Mahasantisukha monks’ request to countersue Buddhist council rejected, again

Home Asia Pacific South East Asia Myanmar

Rangoon, Burma -- A second attempt by five Buddhist monks from the Mahasantisukha Monastery in Rangoon to countersue the government-backed Sangha Maha Nayaka Committee – the highest order of Buddhist monks in the country – has been rejected by a local court.

<< Buddhist monks, led by Uttara (front), are led to court in Rangoon's Tamwe Township in June. (PHOTO: Khaing Min/ FB)

On 10 June, police and the Sangha Maha Nayaka – more commonly known as the Mahana – raided the Tamwe Township monastery and detained five monks over a longstanding dispute for the monastery. The monks, including prominent Buddhist leader Uttara, were subsequently defrocked and charged for defaming religion, a move widely denounced by the Burmese public and religious leaders.

Last month, the five monks attempted to file charges against the 20 leading members in the Mahana for their “arbitrary detention and arbitrary restraint” at the Bahan Township court, but were summarily rejected.

Uttara said that their second attempt to file charges in the Tamwe Township court was also dismissed.

“Previously, Bahan Township rejected our motion to seek charges against the Mahana on ‘administrative grounds’, as the case is connected to an ongoing trial at the Tamwe Township court where we are being prosecuted,” Uttara said. “So we tried approaching the Tamwe Township court and they also rejected us, citing the ongoing trial against us.”

As the ownership dispute simmers between the Mahana and the revered Abbott Penang Sayadaw – who locals around the area consider the rightful owner of the monastery –Uttara said that their lawyers have been unable to adequately defend them without interference.

“In the 12 June trial, we were trying to present as evidence a letter by the revered Abbott Penang Sayadaw to President Thein Sein, calling on him to mediate the dispute, but the court rejected it,” Uttara said. “Our lawyers called to adjourn the trial on the grounds that turning down our evidence constitutes abatement.”

With the trial currently on hold, Uttara said that their lawyers have now proposed this piece of evidence at the Eastern Rangoon district court, which will make a decision before the lower court trial resumes on 15 August.

View the original article here

Nicole, Keith and the incensed Buddhist

An incensed owner in the Latitude building in Lavender Bay has complained to its executive committee about perfumed smoke from joss sticks drifting heavenwards from the balcony of one apartment.

And now the committee has sent out a circular asking residents to be more considerate of their neighbours when they are burning incense.

Flat Chat has discovered that the complaint was made against a couple, one of whom is a devout Buddhist who prays on his balcony for a few minutes once a week in the late evening. His devotions involve the burning of incense.

His partner, who prefers not to be named, said they'd had no complaints from neighbours on either side or immediately above. Instead he believed the protests were from an owner five floors higher up the building.

"She wanted us to do it inside behind closed doors," said the 'offending' resident. "I mean, people smoke on balconies and there are barbecues happening all the time. This is once a week at exactly the same time for a few minutes."

The building's executive committee declined to issue a Notice To Comply, since there was no by-law that was actually being breached. Instead they took the less confrontational route of issuing a general note to all residents.

It is not known if Nicole or Keith were aware of their neighbours' efforts to jump on joss sticks. However it's an issue building managers confront surprisingly often.

"Incense a few minutes once a week doesn't seem unreasonable to me, but it might worry other people," says Allan Hoy, CEO of Strategic Strata Solutions. "It can even be a health issue for someone, say, who has asthma. We've had incense, and also 'unusual' cigarettes ..."

He recommends buildings put a by-law in place that covers odours travelling from balconies that could include everything from smoking and barbecues to joss sticks. "We've found that to be very successful," he says.

View the original article here

Mindfulness: A Secularized Buddhist Practice in the West

Home Issues

Richmond BC, (CANADA) -- Mindfulness is a technique that is integral to the Teachings of the Buddha. It is the seventh element of the Noble Eightfold Path which encapsulates the principal teachings of the Buddha.Mindfulness or ‘sati’ is a whole-body-and-mind awareness of the present moment. It is awareness of body, feelings, thoughts and phenomena that affect the body and mind.

It is the detached observation of what is happening within us and around us in the present moment. Being fully mindful means being fully attentive to everything as-it-is, not reacting to or generating thoughts on what one experiences at the moment. In the practice of mindfulness the mind is trained to remain in the present, open, quiet, and alert, focused on the present moment and to accept one’s thoughts and responses without judgement.

All judgments and interpretations of feelings and thoughts are overlooked or just registered and dropped. To be mindful is to be fully present, not lost in daydreams, anticipation, indulgences, or worry. It is a mental mode of being engaged in the present moment without evaluating or emotionally reacting to it.

Regular mindfulness training helps to enhance and strengthen the brains ability to pay attention. As with any skill, regular practice of mindfulness enhances the skill so that it arises naturally and spontaneously.

Mindfulness involves self-discovery and becoming more compassionate to self and then ultimately towards others. Mindful living leads to a more fulfilling and grounded life, being able to understand oneself and one’s environment without judgement.

It is about waking up to your life and enhancing mental and emotional resilience. Mindfulness helps to create harmony in heart and mind and therefore in the world around you as well. Mindfulness is becoming a lifestyle among some sections of the Western society. It has become an element in their daily routine bringing them benefits similar to those of physical exercise and sound relaxation.

In a society characterized by unpleasant and unhealthy effects of excessive competition, impatience and stress, mindfulness practice makes people recognize the need to slow down and pay attention. Among many people, As a remedy to an uneasy, unbalanced, troubled, discontented, distressed and unhappy mind characterized by negative mood and stress, mindfulness exercises have been found to be of much help to develop a happier, healthier and fulfilling life. Mindfulness is the most direct way to overcome sorrow and lamentation, end pain and anxiety, and realize the highest form of inner happiness. 

Mindfulness practice has been subject to much research in several disciplines in recent years and publications on mindfulness has proliferated in the Western world. The efficacy of mindfulness is supported by a growing body of scientific research. Applied research has shown that mindfulness has a positive impact on people’s health and wellbeing. 

In particular it has a positive impact on the human brain. Studies have shown that it can alter brain patterns and behavior. Hospitals and community centres have started to offer courses on Mindfulness practices. Mindfulness entered the medical mainstream in the 1970s.

Today, Mindfulness is taught and practiced in many prominent hospitals in the USA, Canada several other Western countries. Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction” practice (MBSR) developed by the Medical School of the University of Massachusetts in USA has been used successfully to treat a wide variety of illnesses.

Mindfulness exercises have helped alleviate suffering from psychological illnesses such as anxiety, panic disorders and phobias. They have become clinically proven methods for alleviating stress and chronic pain. An increasing number of Medical Centres worldwide now offer mindfulness based therapies for mood and other disorders.

Many studies have revealed the effectiveness of  mindfulness practices in reducing psychological stress. They have led to improvements in both mental and physical health, alleviating depression, anxiety, loneliness and chronic pain.  

In recent years there has been a growing interest in the practice of mindfulness as part of psychotherapy. Researchers are using brain imaging techniques to investigate the neurobiological mechanisms by which mindfulness practices work. Some psychotherapists find that mindfulness meditation as an adjunct to counseling and other treatments can help troubled people learn to release negative emotions and thought habits.

After receiving mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, patients report noticing that negative thoughts lose their power over time. Mindfulness techniques were used to help children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder to concentrate, and for soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder recover and now for professionals of various fields as a technique for developing focus, clarity and compassion. Research has shown that Mindfulness practice can be effective in managing depression. It can be as effective as antidepressants in treating depression.

Its ability to improve performance is one of the primary reasons for greater attention on Mindfulness practice in the West. Professionals and those of the corporate culture, but also institutions, companies, and nations are adopting ‘mindful’ practices and associated ‘compassion’ and listening to others as management practices to an increasing extent. 

Among some of these institutions are Google, the USA Military, especially the US Marine Corps, prisons, Social services work, LinkedIn networking site. In the US military mindfulness training includes ‘brain calming’ exercises to improve performance. Snipers benefit from mindfulness training.

It enhances attention, concentration and aim. It is gaining ground as a useful practice  among prominent sports personnel including Olympic athletes and movie stars. Students who want to boost their performance and also parents, teachers or caregivers wishing to be more attentive to others’ needs may  all find mindfulness training highly useful.

Buddhist Ethical Principles underlying Mindfulness Practice

Although lectures and public talks and discussions, publications, workshops, forums, seminars, courses, retreats and other forms of intense interactions on the subject of Mindfulness practises are conducted in the West, it is rarely that these Mindfulness Trainers and Experts” in the West, acknowledge the fact that they have learned these wholesome  practices from Buddhism.

One reason may be the fact that these practices may not be of much appeal to the ordinary Westerner, if religion” or a faith tradition is associated with it.  Most Westerners perceive erroneously that Buddhism is a religion or a belief system in the conventional sense.  The trend among modern day Westerner  is to distance themselves from religion which some perceive to be a corrupt outmoded and outdated institution which is generally corrupt and has a divisive effect on society.

In this light, the Buddhist Bhikkhu communities of the different Buddhist traditions should be in the forefront highlighting what the Buddha Dhamma or the teachings of the Buddha is all about, how it differs from the conventional theistic faith traditions and the overall spiritual benefits that could be attained through Buddhist practices such as Mindfulness as propagated in Buddhist teachings.

It is a pity that our Buddhist Bhikkhus who are found in abundance in the Western world are not actively involved in this popular trend in the West, highlighting the spiritual aspect of Mindfulness practice, and showing that spirituality associated with Mindfulness practice involves no belief system but is focused on inner transformation leading to calm and peacefulness. It will help one to deal effectively with everyday difficulties and to live a richer, happier and a fulfilling life. But more importantly, it will help one to develop a state of consciousness leading to a state of awakening to realities of life, to the ultimate meaning of life.

Mindfulness meditation helps one to develop emotional intelligence, self regulation, and empathy necessary for successful relationships. It is remarkably useful for facing interpersonal challenges.

In the Western corporate culture, in the rush to secularise it, Mindfulness have been turned into a technique divorced from ethical responsibility. In fact, its training and promotional ventures are highly commercialized often associated with a high price tag.

Mindfulness in the Buddhist tradition is to transform one’s sense of self. It is not about attaining personal goals attached to personal desires. The goal of mindfulness practice is to liberate oneself from greed, ill will and delusion (loba, dosha moha” or the three main defilements in Buddhist teachings) and not to achieve stress reduction.  The real focus of Buddhism is on awakening, on coming to some insight or wisdom about our true nature. Without that, we cannot get at the real source of our ‘dukkha’or suffering. 

From the Buddhist perspective, the ‘mindfulness movement' that is becoming increasingly popular in the Western World is not addressing the most deep-rooted forms of human suffering or ‘dukkha’. In fact, it seems to be reinforcing the kind of self-centred individualism that seems to be the basic problem in Western society.

View the original article here

Burma expels Canadian prof over Buddhist tattoos on his leg

Home Asia Pacific South East Asia Myanmar

Yangon, Myanmar -- Jason Polley is kicked out of Burma after photo of Buddhist tattoos on his leg went viral on Facebook in Southeast Asian country.

<< The Mahayana Buddhist tattoos on Jason Polley's legs that have caused such a stir in Burma.

A backpacking Canadian professor says he was forced to leave Burma after his leg tattoos caused a stir.

Jason Polley, who teaches English at Hong Kong Baptist University, said the problem started a day after he arrived in the country last week, when a local person took a picture of his Buddha tattoos and posted it to Facebook.

The photo apparently went viral in the Southeast Asian country, which experiences Buddhist-Muslim conflict and has many who consider lower body parts unclean.

In an interview from Bangkok, Polley said about 15 tourism officials came to his hotel in Inle Lake, north of the capital Rangoon, on Saturday night and “accosted” him in the lobby.

“They said: ‘Why would you put these tattoos on your leg? You understand that you’re a Facebook star in Myanmar?’ ” he said by phone Tuesday.

Polley, of Russell, Ont., is a Mahayana Buddhist and his tattoos, which chart the religion’s development, are on his leg to represent a pillar of support.

He said most Burmese practise a different branch of the religion, and officials told him they were there for his protection as radicals might hurt him over the tattoos.

In addition to demanding the couple’s passports, Polley said six officials repeatedly photographed him and his leg, and one tried to grab him when he stood up.

“He was the only official who really made things extremely uncomfortable for both of us,” Polley said, adding the others were cordial.

“I would have gladly fought him right there. In retrospect, I would still want to fight him, even though it would be a bad idea.”

Polley said the officials’ tone became kinder after questioning him when they seemed to realize he wasn’t an Islamic “fundamentalist.”

They told them not to leave the hotel until Sunday morning, when they said they expected to hear back from the country’s tourism minister.

But an hour later Polley and his Hong Kong girlfriend, Margaret Lam, were given two hours to gather their belongings. The officials then put them on a 15-hour car ride to the airport.

While officials initially told him he was to be deported, Polley said other officials told him he was being asked to leave the country for his own safety.

There is no Canadian embassy in Burma, and Polley’s guidebook told him to contact the Australian Embassy, which was closed Saturday night. He and Lam were able to ask friends in Hong Kong to contact Canadian and Chinese officials on Sunday morning.

Chinese officials responded almost within the hour and got a Burmese speaker on the phone to talk to local authorities, but the Canadians did not get back to him.

Polley planned to finish the rest of his 23-day vacation in Thailand and Laos, though he did not rule out returning to Burma in the future.

Foreign Affairs spokesman John Babcock said in a statement that countries have the “prerogative” in deciding whom to keep in their borders and consular officials cannot intervene if Canadians do not meet “entry requirements.

View the original article here

Ceres Buddhist temple has plans for expansion

Home The Americas US West

Modesto, CA (USA) -- A group wants to expand its Buddhist temple in Ceres, at 3761 Roeding Road, but has run into some opposition from neighbors.

The plans include a 9,500-square-foot activity hall, a new ashery for cremated human remains and additions to the temple and multipurpose room. The Cambodian Buddhist Association of Ceres also proposes 122 additional parking spaces at the 3-acre site, west of Faith Home Road, just outside the city.

Stanislaus County planning commissioners are scheduled to consider the land-use permit Thursday at 6 p.m. Staff recommends they approve the permit, which would allow construction of the facilities.

According to agenda reports, the addition of 12,225 square feet of building space would increase the occupancy by 400 people. And the additional space would allow religious activities to move indoors.

The church’s property is situated near ranchettes, pasture, an egg ranch and Ceres Christian Church. County planners gave approval to the original temple in February 2007.

The county has received letters from five neighbors opposing the recent application. They express concern about large gatherings at the temple, as well as loudspeakers, compromised real estate values, increased traffic, dust and parking on the shoulder of Roeding Road.

Some letters claimed the neighborhood has been disrupted by festivals that generate large numbers of cars and loud music. Some complained about the weekly religious services.

The Planning Commission will consider whether the larger church facilities are consistent with the county general plan and would have a detrimental affect on nearby properties. So far, county officials do not see a reason to deny the church the right to use its property for religious services.

The Cambodian Buddhist Association of Ceres owned a previous temple site on Service Road before it was sold to a grocery store developer in 2006.

The county Planning Commission holds regular meetings at 6 p.m. the first and third Thursday of every month in the basement chambers of Tenth Street Place, 1010 10th St. in downtown Modesto.

View the original article here

New hub for Canberra's burgeoning Buddhist community

The Buddhist Society of the ACT hopes to open the doors of a new 8.5-metre-high ordination hall in Narrabundah before the middle of the year.

The society?s giant Buddha will become the centrepiece of the $414,600 facility, with the hall to be built around the golden statue at the Goyder Street site.

The gold statue currently sits on a brick platform on what was a Buddhist garden outside the existing facility.
Advertisement

The hall has been designed as an accessible Buddhist community hub for Canberra?s inner south but will draw followers from across the ACT.

Plans for the building have been under way since about 2006 and include a separate toilet block at the rear of the site, 50 parking spaces including two disabled spaces, and a 5000-litre water tank.

Gold-coloured terracotta tiles, a roof ornament, long columns and a covered outdoor area will complete the prominent facility.

A development application for the project has been lodged with the ACT Planning and Land Authority.

The society hoped to see construction work start between late March and early April and expected the shell of the building to be completed within 16 weeks.

Public officer Thane Kyaw-Myint said members and their families had outgrown the current hall, which includes the presiding monk?s residence.

During large open days, which commemorated significant occasions such as the beginning of Buddhist Lent, crowds stretched well outside the door.

?[The current building] is not that large. A lot of people stand outside and listen to the ceremony using a speaker. The monk, for the sake of the community, will have two services, one in the morning and one in the afternoon,? Dr Myint said. ?The registered number of members is about 200 but when you include families the total community is about 600 to 700 strong ... from across Canberra.?

Canberra?s growing Buddhist population made up 2.6per cent of the territory?s religious affiliations in 2011, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics census figures.

The figure is part of a national rise is non-Christian religions since 2001.

The Buddhist Society of the ACT is from the Theyrayeda sect of Buddhism, not the Mahayalia sect. The Theyrayeda sect has different beliefs about enlightenment and draws most followers from Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Malaysia rather than China, Tibet and Nepal.

Although a zoning hiccup had delayed work, Dr Kywa-Myint said the development appeared to be back on track in an area home to a number of community facilities including other places of worship.

He said the ordination hall?s uses would include meditation, religious discourse and ceremonial performances, and cater to a growing demand for religious schooling as more and more children of Buddhist families were born in Canberra.

The current site also includes extra portable rooms, kuti, which were donated by members and are used for individual meditation.

Dr Kywa-Myint said the hall would be open throughout the day, as the current facilities are, to enable prayer. They would close at night to prevent vandalism.

View the original article here

Dhammaloka: The Irish Buddhist monk who condemned Christianity

Home Personality

London, UK -- An Irishman, Laurence Carroll has a strong claim to be the first Westerner to become a Buddhist monk, and became famous in Burma in the early 20th Century for denouncing the spread of Christianity there.

Carroll was thought to have been born in 1856 in Booterstown, Dublin. He was to later become known as Dhammaloka, meaning 'light of the Dhamma' (Buddhist teaching) or 'word of the 'Dhamma'.

He left Ireland when he was a teenager and travelled to America. After a number of years travelling from place to place, he began working on the San Francisco/Yokohama mail shipping line, but after just three journeys was thrown off the ship in Japan, reportedly due to drunkenness.

From there he made a three-week journey by steamer to Rangoon in Burma where he got work as a tally man at a logging company. It was at this stage he had his first interaction with Buddhist monks.

"The monks had a lot of respect from people and I suspect that Dhammaloka might have been a drinker and they helped him to overcome his dependency on alcohol," explains professor Brian Bocking, head of the School of Asian Studies at the University College Cork.

"It's notable that in addition to atheism, the issue of temperance became a focus of Dhammaloka's preaching as well as his coded anti-colonialism. He became a temperance campaigner for the rest of his life."

The Irishman began to train as a Buddhist monk and was fully ordained before 1900.

His ordination therefore pre-dates that of Charles Henry Allan Bennett (Ananda Metteyya) who has traditionally been dubbed the 'first western Buddhist monk', as Bennett was ordained in the Theravada tradition in 1902.

But how did Carroll reconcile his atheist principles with a spiritual life?

Professor Brian Bocking explains: "He was an atheist but the Dalai Lama is an atheist.

"Buddhists don't believe in God, not in the Christian sense. They don't believe in a creator God that you could interact with.

"What they say is that suffering is caused by the mind - what you have to do is to distil the mind and extinguish any fires of craving and you do that by following a monastic life.

"In that way Buddhism was completely compatible with Dhammaloka's atheism."

Atheism within Buddhism is a principle that still remains intact and Dr Laurence Cox, author of Buddhism and Ireland: from the Celts to counter-culture and beyond, believes that with a rise in secularism people outside of Asia became more open to Buddhist practices. Church attendances in Ireland in the 1970s were measured at 91% but in 2008 that had dropped to just 36%.

"Most Irish people who convert might have had strong associations to Catholicism or Protestantism and were faced with a lot of dogma and they don't want to do the same thing with Buddhism," argues Dr Cox.

New 'Catholic Buddhists'

"Buddhism allows you to redefine a bit of what matters to you. You're not looking to your own family tradition - you can step outside what can sometimes be stifling conventions and look up and have encounters with a different kind of culture that might have had an effect on you."

Kelsang Chitta is currently the only ordained Buddhist nun in Northern Ireland within the Kadampa tradition.

Having grown up with a Christian background she developed an interest in Buddhism while studying philosophy at Trinity College, Dublin. She believes that people are now attracted to elements of the religion due to its unimposing nature.

"Since the summer, we've had the biggest numbers ever coming to our classes at the [Potala Kadampa Buddhist] centre," she says.

"You can practise the teachings in your daily life, developing compassion without calling yourself a Buddhist.

"Many people would practise in that way. Take the essence of the teachings and practise and that's fine within Buddhism. It's not really necessary to label yourself."

Mixing Buddhist practices with traditional Christian faith in Ireland nowadays is not something that would have gained support with Dhammaloka who had strong views both on Christianity and colonialism.

His outspoken opinion gained him followers but also made him a figure of some notoriety in Rangoon during the first decade of the 20th Century.

Law-breaker

And, while his anti-colonial and Christian stance may have made him popular in Buddhist communities in South East Asia it also attracted the wrath of colonial authorities.

Dhammaloka faced minor charges of sedition twice. Once in 1902 and again in 1910.

In 1910 opponents reported him to the chief court of Rangoon after he publicly accused Christians of being immoral, violent and set on the destruction of Burmese tradition.

He was bound over by the judge for a year and his supporters paid the sizeable sum of approximately 1,000 rupees as a surety he would not re-offend.

"Dhammaloka was famous for two things," explains Professor Bocking.

"One, he was a Westerner but a Buddhist monk and secondly, he made speeches that were controversial denouncing Christian missionaries and European colonialism."

Professor Bocking also believes the most significant aspect of Dhammaloka's conversion was that his background was no barrier to Buddhism.

"I suppose the most important thing for us in learning about Dhammaloka is that he opens up a whole world of early Western Buddhists who were not respectable types but who came out of an imperial underclass that was interested in religion."

The manner in which people in the West are encouraged to practise the religion may have changed since Dhammaloka's time but the concept that Buddhism is open to everyone from all kinds of background still resonates today.

Quick facts

Laurence Carroll was born in 1856 in DublinEmigrated to the USA in 1871Arrived in Rangoon in the early 1880sOrdained as a novice Buddhist monk in 1884 adopting the name DhammalokaEstablished the Buddhist Tract Society in Burma in 1907Was tried and convicted for sedition in 1910Believed to have died between 1913 and 1915

View the original article here

Retreat into a Buddhist way of life

Home Dharma Dew

Durban, South Africa -- Arriving at The Buddhist Retreat Centre just outside Ixopo on Friday afternoon, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. My partner and I had signed up for a retreat titled “Your Life in Ten Pictures”. We weren’t looking to “find ourselves” or expecting to experience anything life-changing as the clichés go, but we were curious.

Too many late nights and too much convenience food had led us to a point where we needed to tune out from reality for a while. If I said that was what we found at the retreat I would be lying. We found a way to completely tune into reality, and that was exactly what was needed.

We arrived just in time for supper. We had heard about the retreat first through friends raving about the food.

Both vegetarians, there are few places we can go out to eat where there is more on the menu for us to choose from than a side order of chips, a green salad, a margarita pizza or a chickpea burger – if you are lucky.

Tastes

So the prospect of exploring new tastes was one of the main reasons we went, and the retreat did not disappoint. All the dishes are prepared from scratch using the finest vegetables, all grown on site, served with freshly baked bread.

They have even published their own cook book with recipes created in the kitchen. The recipe books, Quiet Food and The Cake that Buddha Ate, are top sellers around the country.

Book early if you want to go to one of the cooking classes held over some weekends as they sell out fast.

For me, the main feature of the centre was the spectacular view. It sits on a ridge at the head of the Umkomaas River system.

In the early mornings you see “mist rivers” running through the valleys. And there is no shortage of benches hidden away in little pockets of nature for you to quietly reflect and take it all in.

Wondering around this serene setting as the sun sets is something close to magical. The golden light surrounds you as you meander along cobbled stone paths. You would be forgiven if you thought you had stumbled upon Rivendell.

After dinner we had an introductory talk about what to expect. Here they told us that we would be participating in meditation practise three times a day with talks and activities in-between.

They also made mention of “noble silence”. The retreat asks you to not talk at all from after evening meditation until after breakfast the next day. This may sound strange at first, and it is hard to get the hang of it in the beginning, but the rewards are worth it. You do not

realise how often you pass an unnecessary comment until you are consciously trying not to say anything.

Eating in silence in a room full of people is an interesting experience. My fruit salad tasted amazing, I excitedly looked forward to each piece of fruit, the pineapple, melon, grape and strawberry. How was it different from any fruit salad I had had before? I don’t know, but I am sure that concentrating on the taste of each flavour in silence had something to do with it.

Meditation was a major focus on this retreat, and it is there to help you bring your mind into the present. We are so busy thinking about the past or worrying about the future that we miss what is going on around us right now. When I spoke about completely tuning into reality, this is what I was speaking about.I felt so refreshed and clear-headed afterwards.

Owners Louis and Chrisi van Loon are often at the retreat. Louis sometimes leads the weekend and he did this one.

He is a soft-spoken, charismatic man with a seemingly never-ending supply of knowledge. One of the other guests told me that she often comes to the retreat, and she makes sure to book the weekends that Louis runs.

Chrisi said the retreat used to be one of KwaZulu-Natal’s best-kept secrets, as they normally only had guests from other parts of the country, but they were starting to see more and more Durbanites make the less than two-hour drive to Ixopo – a drive that I hope to take again very soon. - The Mercury

View the original article here

Nalanda Buddhist Society opens JB outreach centre

Home Asia Pacific South East Asia Malaysia

WALK THE WALK: An organisation which believes in holistic education is doing its bit for underprivileged schoolchildren by offering free tuition classes

JOHOR BARU, Malaysia -- THE Nalanda experience has found its way to Johor with the opening of the Nalanda Education & Outreach (NEO) Centre in Taman Johor Jaya here recently.

<< Dr Tan Ho Soon gives dhamma talk to devotees at the shrine hall of the Nalanda Education & Outreach (right) in Taman Johor Jaya. Pix by Chuah Bee Kim

The event also coincides with the 10th anniversary of the Nalanda Buddhist Society founded in 2003 by Dr Tan Ho Soon.

NEO chairman David Yap said that the non-governmental organisation believes in giving knowledge and wisdom to achieve integral human development.

Yap said the centre is recruiting volunteers to tutor children in their school subjects.

"The children who can come here for tuition are from poor families regardless of race or religion," Yap said.

"At our centre in Taman Sri Serdang, Selangor, volunteers of different faiths tutor children from primary and secondary schools in various subjects for free," Yap said.

Tan, who was also present, said that the society had helped 1,200 students to-date.

"Nalanda introduces something new every two years. In 2005, we started the Nalanda Dharma School to provide knowledge, skills and values to teens aged 13 to 18.

"In 2007, the Nalanda Institute was established to offer courses on Buddhism and leadership training. More than 8,000 people have attended the free courses.

"Two years later, we opened the Nalanda Centre in Taman Sri Serdang, followed by the Pustaka Nalanda (Nalanda Library) in 2011.

"It is believed to be the only computerised Buddhist library where members can source books online.

"It has a collection of over 3,000 titles comprising Pali scriptures, Buddhist encyclopaedias and reference books," Tan said.

Nalanda has become one of several acknowledged centres of Buddhist education of the Theravada tradition in the country.

The NEO centre at 30, Jalan Dedap 26, Taman Johor Jaya, is open from 9am to 11am daily, with chanting sessions on Sunday mornings. For details, call 07-350-3870 or visit www.nalanda.org.my.

The two-storey venue offers accommodation to visiting monks, and has a library, shrine hall, meditation room and training rooms for volunteers.

View the original article here

Buddhist monks expand peace walk to Kennewick

Monks of the Nipponzan Myohoji Buddhist Temple on Bainbridge Island will be in the Tri-Cities on July 30 for a prayer walk for abolition of nuclear weapons.

The five-mile Kennewick segment will start at 9:40 a.m. at the Rite Aid on Highway 395 and Kennewick Avenue and proceed on Clearwater Avenue to Columbia Center Boulevard. It will end at Target.

The six-mile Richland segment will begin at 1 p.m. with a brief ceremony in John Dam Plaza. It will proceed north on George Washington Way to the 300 Area gate of the Hanford nuclear reservation.

The walk is open to the public. A support vehicle will provide rides for those who need a lift midwalk.

View the original article here

Sri Lankan Buddhist monk begins fast unto death demanding clean drinking water

Home Asia Pacific South Asia Sri Lanka

Colombo, Sri Lanka -- A Buddhist monk in Sri Lanka has begun a fast unto death on Tuesday demanding the government to provide clean drinking water to the residents in an area in Gampaha district.

The chief incumbent of the Galoluwa Buddhist Temple, the venerable Siridhamma Thero has launched the fast as a last measure after the discussions held with the government officials failed to resolve the issue of contaminated water.

The monk and the area residents say that the water in the area is contaminated with the effluents from a glove factory in the area and demand the government to close the factory.

Venerable Siridhamma Thero had said that he and the public representatives held talks with the government officials to resolve the issue but the talks weren't successful.

He has requested the police to ensure security for the area residents and maintain law and order during his fast.

View the original article here

Japan’s Buddhist Temples keeping up with the times using DJs, apps, video games, booze and more

Home Asia Pacific North Asia Japan

Tokyo, Japan -- While religions of all stripes have something to offer in terms of support and advice, they also share a common detriment: they’re all really, really old. While age brings with it wisdom and experience, if religion can’t relate to modern society it runs the risk of getting left behind.

To help prevent this, several monks across Japan have been adopting new technology and trends or have tried simply reaching out to people differently, in less orthodox and more human ways.

Higher Tech Attainment

Walking around and looking at the masses of people with eyes looked on their smartphone it’s hard to ignore the pull of digital media. Higan Temple has been at the forefront of tapping into cyberspace to expose the masses to Buddhism.

What started as a blog chronicling Kosuke Matsumoto’s journey to becoming a monk has blossomed into a virtual online temple. Now several Buddhists and monks contribute articles offering their viewpoints on business, parenting, food, and more. The monks also answer questions asked via Twitter.

There is a small English section too where Mr. Matsumoto occasionally writes articles. The temple also released an app for iPhone and Android called Undo to assist in meditation.

Another website called Tera Koya Buddha works as a calendar of events for Buddhist related activities running the gamut from yoga classes to jazz festivals. Buddhist Temples have also be stepping up their game in the entertainment field as well.

Sutra Hero

One way to get recognition is to put out an interesting and entertaining product for people to latch onto. A few of our readers are likely familiar with Ryoho Temple, otherwise known as Moe Temple for its liberal use of moe characters all around the grounds.

A while back we reported on their video game Sutra Master, a rhythm game using traditional Buddhist “instruments”, characters and symbols.

Well, it seems as if Moe Temple was just getting started in the video game business. Now they have released an RPG game for use on iPhone and Android called Welcome to Ryoho Temple [Free Training Yokai Card Game]. The game is a strategy-based card game which uses moe versions of about 1,000 different traditional Japanese creatures such as tengu and akaoni.

Parties

Another way to lure people with technology is to throw a kick-ass party. Earlier this year Gokokuji Temple held the Tibet Festival Tokyo with the participation of Tibetan monks.  At the festival the temporary beauty of a sand mandala being made in-person could be seen.

However, after sunset the beauty of the temple gets kicked up a notch thanks to some projection mapping. Here’s a time lapse video of the event.

Also earlier this year was Kohgen 2013, which held various religious events at four temples and shrines in Gunma Prefecture. In particular the Joko Temple event was a feast for the senses. Inside the main hall of the temple, incense was lit to mellow the audiences sense of smell, vegetarian food was served to tingle taste buds and a DJ and live band played along with cryptic projections on the wall. Perhaps next year the musical stylings Tariki Echo could be worked in.

Heartbreak and Hard Drinks

While flashing lights and websites are all well and good, they’re a dime a dozen these days. Perhaps to really get in touch with people you have to get out of the temple and into the real world.

That’s what a group of monks from various Buddhist sects did when they set up a bar. Geting away from all your worries sure would help a lot, so why not go where everyone knows a sutra – Vowz Bar in Tokyo. Listed as one of weirder theme bars in Tokyo with their Buddhist inspired cocktail names, it’s the best place to go for some sagely advice after a hard day.

If drinking’s not your thing you might be able to find one of the growing trends of sutra readings popping up around the countries. Here you can join a monk as they give you their own interpretations of sutras with interaction from the audience. It can be enlightening to see how those cryptic chants can apply to real life situations such as a break up or family dispute.

This is just a taste of what Buddhism is doing to stay active and relevant in Japan. Surely there will be more moe video games and electronica to come from this 2,500-year-old religion.

View the original article here

A Charity Aims to Bring Buddhist Studies Into the Modern World

Home Asia Pacific North Asia China

HONG KONG, China -- Robert Y.C. Ho, a scion of a historic Hong Kong family, is the chairman of the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation, which supports study in the fields of Buddhism, Chinese art and culture. The charity is named after Mr. Ho’s father, who founded it in 2005.

It has given endowments for Buddhist programs at Harvard University, Stanford University and the Courtauld Institute of Art in London. In May, it gave a $1.9 million grant to the American Council of Learned Societies for the research and teaching of Buddhist studies.

Why did your father decide to focus on Buddhism?

Buddhism was easier because his grandmother, Lady Clara, set up a temple in Hong Kong, Tung Lin Kok Yuen, in 1935 — it later grew to two charity organizations, in Hong Kong and Canada — and there’s a school associated with it. So Buddhism has been part of the family.

We also support Chinese art and culture because my father, who grew up in Hong Kong, appreciates Chinese arts — classical, traditional and contemporary.

Buddhist studies are usually associated with history. How do you make them relevant to today?

Generally speaking, Buddhist studies in higher institutions have been archaic and old-fashioned, in the sense that it’s mostly text-based, where we have scholars who are experts in Pali, Sanskrit, classical Chinese, Japanese, old languages. They read these texts and they talk about them. A lot of time, it’s not really related to what happens in the real world.

But a lot of younger scholars are pushing into new areas, like studying about Buddhism and politics, Buddhism and the environment, conflict resolution, Buddhism and psychology, things like that, and how they manifest in the world. Most of our grants are geared toward the area, which is Buddhism in the contemporary world. This is the area we want to push, to advance the field, to make it relevant to the contemporary audiences.

Why do you work largely with universities and institutions in the West, as opposed to in China or other parts of Asia?

We’re looking for the right partner, the right institution. The standard of scholarship is traditionally, at least in the modern and contemporary era, much higher in North America and the West, so there’s a practical consideration.

We’re looking into working in China, but they’re all state-funded institutions. That makes it tricky to find a partner.

Southeast Asia is another story. For example, in Thailand and Sri Lanka, they have a category of institutions called Buddhist universities, and they study Buddhism in a traditional way. They take their model back from India in the Middle Ages: They have a big monastery and next to the monastery, they would have a university where they’d teach Buddhist scholarship from a traditional point of view. That’s not what we’re looking for.

Through Tung Ling Kok Yuen in Hong Kong, we helped set up the Buddhist Studies Center at Hong Kong University — it was before we started the family foundation. After we’ve started the foundation, most of our grants for Buddhist-related areas are mostly through the foundation.

In Hong Kong, where the foundation is based, you seem to focus on arts and culture education. Why is that?

With Hong Kong being mostly Chinese, we see the program as under the umbrella of Chinese art and culture. It’s a basic belief that arts and creativity are part of a human being and the human psyche — that is important to make a person well-rounded, and to have some exposure to that is very important. It’s important not only to individuals but also to a healthy society.

The government has some initiatives to try to make Hong Kong a culture or art hub.

They are putting a lot of effort in the hardware. That’s good, that’s an important part of it, but you also need the audience.

The software is the education program, so that people who go to art events can appreciate, talk about and criticize them. You need that aspect. What we are trying to do is a small bit, but we believe if Hong Kong wants to be a world city, it needs this component.

View the original article here

Nalanda University and the suppressed Buddhist Identity

Home Issues

Colombo, Sri Lanka -- This entire project led by Dr. Amrtya Sen must be made the basis of a wide ranging discussion in the Buddhist world in respect to the direction, organisation, content of teaching, and aims and objectives that this proposed Nalanda International University is being encouraged to adopt.

The historic Nalanda University was essentially a Mahayana Buddhist Center of learning and had as its Directors (or Rectors) some of the learned Buddhist Monks then existing.

One reputed writer Alexander Berzin (2002) says:

"In the Indian Mahayana Buddhist monasteries, such as Nalanda, monks studied four systems of Buddhist tenets. Two – Vaibhashika and Sautrantika – were subdivisions of the Sarvastivada school within Hinayana. The other two – Chittamatra and Madhyamaka – were subdivisions within Mahayana."

Wikipedia says:

"Nalanda was one of the world's first residential universities, i.e., it had dormitories for students. It is also one of the most famous universities. In its heyday, it accommodated over 10,000 students and 2,000 teachers. Chinese pilgrims estimated the students between 3,000 and 5,000.

The university was considered an architectural masterpiece, and was marked by a lofty wall and one gate. Nalanda had eight separate compounds and ten temples, along with many other meditation halls and classrooms. On the grounds were lakes and parks. The library was located in a nine storied building where meticulous copies of texts were produced. The subjects taught at Nalanda University covered every field of learning, and it attracted pupils and scholars from Korea, Japan, China, Tibet, Indonesia, Persia and Turkey. During the period of Harsha, the monastery is reported to have owned 200 villages given as grants."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nalanda

Among some of its famous Abbots were: Shakyashribhadra.  The scholar Dharmakirti (ca. 7th century), one of the Buddhist founders of Indian philosophical logic, as well as and one of the primary theorists of Buddhist atomism, taught at Nalanda. Both Mahayana Buddhism and Nalanda University influenced each other.

The old Nalanda University was a not secular University by any means. It had a Buddhist Character for over 700 years right from its beginnings in the Fifth Century A.D ( reign of Sakraditya ) until its unfortunate end in 1193, when the Nalanda University was sacked by Bakhtiyar Khilji, a Turk. The Persian historian Minhaj-i-Siraj, in his chronicle the Tabaqat-I-Nasiri, has reported that thousands of monks were burned alive and thousands beheaded as Khilji tried his best to uproot Buddhism.

The burning of the library had continued for several months and "smoke from the burning manuscripts hung for days like a dark pall over the low hills."

The last throne-holder of Nalanda, Shakyashribhadra, fled to Tibet in 1204 at the invitation of the Tibetan translator Tropu Lotsawa (Khro-phu Lo-tsa-ba Byams-pa dpal). In Tibet, he started an ordination lineage of the Mulasarvastivadin lineage to complement the two existing ones.

New proposed Nalanda International University

Nalanda University (also known as University of Nalanda) is the name of a proposed university in Rajgir, near Nalanda, Bihar, India. The first academic session is set to start from 2014.The university is a plan for reviving and re-establishing Nalanda University.

The University of Nalanda is proposed to be established under the aegis of the East Asia Summit (EAS), as a regional initiative. The NMG also has representatives from Singapore, China, Japan and Thailand.

The Governing Board of Nalanda University consists of:

Amartya Sen - Professor at Harvard University.Sugata Bose - Professor at Harvard University.Wang Bangwei - Professor at Peking University.Wang Gungwu - Professor at National University of Singapore.Susumu Nakanishi - Professor at Kyoto City University of Arts.Meghnad Desai - Emeritus Professor at London School of Economics.Prapod Assavavirulhakarn - Professor at Chulalongkorn University.George Yeo - Former Minister for Foreign Affairs of Singapore.Tansen Sen - Associate Professor at Baruch College, CUNY.Nand Kishore Singh - Member of Parliament - Rajya Sabha, India.Chandan Hareram Kharwar - Pune university - India.

Comment

There is a huge difference in the scope and direction of the old and the proposed new Nalanda University.

Whereas eminent Buddhist scholar monks were the rectors of the famed old Nalanda University, in the proposed new set up there does not appear to be a single Buddhist monk on the Board of Governors. The overwhelming majority of the Governors have ' secular' credentials including the leader of the Project,  Amartya Sen - Professor at Harvard University. Lay Buddhists are very much in the minority on the Board of Governors. There is no Sri Lankan presence on the Board  despite this country's claim to have the oldest continuing Buddhist civilization in the world.

Most of Sen's public pronouncements on this subject lately have been on the wisdom and validity of ' Secularism' over and above the innate value and depth of the Indian spiritual Heritage which includes Buddhism. It shows that it pays to be a secularist even for an Indian in Western Professional and academic circles. But it is tantamount to blasphemy to downsize your own i.e. Indian wisdom and religious heritage, merely to display that one is on the right side of intellectual fashion in the West. Amartya Sen illustrates this proposition vividly.

It is unlikely that some one from the Middle East or Muslim country would try to create a secular place of learning on top of a destroyed site of a reputed Islamic Tertiary Institution.

That is unthinkable.

In Buddhist and Hindu societies 'secularists' have come to the fore and are now engaged in a state of play going virtually unchallenged downsizing the influence and scope of the traditional religions which built the unique civilizations that we find in India and Sri Lanka and still attract the attention and wonder of the world.

Related story: Nalanda Without Buddhist Participation?

View the original article here

Sri Lanka to set up a special Court for Buddhist monks

Home Asia Pacific South Asia Sri Lanka

Colombo, Sri Lanka -- The Chief Justice of Sri Lanka Mohan Peiris has said that a special Sangha Court would be set up to hear cases involving Buddhist monks.

Peiris speaking at an event in Kandy said that there is a large number of cases involving monks in Kandy, Anuradhapura and Galle.

When the special Sangha court is set up monks will be required to appear at the court and proceedings will be completed within days and not postponed like other court proceedings, the Chief Justice has explained.

"It will be heard day to day and finished off so that we can turn to the public and say, look we are now delivering," Peiris has said.

He has added that the government is willing to invest in a better judiciary but they expect a positive return.

View the original article here

A `Lumbini circuit` suggested for Buddhist tourism

Home Asia Pacific South Asia India

New Delhi, India -- Former Nepalese Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal Friday advocated a ‘Lumbini circuit’ of Buddhist tourism sites spanning India and Nepal which would attract millions of Buddhist pilgrims.

Nepal said he was for two different circuits, one for India, touching Buddhist spots of Sarnath, Bodh Gaya and another one in Nepal, touching Lumbini, the ?maternal house? of the Buddha, Kapilavastu, his ?father?s house?, and other sites.

?One broad Lumbine circuit should be there.. both countries can attract Buddhist pilgrims on the circuit? This should be developed to attract millions of pilgrims,? said Nepal at a talk at Sapru House organised by the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA).

Last year, in November, an MoU was inked between a committee set up by the Nepal government and a Hong Kong-based NGO to transform Lumbini into a ?Mecca for Buddhists?.

The Asia Pacific Exchange and Cooperation (APEC) Foundation was to pump in investment worth US $3 to 5 billion to develop infrastructure at Lumbini.

View the original article here

Research on to trace journey of Buddhist monks in country

Home Asia Pacific South Asia India

VISAKHAPATNAM, India -- At a time when technology has literally turned into a religion for many, a Vizag-based research scholar has taken up a scientific study using nuclear analytical techniques (NAT) to trace the route taken by Buddhist monks in the country centuries ago to spread the word of Gautam Buddha.

Using historical artefacts such as clay inscriptions, bricks, roof tiles, coins, stones and paintings recovered from Buddhist sites, the study will try to discover the route traversed by these monks centuries ago across the country, including Andhra Pradesh.

The study has started with the analysis of a collection of pottery and bricks at the 25 Buddhist sites out of 140 in Andhra Pradesh. The 25 sites include Pavuralakonda, Simhachalam, Thotlakonda and Bavikonda in Visakhapatnam, Jagathipadu, Dantapuram and Salihunda in Srikakulam as well as Neelavathi and Ramatheertham in Vizianagaram district, besides some areas in Telangana region.

Research scholar Dasari Kishore Babu said the research is being carried out at Gitam Institute of Science (GIS) in collaboration with the Trombay-based Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Bhubaneswar-based Institute of Physics and Hyderabad-based department of archaeology and museums, government of Andhra Pradesh. Mumbai's UGC-DAE Consortium for Science Research is providing an annual funding of Rs three lakh to the project, he added. GIS principal N Lakshmana Das is the guide for the study.

According to the Kishore Babu, while the authorities concerned, including the department of archaeology, have information about the presence of Buddhist monks at various places in the country, they are yet to ascertain the route they took and the exact period. "This is what we intend to discover. We are applying nuclear science to glean scientific proof of the activities taken up by the monks," said Kishore Babu, a research student of the Department of Electronics and Physics at GIS.

The study that started four years ago, may take another three to four years to wrap up, said Kishore, pointing out that while existing details available with the archaeology department authorities can provide approximations, data from the nuclear study will pinpoint the exact age and period of the Buddhist era. "The archaeology department authorities currently say that the age of the clay potteries or inscriptions of the Buddhist religion propagators dates to about 4th Century BC. The NAT will help reveal the facts," he said.

Explaining the present status of the study, Kishore said it comprises four main components such as collection of clay potteries of the monks, determination of their age and origin through the development of a Nuclear Analytical Technique (NAT).

"As on date, the NAT has been developed and some scientific analysis has also been conducted on the inscriptions for age determination," Kishore said. GIS awarded him a PhD for his thesis on `Provenance Studies of Archaeological Artifacts Using Nuclear Analytical Techniques' two weeks ago, in which he developed the NAT.

"The concentration of elements depends on the place and preparation of the artefact, which is why the determination of concentration of elements, including those at the trace level, becomes more important. There are some groups of elements like alkali, alkaline, transition and rare earth elements that are present at minor and trace levels, which are important for establishing provenance (chronology). Elements that are non-volatile and immobile have similar geochemical properties and show high stability in clay minerals and are good candidates for a provenance study," Kishore added.

View the original article here

Buddhist group comes to flood victims’ aid

Home The Americas US Northeast

FORT PLAIN, NY (USA) -- It has often been said in the U.S. that the Chinese word for "crisis" is a combination of the Chinese words for "danger" and "opportunity."

<< Members of the Tzu Chi organization perform a song about love and peace on Saturday for flood victims at the Fort Plain Senior Center. (The Leader-Herald/Jason Subik)

On Saturday, the Buddhist charitable organization Tzu Chi, which means "compassion and relief" in Mandarin Chinese, used the flood crisis in Fort Plain as an opportunity to serve the needy by donating approximately $11,000 to 28 families devastated by the June 28 flood of the Otsquago Creek.

Mayor Guy Barton met with members of Tzu Chi, most wearing the group's blue-and-white uniform, on Saturday at the Fort Plain Senior Center.

"This was set up through the Red Cross, to call people whose homes had been condemned or very badly damaged, and this group has funds they are using to help give each of these people some money to help fix their home," Barton said. "This is great - we have 28 families that will receive a nominal amount that could help them buy groceries or maybe hire someone to check out their wiring or furnace and to keep them living in Fort Plain; that's what we are trying to do."

Red Cross Response Manager Michael Raphael said Tzu Chi has partnered with the Red Cross on other disaster relief efforts.

Raphael said Tzu Chi contacted Montgomery County's permanent Longterm Recovery Committee, which was set up in response to Hurricane Irene but has been handling the recent flood as well, and asked the committee for a list of families hardest hit by the flooding.

"We vetted the list through the committee and we determined these were the most needy people. We called them up, and they all have to come today and show IDs and proof of residency," Raphael said.

Tzu Chi provided families with debit cards having either $300 or $500 allocated to them, the larger amounts going to families with more severe damage.

Tzu Chi spokesman Austin Chu said his organization will donate about $15,000 in total for this flooding disaster, with some of the money going to help people living in Oneida County. He said his group, which has its Northeast headquarters in Flushing, Queens, has been active in the U.S. since 1984, when the Taiwan Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation USA was established.

"We've been active in New York state since 1991," Chu said.

Chu said his group is not affiliated with any other local Buddhist organizations and has a long history of working with national faith-based charitable organizations to provide relief in disaster situations. In a news release, the group said it provided immediate cash relief to families of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, having donated approximately $2 million among 3,164 families.

George Chang, leader of the Northeast chapter of Tzu Chi, met with flood victims Saturday. He said his group receives its funding through small donations of less than a dollar made on a regular basis by families in Taiwan, and he encourages flood victims, once they've gotten back on their feet, to provide similar assistance to others, either through donations to Tzu Chi or other charitable organizations.

"We call this passing the love forward," Chang said.

In addition to the cash cards, flood victims Saturday also received soft blankets, which almost seemed to be made from wool but were actually made from recycled plastic bottles, as part of Tzu Chi's message for people to become better stewards of the environment. The group also performed a song and dance of "peace and love" for the flood victims.

Flood victims Faye Barber and her daughter Kloie Bowers attended the event and were impressed by the Buddhists.

"This was really a beautiful presentation," Barber said.

Barber and her daughter were flooded out of their home on Abbott Street and have now taken up residence in an apartment owned by a friend. She said her single-family home has sustained too much damage for her to return to it soon.

"There is so much mold and muck, my daughter has to receive breathing treatments every time we go in there," she said. "I'm just a working-class person; I can't even begin to estimate how much the damages will cost."

Barton said New York state is providing individual families with a process to apply for up to $31,000 in relief for damaged homes. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has not yet approved assistance for individuals, although it is providing aid to local governments for flood damage and flood-mitigation projects.

Raphael said another problem facing Fort Plain is landlords who don't have enough equity in damaged buildings to continue bothering to maintain them after the flooding. He said the Longterm Recovery Committee is trying to tap state funding that could be provided for renters to possibly acquire ownership of buildings abandoned due to the flooding.

With tears in his eyes, Barton assured families Saturday that work being done on the Otsquago Creek should prevent future flooding, and he asked them to try to stay in Fort Plain.

Kloie Bowers, who attends Fort Plain Central School, said she hopes she can graduate from the school she has attended most of her life.

"I want to stay here, all of my friends live here," she said.

Raphael said people interested in making donations to help flood victims should contact Ken Gies, the fundraising chairman of the Longterm Recovery Committee, at 954-895-6981.

View the original article here

Dalai Lama concludes editorial meeting on Buddhist science book

Home Asia Pacific South Asia India

DHARAMSHALA, India -- A three day meeting of around 25 Tibetan Buddhist scholars and His Holiness the Dalai Lama concluded today at the latter’s residence here.

The Tibetan leader who had just returned from a four nation Europe tour addressed the gathering which was made up of around 25 Tibetan Buddhist scholars from around the world. His Holiness expressed his pleasure over the work of the scholars in coming up with the draft of a two-volume book on Buddhist Science and Philosophy at the meeting that began on Monday.

The discussion was attended among others by the editorial board of the book, led by Thomtok Rinpoche, abbot of Namgyal monastery and invited guest Prof Samdhong Rinpoche, former Kalon Tripa and an academician.

Speaking to the Media, Thomtok Rinpoche, head of the editorial board said, “The meeting is finalizing the contents of two volume texts on Buddhist science excerpted from Kagyur and Tengyur texts with a hope that it could serve the human kind irrespective of religion and differences.”

The editors said the two-volume book on Buddhist Science can prove beneficial not just for all Buddhist followers but also scientists and researchers who are studying human mind.

“The book is not biased, it just tells what Buddha has preached,” added the editors. “It neither forces the readers to believe what Buddha had preached nor we have tried to give our own opinion.”

The editorial board also noted that the Dalai Lama was very pleased with the discussion and had appreciated their work.

In 2010, Dalai Lama gave a speech on the importance of Buddhist science and Buddhist philosophy, and expressed a wish how such a book could be helpful not only to Buddhist followers but also to non -Buddhists and non - believers.

The two books on Buddhist Science are expected to be published this year and will be translated into English, Hindi, Chinese and 17 other languages.

Kangyur is the Translation of the Buddha's Word and Tengyur 'Translation of Treatises'.

View the original article here

New university at Kapilvastu to be centre for Buddhist studies

Home Asia Pacific South Asia India

Lucknow, India -- Uttar Pradesh will get another university at Kapilvastu in Siddharthnagar district. Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav is likely to lay the foundation stone of the university on September 10.

At present, UP has 13 state universities, including UP Rajshri Tandon Open University, Allahabad.

In the annual budget of 2013-14, the government had proposed setting up two new universities, one at Allahabad as the existing Allahabad University has been given the status of a central university, and another at Sidharthnagar, which is the home district of Assembly Speaker Mata Prasad Pandey.

The proposed university will come up at Kapilvastu, a Buddhist religious place situated on the Nepal border, which is 14 km from Naugarh, the headquarters of Siddharthnagar district.

The Higher Education Department has approached the Tourism Department for handing over its 50 acres of land at Kapilvastu for setting up the new university.

"As many as six sites were inspected at Siddharthnagar district for the university. The Tourism Department has 90 acres in Kapilvastu. We have requested for transferring 50 acres from it for setting up the new university," said Anita Mishra, Special Secretary of Higher Education.

The Tourism department is likely to hand over the land to the Higher Education Department for setting up the university.

The proposed site has been inspected by Speaker Pandey, who has also been named Lok Sabha candidate by the Samajwadi Party from Domariyaganj parliamentary seat. Presently, the seat is represented by Jagdambika Pal of the Congress.

SP leaders from Sidharthnagar said the university would be developed as a centre for Buddhist studies.

View the original article here