Northwest Dharma Association’s New Website
Will Improve access, Ease of Use, for Everyone

The Northwest Dharma Association is set to launch a new website, an entirely different kind of site than the current one.

The new site’s style will closely resemble that of Northwest Dharma News, which you are reading now. The Member Group listings and Calendar of Events will be greatly augmented, and will appear prominently on the home page. The site will be much more intuitive to navigate and, therefore, more user-friendly. In addition, it will automatically adapt to display on mobile devices, such as phones and notepads, as Northwest Dharma News does now.

A team of volunteer staff and board members have worked with our Web designer, Stephen Schildbach, to develop the new site. Most of the design work is…

Gay Seattle Buddhists Step Out at Annual Parade

This year, as the Seattle area’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Buddhists marched together in the annual June 30 Seattle Pride Parade, we did so with an extra spring in our step.

Just three days before we had received life-changing news, in a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court: California’s Proposition 8 violated the state’s own constitution. California was now free to resume marrying same-sex couples.

Additionally, the court found a major clause of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) to be constitutionally flawed. The court concluded the federal government must treat all legal marriages from all states equally.

These decisions, combined with the warm sunny weather, made for what appeared to be record attendance at Seattle Pride events. The Supreme…

Traditional Tibetan Values Upheld
At Canada’s Thrangu Monastery

Just three years after it opened, in July, 2010, Thrangu Monastery Canada has emerged as one of the most traditional Tibetan monasteries in North America.

The 35,000-square-foot monastery, the North American seat of Thrangu Rinpoche, was built in 23 months after many years of planning and working with the local government of Richmond, British Columbia and the larger community of the BC lower mainland.

This May, as we waited for Rinpoche to arrive, the sun was shining, the monks played their Tibetan horns (called gyaling), and the rest of us held colorful prayer flags adorned with auspicious symbols. We were happily celebrating the arrival of the supreme abbot of all the Thrangu monasteries worldwide, Thrangu Rinpoche (pronounced tran-goo rin-po-chay), who…

Flash Sit Brings Peace to Downtown Seattle

On Saturday Sept. 7, I was celebrating many things.

Exactly three months prior I had given up drinking alcohol. I had recently quit my corporate job, so I could focus all of my time and energy on being healthy, happy and fearless, and helping others to be the same. Also, my parents were in town visiting Seattle for the first time.

To honor this special moment of my life, I decided to organize a meditation event in downtown Seattle. The idea came from a group called Wake Up London, a community of people practicing the living art of mindfulness inspired by the teachings of Zen master, author, poet and peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh. They organize meditation events throughout London…

Washington Prison Sanghas Celebrate Buddha’s Life

At Airway Heights Corrections Center, a Washington State prison outside Spokane, an inmate who had studied ballet as a boy got up in front of his peers, and a chapel full of guests and relatives, and danced to the sounds of ancient Buddhist chants.

Judy Patterson, the long-time Buddhist volunteer at Airway Heights, said she had never experienced a moment quite like it.

“No one in that restless, crowded room stirred,“ she said. “It was evanescent, in the same way spiritual experience is.”

The June feast day proceeded with dharma talks by Patterson and Rowan Conrad, a Zen teacher from Missoula, Mont., who tries to attend this event yearly and has often led retreats for the men at at Airway…

Visiting Thai Monks Explore Mt. Rainier

A dozen Theravada monks, most of them used to the sweltering weather of Thailand and Indonesia, explored the snowy slopes of Washington state’s Mt. Rainier, during a July visit.

Many of the monks had never seen snow before, and they responded with exuberance, gamboling on the mountain’s vast snow fields wearing saffron robes and most of them, sandals.

The field trip was organized by Phra Ratsamee, abbot of Bhuddhangkura Buddhist Temple in Olympia. The Rainier visit was just part of a month-long visit by the monks to the Seattle area and Texas, he said. “They came here because they hear about the U.S.A. and that it’s a very big country,” Ratsamee said.

“They like to visit and see how Buddhist…