WBU Forum Nov 09

Program :            WBU SUNDAY FORUM

Topic :                 A Child, a dog & our Buddha nature  

Date & Time :     November 1st , 2552(2009), 12.00-13.30 P.M

Speaker ;             Mr. Richard Rubacher

About the Topic :           A child, a dog & our Buddha nature

DEFINITION OF TERMS:

Child’s Mind: In situations of stress I enter a state of ‘absurd calmness.’ Being in a child’s mind I see the universe as a safe place.

Dog: A dog knows its Buddha Nature. This will be explained.

Buddha Nature means recurring epiphanies or ‘aha moments’ that results in joy.  People with the most epiphanies on the planet are Oprah, the Dog Whisperer, the Dalai Lama and Irena Sendler (the female version of Oskar Schlindler).

Enter Matthew Fox, the Roman Catholic priest who was summoned to the Vatican to explain why he placed his dog above the Gentleman from Nazareth; the church’s theological elite were also upset with his book, Original Blessing. Matthew Fox debunked original sin. He endorsed Mark Twain’s quip—original sin is man’s fall into seriousness.

Enter Cesar Millan, ‘the dog whisperer.’ He releases dogs from suffering (dukkha) to happiness (sukkha). He catapults people (dog owners) into an epiphany.

My experiences with dogs before and after knowing about the dog whisperer’s magical formula.

My first experience with my Buddha Nature—a glorious epiphany at age eleven when I no longer wanted to be a sex slave to Alcatraz, the leader of the Tomahawks. I talk about the initiation torture of the first white boy into an all-black gang. The aftermath of the initiation—going into battle with another Brooklyn gang. 

Fast forward to Detroit (April 1968) the night after Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered. I, along with a crippled friend, was caught in a Detroit ghetto AFTER the 8:00 p.m. curfew. An epiphany in the ghetto

Fast forward to San Francisco’s Haight Ashbury when I was assistant director in a halfway house for ex-cons. I had to inform Jitterbug that he was expelled from the house by a committee of ex-cons. Jitterbug, the winner of a thousand battles, attacked me. What happened immediately after the attack was another epiphany, a supreme aha moment. 

Another incident with Jitterbug a week after his expulsion. A black angel came to my rescue when Jitterbug came to my room at the halfway house.

An incident with a Charles Manson family member who came to my San Francisco flat on Manson’s orders. He secret agenda became known to me. Absurd calmness, an epiphany.

Bio Info Of  The Speaker

Richard is collaborating with a Hollywood producer-director for the film rights on his new book, CHARLES MANSON’S BLOOD LETTERS–dueling with the devil.  As a graduate student Richard published research papers on “the Manhattan Project of the Mind.” His first presentation at WBU, “Hollywood & the Buddha” was in March 2008. His research paper, “Psychological Near-Death Experiences: the marriage of heaven & hell,” was presented to the International Association of Near-Death Studies at its Fifth Annual North American Conference at the University of Hartford, CT in 1997. He is the author of Thai Touch where the good and bad about Thailand are told with a comic touch. He appears on dharma radio talk shows and was interviewed by Thai monks on a dharma TV show in Bangkok. He was interviewed by the shock jock, Howard Stern. 

Location :

Location :
Meeting Room, the World Buddhist University, 3rd floor, WFB Headquarters Bldg., in Benjasiri Park, Sukhumvit 24, Bangkok, Time : 12.00-13.30 pm. All are welcome to join the programme free of charge. For more information, please call 02-258-0369 to -0373, fax 02-258-0372, or see www.wb-university.org.

The WBU shares the same building with the WFB (World Fellowship of Buddhists), and can be found by our maps below. It is on the third floor. The WBU is open most office hours, and the building can be entered from the rear of the building from the Soi. The front gate that faces the park is generally locked, but there is access to walk through to the rear.

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    WFB/WBU Building   Wide area Skytrain map