Cher a Buddhist Now

By Robin Leach, June 9, 2010


Las Vegas, USA -- Superstar entertainer Cher has said she is now a Buddhist, but added with characteristic self-deprecation, “who should always be in after-school detention.”
In an interview with Architectural Digest, the record-breaking Caesars Palace headliner shows off her spectacular 4,000 square-foot, two-floor “apartment” perched high above L.A. The magazine describes it as an irrepressible mix of spirituality and spunk.

“My houses,” Cher muses, “are passions.” They also are decorative barometers of the state of her never-boring, ever-expanding consciousness.

“I’ve played around with Buddhism for years,” continues the actress, a devotee of the American Buddhist nun Pema Chodron. “The soul of the universe, everything that I need, I can find in its practice.” Cher turned to friend and interior designer Martyn Lawrence-Bullard to help her conjure “something ethnic, spicy and romantic” in creams, ivories, whites and buttery beiges.

“Though I loved collecting Gothic and can spend hours drawing with every shade of Pantone pen, I prefer a neutral palette, especially in my bedrooms, because the colors are so easy to live with.”

Source: The Buddhist Channel

DR TAN ENG KONG

Dr Tan Eng Kong, MBBS, MPM, FRANZCP, was born in Malaysia and graduated as a Medical Doctor from University of Malaya in 1971. He is the Founder and Chairman of Metta Clinic, a group practice consisting of psychiatrists and psychologists in Sydney. He is a Fellow and former Councilor of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists. He has served as a Clinical Supervisor at the Australian Society of Hypnosis, and on the Training Faculties of the New South Wales Institute of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (NSWIPP) and the Australian and NZ Association of Psychotherapists (ANZAP). Eng-Kong has taught psychological medicine at the University of Malaya, and analytic psychotherapy at the University of Sydney and University of New South Wales.

He is the Founder President of the Young Buddhist Association of Malaysia (YBAM) and a Trustee of the University Buddhist Education Foundation Fund of Australia. He is also the Founder President of the Australian Association of Buddhist Counselors and Psychotherapists (AABCAP). In 2008 he assisted in establishing the Malaysian Buddhist Mental Health Association for Buddhist doctors, counselors, psychologists and health care professionals. 


http://www.wbc.my/speakers.php

DR DAVID ROBERT LOY

Dr David Loy has held the Besl Family Chair of Ethics/Religion & Society at Xavier University in Ohio, USA, since 2006. He has taught as professor at Bunkyo University, Japan, and at National University of Singapore. David received his B.A. from Carlton College, Minnesota, M.A. in Asian philosophy at the University of Hawaii, and Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of Singapore. His main research is in comparative (East-West) philosophy, especially bringing Buddhist perspectives to bear on contemporary social issues such as terrorism and violence, restorative justice, economics and globalization, biotechnology, environmental crises, and “the clash of civilizations.”

David authored several books on philosophy including “Nonduality: A Study in Comparative Philosophy, Yale University Press, 1988”, “Lack and Transcendence: The Problem of Death and Life in Psychotherapy, Existentialism, and Buddhism, Humanities Press, 1996,”, “A Buddhist History of the West: Studies in Lack, SUNY Press, 2002”, “The Great Awakening”, Wisdom, 2003)”, The Dharma of Dragons and Daemons”, Wisdom, 2004)”, and “Money, Sex, War, Karma, Wisdom, 2008.”
David is an authorized teacher in the Sanbo Kyodan lineage of Zen where he completed formal koan training under Yamada Koun Roshi.


http://www.wbc.my/speakers.php

VEN THUBTEN CHODRON

Venerable Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron graduated with a B.A. in History from the University of California, Los Angeles, and did post-graduate work in Education while working as a teacher in the Los Angeles City School System. In 1975, she met the Dharma and ordained in 1977. In 1986, she received bhikshuni (full) ordination in Taiwan. She has studied under H.H. The Dalai Lama, Tsenzhap Serkong Rinpoche, Zopa Rinpoche, and other Tibetan masters. She directed the spiritual program at Lama Tzong Khapa Institute in Italy for two years, was the spiritual program coordinator and later the director of Dorje Pamo Monastery in France, and was resident teacher at Amitabha Buddhist Center in Singapore.

For ten years she was resident teacher and spiritual advisor at Dharma Friendship Foundation in Seattle, USA. Active in interfaith dialogue, she also works with prison inmates and is the author of several Dharma books, including Buddhism for Beginners, Working with Anger, and Open Heart, Clear Mind. Seeing the importance and necessity of a monastery for Westerners training in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, she founded and is the abbess of Sravasti Abbey in Eastern Washington State, USA.


http://www.wbc.my/speakers.php

DR ROSHI JOAN HALIFAX

Dr Joan Halifax Roshi, an anthropologist by training, is the Founder, Abbot, and Head Teacher of Upaya Zen Center, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She has worked in the area of death and dying for over thirty years and is Director of the Project on Being with Dying. For the past twenty-five years, she has been active in environmental work. She is also Founder and Director of the Upaya Prison Project that develops programs on meditation for prisoners. She was appointed Honorary Research Fellow at Harvard University, and has taught in many universities, monasteries, and medical centers around the world. Recently, was appointed a distinguished invited scholar to the Library of Congress and the only woman and Buddhist to be on the Advisory Council for the Tony Blair Foundation.

Her teachers included Zen master Seung Sahn, and she was also teacher in the Kwan Um Zen School. She received the Lamp Transmission from Thich Nhat Hanh, and was given Inka by Roshi Bernie Glassman. A Founding Teacher of the Zen Peacemaker Order, her work and practice for more than three decades has focused on engaged Buddhism. 


http://www.wbc.my/speakers.php

VEN WEI WU

Venerable Wei Wu was born in Penang and had his studies at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering degree in 1973. He worked with Hewlett Packard in Malaysia as a Quality Manager before starting his own consultancy company in 1987 to serve many multi-national companies including Procter and Gamble, Philips, Fiat, and Astec in Asia, Europe and the United States of America. Venerable Wei Wu was ordained as a Buddhist monk in the Mahayana tradition in 1992 and established the Than Hsiang Foundation in Malaysia and Thailand and the International Buddhist College (IBC) in Hatyai, Thailand.

He is currently the President of the Than Hsiang Foundation and the Council Chairman of the IBC with its main campus in Southern Thailand, and a new branch campus in Korat, Thailand. He is also Abbot of Tham Wah Wan Temple in Kuala Lumpur where many IBC courses are being conducted for participants in the central region of the country. Venerable Wei Wu is also very active in social welfare projects, having established homes for the poor, as well as kindergartens throughout Malaysia. 


http://www.wbc.my/speakers.php

Chicago Area Buddhists See Tiger's Return To Faith As Positive Move

BY FRANCINE KNOWLES, Chicago Sun Times, February 22, 2010

 

Revelations by Tiger Woods last Friday that he will turn to his Buddhist faith as he seeks to atone for his infidelity and the damage it wrought is a wise decision, according to Chicago area Buddhists.
But his path will be a challenging one, they said.

"With Buddhism, there's no easy way out," said Rachael Conniff, just before morning service Sunday at the Buddhist Temple of Chicago. "There's no magic way for forgiveness. You can't pray it off. You can't pay it off. You have to work. It's what you make of it. Buddhism is a lot about self-reliance and self-responsibility, so if he's serious about that, then he will get back on track."

In his first public apology last week, Woods said he's dedicated to becoming a better person and will return to his Buddhist roots. His mother is a Buddhist and native of Thailand.

"I actively practiced my faith from childhood until I drifted away from it in recent years," he said. "Buddhism teaches that a craving for things outside ourselves causes an unhappy and pointless search for security. It teaches me to stop following every impulse and to learn restraint. Obviously, I lost track of what I was taught."

Buddhism, a faith practiced by an estimated 350 million to 500 million globally, has served Woods well in his professional career, said Bill Bohlman, who has attended the Chicago temple for about 20 years.

"A lot of his Buddhist upbringing is the reason he's such a good golfer, the idea of being in the moment and letting the past be the past," Bohlman said. "He wouldn't focus on the last bad shot. He wouldn't carry it into the next one. He could have a bad tournament and go win the Masters. So, this was the underpinning of a lot of his success."

But besides the importance of focus and concentration, Buddhism teaches the importance of dealing with one's desires and realizing the causes of one's unhappiness, said the Rev. Patti Nakai, associate minister at the Chicago temple.

"A lot of attention is put on overcoming defilements, craving for this, craving for that," she said. "Craving is something you need to be aware of, and instead of letting it control you, you need to see where it's coming from. One of the tenets is analyzing your cravings, why do you want that so badly, and by doing this analysis, it starts to break it down."

She and others said Buddhism does allow for forgiveness and redemption, but not in the same way as Christianity. She was addressing controversial comments Fox News' Brit Hume made earlier this year urging Woods to turn to Christianity because Hume didn't think Buddhism offered the forgiveness and redemption offered by Christianity.

Buddhism "has no divinity figure to ask forgiveness from," but you learn from your actions and you move on, said Bohlman.

It focuses on the need for followers "to get to that place where you can totally accept who you are and all the circumstances that brought about that," said Nakai.

While there is no one "to wipe the slate clean," she said, "you, yourself, have to do the hard work of confronting what you did and hopefully finding ways from this point on to the future to do things differently, in a [non-destructive] way to yourself and the people around you."

Nakai was pleased that Woods spoke about Buddhism.
"It was a very good statement," she said. "I'm glad he made this. I hope people get a positive feeling about Buddhism from his statement."