July 12, 2008   7:00pm - The Yachats Commons

Due to the manifold blessings of working with Dr. Amit Goswami on a documentary project called 'The Quantum Activist', we had the opportunity to meet Director Khashyar Darvich for Amit's screening of the Dalai Lama Renaissance, which Amit stars in.

The synchronicity of having the Gaden Monks visiting in July while screenings of the movie were taking place at the best film festivals around the world, created the idea of holding a fundraiser for the Gaden Monastery with the screening in Yachats. Khashyar will be available to introduce and discuss the film.

An incredible opportunity to see a preview release of an award winning film, and meedt the director!

Film Synopsis
At the edge of the Millennium, The Dalai Lama of Tibet invited 40 of the West’s leading, most innovative thinkers in their respective fields to his residence tucked away in the Himalayan mountains of Northern India to discuss the world’s problems and how we can solve them. What transpired was unexpected and powerful, and was captured by an 18 person, 5 camera film crew. The Wakan Foundation for the Arts took its 18 person crew to India and shot more than 140 hours of video footage during the week-long meeting and exploration of the future of mankind-- enough gripping and beautiful footage to make a powerful and cinematic documentary. The resulting feature-length documentary, “Dalai Lama Renaissance,” has already received a very positive response, and will be widely released and distributed in the second half of 2008. “Dalai Lama Renaissance” is narrated by actor Harrison Ford.

Dalai Lama Renaissance

The demonstrations unnerve Beijing, which is struggling to contain growing pre-Olympics criticism of its human rights record.

By Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
March 13, 2008

BEIJING -- The largest pro-independence demonstrations in the Tibetan capital in nearly two decades have rattled the Chinese government as it struggles to contain growing criticism of its human rights record in the run-up to the 2008 Summer Olympics.

More than 500 Buddhist monks participated in marches toward the center of Lhasa, shouting slogans against China's 57-year rule over Tibet. Two of Tibet's three most important monasteries participated in the protests Monday and Tuesday. Monks at the third, the remote Ganden Monastery in the mountains 29 miles from the capital, were said to have staged their own demonstration Wednesday, said Robert Barnett, a Tibet scholar at Columbia University in New York.

'It is an astonishing development after 20 years that this is happening,' Barnett said.

Activists quoting witnesses in Lhasa said Chinese security forces were setting up roadblocks around the city.

In another security move, China notified tour operators this week that Mt. Everest would be closed to climbers this year until May 10. Although the letter of notification cited environmental concerns, analysts say the Chinese want to avoid a repeat of an incident last year, when climbers made a video of themselves on Everest with a 'Free Tibet' banner, and posted it on the Internet.

China has ruled Tibet since 1951, and critics say it has stifled its culture, language and religion. This week's protests marked the March 10 anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against China. Separately, several hundred Tibetan exiles tried to march into Tibet from the north Indian town of Dharamsala, where the Dalai Lama presides over a government in exile. Some were arrested.

The U.S.-funded Radio Free Asia's Tibetan-language service reported that it received a phone call Wednesday from a witness in the Ganden Monastery who said monks were demonstrating. The service also reported fresh accounts of a protest Tuesday in which several hundred monks were seen marching near a police station.

'There were probably a couple of thousand armed police. . . . Police fired tear gas into the crowd,' the witness was quoted as saying.

Although some witnesses said they heard gunshots, no serious injuries were reported.

The blockades kept the monks far from the city center, where they had hoped to demonstrate.

But the marches clearly rattled the Chinese government, which has been trying to fend off human rights activists from all corners of the globe using the Summer Olympics as a platform for their causes.

'The Olympic charter requires that the Olympic Games not be politicized,' Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said at a news conference Wednesday in Beijing.

He also criticized the Dalai Lama, saying the Tibetan spiritual leader's 'conspiracy to split Tibet from China and his secessionist attempt is doomed to fail,' according to the official New China News Agency.

Tibet is a potentially explosive issue for the Chinese in this sensitive year because it commands a large international following with high celebrity interest. The Chinese were shocked last month when Icelandic singer Bjork shouted 'Tibet, Tibet!' from a stage in Shanghai after performing her song, 'Declare Independence.'

Kate Saunders, an official of London-based Free Tibet, said, 'We want to use the Olympics as a means of leverage on China to press for positive change.'

Since 1988, when a monk was shot to death for unfurling a Tibetan flag in Lhasa, the Chinese have kept such a large paramilitary presence in Tibet that protests against their rule have been virtually impossible.

Barnett said this week's events were linked to the Olympics and to resentments that have been pent up since 2005, when Zhang Qingli, a confidant of President Hu Jintao, took over as head of the Communist Party in Tibet.

'The control of Tibet has become more aggressive in the way they've controlled religion and the aggressive language they're using about the Dalai Lama,' Barnett said. 'And deciding to route the Olympic torch through Tibet was really provocative. They were setting themselves up for trouble.'

Barnett noted, however, that the protests this week were handled with more sophistication than previously by the Chinese People's Armed Police force, which is stationed in Tibet. In the 1980s, brutality toward the monks inflamed the general population, leading to riots.

The State Department this year dropped China from its list of worst abusers of human rights, but accusations continue. Human Rights Watch issued a report Wednesday charging the Chinese with systematically abusing migrant workers involved in Beijing's pre-Olympics construction boom.

LA Times

With Swami Enoch Dasa Giri
Friday, September 21, 2007

Swami Enoch Dasa Giri presents a series of discussions focused on gaining a deeper understanding of the structure and dynamics of consciousness from the yogic perspective.

It’s an exploration of the mystical and spiritual psychology of yoga, which offers a profound recognition of the laws of consciousness -- how you create, sustain, and can transform the pattern of your life. These laws, when applied to the mind of man, are referred to as the law of karma, which is the law of causation.

With Swami Enoch Dasa Giri of the Kriya Yoga Lineage.
Tuesday, Sept 18, 2007 through Friday, Sept. 21, 2007

Offered for people who are seeking to delve into a deep, quiet, and peaceful meditative experience, this three-day intensive will provide instruction, inspiration, and periods of extended practice.

The retreat will begin Tuesday evening with an orientation and discussion of techniques we will be using. Wednesday and Thursday will be composed of sessions dedicated to meditation, pranayama, and asana. The retreat will close on Friday morning with discussion and reflection on our experiences.

Meditation sessions will include seated, walking, and standing practices. We will also observe silence during parts of the retreat. Meals will be light and eaten communally.

The retreat in Yachats will primarily be a quiet meditation retreat, with hatha, communal meals and silence.

We will work with a local organic farm to provide plenty of produce for lite meals. If you have any particular dietary needs or desires please make accommodations.

There are a few good coffee shops in town and a local grocery store but these are 7 miles one way from where we will be so a “run” in for coffee though possible, is time consuming and requires driving or bicycling.

Camping is available on Tony’s land for as many as would like to stay and floor space and some camping space at Renee’s home, close by to the retreat space.

Yachats being a tourist town has adequate hotel rooms available with ocean views or frontage.  Personally we recommend the Fireside, or the Shamrock Lodgettes, but most of them are very nice.

If you need assistance getting from Portland to Yachats, please let us know so we can be of help.

Costs for the retreat are by your donation. We hope to cultivate an environment free of stress and full of joy.

Lodging info can be found here: www.yachats.org/lodging.html

Please let us know if we can do anything to assist in your joining us and making your stay a delight.

Do join us.

Shanti.
Renee, Tony & Ri

For more information about the nature of the retreat itself, please contact us.