The Matho Museum Project is trying to preserve an ancient Buddhist monastery in Northern India, creating a museum to house and preserve its collection of devotional art.
Located in Ladakh, near the Tibetan border, the monastery was founded in 1410 and has been used by Sakya monks ever since. The harsh mountain climate, though, has damaged the building and much of its art and historical artifacts. Read More
Phayul reports that Phagmo Dhondup, who self-immolated in Eastern Tibet on February 24, has died in hospital from his burns.
At least 115 Tibetans have self-immolated in protest of Chinese occupation since 2009. Click here to see all of Buddhadharma News‘ coverage of the protests.
Registration is now open for “Over the Rainbow,” a one-day seminar on the LGBT community and Shin Buddhism at the Jodo Shinshu Center in Berkeley. The program “offers a community that values inclusiveness and acceptance in seeking enlightenment through Shin Buddhist teachings,” and features features guest speakers on Buddhist and Jodo Shinshu doctrine relevant to the topic, panel presentations, discussion, and sharing of community resources.
A full schedule and registration form are available here.
Sweeping Zen reports that Zen Master Wu Bong (Jacob Perl), the head teacher of the Kwan Um School of Zen in Europe, died of a heart attack in Paris on Wednesday. He was 62.
Wu Bong was Seung Sahn’s first American student, receving inka from him in 1984 and dharma transmission in 1993. Previously, he also practiced with Shunryu Suzuki Roshi and Tarthang Tulku. Wu Bong had been teaching in Europe since 1984. Sweeping Zen has more.
Judy Lief, editor of the Profound Treasury of the Ocean of Dharma, will be leading a retreat called “Stages of the Path: A Map to Guide Practitioners from Confusion to Awakening” at Zen Mountain Monastery in Mt. Tremper, New York, from July 3 to 7.
While the spiritual path is intensely personal, the Buddha himself taught that there are discernible stages along the road to enlightenment. Awareness of these stages can help us deepen our understanding of practice and more skillfully apply the teachings in our daily life. Read More
The Trace Foundation, which supports the continuity, development, and vitality of Tibetan communities, presents this talk on Madhyamaka, or Middle Way Philosophy, on April 25 in New York City. Professor Khangkar Tsultrim Kelsang is visiting 
from Kyoto to discuss the different views of the philosophy as presented in Tsongkhapa’s fifteenth-century classic The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment (Lam rim chen mo) and in twentieth-century scholar Gendun Chopel’s Adornment for Nagarjuna’s Thought (Klu sgrub dgongs rgyan). Read More
Reports are just coming in that a 20-year-old woman set herself alight and died in Zamthang county, in the Ngaba region of Northeastern Tibet, Tuesday afternoon. Chuktso (also identified as Jugtso) self-immolated near Zamthang Monastery around 3 p.m. and died at the scene. Chuktso leaves behind a husband and a 3-year-old child. Read More
InsightLA is up for consideration in the MY LA2050 Challenge, sponsored by the Goldhirsh Foundation. The 10 winners of the challenge will receive a $100,000 grant to continue their work — in the case of InsightLA, that’s “sharing the peace, joy and freedom of mindfulness with people from all walks of life.” InsightLA’s goal, founder Trudy Goodman explains, is to catalyze a mindfulness movement in the city by 2050, working with people in all fields to provide “the tools, teachings, and network of teachers to help more people learn how to install healthy behaviors that benefit ourselves, our families, our institutions, and our city.”
Voting is easy and open to everyone, but there’s only one day left to do it. Read More
“A Good Death,” a new New York Times piece written by photographer/writer Joshua Bright, recounts the passing of John R. Hawkins, as “ushered from this life by a good friend, Robert Chodo Campbell, whom [Hawkins] had known for 23 years and who is a Zen priest and co-founder” of New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care.
“I had never looked closely for a long period at a dying person,” Bright writes, later adding, “It was when I put the camera down and became present that I could feel my fears melting away.” Click here to read this short but lovely piece and be sure to visit our friends at NYZCCC online here for more.
The International Women’s Partnership for Peace and Justice is accepting applications for its Buddhist Education for Social Transformation (BEST) program. BEST is an innovative yearlong course focused on transformation of individuals, communities, the environment, and the world. The program is open to anyone seeking a Buddhist perspective in his or her approach to personal development, social justice, and social change work. Applications are due by May 1. Read More There’s less than a week left to help support the birthing of On Meditation, a beautiful documentary-in-progress on, well, meditation. “Our goal is simple,” write the filmmakers, “and ambitious: to demystify meditation and make it more accessible to a mainstream audience.” The film follows five principals, so far: Congressman Tim Ryan, actor Giancarlo Esposito, Buddhist monk the Venerable Metteyya, yoga superstar Elena Brower, and acclaimed author Peter Matthiessen (with more to be added). Watch the film’s trailer, above, and if you’re so moved, help kickstart the film into existence by contributing online at the “On Meditation” Kickstarter page.
In the latest installment of “From the Editor’s Desk,” Review Editor Michael Sheehy looks at new books on understandings of tantric Buddhism, a new look at the Linjilu, and the confessions of a wayward Zen monk.
The Buddhist Channel reports that the largest Buddhist temple in Europe recently opened in Italy. The Hua Yi Si Temple, designed in the style of a Chinese pagoda, is located just outside Rome. Thousands of members of Rome’s Chinese community, along with Tibetan monks and Rome’s mayor, Gianni Alemanno, were present at the temple’s inauguration on March 31. Read more at the Buddhist Channel.
