DDMBA Ontario August 2010 Dharma Teacher’s Visit

In case you are interested:

DDMBA Ontario August 2010 Dharma Teacher’s Visit


DDMBA Ontario is pleased to announce that, from Tuesday August 3 to Sunday August 15, 2010, Venerable Chan Teacher Chang Yan will be in Toronto to oversee a series of talks and other activities related to Chan Buddhism.

Venerable Chang Yan brings with her an extensive background in teaching Buddhism and Chan practice, and specializes in relating Dharma and Sutra-related talks in an approachable, down-to-earth style that is suited for a wide audience of listeners.

Scheduled events will include the following:

Welcome Potluck Dinner for Venerable Chang Yen
When: Tuesday August 3, 6pm-8:30pm
Where: 154 Poyntz Avenue
Participants are welcome to bring their own vegetarian dish or food

Summer Wisdom Talk: “A Question for Life: Why Am I Here? How Did I Get Here?”
When: Saturday, August 7, 2 pm – 4 pm
Where: Community Room 3, North York Civic Centre, 5100 Yonge Street
Languages Used: Bilingual, in English and Mandarin


Introduction to Vimalakirti Sutra (*in Mandarin only)
When: Sunday, August 8, 10 am – 12 pm, 1:30pm – 5:30pm
Where: Council Chamber, North York Civic Centre, 5100 Yonge Street
Languages Used: in Mandarin only

Dharma Talk: “The Meaning and Practice of Great Compassionate Repentance”
When: Sunday, August 15, 10 am – 12 pm (followed by lunch and Great Compassionate Repentance Ceremony (1:30 pm – 3:30 pm)
Where: 154 Poyntz Avenue
Languages Used: Bilingual, in English and Mandarin

In addition to leading the above talks, Venerable Chang Yan will also be participating in the following Meditation Sitting and Sharing events:

• Wednesday Evening Guided Meditation and Sharing, August 4, 7-9pm (an opportunity to practice sitting and walking meditation, plus sharing of Dharma alongside Venerable Chang Yan)
• Wednesday Evening Guided Meditation and Sharing, August 11, 7-9pm
• Chan One Day Meditation Retreat: Saturday , August 14, 9:30 am – 4:30 pm (*registration required; to register, please send email to meditation.dharmadrum@gmail.com)

Please note that all the above events are free of charge, and prior registration is not required.

For more information on these and other events to deepen the practice and understanding of Chan, be sure to visit our website at www.ddmba-ontario.ca.


About the Teacher:
Venerable Chang Yan studied and practiced Dharma for 30 years under Venerable Master Sheng Yen. Possessing a strong academic background in Buddhist studies and teachings, Venerable Chang Yan has served as a Dharma instructor for several Buddhist colleges and now teaches at Dharma Drum Sangha University.

We hope to see you soon!

With Joined Palms

DDMBA Ontario

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Scotiabank Nuit Blanche October 2 2010

In case you are interested:

Toronto's annual sunset to sunrise celebration of contemporary art returns on October 2, 2010 to mark a five-year milestone.

Discover art in galleries, museums and unexpected places. From building façades and city parks to alleyways and heritage buildings, choose from more than 130 destinations and chart your own path. This year's event will also present a series of special events celebrating the fifth anniversary and extending Scotiabank Nuit Blanche beyond one night.

Full details are available at www.scotiabanknuitblanche.ca.

Follow @sbnuitblancheTO on Twitter, or visit www.facebook.com/sbnuitblancheTO for behind the scenes information and updates as the event draws near.

Scotiabank Nuit Blanche is a signature event produced by the City of Toronto in collaboration with Toronto's arts community.

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City-produced exhibition highlights
The City-produced exhibition projects will be positioned directly on the Yonge-University TTC subway line. Yonge Street will be entirely closed to car traffic between Bloor Street and Front Street, giving pedestrians safe and easy access to the exhibitions.

Curator Gerald McMasters exhibition entitled "The Good Night" features 10 projects in and around Yorkville, from Yonge Street to St. George. Highlights include the Lower Bay Station, which will become an interactive landscape of light in Daan Roosegaarde's installation "Interactive Landscape Dune", while the Village of Yorkville Park will feature a billion-year-old chunk of the Canadian Shield transformed into the pulsing heart of Mother Earth by Kent Monkman's alter-ego Miss Chief Eagle Testikle in "Iskootāo".

Anthony Kiendl will curate seven projects along the west side of Yonge Street from Dundas Street to Queen Street West in Sound and Vision. Nathan Phillips Square will be transformed into a sensory oasis as Daniel Lanois prepares, produces and performs the soundtrack to a multi-channel, multi-screen media experience in "Later That Night at the Drive-In". Atop the new Podium Green Roof at City Hall, Dan Graham's "Performance Café with Perforated Sides" will feature one of the artist's world-renowned reflective pavilions, beckoning as a space for human interaction on a grand or intimate scale.

Sarah Robayo Sheridan's exhibition entitled "The Night of Future Past" will be located on the east side of Yonge from Carlton Street south to Queen Street. She will curate eight projects, including Ryan Ganders "Just Because You Can Feel It, Doesnt Mean It's There", which will set Yonge-Dundas Square ablaze in a social sculpture of ambiguous designation but of unmistakable scale and presence. In "Reunion" on the Ryerson Theatre Stage, the historic artistic convergence of the same name that occurred in 1968 will be celebrated and remounted by local and international performers influenced by the twin legacies of Marcel Duchamp and John Cage.

Christof Migone will curate 15 projects in the Financial District, straddling Yonge Street from Queen Street to Front Street. "Should I Stay or Should I Go" will feature Max Streicher's "Endgame (Coulrophobia)", which will either delight or frighten audiences who discover the giant inflatable clown heads wedged between two buildings in a back alley.

At Commerce Court, Davide Balula's performance entitled "The Endless Pace" will feature 60 dancers mimicking the passage of time in a clock formed from human movement. Kim Adams' "Auto Lamp" will become a beacon of light for night owls; a sculptural lighthouse on land at the corner of Yonge and Queen. At Brookfield Place, Martin Arnold and Micah Lexier have collaborated to present "Erik Saties Vexations" - two pianos playing a score simultaneously 840 times over 12 hours - the first time this difficult score has been played in such a way and in such short a time.

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Community-produced independent project highlights
The community-produced portion of Scotiabank Nuit Blanche will feature new or existing installations created by cultural and educational institutions, neighbourhoods and individual artists that extend the boundaries of the event city-wide and showcase the diversity of Toronto's arts community. Casa Loma, CN Tower, the Bata Shoe Museum, Ryerson University, TIFF and many more organizations are hosting important projects in their unique venues. Entire neighbourhoods like Parkdale, Liberty Village, Queen West, the Distillery District and the area in and around Trinity Bellwoods Park will feature multiple installations by local artists.

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Laughter Yoga

Another interesting therapy...

How to improve your health by simply laughing.

Curing cancer???

http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLDqMpeGYj8

Superbrain Yoga

Very interesting...

How to improve your brain function by doing a simple 3 minutes exercise each day.

Preventing Alzheimer disease???

http://www.homeopathyplus.com.au/superbrain.html

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The Forestry

The Filing Cabinet.
















The entrance.















The outside - it used to be a king's palace.


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Huge Community Garage Sale on July 31, 10 for Brampton Buddhist Mission Center

In case you are interested:




For more information: please contact 905-454-6649.

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The Beautiful Backyard

The other day, Betty and I went to visit Judy and had lunch at her house. Below are the pictures of her marvelous garden, which she spent most of her time.

It is breath-taking...



































































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An Arab student's e-mail to his dad

Sharing the following email with you:


An Arab student sends an e-mail to his dad, saying:

Dear Dad

Berlin is wonderful, people are nice and I really like it here, but Dad, I am a bit ashamed to arrive at my college with my pure-gold Ferrari 599GTB when all my teachers and many fellow students travel by train.

Your son
Nasser

The next day, Nasser gets a reply to his e-mail from his dad:

My dear loving son,

Twenty millions US Dollar has just been transferred to your account. Please stop embarrassing us.

Go and get yourself a train, too.

Love
your Dad

Drinking water at the correct time

Sharing the following email with you:

Pretty Interesting!!!! It's good to know Drinking water at the correct time maximizes its effectiveness on the Human body: 2 glasses of water after waking up - helps activate internal organs 1 glass of water 30 minutes before a meal - helps digestion 1 glass of water before taking a bath - helps lower blood pressure 1 glass of water before going to bed - avoids stroke or heart attack Please pass this to the people you care about....... I JUST DID!!!!! --

The Sugar Factory

The sugar canes outside the plant.

















The inside of the plant.
















Everywhere is white and sweet.
















The refined sugar in packages.

Living Chan retreat

Dear All:

Betty , Alice and I just came back from a 5-days retreat held by Dharma Drum Mountain Buddhist Association (DDMBA) of Ontario. The first 2 days of the retreat was for "Living Chan" and the last 3 days, "Silent Illumination".

Meili of DDMBA wrote:

"Forwarded below is the event that I am part of in organizing. I wonder if you would like to suggest it to your friends especially the two day Living Chan retreat over the weekend July 9-11. This is a new program GuoXing fashi introduced when he visited Toronto in April.

I attended that one day living Chan retreat in April. It was soooo good. This new workshop type of retreat works very well to those fine minds. GuoXing fashi had used various ways / exercises to help us be aware how minds function…and thus get more insight of ourselves and others. Although it requires meditation experiences, this workshop is of more teachings / module exercises, and much less on the sitting meditation."

Personally I would highly recommend the Living Chan retreat to everyone, specially my family and friends. And I would like to take this opportunity to thank GuoXing Fashi and everyone in DDMBA for organizing the retreat. I urge DDMBA to hold this kind of retreat soon in the near future so that more of us can benefit from it. I do not mind to help out in organizing or sponsoring the retreat.

In the retreat, Fashi helped us to distinguish between phenomenon and reality, to understand how our behaviors are conditioned by our memory and perception, to comprehend the interrelations among body, sensation, mind and Dharma. I specially like the example that Fashi demonstrated: "we are constantly in the state of power struggle- Who is bossing around whom? The phenomena of "I". "

Without a clear understanding of "How the mind works", or putting it deeper, how the Dependent Originality (Causes and Effects) works, all the talks on giving life or our world a solution are illusionary.

For those of us who are serious about finding out "What LIFE is all about?", I urge you to attend this seminar/retreat. Without the common (right) background, all the empty talks and actions will lead us to no where. As a Buddhist, most of us can recite the "Eightfold Right Path, the 12 Links of Dependent Originality, the Five Aggregates", but how many of us are really walking/working on them? How many of us realize their true meaning? How many of us bother to practice truthfully?

If you are looking for some insights on how to resolve the mind-body problems, the answer does not lie in words or arguments, you have to practice, experience and realize it with a humble mind...

May we all keep on practicing, keep on accumulating wholesome roots, merits and virtues; without them our resources are thin...

Be Mindful,
Lung Zhi

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Condolences to the Wong Family.

Dear Friends:


Condolences to the Wong Family.

One of our Dharma brothers, Raymond has passed away on Monday July 12 in Toronto.

I get acquainted with Raymond in the last month of his life. Scarlette wanted me to brief and prepare Raymond on what to do when this physical body of his no longer functions and how to move on. I had three short encounters with Raymond and Yvonne, his lovely wife. I was deeply touched by the immense affection and love they had for each other. In this age and era it is not easy to find true love, I am grateful that they gave me the opportunity to encounter one.

I asked Raymond if he had anything to regret or worry, he answered that he had no regrets in his life and the only thing he could not let go was to leave Yvonne behind. I replied to him that even though his physical body might pass away, his spirit and contributions would still remain in this world, and they live in the hearts of people that he touched, and I , for one.

Raymond and Yvonne took refuge in the Triple Gems on June 26 under Da Huayen Monastery. Their Dharma names are 能睿 & 能瑞 respectively. We welcome them to join the Huayen Family whole -heartedly and wish that we can be non-regressive Dharma companions on the Bodhi Path, in the many lives ahead.

Tammy and Scarlette will be arranging a Sutra recitation for Raymond on this Saturday, July 17, tentatively 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm at Glen Oak Cemetery, if you would like to join us, kindly contact Scarlette or Tammy so the we can arrange enough Sutras.

Sorry that I cannot send this notice out earlier as I was away on a retreat and just came back yesterday.

Feel free to contact Tammy, Scarlette or myself for further details on the Sutra recitation. We will arrange few more recitations for Raymond in the next few weeks to come.


May Raymond be reborn in a realm through of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. May Yvonne take good care of herself and benefit tremendously from the Buddha teachings.


With Metta
Lung Zhi

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What was on my mind?

Yesterday, while I was watching TV, the screen displayed that there was an incoming call from the 905 area. It was a phone number that I was not familiar with.

When I went to pick up the phone, the phone set displayed it was Erin calling me. While I answered the phone my mind was very puzzle that how come the two call displays did not harmorize.

I answered: "Hello" and the other person asked "Are you okay?"

I was not sure it was Erin. I was so confused by then. "Do you know who am I?", she asked. "You are Erin, right?" "Yes, but how come you sound so different?" she said.

At that moment, I became certain it was Erin on the other side of the phone, so I was back to normal and carried on the conversation with her in my normal self.

The point of my story is that we are so much affected by our surrounding without our being aware of it. I talk to different persons in different tones. And the tone of my voice do send different messages out. I found the incident rather amusing...

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Canada Day

Yesterday was Canada Day. My two boys brought me to see the 3D movie "Toy Story 3". It was a very moving movie and I was crying endlessly. I was not prepared for the tears so I had no Kleenex with me. My face was a mess when I came out of the theater.

Then my kids brought me to see fireworks. Fifteen to twenty years ago, I used to bring them to see firework, now they brought me instead. How time flies. I was so happy and enjoyed the firework very much. The show itself does not matter much to me. It was the spending of quality time with my boys that made the incident spectacular.

I received an text message from Jorai wishing me "Happy Canada Day". It was very thought of him. Thanks you, Jorai.

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DDMBA Ontario July 2010 2/3/5 Day Retreat

Thoughts for Sharing: DDMBA Ontario July 2010 2/3/5 Day Retreat:
"DDMBA Ontario July 2010 2/3/5 Day Retreat"

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