Buddhism For Beginners Meetup Group in Pasadena

Hi our Dharma friends!
Welcome to Buddhism for our advanced members! Our Happiness Lab meeting is a friendly get-together of like-minded people to learn about happiness in Buddhism.
If you're a newbie to Buddhism, please check out our Sundays 7 AM class for beginners to Buddhism.
Our weekly “Advanced” meetup group is open to those who have completed our basic course and are a contributing, sustaining member of our Sangha community. Each week we prepare a Dharma presentation for you on that week’s Buddhism topic, followed by Q&A. We kick off each meeting with some introductions and short ice-breaking to encourage one another to take our Dharma practice to the next level!
Check our our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@right-view-lab !
To better explain the philosophy behind Happiness Lab (our weekly Saturday events, focusing on happiness):
The ultimate goal of Buddhism is experiencing true happiness. But if we don't know what it is, we won't know how to go about it. There's a goal, or the finishing point of experiencing happiness that does not abandon us, Buddha teaches us. That is lasting peace of mind and satisfaction.
Buddha teaches us what lasting happiness is in contrast to our fleeting sense of it.
A great master of Buddhism expressed his own experience of attaining such happiness as follows:
"Swiftly receiving the wisdom of Buddha, gaining perfect and flawless satisfaction."
Just visualize the beautiful image of a full moon in the night sky. The full moon has a perfectly circular shape, which is symbolic of something perfect in Buddhism.
How can we experience perfect happiness? It's when darkness of mind or avidya in Sanskrit will get lifted. It takes no time. When the light comes, our dark mind will be instantly gone. That's the moment we achieve true happiness.
Dark mind is like a spiritual illness of not knowing why we suffer, why we're born, why we live. It's the ignorance about our true self as well.
Why do we feel pain when we say goodbye to our loved ones? Why is separation always painful? A popular Japanese singer once said, "Human beings are immersed in pain from the beginning but while we have our loved ones around us, we can forget about our pain. But when we say goodbye to them, the pain comes to the surface. In a sense, our loved ones work like a painkiller." There are all these forms of “painkillers.” – social media, playing games on your phone, drinking, binging Netflix, etc.
Why do we lack energy to move forward? Is it because we feel we're stuck in a circular marathon? When do I reach the finishing line? How long should I continue doing this?
The following are the lines from a popular song of Japan.
Over this hill, happiness lies waiting:
Clinging to that hope,
seven hills have I crossed so far,
this my fiftieth year.
We want to reach a point of completion. Seeking is tiring, you know.
Artists seek perfection in their artwork. But it's difficult to find a point of perfection. One popular singer said this:
"I always focus really hard on an album or a tour, and at the time I'll think, “This is the greatest!" But when it's over, somehow I’m always like “Nope, I still have a long way to go.”
Don't we look for lasting joy through our work/hobbies/relationships? But each time, we feel disillusioned.
The original pain comes from our dark minds. Listening to the Dharma illuminates this pain and eliminates it.
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1. Also please note that we're going to record this zoom session for later access by our premium members on YouTube. There will be an announcement from the Zoom app when it starts.
2. We would appreciate it if you use the same name as your Meetup account so that the host of the meeting will easily recognize the contributing, sustaining participants. Your camera must be on when you enter the zoom just to greet the hosts.
3. Our classes are free for the first 10 sessions or so. After 10 sessions, if you see value in joining, please consider offering a contribution.

Our classes & sangha are sustained completely by the dana gratitude contributions of people like you!
Dana gratitude donations for our classes are gratefully accepted on Venmo @Bita-Enayati If you don't have Venmo, please email me at bitadharma22@gmail.com
so you can offer your contribution through PayPal or Zelle
Suggested donation for the event is $5 - $20.
4. Your camera must be on when you come into the zoom room until the host greets you.

Last but not least– the Zoom passcode is 426646.

Stay well and let's go forward towards the light of unconditional goodness together!
We’re looking forward to meeting you!
Bita and Yuichi

We have had women request a women’s Dharma Workshop, so we’ve decided to try it. We will meet once a month on a Saturday from 12 to 1 pm PST. The format will be brief self-introductions, a dharma slideshow presentation by Lori, followed by questions on the dharma. I will moderate. If you’d like to join us, please send an email to BOTH bitadharma22@gmail.com and itsadeal58@gmail.com. One email, two recipients is what we’re looking for. In your email, please tell us the following: (1) the names of the Dharma Lab meetups you usually attend, (2) about how many Buddhism meetups you have attended, and (3) where you consider yourself to be along your Buddhist path (e.g. I meditate 3 times a week; I have read extensively about Tibetan Buddhism; I chant twice a day every day; I tried Zen Buddhism, I clean my space every day, I join one of Bita and Yuichi’s meetups each week, etc.); (4) if you’re a contributing member, please let us know. Be sure to sign it with your whole name, especially if you have an email like “itsadeal58”! I don’t want to address you as Ms It Sadeal, that would be rude. Please join us, I think we can make it a good experience for everyone. I’m looking forward to it!
Last month we had about 10 women who joined us. You won't see all the RSVPs on this page so don't be discouraged by the few RSVPs here! See you soon.This event is about women's empowerment and moving on from a place of hurt to a place of leadership all thanks to the healing power of the Dharma.
I’m Lori. I have been studying Buddhism with Bita and Yuichi for a few years now. I am a retired research chemist and I study French in my spare time (j’adore France). If you’re interested in learning more about mindfulness, or want to learn to meditate, I’m available to help you. I can be reached at itsadeal58@gmail.com, and Bita can be reached at bitadharma22@gmail.com for 1:1 Dharma lessons.
Also some of our premium YouTube members can't join our meetups live so we're planning to record and upload to our YouTube channel. Please consider to subscribe and join us:
https://www.youtube.com/@right-view-lab
Our classes are free for the first 10 sessions or so. After 10 sessions, if you see value in joining, please consider offering a contribution.
Our classes & sangha are sustained completely by the dana gratitude contributions of people like you! Dana gratitude donations for our classes are gratefully accepted on Venmo @Bita-Enayati If you don't have Venmo, please email me at bitadharma22@gmail.com
so you can offer your contribution through PayPal or Zelle
Suggested donation for the event is $5 - $20.
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Once you RSVP, you will see the link to the Zoom meeting room. When you click the link and you Zoom application starts, then you'll be required to type the passcode. The passcode is 426646.

Our classes are free but our classes & sangha are sustained completely by the dana gratitude contributions of people like you! Dana gratitude donations for our classes are gratefully accepted at https://donorbox.org/purelandschooldonation. Suggested donation for the event is $5 - $20.

Check out our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@right-view-lab!

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To better explain the philosophy behind Right View Lab (our weekly Monday events, focusing on unbiased thinking):

Finding the “Right View” means trying to find an objective and impartial view of the world – and to remove the biases that we all have when viewing the world. We are unable to see anything except through the prism of thought and emotion. When it comes to examining ourselves in particular, it is impossible to take off the tinted glasses of partiality and self seeking. Egoism clouds our vision.

Here’s a story to illustrate this. One day a princess in the legendary Dragon Palace under the sea held up a jewel and told all the fishes, “I will give a prize to anyone who can tell me what color this is.” Each of them named a different color: the black porgy said it was black, the bluefish said it was blue, and the white-fish said it was silver. Then they asked the princess, “Which one is right?” She replied, “The jewel has no color of its own. It is transparent, and simply reflects each of your colors.”

In regards to how we view life, it's beneficial to remind ourselves that our minds are like an iceberg. There's some of it poking through above the water level, and there's a vast amount of it below which is unseen. Let me give an example of how a young couple moves into an apartment building. Each Saturday the wife would shout to her husband, "Look at our neighbors laundry hanging over there. It looks so dirty! They must be using the wrong detergent!" This went on each week for quite some time. Then one Saturday, the wife woke up and said, "Today they look beautiful and clean." Then the husband said, "I woke up early this morning and cleaned the window."

If you're interested in learning Buddhism but have a schedule conflict, please write to me for a one on one session.

1. Also please note that we're going to livestream this zoom session on YouTube for later access by our premium members. There will be an announcement from the Zoom app when it starts.
2. We would appreciate it if you use the same name as your Meetup account so that the host of the meeting will easily recognize the participants.
3. Please make sure you RSVP 30 minutes prior to the start of the meeting.
4. Our classes are free but our classes & sangha are sustained completely by the dana gratitude contributions of people like you! Dana gratitude donations for our classes are gratefully accepted at https://donorbox.org/purelandschooldonation . Suggested donation for the event is $5 - $20.

The Zoom meeting passcode is 426646. We have about 10-20 people join us each week, including the regulars, so hope you don't get discouraged by seeing the few RSVPs here on this page. See you soon too!!!

We are looking forward to meeting fellow truth-seekers such as yourself, interested in the path to the Right View!

Bita and Yuichi Asakura