Tibetan man dies after self-immolating in Kham region
Tibetan man dies after self-immolating in Kham region |
- Tibetan man dies after self-immolating in Kham region
- Earth, Mars, and Meteorites Inter-Are
- Application
- Ancient Buddhist statue found in Tibet carved from meteorite
- Portuguese Buddhists find new home in Monsanto Park
- A Place to Call Om: Athens Buddhists lack community, find practice
- Buddhist lama leads contemplative life in India
- India: Visa on Arrival facility likely for Thailand, Malaysia
- BTN and Jogye Order sponsors Thich Nhat Hahn inspired
- India plans to promote Buddhist sites as new tourist hotspots
- The Price of Faith: Chinese Buddhist Sites Plan IPOs
- Rioters torch Buddhist temples, homes in Bangladesh
- The reluctant lama
- With Assurance And Confidence
| Tibetan man dies after self-immolating in Kham region Posted: 01 Oct 2012 08:00 AM PDT  Tibetans in exile gather for a candlelit vigil in Dharamsala on Sunday. Photo via thetibetpost.com. Various sources are reporting that a 27-year-old man in the Kham region of Eastern Tibet has self-immolated in protest of Chinese occupation. Wearing traditional Tibetan clothing and calling for the return of the Dalai Lama and the Karmapa, the man, named Yungdrun, set himself alight in the town of Toegey, Dzatoe on Saturday. According to reports, nearby shop owners doused the young man with water to put out the flames. Chinese police rushed to the scene and removed Yungdrun from view. His location is unknown, though sources in the region say he has died. The Tibet Post reports that a Chinese cultural festival had been scheduled for later on Saturday; the festival was cancelled after the immolation. Phayul reports that a few days earlier, Tibetans in the region had been forced to participate in a Chinese propaganda film to show that Tibetans were happy under Chinese rule. More than 50 Tibetans have self-immolated since 2009. For all of our coverage on the wave of immolation protests in Tibet, see here. Read More @ Source
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| Earth, Mars, and Meteorites Inter-Are Posted: 01 Oct 2012 07:00 AM PDT  Credit: Dr. Elmar Buchner We told you about the Iron Man / Space Buddha last week. Now, a look at our own relationship with space by way of a new "Earth Dharma" post by Jill S. Schneiderman. While discussing the five skandhas (aspects) that constitute a human being during a dharma talk on The Heart Sutra—a core Buddhist text—renowned Zen teacher Norman Fischer commented that although we don't need science to confirm the veracity of what we think to be true, it's nice when it happens that way. Recently some extraterrestrial data sources corroborated for me what my beginner's mind thinks The Heart Sutra teaches—that all phenomena are expressions of emptiness. Fischer says this teaching on emptiness is really a teaching about connection. Emptiness, he says, refers to the emptiness of any separation and therefore to the radical connection or interdependence of all things. Thich Nhat Hanh coined the term "interbeing" to express this idea that no thing arises independently. As he described in The Heart of Understanding, there is only the constant arising of the universe (which etymologically means "turned into one")—each so-called thing enables every other so-called thing. News of the past weeks from both Mars and the asteroid belt confirm such connection between Earth and our neighbors in the solar system. Ever since it landed in Mars' Gale Crater in early August I've been following the discoveries of NASA's Curiosity rover (a car-sized, six-wheeled robot), the $ 2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory whose mission is to see if the red planet ever could have supported small life forms called microbes. The photos the rover sends back are mesmerizing and the discoveries tremendously exciting for they show that the material substance and processes of Mars are the material substance and processes of Earth. Curiosity's discoveries in the past months repeatedly reveal rocks and rock formations that are similar maybe even the same, as what we see on Earth. For example, the first rock analyzed chemically by Curiosity, just for the sake of target practice and dubbed "Coronation," turns out to be basalt. This is no more spiritually surprising than it is scientifically surprising: this type of volcanic rock is common on Earth and Earth's moon as well as known from previous missions to Mars to be abundant there. In at least three sites, visual observations by Curiosity's high-resolution imager reveal sedimentary conglomerate—a rock composed of compacted and rounded gravels naturally cemented together. We know from geological observations on Earth that water transport is the only process capable of producing the rounded shape of rock fragments this size. Curiosity has found evidence of an ancient Martian streambed!  Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS and PSI
Listen to Rebecca Williams of the Planetary Space Institute describe these findings. Williams is able to offer her lucid explanation because Curiosity is seeing on Mars the same materials and processes we are accustomed to seeing on Earth. And as if I were not already convinced of the truth of The Heart Sutra, word arrived that a one thousand year old Buddhist statue taken during a Nazi expedition in 1938 turned up five years ago and was analyzed by planetary scientists in Germany. Guess what the monument is carved from: iron meteorite, a piece of a meteor from the asteroid belt. Okay, so this piece of iron meteorite has an unusual composition. It's an especially nickel- and cobalt-rich variety and so is easily traced to the Chinga meteorite that 15,000 years ago smashed into the border area between Mongolia and Siberia. Nonetheless, this "Iron Man" was carved from a piece of space rock whose major elements, iron and nickel, are the very same elements that make up the core of Earth. Not that we need science to confirm that what we think is true. We've also got the wisdom of the ancients. Earth, Mars, and meteorites, for example, inter-are. Read More @ Source
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| Posted: 01 Oct 2012 03:00 AM PDT The author of Spitalfields Life blog set himself a task to write every day. He has been writing for three years now. The quality of the writing and the photographs too are remarkable. The tone coming through is gentleness and kindness. Here he talks about a quilt made up of pieces of his late mothers (I believe the author is male) tapestry work. There is a cat, a black one, in the picture. There always seems to be a cat....
From post - Taking Cover. 
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| Ancient Buddhist statue found in Tibet carved from meteorite Posted: 01 Oct 2012 01:00 AM PDT by Cecilia Jamasmie, Mining.com, September 29, 2012Berlin, Germany -- A recent article about an ancient Tibetan sculpture may sound like something you've seen in the movies. It involves an important archaeological find, it was once in hands of Nazis, and it holds a newly uncovered revelation. The statue, it turns out, was carved from a meteorite that crashed to the Earth 15,000 years ago.
Experts have proved the statue, which remained in a private collection in Munich until 2007, when it is made available for study, is crafted from an incredibly rare form of nickel-rich iron present in falling stars. Evidence includes the sculpture's telltale mineral content and structure, which give revealed it as a kind of meteorite called an ataxite. "It is rich in nickel, it is rich in cobalt. Less than 0.1% of all meteorites and less than 1% of iron meteorites are ataxites … It is the rarest type of meteorite you can find," Elmar Buchner of the Planetology Institute at Stuttgart University told the BBC. Buchner, who has been analyzing the Buddhist statue for the last five years, believes it was carved from the Chinga meteorite that landed somewhere between Mongolia and Siberia thousands of years ago. He also thinks it has some sort of special aura: "It is extremely impressive, it was formerly almost completely gilded – there is a great mystery represented by it," he told the online journal. Meteorites have been considered God's messengers in several cultures since ancient times, and early knives and jewellery were often carved from fragments of space rocks. But tracing their exact origins has proved difficult for scientists, at least until now. Read More @ Source
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| Portuguese Buddhists find new home in Monsanto Park Posted: 01 Oct 2012 12:00 AM PDT BY LUSA, TPN, Sept 27, 2012Lisbon, Portugal -- In November renovation work will start on a building located at the Luneta Barracks viewpoint, in Lisbon's Monsanto Park, to accommodate the Portuguese Buddhist Union's (UBP) 'House of Peace'. Part of the cost has already been met by the UBP through their 'A Temple for Monsanto' fundraising project. Work on the Casa da Paz, which aims to be "a place in which to promote socio-cultural, therapeutic and spiritual activities" should be finished by summer next year. The renovation is also part of a set of measures drawn up by Lisbon council to improve and bring new dynamics to the Monsanto Park over the next 18 months. It is hoped that over the next 20 years some 15,400 trees in the 900-hectare park will be replaced and a further 5,000 new trees planted. In related news, Cascais council has spent around €1.2 million on buying two properties near the town's old bullring, to be used as new stations for the region's PSP police. The investment comes as part of a protocol signed in March between the council and the Ministry of Home Affairs, which aimed to reorganise and find new installations for the region's PSP. Cascais Mayor Carlos Carreiras told Lusa News Agency that the acquisition of the two properties cost approximately €1.2 million from a total pot of €2 million allocated for the restructuring. "It is an investment that we, making money that we are putting forward but which will bring us a return of €5 million because it is real estate, will serve for public usage", he explained. As well as the purchase of the two properties near the bullring, Cascais PSP's streamlining includes the transferral of the Tourism Station and the 50th Station to the Fiscal Guard building, in the town's historic area, which is already in the process of being renovated and should be finished in six months. The old fire station in the 5 de Outubro Square is also having work done to it so in future it can be used by municipal services. 
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| A Place to Call Om: Athens Buddhists lack community, find practice Posted: 30 Sep 2012 11:00 PM PDT by ASHTON MOSS, Redandblack.com, September 27, 2012Athens, Georgia (USA) -- Athens is a predominantly Christian town. A leisurely drive around town reveals protestant, Methodist, Baptist and Catholic churches. On any given Sunday, the porches, lawns and sidewalks of these churches are filled with Athens' residents in their Sunday best, chatting and catching up after a long week.
Students have the opportunity to join a variety of different Christian organizations at the University which have their offices either on or near campus. Representatives from these organizations passing out flyers in Tate or encouraging students to attend their weekly meetings become familiar sites on campus. But Athens' residents won't see a Buddhist community center. Such a thing doesn't exist. More so, Buddhist practitioners in Athens may not want it to. Different paths, same end
Her introduction to Meditation came from her family. While Japan has become an increasingly agnostic and atheist nation, Ogawa's parents made sure that she grew up in a Buddhist household. Before coming to the US to get her undergraduate degree at the University of California, Ogawa attended a Buddhist school in Japan. But despite the fact that she's now the only Buddhist in her classes, she doesn't feel isolated or lonely. "People here are really welcoming to me," Ogawa said. "I've been here for a year, and besides me, all of my classmates were Christians. I don't know how much they believe in Christianity, but some of them are really strong believers. They are willing to know my beliefs, and I'm willing to know their beliefs. Especially because of my major, landscape architecture, there's a lot of influence from Japan which is an important place in Zen Meditation. Partially because of that, they have a positive attitude towards Japan and Buddhists." Ogawa practices Nichiren Meditation which is based on teachings of the 13th century Japanese Buddhist reformer Nichiren. Her sect follows the Lotus Sutra, which teaches that all people have an inner Buddha nature, or Buddha-dhatu, and consequently can achieve enlightenment in their present lifetime. Like Ogawa, Kate Morrissey has found Athens to be a hospitable and welcoming place to people who practice Meditation. "There's been a lot of support for our practice here. I've lived in a lot of different places, and this is one of the places where there's a lot of support for my practice. I find it pretty easy," Morrissey said. "There's a lot of Christianity, but I don't take it that Meditation is particularly hostile to Christianity. It's just a different practice. I've had a pretty easy go with it." Morrissey was raised in a Catholic household in South Dakota, but as she got older, she realized that that path wasn't working for her. She was introduced to mediation in 2000 and now considers herself a Buddhist who focuses on Zen practices. She also teaches yoga classes at Rubber Soul Yoga and has been attending the Athens Zen Group since she moved to Athens almost eight years ago. "I think a lot of Catholics flexibly hold onto ideas, where people take what's good and don't worry as much about the other stuff," she said. "That doesn't work for me. I was introduced to mediation, and I liked having a specific technique, and I liked the quietness in space. It was very apparent early on that that's very helpful. Once I started in that practice back in 2000, I just kept going. It really resonated with me. But I didn't have a strong launch from any church. It was just what fits with all my values and what also do I find helpful, supportive and nourishing. Meditation is that way for me." Sometimes the path to Meditation is not as straightforward as it was for Morrissey and Ogawa. In fact, not all practitioners of Meditation necessarily consider themselves a Buddhist at all. Rick Fyock, a regular participant at Athens Zen Group, grew up a fundamentalist Christian in Ohio and now calls himself an agnostic who practices Meditation. Before he began practicing, he said he was an angry person who was constantly judging others. "I was a fundamentalist Christian. I didn't feel that judging people was right, but what I did was judge people for not loving their neighbors," Fyock said. "I ended up going through a lot of different denominations until I finally became an agnostic. But as an agnostic, I still had this problem where I was judging and being verbally mean to people because they weren't loving their neighbors. I really didn't have much of a problem with it as an agnostic except for that I was very angry, and I didn't know why." Solidarity through practice The actual practice of Meditation is the thread that ties practitioners together, but that connection can't be seen by the general public. "I would say that there are a number of Buddhist communities in town," Morrissey said. "I've been sitting with the Zen group since I moved here seven, almost eight years ago, every week, and this has been a really consistent group. It seems like some of the other Buddhist groups are more transient, and certainly there are Buddhists who emphasize the community element less. But I feel like there's a community here to the extent that I practice with them." At the same time, she thinks that Meditation is much less worried about the identity of the practitioners than other religions. For Morrissey, Meditation is more about the practice than it is about a way to identify herself. For example, she's been attending the Athens Zen Group for almost eight years, and she's never once asked anyone if they considered themselves a Buddhist or not. "Maybe it's a little less emphasized as a question. I wouldn't really think to ask somebody whether they believe they were Buddhist or not because it's more about practice than an identity," she said. "I don't know if people hang their hats solidly on the term Buddhist. Usually I'll just say that I practice Meditation. People have different ways of saying it. It's a flexible identity." As an agnostic who practices Meditation, Fyock embraces the idea of a fluid identity. Similar to Morrissey, the key to lessening his suffering and becoming a better person focuses on this own individual practice of Meditation rather than being the member of a visible Buddhist community. "The mediation, the dharma talks, the readings and all this stuff has helped me with my suffering because by not being mean to people, I suffer less, not so much because they attack me but because I feel bad when I'm mean to people," he said. "This has helped me a lot. I'm not saying that I've perfected it, and I don't do it anymore, but I do it less, and I suffer less." Buddhism's aim is addressing the question of suffering, and Morrissey hopes the practices continue to grow, so they can help each individual person become happier. "I tend to hope that the practices will keep evolving to figure out what's helpful and to fit with what's workable in the current place that Meditation lands in," Morrissey said. "It's moved all over, from India to China to Japan, and it looks different in all those places. I'm interested in this question about what it will look like in the US. It's sort of new here, and it's starting to change a little bit." Ogawa emphasized that the differences between Christianity and Meditation seem minute because ultimately, both paths are about practicing the beliefs of the faith through an appreciation of what each person has been given. "Before coming to the States, I didn't really know the difference between my religion and other religions. I'm still learning my own religion, and I see similarities and differences," Ogawa said. "The strong believers of Christianity appreciate everything. They appreciate God, appreciate people who make them food and appreciate people who are spending time with them. That's a really positive attitude that we also try to have as Buddhists." Read More @ Source
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| Buddhist lama leads contemplative life in India Posted: 30 Sep 2012 10:00 PM PDT by John Bordsen, Charlotte Observer, Sep. 28, 2012Atlanta, GA (USA) -- Chungtsang Rinpoche, 47, is a senior lama at the Tibetan Buddhists' Drepung Loseling Monastery, in Mundgod, in southern India. He is originally from the Kham region of Tibet, and has been on a cultural tour of the United States with the Mystical Arts of Tibet program.
In September, the group spent a week in North Carolina at Wingate University. The tour was arranged by the Drepung Loseling Monastery in Atlanta. We spoke through an interpreter. Q: What is the daily routine where you live? At the monastery, people take classes and study. I completed mine; it took 25 years. I teach in the morning, and meditate and pray. I also join in the debate about the study of Buddhist philosophy. Q: At Christian monasteries, members often live apart from the world. Is it like that in Mundgod? It's like that. We are separated from the town. The monastery becomes home for the monks, who receive an education there – philosophy, the science of the mind and emotion – to learn to deal with the positive side of things.
The monastery buildings are the same as in America, in that there are huge halls for group prayers. At our monastery in India we have 3,000 monks. The monastery has 25 chapels in separate buildings. The monks have their own rooms where they eat or sleep. The entire monastery is very large. Q: What do they eat at the monastery? It depends on what is farmed. The Indian government gave us huge fields for crops like rice. The diet is also based on donations from people. Because of the weather – like if there isn't good rain – there can be problems with what is raised in the area. Then we get help from the Tibetan government in exile. We are vegetarian. The food is rice and maize (corn) and vegetables. Q: Do you have visitors there? Yes. They come to see friends and relatives. Some come to pray and meditate. Our monks originally from Tibet have fewer visitors than those born in India. We also have many visitors from the United States and Europe. Tourists come to see what we look like. American Buddhists come to study and train in our meditation method. Q: How old were you when you left Tibet? I was 13. The culture, the language, the food, the climate and the land are all different. Some who escaped from Tibet deal with health problems and difficulty getting used to the climate and have to return to Tibet. Q: Do India and especially the United States strike you as exotic? There is a huge difference between living in Tibet and the United States. In Tibet there is no freedom. In India and the United States, you can use your freedom. There are other differences between India and America. The first time I came to the United States, I didn't see anyone outside – which is very much unlike India. I saw the shopping malls and thought no one was allowed to go outside! Now I am used to them. Q: Right now, you're wearing a sleeveless, collarless maroon cassock. Is that what you ordinarily wear? Yes. It is part of being a monk. Q: You're also wearing eyeglasses and a wristwatch. Do you wear these at the monastery? I didn't wear glasses before; now I always do because I have eye problems. I wear this watch because I have to know the time. Read More @ Source
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| India: Visa on Arrival facility likely for Thailand, Malaysia Posted: 30 Sep 2012 09:00 PM PDT PTI, September 29, 2012
New Delhi, India -- Government is planning to extend Visa-on-Arrival facility to nationals from countries having sizable Buddhist population such as Thailand and Malayasia.
"India, being the land of origin of Buddhism, is the main attraction for Buddhist tourists from across the globe. We are drawing up plans to attract more tourists from Buddhist countries like Thailand and Malayasia by providing them special facilities like Visa-on-Arrival (VoA)," Sahai said. Currently, India extends VoA facility to 11 countries including Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, Vietnam, Cambodia, the Philippines and Myanmar. Sahai said three circuits have been identified to be developed as part of Buddhist Circuits during the 12th Five Year Plan. The three circuits are (1) Dharmayatra or the sacred circuit, (2) retracing Buddha's footsteps and (3) heritage trails covering all Buddhist sites including Gaya, Varanasi, Kushinagar, Bodhagaya, Patna, Piparva, Dharamshala, Ladakh, Spiti and Lumbini. Referring to Keep India Clean Mission, he said efforts are on to keep clean the cities, particularly tourist places, across the country to attract maximum tourists. The conclave is being held with a view to showcasing and projecting the Buddhist heritage of India. The delegates at the conclave include the international Buddhist scholars and tour operators. Read More @ Source
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| BTN and Jogye Order sponsors Thich Nhat Hahn inspired Posted: 30 Sep 2012 08:00 PM PDT by Emi Hailey Hayakawa, BTN, Sept 28, 2012
Seoul, South Korea -- Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh is one of the most respected zen master in the world today and is the founder of Plum Village, a meditation community located in France.
Many practitioners, Buddhist and Non-Buddhist alike, come from across the globe to Plum Village to learn the art of mindfulness, a teaching Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh is more famous for. The two most important concepts during Walking meditation is also mindfulness and breathing.
These practices and Art of Mindfulness of Plum Village is now available for the Korean Buddhist community. In October 20th, Brother Phap Kham and Sister Thoai Ngheim, both delegates and dharma teachers of Plum Village will be at the Jogye Order International Seon center to introduce the Art of Mindfulness and Art of Mindful living through a daily temple stay program. BTN and the Jogye Order International Seon Center will open a Day of Mindfulness and offer 100 participants a chance to practice with the monks of Plum Village. The Plum Village delegates will arrive in Seoul, Korea on October 16th, and work with BTN to prepare for Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh's retreat session that is scheduled for May 2013. The BTN sponsored Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh 5 day retreat session will be held at Woljeongsa temple in PyeongChang in May 2013. In the fast paced city life of Seoul, many people in and out of Korea are eager for a chance to practice with Master Thich Nhat Hanh in May 2013. Read More @ Source
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| India plans to promote Buddhist sites as new tourist hotspots Posted: 30 Sep 2012 07:00 PM PDT TNN, Sep 30, 2012VARANASI, India -- In an effort to attract at least half of the total Buddhist population spread in 35 countries by promoting Buddhist pilgrimage sites, is the new mantra of the ministry of tourism, Government of India and the states enshrining the Buddhist pilgrimage sites. In his address, UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) executive director Marcio Favilla said that "while the number of international tourists last year was one billion, next year this figure can touch the mark of 1.8 billion". "During the G-20 summit held in June, the tourism sector was approved as an important economic activity. It's for the first time that the tourism has been included in G-20 declaration. Focus should be on sustainable tourism to generate employment. Similarly, religious tourism would play a key role in increasing the number of international tourists." The Union minister of state for tourism said: "The ministry is aiming at promoting religious tourism on the line of the Muslim religious shrines in Saudi Arabia. Even if half of the Buddhist population (out of a total of 50 lakh) visits the Buddhist pilgrim centres in the country annually, the goal of the ministry would be achieved. This would also help in generating employment for three crore people." The minister also highlighted the measures initiated by the Central government regarding visa issues. The tourism ministers of participating states, including Jammu and Kashmir, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, left no opportunity to promote the Buddhist sites of their states. However, the main competition between UP and Bihar to woo the delegates for attracting more and more tourists was quite evident. Bihars minister for tourism Sunil Kumar Pintu highlighted how improvement in basic infrastructure, especially roads, had help in attracting a large number of tourists to the Buddhist sites in Bihar. However, UP minister of state for tourism M C Chauhan had no concrete plans to disclose except expecting that the chief minister would do some miracle to change the fate of tourism industry in UP. 
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| The Price of Faith: Chinese Buddhist Sites Plan IPOs Posted: 30 Sep 2012 06:00 PM PDT By CHENGCHENG JIANG, Time, September 27, 2012
China's four most sacred Buddhist mountains are hatching plans to list on the Shanghai stock exchange. Beijing, China -- In China today, there's little that money can't buy — even when it comes to faith. Many of the country's most popular Buddhist sites are chock-full of cure-all tonics and overpriced incense.
For the most part, people seem happy, or at least willing, to oblige. That changed this summer, though, when it emerged that China's four most sacred Buddhist mountains were hatching plans to list on the Shanghai stock exchange. In July, Mount Putuo Tourism Development Co. announced it would attempt to raise 7.5 billion yuan in a 2014 initial public offering. The company operates the tourist facilities at Putuo Shan, located on an island 20 miles (32 km) off Shanghai. Chinese state media quoted representatives of Wutai Shan in Shanxi province and Jiuhua Shan in Anhui province as saying they too had plans to raise funds on the capital markets. The fourth of China's sacred mountains, Emei Shan in Sichuan province, completed a public listing in Shenzhen in 1997, under the incredibly auspicious ticker symbol "888."
The officials who run the sites disagree. They emphasize that hundreds of thousands of pilgrims and tourists visit the sites every year and argue that the listings are necessary to maintain the mountains and develop facilities for visitors. Indeed, in an interview with the Shanghai-based Dongfang Daily, the head of the Putuo Shan tourism office said that the funds raised through the IPO would be used to improve accommodation, transportation and restaurants on Putuo island and nearby areas. The strategy is not entirely new. Perhaps the most infamous ecclesiastical entrepreneur in China is the abbot of Shaolin Temple, spiritual home of Zen Buddhism and site of the world-famous martial-arts school. Since Shi Yongxin, the youngest abbot in the history of the temple, took charge in 1999 he has launched several ambitious moneymaking ventures, including a Hollywood-style movie based, very loosely, on the history of the temple, a franchise operation to license the Shaolin name to other temples, and an online store selling, among other things, a book called The Secret of Shaolin Martial Arts. The book retails for $ 1,500. Critics see such revenue-generating ventures as gateways to religious commercialism, even corruption. On a recent visit to Putuo Shan, Li Chengpeng, a top social commentator in China, was accosted by groups of fortune-telling monks looking for money. "I got up at 4 a.m. to visit the Puji Temple on the mountain and ran into a group of shaven-headed monks dressed in traditional cassocks who jumped on me, telling me 'You should do some good deeds to ensure a prosperous future,'" Li recalls. He says his offer of 200 yuan was rebuffed. "They demanded 400 [yuan] instead. Later I realized they are all cheats. Real monks are all in their morning classes at that hour. How could they be walking around and asking for alms?" And it's not just a couple of crooks, Li contends. He sees religious IPOs as just another example of the national obsession with gaining wealth. "How can you tell when a generation is in trouble?" he asks. "It's when its religion, its priests, its temples and its churches are all for hiding their faith in order to achieve ulterior motives." Liu Wei, deputy director of the No. 1 Division at the State Administration for Religious Affairs, said at a press conference earlier this summer that temples should operate as nonprofit organizations, serving the religious needs of the public. "Looking at other countries in the world, there are no other examples of religious sites listing publicly," he said. "There have to be boundaries in the development of a market economy." Nonetheless, business is booming. Emei Shan's share price has risen 17% since the start of the year, and analysts are feeling optimistic. "Since a rising of ticket price is very likely, and the Chengdu–Mt. Emei Express Railway is going to be put into operation in 2013, we are confident about [Emei Shan's] growth in 2013–2014," Haitong Securities' analyst Lin Zhouyong wrote in a recent report. It seems that despite the moral outrage, investors have faith. Source: http://world.time.com/2012/09/27/the-price-of-faith-chinese-buddhist-sites-plan-ipos/#ixzz27xpsBfQd Read More @ Source
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| Rioters torch Buddhist temples, homes in Bangladesh Posted: 30 Sep 2012 05:00 PM PDT Bangkok Post, Sept 30, 2012Ramu, Bangladesh -- Thousands of rioters torched Buddhist temples and homes in southeastern Bangladesh Sunday over a photo posted on Facebook deemed offensive to Islam, in a rare attack against the community.
Officials said the mob comprising some 25,000 people set fire to at least five Buddhist temples and dozens of homes in Ramu town and its adjoining villages, some 350 kilometres (216 miles) from the capital Dhaka. The rioters claimed the photo allegedly defaming the Koran was uploaded on Facebook by a Buddhist man from the area, district administrator Joinul Bari said. "They became unruly and attacked Buddhist houses, torching and damaging their temples from midnight to Sunday morning," he told AFP.
It was not immediately clear if there were any casualties, and authorities did not say if any of the rioters were arrested. The country's home minister, industries minister and national police chief rushed to the scene Sunday morning. Police officer Rumia Khatun said about "25,000 Muslims chanting God is Great" first attacked a Buddhist hamlet in Ramu, torching centuries-old temples, and later stormed Buddhist villages outside the town. Witnesses said the rioters left a trail of devastation at the Buddhist villages. "I have seen 11 wooden temples, two of them 300 years old, torched by the mob. They looted precious items and Buddha statues from the temples. Shops owned by Buddhists were also looted," said Sunil Barua, a local journalist on the scene. Barua, himself a Buddhist, said 15 Buddhist villages were attacked and more than 100 houses were looted and damaged. "The villages look like as if they were hit by a major cyclone," he told AFP by phone. Buddhists, who make up less than one percent of Bangladesh's 153 million population, are based mainly in southeastern districts, close to the border with Buddhist-majority Myanmar. Sectarian tensions have been running high since June when deadly clashes erupted between Buddhists and Muslim Rohingya in Myanmar's western Rakhine state. Although Bangladesh, where nearly 90 percent people are Muslims, has witnessed deadly clashes between Muslims and Hindus in the past, sectarian clashes involving Buddhists are rare. In recent weeks tens of thousands of Muslims have hit the street across the country to protest a US-made anti-Islam mocking the prophet Mohammed. Read More @ Source
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| Posted: 30 Sep 2012 04:00 PM PDT By Jolyon Jenkins, The Nation, 30 September 2012Ibiza, Spain -- A Spanish toddler identified as the reincarnation of a revered Buddhist lama spent his entire childhood in an Indian monastery. But at the age of 18 he returned to his family in Spain. Still hailed as a teacher, he is more comfortable on the beaches of Ibiza.
When he was two, Osel Hita Torres was enthroned as a reincarnated Tibetan Buddhist lama. He was dressed in robes and a yellow hat. Grown men prostrated themselves in front of him and asked for his blessing. No-one was allowed to show him affection unless he initiated it. He had his own special cutlery. "It must have been tempting to take advantage of that sometimes and act badly," I say to him now.
Even by Tibetan Buddhist standards, two was a young age for enthronement, and Osel was not even Tibetan - he is Spanish. We are speaking in Ibiza, in the courtyard to his mother's villa. Osel is 27 and no longer a lama. He has swapped the rigours of monastic life for playing the drums on the beach, and chilling to trance music. He is not sure he is still a Buddhist. He was born in Granada, the fifth child of Maria Torres. Maria had converted to Buddhism and was a follower of Thubten Yeshe, a charismatic and extrovert Tibetan lama who was travelling the West in the 1970s.
But Lama Yeshe had heart problems, and he died in 1984 in a Los Angeles hospital, aged 49. His followers were distraught. A few months later, Maria became pregnant with Osel. In Tibetan Buddhism, lamas who achieved a high level of enlightenment are able to choose what happens after their death - whether to be reincarnated and, if so, where. The conviction grew among Lama Yeshe's followers and former colleagues that Yeshe had chosen to be reincarnated in Spain, in little Osel. They detected in Osel a certain meditative self-containment. The way he acted reminded them of Yeshe. A baby like Osel appeared in another lama's dreams. Osel was taken to India for testing, where he picked out Lama Yeshe's former possessions, including his sunglasses. The Dalai Lama confirmed that Osel was Lama Yeshe's reincarnation. Osel went to live in a monastery in southern India and had little contact with his parents. "For them it wasn't something negative, it was a huge opportunity they were giving the kid, like he's going to Yale or Oxford." I met Maria at a Buddhist temple on Ibiza. I put it to her that her name is appropriate for the mother of a God. She does not reject the idea. "At the beginning, yes, it was something like this." The fact that Lama Yeshe had come back in her son was good news. "It made me feel very special, the fact that he had chosen me as his mother. I wanted to share my son with the rest of the world, because it's not my son." But did she not miss him? She says she was not clingy. But having a lama in the family was disruptive for her other five children as they all travelled the world, trying to stay reasonably close to Osel when he was very small. "When you were treated in this very deferential way, how much did you think to yourself secretly 'This is crazy'?" I ask him. "For me it was completely normal," he says.
"But at a certain point in my life, around 15-16, I didn't feel comfortable with it... When he was nine, he sent a cassette tape to his mother where he pleaded to be allowed to come back to Spain. Instead his father, Paco, went to live in the monastery with him, and his younger brother, Kunkyen, went to join him as a monk. "When I turned 16-17, I was dying to get out." The turning point came when he read Herman Hesse's Siddhartha, and he started to wonder whether he was a true Buddhist. On his 18th birthday, he had a momentous conversation with his mother, which she described to me. "He said to me, 'If I decide not to go back to the monastery, can someone force me to go back?'" "No", she told him. "Well, I'm not going back," he said. But the monastery wanted him to return. "I got a huge amount of letters and phone calls, and people coming to visit me, just telling me that I made a big mistake, that I lost a huge opportunity, that was my destiny, my purpose, blah-blah-blah, whatever." Maria was also put under pressure but she supported his decision, and still does. Life outside the monastery was difficult for him to start with - discos and girls were baffling and scary. One of his Buddhist sponsors living in Canada arranged for him to go to school there. He then went to Madrid where he did a degree in film studies. He would like to become a documentary maker. Sometimes Osel seems like a living disproof of the old Jesuit saying, "Give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man." The Tibetans had him from two till 18, but the pull of the West was stronger. Read More @ Source
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| Posted: 30 Sep 2012 03:00 PM PDT
Neil Gaiman's Rules for Writing From the ever wonderful Brain Pickings. Also watch Neil Gaiman. Not bad advice I'd say. Read More @ Source
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According to the current edition of the online journal Meteoritics and Planetary Science, the "Iron Man" - as it is known - is a 10-kilogram (22-pound) statue found first in Tibet, which is likely to be Vaisravana, the Buddhist King of the North. Seated, he wears a large swastika on his midsection, considered a good-luck symbol in Buddhism that was later co-opted by the Nazis in Germany.
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<< Lama Osel when he was enthroned at 2 years old
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