For those who are not familiar with Vesak, it is a holy day traditionally observed by Buddhists around the world, sometimes informally called “The Buddha’s Birthday”. The day honors and encompasses the birth, the enlightenment, and the death of the Buddha. Every country around the world celebrate this day differently, and the Buddhist Association at UCI will be bringing this cultural and spiritual celebration to the UC Irvine campus!

We will be featuring meditation, dharma talks, guest speakers, performances from UCI groups, and food! A cultural celebration indeed.

• Date: May 19th, 2013
• Location: Pacific Ballroom A/B
• Time: 10 am – 3 pm

Free admissions and everyone is welcome! Did we mention there will be free lunch for those in attendance? It’s true!  Hope to see you there! For headcount and logistics, we do ask that you R.S.V.P. using the form here: https://tinyurl.com/VesakRSVPform .Thank you!

For more information, please feel free to email us baucirvine@gmail.com.

We hope everyone is well. This week we will be hosting a special arts and crafts section on creating modular lotus flowers. Come show us your artistic side and create beautiful origami replicas of the symbolic lotus. The meeting will take place in Humanities Hall 210 from 6 pm – 7 pm on Tuesday April 30th. A vegetarian meal is also provided.

We are also hosting a Wetzel’s Pretzels fundraiser on Tuesday from 5 pm – 10 pm at the Wetzel’s Pretzels in the University Town Center (UTC). You can support our club while enjoying a delicious treat from Wetzel’s; their new options are great. Be sure to drop off your receipts in the designated box! Thank you! Please see the event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/115902061943570/?fref=ts

General Announcements

• Vesak is coming near. Are you ready?! On May 19th, we will celebrating the Buddha’s birthday with meditation, performances, dharma talks, and of course, free (and delicious) vegetarian food! The event will take place in Pacific Ballroom A and B from 10 am – 3 pm! For more information, please email us at baucirvine@gmail.com Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/527102207331045/?fref=ts Please RSVP here so you can be first in line for lunch! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1edvLcggZtC9gTCnJN5xHS1GRJH15kcekrII6l9B0fKk/viewform
• On May 26th, A youth group from the Dharma Seal Temple in Rosemead will be hosting the Buddhist Youth Conference! We will be heading there as guests and if you’re interested in tagging along, please email us for more information!
• We’re also looking for staff members for the upcoming year! So if you’re interested in gaining leadership skills as well as getting more involved with BA, please fill out the attached application and send it back to us ASAP.

Hello all, We hope you had a wonderful weekend. Thanks to all who came out to Dr. Victor Byrd’s talk! Also a thank you to everyone who came out and purchased a cup of lemonade from us at Wayzgoose! We appreciate the support. This week, we will be visited by Venerable Miao Zhang from the Hsi Lai Temple to continue our discussion on the topic of “meditation and Buddhism”. The meeting will take place this Tuesday (4/23) in Humanities Hall 210 from 6 pm – 7 pm. Upcoming events

• Week 5: The Art of Oragami
• Week 6: Social – Date/Location: TBA
• Ask us about “Vesak 2013″ – May 19th!
• Buddhist Youth Conference 2013 – May 26th – Sign-up via email or at the meeting

We are looking for new staff members, so if you’re interested in gaining some leadership experience and are looking to be more involved with BA, please let us know!

Photo credit: students.ou.edu/M/Jonathan.D.Mc-Kay-1/buddhistphilosophy.html

Apologies for the past two weeks as I have been out of rhythm with everything but I am all caught up now! I hope that your spring quarter is going well.

Before we get into the details, you should all know we have a new meeting room and time: Humanitites Hall 210 on Tuesdays at 6:00 to 7:30. Our quarterly theme is Meditation in Buddhism.

This week, we will have the distinguished Dr. Victor Byrd to guide us in the discussion as well as go over meditation techniques for us.

We will provide a delicious vegetarian meal, so we hope to see you all there.

For more information on Dr. Victor Byrd and his works, please visit his site.

Also, feel free to check out his amazing new book Bare Bones of the Buddha’s Teachings.
You can find it on Amazon! You can also read his insightful works and essays here.

Some updates for our club this quarter:

Tasteful Tuesdays – We will be taking names for everyone who participates in eating vegetarian on Tuesdays (Vegetarian staff members do not count!) and will have a raffle at the end for our participants.

April 20th – Wayzgoose/Celebrate UCI.
Come support us as we sell cookies and lemonoade in Aldrich park.

April 21st – Carwash fundraiser
We will be working on the corner of Brookhurst and Warner (Mobil gas station) to raise money for our club events!

Week 4 will feature Venerable Miao Zhang (more details to follow).

Vesak in May – This will be our biggest event of the quarter as we invite the other Buddhist Associations from UCLA, UCR, and UCSD to celebrate.

- We are looking for new staff members for the upcoming year! If
you’re interested in honing your leadership skills, please contact us or see the attachment in the email.

“The Buddha’s Birthday Education Project” is a Los Angeles based group from the Hsi Lai Temple that aims to promote the celebration of The Buddha’s Birthday or Vesak and discover new ways of celebrating it.

For more information, please visit: www.paradeofthebuddhas.org

Also check out their facebook page!