For Immediate Release Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Westdale United Church presents 2016’s Distinguished Visiting Speaker THE VENERABLE LAMA LOSANG SAMTEN

WORKSHOP WITH LAMA LOSANG SAMTEN SATURDAY, MAY 28, 2016 9AM – 11:30AM BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM: THEN AND NOW $20 Registration. Includes coffee and muffins.

AN EVENING WITH LAMA LOSANG SAMTEN SUNDAY, MAY 29, 2016 7:30 PM BUDDHISM IN THE 21ST CENTURY: ANCIENT TEACHINGS FOR MODERN TIMES Adults $20. Students free. Includes a reception and mandala release.

All events take place at Westdale United Church 99 North Oval, Hamilton, Ontario, L8S 3Z2 www.westdaleunited.ca

Westdale United Church will be open to the public during the weekend to allow for the viewing of our as it is being created.

VEN. LAMA LOSANG SAMTEN has been sharing teachings of loving-kindness, joy and compassion, as well as the path to enlightenment for almost 30 years. Losang lived and studied over 20 years in the , the monastery of His Holiness the . Losang is one of the Mandala Masters who created the first public sand mandala in the West in 1988. Losang has received the National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, a PEW Fellowship, and two honorary doctoral degrees from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, and the Maine College of Art. Losang played the role of the attendant to the young Dalai Lama in Martin Scorsese's film , where he also served as the religious technical advisor and sand mandala supervisor. Losang has written two books, one in Tibetan on the history of the Monastery of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and one in English, Ancient Teachings in Modern Times: Buddhism in the 21st Century. Losang is spiritual director of the Tibetan Buddhist Center of Philadelphia, Chenrezig Tibetan Buddhist Center of Middletown, Connecticut, Chenrezig Himalayan Cultural Center of El Paso, Texas, and a frequent visitor and teacher in Lake Tahoe and Chico, CA, as well as in Canada. Website: www.losangsamten.com

DISTINGUISHED VISITING SPEAKER PROGRAM: Westdale United Church began their Speakers Program in 2001. It is funded through the Harold and Lilojean Frid Endowment Fund. The program aims at enriching spiritual perception and relating it to salient issues of our time and place. In 2015, the Program began receiving additional funds from the Florence Meiler Heritage Fund.

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Westdale United Church Media Contact: Publicity Services Provided by Lyla-The Publicist Janet Kilgannon e-mail: [email protected] e-mail: [email protected]