First Annual Buddhist Nuns Day (AFB)

Susan Pembroke, President, Alliance for Bhikkhunis

Thank you, those working around the globe to make the First International Bhikkhuni Day a success. This day of awareness is calling attention to the issue as well as raising funds to support American Buddhist nuns.

The Alliance for Bhikkhunis (Nuns) is moved by the kindness and generosity of those who give so freely of their time and talents. There is a growing sense of joy and optimism as more enter the widening circle of friendship and goodwill.

American Buddhist nuns or bhikkhunis (Sopaporn Kurz/AFB).

All of our sisters are invited, regardless of Buddhist tradition, to join us on September 17th to celebrate the founding of the Bhikkhuni Sangha (Order of Buddhist Nuns). We are celebrating the fact that there are many thousands of women in robes [26] centuries after the Buddha began teaching.

Whether Theravada, Mahayana, Vajrayana, or other, feel free to use any of our tools to educate as well as raise funds for your affiliated center, temple, monastery, school, hospital, or other agency or enterprise.

International Bhikkhuni Day is intended to be a global grassroots celebration of Buddhist women, uniting and empowering them. Please join in -- even if it is only to meditate along with us, knowing that we are all part of global community committed to protecting the Bhikkhuni Sangha.

• Additional downloads have been added to the site. American nun Ven. Tathaaloka Theri has offered the paper “The Amazing Transformations of Arahant Theri Uppalavanna.” It is a fascinating, mythic tale that “serves as a catalyst for exploration, inspiration, and insight.”
• The renowned scholar Ven. Analayo has very graciously contributed his article “Mahapajapati’s Going Forth in the Madhyama-agama,” reprinted with permission from the Journal of Buddhist Ethics. Ven. Analayo’s incisive analysis of early discourses sheds light on critical texts that have been lost in subsequent translations as well as exploring the societal forces that shaped the early Bhikkhuni Sangha.
• Ven. Bhikkhuni Ajahn Thanasanti has written a very personal article about the women who have figured prominently in her spiritual development. Dipa Ma is one of these “Extraordinary Women.”
• Take a moment to look at the recently added Power Point on bhikkhuni history on the homepage. It has intentionally been left in non-PDF format so individuals and groups can tailor the Power Point slides to suit their needs.
• Feel free to translate into other languages or add or remove slides based on what works best for different circumstances, tradition, or lineage.
• There is a new page with Dhamma and videos from 12 bhikkhunis including Ayya Gunasari’s talk on “Solitude.”
• We remain grateful to Melanie Davies for allowing us to use her beautiful chant on the Recollection of the Foremost Arahant Bhikkhunis (LISTEN).
  

There is still time to create a FIRSTGIVING PAGE.

• Click on the “Join Now” link in white and green to be taken to screens for a walk through the process.
  
• After creating your own page, forward the link to family and friends and invite them to sponsor your day of meditation, learning, and radiating metta (loving-kindness) to this world which is so in need of healing.
• Organizing a day, a half day, or a talk can happen any time you find convenient.
  
• The Firstgiving site will remain open until December 17th, but please do not feel that your event must happen by September 17.
  

Thank you so much for caring about ordained women and wanting to support and protect them!

• News: Traffic light camera scam steals your identity

Workshop: Healthy (Non)-Attachment

• Against the Stream, Melrose
• Day-long Workshop with George Haas*
• Saturday, June 25
• 10:00 am - 4:00 pm

“My job is a travel agent, taking you effortlessly between heaven and hell.”

- Joshu Sasaki Roshi

Somewhere along this Buddhist path, one may have heard that “attachment” is the cause of suffering (dukkha, disappointment), and that “non-attachment” is the way out of suffering.

If this is interpreted to mean that the best way to live life is to never become attached to anything no matter what -- that is wrong view.

People, places, things... the failure to remain attachment-free is what is making life miserable? No.

This workshop will focus on how to use the wisdom aspects of the Noble Eightfold Path (right view and right intention) and the ways we get them wrong. It is not about why we cling, but how we actually do it -- the mechanics of clinging -- and how it leads to suffering.

The workshop will use John Bowlby’s Attachment Theory as the reference point for healthy attachment in the everyday sense for practical applications to day-to-day life.

The meditation techniques offered in this workshop will be specific, simple, and easy-to-do. So whether an established practice already exists or is just beginning, all can benefit.

This class is a taste of what George Haas will be teaching in his 8-week series, "The Meaningful Life," which begins July 7, 2011.

• Daylong cost $50 plus dana for the teacher.
• Some scholarships and work study available.
• No one turned away for lack of funds.
• Call or write for more info.
• Please pack a brown bag.

CLICK TO REGISTER

SPECIAL OFFER: Register, pay in full, and attend daylong for dana only.

*George Haas began down his path with a period of lightweight spiritual seeking (and heavy duty drug and alcohol use). In 1978, he began a serious exploration of the 11th step of the 12-Step tradition, working primarily with concentration to reduce the anxiety of living a sober life. In an effort to make sense out of, and live with, the mounting AIDS deaths of the 1980s, Mr. Haas began walking the Red Road and reading Buddhist texts. Moving to Los Angeles from Manhattan in 1992, he began sitting Vipassana at Ordinary Dharma and reading extensively. In 1998, he began studying with his current teacher, Shinzen Young at Vipassana Support International (VSI). Haas is a Senior Facilitator at VSI and teaches in an irreverent style. He has been teaching meditation in Los Angeles since 2000.