Ven. Suhita Dharma passed away on Dec. 28, 2013. He was a well-known senior Buddhist Bhikkhu.
Bhante was one of the first African Americans to be ordained as a Buddhist monk. He was ordained by the late Ven. Thich Thien An at the International Buddhist Meditation Center (IBMC) in the 1970's. A longtime social justice activist and social worker, Bhante began working with Indo-Chinese refugees entering the U.S. in 1975 and has since worked with homeless persons, people with HIV/AIDS, and ex-offenders. Bhante teaches compassion meditation for everyday life and practice for those who are working with people in different communities, emphasizing a one-to-one approach as well as introducing students to the practice of Kalyanamitta (spiritual friend) and helping those who are within the sea of samsaric suffering. IBMC held a memorial service for Bhante to honor his legacy on January 5, 2014.
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We thank everyone who joined us for our annual New Year's Eve meditation from 9pm to midnight and rang our temple bell to bring in 2014.
We often hear comments like: "He makes me so angry!" "Why did you embarrass me like that in
front of all those people? “His behavior makes me so irritated!" If we look more deeply and clearly into our own emotions in particular situations when we get upset, we might find that the cause of our negative reactions has more to do with ourselves than with the other, "offending" person. I had recently read the above excerpt from the suttas, when sitting in my office at the Buddhist Studies International (BSI) in Iriyawetiya, Sri Lanka, a young monk, Sudanta Hamudru, burst into my office in a high state of agitation. He slammed one fist into the other and, almost in a growl said: "You have got to do something about that noise! How can you expect us to meditate or study with that awful noise going on right next door! You MUST do something!" The noise to which the monk was referring was a householder on the other side of the monastery wall using his metal lathe turning out candlesticks for sale. It was loud, but as he was a householder completely beyond any authority of mine and because his property was so small that relocating the lathe anywhere else thereon would make no difference in the noise level, I had quickly decided there was nothing I should/could do and it was not appropriate for us to ask him to restrict the work by which he supported his family to only daylight hours convenient to us in the BSI office/dormitory building. Just I was about to respond to Sudanta's emotional outburst, another monk walked in. I turned to him and asked: Hyo Chul Hamdru, "What do you think about this noise?" His face broke into a delighted smile and he said: "I love that sound! I gave that man the money to buy that lathe because he had lost his job at a local metal shop and had no way to support his family. Every time I hear that lathe, I feel happy because I know that my contribution to him is helping him be selfsufficient and support his wife and children. I am very happy today!" No sooner than Hyo Chul Hamdru had finished speaking, Mahabodi Hamdru walked in: "Mahabodi Hamdru," I asked, "What do you think about this noise?" His response was a puzzled: "What noise?" Whereupon, Sudanta Hamdru, without another word, quietly walked out and never again spoke to me about the issue. He too knew that sutta excerpt and took its lesson to heart. It would be helpful for your understanding to know that Mahabodi was not deaf, it was just that he spent most of his waking hours in meditation. He had learned through years of practice to block out any extraneous noises not conducive to his meditation – a lucky fellow, because he was able to take that into his daily interactive life, and was, in fact, one of the calmest, almost serene, monks I have ever known. "Mind determines all mental states, mind is their chief, they are all mind wrought." It is we who allow ourselves to become angry or agitated. We can control our minds to go beyond the immediate emotion of someone’s words and actions and see how our responses and emotions are generated by lack of understanding or some related problems or issues in our lives that give rise to our interpreting another’s words or actions in a way that calls up negative response in us. We should be in control of our own minds, this is the benefit, the result of meditation – we learn to understand and control our minds and therefore our emotional responses. Dhammashakti Householder The International Buddhist Meditation Center (IBMC) held its annual celebration of Vesak, or the Buddha's birthday, which is called Hanamatsuri in Japan. The event commemorates the birth, enlightenment, and death of Gautama Buddha. The exact date of Vesak varies according to different Buddhist traditions in different countries.
Some Buddhists will wear white clothes to temple during Vesak. It is also a time when lay Buddhists may take refuge and the five precepts. Three men became lay Buddhist 'upasakas' at Hanamatsuri this year at IBMC. Some temples will also have a small statue of the baby Buddha in front of the altar in a small basin filled with scented water and adorned with flowers. Individuals volunteer to pour water over the statue to honor the Buddha and remind them of their commitment to attaining purity of heart and mind. Legend says that the Buddha was showered by the sacred waters of devas. Rev. Shanti, Rev. Kusala, Rev. Ksanti, and Rev. Sraddha presided over the ceremonies. Below are some pictures from the event on Sunday, April 21, 2013. Samu at the International Buddhist Meditation Center (IBMC) is important because the yards of the houses that comprise the center are quite large and filled with all kinds of flowers, shrubs and trees that require lots of maintenance. We are hoping to be more ecologically responsible by, over time, turning the grass lawns into fields of herbs, especially of rosemary which requires must less water than grass and is surely more useful!
If you have any ideas for the most effective way to utilize herbs in this way and would like to join us in our gardening efforts on the last Saturday of every month, you will surely be welcome! Below are some pictures of our efforts on Saturday, March 30, 2013. Arriving in a convoy of tour buses, around 250 Vietnamese Buddhists from the Southern California area made their annual visit to IBMC in celebration of the Lunar New Year. Ven. Dr. Karuna Dharma, Ven. H. Shanti, and other monastics at IBMC welcomed them. IBMC would like to thank them for visiting and their generous donations in support of IBMC's programs and activities. Ven. H. Shanti became the new abbot of IBMC on Nov. 11, 2012 after many years as vice-abbot. He was given the abbot's staff and a certificate of authority at the going away party for Ven. Dr. Karuna Dharma. Ven. Shanti looks forward to expanding on the work and teachings of Ven. Dr. Karuna in the years to come. He is only the third abbot to lead IBMC since its founding in 1970. |
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