After wandering 27 years, Tibetan Buddhists find N. Philly home

[rug]

FEBRUARY 26, 2017 — 7:20 PM EST
by Dan Geringer, Staff Writer

Ending 27 years of wandering in the desert of urban rental spaces, former monk Losang Samten tossed a handful of rice into the cold breeze blowing down Marshall Street just south of Girard. He gave the ring-finger-to-thumb sign of compassion, and welcomed his diverse Tibetan Buddhist Center of Philadelphia worshipers to the first home they’ve ever owned, a lovingly renovated former market.

Samten led a Sunday service of prayers, chants, silent meditations and his faith’s all-inclusive, all-embracing, bedrock messages of loving compassion for everyone. “No one is asked what his background is, what his belief is, whether you are Buddhist or non-Buddhist,” Samten said.

He told a favorite story about meeting for decades above an old firehouse in Powelton Village, in artists’ lofts at Ninth and Spring Garden until a fire caused the building to be condemned and, when all else failed, in each other’s homes.

“During a visit to Philadelphia in 2008, the Dalai Lama looked at his watch and said, ‘Oh, we have a little time. I’d like to visit your center.’

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/After-27-year-search-Tibetan-Buddhists-find-N-Philly-home.html

[Docreed2003]

1. Beautiful story!

[packman]

2. Pray he and his disciples aren't arrested by ICE

and sent back to wandering the Himalayan mountains.

"Tibet-born Samten, 65, fled the 1950’s Chinese Communist takeover with his family when he was five. He settled in India, where he studied at the exiled Dalai Lama’s Namgyal Monastery and became a Buddhist monk."

[Maraya1969]

3. Your little cat is cracking me up!!!