Buddhism Today, East and West - the Diplomat

Last Friday, millions of Buddhists across Asia gathered to celebrate a rather hazy date, but one with deep cultural import nonetheless: the so-called birthday of Siddhartha Gautama (better known as the Buddha). Depending on the country, the day is recognized as any time from the first full moon in May to April 8, the latter being steadily adhered to by the practical Japanese.

In reality, “Western scholars would tell you that we don't even know the year in which the Buddha was born, much less the actual month and date,” José Ignacio Cabezón, professor of Tibetan Buddhism and Cultural Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, told The Diplomat. “So it is really a matter of tradition. Many Buddhist societies celebrate a particular day (usually a full moon day) in the lunar calendar not only as the Buddha's birthday, but also as the day of his enlightenment and of his death.”

When combined, the holiday – birth, enlightenment and death – is referred to as Vesak and is recognized from Tibet and Thailand to Bhutan and Japan. And while Cabezón has a point about the hazy year of Gautama’s birth, it was popularly believed to have been 2,557 years ago, in 563 BCE.

In celebration of this day, the devout in Japan pour sweet tea on Buddhist statuary. In Nepal, where “Buddha Jayanti” is a national holiday, thousands flock to the Buddha’s supposed birthplace at Lumbini to donate food and clothes to the needy and offer tithes to Buddhist monasteries and schools.

Even in predominantly Muslim Malaysia “Wesak Day” is a national holiday during which the faithful head to temples to meditate on the enlightened one’s eight precepts. Even in Indonesia, the world’s largest Islamic nation by population, the pre-Muslim history of the islands is recalled when monks convene at the magnificent temple complex at Borobudur to chant mantras, meditate, bottle up holy water and move flames between various locations in the temple on Waisak Day.

According to Cabezón, one of the most devout displays of reverence for the Buddha can be seen in Tibet where the holy day “is celebrated as part of a month-long series of religious observances that occurs in the fourth Tibetan lunar month called Sagadawa. Tibetans consider this an especially auspicious time to engage in religious practice: making offerings in temples, observing religious precepts, and engaging in various prayers and rites.”

He added that “The tradition of scholastic studies is thriving among Tibetans; not Tibetans in Tibet, where there are a lot of restrictions on the practice of Buddhism, but among Tibetans in exile.”

Perhaps not quite that pious, Seoul is still known to take it up a notch prior to the Buddha’s birthday with its spectacular Lotus Lantern Festival, in which paper lanterns in the shapes of lotus flowers, dragons, pagodas and other elements of Buddhist iconography are hung throughout the city and plied on rafts along the Cheonggye Stream that runs through the heart of the metropolis, creating an enchanting show of tradition and light.

This diversity underlines the epic journey that Buddhism took across Asia, from its origins in India to the northeastern edge of the continent in Japan. Ultimately, this brings us to Buddhism’s most recent migration: the West.

Starting with The Beat Generation writers of the 1950s, and carried along by Western Buddhist forerunners like British author and philosopher Alan Watts, Buddhism has amassed significant cultural cache. A trip to any bookstore attests to this, where Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and books on the “crazy wisdom” of Tibetan teacher and counterculture figure Chögyam Trungpa are readily available.

What accounts for this popularity?

“More recently, I think that charismatic figures like Thich Nhat Hanh and the Dalai Lama have done a lot to bring greater visibility to Buddhism,” Cabezón said. Further back, “Certainly the counterculture movement as a whole played a very large factor. As young people in the 1960s and 1970s became increasingly disenfranchised from their own culture, they began to turn to Asia, and to Asian religious traditions, for answers to the pressing existential questions of life.”

Cabezón added, “Maybe it's the fact that Buddhism is perceived as a kind of minimalist religion, requiring little by way of metaphysical commitments and really considered more of a therapy.

Yet, Buddhism’s reach has not permeated Western culture’s roots. Instead, it has mainly gained traction among the educated, upper stratum of Western society. According to some Buddhist teachers, such as Tibetan Thinley Norbu Rinpoche, the West has missed the point altogether, “mistaking nihilism for Buddhism,” Cabezón explained. The end result: it has become subsumed by consumerism.

“Consumerism is certainly a persistent problem, but from a Buddhist point of view, it is especially pernicious when Buddhism itself becomes commoditized, when it becomes an object of consumption.”

View the original article here

In Thailand Today, Teen Monks Express the Spirit to a Rock

Home Asia Pacific South East Asia Thailand

Thailand's Buddhists are a bit annoyed with today's young monks. As mobile phones and other devices grow more popular, it's becoming harder for religious leaders to control the images of Buddhism in the media and marketplace. WSJ's James Hookway reports.

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Each year as monsoon rains sweep their way over Thailand, tens of thousands of teenage boys shave their heads and are ordained as Buddhist monks in a traditional rite of passage.

Some find their life's vocation during the few weeks they spend in the monastery, and they become full-time monks.

Others post videos of themselves on YouTube, as they play air guitar to hard-rock tracks like Yngwie Malmsteen's "Iron Clad," or recite religious chants to thumping hip-hop beats.

The Buddhist faith practiced by more than 90% of Thailand's population is going through something like culture shock as the country quickly modernizes alongside East Asia's other booming economies. With more Thais going online, often through mobile phones, some of the country's novice monks are becoming online media stars, jarring an older generation that doesn't quite know what to make of it all.

"Technology is advancing very quickly and we can't keep up," said Phra Kasem Sanyato, secretary of the Buddhism Protection Center of Thailand, a watchdog for religious affairs.

"The younger generation is losing respect," added 48-year-old Pornpun Kaewbundit, as she emerged from a temple in Bangkok's historic old town recently.

Besides rocking out to Mr. Malmsteen, who was born in Sweden and lives in Florida, some monks film themselves playing pranks on other novices or shouting out lyrics to the likes of Thailand's heavy-metal band Bodyslam. They often use deodorant sticks or whatever else is at hand as stand-ins for microphones. Brooms often double as guitars.

A June 30 demonstration in Bangkok asked for more respect for Buddhist traditions.

The clips are quickly becoming a genre of their own on YouTube and other sites, with some users taking one clip and remixing it with fresh backing music. The result: mash-ups of monks with shaved heads cavorting about in wigs to Dead or Alive's 1980s hit "You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)."

Monks old enough to know better are getting caught up in the excitement, too.

Phra Klairung Rujidhammo was recently catapulted to national fame when he was filmed performing suggestive dance moves, known here as coyote dancing after the film "Coyote Ugly" set in a New York dance-bar. Phra Klairung, a chunky temple secretary in his mid-forties, quickly apologized after the clip went viral, explaining that he was trying to cheer people up after flooding hit the area around his temple in northern Bangkok.

His superiors gave him a two-week suspension, and Phra (Phra is a religious title) Klairung is back collecting food offerings and other alms from the local community each morning.

Some Thais, though, fear that the Buddhist clergy's standards are slipping. They are urging Thais to be a little less tolerant than the country's image as a magnet for night-clubbers and sun-seekers might suggest.

Bangkok jeweler Acharavadee Wongsakon, for instance, on June 30 led a procession of several hundred protesters through the city's famous Chatuchak weekend market and the Khao San Road backpacker district to persuade Thais and foreign tourists to show more respect. That includes avoiding getting inked up with Buddhist tattoos.

Accompanied by ornate floats and banners saying "No" to the Disney movie "Snow Buddies," which features a dog named Buddha, Ms. Acharavadee silenced the normally raucous backpackers who frequent the area as she and her followers made their way past bars with names such as Lucky Beer and the Lava Lounge.

"I think they have a point," whispered 23-year-old Carla Bennett from Canada, who was getting her hair braided at a street stall at the side of the road. "Maybe they are tired of people stomping over what they believe in."

During a breather between parades, Ms. Acharavadee complained that some Thais regard Buddhism as little more than a detail listed on their national identity cards. "The Internet is compounding the problem. People are spending less time studying Buddhism, and they are missing its message," she said.

Another source of worry in religious circles is the fact that Thais are having fewer children than they used to as more families move from farms to the country's cities. Thai women now have an average of 1.5 children, down from more than six in the 1960s. That means fewer teenagers are ordained as novices. All Thai Buddhist males generally get ordained at some point in their lives, though most often in their teenage years and sometimes earlier.

Some Buddhists are fighting fire with fire by turning to reality television shows and the Internet to revive interest in Buddhist teachings. Thai cable network True Corp. this year began airing a live, rolling documentary about the lives of nine novice monks ordained at a temple in eastern Bangkok. Snappily titled "Novice Monks Cultivate Dharma Wisdom," it was a surprise hit.

One fan, 64-year-old Wallapa Chairat, says she gets up at 5:30 each morning to watch the young monks go around collecting alms. One day she got out of bed at 4 a.m. and left her house in Nonthaburi province near Bangkok to offer food to the young monks herself.

"The news programs and soap operas are full of angry people who are jealous and fighting," Ms. Wallapa says. "But the little monks provide peace and happiness."

The young monks seemed to enjoy it, too. "I think living in the monkhood is the best thing I've ever done in my life," 9-year-old Theerapath Suthipatharapan told the show after his stint in the temple was up. Unlike other reality shows, the monks aren't voted out by the audience.

Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444025204577545350105074874.html

View the original article here

Buddhist values more relevant today

Home Dharma Dew

Timphu, Bhutan -- Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse, a prominent tulku associated with Dzongsar Monastery in Derge, Eastern Tibet and also a renowned filmmaker and writer, shares his wisdom on issues that relates to our daily world.

Where do you see our central monastic body heading towards 30-50 years from now?

This is something that we have to really think about.  You need vision. It’s a very big gamble. I have seen monasteries in India, China and Bhutan and I tell them to really think about admitting girls and changing the curriculum. I am not a big fan of the education system that exists today in this world. Do you know that some of the most successful people in the world and Bhutan are all school dropouts?

I have been sort of saying that we should really think dramatically and change it drastically. But you are talking to devotees, to people who are stuck with morality and values. It’s really tough. Yes, I will tell bravely, that I can see, our dratshangs, judging from what’s happening, 50 years from now on, there will probably be only 50 monks.

Having said that, there is a lot of encouraging signs also, like young people I have met who say they want to become a monk but feel guilty because their parents have spent so much. How encouraging for the spiritual world. This is what we should bank on.

Should we allocate more resources towards spreading teachings than proliferating Buddhist infrastructure?

I don’t know whether, “we”, this democratic Bhutan, systematically develop the infrastructure of Buddha dharma. But I would strongly say that Buddhist values, wisdom and message are certainly very relevant today more than ever. It is something I don’t think we should lose because this can happen. I see sometimes, many of the younger Bhutanese are beginning to have some interest in Buddhism because all these chilips are beginning to have some interest. That’s not so good. I always say this, that Mahatma Gandhi who is known for non-violence got the idea from foreigners who got the same idea from Indians. So this could happen to you.  You could be learning Buddhism from some John.

Will anarchy alleviate all sufferings because it seems the foundation of all sufferings is a result of a society, its rules and perceptions.

I have always said that the biggest contribution to the world from the west is not science or technology. It’s anarchism. But this I say half jokingly. The thing is, we human beings are such a sucker to rules. We love rules. I don’t think we have the courage and wisdom to live with anarchism. So it’s not going to work. I think its good to, since we will not know how to live with lawlessness, might as well live with some law, even though it’s really not good.

If trulkus are reincarnations of former masters, why do they have to be subjected through exhaustive re-education process?

That is if only they go through all these exhausting training these days. They don’t even do that now. Trulkus are just pretending that they have to go through all these.  After all they are trulku, trulba, which means show magic, drama, exhibition.

Rinpoche’s comments on religion divides people.

It doesn’t take much to divide human beings. Religion just happens to be a very good device. This religion has created lot of chaos and havoc but I have to say that religion has also answered lot of personal quests. When we say religion, are we talking about some kind of a systematic religion or a spiritual path?

Spiritual path is different. It’s necessary, like songs, romance and poetry. Romance from the mathematic, scientific point of view, is just so ridiculous. But it gives some kind of a solace and religion is or especially the spiritual path has so many profound answers to many of the budding questions that we have.

Gomchens say its korzey when they perform prayers and also receive payment. Aren’t they paid for their work like any one of us?

When this gomchen says its korzey, is he being humble? There is a little bit of negative connotation when you say korzey. I really wish these gomchens and gelongs know wholeheartedly that devotees offering money or gifts or service, even a short bow, is kor, which basically is karmic debt. And if you don’t perform your job well, it will haunt you, rather go through the consequences.

I don’t know whether it should be considered like a normal wage, probably not. Although, I am sure within 20 years, if the religious aspect of Buddhism is still thriving in Bhutan, I can already see sort of hotlines for rimdos and gomchens. Like dial 8888 for rimdo.

Is there anything as black magic or nyen in Buddhism?

In Buddhism the most important is the wisdom of non-duality. Rest, methods, anything is fine. Mahayana Buddhism has infinite methods of dealing with people. Generally you’ll never find black magic in the sutras and sastras. There’s none. Actually there are only three that Mahayana Buddhists are not supposed to have – covetousness, harmful thinking, and wrong view. Other than that, anything can be the path.

Why is it that sometimes the more we practice dharma the more pain one goes through, where as the more negative act one commits, the more successful they become?

There is a prayer where Jigme Lingpa says, “Buddhists and Bodhisattvas, please make sure that what ever I want never happens.” Buddhist blessings, he said is when 100 things that you wish never come true but 1,000 things that you dare not wish come true. That’s Buddha’s blessing. So I would say, if you are a serious dharma practitioner, you are fulfilling your wish when things are going wrong. You are seeing the truth, actualising it and when that is happening, you should see it as a blessing. Next time when things are going wrong, go home and throw a big party.

How do wangs, prayers and mantras work?

Wang actually is like lets say, you had amnesia, forgot your name and whereabouts. Then somebody says, you are from Paro and your name is Dorji. You wake up because we have all forgotten our true identity, which is the Buddha.

On the more relative level, if you are a Buddhist, this is something you must know. Buddha dharma is probably the only system, only path that wholeheartedly and completely embraces the system of cause, condition and effect. So in this way, Buddhism is very scientific. Everything depends on cause, condition and effect. And cause and condition are endless.

Some ask me how Buddhist karma works because some do lots of prayers and are not successful while some kill and steal and are still successful. You know this unpredictability of karma. I can tell you karma is basically a science of cause and condition. These advanced scientists today can’t predict tomorrow’s or this afternoon’s weather, how can we ignorant, limited beings predict the complex situation of cause, condition and effect. But one thing we know is that nothing emerges out of the blue. And as Buddhists, we don’t believe that things are created by god, so prayers, blessings, are or could be part of those intricate, complex of cause, condition and effect.

View the original article here