HOME

2025 Vesak - Shakyamuni Buddha's Birthday Ceremony

4/12/2025

Date: Sunday, May 11, 2025
Time: 9:00-1:00pm (Pacific Time Zone, California)
Location:
In-Person at Berkeley Buddhist Monastery
2304 McKinley Ave, Berkeley, CA, 94703

Online (only from 9:00am-11:00am)
* Youtube Channel: Dharma Realm Live
* Zoom: BBM Online Link

Recitation Sheet (PDF)

Join us for the Buddha's Birthday at Berkeley Buddhist Monastery! In this ceremony, we bathe the baby Shakyamuni Buddha as we also reflect on purifying our own Buddha-nature. This is a chance to renew ourselves.

Monking Around: An American-Born, Mahāyāna-Curious, Theravāda Monk Talks about Dharma Practice in America

4/10/2025

Date: Tuesday, April 29, 2025
Time: 6:00 - 7:00 p.m. PT

Register Here

Join us for an evening with Ajahn Kovilo, an Ohio-born Theravāda monk with a unique journey through Buddhist traditions. Having trained in monasteries across America and Thailand and recently graduated from Dharma Realm Buddhist University (DRBU), Ajahn Kovilo brings a rich perspective on practicing Buddhism in contemporary American culture.

Saturday Night Avatamsaka Sutra Lecture (In Person: May 10, 2025)

4/9/2025

Also available via live streaming (webcast) from Berkeley Monastery
Lecturer: Rev. Heng Sure (or DRBA monks and nuns)

Come join us for in person at Berkeley Buddhist Monastery starting on May 10, 2025!

Every Saturday night, the Berkeley Monastery community gathers to listen to a lecture on the Flower Adornment Sutra. We investigate the sutra text line by line and endeavor to bring its ancient wisdom up to date for our modern lives in the 21st century.

For more class info: Please Click Here.

Deconstructing Reality: Science, Time-Space, and the Illusion of the Self

4/9/2025

Dates: June 7-14, 2025
Location: Sudhana Center
225 South Hope Street in Ukiah, California

What if everything we believe about time, space, reality, and even our own identity is a construct? This retreat, led by Doug Powers and Bogdan Staszewski, will challenge our assumptions about existence. We will explore the implications of cutting-edge physics, Buddhist philosophy, and phenomenology, not as intellectual exercises but as portals to profound transformation.

Buddha Root Farm: 2025 Guan Yin Recitation Session & Chan Session

4/8/2025

Location: Buddha Root Farm / Reedsport, Oregon
Guanyin Session: Sat, June 21 – Fri, June 27
Chan Session: Fri, June 27 – Mon, June 30
** Work Week: Sun, June 15 – Sat, June 21**

More details and registration here

Come join us in the woods of Buddha Root Farm, where we recite the name of Guan Yin and return to the refuge within. Following the Guan Yin retreat, we invite you to deepen your practice with a Chan meditation retreat in the quiet woods of Oregon.

For those who want to join the CIA (Compassion-In-Action), come for work week before hand to setup the camp for everyone! ;)

Summer Guan Yin Session at CTTB (July 12-20, 2025)

4/6/2025

Location: City of Ten Thousand Buddhas (Ukiah, CA)
Dates: July 12 - 20, 2025

Details and Registration Here

Hosted with DRBU Extension at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas. Come to the home of Guan Yin Bodhisattva to recite her name.

Master Hsu Yun's Pictorial Biography Lecture by Rev. Heng Sure (Fri 6:30-7:30pm)

1/5/2025

Date/Time: Fri, 6:30-7:30pm (Pacific Time)
Speaker: Rev. Heng Sure

Rev. Heng Sure gives stories and lectures on the Pictorial Biography of Master Hsu Yun. The lecture will be in English, with Chinese and Vietnamese translation.

To sign up: [email protected].

Ten Transferences Chapter Lecture on Sunday by Rev. Heng Sure

1/4/2025

Come learn how Bodhisattvas creatively dedicate merit to all living beings from the "Ten Transferences" chapter in the Avatamsaka Sutra.

Speaker: Rev. Heng Sure
Date/Time: Sundays 7:30 – 9:00 pm

English Zoom link：Join Here (ID: 929 8519 9033 / Passcode: 95482)
Vietnamese Zoom link: Join Here (ID: 879 7769 2844 / Passcode: 922407)
YouTube: https://youtube.com/live/QEM_3BhT8IA?feature=share

Morning and Evening Ceremonies Streaming Online

1/3/2025

In the morning and evening, please join us in our daily ceremonies, where the ancient chants connect us to ourselves and all living beings.

5:00-6:00am Morning Ceremony
6:30-7:30pm Evening Ceremony

YouTube Channel: DharmaRealmLive
Register Here to Join on Zoom

Redwood Vihara Website & Newsletter Signup

12/31/2024

Berkeley Buddhist Monastery is branching out and establishing a monastery in the redwoods! Visit our new Redwood Vihara website.

If you are interested in getting news and updates, please sign up for our Redwood Vihara newsletter here.

Applying Buddhist Perspectives to Ordinary Life with Steven Tainer

12/28/2024

The first in a series on Buddhist views of reality drawn from different Buddhist schools, this course will examine human existence and day-to-day life patterns, and suggest ways to correct negative tendencies and enhance life overall. Emphasis will be placed on perspectives that can be understood by newcomers to meditation training, but will also include some more advanced teachings. Each point will be explained in terms of several levels of insight, with suggestions for applications in practice.

Taught by: Steven Tainer
Dates: Jan 22 - May 14, 2025
Time: Wednesday, 7:30-8:45pm (Pacific Time)
Online Only Zoom Link: Join Here (Meeting ID: 874 3126 0912 / Passcode: 558681)

Avatamsaka Sutra Lecture by Martin Verhoeven

9/16/2024

7:30 - 8:15 pm Meditation
8:15 - 9:00 pm Lecture / Q & A

Join Online: DharmaRealmLive

The class will examine the practices and path set forth by the Avatamsaka Sutra, or Flower Ornament Sutra, which describes a cosmos of infinite realms upon realms, mutually containing one another.

The text touches on various topics such as the Bodhisattva path, the interpenetration of phenomena (dharmas), the visionary powers of meditation and the equality of things in emptiness.

For more details such as how to access the live broadcast link and the speaker bio, please visit the class link.

Insight Meditation Gatherings with James and Eve (In-Person and Online)

9/1/2024

Meditation practice, Teachings, and Community
With James Baraz and Eve Decker
Thursdays 7:30-9pm PT

We will meet in person the 2nd and 4th Thursday of the month. In-person gathering at the Berkeley Buddhist Monastery, 2304 McKinley Ave., Berkeley. Or, people can join us online using the usual Zoom link.

More information at www.insightberkeley.org.

Come Join Our Chinese Music Ensemble at the Monastery!

4/24/2024

Have fun learning and playing music in a Chinese ensemble! All instruments are welcome (strings, plucking, woodwind, percussion). Please bring your own instrument. No experience needed, although preferred. We can help you get started on an instrument. Sessions are free. All ages are welcome.

Dates: 1/25, 2/22, 3/29, 4/26, 5/31, 6/7 (Last Saturday)
Time: 1:00-3:00pm
Location: Dining Hall, Berkeley Buddhist Monastery

Interested? Please email: [email protected].

First Tuesdays with Abhayagiri Monks

4/1/2024

Date: First Tuesday of the Month
Times: 5pm (Tea Time)
7:30pm - 9:45 (Dhamma Talk)
Speakers: Abhayagiri Monks

On break until May 6, 2025

Please join us for a Dhamma evening with the Monks from Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery. At 5pm there is an informal time to ask questions of the monks over tea, and then at 7:30pm, there will be chanting, meditation, followed by a Dhamma talk. All are welcome.

<<Previous

Newsletter Sign-up

Sign-up email here

Classes & Events

Daily Practice
Meditation
5:15-6:15pm

Wednesday
Applying Buddhist Perspectives to Ordinary Life
by Steven Tainer
7:30-8:45pm (Online)

Thursday
Insight Meditation Community
7:30-9:00pm

Friday
Online Talk
by Rev. Heng Sure
6:30-7:30pm

Avatamsaka Sutra Lecture
by Martin Verhoeven
7:30-9:00pm

Saturday
Avatamsaka Sutra Lecture
by Rev. Heng Sure
7:30PM to 9:30PM
Click here for live broadcast

Retreats (Ukiah, CA)

7-Day Retreats in a Contemplative Setting

Blogs, Videos, Podcast

Rev. Heng Sure's Blog
DharmRealmLive TV on YouTube
Avatamsaka Sutras on Podcast

RSS Feed