Happy BIG BUDDHA DAY 2013 !

Today is the trifold anniversary Of Buddha Sakya Muni.
He was born, got enlightened And attained parinirvana On the full moon days of this month 26 centuries before now.
This is the time for us to remember that great apostle of peace. The teacher who taught us to train Our mind and awaken within us The great wisdom and compassion.

By Ringu Tulku 25th May 2013

Enjoy Big Buddha Day 2013, Everyone.
May your Presence bring Love and Light to All!

[If you gather and sit today, please post messages and photos in COMMENTS on bigbuddhaday.blogspot.com , or on my FaceBook 'Bruno Nua', 'Big Buddha Day 2013' Event, or email to me and I will do it for you nuabruno@gmail.com]

THANK YOU!

Dear AMJC,
Wonderful seeing you again today.

I thought you might enjoy these 3 films - one for each of my precious masters

[thanks to you i became their student]

Sogyal Rinpoche

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=KwCyxBtSKuw#!

 

 

Thich Nhat Hanh

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtZtR9BKDYk

 

 

 

Ringu Tulku Rinpoche

 

http://www.bodhicharya.org/ringu-tulku/lazy-lama-film/

 

Thank you so much!

Enjoy!

Love and Light,
bruno

Big Buddha Day 2013

BIG BUDDHA DAY 2013 will be Saturday May 25.

The May Full Moon occurs from 24th to 26th [depending on which part of the world you are in].

Therefore we can choose Saturday May 25 at 3pm.

This year the suggestion is to gather with friends in ANY public place that inspires you and simply sit for 1 hour together:

BODY STILL

SPEECH SILENT

MIND AT REST

If you would like to communicate with others about where you have arranged to sit at 3pm please feel free to click on the title bar of this post and leave a message below or - better still - go to www.bigbuddhaday.blogspot.com and do it there.
The Event is also on facebook... simply search Big Buddha Day 2013

Spread the Love and Light!
Shine in this Dark Age,

bruno

PS I will be sitting by the benches where people wait for trains in HEUSTON RAILWAY STATION, DUBLIN, IRELAND.

Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche Teaching on what GURU really means

DZONGSAR KHYENTSE RINPOCHE is the reincarnation of the pre-eminent Tibetan Buddhist master, Jamyang Khyentse Chokyi Lodro.
For those who are not yet familiar with him [DKR], there is plenty of information and tantalizing links all over the web.

I recently had the good karma to meet MARTIN DUDEK on my travels. Amongst many other positive deeds, he is in the process of sharing online a collection of teachings by DKR in a blog to which i highly recommend you subscribe for updates.

Here is the blog's main page, which begins with the latest post

http://justdzongsar.wordpress.com/

London Calling

I have finished writing my first novel, LONDON CALLING.

It is number one in a series of five 'Dharma Mystery-Thrillers'.
The books all feature Jalu, a wandering Tibetan Buddhist Master, who is both narrator and principle character.

Each novel explores one major theme from the Buddha's teachings.
 
In the first one, Jalu is in Spain where he meets Virginia Blake [a 62 year old English woman living in Madrid]. She has Early-Onset Alzheimers but has become embroiled in a fast-paced road trip: She and her friends are on the run.

Think Pedro Almadóvar meets Dan Brown meets Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, and you're half-way there!

On the surface, LONDON CALLING is a novel about history, espionage, truth and lies.
However, it is also a profound contemplation on the Mind, and the Buddha's teachings on Meditation.

Any publishers out there?

We have moved to Bangkok from Koh Chang, our paradise island. Soon, we will leave Thailand and slowly make our way back to Ireland for sometime in June. 



   

just keeping in touch...

Dear Friends,
Annie Dibble, of Bodhicharya Ireland, invited me to share a bit about what i am up to these days, so here goes. [If you are feeling bad because you haven't been abroad for years, this will do your head in so STOP READING NOW! LOL!]

EPIPHANY 2013

Interestingly, the Gorgeous M and i have undergone a sudden awakening on the road to damascus... no, honestly, we woke up rather abruptly in the back of a mini-van, all tied up like, and when we asked our captors where they were taking us they simply said 'Damascus'!...

ah no. only kidding... phew! ... but we did have a total epiphany... you see, there were all these shepherds, and kings bringing gifts to the Christ Child.... NO STOP IT... there i go again... Sweet Baby Jesus, my morning coffee was strong today...

What i'm trying to tell you is... you know we had planned to live in Phuket for a few months, starting any day now

Anyway, we have decided to move lock stock and barrel to Cambodia instead!

We need to do something that neither of us has done before and we heard of this place called Koh Kong on the coast just over the border in Cambodia. The name kept cropping up in random conversations with diff people, so we said Ah Here... the universe is inviting us to explore somewhere new so who are we to keep our legs closed in the face of the cosmos and all that. i mean that's like HUGE and everything, right?

So, after a quick few days in our favourite spot in Thailand [jan 6 - 9 on Koh Samet Island], swimming and hanging out with good friends, We're off on the 14 of jan til sometime in April

We must be mad, but we can't be arsed going on a recon mission. So we will bring all our bags with us the first time and take it from there... the hair gel alone plus books on Buddhist Philosophy weigh, oooh? i'd say at least 40 kilo

Ever heard of it, Koh Kong? [or the other main town on the coast, Sehanoukville?]
Private message me if you have any tips or ideas about accommodation

Sure, what else would a person do, right? ... In the pursuit of sanity and a blessed retreat, i head for the sea... OOOH LA MER ! ... yes... the sea
 

Yoko Ono is right, darlings:
For 2013, she took out a whole page in the NY Times that simply contained 2 beautiful words, overflowing with limitless Wisdom and Compassion...

IMAGINE PEACE

love,

bruno

retreating from it all...

The Gorgeous M and I have retreated to South East Asia again for a while.
Sometimes it is just the right thing to do - make a break for it, and leave the over-familiar far behind. This time, we have rented a small place in Bangkok as a starting point. Soon, we hope to be somewhere by the sea. 

Having arrived not long ago, i had to hit the ground running as i was invited to guest-lecture in Chulalongkorn University on key aspects of The Heart Sutra. It was such an honour for me as the university is perhaps the most prestigious in Asia and those in attendance were mainly post-graduate students particularly keen on the topic. 

While speaking, i was mindful of many different contributing factors:
Of course the blessings and teachings of my masters Sogyal Rinpoche, Ringu Tulku Rinpoche, and Thich Nhat Hanh are always with me, informing whatever i share in such a situation.
I was also very mindful of the place where the Buddha taught on this topic [and all the Prajnaparamita Sutras]. I have clear memories of being on pilgrimmage in Northern India at Rajgir [Vulture Peak Mountain] where the Buddha first offered these teachings.
Even just being in Chulalongkorn University brought back fond memories of the movie The King and I and Anna and the King. It was the king's son and heir, Chulalongkorn, who was so transformed by his European-style education that he was later inspired to found the famous university in Bangkok.

But now i look forward to resuming writing my novel London Calling: Jalu Rises in the West. I am enjoying the process so much as this is totally new territory for me - fiction, fun, my own fusion of thriller drama and dharma. As with previous writing projects, i continue to write with little regard for being published although i do always write with readers in mind. All that can come later.

...Finally, i would like to share with you a beautiful short film called Lazy Lama made by Niko von Glasow, another student of RTR. 

http://www.bodhicharya.org/blog/2012/12/14/lazy-lama-film/ 

This mini-documentary not only introduces Ringu Tulku Rinpoche but focuses specifically on the Bodhicharya Retreat Centre in the Himalayan foothills of Sikkim.

It shows something of the retreat environment and the centre itself. But, above all, the film follows a small group of Western practitioners doing a traditional Tibetan Buddhist long-term retreat -  always awe-inspiring, often unthinkable at least for those of us still deeply rooted in Samsara ... their strict retreat lasted 3 Years, 3 Months and 3 Days.

Many of us were delighted to contribute to the building of the retreat centre, and in particular the incredible finishing touches such as the art work and the large bronze Buddha you see in the film.

It also just so happens that i was privileged to tag along with RTR and his brother Pema who built the centre one afternoon actually during the 3 Year retreat mentioned and have a rather unorthodox and tantalizing snoop around the building while the retreatants were in their rooms doing individual meditation practice... 

a very short montage of shakey-cam video snips i made that day can be found at http://vimeo.com/10177834

Then the retreatants suddenly began appearing for lunch break so i was whisked away in Pema's landrover back across the valley to Sikkim's tiny capital, the comparatively bustling metropol-ette of Gangtok.

Happy Days!

[... more on the current stay in Thailand as it unfolds]
  

Eckhart Tolle speaks in detail about his Awakening

Thanks to a brief conversation with David, one of our house-mates, I began thinking again of Eckhart Tolle.

For a long time now I have yearned to hear Eckhart Tolle speak at length about how he became Awakened, how it feels, what goes through his head, how his life unfolds from moment to moment...

Here it is... enjoy!

Sounds so familiar. It could so easily have sprung from the inner mind of so many Jewish Kaballah or Christian mystics, or a Muslim Sufi poet. 
To me it sounds most like Hindu Advaita and of course the teachings of the Buddha; for those who have already been blessed enough to hear a fraction of its limitless bounty, it sounds like pure Dzogchen. Mahamudra. Zen.
For those who have never heard anything like it before, fear not, be at peace. As so many Irish Mammies have said, 'If it is for you, it won't pass you by'.
... It is the sound of the Outer Teacher speaking to your Inner Teacher.

It is the Truth.
No more, no less.
Pure and Simple.

May All Beings Wake Up.

YOUTUBE VIDEO HERE

Amazing video of a Tibetan Buddhist EMPOWERMENT last week.

Ever wondered what the inside of a Tibetan Buddhist monastery looks like? Or how receiving a traditional 'empowerment' from a venerable Rinpoche might go?
Situated in the majestic, Himalayan Kingdom of Sikkim - nestled between Nepal, Tibet, and Bhutan - this is a wonderful record of an empowerment offered by Goshri Gyaltsab Rinpoche the other day, to all those who gathered from near and far at Densa Palchen Chosling monastery, Southern Sikkim.

My master, Ringu Tulku Rinpoche, can be clearly seen translating, with a microphone in his left hand, at 1 min 57 on the video. He is on the far right of the screen in the second row.

As a side-bar to this and my previous post, i would like to conclude by writing something briefly about the growing need for spiritual teachings and practice in this Dark Age.

The other day was my master Thich Nhat Hanh's birthday. Curiously, i found myself chatting to another of his students who i first got to know when Thay was finally allowed back into his homeland Vietnam a few years ago and some of us went along to accompany him.
Dark days indeed - i thought to myself [since he is our connection to each other] - that she didn't mention Thay's birthday at all. 

Then she began to tell me of her experience of what she imagined people were looking for from a spiritual teacher nowadays. It was all quite depressing actually.

My friend owns and runs a wonderful resource centre in Dublin where people can enroll to do 'self-improvement' and other mind-body-spirit type courses. Even though she said people enjoyed Mindfulness-related classes, in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh, she reported to me that they weren't all that interested in anything "too Buddhist".

Already I was thinking to myself that Mindfulness IS the very heart of Buddhism, what could be more Buddhist than that?

Then she went through a kind of check list of 'Too Buddhist' topics she thought might not prove so popular with the average spiritual seeker...

Ranging from the vast teachings on Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, to the relationship between student and awakened master, a view was emerging that certain teachings of the Buddha [and key tenets of being a Buddhist] are best avoided altogether if you wanted to have full classes and not make people too uncomfortable.

So now I'm thinking, 'I thought the whole point of the teachings was NOT to pander to what people want to hear. Or to avoid discomfort'. 

Then i was reminded of how we must be particularly sensitive to Irish people because we have been through so much over the decades. Roman Catholic fascist dogma and clerical sexual abuse have combined [quite rightly] to send the ordinary Irish woman and man running for the hills! The last thing people want, my friend asserted, was yet another orthodox religion with lots of things to believe in and rituals to perform, or [worse again] have performed on our behalf.

Then i started to reflect more and more on how Buddhism might appear to Irish ex-Catholics. 
This morning i am wondering if the Buddha's teachings should [or even could] be dumbed down to suit the sensitivities of the times we live in.

If lying on a yoga mat listening to whale-song helps people to feel happy, relaxed and more at peace, is that not where dharma teachers should be starting?

But ultimately I am coming round to the realisation that having all sorts of judgements and mistaken preconceptions - not just about Buddhism, but about EVERYTHING - is what actually creates our suffering in the first place. 

The answer, therefore, must surely be to dispel those misconceptions by facing them head-on, and not shy away from the uncomfortable truth of all phenomena:

Things change... The surface of our mind has a tendency to suffer... Deep down, however, we are already perfectly wise and compassionate... We are already Awake!

Authentic Buddhist teachings and practices can only serve to bring us back to that spontaneous state of Primordial Purity.

There's no need to water things down too much.

... Let's not throw out the Buddha with the bath water!

 

Dear Thay, Happy 86th Birthday!

Today [Oct 11, 2012] is the 86th Birthday of my teacher Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh ! 

Here are four things you may or may not know about Thay:

The Divine David Hoyle

If you have no interest in exploring the Buddha Nature/ Soul that lies beneath the surface of what appears to be a mentally disturbed, tortured artist, STOP READING NOW, and get back to your day.

Forthcoming Classes in Dublin

HEART ESSENCE

Hear, Contemplate and Taste

The Buddha’s Main Teachings

Lecture-Workshops led by Bruno Nua M.A., H.D.E.

[20 Hour Intensive Course open to All]

OPTIONS:

September, 2012.

1.     Over 2 Weekends, 10am-1pm, 2-4pm. Sa 22, Su 23, Sa 29, Su 30.

2.     Over 1 Week [Daytime], 11am-1pm, 2-4pm. Mon 24 – Fri 28.

October 2012.

1.     Over 1 Week [Days], 11am-1pm, 2-4pm. Mon 1 – Fri 5.

2.     Over 1 Week [Days], 11am-1pm, 2-4pm. Mon 8 – Fri 12.

3.     Over 4 Saturdays, 10am-1pm, 2-4pm. Sa 6, 13, 20, 27.

4.     Over 10 Weekday Evenings, 730pm-930. Mon 15 – Fri 19 plus Mon 22 – Fri 26.

5.     Over 4 Days [Intensive], 10am-1pm, 2-4pm, Sun 28, Mon 29, Tue 30, Wed 31.

FEE:

20 Hours for €200, Concessions available on request.

Includes a digital copy of HEART ESSENCE: Buddhism, In One Volume by Bruno Tashi Rabjay, as required course reading.

BOOKING/ INFORMATION ON VENUE:

brunonua.com  087 686 7062 nuabruno@gmail.com

BRUNO NUA graduated in Theology and Education from Trinity College Dublin in 1990. He has been a student of renowned Buddhist Masters Sogyal Rinpoche, Ringu Tulku Rinpoche and Thich Nhat Hanh ever since. Having founded Buddhist Network Ireland, Bruno represented Irish Buddhists on the Inter-Religious Council of Ireland. As well as writing books exploring Buddhist Philosophy, and a gritty new series of novels revealing the Buddha’s teachings through a thriller-fiction genre, Bruno guest-lectures short courses on Buddhism in Europe, Asia and wherever he is invited.

Samsara, the movie

http://youtu.be/q9WUTSWarEE

This has to be THE Movie of the Year!

'Samsara' is a Buddhist term meaning the opposite to 'Nirvana', just as Mental Suffering is the opposite to Bliss... The teaching of the Buddha is: transform the mind such that Samsara becomes Nirvana, then we must transcend BOTH Nirvana AND Samsara altogether[!]. The Ultimate state of being a buddha is to 'go completely beyond' all phenomena to the point where one has become so grounded, so open, that neither hell nor heaven can knock u

s off course.

This indescribable movie, takes the old film-making adage 'Show me, don't tell me' to The EXTREME...

The images [and wonderful soundtrack] take you on a journey without any words or commentary whatsoever. This journey stylistically portrays the world with all its natural beauty and resources - its simple, content people and its neurotic, suffering people -

The whole juxtaposition begs the inevitable question: Why the EFF are we all living this way??!!!

Drifting

It has been a long time since i blogged here...

Partly due to the sucking vortex that is FaceBook and partly due to life circumstances, the best word to describe what i am doing at the moment is drifting...

When i look at these beautiful photos by Zsolt Sütó, i begin to understand why drifting is not the big problem it first appears to be.
In fact, drifting is more like the natural state of things.


We imagine phenomena are fixed and enduring. So we grasp onto them thinking they are something they are not. 
We are therefore the very cause of our own suffering when change occurs and phenomena return to their old drifting ways.

Roman Catholicism on the Rebound in Ireland

This photo shows Roman Catholics in 1932 Ireland having mass on O'Connell Bridge, Dublin in 1932. The whole country was brought to a standstill for something called The Eucharistic Congress.

Fast forward to today's Dublin, Ireland...

The Eucharistic Congress 2012 is occurring once again in Dublin.

Despite everything that has happened in Ireland - regarding the subjugation over many decades of the general population by that Church, even of non-Catholics, and culminating in the abuse and rape of generations of children - and regarding the valiant spiritual/cultural counter-awakening that appeared to have begun in Ireland, perhaps as a result - today we wake up in Ireland to find concert halls, universities and the national sports stadium decked out like an ersatz right-wing rally...

As we say in Ballyer, 'Plus ca change. Plus c'est la meme chose'!
[= 'go figure... you've nobody to blame but yourself']

Happy May 1st !

The First Day of SUMMER!!! Happy Days are here again... if we want them.

Spring is fading into Summer as 'April Showers' drift into 'May of Many Weathers'. But still, change is happening all around us and we can surf that wave too, if we dare.

May 1st is also a day for celebrating the ordinary working people around the world.

May all people have equality and justice!
May they be liberated from all forms of suffering!
May fear and corruption give way to Loving Compassion and Wisdom!

... May ordinary people like you and me FINALLY discover just how EXTRAORDINARY we are!!!

Love,

Bruno

PS Happy Big Buddha Day on May 5th

Happy Birthday?! ... HAPPY THAI NEW YEAR!

WOW! ...... O.. My.... BUDDHA... !!! 

 

Who told all these crazy people today is my birthday?!! ... Just kidding - it's also Thai New Year! Happy New Year... Sawatdi Pi Mai !! 

 

Thanks to all our friends and family for your kind Birthday wishes [Michael's birthday is tomorrow]... so we are bringing everyone out to dinner tonight and start celebrating M's b'day after midnight with a bit of a party [somewhere dry i hope... my Prada top can only take SO MUCH super-saturation, darling]

 

Just look at them... over 10,000 people [and that's just on our street!!] ... I can hear Handel's HALLELUIA Chorus rising in the back of my mind [it was first performed on this day, in Dublin] and i am also more than curious to know what Samuel Beckett [also born today] would have made of it all ... 

Talk about Waiting for Godot... Thai New Year water fights go on for at least 72 hours! ... More like Waiting for 'Stoppo, Or I'll Hit Yiz Over the Head with a Massive Blunt Object-o '.   

 

The Latest Ramblings from South East Asia

Thanks to everyone at Thousand Stars Foundation Bangkok for inviting me again last Saturday. I really enjoyed presenting and exploring the main teachings in the Sutra of Transcendent Wisdom.

As ever, i was also delighted to meet so many good people in one place!

It turns out the Bangkok Post ran a small item about the Dharma Talk and people were inspired to attend having seen it in the paper over breakfast. I must thank Perry from Oklahoma USA and Lisa from Brisbane Australia in particular for their care and support... and Yes, i would be delighted to visit your local dharma centres as soon as the opportunity arises.

What Does a Buddha DO All Day?!

HOMAGE TO THE BUDDHA. HOMAGE TO THE DHARMA. HOMAGE TO THE SANGHA.
HOMAGE TO THE LAMA WHO EMBODIES ALL THREE!

The Buddha's teachings tell us that we are all, by nature, buddhas.

But how would it FEEL to be a buddha?
What would be DIFFERENT about us?
What would we DO with our time and energy?

The answers to these and so many other questions are contained in the teachings on The 6 Paramitas.
 
Thanks to my master Ringu Tulku Rinpoche for tirelessly and continually offering these precious jewels. Of all the masters currently travelling and teaching worldwide, RTR must be one of the busiest.