JEWEL HEART COMMUNITY MEETING

Thursday, December 13, 2018, 7:00pm – 8:30pm

Jewel Heart executive directors Carole Corcoran and Nancy Jeffries hosted an update on Jewel Heart accomplishments and plans for the future.

The meeting was held at Jewel Heart New York Center and broadcast live via webinar.  There was a question and answer session. Participants at other Jewel Heart Centers and those viewing online were be able to ask questions and offer comments.

For Jewel Heart Members.

JEWEL HEART COMMUNITY MEETING

Audio Only

MEETING NOTES

December 2018

Presented by Nancy Jeffries and Carole Corcoran  

  • We are happy to have our fourth community meeting to provide an update to our Sangha and friends. As we mentioned we hope to do this every few months.
  • We want to thank all of you for being part of and working with Jewel Heart as Sangha as we move Jewel Heart and ourselves forward in the way Rimpoche wanted.
  • We will have another community meeting during the first quarter of 2019.
  • As with the other sessions. we just want to let you know that this session is being taped and will be available for streaming for about one week for members. We wanted to give those members who have missed tonight and our friends at Jewel Heart Holland, Malaysia and Singapore and other affiliates the opportunity to listen in.

In our first two meetings we reviewed our relationship with other Jewel Heart Centers and how Jewel Heart is run and how decisions are made.

In the September meeting, we discussed programs, and the membership drive.

In this meeting we are going to discuss:

  • Programs since the last meetings, including 2019 programs
  • The National Dharma Coordinator Meeting
  • The Year End Drive
  • The status of Rimpoche’s Library.

 

I. PROGRAMS

We continue to have good news to report. 

As we have noted before, because of Gelek Rimpoche’s kindness and relationships to so many great lamas, in addition to having Demo Rimpoche with us, some of the most outstanding teachers from old Tibet continue to visit and teaching us.

This includes among others:

  • Demo Rimpoche, who we are very fortunate to have as our Spiritual Advisor and we are in the process of sponsoring his Visa.
  • Dagyab Rinpoche
  • Drikung Rinpoche
  • Geshe Yeshe Thabkhe
  • Ling Rimpoche
  • Doboom Rimpoche
  • Samdhong Rimpoche

Our plan is to benefit from Demo Rimpoche and his teachings and the kindness of these and other great teachers by inviting them to provide us with extensive teachings and initiations over the next couple of years.

In the meantime, Demo Rimpoche will eventually be able to give us all of these initiations.

Since we last met in September:

  • Geshe Yeshe Thabkhe finished his teaching of Aryadeva’s Four Hundred Stanzas, which took him three years to complete. Rimpoche wanted us to have these teachings from Geshe Yeshe Thabkhe. Geshe Yeshe Thabkhe is now 90 years old and he is a true example of an extraordinary being, and we are so grateful for his generosity and kindness in giving us these teachings and letting them be preserved for future generations.
  • The Six Perfections Course started and speakers have included:Geshe Yeshe Thabkhe, Thupten Jinpa, Geshe Negi, Glenn Mullin and our own Mark Magill, Kimba Levitt, Cyndi Lee, Dimitri Ehrlich, and Amy Hertz. Also, while it has not been broadcast yet, Bob Thurman recorded his teaching on Wisdom for this course on November 28th, and that will be broadcast as part of the course on January 31st.
  • Demo Rimpoche started his ongoing Monday night course on the Lam Rim in October and we have been getting rave reviews on this course also.
  • Ujjen led another world class Pilgrimage, this time to Bhutan and Dharamsala. Likely he is the best Tibetan Buddhist Tour Manager in the West or East. We hope that we can continue to have Ujjen lead these tours, and expand them beyond Jewel Heart.
  • We had a Dharma Coordinators Meeting on November 29th, the first since Rimpoche passed away and we will report on that shortly.
  • Also, a note to Vajrayogini practitioners: we will broadcast the Vajrayogini Tsoh on December 31st. Details have been sent out, and various centers will be open or you can participate from home if this applies to you.
  • The local chapters have all been active. Please check the JH calendar to see what is happening locally.

 

Additionally we have a strong program for 2019.  HIGHLIGHTS include:

  • Six Perfections Course – January-February continuing with Thubten Chodron, Bob Thurman, Joe Loizzo and Demo Rimpoche teaching and our own Hartmut Sagolla and Supa Corner.
  • Glenn Mullin 2019 Tour – January-March starting in New York on January 12, and covering New York, Northern California, Bloomfield Hills, Ann Arbor, Cleveland and Chicago.
  • Yamantaka and Refuge Mantra Winter Retreat – February 15-24. 10-day Yamantaka Mantra Retreat with Fire Puja for those wishing to be able to perform and participate in self-initiation in the future. And a refuge mantra retreat for those who wish to deepen this practice.
  • HH Drikung Kyabgon teaching – March 22-23  Phowa and teaching on Anapana Smiriti Sutra (Mindfulness of Breathing Sutra)
  • Guy Newland on Using Reason to See Things as They Are  – April 13 – 14, and How to Love MoreResent Less – April 14
  • Demo Rimpoche and Summer Retreat – June 15 – 22
  • Ling Rinpoche, a reincarnation of one of Rimpoche’s tutors, will be teaching July 12-14 on the Three Principles of the Path.
  • Doboom Rinpoche – August 15-19  will be giving a Vajrayana initiation and teaching and he has not told us the topic yet.
  • Geshe Yeshe Thabkhe – will coming for a week in in September to teach the Rice Seedling Sutra.
  • Mind & Meditation Course – September-October, which we think is going to be very contemporary and very traditional at the same time. It will feature guest speakers over six Thursdays, combined with three weekend meditation practice workshops.
  • Dagyab Rinpoche – Mid-October- Ann Arbor and NY (Vajrayana and non-Vajrayana teachings)
  • Demo Rinpoche will continue to give live Jewel Heart Sunday Talks twice a month
  • Demo Rimpoche will continue regular chapter visits.
  • The local chapters will also be active. Check the JH calendar and local Chapter emails for activities.
  • We will hold the Benefit to honor Rimpoche with Philip Glass in the Spring as a fundraiser for Jewel Heart. 

 

II.   NATIONAL DHARMA COORDINATOR MEETING

On November 29 we had a National Dharma Coordinator Meeting:

  • This was the first Dharma Coordinator Meeting since Rimpoche passed away.
  • We invited all Dharma Coordinators and Chapter Sangha Council Presidents. Ann Arbor, West Michigan, Bloomfield Hills, Cleveland, Chicago, Lincoln, Philadelphia, New York, Northern California, and Toronto joined in. Unfortunately Amy was away so our Texas study group which is going strong was not represented.
  • The meeting was very productive and we had an open and enthusiastic discussion.
  • Agenda included:
    • Discussion of where the DC’s fit in with the programs
    • Short report from the chapters on recent, ongoing and future programs, and Ann Warren will shortly give a brief update on Cleveland’s local programs.
    • Local promotion
    • The need to get the balance right between National vs Local/online vs onsite participation in the chapters and the pros and cons
  • We agreed to meet quarterly, to update the Dharma Coordinator guidelines and to continue to focus on the balance between national webinar programs and local presence in chapters. The Tentpole course in Meditation to be offered in the Fall will have both a national aspect and local meditation workshops.
  • Ann Warren, who is a Dharma Coordinator in Cleveland and a member of the Program Committee, gave some observations from the local chapters’ perspective. 

 

III. MEMBERSHIP CAMPAIGN

  • We had a membership campaign in the fall.  We will give a quick update.
  • Unfortunately, as has been the case for a number of years, the campaign did not have significant results.
  • We currently have 346 members and we gained 12 members.
  • For ten years we have been between 300 and 400 members.
  • We expect this will change:
  • Through Demo Rimpoche’s teachings – we are already attracting new individuals to his Lam Rim and Sunday talks.
  • Through new programs, including a joint Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism program that we are doing with Tricycle, which will be led by Demo Rimpoche teaching at various JH chapters, piloting at JH NY in February and followed up by a four-week course on Tibetan Buddhist Meditation. Tricycle will advertise this, we will record and post this, and Tricycle may post this to their site. The details are still being worked out.  Tricycle is hoping for 90 participants at the pilot session.
  • Through increased website participation (web traffic is increasing and we believe some of those new visitors will become members.) Thanks to Willy, Sean Ike, Amy Hertz and the rest of the Communications Committee.
  • Through the development of an Online University of Rimpoche’s teachings and other Lamas.
  • Please if you are not a member, join us in continuing to support Rimpoche’s work.

 

IV. ON LINE UNIVERSITY

  • A Foundation has been formed to hold Rimpoche’s extensive Library [ Over 5,000 hours of digitized audio and video teachings, over 3000 hour of teachings of other lamas and over 52 published transcripts, 40 more to be published and 303 more to be transcribed and published.]
  • Jewel Heart is and will remain distributor and administrator of the Library.
  • This is one of the most extensive and important archives of Tibetan Teachings in English, spanning over 30 years of teaching.
  • Rimpoche’s wish was for it be preserved and presented to help us and generations in the future.
  • We will be raising money shortly to build the on line University which will be on JH site and plans are well developed to proceed on this project and have it mostly completed over the next three years.
  • We expect it will cost between $100k and $300k and welcome restricted donations for this project to Jewel Heart.
  • This is different from digital dharma currently offered on the website and will be much more extensive and presented like any course at a University.
  • Currently on digital dharma we have about 1200 hours of Rimpoche’s teachings available.

 

V. Year End Campaign

  • The budget is about $1m a year. Recurring expenses are about $70k a month.
  • We need to make about $100k this year to end the year in the black from the Year End Campaign.
  • This is what we made last year.
  • The appeal has gone out electronically and is in the mail.
  • We ask all of you to contribute and we thank you also for your contributions.

 

We wish all of you a wonderful holiday, whatever holiday you celebrate, and thank you for all your support and friendship over the years.

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