【 A Tale of Two Futures - Planetary Realism in the Time of Climate Change 】 By Tim Dai

Introduction

Venerable Chang Ji just delivered an amazing talk at Dharma Drum Vancouver Center, and the talk was closely related to each one of us. It’s on Global Climate Change of our common home - earth. As you may already know, in December 2015 there was an important international conference took place in Pairs regarding Climate Change – COP21. Venerable Chang Ji, representing DDMBA US, attended the full conference which lasted for almost 12 days, and we were very lucky to have her sharing with us what she learned. Unfortunately, some people weren’t able to attend her talk. Therefore, here is my report on her talk and hopefully it can give you a little taste of her talk and this important topic.

It was the first beginner’s seven-day retreat held together by Dharma Drum Mountain Buddhist Center Malaysia and Dharma Drum Mountain Singapore at Puzhao Buddhist Vihara(柔佛州普照寺) in Malaysia from 20-27th September 2015. There were 91 retreatants, including 34 retreatants from Singapore and one from Hong Kong.

Presented by Zarko Andreicevic on Nov. 21, 2015

A summary of the talk

“Chan” and “daily life” are seemingly two different concepts to most people. How do we relate the two? Is it possible to have Chan in our daily life? How can we benefit from having Chan in our daily lives?

Daily life is comprised of difficulties, conflicts and hardships – Suffering. On the other hand, the practice of Chan leads us to freedom from suffering.

There are different classifications of Chan practice:
Formal practice, informal practice, regular daily practice, intensive practice, individual or group practice. From the perspective of Chan, life and practice are one in the same. Chan is applicable to our everyday lives.

An important characteristic of Chan tradition is that everything we do can be turned into the practice of Chan; it can be easily applied to all aspects of daily life.

What a blessing it is when Dharma Drum Mountain can fulfill its mission to uplift the character of humanity and uphold its commitment to furthering Buddhist education all in one day. Sunday, October 18th may have been just another cloudy fall day but DDVC was alight with the curiosity and enthusiasm of 34 Simon Fraser University (SFU) humanities students taking a course in Buddhist studies. Lead by their professor Michael Newton and his wife Kate McCandles, both Soto (Chn. Caodong) priests with Mountain Rain Zen Center in Vancouver, these students got to have a taste of some delicious cheesecake and Dharma Drum's unique flavour of Chan.

A Workshop co-sponsored by DDVC and UBC

A congregation of Buddhist scholars gathered at the Dharma Drum Vancouver Center on Saturday, October 4th, in the late hours of the afternoon. They come from all over the world to attend the conference on Paper, Print and Cyberspace: The Perspective of a Global Network for the Multimedia and Interdisciplinary Studies of Buddhism and East Asian Religions, happening over the course of two days, featuring DDVC as the host location on the first day, and the University of British Columbia on the second.

I have a habit of reflecting on my behaviour and speech, especially when I feel what I did and said may have hurt others. Most of the times, I could find out my mistakes and I would not feel good, because my heart was full of regret and self criticism.

By Chang-Chan 19/08/2015
At the invitation of DDMBA London and the Cambridge Oriental Culture Association (COCA), Ven. Chang Zhan and Ven. Chang Chan from Dharma Drum Mountain Sangha travelled to the UK to conduct a five-day Chan meditation retreat and give a lecture on Chan practice, from August 5 to 13.

This summer camp at Dharma Drum Vancouver Center was certainly an unforgettable experience. Even though the title of it seemed religious and somewhat dull, it actually helps me both physically and mentally. Through participating various thoughtful activities, I had a deeper understanding of myself and also practiced the art of concentrating. In a same manner, meditating and the lectures that were given by masters made me rethought the way I used to view the world. In addition, the vegetarian meals are particularly tasty and fresh. By the way, the All you can eat buffet really made my day.

(By Alan Wu, grade 10)

In this lecture, Dr. Jessica Main addressed the state of contemporary Buddhism in Japan and compared her views with other scholars who have written books on this subject.

Presently, three sects of Buddhism exist in Japan – Zen, Pureland and Lotus School of Buddhism.
These sects are structured with a few head temples, each having a network branching in smaller temples. The temples in the lower hierarchy pay up to the head temples which in turn, organize resources for their temples downstream. In recent years, this network has atrophied and Buddhism is currently in a state of crisis in Japan.

We all know that in dreams people confuse dream phenomena with reality by engaging in those scenarios. They don’t realize that it is only a dream until they wake up. What most people don’t know is that our daytime activities are also a dream, in which our minds are constantly engaged in images from our memories and regarding those as real. How can this all be a dream?