|
|
|
Dharma Event Announcement
Life, Liberty, the Pursuit of Happiness, and Justice:
A Buddhist Perspective
Public Talk and Weekend Teachings with Professor Jan Willis
Friday, April 8 from 7 to 9pm
Saturday & Sunday, April 9-10 from 10am to 5pm
at Tibet House
"Every individual has a responsibility to help guide our global family in the right direction. Good wishes are not sufficient; we must become actively engaged." - His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama
Public Talk:
Friday, April 8 from 7 to 9pm
Today's media stories reflect major divisions of race, class, faith, and gender in the United States. Amid concerns about institutionalized racism, the gap between the rich and poor, religious intolerance, and gender inequality, people are angry and confused.
Around 2500 years ago, the Buddha was considered a social revolutionary, questioning the rigid caste system that fixed people's roles in society. Could the Buddha's message offer any solutions today with respect to social injustice? How does individual spiritual development contribute to society and the greater good? How is it possible to cultivate love and compassion in reaction to hatred and anger?
Professor Jan Willis shares her perspectives while recounting her own journey. Growing up in segregated Alabama, she endured a burning cross on her family's lawn and police dogs during the Birmingham Campaign led by Martin Luther King Jr.
She considered joining the Black Panthers but instead chose a Buddhist path, where she met Lama Thubten Yeshe and followed the way of meditation, unconditional love, and higher education, eventually becoming a scholar of Indic and Buddhist studies.
Professor Willis will share with us how Buddhism impacted her views about herself, social justice, and the role of personal healing in an angry and unjust society.
Weekend Teachings: Being a Bodhisattva in the Modern World
Saturday & Sunday, April 9-10 from 10am to 5pm
In these weekend teachings, Professor Jan Willis will discuss how to apply the traditional Buddhist teachings on bodhichitta to life in our modern world. What does it mean to be a bodhisattva today? How can we live this ideal in our daily lives? How can we contribute to a better world while growing our compassion and wisdom?
She will especially focus on Shantideva's Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life. How can we recognize and transform our biases to enact the principle regularly taught by His Holiness the Dalai Lama -- that all beings are exactly the same in that they don't want to suffer and all want happiness? What does it mean to exchange oneself with others?
Professor Willis teaches in a lively way. Her teachings will also include discussions and meditations. They are open to all levels of practitioners, from people new to Buddhism to experienced students.
If you have a personal copy of Shantideva's text, please bring it along.
Dates and Times:
Friday, April 8
7-9pm Public Talk
Saturday & Sunday, April 9-10
10am-12:30pm Morning Teachings with Tea Break
12:30pm-2pm Lunch Break
2pm-5pm Afternoon Teachings and Q&A with Tea Break
Location:
Tibet House, 22 West 15th St. New York, NY 10011
Suggested Donation:
Weekend Teachings and Public Talk: $120, which includes light refreshments, lunch, and materials.
Friday Public Talk only: $20
Weekend Teachings only: $100, which includes light refreshments, lunch, and materials.
Public Talk: $18, Weekend Teachings: $90, Weekend Teachings and Public Talk: $108
Donations may be made online or at the door.
Registration:
Please register in advance so we can prepare material to distribute.
Online registration will close at 3pm on Friday, April 8. Walk-ins are welcome.
Financial Assistance:
While the Dharma is given freely and no one is turned away for lack of funds, we invite you to inquire about volunteering or other ways you might support our efforts to make these teachings available in New York. As an emerging volunteer organization, Shantideva Meditation Center relies entirely on donations to cover the cost of space rental, transportation, housing, materials, and administration. Thank you for your generosity.
To apply for a scholarship, please complete:
Sponsorships:
If you are inspired to sponsor teacher offerings, the teacher's lunch, flower offerings, guest refreshments, or the teaching space, please
click here. You may indicate in your donation if you would like the funds to be used for a specific purpose.
|
Jan Willis, PhD, is Professor Emerita of Religion at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT. One of the earliest American scholar-practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism, she has studied with Buddhist teachers worldwide for almost five decades and has taught courses on Buddhism for more than forty years. She has written extensively on Buddhist meditation, women and Buddhism, and Buddhism and race. Among her published works are D
reaming Me: Black, Baptist, and Buddhist- One Woman's Spiritual Journey and
Enlightened Beings: Life Stories from the Ganden Oral Tradition. She also edited
Feminine Ground: Essays on Women and Tibet. In December 2000,
Time magazine named Willis one of six "spiritual innovators for the new millennium," and in May 2007,
Ebony magazine named Willis one of its "Power 150" most influential African Americans.
|
|
About Us
Shantideva Meditation Center is dedicated to cultivating wisdom and compassion through the study and practice of Tibetan Buddhism within the New York community.
We are affiliated with the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), which is based on the Gelugpa tradition of Lama Tsongkhapa of Tibet as taught by Founder, Lama Thubten Yeshe, and Spiritual Director, Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
|
|
| |
|
| |
| |
| |
|
| |
|
