[Report] VBCM Losar Gathering held @SDC

the reception of the VBCN Losar Gathering

Yesterday, 26 feb 2012, Sunday, was the first time Vajrayana Buddhist Council of Malaysia ("VBCM") organised a gathering/open house for Losar.   When they requested that it be held at our centre premises, we were delighted and accepted the request without hesitation.

As the current President said that it was done for the purpose of improving the fellowship among the Sangha members and practitioners of the Tibetan Buddhist Community. We were happy and honoured to be able to do our part for the community.

VBCM President Bro Allan Koo giving the welcome speech.

Further, VBCM also took the opportunity to launch their 

"SANGHA WELFARE FUND",

 a fund designed for the purposes of helping any sngha members in needs, e.g. emergency medical treatment, emergency accommodation & lodging...etc.

Many of our members showed support of the event by turning and helping in the general logistic of the event. It was an interesting and fun day as we had the chance to meet different people form different centre and also different tradition/lineages, which otherwise we may not meet. We had opportunity to pray together, eat together, chit chat and even a chance to watch movie together.

The following are some photo taken yesterday:

Sis Tee Siew Seet, the VBCM religious officer, welcoming  the guests

prayer

prayer

light offering

sangha members

making food offering prayer

veg buffet lunch

photo of sangha members and the two presidents,
namely Bro Allan Koo, VBCM; and our president, Bro LS Khor

[Report] Geshe's Lhakdor Visit to SDC

It has been a very auspicious start to the year of the "water Dragon" for us at the centre. We have had many happening at the centre that we could rejoice, one of them being a visit by Geshe Lhakdor to our centre on Monday, 20 Feb 2012.

Many of you would know that Geshe Lhakdor has served as a translator and religious assistant to His Holiness the Dalai Lama and is currently a director of the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives in Dharamsala, India. (for more info on LTAW, pls click HERE). So when we heard that Geshela would be in Malaysia to conduct a Dharma enrichment camp organised by BGF (see our earlier post for more details), we decided that we should invite him to visit our centre. To our great delight, and through the effort of our Past President, Bro Lai SK, Geshela accepted our invitation.

On that Monday, namely 20 Feb 2012, in great anticipation of the visit and Dharma talk by Geshela, many members arrived very early at the centre, to prepare and wait for Geshela's arrival.

members waiting at the hall

Preparing to welcome Geshela at the gate.

Geshela arrived promptly at 8.00pm, before he entered our main hall, he made a light offering at the Namgyal Stupa at our Garden. Once Geshela sat down on his seat, we started our short prayer and made mandala offering to Geshela. (This a traditional ritual we do as a request for the teaching for a short explanation of it meaning => HERE. courtesy of Berzin Archives)

Geshela arriving

Geshela making light offering

Geshela making offering at the main altar

members making mandala offering

members making mandala offering

From the onset, we could see that Geshela was a very humble and friendly. As the talk progressed, it was also obvious that he also has a great sense of humour too. His talk was SIMPLE.

SIMPLE to understand

SIMPLE to implement; and

SIMPLY no excuse for us NOT to put it into practice.

It would do Geshela no justice to recount the full text of his talk, I would just set out my favourite quotes from the talk (sligthly edited and rephrased for the blog). They are as follows:

"What is DHARMA?

Dharma is simply the LAW of NATURE"

"BUSY! BUSY! BUSY!

But you're BUSY with WHAT?"

"We'll die. That's certain.

But we live and prepare our lives as if we'll live forever"

"The core of Buddha's teaching is Wsidom & Method....

...The Training of our Heads & Hearts...."

It was an inspiring teaching, it gave rise in many of our hearts, a sense of regret that we have not put the things we had learned into practice. It gave many of us new impetus to revitalise our daily practices.

After the teaching, some of  the senior members of our centre took the opportunity to catch up with Geshela by looking through the old photographs taken in the 1990's when they first met Geshela.

Catching up with Geshela

Catching up with Geshela

Old photo from our archive (is that Geshe Lhakdor?)

Old photo from our Archive (Audience w HHDL)

Old photo from our Archive (Audience w HHDL)
His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama (on the left)
Our teacher the late H.E. Khensur Jampa Yeshe Rinpoche (right)

Then we took a group photo before proceeding to our garden for a light refreshment.

wow, what to eat?

Geshela chating with Bro Lai SK, and Bro HP Lim

light refreshment

Thank you, Ven Geshe Lhakdor, for your Inspiring teaching!

Group Photo
(many happy people!!!)

[Event] VBCM Losar Gathering at our centre

This year, in conjunction with Losar (the Tibetan new Year), Vajrayana Buddhist Council of Malaysia (VBCM) is organising a gathering for all the sangha members and practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism to get together and share meals, experiences and new ideas.

The community of Tibetan Sangha Malaysia is not as big as the other traditions and it is not easy for people to meet and, much less, a chance to mingle and share experiences. VBCM felt this would be a good opportunity to achieve the goal of developing better fellowship among the Buddhist Community of Tibetan/Vajrayana  tradition.

We, at Sakyamuni Dharma Centre, is honoured to be chosen as the venue by VBCM to host this gathering, we hope everyone would make an effort to attend and support the event. We hope  this event would allow us to share lovely environment we had at our centre with more people.

The programme for the day is tentatively as follows:

     11.30am -12.00 noon      Arrival of guests 

     12.00noon-12.30pm        Prayers 

     12.30pm-2.00pm             Lunch 

       2.00pm-3.00pm            Sharing, Sideshows and speeches 

      3.00pm-5.00pm              Tibetan Movie session

The admission for the vegetarian Buffet for Sangha members are FREE, 
and as for the public, it is by donation (any amount you wish).

The address to our centre is:

Sakyamuni Dharma Centre

no 18, Jalan 18/17,

Taman Kanagapuram,

(off Jalan kelang Lama, batu 6)

46000 Petaling Jaya,

Selangor,

MALAYSIA

(The following is the location map to our centre:)

We would be grateful if all of you could help to share the news with your members, families and friends, especially Sangha members of Tibetan tradition, so we could help to further improve the fellowship among the Vajrayana Buddhist community.

Thank you. 
May you Have a Peaceful & Fulfilling Losar.

LOSAR is here...

Today, 22 Feb 2012, Wed, is  LOSAR  -New Year according to the Tibetan Calendar. 

(click here for more info on Losar)

We'd like to wish all our teachers, all Sangha members, our members, families and friends,

 May you have a calm, peaceful and fulfilling year ahead.

May All Beings be Well & Happy.

We like to send all of you our sincere wish via this beautiful piece of music/chanting by Imee Ooi
(For more info on Imee Oooi, pls click HERE,  thank you imee...)

[Report] Talk on Globalisation of Tibetan Buddhism @SDC

Photo of Mr Dodin during his talk

It was a first time we had the opportunity to organise an event of such nature in our centre, I guess it has either never crossed our mind or there was no such opportunity previously. So when one of more senoir members Bro Lai told us about the visit of a well known Tibetologist, Mr Theirry Dodin, to Malaysia and that he has agreed to share his knowledge with us, we were very apprehensive as we were worried about the response, as it is a scholastic topic and it is not a topic which naturally interest the common members. But nevertheless we went ahead in organising the talk. We also invited members of the Executive Committee of the Vajrayana Buddhist Council of Malaysia (VBCM) to attend. (VBCM is an umbrella body of made up of Vajrayana/Tibetan Buddhist Centres of all lineages in Malaysia web site of VBCM ,facebook page of VBCM )

In fact when the time of the talk approaches, the number of attendance we saw worried us,  then we proceeded with our monhtly Guru Puja (brought forward to 7.00pm to accommodate the talk at 8.00pm). 

By the time, i.e. 8.00pm, Mr Thierry Dodin took to the stage, the number had actually built up to quite a good number (taking into consideration the nature of the topic). Furthemore, several of the EXCO of VBCM had also shown up. It was only then our hearts were at ease.

Like all things in life, things also have the amazing abilities to surprised you. Contrary to our preconceived ideas, the topic of "Globalisation of Tibetan Buddhism" given by Mr Dodin was not boring at all. Mr Dodin was an animated speaker and his depth of knowledge of Tibetan Buddhism was apparent during his talk. What had impressed the audience the most was how impartial and informative the talk was. Mr Dodin also made the talk more interesting by injecting many entertaining and humourous anecdotes.

After about 40 minutes, Mr Dodin concluded his talk and open the floor to question, the portion was even more informative and entertaining. He shared many of his experience during his research with us.

The Captivated Audience

When the talk concluded at 9.30pm, we felt that the 90 minutes seem too short. Many of the audience commented how informative the talk was and how much more they had learned during this short talk.

Different Perspective....?? :) 

Despite all the skepticism we had, we were very glad at the outcome and would certainly look forward to organise talk of such nature.

Thank you, Thierry Dodin, 

for giving such impartial and scholastic insight to Tibetan Buddhism which many of us never had previously.

[NOTICE] of Annual General Meeting 2012

Dear Members, 

Notice Of Annual General Meeting 

 Notice is hereby given that the Annual General Meeting (AGM)  2012 

for 

SAKYAMUNI DHARMA CENTRE

 would be held

on

Sunday 4 March at 1.00pm.

venue

Sakyamuni Dharma Centre, 

No.18, Jalan 18/17,

 Batu 6, 

Jalan Kelang Lama, 

46000 Petaling Jaya, 

Selangor.

 Agenda:

(i) To review and confirm the minutes of meeting of previous AGM held on 27 March 2011;

(ii) To receive the Annual Report for Year 2011;

(iii) To receive the Treasurer Report and the audited accounts for accounting year ending 31 Dec 2011;

(iv) To elect the new office bearers for the year 2012-2013;

(v) To discuss and consider any other matters or business.


Your attendance and participation is utmost important to us and the future of the centre, members are encourage to make every effort to attend the AGM. 

Thank you.

[Event] Visit to SDC by Geshe Lhakdor

Photo of Geshe
(Courtesy  of  sciencefornmonks.org)

Ven Geshe Lhakdor, who has served as an assistant and translator to His Holiness the Dalai Lama would be visiting Malaysia to conduct a Dharma Enrichment Camp organised by Buddhist Gem Fellowship (For more details, pls click HERE )

We are fortunately and honoured that Geshela has accepted our invitation to visit our centre, and Geshela will also give a short Dharma talk during his visit, (being a condensed version of what he had been invited to talk at BGF). Therefore, we would like to invite all of you to join us in meeting, listening and learning from such a learned Buddhist scholar.


Details of his visit are as follows:

Integrating Spiritual Values in Daily Life 

Nagarjuna’s Letter to a Friend.

(Condensed Version)

                 Date         :         Monday, 20 Feb 2012

                 Time         :          8pm - 9pm

                 Venue      :           Sakyamuni Dharma Centre

(Admission is FREE)

Thank you. We look forward to seeing all of you at the centre.

==============

The following is the biography of Geshela (extracted from the website of BGF)

Profile of Venerable Geshe Lhakdor

Geshe Lhakdor has served His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama as his translator and religious assistant since 1989, accompanying him to numerous conferences and forums throughout the world. He has translated many important works from English to Tibetan and from Tibetan to English and offers rare insight into the cultural and philosophical issues surrounding Buddhism coming to the West.

Born in Tiibet in 1956, he holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in English from Punjab University, Chandigarh. He studied Buddhist philosophy at the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics where he received his Master of Prajnaparamita (Perfection of Wisdom), and Master of Madhyamika (Middle Way Philosophy) with distinction in both. In 1989 he also received his Master of Philosophy (M Phil) from the University of Delhi.

He later received his Geshe Degree (Doctor of Divinity), the highest degree of learning in Tibetan Buddhism, from the Drepung Loseling Monastic University in South India. He has translated, co-translated and co-produced several books by His Holiness, including The Way to Freedom, The Joy of Living and Dying in Peace, Awakening the Mind and Lightening the Heart, and Stages of Meditation, among others.

He is a trustee of the Foundation for Universal Responsibility, and the Director of the Central Archive of the Dalai Lama. He is also a member of the Advisory Board of the Institute of Tibetan Classics in Montreal, Canada, and an Honorary Professor at the University of British Columbia, Canada. He currently serves as the Director of the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives in Dharamsala, India.

[Event] "the Globalisation of Tibetan Buddhism" (Talk by Mr Thierry Dodin)

We would like to invite you to a talk

on 

"the Globalisation of Tibetan Buddhism" 

at our centre 

by Mr Thierry Dodin.

Date       : Thursday, 16 Feb 2012 Time: 8pm - 9pm
Venue    : Our Centre
Address  : Sakyamuni Dharma Centre,
                 18 Jalan 18/17, Taman Kanagapuram,
                 Off  6th Mile Old Klang Road,
                 46000 Petaling Jaya,
                 Selangor,
                 Malaysia



Mr Thierry Dodin was a former board member and an executive director of Tibet Information Network. He is the founder and the director of TibetInfoNet and works as an academic researcher at the university of Bonn in Germany.

Mr Dodin is currently visiting Malaysia and he is staying at our centre. He has agreed to give a talk to share his views and experience on the growing popularity of Tibetan Buddhism and its impact.

Mr Dodin also wrote article for the Tibet Sun (see here)

Mr Dodin is also the co-author to the book "Imagining Tibet: Perceptions, Projections, and Fantasies"

A Small Farewell Party for Ven Jampa Tsering

Ven Jampa Tsering has left Malaysia for India today. We are sad to see him leaving so soon and we are most grateful to him for making the trip from India to help us with our Chinese New Year activities. His presence has helped us a great deal in executing the activities.

 

Last night, we held a small farewell party for him at our Stupa Garden of our centre. Some members had cooked various dishes to be shared by everyone; and Ven Jampa Tsering cooked "Momo" (Tibetan Dumpling) for us. It was an relaxing but enjoyable evening.

Thank you so much again, Ven Jampa Tsering!!!