Meet Mr Happy: French geneticist turned Tibetan monk

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As he grins serenely and his burgundy robes billow in the fresh Himalayan wind, it is not difficult to see why scientists declared Matthieu Ricard the happiest man they had ever tested, AFP reports.

Wisconsin, USA -- The monk, molecular geneticist and confidant of the Dalai Lama, is passionately setting out why meditation can alter the brain and improve people's happiness in the same way that lifting weights puts on muscle.

<< Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard sitting in a soundproof room and preparing for an electroencephalography (EEG) test. ©AFP

"It's a wonderful area of research because it shows that meditation is not just blissing out under a mango tree but it completely changes your brain and therefore changes what you are," the Frenchman told AFP.

Ricard, a globe-trotting polymath who left everything behind to become a Tibetan Buddhist in a Himalayan hermitage, says anyone can be happy if they only train their brain.

Neuroscientist Richard Davidson wired up Ricard's skull with 256 sensors at the University of Wisconsin four years ago as part of research on hundreds of advanced practitioners of meditation.

The scans showed that when meditating on compassion, Ricard's brain produces a level of gamma waves -- those linked to consciousness, attention, learning and memory -- "never reported before in the neuroscience literature", Davidson said.

The scans also showed excessive activity in his brain's left prefrontal cortex compared to its right counterpart, giving him an abnormally large capacity for happiness and a reduced propensity towards negativity, researchers believe.

Research into the phenomenon, known as "neuroplasticity", is in its infancy and Ricard has been at the forefront of ground-breaking experiments along with other leading scientists across the world.

"We have been looking for 12 years at the effect of short and long-term mind-training through meditation on attention, on compassion, on emotional balance," he said.

"We've found remarkable results with long-term practitioners who did 50,000 rounds of meditation, but also with three weeks of 20 minutes a day, which of course is more applicable to our modern times."

Not always on enlightenment path

The 66-year-old, accompanying other senior Tibetan monks at a festival in the remote Nepalese Himalayan region of Upper Dolpa, has become a globally respected Buddhist and is one of the religion's leading western scholars.

But he has not always been on the path to enlightenment.

Ricard grew up among the Paris intellectual elite as the son of celebrated French libertarian philosopher Jean-Francois Revel and abstract watercolour painter Yahne Le Toumelin.

"All these people used to come around, most of Paris intellectual life. We had all the French painters and I was myself interested in classical music so I met a lot of musicians," he said.

"At lunch we'd have three Nobel Prize winners eating with us. It was fantastic... Some of them were wonderful but some could be difficult."

By the time he got his PhD in cell genetics from the Institut Pasteur in Paris in 1972 he had become disillusioned with the dinner party debates and had already begun to journey to Darjeeling in India during his holidays.

Eschewing intimate relationships and a career, he moved to India to study Buddhism and emerged 26 years later as something of celebrity thanks to "The Monk And The Philosopher", a dialogue on the meaning of life he wrote with his father.

"That was the end of my quiet time because it was a bestseller. Suddenly I was projected into the western world. Then I did more dialogues with scientists and the whole thing started to spin off out of control.

"I got really involved in science research and the science of meditation."

A prominent monk in Kathmandu's Shechen Monastery, Ricard divides his year between isolated meditation, scientific research and accompanying the Dalai Lama as his adviser on trips to French-speaking countries and science conferences.

He addressed the World Economic Forum in Davos at the height of the financial crisis in 2009 to tell gathered heads of state and business leaders it was time to give up greed in favour of "enlightened altruism".

His other works include "Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill" and several collections of photographs of the landscape, people and spiritual masters of the Himalayas.

Ricard donates all proceeds of his books to 110 humanitarian projects which have built schools for 21,000 children and provide healthcare for 100,000 patients a year.

He was awarded the French National Order of Merit for his work in preserving Himalayan culture but it is his work on the science of happiness which perhaps defines him best.

Ricard sees living a good life, and showing compassion, not as a religious edict revealed from on high, but as a practical route to happiness.

"Try sincerely to check, to investigate," he said. "That's what Buddhism has been trying to unravel -- the mechanism of happiness and suffering. It is a science of the mind."

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India bars Tai Situ from attending World Buddhist Conference in Malaysia

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Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia -- India has denied H.E. The 12th Tai Situ Rinpoche Pema Tönyö Nyinje a travel visa to attend the World Buddhist Conference (WBC), currently held in Kuala Lumpur. The Tai Situpa was scheduled to give a keynote address at the conference.  No reasons were given by Indian immigration why the visa was rejected.

<< H.E. The 12th Tai Situ Rinpoche, Pema Tönyö Nyinje, in his pre-recorded video address at the World Buddhist Conference in Kuala Lumpur

The theme for the conference is “Trancending Negative Emotions”, and speakers as well as participants are expected to exchange ideas and experiences in issues and ways to create happiness and well being in our lives.

In his pre-recorded video address, the Tai Situpa expressed his bewilderment why he was denied physical presence in Kuala Lumpur, as he said “I myself cannot understand why this is happening.”

The presence of Tai Situpa was the key highlight of this edition of the WBC, which was last held in 2010. In that edition, Ven. Thich Nhat Hahn gave the keynote address.

In Tibetan Buddhism the Tai Situpa is one of the oldest lineages of tulkus (said to be reincarnated lamas) in the Kagyu school. The Tai Situpa is considered to be one of the highest ranking lamas of the Karma Kagyu lineage.

Expectations for the 2nd WBC were heightened as the present  12th Kenting Tai Situpa, H.E. Rinpoche Pema Tönyö Nyinje is a renowned Buddhist master. On a more personal level the present 12th Tai Situpa is a scholar, poet, calligrapher, artist, author, architect and geomancer.

The 12th Tai Situpa was instrumental in recognizing H.H. the 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, one of the two candidates claimed to be the 17th Karmapa, whom he coronated at Tsurphu Monastery outside Lhasa in August 1992. He is the main Guru of Orgyen Trinlay in Mahamudra and training in turn the next generation of Buddhist masters.

In his video address, the Tai Situ advised the audience to learn "how to balance emotions, as negative emotions are the cause of suffering". He said that "if we cannot improve ourselves and find a balance to counter negative emotions, the world can only get worse”.

The Tai Situpa outlined the vast changes the world have undergone in the last 50 years and concluded that much is not good. The advent of overt greed, environmental degradation and unsustainable development are the result of mindsets grounded on being too selfish, greedy and overly aggressive in wealth accumulation.

He cautioned that hope for a better future in the next 50 years can only happen if we persist to make positive changes to our current mindsets and to take steps to improve existing difficulties.

This would include the development of different levels of awareness and values, driven by a change in simple personal attitude, which includes making the following as living principles in our lives, that is, to embed compassion, love, wisdom and care in the way we function day to day, moment to moment.

The Tai Situpa said that as human beings we have to keep faith in the ultimate goodness of human nature, and that our primordial essence has always been to do good.

The WBC has attracted speakers from Australia, the USA, Nepal, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and India. 500 participants are attending the two days conference from Nov 3-4, 2012.

Held bi-annually, the conference attracts renowned Dharma teachers from all over the world. It is co-organised by the Young Buddhist Association of Malaysia, The Buddhist Gem Fellowship and The Buddhist Missionary Society of Malaysia. The conference is also supported by eight others Buddhist organizations.

More information on The 12th Tai Situpa
http://www.palpung.org/english/taisitupa/brief_brief.htm

The World Buddhist Conference on the web: www.wbc.my

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Presidential election: What the Dalai Lama can teach Obama, Romney about leadership

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Washington D.C., USA -- After the first presidential debate, polls showed that the majority of Americans felt that President Obama had been too polite and not aggressive enough. He was faulted for his apparent lack of emotion and disinterest in the debate. Governor Mitt Romney's spirited attacks on the president captured people's attention. As a result, during the second and third debates, the president resorted to the same disrespectful behavior that Romney exhibited. Both candidates interrupted one another,  bared their fists and let the punches fly.

This got me thinking both about the personal qualities that Americans expect to see in a president and, of equal importance, a president's moral values. With several European countries on the verge of economic collapse, the political situation in the Middle East deteriorating and tension between the U.S. and China running high, the next president faces an incredibly complex, volatile international situation that directly affects our future. The president's inner values will guide him in charting the course that America takes. This may mean launching a new military offensive or resolutely adhering to the practice of non-violence.

 Against the backdrop of the negative campaigning of the 2012 election, his holiness the 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso toured the United States. He spoke to sold-out audiences at several American universities including Western Connecticut State University, the College of William & Mary and Syracuse University, to name a few.

In his talks and his recent book “Beyond Religion: Ethics for a Whole World,” the Dalai Lama describes the need for an ethical system that goes beyond the confines of any particular religion. Secular ethics are possible because mankind's natural compassion is the source of all our shared ethical or spiritual values. He defines spirituality as the practice of non-harming/non-violence both with respect to oneself and others.

Universal secular ethics center around two principles. In the aforementioned book he writes, “The first principle is the recognition of our shared humanity and our shared aspiration to happiness and the avoidance of suffering; the second is the understanding of interdependence as a key feature of human reality, including our biological reality as social animals.”

The quality of discernment is the ability to recognize our interdependence. A good leader is someone who possesses discernment and thus makes decisions guided by the needs of the broader community rather than those of a particular self-interest group. Likewise, when questions of justice are examined in the context of a moral framework grounded in compassion and non-violence, the key values are forgiveness and a recognition of man's ability to change. Capital punishment, for example, violates a compassion-centered ethic because it is motivated by revenge and does not acknowledge a person's capacity for positive reform.

As the Indian Buddhist thinker Nagarjuna explains in his text “The Precious Garland,” a compassionate leader always acts in a truthful manner, practices open-hearted generosity, treasures peace and is guided by wisdom. He embodies the virtues of patience in the face of hardship and respect for all.

The way in which we perceive ourselves has a profound effect on our relationships with others. We point our fingers at others as the source of all our problems. Instead, we need to recognize that our true enemy is in fact our own self-centeredness and negative emotions. Through meditation, we can free ourselves from the destruction that such emotions cause in our lives and enjoy the satisfaction that arises from cherishing others more than ourselves.

In an October 11, 2012 interview that focused on the tragic self-immolations in Tibet, the Dalai Lama said that Tibetans are engaged in a struggle between the power of truth versus the power of the gun. The power of the gun is winning but only in the short term.  He doesn't admire the U.S.'s military power, including its nuclear armaments. Rather, he deeply admires America's values: democracy, freedom and liberty. The true source of the power of America rests in its ideals, not in its weapons.

Disarmament is nothing less than compassion in practice and must occur first within ourselves – a resetting of our own moral compasses and later in our relations with others. The Dalai Lama writes: “What is required, therefore, is both inner disarmament, at the level of our individual hatred, prejudice, and intolerance, and outer disarmament, at the level of nations and states. Rather than pouring salt on the wounds we have inherited from earlier generations, we must start to heal our divisions by committing ourselves to dialogue, cooperation, and understanding.”

Later he continues, “We can learn from the great achievements of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. to recognize that nonviolence is the best long-term approach to redressing injustice. If the twentieth century was a century of violence, let us make the twenty-first a century of dialogue.”

Let us hope that our next president heeds his holiness's advice.

-----
Losang Tendrol is a nun in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and a contributor to The Washington Post’s local faith leader network. She teaches meditation and Buddhism at the Guhyasamaja Buddhist Center in Reston. The center was founded in 1994 and is affiliated with the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition. The center follows the Gelugpa tradition, the same lineage as his holiness the Dalai Lama.

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/presidential-election-what-the-dalai-lama-can-teach-obama-romney-about-leadership/2012/11/05/01d9f850-2780-11e2-b4f2-8320a9f00869_story_1.html

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Another looted Buddha statue found

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Ramu, Bangladesh -- Police recovered a brass statue of Lord Buddha in Ramu upazila of Cox's Bazar early Thursday, 40 days after it was looted during an attack on Buddhist community.

<< A brass statue of Lord Buddha is recovered by law enforcers in Ramu upazila of Cox's Bazar in Chittagong on Thursday. Photo: Banglar Chokh

With this, a total of six statues looted during the September 29 attack have been recovered, reports our Cox's Bazar correspondent.

On information, police raided the paddy field of one Shafi Miah beside Ramu-Naikkhangchhari road at Boiltoli around 1:00am and recovered the statue, said Gazi Shakhawat Hossain, acting officer-in-charge of Ramu Police Station.

The six-inch-tall statue weighs around one kilogram, the OC said.

Police so far arrested two people in Ukhia in connection with the looting of statues.

On the night of September 29, a mob destroyed 18 Buddhist temples and monasteries and more than 50 houses in Ramu. The violence was apparently triggered by a Facebook posting of a photo defaming the holy Quran.

Around 300 of Buddha statues were looted from different temples and monasteries during the mayhem.

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Buddhist, Hindu Make History With Elections To Congress

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Washington D.C., USA -- Tuesday's elections brought two historic firsts for religion in American politics: A Buddhist senator and a Hindu representative -- both from Hawaii -- will join Congress.

<< Senator Mazie Hirono

Democrat Mazie Hirono beat former Gov. Linda Lingle (R), making Hirono the first Buddhist in the Senate. In Hawaii's 2nd Congressional District, Democrat Tulsi Gabbard defeated Republican opponent Kawika Crowley, making Gabbard the first Hindu in Congress.

Both elections were cheered by Hindu and Buddhist Americans, members of two faiths that share a common history that traces back to ancient India.

"These are all signs of dharmic communities being accepted in the country," said Anju Bhargava, founder of Hindu American Seva Charities. "It's all about inclusion and acceptance. The feeling that my faith and my people are accepted. Ultimately, politics comes down to 'how does it impact me?' or 'how am I included?' It will mean so much for the upcoming generations of Hindus and Buddhists."

Hirono, who was born in Japan, practices the Jodo Shinshu tradition of Buddhism. She was first elected to Congress in 2007 to represent Hawaii's 2nd District, the seat that Gabbard won Tuesday. Prior to that, Hirono served 14 years in the Hawaii state legislature and was the state’s lieutenant governor for eight years. She is also the first Asian-American woman senator and the first senator born in Japan.

“I certainly believe in the precepts of Buddhism and that of tolerance of other religions and integrity and honesty," she said when she first joined Congress.

Buddhism, which includes a widely diverse set of spiritual practices, is one of the largest religions in the U.S., but statistics vary on how many Buddhists live in the nation. Surveys have estimated the population between 1.5 and 3 million.

Gabbard, 31, was born in American Samoa, and raised by a Catholic father and a Hindu mother. She moved to Hawaii when she was 2 and in 2002, joined the Hawaii state legislature at age 21. She served in the Hawaii National Guard the next year and, in 2004, went to Baghdad to be a medical operations specialist. In 2008, she was deployed to Kuwait to work with the nation's counterterrorism trainees.

Gabbard chose to embrace the faith after her mother started practicing it when Gabbard was a teen. The congresswoman-elect, whose first name refers to a tree that's sacred to Hindus, follows the Vaishnava branch of Hinduism, which focuses on the Supreme Lord Vishnu and his 10 main incarnations. She relies upon the Bhagavad Gita as her main source of scripture.

In an interview with Religion News Service prior to her election, Gabbard said she hopes to be a bridge between cultures and nations. “Hopefully the presence in Congress of an American who happens to be Hindu will increase America's understanding of India as well as India's understanding of America," she said.

Like Buddhists, estimates of the Hindu-American community in the U.S. also vary. Largely made up of Indian-Americans, the Hindu population is between 600,000 to 2.3 million. Unlike most Hindus, Gabbard is not of Indian heritage. Her father is Samoan and her mother is a convert to Hinduism.

The two best-known Indian-Americans to be elected to office are Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who was raised Hindu but converted to Catholicism, and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who was raised Sikh but converted to Methodism. Haley had both Christian and Sikh wedding ceremonies, and has said she attends Sikh services on occasion out of respect to her family's culture.

Hirono and Gabbard will join an increasingly diverse Congress. The first Muslim to join the House or Senate, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), was first elected in 2006 and reelected for a fourth term on Tuesday. In 2008, Rep. Andre Carson (D-Ind.) was the second Muslim elected to Congress. In 2008, Rep. Hark Johnson (D-Ga.), another Buddhist, also joined Congress, making history with him and Hirono the first Buddhists to be elected to Congress.

More than a century prior, smaller religious groups also made headway into congressional seats for the first time. Lewis Charles Levin of the American Party was the first Jew elected to Congress in 1845, and represented Pennsylvania in the House. The first Mormon was John Milton Bernhisel, who joined Congress in 1851 to represent Utah. The only Sikh congressman, California Democrat Dalip Singh Saund, was elected for three terms beginning in 1957.

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Buddhists seek voice in strife-hit western Myanmar

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SITTWE, Myanmar -- Disgruntled by international support for Muslim Rohingya in unrest-hit western Myanmar, ethnic Rakhine Buddhists are demanding recognition of their own plight and venting a rage that veers into racism.

<< Myanmar Buddhist monks rally on the streets of Mandalay (AFP, File Pic)

More than 150 people have died in communal clashes in western Rakhine State since June and thousands of homes have been torched, leaving some 75,000 people displaced, in a convulsion of violence that has torn apart neighbourhoods.

Losses have been incurred on both sides, but the international community has mostly focused on the fate of the area's Muslim Rohingya, long considered by the United Nations to be among the most persecuted minorities in the world.

But many Rakhine, whose state is one of Myanmar's poorest, are adamant it is in fact they who have been wronged, first by grinding years under the iron-fisted junta rule and more recently by rising numbers of Rohingya on their land.

"We have no right to speak, we are marginalised in the international arena," said Oo Hla Saw, general secretary of the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party.

In an attempt to push their point, hundreds have taken to the streets in recent weeks. Led by robed Buddhist monks, the demonstrators openly spoke of their desire to drive out the Muslim minority.

They also protested against plans by the 57-nation Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to open an office in the country.

"We can live with many kinds of people, but not with the Muslims from here," said U Ohattama, a senior monk at Klak Kha Mout monastery. "The Muslims from here are like animals."

Many in Myanmar rail against the presence of around 800,000 Rohingya in their country, viewing them as illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh.

Myanmar authorities have for decades refused to provide the minority group with papers, rendering them stateless.

But despite their difficulties, ethnic Rakhine are quick to heap scorn on the assistance provided to the Rohingya by the United Nations and foreign charities.

"Rakhine society always relies on itself. Muslim people are always eager to rely on international aid when they have problems," said U Nya Na, leader of a monk association in Sittwe. "Rohingya are like beggars in a market."

The international community helps only the "kalar", agreed Myar San, a 28-year-old internally displaced Rakhine resident, using a derogatory term for Muslims.

She is one of several thousand ethnic Buddhists in the state who have been forced to take shelter in monasteries and camps since the recent communal violence made her homeless.

But whereas the Buddhists displaced have freedom of movement and can get to work, tens of thousands of Rohingya are trapped in squalid camps on the outskirts of the state capital Sittwe, relying on humanitarian aid.

Aid agencies refute accusations that their help is partial.

"We are there to help the people who are in need and our assistance is based on that criteria only, it is not based on any other criteria of race, ethnicity, religion," said the UN chief in Yangon, Ashok Nigam.

Mostly clustered in the north of Rakhine state, the Rohingya have for decades been subjected to movement restrictions, forced labour and land grabs, while access to education and health services has been limited.

But the ethnic Rakhine community would like the world to pay more attention to its plight.

With 44 percent of its population living under the poverty line Rakhine is the second-poorest state in one of the world's most impoverished nations, according to a UNDP report last year.

While the state is rich in natural resources, notably oil and gas, locals have benefited little and "this area became very poor because of the military dictatorship", according to Oo Hla Saw.

Like other "official" minorities in the ethnically diverse country the Rakhines suffered under the yoke of the junta for nearly half a century until it was replaced by a nominally civilian, reformist government in March 2011.

"This is a population that has faced terrible abuses... everything from forced labour to land confiscation, to other violence and abuses by the Burmese military," said Matthew Smith from Human Rights Watch, using Myanmar's former name.

But today, many ethnic Rakhine appear to have found an ideal scapegoat for their hardships in the Rohingya community, which they see as threat to the survival of their "race".

"Rakhine people are nearly a minority here," said businessman Ba Aung, 57, vowing not to rehire the three Muslims who worked for him prior to the outbreak of violence.

The current situation might have been even worse if hundreds of thousands of Rohingya had not sought exile in Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh or Malaysia over previous decades, observers say.

This fear of the Rakhines being "submerged" is quite real and explains their "radical" attitude, according to Jacques Leider, a Thailand-based scholar at the French School of the Far East.

"Some (Rakhines) recognise they grew up with an anti-Muslim, racist reflex that is difficult for them to undo today."

And if this reflex is likely to alienate the international community, Rakhines hope they can at least count on the new, more democratic administration in Naypyidaw to side with them on nationalist issues.

"The democratic government will follow the wishes of the ethnic Rakhine," Nya Na said with conviction.

The monk has at least one reason to be optimistic. In the wake of this month's protests, the government blocked the OIC from opening a branch in Myanmar.

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Keo Pagoda designated special national relic

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Thai Binh, Vietnam -- The Keo Pagoda in Duy Nhat Commune, Vu Thu District, in northern Thai Binh Province, has been recognised as a special national relic for its unique historical, cultural, architectural and artistic values.

<< The Keo Pagoda in Thai Binh Province

The province held a ceremony on October 24 to receive the title and officially open the 2012 Keo Pagoda Autumn Festival.

After the first ceremonies, the delegates, along with many Buddhist monks, nuns, followers and tourists, offered incense in commemoration of Buddhist monk Duong Khong Lo and those who took part in the pagoda construction, from the 17th century.

Just over 130 km away from the capital Hanoi, Keo Pagoda, which was built in 1632, is an ancient building but has 102 rooms, more than any other pagoda in Vietnam.

There are two passages, which separate the pagoda from the temple. They are designed with curved roofs that join together at the 11.5m-high iron and wood bell tower.

The tower has three storeys, each of which possesses its own tiled roof and bronze bell.

The 108,000m2 pagoda is home to a wealth of ancient artefacts, which range from intricately engraved wooden dragons to a collection of over 100 statues.

It has also preserved many valuable antiques, such as a pair of candlesticks from the Mac Dynasty, pottery and altars from the Le Dynasty and several imperial boats.

The Keo Pagoda Autumn Festival is held annually from the 13th to 15th of the ninth lunar month, in honour of monk Duong Khong Lo, who is said to have cured King Le Thanh Tong from illness.

In addition to the traditional religious rituals that commemorate the Buddhist monk, the festival also hosts a variety of cultural activities that reflect the lifestyle of the Red River Delta’s agricultural communities.

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