More events at Tilorien Monastery iSangha

Ayya Anandabodhi’s talk was really lovely. :smiley:

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Venerable Vimala speaks at iSangha on 5th June – A Path with a Heart :heart:

You are very warmly invited to join Venerable Vimala, Tilorien Monastery’s spiritual lead, at Tilorien’s iSangha (iSangha – Tilorien Monastery) for a Dhamma Talk, meditation and ‘Q&A’ on Friday 5th June 7pm CEST (see here for other time zones ).

Para mi solo recorrer los caminos que tienen corazon,
cualquier camino que tenga corazon.
Por ahi yo recorro,
y la unica prueba que vale es atravesar todo su largo.
Y por ahi yo recorro
mirando, mirando, sin aliento.

For me there is only travelling on paths that have heart,
on any path that may have heart.
There I travel,
and the only worthwhile challenge is to traverse its full length.
And there I travel
looking, looking, breathlessly.

Venerable Vimala has been busy setting up and building Tilorien Monastery tirelessly over the past four years. For the past two months she had the opportunity for a break in solitary retreat. We are very much looking forward to welcome her back.

To find out more about Venerable Vimala, visit: Ven. Vimala – Samita ASBL

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Please review above post, it has been edited with more details.

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Has this talk been recorded as well? I couldn’t find it on the YouTube channel. Thanks a lot! I am looking forward to watching it. :slight_smile: :pray:

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No, the talk by U Agga hasn’t been recorded.

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Ayya Santacitta speaks at iSangha on 12 June – The Wisdom of Seeing Arising and Ceasing

You are very warmly invited to join Ayya Santacitta at the Tilorien iSangha (iSangha – Tilorien Monastery) on Friday 12 June at 7pm CEST (see here for other time zones) for a Dhamma Talk, meditation and Q&A.

Ayya Santacitta will be sharing poems from The First Free Women – Poems of the Early Buddhist nuns and expound on the wisdom of impermanence: Better it is to live one day seeing the rise and fall of things than to live a hundred years without ever seeing the rise and fall of things. (Dhammapada 113, translation by Bhikkhu Buddharakkhita)

Santacitta Bhikkhuni was born in Austria and did her graduate studies in Cultural Anthropology, focusing on dance, theatre and ritual. She also worked in avant-garde dance theatre as a performer and costume designer. In 1988 she met Ajahn Buddhadasa in southern Thailand, who sparked her interest in Buddhist monastic life. She has trained as a nun in both the East and West since 1993, primarily in the lineage of Ajahn Chah, and has practiced meditation for over 30 years. Since 2002, she has also received teachings in the lineage of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.

Santacitta Bhikkhuni co-founded Aloka Vihara Forest Monastery in 2009 and received Bhikkhuni Ordination in 2011. Since moving to the U.S., she has also greatly benefited from Bhikkhu Analayo’s teachings on Early Buddhism and from the guidance of Khenmo Konchog Nyima Drolma. She is particularly interested in creating sanctuary close to nature, living in community and bringing wisdom traditions to the environmental movement.

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The video of Venerable Vimala’s talk on 5th of June has been uploaded to YouTube:

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Thank you for bringing this collection of poetry to my attention! The poems are beautiful!

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Five Precept Ceremony & meditation Saturday 20th June 18.00h – 19.00h CEST

In Buddhist practice, one way to establish virtue and integrity is to formally repeat and undertake The Five Precepts. This can be done regularly, as a reminder and a recommitment of your intentions, you can do it on your own or you can do it with a teacher.

Ven. Vimala will offer the Five Precepts to those who wish to make a conscious commitment to virtue and nonharming or those who wish to renew their vows. You can find the text for this ceremony in our chanting book on page 69 (http://tilorien.org/chantingbooks/TilorienChantingBook.pdf).

This ceremony will be followed by the chanting of the Metta Sutta (page 40) and 45 minutes of guided meditation.

For those who wish to take the 8-precepts to keep on the Uposatha days or for life, this is possible every Uposatha day at 6.45am after the morning groupsitting.

Please find details for Tilorien iSangha here (iSangha – Tilorien Monastery)

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Worldwide meditation dedicated to George Floyd

On Saturday 13th June, Sharon Salzberg will lead a 30 minute worldwide meditation dedicated to George Floyd and all victims of racism worldwide.

The iSangha will join this meditation at 18.00 CEST and will continue with a silent meditation to 19.00 CEST.

If you are new to the iSangha, please see our iSangha page to get a link: iSangha – Tilorien Monastery.

You can also join Sharon’s meditation only on YouTube: https://youtu.be/EBdm38ocqj4

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Venerable Dr. Pannavati Bhikkhuni speaks at iSangha on 19 June
– The Buddhist perspective on the Black Lives Matter Protests

You are very warmly invited to join Venerable Dr. Pannavati Bhikkhuni at the Tilorien iSangha (iSangha – Tilorien Monastery) on Friday 19 June at 7pm CEST for a Dhamma Talk, meditation and Q&A.

Venerable Pannavati will speak about the Buddhist perspective on the Black Lives Matter Protests that we have seen on 3 continents in the last weeks.
Thousands of people gathered in cities and towns in the last weeks to protest police brutality and racial injustice. In response to the ongoing unrest, Buddhist teachers and sanghas have issued statements online condemning the violence and calling on sangha members to reevaluate their relationship to racism. It is our privilege that Ven. Pannavati, a very experienced Buddhist monastic, teacher and activist, has agreed to give a talk at our iSangha about this important topic.

Venerable Dr. Pannavati is the Co-founder and Co-spiritual Director of HeartWood Refuge in North Carolina, USA.

Ensuring the community’s sustainability, longevity and continuity of vision and mission. She is also President of Treasure Human Life Foundation. Ordained in the Theravada, Chan, and Mahayana traditions with Vajrayana empowerments and transmission from Roshi Bernie Glassman of Zen Peacemakers, Pannavati was formerly a Christian pastor, and co-founder and co-Abbot of Embracing-Simplicity Hermitage and meditation center.

An international teacher who advocates on behalf of disempowered women and youth globally, and insists on equality and respect in Buddhist life for both female monastics and lay sangha — she is both contemplative and empowered for compassionate service. She was a 2008 recipient of the Outstanding Buddhist Women’s Award and currently serves as Vice President of the US Chapter of the Global Buddhist Association. Although Ven. Pannavati travels extensively, she offers Dharma Talks and Meditation at HW on a regular basis.

If you want to donate to help Venerable Pannavati with her work, please see https://www.heartwoodrefuge.org/donate/ for more information.

VenPannavati300

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Thank you for hosting! It was a great talk!

:heart:

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The Buddhist perspective on the Black Lives Matter Protests by Venerable Dr Pannavati Bhikkhuni

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Ayya Piyadassī speaks at iSangha on 27 June – Finding Security

You are very warmly invited to join Ayya Piyadassī at the Tilorien iSangha
(iSangha – Tilorien Monastery) on Saturday 27 June at 9.30am CEST (see here for other time zones) for a Dhamma Talk, meditation and Q&A.

Can a totally secure place be found in the world? In this talk Ayya Piyadassī will share about her journey of meeting this challenge through the Dhamma and explore our insecurities, their sources and skilful ways of working with them.

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Ayya Piyadassī was born and grew up in Lithuania where she completed a degree in chemistry. Over six years of dedicated meditation practice and Dhamma service in the UK as well as Lithuania, she developed an increasing interest in the Buddhist scriptures and theory behind meditation. This interest led her to study Pāḷi in India. She then proceeded to Myanmar to absorb the teachings available in its traditional Buddhist cultural context and took robes in 2013 with the Venerable Pa Auk Sayadaw as a preceptor. After several years of practising and learning various meditation techniques in mostly, small Pa Auk meditation centres, she returned to Europe for a couple of years. There she had an opportunity to integrate whatever she had learnt in Myanmar while living in the caves of Southern Spain. She is back in Myanmar and currently studying old Indic languages in the Shan State Buddhist University.
Her training in Pa Auk meditation system, academic Buddhism and science coupled with a free life in the wilderness outside of traditional Buddhist society informs the way she shares the Dhamma: giving precise and individual recommendations tailored to a situation, based on the tradition of Theravāda Buddhism.

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  • Listen to all previous Tilorien iSangha talks here.
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Here’s a link to the Samurai poem she mentioned: :heart_eyes:

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iSangha Program for the Vassa

We herewith want to thank everybody who has participated in the Tilorien iSangha in the last few months during lock-down and thereafter, as well as all the monastics and lay people who have shared their knowledge and wisdom. We have been so touched by all your positive responses and have decided to continue to provide a program on Zoom for the foreseeable future. The enormous shift that our world has seen in the first half of 2020 has also brought some benefits that we can be grateful for. One of these benefits is that we as monastics had to find new ways of connecting to people and in doing so we have discovered that we can also reach people who otherwise have no possibility to come to a monastery. Over the last months, our iSangha has seen visitors from most European countries, but also from Asia, the Americas and even as far away as Australia.

As Zoom has announced some changes to its platform, you will need a passcode to enter the iSangha from now on. For the Dhamma Contemplation we have already sent out a passcode to the participants who are registered for this. If you have not yet received a passcode from us while you have previously attended, then please re-register again HERE to receive the new access details.

In the last months, the iSangha has provided a program with daily meditation and chanting sessions, Dhamma Talks, Insight Dialogue sessions, Dhamma Contemplation sessions and even the online celebration of Vesak!

During the Vassa, our program will be as follows:

  • Daily silent meditation and morning puja at 6am
  • Taking of 8 precepts on Uposatha days at 7am
  • Dhamma Contemplation group on Mondays at 7.30pm
  • Chanting and silent meditation on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 6pm
  • Chanting and guided meditation on Saturday at 6pm

There might also be occasional Dhamma Talks; these will be posted here.
For more information see our website at iSangha – Tilorien Monastery.

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Tilorien iSangha: Gender in Buddhism

A discussion between Venerables Somā (Empty Cloud Monastery, NJ, USA) and Vimala (Tilorien Monastery, Belgium).

31st July 2020 - 19.00-20.30h CEST
2020-07-31T17:00:00Z2020-07-31T18:30:00Z

  • What does gender have to do with Buddhist practice?
  • What does gender mean for us as Buddhists?
  • How do we look at gender and work within ourselves and how should we deal with this changing environment within the Sangha?
  • When we are born, we are either male or female. Or are we? This is the assumption on which our gender-binary world rests.
  • How can we relate to concepts of masculinity and femininity?
  • Does gender affect our spiritual capacities? How should we relate to each other’s genders?
  • Why is there gender discrimination in Buddhism and what should we do about it?
  • And how is the situation for LGBTIQA+ within Buddhism?

Venerables Somā and Vimala discuss their perspectives and personal experiences of being a female monk in a patriarchal system.

Ayya Soma is an Italian Buddhist monk living at Empty Cloud Monastery in New Jersey. As the co-founder of Buddhist Insights, a non-profit organization connecting people with monastics, she has learned the Dharma through the perspective of monks of all different traditions, and incorporates aspects from all of them in her own practice. Her spiritual path is inspired by the social engagement of her preceptor, Venerable Paññāvati Bhikkhuni; by the knowledge and wisdom of Ven. Robina Courtin; and by the compassion of Khenmo Drolma.

For more information on Ven. Somā and Buddhist Insights / Empty Cloud Monastery, see http://buddhistinsights.com/

Ven. Vimala’s writings on Gender in Buddhism:

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Bhikkhu Sukhacitto facilitates the Dhamma Contemplation Peer Group on 10th August

at 19.30-21.00h CEST

2020-08-10T17:30:00Z2020-08-10T19:00:00Z
(see here for other time zones)

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Bhikkhu Sukhacitto was born in Germany in 1963 and first came into contact with Buddhism in 1986 in Thailand by attending a meditation retreat, offered through Wat Suan Mokkh. He ordained there as a monk in 1990. He returned to the West in 1993. Since then he has lived at various monasteries, including Dhammapala Monastery in Switzerland for six years and Amaravati Monastery in the UK for 4 years.

On his first Insight Dialogue retreat in 2005, he was amazed by the powerful experience of meditating together with other people and subsequently joined many more Insight Dialogue retreats. In 2010 he began his teacher training with Gregory Kramer and other teachers. In his experience, interpersonal meditation is an extremely helpful aid for the development of wholesome qualities. It bridges the gap between traditional silent meditation and our everyday lives and relations with other people. Bhikkhu Sukhacitto sees Insight Dialogue as an important tool for liberation.

In 2016 Bhikkhu Sukhacitto founded Kalyana Mitta Vihara, or “House of Noble Friendship,” where relational practice is part of the living.

If you have never attended the Dhamma Contemplation Peer Group and would like to take part, please register at Tilorien iSangha to get the Zoom link and password.

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