Tibet: "My Reincarnation" (Rebirth)

My Reincarnation - Official Trailer from Zohe Films on Vimeo

Filmed over 20 years by acclaimed documentary filmmaker Jennifer Fox (Flying: Confessions of a Free Woman), "My Reincarnation" chronicles the epic story of the high Tibetan Buddhist master Chögyal Namkhai Norbu and his Western-born son, Yeshi.

• Now playing at Laemmle's, Los Angeles
  

The film follows Namkhai Norbu’s rise to greatness as a Buddhist teacher in the West, while Yeshi, recognized at birth as the reincarnation or rebirth of a famous spiritual master (a tulku), breaks away from his father’s tradition to embrace the modern world.

Can the father convince his son to keep the family’s threatened spiritual legacy alive? Never before has a high Tibetan master allowed such complete access to his private life, and it is doubtful that another ever will.

With her intimate entry to both family and icons including the Dalai Lama, Fox expertly distills a decades-long drama into a universal story about love, transformation, and destiny.

This is an epic father-son drama spanning two decades and three generations. It is about Buddhism, cultural survival, identity, inheritance, family, growing old, growing up, faith, meditation, religion, magic, dreaming, spirituality, Dzogchen -- and past and future lives.

The film follows the renowned reincarnate Tibetan spiritual master Chögyal Namkhai Norbu as he struggles to save his spiritual tradition and his Italian-born son, Yeshi, who stubbornly refuses to follow in his father’s footsteps. More

(Oscopelabs) "Rebirth"

Shambhala "Lineage" Festival?

with Shastri Pamela Bothwell

Ram Dass, Tsultrim Allione, and a young [pre reckless car crash] Chogyam Trungpa (allenginsberg.org)

• Sat Sept. 24th: 9:00 am-6:00 pm
• Sun Sept. 25th: 9:00 AM - 2:30 PM
• Price: $30.00 General Public
• EAGLE ROCK SMCLA, Main Shrine Room

The Shambhala Lineage Festival is an opportunity for members and visitors to celebrate and enjoy being together. It is also a time for them to further commit to the Shambhala Vision [with some trepidation about allegations of engaging in behavior more consistent with a cult than a free and open religious center]. More

Smoking, seducing, drinking, and growing rich with the gift of gab and a cult of personality, it's "crazy" wisdom (movingpicturesnetwork.com).

"Lineage" Festival?
Susan, Wisdom Quarterly
A lineage festival suggests a lineage -- a strange celebration for an organization that originated based on a charismatic leader who had broken all ties to tradition. But for the sake of legitimacy and to be a proper Tibetan Buddhist organization, it Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche was humbled to that extent and affiliated itself with a sect.

Money is the measure of respectability, and the Rinpoche had tapped a rich vein of American supporters. That respectability made affiliation possible, and the vein continues to be mined. Shambhala did not come from Tibet. It came from the imagination of Trungpa Rinpoche, who had left Tibet and was living a debauched life (which any Tibetan can do while singing the praises of Milarepa, the beloved drunken "crazy wisdom" saint).

The organization makes money by selling multilevel "warrior" trainings, tithing, special programs, special donations, pricey retreats, and militaristic bootcamp outings, and donations. Ultimately, things seem to center more around money-making ventures and reliance on a questionable "guru" (the founder's jet-setting son) and social events than meditation, which it officially regards as "cool boredom" and something not to get too carried away with.

If it were not for Pema Chodron's greatness and the success of affiliated publications, there would only be a get-togethers at someone's house to read Trungpa Rinpoche railing against "spiritual materialism." Instead, we have consumer spiritualism. Come see for yourself. (Bring your wallet).

Introductory Programs-Core Path Programs-Buddhist Programs-Shambhala Training-Contemplative Arts-& Disciplines-Community Events-Adv. Programs & Group Ret.-Yoga, Body, Health-All Programs

A Lineage Would be Nice, But DIY is Easier

How and where else could Westerners dress like Tibetans under the aegis of Vajrayana -- but still do it their way? Trungpa Rinpoche gave them an in, and their money solidified it. Does it work? Is that all it takes? Is it legitimate Tibetan Buddhism? "Lineage" can just be an afterthought.

• WeDivest.org
• EndTheOccupation.org

Dalai Lama becomes a "Masterchef" (video)

Greig Box-Turnbull, Daily Mirror July 19, 2011 (Mirror.co.uk)

The Dalai Lama (Tibet's pope-king) appeared as guest judge on "Masterchef."

The Dalai Lama yesterday [July 18, 2011] made a bizarre appearance as guest judge on the Australian version of Masterchef.

Stunned contestants prepared lunch for the Tibetan spiritual leader -- but he refused to rate their offerings, saying it would be against his Buddhist principles.

In a special episode of the hit TV show, the religious figurehead was presented with several sweet and savory veggie dishes as he took time out from his official duties on a visit Down Under.

Kindness is appreciated everywhere.

He liked a Sri Lankan curry with roti bread, but gnocchi -- an Italian dumpling -- was his least favorite. However, his most severe criticism about the gnocchi was the comment that the contestant “tried their best.”

Speaking about fine dining, the Dalai Lama also told the contestants: “My knowledge of these things is very limited. Whatever I get, I accept.

“As a Buddhist monk it is not right to prefer this food or that food.”

But he did [regrettably] reveal he was a huge fan of cheese and also said his other favorite foods included bread, tofu, mushrooms, desserts, and “especially” coriander.

Speaking about the food he was presented with on the show, he said: “They all had a special taste and beauty.” Source

"Missing in Tibet" (film)

The Dalai Lama visits Los Angeles (USC)

Hosted by Gaden Shartse Thubten Dhargye Ling

(blog.taiwan-guide.org)

The 14th Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso) speaks on:

"Secular Ethics and Meditation"

• Sunday, May 1, 2011, 2:30 PM
• Long Beach Convention Center, Terrace Theater
• General public tickets: $46.20-$104.65
• gstdl.org, (657) 229-4435, HHDL2011@gstdl.org
  

• May 3, 2011, 9:30 AM-11:00 AM and 1:45 PM-3:30 PM
  
• USC Galen Center and USC Bovard Auditorium
• University of Southern California, dalailama.usc.edu
• Tickets: $20-$125
  

Discrediting Buddhist Monks

The Weighty Karma of False Accusations

Wisdom Quarterly

China under military rule is one crazy place. Learning from US atrocities in the region, it has been engaging in an anti-Buddhist campaign (a cultural revolution) of Seven Suns proportions. It should be noted that one of the most karmically demeritorious acts one can commit is falsely accusing Buddhist monastics of defeat (parajika) offenses.

For if a fully gone forth recluse, someone who has received the higher ordination, kills, steals, has sex, or lies about attaining enlightenment or other states, that person is instantaneously no longer a monastic. It is "defeat" because it cannot be remedied, and one can not be readmitted into the Order as a fully ordained monastic for the remainder of this lifetime. (Future lives may hold that possibility, but the opportunity to ever ordain is extraordinarily rare and precious, almost inconceivably the exception).

Getting someone thrown out by falsely accusing them of offenses entailing expulsion is almost as serious as committing those offenses oneself. Has the Chinese government and its agents done just this, or does it have some basis for its allegations against Tibetan monks? (Having invaded Tibet, slaughtered monks, colonized the country, and destroyed its unique culture, sacred texts, and art objects, the Chinese Communist Party might not think too much of discrediting remaining monks in their way).

World's biggest propaganda agency "Xinhua" lies again[?]DHARAMSALA, India - A media briefing was held at the main Tibetan temple in Dharamsala on April 25, regarding China's continuing crackdown on the monks of Kirti Monastery and the Tibetans living in Ngaba, Amdo in Eastern Tibet.

"The Chinese authorities have launched a series of false allegation and groundless about the circumstances of the death of the young monk named Phuntsok, who self-immolated on March 16, as well as on the state of affairs at the Kirti monastery in general," said Ven. Lobsang Yeshi, one of two media coordinators of the Kirti monastery in exile who has responded to the recent reports made by the state controlled Chinese media "Xinhua."

"Chinese authorities trying to blame the monks, who took away Phuntsok from the hands of the police at the time of the self-immolation, for being his accomplices in planning the fatal protest action," Lobsang said during the press briefing this morning in Dharamsala. The authorities also claimed that if the monks had not taken Phuntsok away, then they might have been able to save his life. More