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Ottawa "Purpose of life in Buddhism" Meetup cover photo

Ottawa "Purpose of life in Buddhism" Meetup

702 members · Public group

Organized by Nobuaki Kondo and 9 others

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What we’re about

Are you searching for meaning in your life?

Have you ever felt happiness in your life... ...never lasts?

This Buddhist group has a great positive, multi-cultural atmosphere that helps people search for the answer to life's biggest questions.

Through the teachings of Buddha and historical Pure Land Buddhist teachers we understand better the direction our life needs to take in order to find the purpose of life.

We offer video lectures and have meetings to discuss how to obtain an absolute form of happiness.

I hope you'll stop by and attend a meeting when you have a chance! Below, you'll find some more information about what Buddhism is all about as well as our contact info and location.

In Buddhism, we learn that there are two kinds of joy.

Relative Happiness All the happiness we know is called Relative Happiness.

Money, status, fame, wealth, family, friends, and our loved ones are all included in this category.

Politics, economics, medicine, and the arts also try to provide us with Relative happiness.

We seek for this type of happiness day in, day out hoping we can attain true satisfaction from it.

Absolute Happiness We are all seeking for a happiness which will truly last.

This kind of happiness is called Absolute Happiness.

The purpose of life is to attain it as quickly as possible while still alive.

Learn more at our meetups and check out some of our topics:

The Law of Cause and Effect

Six Good Deeds that Bring Happiness

Mirror of Truth

Dark Mind is the Root Cause of Suffering

Upcoming events (4+)

Sat, Nov 16, 2024, 6:00 PM UTCHappiness Lab for Advanced Sangha Members
Link visible for attendees
Hi our Dharma friends!
Welcome to Buddhism for our advanced members! Our Happiness Lab meeting is a friendly get-together of like-minded people to learn about happiness in Buddhism.
If you're a newbie to Buddhism, please check out our Sundays 10 AM ET class for beginners to Buddhism.
Our weekly “Advanced” meetup group is open to those who have completed our basic course and are a contributing, sustaining member of our Sangha community. Each week we prepare a Dharma presentation for you on that week’s Buddhism topic, followed by Q&A. We kick off each meeting with some introductions and short ice-breaking to encourage one another to take our Dharma practice to the next level!
Check our our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@right-view-lab !
To better explain the philosophy behind Happiness Lab (our weekly Saturday events, focusing on happiness):
The ultimate goal of Buddhism is experiencing true happiness. But if we don't know what it is, we won't know how to go about it. There's a goal, or the finishing point of experiencing happiness that does not abandon us, Buddha teaches us. That is lasting peace of mind and satisfaction.
Buddha teaches us what lasting happiness is in contrast to our fleeting sense of it.
A great master of Buddhism expressed his own experience of attaining such happiness as follows:
"Swiftly receiving the wisdom of Buddha, gaining perfect and flawless satisfaction."
Just visualize the beautiful image of a full moon in the night sky. The full moon has a perfectly circular shape, which is symbolic of something perfect in Buddhism.
How can we experience perfect happiness? It's when darkness of mind or avidya in Sanskrit will get lifted. It takes no time. When the light comes, our dark mind will be instantly gone. That's the moment we achieve true happiness.
Dark mind is like a spiritual illness of not knowing why we suffer, why we're born, why we live. It's the ignorance about our true self as well.
Why do we feel pain when we say goodbye to our loved ones? Why is separation always painful? A popular Japanese singer once said, "Human beings are immersed in pain from the beginning but while we have our loved ones around us, we can forget about our pain. But when we say goodbye to them, the pain comes to the surface. In a sense, our loved ones work like a painkiller." There are all these forms of “painkillers.” – social media, playing games on your phone, drinking, binging Netflix, etc.
Why do we lack energy to move forward? Is it because we feel we're stuck in a circular marathon? When do I reach the finishing line? How long should I continue doing this?
The following are the lines from a popular song of Japan.
Over this hill, happiness lies waiting:
Clinging to that hope,
seven hills have I crossed so far,
this my fiftieth year.
We want to reach a point of completion. Seeking is tiring, you know.
Artists seek perfection in their artwork. But it's difficult to find a point of perfection. One popular singer said this:
"I always focus really hard on an album or a tour, and at the time I'll think, “This is the greatest!" But when it's over, somehow I’m always like “Nope, I still have a long way to go.”
Don't we look for lasting joy through our work/hobbies/relationships? But each time, we feel disillusioned.
The original pain comes from our dark minds. Listening to the Dharma illuminates this pain and eliminates it.
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Also please note that we're going to livestream this zoom session on YouTube for later access by our premium members. There will be an announcement from the Zoom app when it starts.

We would appreciate it if you use the same name as your Meetup account so that the host of the meeting will easily recognize the contributing, sustaining participants. Your camera must be on when you enter the zoom just to greet the hosts.

Our classes & sangha are sustained completely by the dana gratitude contributions of people like you! Dana gratitude donations for our classes are gratefully accepted at https://donorbox.org/purelandschooldonation Suggested donation for the event is $5 - $20.

Last but not least– the Zoom passcode is 426646.
Stay well and let's go forward towards the light of unconditional goodness together!
We’re looking forward to meeting you!
Bita and Yuichi
4 attendees
Sun, Nov 17, 2024, 3:00 PM UTCABCs of Buddhism for Newbies
Link visible for attendees
Hi our Friends,
Either me or a good Dharma friend is going to share the teachings with people new to Buddhism. Once our life is transformed through the Dharma, we can't keep it to ourselves. Hopefully other Dharma friends will volunteer to share their wisdom too!
Join us and study together! We will have Q&As at the end of the presentation too!
The password for zoom is 426646.
The first 20 minutes I'd like to get to know who is joining our zoom session so please have your camera on. After that, we will record our presentation and Q&A and upload to YouTube for the public. Thank you for your understanding.
If you're interested in learning Buddhism but have a schedule conflict, please email Bita at [email protected]
Once you finish this basic course, if you'd like to be part of our sangha (community of like-minded friends who are contributing, sustaining members), you're welcome to join our advanced course.
Below is the self-introduction of one of our presenter:
My name is Pam and I am from Nepal. I have been listening to Buddhist teachings, reading books about Buddhism from the sources of what ever was available in my country , I used to listen to Buddhist monks , gurus . In the beginning of 2020 my husband met one sensei through facebook who was teaching Buddhism online so from there we started listening to Buddhism . We listened in daily basis , we had at least one hour session every day where we learned much more than what we had just learned within my country. Listening to dharma has motivated me in many ways specifically if I could share then it would be being a better person every day . no matter what the world throws at you , no matter how people treat you , no matter what you go through but you make sure that you become a better person . and listening to dharma /Buddhism has really helped me a lot , understanding life, relationships and more. It is just the beginning I feel there’s much more to go , so the best thing is you listen to dharma and feel more deep. Be kind have compassion.
And one more best thing you can do is sharing it. So that many people can benefit in many ways.
Before I was just growing by age but after listening to dharma I am sincerely grown up now , I have learned how to communicate, apologize, be truthful and accept accountability of my deeds / karma without blaming someone else. I'll be happy if I can share that with you too.
2 attendees
Tue, Nov 19, 2024, 1:00 PM UTCThe Purpose of Life in Buddhism
Link visible for attendees
Please fill in the form to join the session:
http://bit.ly/Buddhism_Session_Form

Link to our WhatsApp group for announcement:
http://bit.ly/PurposeofLifeinBuddhism

Learn the wisdom of Buddha and lead a life of everlasting peace and joy

Zoom link for the lecture:
https://bit.ly/Online_Buddhism_Zoom_Session
Meeting ID: 972 841 4717
Passcode: 108

Why were we born?

Why are we living?

What is the purpose of our life?

What determines a good fate of happiness, or a bad fate of misfortune?

We will have an Skype session to learn how Buddhism answers to these questions.

If any questions, please contact:
https://bit.ly/OnlineDharmaSessions
1 attendee
Wed, Nov 20, 2024, 2:00 AM UTCDharma Q&A Session for Premium Members
Link visible for attendees
We're going to host a Dharma Q&A session on the 3rd Tuesday of every month from 6 PM to 9 PM ET. In Buddhism, Q&A is highly encouraged by masters. In the first place, all of the lectures given by the Buddha started with a question raised by his disciples. Buddha gave a perfect answer, which made one lecture also called as one sutra. This method is also called "giving medicine in accordance to the patient's symptoms." The questioner must have experienced a deep sense of satisfaction.

In our Dharma talks, we don't have enough time for Q&As. We only have about 10-15 minutes for Q&A. So in this new meetup event, we'd like to dedicate the whole session to Q&A. Any questions are welcome. The level of our Dharma talks is usually set to be basic. For this new meetup event, we hope to go a little deep. There are two conditions to join this Q&A session on zoom:
1. Please offer a $10 contribution for each Q&A session. You can offer it on PayPal or Venmo to Bita Enayati at [email protected]
2. After you offer your contribution, please email Bita at [email protected] with your self-introduction and that you made your contribution.
People who fulfill these two conditions will receive our new zoom ID and password.
Thank you for reading to the end and can't wait to make your acquaintance, hear about your spiritual journey, and have our Q&A session! Take good care.
2 attendees

Past events (1587)

Fri, Nov 15, 2024, 11:00 PM UTCBuddhism 101: What is the purpose of life?
This event has passed
5 attendees

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