Imperial College Buddhist Society

IMPERIAL COLLEGE BUDDHIST SOCIETY

This Thursday (20 November), we will be conducting a meditation session
in the Chaplaincy (directions) at 7pm.

Join us in our meditation session to relax your mind and improves your concentration.
Light refreshments will be provided.

See you there!!!!

Imperial College Buddhist Society

From,
Committee

Greetings to everyone.
Attached to this post is a document pertaining to information about Meditation – mainly Metta – Loving Kindness Meditation and The Benefits of Walking Meditation.

You can download this document here.

This isn’t a petition – it’s an invitation to participate in a unique creative event on the streets of London next Thursday 22nd May, involving the Dalai Lama on his UK visit. To help send the message of our 1.66 million-strong petition for Tibet-China dialogue peacefully around the world, we’re mounting a 3-mile-long human chain handshake connecting the Dalai Lama to the Chinese Embassy, just after his speech at the Royal Albert Hall.

The Metropolitan Police have given us the green light for up to 2000 participants – but the event can’t happen without you. Not everyone can travel or be free at this time (late afternoon/early evening next Thursday), so think about it for a minute — but if you can, please sign up now to participate in person in the handshake event in Central London — just click here:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/give_peace_a_hand_london/?cl=89547581

Please include your email and phone number so that we can be in touch with all the details of where you need to be and when. Here is the plan for the event, called “Give Peace A Hand”:

On Thursday 22nd May, the Dalai Lama will be in the UK to meet with Gordon Brown – an event which will result in worldwide media coverage. He will also give a speech at the Royal Albert Hall, finishing at 4.30pm.

One of the people who shakes hands with the Dalai Lama will turn to shake another person’s hand, that person will turn and shake someone else’s, and so on. The handshake will flow out through the streets of London, along a spontaneously forming human chain – around Hyde Park Corner, up to Marble Arch, along Wigmore Street and up to the Chinese Embassy.

People power on the streets of London will reach out to the Chinese leadership, and to the world. No national symbols, no flags or banners – just a simple message of positive connection and dialogue. The global media will be alerted to this novel event, which will be filmed from end to end. We could reach millions.

Tentative contacts have resumed between the Dalai Lama’s representatives and the Chinese government, so there’s hope — but as documented in a new film, The Unwinking Gaze, previous talks went on for years without progress. We are still a long way from meaningful dialogue, and the danger is that the situation will only become worse after the Olympics. We need to do all we can to encourage real talks, before it’s too late.

We will assign you to a place in the handshake, which will begin at 4.30pm at the Royal Albert Hall. If you aren’t free until 5.30pm or later, we can put you on the final route between Marble Arch and the Chinese Embassy in Portland Place. It will finish around 6.30/7pm. But if you want to participate, it’s very important to click this link and sign up now — we have a limited number of places and we need to organise things precisely!

http://www.avaaz.org/en/give_peace_a_hand_london/?cl=89547581

Some of us will be in London anyway, others will want to travel in and bring friends — but many will have prior commitments. So don’t worry if you can’t participate – and thanks for all you do. But if you can, we’d love you to join us — it’ll be a great experience, and it could make a real difference.

Look forward to hearing if you can be involved -

With hope,

Paul, Pascal, Rob, Maria and the whole Avaaz team

PS if you have any questions about the event, feel free to email Rob Bolton now at handshake@avaaz.org.

The Unwinking Gaze tells the story of the frustrated Dalai-China dialogue efforts so far – you can view the film trailer at this link:
http://www.theunwinkinggaze.com

————
ABOUT AVAAZ
Avaaz.org is an independent, not-for-profit global campaigning organization that works to ensure that the views and values of the world’s people inform global decision-making. (Avaaz means “voice” in many languages.) Avaaz receives no money from governments or corporations, and is staffed by a global team based in London, Rio de Janeiro, New York, Paris, Washington DC, and Geneva.

Don’t forget to check out our Facebook and Myspace and Bebo pages!

The Tibetan Lama

Time : 2 pm
Venue : Divinity Faculty, University of Cambridge [Map]

From
Committee

This is a fantastic talk for those who wish to further explore the wonders of Theravada Buddhism, to meet an inspirational monk and to enjoy some light vegetarian refreshments! Ajahn Munindo is a disciple of Ajahn Chah, and is a highly venerated Thai monk.

Details are: Date: 11 April 2008
Venue: Lecture Theatre 2, Imperial College Chemical Engineering Dept. (ACEX Building)
Map: [http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/pls/portallive/docs/1/32853696.PDF]
Time: 7-9pm

A brief itinery:

6:30 pm : Arrival of guests

7:00 pm : Starting of the talk on “Paradox and Buddhism”

8:35 pm : Question and Answer Session

8:55 pm : Transfer of Merits ( it would be nice if we could have a merits transfer at the end to sign off the event )

9:00 pm : Light refreshment

Additional information:

(i) Ajahn Munindo:- [http://www.forestsangha.org/munindo4.htm]
(ii)Ajahn Munindo’s excellent book ( a collection of talks): ‘Unexpected Freedom’ [http://www.ratanagiri.org.uk/Book/Unexpected%20Freedom.pdf]
(iii) Theravada Buddhism [http://www.dharmanet.org/lctheravadastudy.htm] [http://www.buddhanet.net/ebooks_s.htm]

There are 4 things in this newsletter:

1. AGM
2. London Buddhist Vihara: ”Seeing Dependent Origination (Paticcasamuppada)”
3. 1-Day Chanting Session
4. Sabbatical Elections

1. AGM

IC Buddhist Society will be having its Annual General Meeting on 5th March from 1-2pm. We will be electing the committee for academic year 2008/09. Available posts are:

1. President
2. Vice President
3. Secretary
4. Treasurer
5. Webmaster
6. Activity Coordinator(s)

Date: 5 March 2008

Time: 1-2pm

Venue: Union Chaplaincy Prayer Room

Map and directions: http://www2.union.ic.ac.uk/scc/buddhist/direction-imperial-college-union/
Please come if you are interested in running for any postitions, and to have a say in the society’s leadership for the next academic year.

2. London Buddhist Vihara: “Seeing Dependent Origination (Paticcasamuppada)”
Lecture at London Buddhist Vihara:

LONDON BUDDHIST VIHARA

Dharmapala Building

The Avenue, Chiswick, London W4 1UD

Tel: 0208 995 9493 Fax: 0208 994 8130

MONTHLY SPECIAL LECTURE

“SEEING DEPENDENT ORIGINATION”

(Paticcasamuppada)

You are cordially invited to attend a special Dhamma talk delivered

By

Dr. Matheesha Gunatilake,

Psychiatrist, Croydon Hospital.

at

the London Buddhist Vihara

on

Saturday 1st March 2008 at 6.00pm.

All are welcome!

3. 1-Day Chanting Session

Dear all,

We will be having a 1-Day Chanting Session (精進佛一) on the 2nd March (Sunday) from 9:30am – 5pm and you are all welcome to attend this session. The format of the session will be relatively simple as the main objective is to focus on the recitation of “Amituofo”. The proposed outline for the 1-Day Chanting session is the same as our usual fortnightly session.

We would like to invite ULUBUDA and ICBS members for the 1-Day chanting session. We will be using Room 3D for chanting and Room 3C for preparation and book distribution (We still have materials at ULU), please note that you are free to join and leave at any time during the session so don’t that you have to be there the whole day. There are more details on the walking meditation that we will do during the events in the files attached. Thank you and look forward to seeing both of you.

Further information on this event can be found on our website, In addition, you are welcome to post any questions or discussions regarding this event in our forum.

Date: Sunday 2nd March 2008
Time: 9:30 – 5:00pm
Venue: Room 3C & 3D, 3/F, ULU, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HY
Map & Direction: ULU website
Website: http://amtb.org.uk/

Schedule:
09:30am – 10:00am Introduction
10:00am – 10:30am Praise for the Incense Offering (爐香讚)
The Amitabha Sutra (佛說阿彌陀經)
Pure Land Rebirth Dharani (往生咒).
Amitabha Gatha (讚佛偈)
10:30am – 5:00pm Recitation of Amitabha Buddha’s Name (佛號)
05:00pm Transfer of Merit (迴向)

If you would like to practise at your own time, this is the 晚課 mp3 that we follow during the session.

During the walking meditation (繞佛), we will be chanting the Name of Amitabha Buddha in Mandarin (Amituofo, 阿彌陀佛).

You can also find out more about Pure Land Buddhism at the following pages:

Wiki Pure Land Page
Buddhism of Wisdom & Faith: Pure Land Principles and Practice

Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions.
Namo Amituofo,
Vincent

4. Voting in sabbatical elections
Please vote in the elections as apart from deciding who we’ll be working with in the union next year, you will get to donate 50p to your society of choice (hopefully IC Buddhist Society!).

Thank you!

With metta,
Siew
Secretary
IC Buddhist Society

Dear Dharma brothers and sister,

I hope that you may find the following useful,

Meditation Guide: Metta Bhavana and Walking Meditation

Regards,

Benson Hoi

Hi all,

Buddhism Without Borders Poster 2008

We will be having our annual major event- Buddhism Without Borders on 22nd February this year. There will be a talk by on human relations, though a title for the talk has not been decided on. At the event we will also have an exhibition and free distribution, and the refreshments will be provided. It will take place in the Sir Alexander Fleming Building (SAF), the medics building basically.

The talk will be given by Venerable Ajahn Khemadhammo, more information of Venerable can be found by googling his name.

This event will be open to invited members of the public, such as our friends from University of London Union Buddhist Association(ULUBUDA), other Buddhist organisations in universities in and outside London, and also public Buddhist associations. We are expecting about 80 people attenting the event.

Last year the event was a successful one, and this year we’re starting to prepare for the event now. We need to know if any of you would like to help to prepare for the event. The areas that you can help in are:

1) Exhibition and distribution – Preparation of exhibition materials (before the day), explanation of materials, and handling free distribution materials (on the day itself)

2) Venue and logistics – Setting up the venue (on the day itself)

3) Publicity – Distribution of publicity materials such as posting posters around college (before the day)

4) Food and sponsorship – Obtain food sponsorship from restaurants (before the day), collecting the food from the restaurants to college (on the day itself), or preparation of food (on the day itself).

It would be great if many of you can help, in one or more of the areas above. It will take only perhaps a couple of hours in one day.

If you would like to help out, please reply this email with your name, contact details and which area(s) you want to help in. Thanks!

With metta,
Siew
Secretary
IC Buddhist Society