L.A. is a Buddhist crossroads (field trip)

Ven. Samruay; Ven. YongHua; CC Liu, Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly

Ajahn Samruay and Master YongHua at Korea Sah Temple, Los Angeles

Silk Road temple, Mogao, Dunhuang, China

What made Siddhartha and Jesus and Mohammad possible as founders of the three world religions was the fact that they lived at crossroads.

Jesus could go to cosmopolitan Jerusalem, which had a Silk Road route to India and the East. Siddhartha lived along the Silk Route, and one of his hometowns was greatly enriched by trade coming through Kapilavastu.

The Silk "Road" was many connected routes.

He grew up and lived in three seasonal capitals of the Scythians' "Shakya Land," a range from Indo-Sakastan to Kazakhstan and Iran/Persia to Magadha, likely in what is modern Afghanistan (Bamiyan, Mes Aynak, and Kabul), on the northwest frontier of "India" (Jambudvipa, Maha Bharat), in the remnant territory of the once great Vedic Indus Valley Civilization. Mohammad lived not far away -- Dr. Ranajit Pal places all great religious figures (including Zoroaster) around Pataliputra (Palibroha, Patna) in Central Asia -- and had a crossroads from which his message could spread.

It's a long way to India and the Sacred East...but it's well worth it for the sages.

 
Los Angeles Field Trip, Oct. 2

Korean Sah Temple, East Hollywood, L.A.

Los Angeles is a lot like that. All Buddhist traditions and ethnic groups are present here, often as their first point of entry.

The result is a blending and happy commingling of communities that would only be side by side in Bodh Gaya, India (presumed site of the Buddha's enlightenment, where all Buddhist traditions have a temple). This FREE field trip takes place Sunday, Oct. 2, 2016 for a most interesting combination of traditions, and YOU are invited!

The Theravada Thai Forest Tradition elder Ven. Phra Ajahn Samruay, Abbot of Wat Bhuridattavanaram (Buddhist Temple of America, Ontario, California), has been invited to speak at Korea-Sa Buddhist Temple in East Hollywood/Koreatown, Los Angeles. And he is bringing along and sharing the stage with Vietnamese/Chinese Ch'an Meditation Master YongHua from Lu Mountain Temple (chanpureland.org) in Rosemead, California.

• Korean Sah Buddhist Temple
• 500 N. Western Ave. Los Angeles, CA
• 11:00 am: Recitation of the Buddha's name (temple program)
• 11:45 am: short meditation
• 12:00 pm: Dharma talk, Ven. Samruay/Ven. YongHua
• 12:30 pm: FREE lunch (Korean vegetarian)

What about history's Silk Route?

Shashi Thoroor, Huffington Post

NEW DELHI, India - The phrase "Silk Road" evokes a romantic image -- half history, half myth -- of tented camel caravans winding their way across the trackless deserts and mountains of Central Asia [in and around faraway Afghanistan].

But the Silk Road is not just part of a fabled past; it is an important feature of China's current foreign policy.

 

The historical Silk Road comprised an overland and a maritime route, both of which facilitated the transfer to Europe of South and East Asian goods and ideas, from Chinese tea to inventions like paper, gunpowder, and the compass, as well as cultural products like Buddhist scripture... More

The Buddha was born at the crossroads between East and West along Silk Road.