A Very Buddhist New Year (video)

Wisdom Quarterly

Noah Levine addresses a capacity New Year's eve crowd at Against the Stream, Hollywood.

It is said that what one is doing on New Year's eve/day is what one will be doing the entire year. The afternoon began at Shambhala Los Angeles for a six hour (4:00 pm-12:00 am, pictured below) marathon of meditation, dinner, celebration, and DVD watching.

(Duck4cover/Flickr.com)

This was followed by a procession to seven Pasadena-area Buddhist centers (Sri Lankan, Thai, Tibetan, Burmese, Indonesian, Japanese, and Chinese).

And then it was on to Against the Stream.

Against the Stream
The evening culminated in Hollywood on Melrose, across the street from Los Angeles Community College with 100 American Buddhists going for guidance and renewing vows to preserve the Five Precepts.

Author and founder Noah Levine arrived from the same ceremony in Santa Monica earlier in the evening. One hundred and one Hollywood Dharma Punx and hipsters of all stripes sat by candlelight. Along with Mary Stancavage, Noah welcomed the group now in its seventh year of meeting and meditating into the New Year.

He talked about the significance of the Five Buddhist Training Precepts and encouraged everyone to not take any (such as the fifth) they were not intending to keep. This is important to preserve integrity (and the fourth): I undertake the precept of...

1. not intentionally killing any living being.
2. not taking what is not freely given.
3. being wise and careful with my sexuality.
4. being wise and careful and timely with my speech.
5. refraining from the use of intoxicating drink and substances that lead to heedlessness.

Mary followed by talking about the three traditional "refuges" (sarana, guides) -- going for guidance to the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, which is tinged with more devotion than most American Buddhists are used to.

The traditional Pali language iteration was handed out, but only the English part was read out loud in unison and repeated thrice.

Namo Tasa Bhagavato Arahato Sama-sambuddhasa.

"Homage to the fully enlightened Buddha."

Buddham/Dhammam/Sangham saranam gachami.

"I go for guidance to (or take refuge in) the Three Gems."

We sat silently as loud explosives -- celebratory guns fired in the air and/or fireworks in one of the most densely packed parts of town and a rash of arson fires burning to the west -- went off. Then came the highlight of the evening, setting our intentions.

A hundred candles were spread on a white table altar in the center of the gathering. One by one people came forward to light a candle and utter their intentions, aspirations, and New Year's resolutions. It took a long time punctuated by many bouts of laughter.

Then at midnight everyone hugged and kissed and tore off black garments and made out on the floor and cushions and repeatedly violated the third precept we had just -- oh, but that only happened in our imaginations.

Instead, back on Earth, at 12:30 am on January 1st, 2012 there was the tolling of a small Tibetan bell and we silently went out into the night to be better Buddhists resolved to meditate more and be kinder to ourselves and to others.

As Noah pointed out, we would never tolerate being spoken to the way most of us speak to ourselves all the time. With the intention of right speech we can begin to cultivate loving-kindness, wisdom, and compassion for all.

Vanessa sets the intention to be even more genuinely generous so that no one need ever guess whether things are truly freely given (WQ)

Shambhala LA meditation hall, 2012New Year's Eve, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche DVD (WQ)