What’s meditation’s role in the Olympics?
What’s meditation’s role in the Olympics? |
- What’s meditation’s role in the Olympics?
- Buddhist Churches of America appoints Rev. Umezu as new bishop
- Seeing Fresh: Contemplative Photo of the Week
- Mindfulness meditation found to combat loneliness
- In Buddhist Myanmar, Monks Gone Wild
- We backed you, and now you do this?
- First Buddhist funeral held in Swaziland, South Africa
- Samye Ling opposes construction of plant on Holy Isle island
| What’s meditation’s role in the Olympics? Posted: 01 Aug 2012 08:00 AM PDT  Photo by Anuradha Dullewe Wijeyeratne via Wikipedia, using a CC-BY license. By Adam Tebbe Many of the athletes visiting the Olympic Village Buddhist shrine come from traditionally Buddhist countries — Korea, Japan, Thailand, Taiwan, Sri Lanka and China. But in a new piece run by the BBC today, Ven. Seelawimala Nayaka Thera — the most senior monk Sri Lankan monk in the U.K. — points out that not everyone who visits with him there is Buddhist. No matter who finds their way to the shrine, he welcomes them all, discussing their problems and suggesting that they do a bit of meditation (which he says will help balance and relax their minds). Speaking to the BBC, he said, "As they are under immense pressure sometimes they are stressed due to their competitions so following meditation technique I do a chanting to confer blessings to them. My aim is to give them strength in their search of Olympic medals." Ven. Seelawimala Nayaka Thera is the only Buddhist monk in the Olympic Village. He was appointed as the Buddhist chaplain for the games in London following an arduous screening process. Expressing his gratitude for the appointment, he said, "I am very proud about that. As a monk this is a great opportunity for me being able to extend my religious services is a great privilege and opportunity for me. I am very fortunate." For more, be sure to read the full article by Saroj Pathirana over at the BBC website. Read More @ Source
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| Buddhist Churches of America appoints Rev. Umezu as new bishop Posted: 01 Aug 2012 07:00 AM PDT  Credit: buddhistchurchesofamerica.org In early April, the Buddhist Churches of America (Jodo Shinshu tradition) appointed Japanese-born Rev. Kodo Umezu as the new socho (bishop); the formal accession ceremony took place on June 2. Umezu replaces Socho Koshin Ogui, who served in the position for eight years, and is the Buddhist Churches of America's 14th bishop. Rev. Umezu was born in Fukuoka (福岡市) in Fukuoka Prefecture in Japan and graduated from Ryukoku University (a Buddhist seminary) in 1973, the year he came to the United States as a BCA minister. Rev. Umezu served as minister at the Fresno Betsuin and finished his studies at the Institute of Buddhist Studies in 1976, receiving his MA. After serving in the US Navy for four years, he became a minister at the Los Angeles Betsuin; he has also served as minister at the Buddhist Church of Oakland, as executive assistant to Bishop Hakubun Watanabe, and as director of the Center for Buddhist Education in Berkeley. Read More @ Source
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| Seeing Fresh: Contemplative Photo of the Week Posted: 01 Aug 2012 06:00 AM PDT Here is the photo of the week from seeingfresh.com, Andy Karr's site dedicated to contemplative photography. .  . Contemplative photography is a method for working with the contemplative state of mind, seeing the world in fresh ways, and expressing this experience photographically. Each week we choose an image that's been submitted to seeingfresh.com that really exemplifies this practice. . This week's photo, by Kimberly Poppe, vividly communicates the most basic elements of form: color and line. It's a lovely example of fresh seeing. For more, visit seeingfresh.com. And don't miss this video or this article on contemplative photography. Read More @ Source 
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| Mindfulness meditation found to combat loneliness Posted: 31 Jul 2012 06:00 PM PDT AFP, July 31, 2012 LOS ANGELES, CA (USA) -- A new study finds that mindfulness meditation can help older adults battle feelings of loneliness while also boosting health.
The study included 40 participants between ages 55 and 85, some of whom participated in an eight-week training programme (a total of 2.5 hours a week) called Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, which was established by Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in the US. "We always tell people to quit smoking for health reasons, but rarely do we think about loneliness in the same way," said study lead J. David Creswell said in a statement dated July 24.
Using the blood samples collected, the researchers also found that the older adult sample had elevated pro-inflammatory gene expression in their immune cells at the beginning of the study and that the training reduced this pro-inflammatory gene expression, which the researchers said could "reduce older adults' inflammatory disease risk." Aside from alleviating loneliness, mindfulness meditation has also been shown in recent research to have positive effects on the brain – linked with brain changes that may even have effects against mental illness. Another recent study also found that mindfulness meditation, along with moderate exercise, was linked to a reduction in the severity of colds and flu during winter. Read More @ Source
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| In Buddhist Myanmar, Monks Gone Wild Posted: 31 Jul 2012 05:00 PM PDT by Andrew Lam, New America Media, Commentary, Jul 31, 2012
For a country steeped in Buddhism, Myanmar is accruing terrible karmic debts. Yangon, Myanmar -- Alarming news and images of attacks and killings by the Buddhist majority in Rakhine Province against a Muslim minority there have been slowly trickling out onto the Internet and the wider world. Pictures of charred bodies and crying parents have stirred largely unheeded calls for intervention, mostly from Muslim nations.
The government in Myanmar, recently lauded for taking steps toward democratization, declared a state of emergency in June following the outbreak of violence allegedly sparked by the rape and killing of a Buddhist woman by members of the Rohingya minority -- a largely Muslim group on the country's western border with Bangladesh. The official death toll stands at 78, though activists say it is likely much higher. The Rohingya, meanwhile, remain caught between a hostile populace and a neighboring Muslim nation in Bangladesh that refuses to open its borders to fleeing refugees. Such is the irony in a country famous for its Valley of the Temples and its unrivaled devotion to the Buddha. Alas, while Buddhism through a Western lens can appear rosy for its message of compassion, inner peace, and self-cultivation, in Asian societies Buddhism as an institution has much broader political applications. Five years ago thousands of monks across Myanmar led in mass demonstrations against the military junta that paralyzed the former capital Yangon and other cities. The catalyst was an economic crisis, coupled with a devastating typhoon that destroyed homes and rice fields. The government's failure to respond drove the monks to revolt, leading to the arrest and beating of hundreds of clergy. In such an overwhelmingly Buddhist country as Myanmar, the crackdown posed serious risks for the leadership. For the monks, on the other hand, if fighting on behalf of the people seemed a moral necessity, such "spiritual engagement" apparently does not extend to the country's Muslims -- estimated at around 800,000. They are a population denied citizenship and, by extension, the beneficence of the Buddha. In 2001 monks handed out anti-Muslim pamphlets that resulted in the burning of Muslim homes, destruction of 11 mosques and the killing of over 200 Muslims in the Pegu region. Four years earlier, another anti-Muslim riot broke out in Mandalay during the worship of a Buddha statue at the Maha Myatmuni pagoda. In that incident, an estimated 1,500 Buddhist monks led the attack on nearby mosques and Muslim-owned businesses, looting as they went. As for the current crisis, Human Rights Watch is strongly urging the Burmese government to end arbitrary and incommunicado detention, and "redeploy and hold accountable security forces implicated in serious abuses. Burmese authorities should ensure safe access to the area by the United Nations (UN), independent humanitarian organizations, and the media." "The Burmese government needs to put an immediate end to the abusive sweeps by the security forces against Rohingya communities," noted Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "Anyone being held should be promptly charged or released, and their relatives given access." So far the killings have garnered little attention in the West, where they have registered little more than a blip in the news cycle. Equally as troubling, however, has been the muted response of Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi – an icon of human rights across Southeast Asia. Her recent tepid call for ethnic equality in Myanmar, nearly two months after the violence erupted, was met with uniform criticism around the world. In the 1960s the renowned Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh coined the term "Engaged Buddhism." The intent, then as now, was to exhort fellow monks to emerge from their temples and engage with a society then in the grips of war. The practice continues across much of South and Southeast Asia today. One example is the long drawn out war in Sri Lanka, during which militant monks formed their own political party, held seats in parliament and advocated military solutions to the conflict with the Tamil Tigers. In Vietnam, the ruling class knows each time a Buddhist monk sets himself ablaze they'd better watch out. That was certainly true in 1963 when a Buddhist monk named Thich Quang Duc immolated himself in downtown Saigon to protest a crackdown on Buddhism. Unrest grew as civilian fear turned into anger, and the Catholic controlled regime of Ngo Dinh Diem fell soon afterward. The current communist regime still keeps a number of leading clergymen under house arrest for fear for a popular revolt. But if Myanmar's monks held the moral high ground five years ago when they protested against government oppression, that standing has quickly turned into a deep and dark sinkhole of depravity amid calls for the majority to oppress their neighbors. "Teach this triple truth to all: A generous heart, kind speech and a life of service and compassion renew humanity," the historical Buddha, Gautama Siddharta, once said. One wonders what he would say now, as innocent blood is shed in his name, and the path toward enlightenment that he taught to relieve the suffering of all beings had somehow derailed into a dark road of rebirth in the lowest levels of hell? --------------- 
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| We backed you, and now you do this? Posted: 31 Jul 2012 04:00 PM PDT The Buddhist Channel, Aug 1, 2012
An open letter to Burma's monks Rangoon, Burma -- Arabic press Al-Arabiya has called it "the ignored genocide". Other news agencies, such as the Iranian based IRNA, liberally uses the term "massacre" in its reports. While much of the western press have either ignored this issue or downplayed it altogether, the attention in the Muslim world has spawned calls for revenge. Pakistani Talibans have threatened to invoke "jihad" to "avenge crimes against the Muslim Rohingya".
As Buddhists, our natural tendency is to view this tragic conflict between ethnic groups in the Arakan state as the result of a long drawn, political hangover of past actions undertaken by Burma's military regime. We may even deny that there is anything religious about the conflict, except that the opposing sides happen to be Muslims and Buddhists.
But what differentiates between this situation and that of - say, the skirmishes in the south Thailand is that disturbingly the proponents accused of fueling ethnic tensions have been Burmese monks. Some of these same monks, who incidentally played a vital role in Burma's recent struggle for democracy have been calling on people to shun the Rohingyas, a Muslim community that has suffered decades of abuse. For instance, The Young Monks' Association of Sittwe and Mrauk Oo Monks' Association have both released statements in recent days urging locals not to associate with the group. Some monks' organisations have even blocked humanitarian assistance from reaching them. One leaflet described the Rohingya as "cruel by nature" and claimed it had "plans to exterminate" other ethnic groups. In London, monks' leader Ashin Htawara recently encouraged the government to send the group "back to their native land" at an event hosted by the anti-Rohingya Burma Democratic Concern. Ko Ko Gyi, a democracy activist with the 88 Generation Students group and a former political prisoner, said: "The Rohingya are not a Burmese ethnic group. The root cause of the violence… comes from across the border." Even Noble Peace Prize recipient, and Burma's most famous prisoner of conscience Daw Aung Sang Suu Kyi has not been spared by the manner of her "silent" handling of the situation and for failing to speak out. Amal de Chickera of the London-based Equal Rights Trust, said: "You have these moral figures, whose voices do matter. It's extremely disappointing and in the end it can be very damaging." What is apparent is that nationalist fervor from both sides of the divide, members of the military junta and the pro-democracy opposition, have equally been consumed with protecting their nation's "amyo" (race/nation), which take the general categorical form of "Buddhist and/or Burmese" while ignoring that Burma as a territorial entity does not all constitute as Buddhist. In the wake of this "nationalism", all apparatus of this "amyo" state, such as the local press, well-known celebrities, scholars and well-respected writers have jumped in the band-wagon to speak out against the Rohingyas. Yet, we may perhaps excuse human failings in irrational behavior driven by heightened sense of nationalism. And what about Burma's much vaunted Vipassana tradition? Where did all the mindfulness go? The entire situation is ever more disturbing precisely because of these deep seated questions. Let not be mistaken. This media is Buddhist to the core. But if we were to live by its name and yet not practice what it values, that label is tainted. That's not Buddhist. That's poppycock. We sympathize with the Burmese people and understand that they will experience pain as they transcend from a closed society to an open democracy. But what they own, which they have owned for a long time - and which many countries don't have - is a solid spiritual base called Meditation. And so we appeal to the monks: Please do the right thing and let the peaceful light of Buddha-Dharma guide you to find non-violent solutions to this problem. We have backed you in your time of need during the 2007 saffron revolution. Please do not let our efforts be in vain. Read also: The Arakan Conflict and Nationalist Threats In Burma Read More @ Source
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| First Buddhist funeral held in Swaziland, South Africa Posted: 31 Jul 2012 12:01 PM PDT  Swazi sunbeams, near Manzini The Times of Swaziland is reporting that Chand-rakanthi de Silva, a former textbook manager at Waterford Kamhlaba United World Colleges and assistant librarian at Pathways World School, has received the first Buddhist funeral in Manzini, Swaziland. Swaziland, a mostly Christian country, legally paved the way for other religions in its July 2005 constitution that ensures "protection of freedom of conscience or religion." For more Buddhist news coming out of South Africa, you will want to read our article "The Dharma of Ubuntu." The piece ran in our Summer 2012 issue of Buddhadharma and covers Buddhist relief work in the region. (Photo by krugergirl26 via Flickr using a CC-BY license.) Read More @ Source
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| Samye Ling opposes construction of plant on Holy Isle island Posted: 31 Jul 2012 11:00 AM PDT  Samye Ling Samye Ling, a Karma Kagyu lineage monastery on Holy Isle island in Scotland, is worried by a proposed power plant in nearby Arran. Founded by Dr. Akong Tulku Rinpoche and Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Samye Ling was the first Tibetan monastery in Europe (the name Samye comes from the first successful Buddhist establishment in Tibet). Lama Yeshe Rinpoche, current abbot of Samye Ling, has expressed concern that the proposed plant would be unsightly, producing unwanted noise and pollution. Speaking to Deadline News, Lama Yeshe said, "It's just going to ruin the potential of Arran and Holy Isle." The Rinpoche also worries about the environmental impact, saying, "We feel Holy Isle is beautiful, environmentally and ecologically sound, and we care about nature and the wild animals." (Photo by maciejzgadzaj via Flickr using a CC-BY license.) Read More @ Source
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<< Older adults reported reduced feelings of loneliness after taking part in an eight-week training on mindfulness meditation.
But this "genocide" or "massacre" did not take place in the usual spots that we so often associate it with. It did not happen in the West Bank, neither did it occur in some Iraqi neighborhood or – in the most current context – Syria. It is happening within the fringe of a so-called Buddhist land, the land of the golden pagodas, Burma. | You are subscribed to email updates from BuddhaRocks ☸ Buddhist To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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