Rime Jewel Winter 2019

Rime Buddhist Center 700 West Pennway Kansas City, MO 64108 www.rimecenter.org 816-471-7073

Winter 2019

Increase your knowledge, The Rime Center Welcomes check out the class in the New Year schedule! Sponsorship: A New Model for Special Events The Rime Buddhist Center strives be inclusive and to make visiting teacher events available to everyone, regardless of ability to pay. However, we have received feed- back that even our “suggested Kum Nye – Healing fee” method is a barrier for some, making them likely to skip teach- Inner Space with ings or to experience negative Santosh Philip feelings when paying less than January 18 – 20, 2019 the suggested amount. We want to change that. To this end, the We are delighted to welcome Orgyen Menla: Living Rime Center is trying a radical Santosh Philip back to Kansas a Healthy Life with new approach - sponsorship. City and the Rime Center, Venerable Tulku Yeshi January 18th through 20th. In the coming months, we will Santosh will be leading us in a Rinpoche be looking for sponsors to help system of Tibetan yoga practices March 1 – 3, 2019 us raise $2000 for each visiting called Kum Nye. “Kum Nye teacher event. This amount would exercises teach us how to smooth We are delighted to welcome cover the teacher’s stipend, as the jagged energies of body and back Tulku Yeshi Rinpoche, well as, travel and food costs. To mind. Using massage, postures, March 1st – 3rd, who will give become a sponsor and help us and movement, we can awaken the Orgyen Menla empowerment meet our goal, donations can be blissful feelings within body and and teachings. Orgyen Menla, the made on the registration page senses that can open our energy principle deity for this practice, when registering for an event. centers (chakras) and relieve the is a form of Guru Rinpoche Please consider becoming an pressure of conflicting meanings manifesting as a Buddha of event sponsor in 2019, and help and interpretations.” Tarthang Medicine. Medicine Buddha’s make these valuable teachings motivation is to completely available to everyone. Tulku, Joy of Being. Continued on Page 6 Continued on Page 6

These teachings are available to everyone regardless of ability to pay. We offer partial and full scholarships to those in need, so don’t let lack of finances prevent you from attending. Download and print out our scholarship form at: www.rimecenter.org. Scholarship forms are not accepted by e-mail. Please submit them either by mail or at the Center. Scholarship forms need to be submitted in advance of the event. We have “suggested” fees however, pay what you can afford. Everyone is welcome! It is our hope that some will pay more to cover the those who cannot afford the fee. We simply want everyone to come enjoy these wonderful teachings. meditations by Lama Matthew Rice (Lobpon Palden Gocha) Lama Matthew Rice (Lobpon Palden Gocha) serves as the spiritual director of the Rime Buddhist Center that he administers on a day-to-day basis. In addition he teaches classes on meditation and Buddhism. He also serves as the Buddhist Director for the Greater Kansas City Interfaith Council. Lama Matt is very involved in homeless outreach. He works closely with other Rime members to ensure that the Homeless Outreach program runs smoothly and that it receives the needed supplies for those in need living on the streets. To Be an Inclusive Spiritual Community in Kansas City The Rime Buddhist Center conflicts in ways that reflect the immediate community? What can founder, Lama Chuck, challenged Parliament’s methods: increasing we do to make LGBTQ people us as a sangha to be one of the roles of the world’s next feel more included in the sangha? the most welcoming spiritual generations, women and girls, What can we do to welcome communities in Kansas City. indigenous communities, and immigrants and refugees to our You can see that manifested minority communities, including communities? What can we do today in our Service Guild, immigrants and refugees. to bring more awareness to our with our greeters on Sunday I walked away from that already active programs and mornings, the volunteers in the conference both encouraged outreaches at the Rime Center? Gift Shop, and the meditation and inspired to bring that theme This is our challenge. leaders on Wednesday evenings. to the Rime Buddhist Center. We have, in a small way, already It’s wonderful to see sangha Thinking about this and how taken our first steps, and I members take the time to it can be applied, I realized appreciate our efforts so far. The welcome people to the Rime that through our programs and immediate need, however, is to Center. outreaches, we have been ask ourselves, what are some of However, I wonder whether being removing obstacles to inclusion the things that we can do now the most welcoming spiritual for some time. For example, our that can make us more inclusive? community in Kansas City is Social Justice committee has These don’t need to be grand enough. Does it go far enough been challenging us to look at gestures. Small actions also with our intent as a spiritual white privilege, and suppressed make a difference. The following community? I might be so bold prejudices, that prevent us from ideas have been shared with me as to say no. Last November I truly connecting to people of color over the last few months. had the opportunity to attend in our community. Our homeless • Inviting the surrounding the Parliament of World’s outreach has been challenging community to our Losar event. Religions at its 2018 international us to look at our own negative • Holding space for people convening in Toronto, Ontario. perceptions of homelessness of minority, oppressed, and The theme was The Promise of and poverty in our community. marginalized communities. Inclusion & the Power of Love: Finally, our prison outreach • Including books in the library Pursuing Global Understanding, challenges us to confront our for LGBTQ topics. Reconciliation, and Change. beliefs about punitive justice and • Stating our preferred pronouns According to the organizers, how our correctional systems are during introductions. the theme was inspired, in part, crippling minority, oppressed, and • Doing Tonglen practice by the character of its host city. marginalized communities. on Sundays for minority, In Toronto, advancing civic But what other ways can we oppressed, and marginalized partnerships among faiths and make the Rime Buddhist Center communities who have been guiding institutions to work for a more inclusive spiritual victims of violence. economic, climate, racial, and community? What can we do • Having the Rime Center sectarian justice means solving to include our neighbors in our Continued on Page 3 2 The Rime Jewel Newsletter — © 2019 Rime Buddhist Center Winter 2019 Help Update Our Mailing List If you would like to sign up for the weekly e-mail updates, no longer wish to receive mailings from the Rime Center or you have moved, contact us at: [email protected] or 816-471-7073. Join a Committee Joining a Rime Committee is an excellent way to contribute to the sangha and to become more involved with the Rime Center. If you are interested in becoming involved and serving on a committee, please contact the following chairs about coming to a meeting:

Gift Shop Committee Stephanie Shirazi [email protected] Finance Committee Vickie Cumberland vickie.cumberland@ rimecenter.org Membership Committee Sergio Moreno [email protected] Dharma School Committee Losar-Tibetan New sure to bring a vegetarian dish to Leslie Aguirre [email protected] share. Library Committee Year Celebration February 5th, 2019 William Hunter [email protected] Prison Outreach 5:00 – Open House Andrea VanBecelaere prison.outreach@ Please join us Tuesday, February 5:30 – Performance by the GDPT rimecenter.org Community Outreach 5th at 5 p.m. as we celebrate Pho Hien Lion Dance Troupe Vickie Cumberland vickie.cumberland@ Losar, the Tibetan New Year. This 6:00 – Potluck Dinner rimecenter.org new year is designated as the 6:30 – Family Activities Program Committee Chair: Matt Rice spiritualdirector@ year of the Earth Pig. Meditations From Page 2 rimecenter.org Volunteer Coordinator Losar traces its origins to the partner with support David Keeter [email protected] Newsletter Team pre-Buddhist period in Tibet organizations for minority, Nicole Esquibel, Matt Rice, Dani Dyal when, every winter, Tibetans held oppressed, and marginalized Rime Board Members a spiritual ceremony, offering Gabriele Otto, executive director and board communities. chair large amounts of incense to • Support events and Teri Brody, secretary please local spirits, deities, and festivals in the minority, Vickie Cumberland, treasurer Matt Rice, spiritual director protectors. Around the period oppressed, and marginalized Beniah Leuschke when the measurement of time communities. Andrea Van Becelaere Grievance Committee based on phases of the moon Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are Gabriele Otto was introduced, this ceremony compelled to end the suffering of [email protected] evolved into an annual Buddhist all sentient beings based on the Special Thanks festival, which may have been wishes of those sentient beings, To Paul Kotz and FRD Communications for the first celebration of what printing our newsletter. not just to act for the sake of the Permission has become the traditional few that we like when we agree Articles may be reprinted or reproduced with farmers’ festivals. Later, after with their wishes. The Buddhas permission. Please contact Lama Matt Rice. the rudiments of the science and Bodhisattvas do not perform Financial Aid Available of astrology were introduced actions for sentient beings based Workshops and classes, as with all Dharma in Tibet, the farmers’ festival teachings, are available to EVERYONE on how they think those sentient regardless of ability to pay. Discounts, a became known as Losar. beings should be helped, but by limited number of scholarships and work/ holding space and listening so study programs are available to those in The Rime’s Losar celebration will need. However, scholarship forms must they can provide the help that is be submitted one week prior to the start of include a potluck, Tibetan food, needed. To me that is the true the teachings for review by our scholarship Tibetan Mo divination, linked model of inclusion and love, and committee. Call the Rime Center at 816-471- verse, tsa tsa, prayer flag making, 7073 or email Lama Matt at spiritualdirec- one that can be emulated here at [email protected] for details. and other family activities. Be the Rime Buddhist Center. 3 The Rime Jewel Newsletter — © 2019 Rime Buddhist Center Winter 2019 illuminations

Anyen Rinpoche “Ground of Compassion” Dying with Confidence Series October 19 - 21, 2018

Drepung Monks Tour

Lama Rod Owens: Liberation Through Love and Rage November 16 – 18, 2018

Lama Matt and Karma Lekshe Tsomo at the Parliament of World’s Religions in Toronto

Chotrul Düchen, the ‘Festival of Miracles’

February 19, 2019

Chotrul Düchen occurs on the fifteenth day of the first month in the Tibetan calendar during the full moon, which is called Bum- gyur Dawa. The first fifteen days of the year celebrate the fifteen days during which the Buddha displayed miracles for his dis- ciples in order to increase their devotion. The Rime Center will be hosting a special puja to commemorate the Festival of Miracles and will be open during the day for you to come in and meditate at your own pace. The puja will begin at 7:00 p.m. and will be led by Ven. Geshe Tsewang Thinley. Open meditation begins at 8:00 a.m.

Orgyen Menla From Page 1 Kum Nye, Cont. remove mental and physical Our body can teach us how to Member Profile Matt Walsh suffering from all sentient beings, heal the mind and this retreat (Yeshe Namkha Rangdröl) primarily mental and physical presents Tibetan Yoga exercises they/them illness caused through the to catalyze this healing. We imbalance of the elements. discover how to come back to our senses and to link inner with Tulku Yeshi Rinpoche is a outer experience through a vital Dzogchen master and the flow of feeling. reincarnation of Dzogchen Gyaltsab Thodo Rinpoche. Santosh Philip, M. Arch, who He was recognized by Kyabje designs high-performance Trulshig Rinpoche and has and sustainable buildings, has received teachings from over studied Nyingma teachings forty masters representing all five since 1995. His primary teaching schools of Tibetan Buddhism: area is Kum Nye, where he Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya, Gelug, conveys his considerable love and Shiji (or Chod). Tulku Yeshi and respect for Tibetan Yoga has authored fifteen books on self-massage and movement subjects of Tibetan Buddhism practices to his students, both at and culture. He also writes the introductory and advanced Hometown: Currently live in Wichita, but consider myself from novels and poetry for mind levels. Nearly every Sunday Kansas City training and how to enjoy life. throughout the year, Santosh and Your role at the Rime Buddhist fellow Kum Nye instructor Jack Center?: Occasional designer of Schedule van der Meulen, teach a drop-in fliers and posters, retreat attendee Friday, March 1 Kum Nye morning class at the Day Job: Paraprofessional at a middle school, working with 7:30 – 9:30 p.m. Introduction to Nyingma Institute in Berkeley 6th graders with Autism, Down Orgyen Menla Practice California. Santosh also teaches Syndrome, and other cognitive Saturday, March 2 classes on Nyingma practices, delays. 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Orgyen including dream yoga. Description of your hobbies: Menla Empowerment Art, coding, reading, dismantling the cis-hetero-patriarchy, coffee. 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. Teachings on Schedule What led you to the Dharma?: Orgyen Menla Friday, January, 18 I grew up Christian, explored other Sunday, March 3 7:30 p.m. – 9 p.m. Introductory religions, but they all felt incomplete 10:30 am Sunday Service Teaching to me. Turning to the Dharma felt Dharma Talk Saturday, January, 19 like coming home, like nothing was lacking. 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Kum Tell us something that most people This event is open to everyone, Nye Workshop don’t know about you.: Several 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. years ago I made up a space religion Sunday, January 20 and founded the Extragalactic Church 10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Public of Galateris Bubblegum. I continue to develop it. It has a few adherents Talk here and there. Consider it social art project of sorts. This event is open to everyone, What Buddhist Book would you but please consider being a recommend and why?: Words sponsor for this retreat for as of My Perfect Teacher, by Patrul Rinpoche. I read this when I first little at $150. Your sponsorship started taking the Dharma seriously, will ensure everyone can attend and have continued to revisit and these wonderful teachings. reread it. It’s the one Buddhist book I’d take to a deserted island.

by Matt Walsh, Yeshe Namkha Rangdröl (they/them)

Lama Rod visited the Rime Center November 16-18 to teach on Liberation through Love and Rage. Important themes for me included developing a healthier relationship to our anger or rage (or any of the other afflictive emotions), embodied practice, and the importance of self-care on the path to becoming a Bodhisattva. He explained that it is not anger itself that is unhealthy, it is our habitual relationship to it that is. We have a habit of instinctively reacting to it rather than wisely responding to it. We can develop that healthier relationship to anger by moving from saying “I am angry” to “I am having an experience of anger” to “anger is happening”. Then, looking deeply into our anger or other emotions, we can learn that these emotions are energy that the mind labels with “anger” or “sad- ness” or so on. Once we drop the label, we can productively use that energy. We develop this healthier relationship with the energy of our emotions through embodied practice. Lama Rod taught that before Siddhartha became the Buddha, when he was engaged in ascetic practices, he was trying to bypass the body and embody himself in his mind. He emerged from deep concentration and discovered that he was sick, his body was broken, and he had got- ten nowhere. This led him to see the need to pay attention to the body, to unite body and mind. Subsequently, Lama Rod showed us a couple practices for an embodied and wise relationship to the energy of our emotions. Significantly, someone asked a question about the attention to the self and one’s emotions that Lama Rod was advocating, because it seemed to run counter to teachings about being selfless and engaging in self-sacrifice to benefit others. Lama Rod responded that in order to work with the Dharmic emptiness of the ego, one first needs to have a fully integrated and healthy ego, and at the moment, our egos are frag- mented. We are not generally at the point where we can engage in the profound self-sacrifice of the Bodhisattvas. To that end, we need to engage in self-care. Self-care, he said, consists of those things we do for ourselves that renew us, empower us, and strengthen us for the work we do that benefits others in our communities. This is different from self-indulgence, where what we do for ourselves benefits no one else. This highlights an important point that Lama Rod emphasized- -and one that he had made last year as well--that we too often try to skip over the relative to the ultimate. We earn the ultimate by master- ing the relative, the stuff of our lives in all its messiness. This message runs as a thread through all of his teachings.

7 The Rime Jewel Newsletter — © 2019 Rime Buddhist Center Winter 2019 Non-Profit Organization U.S. Postage PAID Kansas City, MO Permit 2498 Rime Buddhist Center www.rimecenter.org 816-471-7073 700 West Pennway Kansas City, MO 64108

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Remember the many Rime scheduled meditations: Monthly Half-day Retreats, Noon Meditations, Sunday service, Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday evening practices. Sunday Service with Meditation: 10:30 a.m.–12 p.m. Childcare & Sunday School S M T W T F S available. Monday Zen Meditation 7-8 p.m. 30 31 1 2 3 4 5 Tuesday Green Tara Tantric Practice:7-7:30 p.m. (upstairs) 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Wednesday Meditation Instruction: 6:00 p.m. 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Wednesday Meditation: 7–7:30 p.m. Thursday Meditation: 6:00-6:45 pm (upstairs)

January 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 Thursday Medicine Buddha Tantric Practice: 7–7:30 p.m. 27 28 29 30 31 1 2 Noon Meditation: Monday - Friday, 12–12:30 p.m. 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Bodhi Bag prep: Wednesday 6:00pm Delivery: Sunday after Service 12:15pm Second Saturday of Each Month: Half-Day Meditation retreat 9 a.m. - noon 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 January 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Kum Nye – Healing Inner Space with Santosh Philip 24 25 26 27 28 1 2 February February January 18 – 20, 2019 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 February 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Losar-Tibetan New Year Celebration 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 February 5, 2019 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

March Chotrul Düchen, the ‘Festival of Miracles’ 1 2 February 19, 2019 *Schedule subject to change, see weekly email for important updates. March Orgyen Menla: Living a Healthy Life with Venerable Tulku Yeshi Rinpoche Find us on Facebook! “Rime Buddhist Center Community” March 1 – 3, 2019

www.rimecenter.org Dharma talk podcasts: http://lama108.libsyn.com/