Date: Tuesday November 30, 2010

TIme: 7pm - 8pm

Location: Room KP-113, Koffler House, 569 Spadina Ave, Toronto, M5S 2J7 (map)

Poster: (pdf)

 

Contact: sgi at utoronto dot ca

 

 

Have you ever paused and thought, why are we born as human beings, why do we grow and age, and where will we be after death ?

 

Have you ever felt you are not good enough, would like to improve yourself, make yourself happier  but don't know how to do it.

 

Have you ever wondered, why are you born into your family, encounter such and such friends? What is the nature of connection of you with other people in this world?

 

In this seminar, we will look into the above questions through the lens of Buddhism, a religion of 2000 years of sublime human wisdom and spirituality. As a humanistic religion, a religion for people, the profound teaching of Buddhism lies in its practicality and generality, which every one of us can access and apply directly in our daily lives. We will focus particularly on the sect of Nichiren Buddhism and see how the practice enables us to live our lives to the fullest with immense benefits, for both ourselves and everyone in our surroundings. For concreteness, we will give a demonstration of the practice of chanting, as a way for us to access the inner realm of our spiritualities that connect to the external realities.

 

Quote: "Buddhism teaches that no human being can exist in a state of total isolation; we survive by supporting and helping one another. This philosophy is the polar opposite of the idea of rejecting or shutting out certain persons or groups of people. If anything, the principle of dependent origination leads us to give utmost consideration to how to enable others to exercise their full human potential." - Daisaku Ikeda, President of SGI