Retreatants and Dhamma Leaders

Our non-residential retreat was excellent. Many thanks to all who attended and especially to our Dhamma Leaders and Board members who worked to make it a success. Much metta to you all.

Please join us for our upcoming non-residential retreat on Saturday March 1 and Sunday March 2. This retreat will offer extended periods of meditation (including instruction on mindfulness of walking and eating) and talks based on the Buddha’s Four Noble Truths. The retreat will run from 8 AM to 6 PM on Saturday, with an option for extended sitting on Saturday night from 7-9 PM (or as long as participants decide to practice) and from 8 AM to noon on Sunday, concluding with a pot luck for participants. Please bring a personal sack lunch for Saturday. Those choosing to stay for extended practice on Saturday night will either need to bring dinner or will have a brief period to go eat before returning. Sunday bring a dish to share with others for the pot luck, but please plan to stay to share in the meal even if you are not able to bring one. This retreat will be held in Noble Silence, and in keeping with dietary practices typically cultivated on retreats we ask that food items brought be vegetarian. Also for those bringing a dish on Sunday please bring a description of what is in the dish as many at the Sangha cultivate particular dietary commitments.

Dana for this retreat is on a sliding scale; pay as you are able. The suggested Dana is $75 for all or part of the retreat, and the minimum is $20.

Seven monks from Tashi Kyil Monastery will be visiting Evansville next week, and they plan to be in attendance at the Interfaith group meeting on Thursday, November 7 at 11:30am at the Mindful Heart Buddha Sangha. They have a full schedule of activities as listed below. Detailed information can be found on the Bodyworks website, www.bwmassage.com. All events are open to the public with the exception of the Benefit Dinner Thursday, November 7 at Wesselman Nature Center. Tickets must be purchased for that event.

Tuesday, Nov 5 Central Library, 10:00am- Opening Ceremony of World Peace Sand Mandala
Construction of Mandala continues through the day on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday & Friday. Closing ceremony at 3:30pm on Friday.

Tuesday, Nov 5 University of Evansville, Ridgway, 6:00pm- Presentation by Arjia Rinphoche, director of the Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center in Bloomington. Monks from Tashi Kyil will be presenting as well.

Wednesday, Nov 6 Arts Council of SW Indiana, 5:00pm- Let’s Travel to Tibet program. A cultural program where attendees receive passports and visas, and the performance includes a visit from a Panda Bear and Snow Lion, and a Yak Dance.

Thursday, Nov 7 Mindful Heart Buddha Sangha, 11:30am- Meeting with Interfaith group

Thursday, Nov 7 Wesselman Nature Center, Blessing of the Woods at 5:00pm and Benefit Dinner, 6:00pm. Traditional Tibetan food created and served by the monks. Tickets are $50, proceeds go to Tashi Kyil Monastery. Reservations must be made by Monday, November 4 through PayPal option at www.bwmassage.com or call Bodyworks at 490-9009 to ensure we have enough food for everyone.

Friday, Nov 8 Central Library, 3:30pm- Closing ceremony for World Peace Sand Mandala, deconstruction of Mandala, and procession to Ohio River to pour the sand in the moving water, to symbolize purification of our environment.

Friday, Nov 8 Evansville Power Yoga, 6:00pm- Dharma Talk/Meditation

Sunday, Nov 10 St. Mary’s Catholic Church, 9:30am- Monks will be in attendance at Mass, with reception to follow.

The monks deeply appreciate all the warm hospitality they are receiving as they tour America.

Our annual picnic will be held at the Sangha this year, as a housewarming event. Please join us in our new Sangha space (Suite 220). This is in the same office park as the previous location, on Weinbach.

You are invited to bring a vegetarian dish, snack or a desert to share and then enjoy a variety of interesting foods.

3:00 to 6:00 PM – Potluck and socialize.

6:00 PM – Regularly scheduled sitting and Dhamma talk

We are moving but only about 50 yards away to Suite 220 in the Bradford Park Office Complex. We need your help. On the morning of Saturday September 28 we will meet at our current space and begin boxing up books, kitchen items, and loading vehicles. When we get the key to our new space, suite 220, we must clean it. Then we will move in. And finally we will clean suite 960. Please help. If you have a van or pickup truck, please bring it. Please contact the sangha in advance if you will be helping.
Metta, and thank you.

As usual, the Monastery and Sangha went out of their way to demonstrate hospitality. They brought us right in to the activities. The two children in the Mindful Heart entourage were invited into the ceremonies (seen at the far ends of the welcoming lines on stage in the photo). We ate in the most wonderful, interesting Vietnamese vegetarian cooking. The food was exotic, diverse, and delicious (yet we still don’t know specifically what most of it was – delicious mysteries). They are sincerely welcoming and inclusive.

Reverend Thich Hang Dat spoke about practicing compassion for all those we encounter in our lives and led a Metta meditation. He also led blessing/gratitude chants in Vietnamese and translated in English. Finally he led the Buddha Birthday ceremony where all individuals bath the baby Buddha statue. He clarified that what we are really doing is remembering to nurture the good nature in ourselves (bathing our inner Buddha nature).

Bhante Nanda (Vipassana Buddhist Monk from Louisville) spoke of how we unknowingly create our suffering through desires and attachments. He went on to review the story of how the Buddha unselfishly left his privileged family life to attain enlightenment and then teach the path giving all human kind the opportunity of salvation from suffering (Eight Fold Path).

We are invited back to Ten Thousand Buddhas Summit anytime; and specifically for the Parents Appreciation Day celebration in the fall.

This past Sunday Mary formally initiated a Teachers Council which will continue her mission of teaching the Dhamma. During our Buddha’s birthday celebration we also had a ceremony where members of the new Teachers Council took the precepts from Mary. Council members are Jan Carter, Amy Miller, John Paulson, Ricky Amba, and Mary Lee MacManus. Event Coordinator and Board Member Chris Bauer spoke about the gratitude that the entire Sangha has for all of our teachers, past, present, and future. Mary MacGregor will continue on in an advisory role on the Council. Although she will be enjoying her home on Martha’s Vineyard during the summer, she will continue to sit with the Sangha the rest of the year. Five members also took the precepts for the first time. Jeffery Mathura, K Warner, Christopher Williams, Ricky Amba, and Jo Kilmer received a certificate listing the precepts and the date that they officially undertook the study and pursuit of these goals.

After the initiation of the Teachers Council and the precepts ceremonies, Mary spoke about how she came to love the Dhamma and to form the Mindful Heart Buddha Sangha. The Sangha originally met in the home of Mary and her husband Phil Lieberman, and took its name in 1998. Although Thich Nhat Hanh was the Buddhist teacher she was first drawn to, Mary eventually found a personal teacher in Matthew Flickstein, who teaches a Theravadan Buddhism and Vipassana insight meditation. Mary said her approach to Buddhism is simple and can be boiled down to 3 N’s: Not-self, Not-knowing, and Now. The Sangha presented Mary with a keepsake box made from an abalone shell with a pewter bottom and engraved with: Love, Gratitude, 1998-2013, MHBS. Christopher Williams, who is a member of both MHBS and the Palchen Group, presented Mary with a gift of Blessing Water from Alan McCoy and the Tibetan group. And of course there was lots of good food and conversation to finish the evening. Here are a few pictures from the celebration.

5:00 to 6:30 PM Sunday, May 5th, 2013 at the Mindful Heart Buddha Sangha
Please join us at the Sangha for a special celebration. If you haven’t made it here recently, try to join us this day.

Honoring Teacher and Sangha Founder Mary MacGregor

• Mary is continuing in the Sangha, but her time as a teacher is coming to an end. Join us in honoring her service.
• Know more about our teachers who are receiving the torch from Mary.
• Mary is not asking for gifts; however, if you personally would like to contribute to a gift fund please do it early. There will be a collection box at the Sangha specifically for gift donations, or you may mail to the Sangha: Mindful Heart Buddha Sangha, Bradford Park Office Complex, 600 N. Weinbach, Suite 960, Evansville, IN 47711]

Buddha’s Birthday

• Our Sangha is celebrating Buddha’s Birthday on this day. If anyone would like to consider taking the Precepts please contact Mary as soon as possible so she may plan.
• The actual calendar date of the birthday and the celebrations vary with calendar year, tradition and country. Look up Buddha’s Birthday on Wikipedia to see more information.
• Watch for an upcoming announcement of another special Buddha Birthday event we are organizing for late May.

6:30 PM at the Sangha

Open House and Pot Luck
• Come and chat, share a dish, dessert or drink and enjoy some interesting food.
• This is informal, you may show up during the Open House, even if you didn’t choose to attend the earlier events.
• Please RSVP soon for the Pot Luck just so we know how much space to prepare. RSVP to mindfulheart@gmail.com

Hope you can make it!

Four days ago Bhante G was walking and began experiencing major heart pain.   He went to John Hopkins where he had triple bi-pass surgery and is currently doing well.   He is 87 years old.  He has been a meditator for 77 years and a vegetarian but still the body does what the body does.

metta

We have invited Ananda Baltrunas to our Sangha Day-which is this Sunday at 6:00 pm.   Our sangha first met him when he wrote to us from Branchville Correctional facility in Tell City, Indiana.   He asked for help in creating a sangha at Branchville.   Our sangha under the guidance of Lee Buchtman responded to that request for seven years.   Lee will be present this Sunday also.

Ananda became a Theravada monk in 1971 and was ordained at Branchville in the Vietnamese tradition of Truc Lam in 1997.   Since then he has been ordained in the Jodo, Soto and Tandai traditions.   He is married and lives in Chicago.
We will have drinks and cookies following the sitting and the talk/discussion.   We will be finished by 8:00 pm.