Friends of Urban Dharma: Brian Leahy

I am currently a senior at Davidson College, located north of Charlotte, NC.  An initial interest in and academic attraction to Buddhist Studies eventually led to spending three months in Kathmandu, Nepal, one month in Dharamsala, India, traveling to Central Tibet for a few weeks, and doing academic research on Tibetan Buddhist centers in Malaysia for one month.  I am also a visual artist; I'm majoring in studio art, and my work includes paintings, prints, drawings, and sculpture.  Outside of the classroom, library, and studio, I spent what time I could backpacking and rock climbing, and visiting my hometown of Milwaukee, WI.

When I first considered post-graduation plans, I intended to find a job, any job, and some space to continue my studio art practice.  When the idea of Urban Dharma  started to form, however, I realized that here was an opportunity to do something I consider very meaningful; a chance to develop a community, to deepen my own Buddhist practice, and most importantly, to provide a place in the downtown Asheville that will serve as a spiritual center for other young, intellectually-curious and spiritually-hungry people like myself. It is easy for people my age to become disenchanted with spiritual and religious establishments.  At Urban Dharma, we aim to provide a community center for people like me, with a commitment to genuine relationships and honest intellectual investigation, located in the city, fully engaged in modern life, rather than seeking to retreat to a mountaintop.

Friends of Urban Dharma: Ryan Morra

Ryan may have seemed an unlikely candidate for a study-abroad course in Tibetan Buddhism, as he majored in Biology and went on to teach high school science. Yet, in the summer of 2006 he travelled to Tibet with Dr. Hun Lye and a group of students as the capstone to a semester-long course in Tibetan religion and culture. Through this study and travel, he saw a side of Buddhism that he had never come across in the West, and his eyes were opened to what it means to practice Buddhism. Ryan is a teacher, actor, traveler, mountain biker, road cyclist, hiker, and lover of good food, coffee, and tea. Most important, however, is his love for community and bringing people together; this is why he has jumped on board in helping to develop Urban Dharma. He sees it as a much-needed community space for people to come together in their practice.

Profiles - an update from Laura

Laura sent this out a few days ago to a group of "young'ins" that I am hoping will get involved with Urban Dharma and are willing to have their profiles posted on the promotional website. I'm posting what Laura wrote and using this as another push to get your profiles done and sent to Laura.

Hey guys and gals.  The end of the month is quickly approaching.  I will make some comments on the blog about the one Ryan M. submitted.  This is a pre-blogpost reminder to get to it.  I’ve had to do this kind of thing before and it isn’t easy, but I suggest you just START.  Yes, it’s good to have a catchy start, but don’t let that deter you.  As a suggestion you might begin with answering the question, what does Urban Dharma mean to me?  Then backup into you, why you?  Do you have a specific story about how you got into Buddhism, your practice.  Tell a story.  That’s what is good about Ryan’s.  People like stories about people.  If you are stuck, feel free to email or call me.  This is a work-in-progress which means, we start and then we tweak.  Put that first stroke onto the blank canvas…”Hi.  My name is Laura and I am interested in Buddhism because…and I have a vested interested in this center because…I see the center as…”  Don’t literally do that, but if you need a place to start you can do the narrative approach or the outline approach.

Does that help at all?  You don’t have to tell the whole story about your involvement in Buddhism, but some anecdote or recall of experience can ground it.

Alright.  There’s your push.  Push back.

Laura

Update from Ryan Morra

Oh, by the way, I finally called someone at Two Rings (they never returned my e-mail), and they said they get a lot of questions about using their cityscape photos pro bono, and they don't do that. The cost is $800 to use it on a webpage, banner, or printed material like that.

I am trying to contact someone at the Asheville Chamber of Commerce to see if they have any stock photos new businesses in the area might be able to get access to.

Non Profit Pathways

I noticed this website and if any of you all in Asheville have the time or inclination sitting in on one of the seminars coming up in October might be a good way to be clearer about starting a non-profit as well as beginning to network in the community. If nothing else it could be educational and interesting regarding how local non-profits operate and what their challenges are...

http://www.nonprofitpathways.org/

Proposed Time Line

OCTOBER
1. Begin scouting out potential spaces & putting the word out there that Urban Dharma is looking for space. This process will take a while since it's not quite like looking for an apartment to rent and move in.
2. Complete promotional website. This means completing a) Mission statement (defines the organization's purpose and primary objectives, defines the key measure or measures of the organization’s success, mostly written for the leadership team and "stockholders"), b) Vision statement (communicates both the purpose and values of the organization, gives direction about how we are expected to behave and inspires us to give our best. Shared with "customers," it shapes their understanding of why Urban Dharma is needed, is where they want to be), c) Profiles of Who's Who (who's involved and why and how perhaps the reader see him or herself as part of Urban Dharma, d) Sample of Weekly Program offered, e) How to Get Involved (articulating what kind of financial, professional, help Urban Dharma needs).

NOVEMBER
1. Khenpo Chophel comes to confer Dzambhala Empowerment on Sunday, November 7. Initially I thought Davidson is where he will do this. But I think it is more auspicious if we hold it in Asheville as Urban Dharma is going to be in Asheville. We need a space downtown to do this Empowerment and we need to advertise this program. Dzambhala is the deity of richness and wealth - it's a powerful method to banish the "poverty mind" and uncover the richness of Buddha mind.
2. Khenpo Chophel will give us projects to work on - rolling mantras, making small buddha images - for the future filling of the inside of the main Buddha statue at Urban Dharma. This will take a while to complete but it'll be a good way for community to build over merit-generating tasks.

DECEMBER-JANUARY
Winter is traditionally a "retreat time." So these two months we will focus on deepening Dharma practice. We might hold a couple of semi-public events in Asheville to attract some attention. I have asked someone to research rental spaces downtown (for $25 the first hour, $10 for subsequent, very affordable).

FEBRUARY-MARCH
1. I will be out of the country - in Asia. I will fundraise while there.
2. We host a community event downtown in mid-March announcing in a formal way the arrival of Urban Dharma. This is both a "friends-raising" and "fund-raising" event. We'll have art, music, food.

APRIL
1. Securing space and starting to work on renovating space.
2. Buddha statue arrives. Filling the main Buddha statue.

JUNE
1. Urban Dharma opens its doors!

-be- at WWC

I arrived a bit late tonight for the weekly Buddhist meditation/discussion group -be-, which meets in the basement of Schafer A (?) in the Empower center. Despite the noisy location, the meditation and following conversation were quite engaging. Jon Speer, who is with us in our Urban Dharma endeavor, currently operates as conductor of the group here on campus. I must say that he impressed me tonight. After meditation, we read the Heart Sutra, and chatted about the underpinnings and terminology of the text. Jon delivered an eloquent illustration of the development of Hinayana and Mahayana emphases, e.g. individual enlightenment vs. bodhisattva vows and inseparability of wisdom and compassion. He also made mathematical analogies at times, which get people interested and can help explain Dharma for audiences of a certain ear. I think he will burgeon into a wonderful teacher/leader being involved with Urban Dharma. Come see some Tuesday night.

31 Lexington Avenue

Brianna, Brian and I walked around downtown this past Friday evening looking at spaces - window shopping. We saw a bunch of "For Lease," "For Rent" and "For Sale" signs at various locations, some more attractive than others. One of the places that we drooled over was the space right next to Tops on Lexington. Brianna believes that 31 Lexington used to be one of the storage areas for Tops. For some reason, that is no longer used for that. There is no signs that says the space is available for rent or lease. Brianna have been "deputized" to investigate this space. And this morning, she read about how the space next to it - 37 Lexington - will probably be used by the Lexington Avenue Brewery in the near future. Here's the article on Mountain Xpress.

Supporting the Center until it has an address

Hun has mentioned the importance of promoting involvement through profiles of let's say, "under-middle aged" folks that have interest in the creation of this center. I think this is a good idea. If we had a booth at Greenlife (now Whole Foods), think about who we'd want to get interested--young people have energy and a healthy attachment to the Asheville community. Asheville is known for its entrepreneurship. Whether it's the character of the people who are attracted to it or the lack of readymade jobs, Asheville supports the new, the up-and-coming. Us in the over 50-crowd can contribute and be supportive as well, but I encourage those of the younger crowd to make your interest known. You know who you are. I look forward to follower's comments about the promotional process.

In one way or another, I have been involved in growing businesses since I graduated from college. My Dad was a firm believer in on-the-job training but not so much in grad school, so I took what I could get. Whether it was retail, profit or non-profit, it takes energy and a kind of outreach. Yes, even nonprofits need to promote and "make money" so to say. We have so many electronic resources available to us now to draw people in, but we also have the old-fashioned word-of-mouth system. I see Asheville as a group of regional and cultural "pockets." I am sure many of us are part of a particular pocket or two. Let's brainstorm on how we can articulate to others what we are envisioning. I've had the advantage of being to most of the local Bhuddhist centers, Cloud Cottage, Windhorse, Great Tree, Mountain Mindfullness, Shambala, Annatasatti, Cheri Huber-style Zen, Southern Dharma (more of a non-religious/spiritual retreat center bent on Buddhism somewhat). Let's think about what we can offer that's different from these centers...well, urban pretty much says it. But much, much more than that because it is a different tradition of Buddhism than has been prevalent here. let's keep the envisioning and conversation going.

Not-for-profit light reading

Just got back from a really good weekend in Asheville, meeting, practicing and spending time with some of the folks around those parts. I will post something about that soon, and some clearer breakdowns of the not-for-profit process after I get reading on this document, but I figured I would post it up here in case anyone has some spare time and wants to help out in steering UrbanDharma along the not-for-profit path.

http://www.ncnonprofits.org/faq/HowToStartA501%28c%29%283%29Nonprofit.pdf

Until soon.

Once Again, Community Supported Dharma

One of the most important things for any place that will serve as a "community center" (although I realize we ought not to use that term given the recent attention a certain New York City community center has received), is to have buy-in from the community. I think that people making regular contributions is one way this can happen. Another way is to start spreading the word that this place will be opening soon, and that people are welcome to sign up to help in any way possible.

How many times have you seen underneath a big "COMING SOON" banner, a place where you can actively sign up to help? Not often! We could have an active sign up list right at the site, once it is chosen, or - more likely - direct people to a place on the web where they can sign up to be on a volunteer list to help prepare the site (and, of course, to make in-kind or monetary donations). We all know people are excited by new things, and if we hook the right then and there when they can see that something is coming, we should be able to find people who are willing and able to help that we never could have reached out to if we tried.

So, once we find the space, we make a sign, and we make a place on the web for people to stay in touch and receive e-mails about ways to help.

My food for thought of the day.

Words from Lama Zopa

I just got back from sneaking in (well, sort of sneaking in) to listen to a lecture by Lama Zopa Rinpoche. He is in Black Mountain for the 2nd of 5 yearly installments of a Light of the Path retreat. My mom, dad, and I were lucky enough to meet him last year through Geshe Gelek when my mom was going through treatment for cancer. I wanted to share something from the night...

Rinpoche's lecture further made me believe that what we are doing with Urban Dharma is something that people really need. He spoke in depth about bringing meditation into everyday life... to meditate on emptiness or on bodhicitta as we walk, drive the car, or are even at work! All day long we can be partially in meditation; you can talk in a meeting but also be meditating on emptiness, seeing everything as a hallucination or illusion. When we walk, we can imagine we are circumambulating holy objects and texts and stupas. Then, when good and bad things happen, it doesn't affect your mind, and things don't bring you up and down. There it is again - this intertwining of everyday life with the dharma... He also said how beneficial it is to make holy objects, and this made me think of the center - he said that when you make holy objects or stupas, you are directing your life toward enlightenment. Once a holy object (or, let's say, an urban practice center?) is built, no matter where you are - and you could be anywhere - you are liberating sentient beings. How amazing is that?

Anyway, the teaching made me even more excited about getting this off the ground. It feels more and more like the fruit is ripe for the picking.

Student Loan Debt Forgiveness

My friend, Konchog Dorje, a monk, came across this and thought it might be helpful for some Americans with student loans who are working for Buddhist centers or plan to work for Buddhist centers, doing Dharma work. The article is written for Christian ministers, but is equally applicable to us.

http://www.moneyhelpforchristians.com/get-student-loan-debt-forgiven-a-guide-for-ministers-pastors-non-profit-workers/

Signs

In case you didn't see this posted by Brianna under "Comments," it's pretty inspiring:

"I also wanted to share that my sister-in-law (in Virginia Beach/Norfolk area) had an interesting dream recently... She told me this weekend she dreamed she was with a lama, and they went out in search of the ruins of a 500 year old temple out in the mountains of North Carolina. Pretty wild!"

This is very auspicious tendrel ("interdependence"). We should be inspired by this and let this open us to seeing more of these signs. If we are open with devotion, with possibility, and with richness we will begin to see what the dakas and dakinis are showing us.

This weekend in Asheville

I will be coming to the area probably by Friday evening and hope to meet with different people this weekend - sowing seeds, talking to folks and walking around downtown Asheviile to scout out locations. Brian Leahy (who is a senior here at Davidson) will be coming as well and he will be taking photos which we can use for our promotional materials. So, if any of you in Asheville want to join us as we run around town this coming weekend, let me know. Community is cultivated over time and NOW is the time to start.

We'll meet Saturday 10-12:30 for Lama Chopa teachings and Sunday, we'll meet 1-3 - both at Judy's.

Also, perhaps Sunday, for those who can, we should meet for brunch before practice to discuss Urban Dharma (we need to set concrete target dates!!) Who's coming?

With a little bit of help from Tiger Woods?

An article from Slate on how Buddhism might be "shaking off its counterculture image." Maybe to the dismay of some of us but a good reading. Check it out here.

Post your thoughts here.

Buddhism and Social Justice

For the last few days I've been pondering what my introductory post to this freshly blossoming blog should be like. Then I decided that given the auspicious circumstances of having no formal higher education to pursue at the moment, and with only part time work hours taking up my schedule, I can grant myself the great leisure of instituting my own academic syllabus for this Fall semester. Having graduated college over a year ago, and understandably needing some retreat from that intellectually intensive approach to growth and education, I feel I have been long enough away from the relative rigors of academia and the time is ripe to assign myself my own independent (though much less rigorous!) curriculum.

I recently revisited a book I began reading over the summer called An End to Suffering: the Buddha in the World, by Pankaj Mishra. Dr Lye had recommended it, and after reading the description I could see why. The back-cover blurb describes the book as, "A search to understand the Buddha's relevance in today's world, where religious violence, poverty, and terrorism prevail. [...] Pankaj Mishra explores the myths and places of the Buddha's life, examines the West's 'discovery' of Buddhism, and considers the impact of Buddhist ideas on modern politics."

By that description, I knew Mishra's book was just the kind of summer reading I was looking for - something that could address the seeming contradiction between a "spiritual" path such as Buddhism and the current "material" approach to political economy, and the materialistic interests of consumerism. This is perhaps a concern that might be one of several major focuses at the heart of an Urban Dharma group. Just what is the relationship between the teachings of the dharma and the practice of bodhicitta in action? Is it possible to transform society to better reflect Buddhist tenets of compassion, tolerance, loving kindness, selflessness and humility?

In my independent studies for this Fall, I plan to read and review a handful of books that I might discover myself or have recommended to me. The books and/or articles should reflect on the above questions and offer a way to better understand how Buddhism, which is all too often seen as being a deliberately removed "retreat" from a society that seems to represent so vividly the undesirable and afflicted nature of samsaric existence, can instead be seen as something that always has been socially engaged and even has important roots in early urbanization, by its role of aiding in the transition of society into early urban centers of commerce that provided the conditions for the rise of the concepts of the individual and the democratic society.

These concerns are the focus of Mishra's book, and they reflect the general course of reading I will compel myself to take up this semester. I encourage recommendations from any of you, and feel free to recommend any relevant writings even if their main focus is different or broader than what I have described here.

While reading each text, I may post reflections that hopefully will spark dialog here. After finishing each, I will offer an overall review of the work to help contribute to the formation of our group's vision and voice for Urban Dharma.

Here is a link where you can peruse Mishra's book through Google Books:

An End to Suffering: the Buddha in the World

Another link to a book of interest that will probably be next on my syllabus:

Rethinking Karma: the Dharma of Social Justice

Thanks for inviting me to this exciting new group.

Jeff

Update on Nonprofit Path

Hun and I had a phone conversation yesterday with my dad, who has some experience in the non-profit sector. He gave us some tips and laid out the general path to non-profit-ship. While it requires some paperwork, record keeping, and transparency, the benefits are substantial. Here is a brief overview of the process online.

http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/article-29948.html

It seems as if the important steps we need to take before actually filing paperwork are coming together. We will need a specific mission statement, a business plan, a board of directors (mandated by non-profit law). We would have to make sure we adhere to certain provisions for non profits when we create these documents, but so far the direction we are heading in seems to fit in this category.

We would eventually then have to incorporate as a non-profit in North Carolina, and then move on to the federal recognition process. The federal process can take some time, but the benefits, such as tax-exempt donations from supporters, are retroactive to the time of incorporation once the non-profit is recognized.

All in all, a process that requires paperwork and diligence, but a useful way of encouraging mindfulness and commitment when it comes to the center, helping ensure that we stick to our intentions. We still need to get a number of these things more firmly in to place before any sort of paperwork would begin, but to me, it seems like a useful path that could help us achieve the center's goals.

Website Stuff

Hey All ,

I am playing around with the wix.com website, and have been making tons of different types of "looks" for the site. Everything from the traditional maroon-and-yellow, to the more modern.

Here's a look if you want to give some feedback.

www.wix.com/Banzai682/Urban-Dharma

Cheers,

Ryan

Community Supported Dharma

I was chatting with Ryan M. last night, updating him on Urban Dharma (and he'll be joining us on this blog - soon, I hope!). So at some point the question was raised - how will we finance Urban Dharma? I repeated what some of us have talked about on this and in particular how in the first year or two we will be relying on monthly commitments from a core group of supporters - 30 of such individuals, $50 a pop. And Ryan said, "I like... community supported dharma., a CSD." Indeed! This is what we are doing, growing sangha with Dharma to harvest buddhas for the benefit of all. We'll be subscribers and stakeholders of this CSD, growers and harvesters. We'll all need to find other people who will become fellow members of this CSD. So start going down your list of contacts and friends and families. And before long we will be offering "a box of Dharma" weekly!

One articulation of "Urban Buddhist"

Here's an excerpt from an interview done with Rodney Smith, a senior teacher in the insight meditation movement and founder and guide of Seattle Insight Meditation Society. The full interview is posted on the Insight Meditation Society, Barre, MA website.

Smith has some compelling ideas and expressions for us to digest and nourish on.


Rodney, how would you define ‘Urban Buddhism’?
‘Urban Buddhism’ is the practice of taking all environments as opportunities for spiritual awakening. Work, family, relationship and other avenues of life are all acknowledged as vital areas for investigation. Those who fully embody the entire spectrum of their lives, without spiritually prioritizing any one aspect or activity, are what I term Urban Buddhists.

From this perspective, all moments are equally precious. Whether we are practicing formal meditation on retreat or showing up for ordinary moments of our daily lives, the same unobstructed inner freedom is always available.

Any facet of life can be used to resolve the suffering of disconnection. The Urban Buddhist harbors no defense, seeks no shelter and avoids no conflict for the resolution of her/his wholeness. Nothing is avoided or passed by as mundane. Wherever there is discord and struggle, there is insight into contraction and resistance to life. This is true on emotional, psychological and spiritual levels.


What brought you to this understanding?
When I was new to meditation retreats, the final instruction given was to bring the mindfulness we had been cultivating during the course into our daily lives. I was never very good, however, at being mindful out of retreat – the harder I tried, the less successful I became. In fact, I found it almost a burden – something I had to add to my already full life. I began to feel like a spiritual failure.

So I started to look at the Buddha’s teachings, at what might speak to me in every moment and across all settings. I found the answer within the Noble Eightfold Path. This is the path the Buddha taught to those seeking liberation from suffering, and its eight elements are wise view, wise intention, wise speech, wise action, wise livelihood, wise effort, wise mindfulness and wise concentration.


How does the Noble Eightfold Path help us awaken?
The entire Noble Eightfold Path serves as a system for dismantling the sense of self. It is our clinging to a solid sense of self that causes our suffering. Unless we see that our identity is constructed from a set of beliefs, it’s easy to get sidetracked into further supporting the illusion of the sense of self. We then add to the problem rather than end the suffering.

Wise view, the first step of the Noble Eightfold Path, can help us get back on track. It says that our lives are interconnected beyond what is immediately visible. When we don’t understand this interconnection, we erroneously assume we are separate. In this state of separation, we think we have to get over ourselves, get over our mind states. We try ever harder to find freedom in some other timeframe outside of the here and now.

But we can’t ‘effort’ ourselves to freedom. Instead, if we simply open to our suffering, rather than resist it, we come back into a state of connectedness. Whether we connect with our knee pain while sitting on the cushion or with a deep wound in our psyche, we have automatically entered wise view.

Wise view helps us frame all of the other steps on the Noble Eightfold Path. It allows us to move away from individuation and towards wholeness.


How does the Urban Buddhist work with wise intention?
Wise intention - the second aspect of the Noble Eightfold Path - is the heart’s deepest longing. This longing is always available to us but gets sidetracked by secondary intentions such acquisition, fame or power. The spiritual practitioner must first discover that these secondary gains are ultimately unsatisfactory. Then, energy aligns towards the wise intention to awaken.

Much of spiritual practice is about redirecting the pursuit of those secondary intentions into awakening. For the Urban Buddhist, inquiry and investigation are essential tools in this transformation and fully complement retreat practice. Inquiry allows our ordinary lives to unfold with the same depth available to us on intensive retreat.

Asking simply, “Who am I?” “What is this?” or “Where is contentment in this moment?” adds a seamless continuity to daily life practice. This kind of inquiry contributes to the natural unfolding of the Noble Eightfold Path, from one aspect to the next. Ultimately, we move away from differentiation and the separation that causes suffering. We then find ourselves at the door to the infinite.

Notes from the visioning process

(Taken from a conversation between Hun, Joel, and myself. It's choppy... Fine editing to come.)

1st step is to put this into writing, as far as who/what this is for. Visioning. Then we determine how: with the business plan.

What it is:
A Buddhist center grounded in the Tibetan tradition.
Questions to ask ourselves: What is it selling? What happens there? Who is the clientele?
We are providing Buddhism for the Asheville community in a way that hasn't been done before. In the area we have WindHorse, Great Tree/Asheville Zen Center, Shambhala, Nancy S, and a loose Thich Nat Hahn group. None have done what this would do. Think of Jubilee as a model... a public gathering place. A public temple, in town.
J: It seems sometimes like there is a dearth of teachers in this town.
H: There's no visibility... We need continuity, regularity. In 2003 there was a group centrally located downtown, upstairs on Walnut Street. A Kadampa group. They had a monk in residence but he moved to Charlotte. The location was OK... but they weren't locally embedded. There's the issue of personality when you have a teacher... the robes... and this group's tradition has a reputation for insisting you only do as Geshe insists.
A strength that we have is how Hun draws views from a wide range of traditions, but in a way that is fed through Drikung Kagyu. We should encourage intellectual curiosity and see how all traditions fit into a larger practice of being liberated from confusion - all while offering a solid practice tradition.
Why are we grounded in a lineage? It's a common reference point to talk about other ideas.
Consistency is missing here (in Asheville). Lots of flakiness. We need staying power.

What happens in this space?
-Sadhana practice (Manjushri, Chenrezig, Tara) - weekly, 2 open practice sessions. But this is a temple... So beyond this other things should be going on.
-Program that is "Buddhist Lite" - meditation as a secular practice, emphasis on stress reduction, calm abiding practice. Instruction 1x/week but open sitting time often - like during lunch hour. Then people who work downtown can drop in.
-Special programs. Visiting teachers. (1-2x/month)
-Friday and Saturday nights - social night. Dinner. Parties. Movies.... Social hang out nights. Music groups. Serve everything but alcohol. FUN stuff. This is an important part of building community. Dharma centers don't have enough fun. There's this guilt: "I should be practicing..."
J: There was a nun at the monastery in Nova Scotia that asked, how often do you practice, and she said just do it 15 minutes a day!
-later on... Tea.

Ideal time to open the center would be May; it's the end of the school year, and we could have a flurry of activity to get things off the ground during the summer. Hun won't be teaching, students will be out for the break. We can recruit some folks at BE, and train them and others to run sessions. Young people are important. Lots of energy and excitement. Important to channel that youth excitement so they don't run out of steam...

The center itself: one large space. Shrine on one end, that can be covered by Japanese screens. A corner for the reading room, a space for tea... To start, just the temple; then add the store later.

Complementary to other stores in Asheville, but less busy. More books, zafus, meditation/ritual supplies. Accurate iconography. No statues for the sake of statues. It should be aesthetically pleasing and the people who work at the shop should be dharma practitioners.

No monastic teacher in residence. There's a problem in the potential for this 'holy man,' fetishizing mentality. Monastics will always be pulling the student in another direction (away from society; cloistered; separate from everyday world)
If the lama knows everything, then the student will never take full responsibility. If the dharma is to take root here it must be started with Americans.

If we start in the summer Hun will be here. But we must have other people step up, and develop confidence in their practice. Confidence and humility.
"Guides" - have received some degree of training, then you can lead. And they can tell someone that they don't know the answer. We want people to have a real understanding of 'teacher' ... how human we all really are. Sure, there might be other stuff going on in our lives... but you are clear on the dharma.
When retreats and empowerments and things like that are needed, we have those people. We know where to send the students need that. We have those connections when they are needed.

Tuesday Night at NKT Asheville

Every Tuesday this month (though their calendar says Wednesdays), the community space above the French Broad Co-Op is used to teach beginners meditation. I attended the introductory meeting last nite, "How to Get Started." These classes are hosted by Hannah Kim (Korean-American?), a woman of about thirty who has studied dharma for 10 years, with 8 years of consistent, daily meditation. A lay practitioner herself, her classes are geared towards demonstrating the immediate benefits of making a bit of time in our busy lives for meditation practice. With this aim, she simplifies the Buddha's basic teachings so that people of most ages and backgrounds can understand them.

The class, with about seven in attendance including myself, began with a guided meditation, focusing on breath. During these fifteen minutes, she had us "take our breath" through various parts of the body, starting with the top of the head and moving through to the feet. I think this practice might be a Theravada technique, not sure though. For about the last 5 or 10 minutes, she had the group visualize the mind as an empty, blue sky. Any thought that arose was visualized as an empty cloud, which we were instructed to watch as it passed. For the final 2 minutes or so, she had us try to maintain the empty sky in our minds (though I found myself visualizing the idea of an empty sky as a cloud itself, passing as well). While I am not one who enjoys guided meditation (as my own mind distracts itself enough without someone else feeding it!), her approach and light voice made for a calming session. If you like to sit on the floor, however, bring a cushion; everyone sat in chairs but me, much the chagrin of my buttocks. Overall, a very informal sitting session: no taking refuge or merit dedications...

After sitting, she gave a dharma-talk, loosely based on a book called "Modern Buddhism" Geshe Kelsang Gyatso. Again, her manner of delivery was very elementary, but without failing to impart the proper message. She began with talking briefly about her own ups and downs regarding practice and time management (she is also a new mother), and then moved on to cosmology and the six realms. Her main point was to illustrate the incredible privilege we have in this incarnation to encounter and use Dharma ourselves and to share it with all beings. Kim recounted the Buddha's metaphor of existence/samsara as being a vast ocean in the depths of which an ancient, blind turtles lives, rising to the surface for air only once every 100,000 years. Atop this ocean rests a golden yoke, representing birth in the human realm. The likelihood of the turtle rising up within the yoke for air is analogous to the probability of being reincarnated in the human realm. While Kim repeatedly stressed the preciousness of all human life, she also presented the Dharma as being applicable in three ways: lowly, middling, and great (a trio I've come across in Dogen's "Eihei Koroku"). Lowly practitioners benefit from Sakyamuni Buddha's teachings in their immediate, personal lives. Here, Dharma is used for stress reduction, calming the mind, coping with loss, etc; and certainly this path has its true merits. Next, the middlings apply Dharma not only to their own problems, but also to close loved ones, friends, and needy folks one encounters. She described the "great" way as synonymous with the Bodhisattva ideal. These great Dharma practitioners do everything the lower ranks do, but also defer their own bodhi until all beings are liberated from the throes of samsara.

I actually had to leave about about 10 minutes before the talk was over. These meetings close with another guided meditation. Although I thought some of what she shared with us was backtracking and thus occasionally uninteresting, it was a good refresher about the fundamentals of the various sadhana we do. For me, regular reinforcement of Buddhism's skeletal structure is necessary for grounding those other practices that more involved, even if it's "just sitting."

Investigating Some Local Centers

I began invistigating (via Google) the centers in my area (Pennsylvania) by a general suggestion I rememeber someone at some point making. I so far have found two, both of which had ties to Venerable Losang Samten, who does a lot of travel across the United States, between centers and Universities, making sand mandalas and giving teachings.

I recommend searching some close-by centers, simply to get a feel for what they might do and how they might opporate. This center, for example, based in Philidelphia had Sunday morning meditations, and Thursday evening Green Tara practice. Another in Fogelsville, PA was run by one of Losang Samten's students. Besides having a whole variety of spectrum classes, this rural center also offered different trips to Peru for week long pilgrimages to sacred Andean mountains.

It would be nice to visit these places if I get the chance, primarilly for my own edification of knowing what is already out there. However, I also don't want the ideas of other centers to get in the way of going forward. So much depends, for example, upon what we already have (a distinct vision), and upon the very specific things that we will have: a space suited to our purposes and the people that will make it come alive. Therefore, it's a reminder to myself to retain a creatively flexible attitude going foward, and not to feel like we have to do what has already been done.

Bank Account

In the past I have established bank account for non-profits to use as they are getting organized. Today when I went to BofA to ask if this was still possible, I was told that the new banking laws do not permit it. BofA requires copies of the articles of incorporation, corporate resolution, and proof of non profit status. If we start collecting pledges, prior to the incorporation, we will have to be creative. Is it possible to have another non profit accept the pledges on our behalf and hold them in trust? Could we find a "mentor" organization. Others out there may have had recent experience along this line. Jim

Everything's Amazing & Nobody's Happy

For those of you who don't frequent Facebook, a student shared this clip with me. He said it reminded him of the discussion we had in my "Buddhist Devotionalism" class on how we reconcile the Buddhist idea that we are now living in a period of "decline of life" when people seem to be living increasingly longer lives.

Urban Dharma:

Non-Profit Help

Hello all. For those of you who don't know me, I am a student of Hun's over at Davidson College, finishing up my last year of undergrad in May. I am excited that momentum for the Asheville center is growing, and feel fortunate that conditions are allowing me to participate in building this community.

I have started talking about this with my dad, who has worked as a lawyer for non-profit organizations in the past. He will be able to provide us with some guidance and starting points on the path to non-profit status, if we decide to go that route. His advice will be immensely helpful, as at least Hun and I have absolutely no clue as to what that entails.

Non-profit help is also perhaps a good way to think about the direction we are headed as a community. The other day, while I was caught up in thinking about details of the center, Hun reminded me that the fundamental purpose of a center is to lessen suffering in the center's community. To me, this seems essential to remember, to keep at the forefront of the mind, instilling our long-term plans along with everyday actions with this ethos.

And, thanks to Hun for setting up this blog, so that we all can stay in touch, start building a community, and get the momentum going.

NKT in Asheville at the French Broad Co-op

Apparently, NKT still has meetings in Asheville even though the resident monk has moved to Charlotte. They meet in the space above the French Broad Co-op, led by a lay-teacher, Hannah Kim. Some of you in the area should go check out this group and learn more what's working and what's not for them.

http://www.meditation-in-northcarolina.org/classes.shtml

NKT

On Sunday I mentioned that there was once a New Kadampa Tradition center in Asheville, on the 2nd floor of a building on Walnut Street. Anyway, about a year after I arrived in Asheville, sometime in 2004, that center (it was called Kosala Buddhist Center) closed in Asheville and the resident monk there moved to Charlotte. Here's the website of the Charlotte center: http://meditationcharlotte.org/

Take a look at the webpage to get some ideas of what an "urban center" is offering in Charlotte.

If you don't know how to post to this blog...

Give me a call when you have some time and a Internet-connected computer and I can walk you through the process. It's really not complicated at all.

But if you just want to comment on a particular blog posting, then it's pretty easy - you just click the "Comments" at the bottom of the post and you will be able to post your own comments.

Urban Dharma - Changing Minds, Transforming Cities

And so we start "Urban Dharma." A place where Dharma can take roots in Appalachian soil, a place where Sangha can grow in our cities. A place in the Blue Ridge Mountains where Buddhas are born. How's that for a mission?

I invite you to help build Urban Dharma. I invite you to walk with me on this journey, to do the work of Buddhas. And we begin here. Right here where each of you reading this have been invited to be "authors" of this blog. And more importantly, authors of the story of Urban Dharma.

This blog is where we share our ideas and ideals. This is where we inform each other of our progress. This is where we ask, and answer, seek clarification, express confusion. This is where we communicate and connect. This is where we pay attention to each other, bridging physical distance and temporal limitations.

Let's start!