch this video on YouTube.

“Oh yes. In their hair, poisoned, and scarf, poisoned. So you see, they are sick; supposed to receive blessing from me, and my hand touch. That kind of sort of thing — information we received. I don’t know whether it’s 100% correct or not. There is no possibility to crosscheck like that.”

To see a video clip of His Holiness discussing this (and also his relationship with Desmond Tutu), follow this link to the Telegraph: Dalai Lama reveals Chinese plot to poison him.

From top left: Snow Lion President Jeff Cox, Shambhala Publications President Nikko Odiseos. From bottom left: Snow Lion Cofounder Sidney Piburn, Shambhala Editor and owner Ivan Bercholz, Shambhala Executive Vice-President and owner Sara Bercholz

Shambhala Publications has announced that, as of May 10, dedicated Tibetan Buddhist publisher Snow Lion Publications is “a part of the Shambhala Publications family.” This will add some 300 titles, including many by the Dalai Lama, to the Shambhala catalog. The acquisition was announced via posts at the websites of both Shambhala and Snow Lion.

According to Shambhala, the move will allow the Boston-based publisher to “offer the widest selection of Tibetan Buddhist books from a single publisher,” and was “in some ways more like a marriage than a business deal, since [Snow Lion had] been our esteemed colleagues in Buddhist publishing for well over twenty years.” Shambhala was launched in 1969 with the publication of Chögyam Trungpa’s Meditation in Action and has since grown to become the largest publisher of Buddhist books, as well those of other spiritual traditions, and other types of material published under Shambhala-owned imprints.

Shambhala publisher Julie Saidenberg has told Publishers Weekly that Shambhala will “retain the Snow Lion name as an imprint and at least three Snow Lion editors will move to Shambhala.” Certain services from the Ithaca, New York-based Snow Lion, like their weekly Dalai Lama and Dharma e-mail quotes, will resume soon, without current subscribers needing to do anything.

Reached for comment, Shambhala Publications President Nikko Odiseos told us:

“Shambhala and Snow Lion have always had a very positive, collaborative relationship, and this really accelerated in the last year and a half as of Sidney Piburn, Snow Lion’s cofounder, and Jeff Cox, the president worked with Ivan and Sara Bercholz and me on a few challenges we face in our little corner of the publishing world, which is changing so quickly.

“Many of us here at Shambhala read a lot — and I mean A LOT — of Snow Lion books. So we were big fans to begin with.  The ground was ready.

“The basic driver for this was that Sidney and Jeff wanted to be sure that Snow Lion’s mission, making important books from the vast Tibetan Buddhist tradition available, continue and flourish and not be dependent on them personally.  And thus,  Snow Lion is now part of the Shambhala family.

“Snow Lion’s editorial team is now part of Shambhala as well, and Sidney will be helping us out too — he is a gem and the whole Tibetan Buddhist world is really indebted to him as well as the entire Snow Lion team for their dedication and incredible work for over thirty years.”

The following is from a letter about the acquisition posted by Snow Lion co-founder Sidney Piburn, President Jeff Cox, and editor Christi Cox:

“Thirty years ago His Holiness the Dalai Lama gave the founders of Snow Lion a mission: to publish books from all the traditions of Tibet. It was most important, he told us, to be non-sectarian in our approach. More specifically, he suggested that we publish translations of classic texts and monastic textbooks from each of the four main lineages of Tibetan Buddhism, commentaries by eminent lamas past and present of their respective lineages, and works by Western practitioners and scholars skilled at bridging the cultures. In addition, he suggested we publish books for those newly interested in Buddhism, books for serious students and scholars, as well as materials for advanced practitioners.

“As we’ve gotten older we’ve been working to ensure that our important mission continue into the future. We feel very pleased that we were able to connect with Nikko Odiseos and Sara and Ivan Bercholz, the new generation so capably running Shambhala Publications. All of them are serious practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism, and they share our interest in preserving the full range of this invaluable tradition.

“So we are very pleased that Snow Lion is joining Shambhala Pubs and we have great confidence in its continuous bright future! It has a good home and we are looking forward to the great work still to come!”

The Shambhala website now includes the Snow Lion titles and has been updated both in design and in functionality, so that visitors can search by tradition and practice. Shambhala states that they “will no longer carry merchandise and practice items other than books and audio,” which had been a significant part of the Snow Lion catalog. In their statement, however, they do list several recommended distributors of such items. Shambhala Publications books are themselves distributed by Random House, and Snow Lion’s titles will be similarly available later this year.

Screenshot

A video (below) has surfaced showing eight senior South Korean Jogye Order monks engaging in high-stakes poker, with some one billion won (approx. $875,300) being gambled. While it is still unclear where the funds came from, one news item suggests that the money might have been charitable donations. Ven. Seongho, a Jogye monk speaking to Reuters, said, “Basically, Buddhist rules say don’t steal. Look at what they did, they abused money from Buddhists for gambling.”

Six of the eight monks have offered to resign because of the video, and the order has launched an internal investigation to determine how to discipline the monks. The Jogye order is also looking into whoever hid the camera in the luxury hotel room where the monks gambled, as filming the monks without their knowledge may be illegal under South Korean law.

The group of monks was comprised of “two spiritual leaders, high-ranking monks and also abbots from branch temples,” according to the Korea Herald. They were staying at the hotel while they attended a memorial service for a fellow monk.

The news has caused a commotion in South Korea, leading some in the media to speculate about a potential power split within the order. With a reported 10 million followers comprising about a fifth of the country’s population, the Jogye Order is the largest Buddhist group in Korea.

Eshu Martin

The Victoria Zen Centre, based on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, now offers an online training program to help practitioners develop a consistent and stable Zen practice. Their new “Online Orientation to Zen” program offers a combination of videos and training resources that are accessible for free to the public, with an option to pay for personalized support, via Skype, with a trained Victoria Zen Centre practitioner.

“One of my primary motivators in developing the Victoria Zen Centre has been an effort to make Zen practice accessible to as many people as possible,” says Zen Centre’s Eshu Martin.

“It’s easy to forget that at the beginning it’s tough for a person to sit still and straight for even 5 minutes. Far too often I have seen newcomers tossed into a regular practice session at a Zen centre, which often features multiple 30-plus-minute periods of zazen, without anything more than a quick ’sit down and do your best.’ What a shame!”

The full Online Orientation to Zen program can be found on the Victoria Zen Centre’s website by clicking here.

Here is the first video in the series, with instructions on how to sit.

The film focuses on Locho and Yama, a young couple living a traditional nomadic lifestyle herding yaks and horses. But as Dzachukha becomes increasingly modernized, many people in their community have been moving to cities and towns to find work.

“It’s become a different place, a desperate place,” Locho says in the film. “It’s changing so much it’s hard to recognize.” According to Locho, Yama, and their community, the herders have entered duegnan — “dark times.”

The filmmakers spent several months with Locho and Yama as they grappled with a difficult decision: they want their  infant daughter, Jiatomah, to have the best opportunities in life, but  they worry that if they send her to school, she won’t choose to live the traditional nomadic life her family has been living for countless generations.

Directed by Lynn True, Nelson Walker, and Tsering Perlo, Summer Pasture has been screened at numerous film festivals, garnering nominations at the Independent Spirit Awards and the Gotham Independent Film Awards. It was produced by the Kham Film Project, an association of American and Tibetan filmmakers working to share issues and experiences from inside Tibet.

Independent Lens screens tonight at 10 p.m. on most PBS stations. Check pbs.org for local schedules.

Photo via the Tibet Center

The Tibet Center in New York City will host a reception in celebration of Ven. Nicholas Vreeland’s appointment to position of abbot of Rato Monastery, becoming the first Westerner to take over leadership of a Tibetan monastery. Vreeland was appointed to this leadership position by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and will assume the office on July 6, 2012.

The reception will be held at 145 Ave of Americas, #2A, at Spring St., New York City, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. For more information on this reception and historic appointment, see the Religion News Service press release.

Kuzan Peter Schireson and Chikudo Lew Richmond

Earlier this month, Kuzan Peter Schireson and Rinso Ed Sattizahn went through the dharma transmission ceremony with their teacher, Chikudo Lew Richmond, in the Soto Zen lineage of the late Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. In an article published at Sweeping Zen, Schireson said this about his teacher:

“I’ve worked closely with Lew for about five years now, so there’s lots to thank him for, but the one thing I must say is this: if it not for Lew, I really don’t know if I would have ordained as a priest and completed my training in the Suzuki Roshi lineage.”

“His kindness, insights, and Vimalakirti style of embodying the Dharma encouraged me to deepen my practice in ways I hadn’t envisioned,” Schireson continued. “He helped me understand that ordaining as a priest was not about robes, the outward formalities, or the archetypal aura that I associated with the role. That the essence of priest practice was the practice of love and compassion, from the inside out. I came to understand that I could ordain, practice, and teach as myself. For that I am deeply and especially grateful.”

For more on this story, please see the original article at Sweeping Zen.

Photo by Shundo David Haye

During the most recent practice period at Tassajara, a torii gate was built to mark the path leading to the onsite ashes of the late Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, founder of the San Francisco Zen Center (SFZC) and Tassajara. While torii are often found in Japan at Shinto shrines, where they mark the entrance to a sacred place, they are also common at Buddhist temples.

The gate was honored with a ceremony during the 50th anniversary Alumni Gathering, before the guest season at Tassajara started on Friday. Myogen Steve Stücky, a co-abbot of the SFZC, honored Suzuki at the ceremony. “Through your quiet, dedicated effort, your willingness to meet whomever appeared,” Stücky said, “you planted the flag of dharma in American soil.” His full speech can found at the SFZC blog.

Tassajara is one of three practice communities of the San Francisco Zen Center, which includes City Center in San Francisco, Green Gulch Farm in Marin, and Tassajara in the Ventana Wilderness. For more information about the Zen Center, visit its website.

Our condolences to his family, friends and sangha. For remembrances by those who knew him, please see the obituary at Sweeping Zen.

Buddhist scholar Dr. B. J. Terwiel will be speaking about Thai Buddhism on May 18, and Robert Thurman will give a talk on Buddhism and art on May 27. A conference on contemporary Buddhist art is scheduled for July 6-8. For full details on all events, please see here.