Your Mother Is a Chicken: the sphere of empathy & harm reduction

Speaker: Venerable Myōgen Bhikkhu (Online, joining from Taiwan)

Mon 14 July | 7.00-8.30pm AESTLocation: In person at Western Sydney University (74 Rickard Rd, Bankstown City Campus), Room 1.4.34 on level 4 or Online (Zoom link below)

Cost: Free

If every being has been our mother in a past life, how would that impact our relationship with animals, the realm closest to humans, and our daily choices? Drawing on the Brahma’s Net and Lankavatara Sutras, we’ll bridge the gap between intellectual compassion and visceral empathy. Through contemplation and discussion, we’ll ask: How do we turn kinship from a mental exercise into a lived ethic? How might a bodhisattva fulfill vows with each spoonful of food?
*This will include a photo & visualization contemplation of birth, death, and animals which may be confronting.

About the Speaker: Venerable Myōgen Bhikkhu 妙眼釋 (they/them) is a monastic trained in both the Dharmaguptaka Vinaya lineage as a bhikshu (Sanskrit) / bhikkhu (Pali) (Taiwan, 2024) and in the Tendai tradition as a priest (USA, 2013). Myōgen completed Tendai esoteric training and exam in Chiba, Japan. Myōgen became Buddhist in their early teens through encountering the story of Shakyamuni Buddha and an early interest in questions on suffering, sickness, and death threaded by family history, personal illness, a queer identity, and an early empathy for animal life. Through volunteering with diverse groups and traditions, visiting different communities and teachers, they developed a pan-Buddhist perspective. Practicing the Lotus Sutra, brought a deep faith in the One Vehicle (Ekayana) perspective and the integration of methods as taught by their teachers who emphasized direct and personal experiences.

Myōgen is currently living in Taiwan with Unlimited Lights Academy (ULA) helping to coordinate ENG-CH programming and promote cross cultural exchanges and Buddhist retreats. www.wct.org.tw
They hold a Master of Divinity (SKSM, Berkeley, USA) focused on multi-religious & counter-oppressive theology for just communities. Additionally Myōgen holds a Master & Doctorate of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (ACTCM, San Francisco, USA) previously working in TCM oncology support. Future plans include an international vihara in Taiwan for multi-cultural and collective practice. www.facebook.com/tendaidojo

Hybrid event: Attendees will have the opportunity to participate in an interactive session in person at the Metta Centre or online by clicking on this link to access the session: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83506489824?pwd=cmpNQ1ljSmFVYURLWVN1dWllYUN1dz09 Alternatively, you can dial in from your telephone (call charges apply): +61 2 8015 6011 | Meeting ID: 835 0648 9824| Passcode: 718905