Jewel Heart Nebraska

Nebraska Wesleyan University

Jenn Ortegren, Researchers

A History of Jewel Heart Nebraska

Jewel Heart choir practice (Fall 2001)

Jewel Heart, an international Tibetan Buddhist organization, was founded in the United States by Kyabje Gelek Rinpoche, a Tibetan Buddhist under the same teachers as the Dalai Lama.  Two women in Ann Arbor, Michigan, who were looking for a Buddhist teacher, found Rinpoche in India and helped him move to Cleveland in 1988.  In 1990, Rinpoche moved to Ann Arbor, where he started a Buddhist community.  Amanda Howard of Ann Arbor, had a friend originally from Lincoln, and in the early 1990’s, asked Rinpoche to visit Lincoln and Jewel Heart Nebraska was born. Other Jewel Heart chapters can be found in Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and Cleveland.

Demographics
 
Weekly meetings attract, on average, 10 people, all of whom are Euro-Americans, though international exchange students from China or the Philippines who are students at the local universities occasionally join the group.   The ages of the members range from 12 to 60, though the majority of attendees are 35-50 years old.

Description of the Center

The members of Jewel Heart meet at the Gathering Place, a house in Lincoln restored and managed by the Lincoln Action Program.  The Gathering Place serves as a soup kitchen and offers classes in English and citizenship, among other activities.  The members of Jewel Heart Nebraska pay a monthly fee for storage and use of a room in the center, feeling it wasteful to pay more money for an unnecessary independent center.

Center Activities

The members of the Jewel Heart Community meet weekly to read prayers, meditate, and listen to audio tapes, or internet broadcasts, of Rinpoche.  Rinpoche visits Lincoln anywhere from 2-4 times a year to give public talks, sometimes drawing hundreds of listeners.  Because the community is so small, they feel that, at this time, a newsletter is unnecessary.

Cooperative Relationships

Jewel Heart Nebraska is a member of the Lincoln Interfaith Council and has limited contact with a Vietnamese Buddhist community in Lincoln.  They have worked with a Unity Church in Lincoln, among other Christian churches such United Methodists, to conduct programs that provide information about the ideals and   background of Buddhism to the members of churches.

As a religious minority, what kind of obstacles or problems has the community encountered in Lincoln?

The community has faced very few problems outside of the financial disadvantages of such a small community.  Most of the fundraising occurs during visits by Rinpoche.  Although there is the option to request money from the international organization, the members of Jewel Heart Nebraska prefer to remain independent.

Other

Kent Wolgamott, a member of Jewel Heart Nebraska since 1995, feels the community is unique because of its presence in Lincoln and its ability to remain without a teacher in the city.  He says that, “we, the students, keep it going."

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