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News Updates, Page 4

In My Teacher’s Footsteps

The podcast, Where Are You Going, has a new audio Buddhist pilgrimage book which you can listen to in weekly instalments. Over this winter Nick Scott will be reading In My Teacher’s Footsteps, the account of how Ajahn Amaro, he and four others followed Luang Poh Sumedho to Mount Kailash in Tibet.

You can start listening here: https://whereareyougoing.podbean.com/

No pilgrimage is harder or more ancient than the journey up and over the Himalayan defile to circle Mount Kailash in Tibet. Ajahn Sumedho wanted to do it as a young American in 1950’s California, but only got the opportunity when he was a famous Buddhist monk, aged 60. Nick Scott trained him in European mountains and here recounts his teacher’s attempts, the dire results, and Nick’s own subsequent pilgrimage to the Holy Mountain, with Ajahn Amaro, which nearly killed him. This is a book about adversity, how to face it and what can be gained. But it’s more than that. It’s about the whole journey: life and how to use it, and its difficulties, to find freedom from suffering.… Read the rest

2021 Kathina Announcement

This year’s monastic Rains Retreat, marking another ‘year in the robes’ for Bhikkhus at Tisarana Buddhist Monastery, will end on October 21st. Traditionally, what follows is a month-long period during which a ‘Kathina cloth’ may be offered by lay supporters. This has long been a beloved event in Buddhist cultures, one arranged in advance by the donors. On the day it is offered, some of this cloth is dyed and sewn by the resident Sangha, and presented to one of the monks before the following dawn.

For many reasons – both ancient and altogether contemporary – Kathina is a truly auspicious day of the annual monastic calendar, and one in which gratitude and blessings abound.

This year’s Kathina is being offered by the Royal Thai Embassy, Ottawa, on October 31st.

Covid protocols currently in place for outdoor public gatherings are restricted to 25 people. Therefore our formal Kathina ceremony on the 31st  will be restricted to the Embassy staff and their families. 

However, in what remains of the Kathina month (until Nov 21, 2021), groups of 25 people or less are invited to join the Tisarana community for the meal and to make offerings if they wish. Those seeking to do so are requested to please email the Tisarana Office in advance, to ensure that groups don’t exceed the maximum number.… Read the rest

Site Clearing Ceremony for Tisarana Dhamma Hall – August 15

In addition to the normal routines and business of the monastery, over the past seven years considerable energy has been directed towards envisioning, designing, contracting and planning to build a Dhamma Hall at Tisarana. With each passing month, now, these plans are coming closer to completion. And so, to honour this quickening pace, on August 15th the Tisarana community gathered to prepare the physical site – with chanting, with words of acknowledgement and appreciation. 

The event enabled Luang Por Viradhammo and the assembled community to share blessings, as well as design plans, with a large group of supporters from the Ottawa region and beyond. It’s an understatement to say it was much needed, given that this was the first generous gathering of people we’ve had in over a year-and-a-half. So wonderful to see people taking in the atmosphere of the monastery, and friends being reunited again, in person! 

The ceremony took place in Tisarana’s new event tent, set more or less in the middle of the eventual Hall. Things began with Tan Sirimedho outlining the history of this property and the surrounding region, then giving some specific idea about the design of the prospective Dhamma Hall. The Hall’s outlines had been neatly spray-painted on the grass. … Read the rest

Date Change for the Annual General Meeting for the Year 2020

PLEASE NOTE that the Date of AGM has been changed to: Sunday, September 5, 2021.

Place: Tisarana Buddhist Monastery – 1356 Powers Road, Perth, Ontario K7H 3C5

Time: 130pm (EDT)

The Directors of the Board of Tisarana Buddhist Monastery cordially invite all members of good standing to attend the Annual General Meeting (AGM) scheduled to be held on the date above.

Sincerely,

Tilak Gunawardhane
Secretary to the Board

August 22, 2021… Read the rest

New Dhamma Hall Site Clearing Ceremony, Sunday August 15th.

We are going to have a site clearing ceremony for the New Dhamma Hall on Sunday, August 15th starting at 1pm. An outline of the new Hall will be laid out on the ground which we will all circumambulate with social distancing, and then the Sangha will chant parittas so as to to bless the site and the trees that will have to be cut down to make room for the new Hall. Once finished, we can begin clearing the land to get ready for the start of construction this coming spring of 2022.

All are invited to this important ceremony for the New Dhamma Hall, which is coming about after many years of inspiring generosity and planning. Due to lingering Covid concerns there won’t be a shared meal before the ceremony but feel free to bring your own meal and enjoy the monastery grounds. See you then.… Read the rest

Notice of the Annual General Meeting for the Year 2020

Date of AGM: Sunday the August 29, 2021.

Place: Tisarana Buddhist Monastery – 1356 Powers Road, Perth, Ontario K7H 3C5

Time: 130pm (EDT)

The Directors of the Board of Tisarana Buddhist Monastery cordially invite all members of good standing to attend the Annual General Meeting (AGM) scheduled to be held on Sunday, August 29, 2021 at 1.30 PM. 

Sincerely,

Tilak Gunawardhane
Secretary to the Board

July 21, 2021… Read the rest

Tisarana Vesak Celebration 2564

May 26 marked this year’s Vesak Day, the full-moon of May that commemorates the Buddha’s Birth, Enlightenment, and Final Passing (Parinibbana). It is a major, sacred occasion in the annual Buddhist calendar, observed throughout the Buddhist world. With Tisarana situated at some distance from the Asian heartlands of Theravada, our celebrations contained improvised as well as traditional features.

Due to Covid restrictions this year’s gathering was modest in size. Supporters arrived earlier in the week with many flower pots to adorn shrines. Residents and others devoted hours to trimming grass and clearing flower beds. On Vesak itself Luang Por Viradhammo, the Bhikkhus, and resident community received cheerful assistance from day-visitors bringing more gifts. Groups of us busied ourselves arranging flowers and candles. Within a few hours the various shrines had been tidied and beautifully adorned: the large standing Buddha near Tisarana’s entrance; the cast Buddha rupa (eventually bound for the Dhamma Hall); the library-shrine room in the Bhikkhu Vihara; the meditation and eating Sala. Even the small Bodhi tree (gamely struggling with spider mites, alas) was decorated.

The following photos offer glimpses of our Vesak. At different junctures of the evening itself Luang Por read from Ven. Nyanamoli’s The Life of the Buddha, dealing with the Blessed One’s Birth, Enlightenment, and Parinibbana.… Read the rest

Stillness Flowing Audio Book

Stillness Flowing » Amaravati Buddhist Monastery

At long last, the much-awaited ‘Stillness Flowing’ audio book is now available online. 
Thanks to the efforts of Aj. Jayasaro and Aj. Siripanyo, the audio book is made available in time for Ajahn Chah’s memorial day today (Jan 16th). 

There are several ways that Stillness Flowing audio book can be accessed:
Directly from Dhamma by Ajahn Jayasaro website:
https://www.jayasaro.panyaprateep.org/en/audio-album/9


iOS devices can be listened to through Apple Podcasts app:
https://podcasts.apple.com/th/podcast/stillness-flowing-audiobook/id1482419439

Android devices can listen through any podcast app or Podbean Pro free app:
https://www.podbean.com/pi/dir-gcht8-a31c9

Dhamma by Ajahn Jayasaro Youtube channel:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgeFTePFzP7oyrAbO9bGsEp39RmnggWcr

… Read the rest

Ajahn Pavaro’s Reflections on 2020

Reflections on 2020

Ajahn Pavaro

December at Tisarana. Each day we walk by the deer in their thickened fur – the does with their observant young, foraging on grass and congregating at the salt lick near our main buildings. The Canada geese have now flown South with their happy racket. Only a few hardy species of birdlife remain, like the chickadees with their pinprick eyes, darting between the low bushes to feeders we fill for the simple pleasure of seeing them thrive.

I’ve now been at Tisarana for half a year; it’s my first Canadian winter after living in Thailand for nine years. Each morning’s community meeting contains a brief weather update – seldom a pressing matter in S.E. Asia. Since returning my supply of clothing and footwear has tripled. Snow has come and gone… and come and gone, and come. Almost without noticing, my acquaintance has returned with the crackle of ice underfoot, the moods of a wood stove, and the uncanny compaction of sound in dense cold.

Yet for all the differences, living as a bhikkhu in this tradition ensures a fair continuity of purpose and practice, something that differing weather, and alterations of flora and fauna, do not disrupt.… Read the rest