Animal Blessing with Venerable Dondrub

Saturday 11 May 2013  10:30 am - 2:00 pm

at the Two Wells property of students Liz & Rudi Venerable will bless the resident sheep, goats and dogs.  Please bring your animals, as long as they are socialised. There are kennels where visiting dogs can rest while we share vegatarian lunch.

Film Event: When the Iron Bird Flies

Saturday 6th July 2013  7:15pm

Buddha House will celebrate the Dalai Lama's birthday with a screening of the new documentary from Victress Hitchcock "When The Iron Bird Flies - Tibetan Buddhism Arrives in The West". This inspirational documentary includes some wonderful old footage of Lama Yeshe, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and the early days of Kopan Monastery.

Buddha House will participate in the Australian screening tour of ‘When the Iron Bird Flies’, a film Inspired by the intriguing prediction of the 8th century sage, Padmasambhava.

'When the iron bird flies and horses run on wheels, the Tibetan people will be scattered like ants across the face of the earth.'

 I invite you to be a part of this timely exploration of how Tibetan Buddhism has spread from the seclusion and isolation of Tibet to reach out and enrich the lives of many in the West.

Easter Meditation Retreat

at

De-Tong Ling Retreat Centre                        

Kangaroo Island             

Friday 29th March- Monday 1st April 2013          

with

Venerable Thubten Dondrub                               

Resident Teacher at Buddha House

De-Tong Ling retreat centre and Buddha House are pleased to announce the inaugural meditation retreat to be held at the Enlightenment Stupa at De-Tong Ling retreat centre on Kangaroo Island.

Costs include: return travel by car & boat from Adelaide, fully catered meals.

Four Star twin share: $430 (Maximum 6). Dormitory style: $360(Maximum 10). Tent: $320 (Unlimited).

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Rejoice! Resident Teacher Ven. Thubten Dondrub!

Exciting news Buddha House will welcome Venerable Thubten Dondrub to Adelaide to be our resident teacher in 2013.

Venerable Dondrub is an Adelaide born, well qualified and popular teacher in the FPMT. He obtained his gelong ordination from our Spiritul Director Lama Zopa Rinpoche in 1979. Buddha House students may know him as the leader of Lam Rim retreats at De-Tong Ling on Kangaroo Island, or from the month long November course at Kopan. Currently Ven Dondrub is a resident teacher at our sister centre Hayagriva in Perth.

link to FPMT profile
http://www.fpmt.org/teachers/resident/473-dondrub.html

Sequel to the Dalai Lama’s bestselling book, Ethics for the New Millennium.

Beyond Religion is an essential statement from the Dalai Lama — a blueprint for all those who yearn for a life of spiritual fulfillment as they work for a better world. Beyond Religion will be the topic of His Holiness's talk during his visit to Adelaide, June 20-21, 2013. This book is considered to be a sequel to the Dalai Lama’s bestselling book, Ethics for the New Millennium

We now have copies available for purchase in the Bookshop! Suggested Retail Price: $32.95 

Prayer Wheel for the Stupa at De Tong Ling

Our sister FPMT centre De-Tong Ling is in the process of finishing the Stupa at the western end of Kangaroo Island. As part of the next phase they have an appeal in progress which offers the opportunity to purchase one of the 35 Prayer Wheels to be installed in the Stupa.The beautiful wheels are made by skilled craftsmen in Kathmandu Valley of copper with brass lettering in Tibetan script, and filled with thousands of Mani mantras. Buddha House has donated $300 to purchase one of these prayer wheels.

Sangha Support

Sangha Support volunteer Judy Wagner in the new Dulwich Avenue flat that Buddha House now leases for accommodating our visiting teachers. Judy, and her husband Peter have enthusiastically taken on the responsiblity of providing for the needs of our visiting Sangha and lay teachers.

In addition to providing airport pickup, local transportation and meals for visiting teachers, Judy and Peter are also maintaining the flat. All furnishings for the flat were acquired by donations from Buddha House members. 

The new flat has served as accommodation for our two most recent teachers: Thubten Yeshe and Venerable Tenzin Chodron.

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Special Fundraising Raffle

Past Buddha House teacher Venerable Namgyel has been supporting the FPMT centre, Ganden Yiga Chozin Buddhist Meditation Centre, financially for some years. Buddha House would like to support Namgyel’s efforts through a donation. Our goal is to raise $600.

  Venerable Namgyel and his teacher Choeding Rinpoche  

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More than 500 people (and several dozen other sentient beings) visited Buddha House during our hosting of The Maitreya Project's "Heart Relic Tour". The majority of our guests were first time visitors to Buddha House. Both Buddhists (with significant numbers of attendees from Mongolian, Tibetan, Vietnamese and Chinese Buddhist communities) along with non-Buddhists were well represented, providing for a truly multicultural/multi-faith event.

Friday night's opening ceremony was hosted by Buddha House Director Cathy Davis and Spiritual Porgram Coordinator Lyndy Abram. They introduced Geshe Jampa Gyaltsen from The Tibetan Buddhist Institute, who then offered the opening  blessings. Geshe Gyaltsen was accompanied by TBI Director Chris Ridley. Next, Christian celebrant Christine Byrnes read a passage from the Bible, and spoke about universal peace, compassion and harmony. Finally, the Heart Relic custodians Andy Melnic and Venerable Siliana presented information about the provenance of the relics and offered Lama Zopa's message of universal peace, the primary dedication of the tour.

Hosting the Heart Relics created a wonderful atmosphere of peace, harmony, compassion and kindness in the gompa.  Our youngest visitor was a 17 day old girl, and our most unusual visitor was a silver ferret.

Many visitors spent time writing sections of the Sanghata Sutra, circumambulating the relics, and then received blessings. Thanks to the tireless efforts of so many dedicated volunteers, the entire tour ran very smoothly. Special thanks to Jane Horton and Fiona Rice who undertook the task of coordinating the volunteer roster.

Buddha House Centre for Advanced Buddhist Studies, in Adelaide, was privileged to host Venerable Lobsang Namgyel in late 2011. He taught Discovering Buddhism modules Death and Rebirth and Transforming Problems, led Medicine Buddha and Vajrasattva practices, and ran an introductory class in Reiki. Many students found his style engaging and inspiring, and the centre atmosphere was enthused.

Venerable Namgyel reinvigorated students, and several are maintaining correspondence with him.

The accompanying photo was taken at his last class at Buddha House.

Photo by Lisa McGlade