Dharma Vijaya Buddhist Vihara, Inc.
1847 Crenshaw Boulevard Los Angeles CA 90019
Tel: 323 -737-5084 and Fax: 323-737-7915
www.dharmavijaya.org
- email: dharma@vel.net
Dharma
Vijaya Tsunami Donation - Web Page:
http://www.dharmavijaya.org/tsunami.html
This an urgent appeal sent out to all Sri Lankans, Americans
and other friends of Sri Lanka around the world - for immediate
and urgent help!
Dharma Vijaya Buddhist Vihara (Temple in Los Angeles) and the
Sri Lankan Buddhist Sangha Council of the United States and
Canada request your assistance for the people affected by this
disaster.
Yesterday's massive tsunamis have left coastal areas of Sri
Lanka in a state of devastation and shock. Reports today say
that there are over 20,000 people who have died and over a million
have been left homeless and displaced.
The Sri Lankan Buddhist Sangha Council of the United States
and Canada is undertaking a two-fold plan to aid the victims
of this disaster:
1.
We will immediately send funds for the additional purchase of
food and medicine.
2. We will directly oversee the distribution of funds
for the rebuilding process.
We
recommend that you send your monetary contribution to - Dharma
Vijaya Buddhist Vihara (or any Sri Lankan
Buddhist temple in the United States) - so that we
can send your contribution to Sri Lanka.
Please do not send materials such as clothes and other items
due to transportation difficulties. We can purchase needed items
in Sri Lanka which will also benefit the economy there.
Please make your checks payable to the - Sri Lanka Tsunami
Relief Fund - and mail to:
Dharma Vijaya Buddhist Vihara,
1847 Crenshaw Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90019
- or -
To transfer funds please send to:
Bank of America #122000661-0357105557
Sincerely yours,
Ven. Walpola Piyananda
President and Abbot, Dharma Vijaya Buddhist Vihara
President, Sri Lankan Buddhist Sangha Council of the United
States and Canada
*** *** *** *** ***
Dharmapala Institute
409 S. Temple Drive, Milpitas, CA 95035
Tel:(408) 934-3985 -- Email: buddhistvihara@buddhistvihara.net
www.BuddhistVihara.net
We
need you help in providing tsunami relief for victims in Sri
Lanka.
Our
mission is to guide the young and the old who seek peace and
contentment by opening to them a door to understand reality
about self, and about the world, through Buddhist meditation
techniques, Buddhist philosophical teachings, and the Buddhist
way of thinking and living.
*** *** *** *** ***
Karuna
Trust - Sri Lanka
No. 67, U.D.A. Industrial Estate
Katuwana Road, Homagama - Sri Lanka, Postal Code: 10200
Tel: +94 11 2857649 - +94 71 2749115 - Fax: +94 11 4440313
E-mail: senehasa@sltnet.lk
www.KarunaLanka.org
Karuna
Trust is collecting funds to bring relief to the victims of
the tsunami at a time of National disaster. These funds will
be used to buy whatever is necessary according to the requiremens
at ground Zero.
Two third (2/3) of the coastline was hit, while 1 in every 20
people on this Island with 20 million population has become
homeless.
Karuna Trust is kindness in action. It is a voluntary organization
dedicated for improving the living standards of materially poor
people in Sri Lanka. It receives its inspiration from the following
insight from the late Most Venerable Madihe Pannasiha Mahanayaka
Thera, who was a leading social worker in Sri Lanka: Develop
the human being first; the country will develop automatically.
*** *** *** *** ***
Thailand
Relief Fund - Los Angeles
Over
1,830 people are confirmed dead, and more than 8,432 people
were injured after at least three tidal waves lashed the South
of Thailand and swept their way across Asia killing more than
100,000.
YOU
CAN HELP -- DONATE NOW
All
donations are tax-deductible. Checks should
be made payable to:
"Thai Association of Southern
California" or "TASC"
Send
Checks To:
Royal
Thai Consulate General
S. Thailand Disaster Relief Fund
611 N. Larchmont Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90004
*** *** *** *** ***
Catholic
Relief Services
www.CatholicRelief.org
Catholic
Relief Services - has committed $25 million in private emergency
funding for immediate and long-term efforts to help save lives
and assist communities in rebuilding after this terrible disaster.
Catholic
Relief Services - was founded in 1943 by the Catholic Bishops
of the United States. Our mission is to assist the poor and
disadvantaged, leveraging the teachings of the Gospel of Jesus
Christ to alleviate human suffering, promote development of
all people and to foster charity and justice throughout the
world.
***
*** *** *** ***
American
Red Cross of Greater Los Angeles
www.AcrossLA.org
All
Red Cross chapters in the Los Angeles area are promoting fundraising
activities to raise much needed donations to assist millions
of people in south Asia who have suffered through one of the
worst natural disasters in modern times. As the death toll climbs
over 100,000 and the prospect of starvation and disease looms,
Red Cross volunteers and paid staff are accepting donations
at chapter locations, holding special fundraising events, and
reaching out to their communities to insure the needs of disaster
victims are understood.
***
*** *** *** ***
United
Nations Children's Relief Fund -- UNICEF
www.UNICEF.org
UNICEF - responds in emergencies to protect the rights of
children. In coordination with United Nations partners and humanitarian
agencies, UNICEF makes its unique facilities for rapid response
available to its partners to relieve the suffering of children
and those who provide their care.
***
*** *** *** ***
|
Over
time a Buddhist comes to realize he or she has the power
to change certain conditions through choice and
accept other conditions through practice.
Choice
- (Kamma)
1.
Patience -- Knowing that the Law of Kamma offers a
Buddhist support. He comes to understand the grand lesson
of patience, not to get excited, and that impatience is
a road block to his progress. Patience brings forth peace,
success, happiness, and security.
2. Confidence -- The law of Kamma is just and perfect,
it is not possible for a skillful Buddhist to be uneasy
about Kamma. If he is uneasy and has no confidence, it
shows clearly that he has not grasped the reality of the
law. He is really quite safe beneath its wings, and there
is nothing to fear except his own misdeeds. Kamma makes
him stand on his own two feet and rouses his self-confidence.
Confidence strengthens, or rather deepens his peace and
happiness, and makes him comfortable and courageous.
3. Self-Reliance -- As in the past, a Buddhist
has caused himself to be what he is now, and what he does
now will determine his future. A knowledge of this fact,
gives him self-reliance. "Purity and impurity belong
to oneself, no one can purify another," says the
Buddha.
4. Restraint -- Naturally, if a Buddhist comes
to realize that unskillful intention, speech, and action
will return to strike him. This knowledge will restrain
him from any wrong doing for others' sakes, as well as
his own.
5. Power -- The more a Buddhist makes the doctrine
of Kamma a part of his life, the more power he gains,
not only to direct his future, but to help his fellow
beings. The skillful practice of Kamma, when fully developed,
will enable him to overcome his limitations and destroy
all the fetters that keep him from the goal of Nibbana.
--- (from - Gems of Buddhist Wisdom)
Buddhist
Practice - (Dhamma)
The
purpose of Buddhist Practice is to awaken our inherent
inner capacities of strength, compassion and wisdom. Meditation
and mantra recitation are the practice of inner reconditioning.
Buddhist practice replaces the negative with the virtuous,
and our ignorance with wisdom.
For Buddhists, practice expresses an aspiration to pull
something into one's life, like some new energy or purifying
influence and share it with all beings. Likewise, practice
inspires our hearts towards wisdom and compassion for
others and ourselves. It allows us to turn our hearts
and minds to the beneficial, rousing our thoughts and
actions towards Awakening.
What's more, practice can function as a form of self-talking
or self-therapy in which one mentally talks through a
problem, or talks through it aloud, in the hope that some
new insight will come or a better decision can be made.
Buddhist practice therefore frequently has the function
of being part of a decision-making process.
The wonderful thing about Buddhist practice is that we
can do it everywhere and anytime, transforming the ordinary
and mundane into the Path of Awakening. Practice enriches
our lives with a deep sense of connection to all things,
here and now.
Buddhist Practice is an important part of our spiritual
journey, transforming confusion into clarity and suffering
into joy. For practice to be effective it must be devoid
of any self-centeredness and calculation. It should be
done to strengthen and open our hearts, and to benefit
all beings. --- (from - The Buddhist Pureland Faith)
|
***
*** *** *** ***
The Great Compassion Mantra Pledge Drive
www.DRBY.net/drive
The Great Compassion Mantra is a Buddhist blessing that
contains Kwan Yin Bodhisattva's
heart of kindness and compassion. Kwan Yin Bodhisattva is the
Awakened Being of Great Compassion, the woman in white who resembles
the Blessed Virgin of Catholicism, and whose sacred name: Namo
Guan Shi Yin Pusa, has been bringing shelter and refuge to Asian
Buddhists for generations.
We
of the Dharma Realm Buddhist Youth are inviting you to join
us in pledging to recite the Great Compassion Mantra on behalf
of all those whose lives have been touched by suffering in the
South Asian earthquake and tsunami disaster.
People
are welcome to pledge mantra recitations; one is not too few
and 108 recitations a day are not too many. This is another
way for us to continue the rescue effort, beyond material needs.
It's something we can give and in some ways more direct and
longer lasting than money-- not that it replaces financial offering
but spiritual blessings and prayers are another kind of giving
that we often overlook.
***
*** *** *** ***
Dalai
Lama Prays for Tsunami Victims of Sri Lanka
***
COLOMBO
(AFP) - The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama,
said he and a congregation of monks and nuns would pray for
the thousands of people killed by tsunamis in Buddhist Sri Lanka.
"I am especially very saddened by the great loss of lives
and devastation that has taken place in Sri Lanka," the
69-year-old spiritual leader said in a message to President
Chandrika Kumaratunga.
"As is our tradition we are organising a special offering
of prayers by a congregation of monks and nuns both for those
who have lost their lives and those who are bereaved,"
the Dalai Lama said.
Sunday's earthquake and tsunamis killed over 40,000 people in
Sri Lanka, leaving a 1,000,000 homeless.
***
*** ***
| "The
need for simple human-to-human relationships is becoming
increasingly urgent . . . Today the world is smaller and
more interdependent. One nation's problems can no longer
be solved by itself completely. Thus, without a sense of
universal responsibility, our very survival becomes threatened.
-- Dalai Lama |
|
