BuddhaFest (June 19-22, 2014)

Ashley Wells and CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; BuddhaFest.org via Tricycle.com

BuddhaFest 2014: A Festival for Heart and Mind. The fest is inspired by the principles of mindfulness and compassion and features four days of films, talks, Buddhist meditation, and music at the Spectrum Theatre at Artisphere in the Rosslyn area of Arlington, VA, just outside of Washington, D.C. (See complete BuddhaFest Schedule)

Opening Night Film: "Blood Brother," Sundance Grand Jury and Audience Award winner!

"Good Morning America" (GMA/ABC) panicky Weekend Anchor Dan Harris will speak on opening night about the spiritual odyssey that led him to Buddhist principles and mindfulness.

Sign up for updates, and events (buddhafest.org/sign-up-for-updates/)

Tibetan and Theravada Buddhism (On Being)

Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly; Krista Tippett (OnBeing.org, Oct. 31, 2013), Robert Thurman (tibethouse.us), Sharon Salzberg (IMS, InsightLA.org)

The horrific suffering of a deep spa treatment at Mahasukha ("Great Pleasure") at Menla: deep relaxation, Tibetan bell meditation, and *gasp* massage! (tibethouse.us)

  

Krista Tippett (princeton.edu)

On "On Being" this week, congenial host Krista Tippett talks with Sharon Salzberg and Robert Thurman on "Embracing Our Enemies and Our Suffering." These two legendary American teachers shine a Buddhist light on a classic Christian teaching: love of enemies. Thurman and Salzberg are working together on how we relate to that which makes us feel embattled from without as well, and more importantly, from within. [Why is within more important? What we express is what is inside of us. So when we change our mind, our body and speech follow.]
 

Embracing our enemies?

Sharon Salzberg (Dharma.org)

Sharon Salzberg is a Theravada Buddhist meditation teacher and the cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts. She is the co-author, with Robert Thurman, of Love Your Enemies. [Who are our "real" enemies? Surely not people and fellow living beings. Rather, if we look underneath the surface to the root of things, the radical (from the Latin, radix, "root") understanding is that it is defilements of the heart/mind like greed, hatred/fear, and delusion that are our real enemies.] Salzberg's other books include Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation, and the forthcoming Real Happiness at Work: Meditations for Accomplishment, Achievement, and Peace.

Salzberg, a pioneering Buddhist teacher of meditation in the US, answers On Being's in-house "wannabe" mindfulness practitioner's questions: techniques and focus, the balance of new technologies with human connection.
 

Robert Thurman (TibetHouse.us)

Robert Thurman, a close personal friend and supporter of the 14th Dalai Lama, is professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University. He is also the president of Tibet House US. [But his most celebrated accomplishment may be his co-creation of actress Uma Thurman.] He is the co-author of Love Your Enemies. His other books include Infinite Life: Awakening to Bliss Within, and Inner Revolution. More  LISTEN:

• AUDIO: this show/podcast (learn)

• Every Journey is a Pilgrimage (Bob Thurman)
• VIDEO: Lovingkindness (Metta) Meditation with Sylvia Boorstein The Buddhist author -- co-teacher and long time friend of Sharon Salzberg, Jack Kornfield, and Joseph Goldstein -- once offered to lead a meditation for 350 folks during a live "On Being" event. The result? It was a magical experience! Try it.
  
• Beyond "Chinatown," 100 years of the L.A. Aqueduct
• LAX shooting to be used as pretext to beef up TSA "security"

KPCC FM, Pasadena (scpr.org) presents comedian David Sedaris

Insight Meditation Society (East Coast)

Seven, Wisdom Quarterly, Insight Meditation Society (Dharma.org); BCBSdharma.org

Insight Meditation Society (IMS) is a Buddhist meditation center (open to all people of all traditions).

 

On Valentines Day in 1976 a small group of young Buddhist meditation teachers (including Joseph Goldstein, Jack Kornfield (West Coast), and Sharon Salzberg, all friends back from Asia) and dedicated staff opened a retreat center outside of Boston.

They found an ideal place in an old, stately mansion in idyllic Barre, Massachusetts. Armed with few resources and imperfect operational knowledge, but passionate about the Buddha’s teachings, they set about creating an environment where the Dharma could flourish and take root in the West. 

Teachers at IMS like Myoshin Kelly, Sharon Salzberg, and Leigh Brasington (Dharma.org)

 

And so began IMS, now a large and successful short-term Retreat Center with a Forest Refuge center for instensives.

Over its history, IMS has become a spiritual home to thousands of practitioners. It is now regarded as one of the Western world’s most respected centers for learning and deepening meditation practice.

 

The organization operates two meditation retreat facilities and also promotes a growing school, the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies. Two are set on about 200 secluded acres in the quiet woods of central Massachusetts, and the third is right next door. More