The Tibetan Cultural Institute of Arkansas will hold an informal public organizational and informational meeting on Wednesday, March 12, 2008 at 6:00 pm.  The meeting will be held in the Willard and Pat Walker Community Room of the Fayetteville Public Library, located at 401 W. Mountain Street in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

The Tibetan Cultural Institute of Arkansas, founded by Ven. Geshe Thupten Dorjee and Professor Sidney Burris, is dedicated to helping the Tibetan people preserve their culture and religion within the emerging global village. The Institute pursues its objectives through education, through providing the public with teachings, demonstrations, exhibits, lectures, films, study trips - in short, with any activity that artfully showcases one of the world’s oldest and most comprehensive civilizations.

This meeting is free and open to all interested members of the public.

Geshe Thupten Dorjee, of the Tibetan Heritage Institute of Arkansas, will lead a tsog offering for the benefit of the Tibetan people on Sunday, August 5 from 11:00 am - 12:30 pm. The ceremony is open to the public and will be held at Dramis Hardwood Floors; 2275 S School Avenue in Fayetteville.

Tsog offering pujas are ceremonies that involve making offerings of food and drink to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in conjunction with prayers, chanting, and meditation. They are an excellent method for accumulating merit, purifying negativity, and receiving and giving blessings. Participants are encouraged to bring an offering of fruit, drink, or flowers to the ceremony.

This summer will witness the largest demonstration of solidarity with the cause of Tibetan freedom in the history of Tibet. On July 8, 14 Tibetans began an indefinite hunger strike in Delhi, India in an attempt to force the People’s Republic of China to meet certain demands related to religious and human rights within Tibet. On August 8, hundreds of thousands of Tibetans in India will begin a mass demonstration based on the principles of nonviolence and Gandhi’s tradition of satyagraha, meaning “insistence on truth”. For more information on the hunger strike and upcoming demonstration, visit the web site of the Tibetan Youth Congress at www.tibetanyouthcongress.org.

The Saturday, June 30 edition of the Arkansas Democrat Gazette will feature an article about Geshe Thupten Dorjee, highly educated Tibetan Buddhist monk and founder of the Tibetan Heritage Institute of Arkansas.

In conjunction with the article, a video interview with Geshe will be available on the Democrat Gazette’s web site at http://www.arkansasonline.com/video/

Geshe and Sidney will be leaving for India on May 7 and returning to the United States, if all goes smoothly, on May 27. Their primary purpose in going to India is to set up a study-abroad trip for the students at the University of Arkansas. This trip would take place in the summer of 2008, and as it is currently conceived would involve three weeks of classroom work here on campus followed by three weeks of travel in India. Geshe and Sidney will be visiting, primarily, New Delhi, Agra (the Taj Mahal), Drepung Loseling monastery in the south of India, and Dharamsala. Current plans are to resume meditation classes on Sunday, June 3.

We will also be creating a Tibetan Heritage Institute of Arkansas blogsite, but we will not be using it until we return. We will, however, post pictures there as soon as we return and provide you with updates on the housing situation for Geshe and Rinzin, as well as on the land that has been offered to us for a meditation retreat.
 

The Tibetan Heritage Institute of Arkansas deeply regrets the tragedy that recently visited the campus of Virginia Tech, and we join with the nation as it mourns their deep loss.

I believe all religions pursue the same goals, that of cultivating human goodness and bringing happiness to all human beings.  Though the means might appear different the ends are the same . . .  I believe all suffering is caused by ignorance.  People inflict pain on others in the selfish pursuit of their happiness or satisfaction.  Yet true happiness comes from a sense of brotherhood and sisterhood.  We need to cultivate a universal responsibility for one another and the planet we share.  Although I have found my own Buddhist religion helpful in generating love and compassion, even for those we consider our enemies, I am convinced that everyone can develop a good heart and a sense of universal responsibility with or without religion (His Holiness the Dalai Lama, from The Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech, 1989).