Update 27/7/8 - Yesterday Richard presented the Drala Jong Appeal with £333, including his £100 prize and over £200 of sponsorship money. Way to go, Richard!I'm delighted to announce that a Brit (more particularly, a Welshman) has won Wimbledon - or rather Wiimbledon. Richard O'Donovan has come out on top in the Cardiff Wiimbledon championships, [...]
Some folk who hear about Drala Jong assume all the art that will be created and performed there will be from an unfamiliar cultural context - either obviously overtly Buddhist, or inspired by Asian and Oriental influences. This pre judgement leads to the conclusion that somehow Drala Jong won't be accessible to everyone, but just [...]
Adding to the list of unusual ways of raising funds for the appeal, Richard O'Donovan of Whitchurch, Cardiff is playing at Wiimbledon this year. No ... not Wimbledon ... Wiimbledon. This is a tournament of tennis played on the Wii games console which is taking place at the end of June in Cardiff. The requirement [...]
As a slight aside from the normal materials, I thought I would provide an update on our work for the 'Pemako Project' whose work includes supporting a local school in North Eastern India http://www.visionbuilders.org/content/public/default.aspx?id=1001 which provides both a modern education but also training in the yogic Buddhist tradition for local children (see elsewhere in the [...]
What follows is an excerpt from an unpublished interview with Ngak'chang Rinpoche from 2007 regarding Drala Jong. I will include more excerpts from articles and interviews over coming months to help elaborate upon elements in the Drala Jong brochure available at http://www.lulu.com/content/719036The interviewer is Caroline Sherwood (Q) and all responses are from Ngak'chang Rinpoche (NCR), [...]
"The mind is the greatest artist, painting various relative truths with the brush of conception."Thinley Norbu Rinpoche, Magic Dance 1981:135"At the highest levels of meditation and art there are no longer any set rules, just the spontaneous flow of creativity"Dugu Choegyal Rinpoche, The Dalai Lamas' Secret Temple, 2000:39
"On the wall surface of whatever appearsI paint the vision of non-dualityWith the brush of meditation.Holding the teachings on the inseparabilityOf emptiness and appearance,I am the master artist, 'The Lotus Born'."Padmasambhava(The Dalai Lama's Secret Temple, 2000:114)
It used to be traditional that donors to charities weren't overly worried about the administration practices or policies of the organisation to which they donated. In modern times there is a far higher focus on issues of 'transparency' with people rightly concerned that in some charitable organisations a huge percentage of every pound donated goes [...]
In addition to providing a home base for the Aro Tradition in the UK (http://www.arobuddhism.org/) Drala Jong will provide a venue to host guest teachers from around the world. In recent years Sang-ngak-chö-dzong - our UK registered charity - has invited teachers such as Lopon P Ogyan Tanzin Rinpoche (see below) and Lama Tharchin Rinpoche [...]
I'm delighted to report that this week we have received our largest single donation to date - £5,000 - and that this takes the total appeal fund to £54,996. Every donation is welcome - the smallest to date has been £2 - but it's always nice to improve on our record. Some donations come from [...]
