Geneva Conference Centre of Buddhism
1st & 3rd Sunday - Buddhist Chanting Service
2nd & 4th Sunday - Meditation Practice
Public
Lectures On Discovering Buddhist Philosophy – Practice – Insight
FREE TO THE PUBLIC
Despite the increased visibility and popularity of Buddhism in
recent times, it can still seem difficult and overwhelming. In order
to lift the veil of Buddhism, Geneva Conference Centre of Buddhism
is going to organize a series of lectures which will try and dispel
some of the mystery! The first will focus on the Buddhist view on
life-and-death. The second lecture will examine the diversity of
Buddhism, by looking at what Buddhists think, do, and believe. This
series of lectures can be thought of as “theory & practice”. May all
audience find the hidden treasure within you and the brilliant
golden light within will engulf your personality.
1.
BUDDHIST VIEW ON LIFE-AND-DEATH
Presented By Dr Venerable Huei Kai, World-Known
Buddhist Monk and Scholar in Life-and-Death Studies
(The lecture will be in English with French translation)
Sunday, November 16, 2008,
15:00-17:00
What does it mean for death to be more than the
"absence of life?" Is it possible to experience both life and death
with "equal delight"? A world-recognized Scholar and Monk in
Buddhist studies and philosophy, Dr Venerable Huei Kai brings the
insights of Buddhism to bear on these important questions. The
audience will have the opportunity to participate in a dialogue
session. Please join us for a unique exploration into the conditions
and perceptions of existence.
2.
BUDDHIST PERSPECTIVES & PRACTICE FOR MODERN LIVING:
Buddhist Practice Toward Bodhisattva
Presented By Venerable Master Hsing Ting, International Spiritual
Leader of Zen Tradition
(The lecture will be in Mandarin with French translation)
Friday, November 21, 2008, 19:00-21:00
Buddhism is not only a religion complete with symbols, myths and
deities. It is also a philosophy of life expounded by Buddha
("Buddha" means "enlightened one"), who lived and taught in northern
India in the 6th Century B.C. The Buddha was not a god and the
philosophy of Buddhism does not entail any theistic world-view. The
teachings of the Buddha are aimed solely to liberate sentient beings
from suffering. If anyone (regardless of their faith) would
incorporate some Buddhism into their daily lives, where to begin?
Venerable Master Hsing Ting, an international spiritual monk of Zen
tradition will explore the unique system for putting Buddhist
philosophy into practice for modern living and explain how the
teachings of the Buddha are to be experienced in one's own life.
This lecture also provides an inspiring and peaceful setting for
people to discover Mahayana Buddhism. A "Question and Answer" (Q&A)
session is open to the public after the speech.
Geneva
Conference Centre of Buddhism
20 bis, Chemin du Terroux, 1218
Grand-Saconnex, Geneva, Switzerland
Parking available in front of the Center
For more information, please contact us at +41 (0)22 929 8080 or
Email: geneva@ibps-gccb.com
A Sparkling Night
Under The Stars
Celebration of International Young Spirit
18:00-21:00, 6 December 2008
On
Saturday, 6 December 2008, Geneva BLIA YAD will host a Year End
Party - "A Sparkling Evening Under the Stars" to celebrate the
international friendships and cultural exchange through music
performance, displays, gourmet dinner, gift exchange and party games
etc. This Gala party will be held at GCCB located at 20 bis, Chemin
du Terroux, 1218 Grand-Saconnex, Geneva and will begin at 18.00 with
gourmet dinner and the programme to follow. The event is FREE
and open to the public (over 18 yrs)! Please make sure you
book your attendance before 4 December 2008.
Let's spend the starry night with good friends and fun activities,
and kick the Holiday weekend off with a gobble, gobble!
All participants are recommended to wear formal party dress
and bring a gift priced under 10 CHF.
*Anyone interested in sharing your performance talents at the party,
please contact the party organiser/Janet.
Party Time:
18:00-21:00, 6 December 2008
Venue: GCCB, 20 bis, Chemin du Terroux, 1218 Grand-Saconnex, Geneva,
Switzerland
Organiser: Geneva BLIA YAD
Booking TEL: 0 22 929 8080 or 0786295699 (Janet)
Email: geneva@ibps-gccb.com
|
Geneva Conference Centre of Buddhism |
|||||
| Course | Date | Time | Fee | Tutor | P.S. |
| Intermediate Meditation Class (English) | Tuesday (30/9, 7/10, 14/10, 21/10, 28/10, 4/11, 11/11, 18/11) |
19:00 - 20:30 | CHF 40/ 8 Sections | Venerable Man Jung | Classes must have a minimum of five students to be offered |
| Chinese Calligraphy Writing Class | Wednesday (1/10, 8/10, 15/10, 22/10, 29/10, 5/11, 12/11, 19/11) |
19:00 - 20:00 | CHF 80/ 8 Sections | Venerable Chueh Yann | - |
| Vegetarian Cooking Class (French) | Wednesday (1/10, 8/10, 15/10, 22/10, 29/10) |
19:00 - 20:30 | CHF 100 Plus Cooking Material Fee/ 5 Courses | Mai Chau | - |
| Basic Meditation Class (French) | Thursday (2/10, 9/10, 16/10, 23/10, 30/10, 6/11, 13/11, 20/11) |
19:00 - 20:30 | CHF 40/ 8 Sections | Venerable Miao Shi | Classes must have a minimum of five students to be offered |
Location: Geneva Conference Centre
|
|
||
| 02 Nov/Sun | 11:00AM ~ 12:30 Noon | Chanting of Amitabha Sutra (Main Shrine) |
| 09 Nov/Sun | 11:00AM ~ 12:30 Noon | Meditation (Main Shrine) |
| 16 Nov/Sun | 11:00AM ~ 12:30 Noon | Chanting of Diamond Sutra (Main Shrine) |
| 16 Nov/Sun | 15:00 ~ 17:00 | Public Lecture: Buddhist View on Life & Death By Dr Venerable Hui Kai |
| 21 Nov/Fri | 19:00 ~ 21:00 | Public Lecture: Buddhist Practice Toward Bodhisattva By Venerable Master Hsing Ting |
| 23 Nov/Sun | 11:00AM ~ 12:30 Noon | Meditation (Main Shrine) |
| 30 Nov/Sun | 11:00AM ~ 12:30 Noon | Chanting Service of Great Compassion (Main Shrine) |
Location: Geneva Conference Centre
|
Geneva
Conference Centre of Buddhism |
|
To celebrate the
birthday of the Amitabha Buddha, we will hold an Amitabha
Buddha Dharma Function, reciting the Buddha's name. This
gives an opportunity for devotees to strengthen and observe
the Pureland practice, learn the 48 Great Vows of the
Amitabha Buddha, improve society and purify human minds. |
Amitabha
Buddha Amitabha, Sanskrit word, literally means boundless light and boundless life. He is the Buddha in the Land of Ultimate Bliss (Pure Land), in which all beings enjoy unbounded happiness. Amitabha has forty-eight great vows to establish and adorn his Pure Land. People also recite or call upon his name by the time of dying will be born in the Land of Ultimate Bliss with the reception by Amitabha. Amitabha is one of the most popular and well-known Buddha in China. Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss This is the Buddha Land of Amitabha Buddha. In Amitabha Sutra, there is full description about this Pure Land. This is the world of utmost joy without suffering. With the spiritual power of Amitabha Buddha, all beings in this world will understand Buddhism easily and practise diligently, and attain enlightenment eventually. Therefore by reciting Amitabha Buddha's name, Buddhist followers hope that they will be born in this Pure Land after their lives on earth. The Amitabha Buddha's 48 Great Vows (1) If, when I attain Buddhahood, should there be in my land a hell, a realm of hungry spirits or a realm of animals, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment. (2) If, when I attain Buddhahood, humans and devas in my land should after death fall again into the three evil realms, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment. (3) If, when I attain Buddhahood, humans and devas in my land should not all be the colour of pure gold, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment. (4) If, when I attain Buddhahood, humans and devas in my land should not all be of one appearance, and should there be any difference in beauty, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment. (5) If, when I attain Buddhahood, humans and devas in my land should not remember all their previous lives, not knowing at least the events which occurred during the previous hundred thousand kotis of nayutas of kalpas, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment. (6) If, when I attain Buddhahood, humans and devas in my land should not possess the divine eye of seeing at least a hundred thousand kotis of nayutas of Buddha-lands, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment. (7) If, when I attain Buddhahood, humans and devas in my land should not possess the divine ear of hearing the teachings of at least a hundred thousand kotis of nayutas of Buddhas and should not remember all of them, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment. (8) If, when I attain Buddhahood, humans and devas in my land should not possess the faculty of knowing the thoughts of others, even those of all sentient beings living in a hundred thousand kotis of nayutas of Buddha-lands, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment. (9) If, when I attain Buddhahood, humans and devas in my land should not possess the supernatural power of travelling anywhere in one instant, even beyond a hundred thousand kotis of nayutas of Buddha-lands, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment. (10) If, when I attain Buddhahood, humans and devas in my land should give rise to thoughts of self-attachment, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment. (11) If, when I attain Buddhahood, humans and devas in my land should not dwell in the Definitely Assured State and unfailingly reach Nirvana, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment. (12) If, when I attain Buddhahood, my light should be limited, unable to illuminate even a hundred thousand kotis of nayutas of Buddha-lands, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment. (13) If, when I attain Buddhahood, my life-span should be limited, even to the extent of a hundred thousand kotis of nayutas of kalpas, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment. (14) If, when I attain Buddhahood, the number of the shravakas in my land could be known, even if all the beings and pratyekabuddhas living in this universe of a thousand million worlds should count them during a hundred thousand kalpas, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment. (15) If, when I attain Buddhahood, humans and devas in my land should have limited life-spans, except when they wish to shorten them in accordance with their previous vows, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment. (16) If, when I attain Buddhahood, humans and devas in my land should even hear of any wrongdoing, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment. (17) If, when I attain Buddhahood, innumerable Buddhas in the land of the ten directions should not all praise and glorify my Name, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment. (18) If, when I attain Buddhahood, sentient beings in the lands of the ten directions who sincerely and joyfully entrust themselves to me, aspire to be born in my land, and call my Name even ten times, should not be born there, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment. Excluded, however, are those who commit the five gravest offences and abuse the right Dharma. (19) If, when I attain Buddhahood, sentient beings in the lands of the ten directions, who awaken aspiration for Enlightenment, do various meritorious deeds and sincerely desire to be born in my land, should not, at their death, see me appear before them surrounded by a multitude of sages, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment. (20) If, when I attain Buddhahood, sentient beings in the lands of the ten directions who, having heard my Name, concentrate their thoughts on my land, do various meritorious deeds and sincerely transfer their merits towards my land with a desire to be born there, should not eventually fulfil their aspiration, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment. (21) If, when I attain Buddhahood, humans and devas in my land should not all be endowed with the thirty-two physical characteristics of a Great Man, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment. (22) If, when I attain Buddhahood, bodhisattvas in the Buddha-lands of other directions who visit my land should not ultimately and unfailingly reach the Stage of Becoming a Buddha after One More Life, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment. Excepted are those who wish to teach and guide sentient beings in accordance with their original vows. For they wear the armour of great vows, accumulate merits, deliver all beings from birth-and-death, visit Buddha-lands to perform the bodhisattva practices, make offerings to Buddhas, Tathagatas, throughout the ten directions, enlighten uncountable sentient beings as numerous as the sands of the River Ganges, and establish them in the highest, perfect Enlightenment. Such bodhisattvas transcend the course of practice of the ordinary bodhisattva stages and actually cultivate the virtues of Samantabhadra. (23) If, when I attain Buddhahood, bodhisattvas in my land, who would make offerings to Buddhas through my divine power, should not be able to reach immeasurable and innumerable kotis of nayutas of Buddha-lands in the short time it takes to eat a meal, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment. (24) If, when I attain Buddhahood, bodhisattvas in my land should not be able, as they wish, to perform meritorious acts of worshipping the Buddhas with the offerings of their choice, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment. (25) If, when I attain Buddhahood, bodhisattvas in my land should not be able to expound the Dharma with the all-knowing wisdom, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment. (26) If, when I attain Buddhahood, there should be any bodhisattva in my land not endowed with the body of the Vajra-god Narayana, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment. (27) If, when I attain Buddhahood, sentient beings should be able, even with the divine eye, to distinguish by name and calculate by number all the myriads of manifestations provided for the humans and devas in my land, which are glorious and resplendent and have exquisite details beyond description, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment. (28) If, when I attain Buddhahood, bodhisattvas in my land, even those with little store of merit, should not be able to see the Bodhi-tree which has countless colours and is four million li in height, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment. (29) If, when I attain Buddhahood, bodhisattvas in my land should not acquire eloquence and wisdom in upholding sutras and reciting and expounding them, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment. (30) If, when I attain Buddhahood, the wisdom and eloquence of bodhisattvas in my land should be limited, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment. (31) If, when I attain Buddhahood, my land should not be resplendent, revealing in its light all the immeasurable, innumerable and inconceivable Buddha-lands, like images reflected in a clear mirror, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment. (32) If, when I attain Buddhahood, all the myriads of manifestations in my land, from the ground to the sky, such as palaces, pavilions, ponds, streams and trees, should not be composed both of countless treasures, which surpass in supreme excellence anything in the worlds of humans and devas, and of a hundred thousand kinds of aromatic wood, whose fragrance pervades all the worlds of the ten directions, causing all bodhisattvas who sense it to perform Buddhist practices, then may I not attain perfect Enlightenment. (33) If, when I attain Buddhahood, sentient beings in the immeasurable and inconceivable Buddha-lands of the ten directions, who have been touched by my light, should not feel peace and happiness in their bodies and minds surpassing those of humans and devas, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment. (34) If, when I attain Buddhahood, sentient beings in the immeasurable and inconceivable Buddha-lands of the ten directions, who have heard my Name, should not gain the bodhisattva's insight into the non-arising of all dharmas and should not acquire various profound dharanis, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment. (35) If, when I attain Buddhahood, women in the immeasurable and inconceivable Buddha-lands of the ten directions who, having heard my Name, rejoice in faith, awaken aspiration for Enlightenment and wish to renounce womanhood, should after death be reborn again as women, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment. (36) If, when I attain Buddhahood, bodhisattvas in the immeasurable and inconceivable Buddha-lands of the ten directions, who have heard my Name, should not, after the end of their lives, always perform sacred practices until they reach Buddhahood, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment. (37) If, when I attain Buddhahood, humans and devas in the immeasurable and inconceivable Buddha-lands of the ten directions, who, having heard my Name, prostrate themselves on the ground to revere and worship me, rejoice in faith, and perform the bodhisattva practices, should not be respected by all devas and people of the world, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment. (38) If, when I attain Buddhahood, humans and devas in my land should not obtain clothing, as soon as such a desire arises in their minds, and if the fine robes as prescribed and praised by the Buddhas should not be spontaneously provided for them to wear, and if these clothes should need sewing, bleaching, dyeing or washing, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment. (39) If, when I attain Buddhahood, humans and devas in my land should not enjoy happiness and pleasure comparable to that of a monk who has exhausted all the passions, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment. (40) If, when I attain Buddhahood, the bodhisattvas in my land, who wish to see the immeasurable glorious Buddha-lands of the ten directions, should not be able to view all of them reflected in the jewelled trees, just as one sees one's face reflected in a clear mirror, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment. (41) If, when I attain Buddhahood, bodhisattvas in the lands of the other directions who hear my Name should, at any time before becoming Buddhas, have impaired, inferior or incomplete sense organs, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment. (42) If, when I attain Buddhahood, bodhisattvas in the lands of the other directions who hear my Name should not all attain the samadhi called 'pure emancipation' and, while dwelling therein, without losing concentration, should not be able to make offerings in one instant to immeasurable and inconceivable Buddhas, World-Honoured Ones, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment. (43) If, when I attain Buddhahood, bodhisattvas in the lands of the other directions who hear my Name should not after death be reborn into noble families, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment. (44) If, when I attain Buddhahood, bodhisattvas in the lands of the other directions who hear my Name should not rejoice so greatly as to dance and perform the bodhisattva practices and should not acquire stores of merit, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment. (45) If, when I attain Buddhahood, bodhisattvas in the lands of the other directions who hear my Name should not all attain the samadhi called 'universal equality' and, while dwelling therein, should not always be able to see all the immeasurable and inconceivable Tathagatas until those bodhisattvas, too, become Buddhas, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment. (46) If, when I attain Buddhahood, bodhisattvas in my land should not be able to hear spontaneously whatever teachings they may wish, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment. (47) If, when I attain Buddhahood, bodhisattvas in the lands of the other directions who hear my Name should not instantly reach the Stage of Non-retrogression, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment. (48) If, when I attain Buddhahood, bodhisattvas in the lands of the other directions who hear my Name should not instantly gain the first, second and third insights into the nature of dharmas and firmly abide in the truths realised by all the Buddhas, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment. |
Location: Geneva Conference Centre
Location: Geneva Conference Centre
Hand in
Hand, On the Footprint of Bodhisattva
2009 European BLIA YAD Winter Camp
3-6 January 2009
Geneva Conference Centre of Buddhism is hosting and organising 2009
European BLIA YAD Winter Camp on the 3-6 January, 2009. The purpose
of this event is to empower Youth capacity in international affairs
, to enhance the Network of European BLIA YADs, to increase mutual
understanding of European culture, and to cultivate sustainable
development in inner growth and outer action. This youth winter camp
provides attractive programmes including Youth Round Table
Conference in United Nations, Celebration of World Dharma Day,
Coming of Age Ceremony, Welcoming Party, Interfaith New Year
Candle-Light Blessing Ceremony, “Sounds of the Human World”
Workshop, Group Discussion and Swiss Grand Tour etc.
Date: 3-6, January 2009
Participants: Open to the members of European BLIA YADs. Age: 15
- 35
Venue: Geneva Conference Centre of Buddhism, Conference Hall in
United Nations
Registration: Application form is available at Geneva
Conference Centre of Buddhism
Fee: Euro 120 per participant (including accommodation,
meals, transportation, conference fee and Snow-Sport of one-day
tour)
Deadline of Registration: 15 December 2008
Organiser: European Fo Guang Shan
Event Host: Geneva Conference Centre of Buddhism