Join Us for Meditation

Please join us for meditation Sundays at 10 AM!

SAVE THE DATE! VENERABLE THUBTEN CHONYI WILL VISIT IN APRIL!

Lama Ahbay Rinpoche

How to Deal with Anger and Hatred

FREE PUBLIC TALK

Wednesday, April 26, 2017 6 PM

Siebels House

1601 Richland Street

(corner of Pickens and Richland)

Columbia, SC 29201

Ahbay Rinpoche (Lama Ahbay Tulku Jigme Thupten Tendar Rinpoche) has beenrecognized by the Dalai Lama as a reincarnation of Lama Lobsang Tenzin, and hastaught widely in Europe and the United States.

FREE PUBLIC TALKPLEASE JOIN US

Lama Ahbay Rinpoche teaches Mondays and Thursdays at 6:30 PM at the Dharma Center

Please join us to hear teaching from Ahbay Rinpoche on Mondays and Thursdays until May 25, starting this Thursday, Apr. 8. Teaching will be offered at the Dharma Center at 6 PM on those days. He will also be with us for meditation on Sundays at 10 AM. We hope you can join us!

Ahbay Rinpoche returns to Columbia April 1-May 25, 2017

Lama Ahbay Rinpochewill return to teach in Columbia April 1-May 25, 2017. Hewill offer regular teachingson various topics

and meet with individuals for spiritual advice.He will offer teachings on on Monday and Thursday nights. The teachings on both nights will be at 6:30 PM at the Dharma Center. He will also teach on meditation on Sunday mornings at 10, and may perform pujas and other practices then, as well. He is available for individual meetings--contact us at scdharma@gmail.com to schedule appointments. Please join us!We hope everyone has an opportunity to meet this remarkableteacher!

Please join us for meditation!

Please join us for meditation at 10 AM each Sunday! If you'd like an introduction to meditation, contact us at scdharma@gmail.com and we can schedule a time to meet with you before or after meditation.

Geshe Dakpa Topgyal teaching in Columbia this weekend (Aug. 26, 27, 28)Geshe Dakpa Topgyal from Charleston will be teaching at the Dharma Center this weekend. Everyone is encouraged to attend.

Here's the schedule

Friday, Aug. 26 7-8 PM

Saturday, Aug. 27 10-12 AM

Sunday, Aug. 28 10-12 AM

Please note that Geshela asks that people arrive on time and not leave early.

Tibetan classes at the Dharma Center!

Please join us for Tibetan classes at the SCDG Dharma Center, the third Sunday of each month, at 11 AM!

These classes will be for absolute beginners, who would like to understand and pronounce the words in recitations and prayers correctly, but students who know a little Tibetan will also benefit. Eric Winter and John Tasevski, who have proficiency in classical Tibetan, will teach the classes.

The class will begin Sunday, Aug. 21, and will be offered on the third Sunday of each month, so dates this fall will be Sept. 18, Oct. 16, Nov. 20, and Dec. 18. The classes will begin after meditation, at 11 AM at the Dharma Center.

On other Sundays at that time, we'll continue the discussion ofThe Path to Enlightenmentby His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Please let us know if you'd like to participate but don't have the book. We can order additional used copies, or you can buy your own online (the ISBN of the edition we use is978-1559390323).

Please let us know if you need more information about either of these!

Join us for meditation Sundays at 10 AM!

Please join us for meditation each Sunday at 10 AM at the Dharma Center! For more information, email scdharma@gmail.com or call 803-467-7759.

Ahbay Rinpoche Returns to India

After a wonderful three-month visit, Ahbay Rinpoche has returned to India. He will travel in India and attend the Kalachakra offered by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Bodh Gaya, India, in January. Rinpoche La will also travel in Europe, and we hope will soon return to South Carolina for another visit, if possible.

Here are Rinpoche La and the students attending his last teaching before leaving in July, 2016:

A Peaceful Mind: A Public Talk by Ahbay Rinpoche June 1

A talk on the Buddhist path tomental and spiritual peace will be given by Ahbay Rinpoche at 6 PM on Wednesday, June 1, 2016, in the Seibels House at 1601Pickens St, Columbia, SC 29201 (at the corner of Pickens and Richland Street.The free talk is sponsored by the South Carolina Dharma Group.

The talk will focus on achieving peace by working to eliminate the negativemind of anger and hatred.AhbayRinpoche (Lama Ahbay Tulku Jigme Thupten Tendar Rinpoche) has been recognizedby the Dalai Lama as a reincarnation of Lama Lobsang Tenzin, and has taughtwidely in Europe and the United States.

Lama Ahbay Rinpoche Returns to Columbia!

Lama Ahbay Rinpoche has returned to Columbia for a three-month stay! He is with us April 13-July 4, 2016, and will offer regular teachings and meet with individuals for spiritual advice.He will offer teachings on on Monday and Wednesday nights on various topics. The teachings on both nights will be at 7 PM at the Dharma Center. He will also teach on meditation on Sunday mornings at 10, and may perform pujas and other practices then, as well. He is available for individual meetings--contact us at scdharma@gmail.com to schedule appointments. Please join us!We hope everyone has an opportunity to meet this remarkableteacher!

Sand Mandala in Columbia

Visit from Lama Ahbay Rinpoche, July 24-31, 2015

Ahbay's hand on a participant's hand

Ahbay Rinpoche preparing the offerings

Offering bowls at the puja

Lined up for blessings

One person being blessed

Saga Dawa 2015

Members of the South Carolina Dharma Group celebrated

Saga Dawa, the remembrance of Shakyamuni Buddha's birth, enlightenment, and passing into Parinivana. We said prayers and mantras, and released crickets (who would otherwise have been used for bait), reminding us of compassion and liberation.

Aid for Earthquake Victims in Nepal

Many of the victims of the earthquake in Nepal are Buddhists, some in our lineage, and some may even be relatives of a member of CTS, our sister organization in Charleston. We hear that there are many problems with relief money sent to Nepal going only to the cities, while people in the small villages receive nothing.

The Nepalese family in Charleston has connected us with a new fund set up to send aid directly to the villages that so far have had no relief from the government. (A helicopter that was flying up to the mountain to rescue critically injured villagers was taken by the government to rescue rich mountain climbers on Mt. Everest).

If you would like to send aid that will go directly to help the villages in the mountains, please:

1. Send checks made out to Jampa Gompo

2. Mail them to:

Charleston Tibetan Society

ATTN: Karma G. Sherpa

12 Parkwood Avenue

Charleston, SC 29403

Unfortunately this fund is too new to be a 501c3, so there cant be a tax write-off, but all money will go directly to the villages in Nepal.

Meditate with us at our new location!

The South Carolina Dharma Group has a new location in the Earlewood neighborhood of Columbia, in a building on Florence street just behind the house at 3003 Columbia Street (please come to the building on Florence, not to the house). Please join us for meditation there each Sunday at 10 AM. For more detailed directions, write us at scdharma@gmail.com or call 803-467-7759.

Talk on "Meditation and Neuroplasticity"

by Dr. Dieter Borrmann

(student of Geshe Topgyal andNeurologist at the Gemeinschaftspraxis frNeurologie, Psychiatrie, Psychotherapie in Emmerich, Germany.)

We were fortunate to have a talk on the effects of meditation on the brain by Dr. Dieter Borrman in April, 2015, co-sponsored by the USC Department of Religion.

Dr. DieterBorrmann is a Neurologist at the Gemeinschaftspraxis fr Neurologie,Psychiatrie, Psychotherapie in Emmerich, Germany. He is a student of Buddhism under Geshe Dakpa Topgyal at TheCharleston Tibetan Society, Charleston, SC. and under Geshe Pema Samten at theTibetisches Zentrum e.V., Hamburg, Germany, where he is morethan halfway into a seven year systematic course of study in Tibetan Buddhism. With the Universitt Bonn he has contributed to the research on"Meditation and White Matter". His fascinating book about meditationfrom the perspective of a neurologist, both in personal experience and inmedical practice, will soon be translated and published in English.

StupaCompleted

A stupa honoringthe memory of the late Geshe Ngawang Phuntsok, former resident teacher of theSouth Carolina Dharma Group, has been completed and was consecrated in a formalceremony in April 2014 in Bomdila, which lies in the mountains of northeastern India.

The stupa not only honors the memory of Geshe Phuntsok but also servesfor the long-term spiritual benefit of visitors to Bomdila and residents of theregion. Stupas represent the enlightened mind of buddhas and exhibit thespiritual road map to enlightenment. The stupa will exist as a source of meritfor generations of numerous devoted people who can make offerings at andcircumambulations around the sacred monument.

Erection ofthe stupa was made possible through the generous donations of Dr. Jamie Felbergand membersof the Asanga Institute of Montrose, Colorado.

Teachings from Ven. Chonyi

Ven. Thubten Chonyi, of Sravasti Abbey in Washington State, visited SCDG for teachings Dec. 31-Jan. 5. Below are pictures from the visit.

w Book by Spiritual Director Published

The South Carolina Dharma Group, in conjunction with Dr. Jamie Felberg, the Asanga Institute of Montrose, Colorado, and the Charleston Tibetan Society, has established a scholarship fund in memory of Geshe Ngawang Phuntsok. Geshe Phuntsok was the South Carolina Dharma Groups resident teacher in 2002 and 2003 and was the Asanga Institutes resident teacher from 2007 to 2012.

As devoted dharma students of Geshe Phuntsok, and following the moral suggestion of Geshe Dakpa Topgyal, SCDGs spiritual director, the members of SCDG, CTS, the Asanga Institute, and Dr. Jamie Felberg, donated to the scholarship fund to make Geshe Phuntsoks dream reality. We made contributions out of heartfelt respect for our teacher and out of the wish that Geshe Phuntsoks dream be realized.

A second moral imperative, as pointed out by Geshe Topgyal, is to build a stupa in memory of Geshe Phuntsok in his home village, Bomdila, in northeastern India where he was born and where his parents currently reside. We are uncertain if we can succeedthat will depend on collecting funds the needed to build the stupa.

The purpose of the stupa will not just be to honor the memory of Geshe Phuntsok, but also to serve for the long-term spiritual benefit of as many sentient beings as possible. The stupa would exist as a sacred source of merit for generations of numerous devoted people who may make offerings at the stupa and circumambulations around the monument.

Dr. Jamie Felberg has made a commitment to help make the stupa a reality, but any individual who would like to donate can donate online or by mailing a check to the South Carolina Dharma Group, PO Box 50357, Columbia, SC 29250. Contact us for more information at scdharma@gmail.com.

Your contributions help support our programming, such as teachings by accredited teachers in the Gelugpa Tibetan Buddhist lineage, retreats and meditation lessons.

You can securely make a donation online by clicking the button below.You do not need a PayPal account to donate online. Look for the "Continue" link by the bank card icons on the PayPal donation page.

You may also donate bymailing us a check (SCDG, PO Box 50357, Columbia, SC 29250) or by leaving cash or a check at the Dharma Center.

The South Carolina Dharma Group is a federally-recognized 501(c)3 non-profit organization, and contributions are taxdeductibleto the extent allowed by law.

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