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The Diamond Mountain Blog

This is an unofficial blog of news and info from Diamond Mountain University and Retreat Center which was founded by Geshe Michael Roach and Lama Christie McNally in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition of the Dalai Lamas.

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Calendar of Buddhist Holidays

Many seem to have the impression that a good Buddhist sits in meditation all day, indifferent to the comings and goings of the world.  It's true that we often don't know what day it is, but it's only because we don't have a good calendar, not 'cause we don't care.  Enter DM's calendar of Buddhist holidays.  To many of us, these holidays are an important part of our spiritual practice and being on the lunar calendar makes them a little tricky to track.  Thankfully our cousin center, Rashi Gempil Ling, releases a printed calendar every year to help.  They've been kind enough to send us those important dates so now can stopping looking at the moon and guessing.

Sunday, January 27, 2008

SP VIII Video!

A big thanks to Benzadaka / Benkapa / Señor Worden for quickly recording, encoding, and uploading the latest Spiritual Partners video.  As of this post the first night is up and the second will soon follow.  The talks were all about kleshas.  Don't know what is a klesha, watch the video and find out!


update: the audio is now up as well


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Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Winter Term Registration Now Open

That's right folks you can now register online for DMU's Winter term. Run, don't walk, over to the DM site and look for this shiny button. A few clicks to make all your dreams come true.

DMU registration

Winter Term Course Catalog and Schedules

In less than one week, that's six sleeps for those of you who do that, Diamond Mountain University's Winter term will begin. As usual the cold can't stop people of all corners of the globe from coming to DM to get their enlightenment on. Every term is a different adventure with a different flavor. Who knows what's is store this time.

Registration for the term will be up shortly so that means it's time to look over your schedules and course options and narrow down your focus. It happens to many of us; the kid-in-a-candy store syndrome. With so many great classes and so much knowledge to absorb it's tough to make those course choices, so start thinking about it now. The term schedule and course catalog have just been updated (a few minutes prior to this post). So look carefully and choice wisely.  But shoot, you can't go wrong.  They're all remarkable offerings. See you soon.

DMU at DiamondMtn.org

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Saturday, January 05, 2008

Lama Retreat Home: Progress in Pictures

At Diamond Mountain we like to build and we like to move dirt (earth).  And one of our favorite reasons for doing this is to help our teachers.  For a couple years some hard-working dirt-pushers have been working on an earthbag dome house for Geshe Michael and Lama Christie in which they can do the next three-year retreat.  All the work has been done by hand and without major equipment and the work has been remarkable.

A few weeks ago the glorious Kat released the latest images from the progress.  We've gone from excavation to building!  Mazel tov.  To see the progress in pictures check out this photo set.  To see the progress firsthand come out and put that first, and second, hand in the dirt and help out on the mountain.

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