The Diamond Way Buddhist Center of Hollister will host a guest lecturer at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Veterans Memorial Building who will talk about the universal law of karma.
Jim Macur, who has been practicing Buddhism since 2001, will stop in Hollister as part of a West Coast speaking tour. Macur met Eugene Trak, who is one of the founders of the local Buddhist center, when they lived in Minnesota.
“There are a few people our teacher has given the traveling teacher role to,” Macur said. “It’s basically just people that can explain things about Buddhism pretty clearly and explain what we do.”
He said different centers can invited the traveling teachers for a visit. Macur will be traveling for 10 days and making eight stops along the way.
“Learning about Karma is really great practical life advice,” he said. “We basically are creating our own world in every moment. If we are given certain conditions how we respond sows the seeds for how we experience things in the future. People’s lives are in their own hand – it takes fate out of it.”
Macur said he enjoys traveling to speaking engagements because he gets to meet new people.
“Everyone is so great,” he said. “They are very open and friendly…it is very inspirational to be around all these people and to be able to share the teachings with these people. Hopefully I can inspire them.”
Macur started practicing Buddhism in 2001when he had a friend who was involved in public meditation sessions.
“He planted the seeds and a couple years after told me about a lecture on the campus I was attending,” he said. “I just went and for me it all made total sense. It was really good advice and it seemed really logical. It clicked with me – with how I experience things.”
He said he and his wife make a point to mediate every day, trying to get it in before their children wake up for the day and after they go to bed at night.
The visit will include a question and answer session as well as meditation. Admission is a $10 donation.
“When I’m meditating everything I get to experience in my daily life feels more like a gift instead of an obligation,” he said.
