The North County Sangha had a great Spring. We finished our introductory classes and had two  excellent presentations by guests and several by our own.

We finished What The Buddha Taught by Walpola Rahula. It is the basic Buddhist text we used during our yearly introductory classes. There was a very interesting presentation by Dr. Gregory Sims who is associated with the Dalai Lama Foundation. He presented the framework of an eleven part online program exploring the qualities and manifestations of peacefulness. Bob Sachs did a special two week program on death and dying. Charlie Lawrence presented a couple of audio programs from Jan Frazier and Adyashanti. Mitch Paskin, your author, presented his experience at Great Vow Zen Monastery in Oregon during a seminar about Mindful Eating. Dr. Matthew Moore, one of our own, gave us a summary of a paper on Buddhism and politics he presented at a the Western Political Science Association.

We also followed the adventures of Jan Sprague's family in Nepal and India. Daniel Chaffin, Jan's son, started an NGO, Hands in Nepal, that built a school in Darkha of the Dhading district in Nepal. The school has four rooms. It was built of stone by local craftsmen. Daniel had some help from his father, Don Chaffin, who is a contractor in Santa Margarita.

Hands in Nepal has a website at http://handsinnepal.org/index.html.  Daniel is a student at Naropa University, a Buddhist school, in Boulder, Colorado.

Jan and Daniel are also involved with an orphanage in Kathmandu, Nepal. The Buddhist Childrens' Home has been the recipient of our dana baskets many times over the last year. Jan and Daniel have traveled to Nepal to support the orphanage. Daniel has taught English at the orphanage at different times.

We also spent some time this quarter on the Maitrya Project's Relic Tour. The relics are a collection of the remains of the historical Buddha and the Buddha's closest disciples as well as many other well-known Buddhist masters from different Buddhist traditions. A group from the NCWHS traveled to Santa Barbara to view the relics.

The NCWHS cooked a meal and served it on May 31 to El Camino Homeless Organization (ECHO). The event was honchoed by Suzette Johnson.

These were the facilitators for the last quarter:

April - Deborah Paskin

May - Sara Mikkelsen                                 

June - Deidre Gallagher

These were some of the recipients of our dana basket for the last quarter:

●Maya Lara, a sangha member, who is attending the Symposium for Socially Engaged Buddhism in Washington, DC

●The Atascadero Library building fund

●The ECHO Homeless Shelter dinner

●The Buddhist Childrens' Home in Kathmandu, Nepal

●The village school in Darkha, Nepal