TruthBook Religious News Blog

By Electa Draper
The Denver Post
Posted: 08/09/2009 01:00:00 AM MDT

What in the recent past seemed exotic and foreign is now almost routinely folded into "the fold."

Buddhism is not only accepted as a mainstream American religion, it is a path increasingly trod by faithful Christians and Jews who infuse Eastern spiritual insights and practices such as meditation into their own religions.

When John Weber became a Buddhist at age 19, his devout Methodist parents were not particularly pleased.

In recent years, however, they've invited their son, a religious studies expert with Boulder's Naropa University, to speak at their church about Buddhism.

"That never would have happened before," Weber said. "They would have been embarrassed."

The Pew Forum's Religious Landscape Survey in 2007 found that seven in 10 Americans who have a religion believe there is more than one path to salvation. A growing number of people are contemplating more than one each.

And they are contemplating contemplation itself.

There are Jubus — Jews who bring Buddhism into their practice of Judaism — and Bujus, who are Buddhists with Jewish parents. Then there are UUbus, or Unitarian Universalist Buddhists, and Ebus, or Episcopalian Buddhists. There are Zen Catholics.

"There is a definite trend and movement that will not be reversed," said Ruben Habito, a laicized Jesuit priest, Zen master and professor of world religions at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. "We are in a new spiritual age, an inter-religious age."

Search can lead back home

People are hungry for a deeper spiritual experience — meditation, mindfulness, personal transformation, deep insight, union with God or the universe.

Habito, who calls himself a Zen Catholic, is one of the experts who say the search is a little like Dorothy and her ruby slippers. The quest for meaning ultimately leads some, like Dorothy, to their own backyards.

Judaism, Catholicism and Islam have rich traditions in contemplative practices, yet these had all but disappeared from everyday congregational life.

For many Christians cut off from the past, or alienated from the faith of their upbringing, Buddhism has served as the bridge to ancient wisdom.

"The problem is the contemplative tradition in the Christian Church has had its ups and downs over the centuries," said Father Thomas Keating, a Trappist monk and leader in the Centering Prayer movement, a modern revival of Christian contemplative practice.

"We sensed that the Eastern religions, with their highly developed spirituality, had something we didn't have," Keating said. "In the last generation, 10 to 20 years, some didn't even think there was a Christian spirituality, just rules — do's and don'ts and dogma they didn't find spiritually nourishing. It's important to recover the mystical aspects of the gospel."

Please click on "external source" for the complete article.

Labels: Buddhism, Christian, Electa Draper, God, interfaith, meditation, religion, spirituality

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Friday, August 07, 2009

PBS to air three religious documentaries in 2010

August 03, 2009

PBS will air three detailed documentaries on religion in 2010, two of which will deal directly with Christianity.

"God in America" will air in fall 2010. It will be a six-hour documentary done by the same team which produces PBS’ "Frontline" and "American Experience" news magazines. The series will start with Christopher Columbus’ voyages and go through the 2008 presidential election, showing the links between democracy and religion, exploring religious liberty and examining the role of religion in social reforms.

"The Calling" will air at a yet undetermined time in 2010. It is a four-hour documentary following eight people transitioning into the clergy in Catholicism, Evangelical Christianity, Judaism and Islam. It will follow them through seminaries and religious instruction and explore their faith journeys.

"The Buddha" is a two-hour documentary slated for spring 2010 which will chronicle the history of Buddhism and it growing popularity in the United States.

Please click on "external source" to access the complete article, including a link to the PBS website for even more information.

Labels: 2010, Buddhism, faith, God, PBS, religion, television

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Thursday, July 16, 2009

Freedom From Religion: Buddhism Wins Best Religion in the World Award

Wednesday July 15, 2009

Linda Moulin | 15.07.2009 | 16:55

Tribune de Geneve

In advance of their annual Leading Figure award to a religious figure who has done the most to advance the cause of humanism and peace, the Geneva-based International Coalition for the Advancement of Religious and Spirituality (ICARUS) has chosen to bestow a special award this year on the Buddhist Community. "We typically prefer an under-the-radar approach for the organization, as we try to embody the spirit of modesty found in the greatest traditions," said ICARUS director Hans Groehlichen in a phone conference Monday. "But with organized religion increasingly used as a tool to separate and inflame rather than bring together, we felt we had to take the unusual step of creating a "Best Religion in the World" award and making a bit of a stir, to inspire other religious leaders to see what is possible when you practice compassion."

Groehlichen said the award was voted on by an international roundtable of more than 200 religious leaders from every part of the spiritual spectrum. "It was interesting to note that once we supplied the criteria, many religious leaders voted for Buddhism rather than their own religion," said Groehlichen. "Buddhists actually make up a tiny minority of our membership, so it was fascinating but quite exciting that they won."

Criteria included factors such as promoting personal and community peace, increasing compassion and a sense of connection, and encouraging preservation of the natural environment. Groehlichen continued "The biggest factor for us is that ICARUS was founded by spiritual and religious people to bring the concepts of non-violence to prominence in society. One of the key questions in our voting process was which religion actually practices non-violence."

Labels: Buddhism, ICARUS, Linda Moulin, non-violence, peace, religion

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Sunday, June 07, 2009

Americans shift spiritual playlists of soul

Trend reveals many crafting their own paths from range of religions

By Peter Smith

People are downloading various spiritual practices, without regard for the integrity of the whole, just as they download individual tunes rather than the whole CD.

That's according to a provocative recent essay by Clark Strand, a former Zen monk and Buddhist journalist.

I thought about this trend as I was preparing this week's article on the generational challenges to American Buddhism.

I reported on the little-recognized trend that for all the cachet Buddhism may have in popular culture, this religion has lost a higher percentage of its young than virtually any other religious category in America.

At the same time, most Buddhists are converts, so it's been welcoming droves of people through the front door even as it loses many kids through the back door.

In response, Buddhists have worked at cultivating youth involvement at events such as the recent celebration of the Buddha's birthday at Ten Thousand Buddhas Summit Monastery in Harrison County, Ind.

The larger influence of Buddhism on larger American society is clear. Many people practice meditation techniques that are at least partly derived from Buddhist practice, even if they don't formally convert.

And as often happens in America's competitive spiritual marketplace, the popularity of one spiritual practice is prompting other religions to get theirs in shape. The spread of Eastern-based meditation has prompted Christians and Jews to dust off their own neglected mystical practices, such as in the Benedictine and Kabalistic traditions.

This is only a portion of a two-page article. Please click on "external source" for the complete article.

Labels: Buddhism, Clark Strand, Peter Smith, religion, spiritual practices

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Friday, May 15, 2009

Buddhist monks create sacred mandala, share religion of 'loving kindness'

Originally published May 09, 2009
By Ron Cassie
News-Post Staff

Burgundy- and saffron-robed monks offered deep chants and prayers while they created a colorful sand mandala last week. And some 250 professors, students and townspeople crammed Scarborough Library at Shepherd University to glimpse their sacred art.

Of all of the Tantric Buddhist artistic traditions, the 1,200-year-old sand painting remains one of the most intriguing and exquisite. Tibetans refer to it as the "architecture of enlightenment."

Tenzin Phentsok explained the mandala symbols: the Lotus Flower, representing spiritual purity and divine origination; the Eight-Spoked Wheel, representing the Eight-Fold Path; and the Knot of Eternity acknowledging the interdependent nature of existence. All are meditations on aspects of Tibetan Buddhism.

In accordance with tradition, the mandala was destroyed to symbolize the impermanence of all that exists. A parade from the library followed the monks several blocks up to Town Run stream where the sand was poured into the water.

"Our blessed sand and prayers are released into a flowing body of water so that they will eventually be carried into the oceans and to the other continents around world," Phentsok said. "It is a very powerful healing practice."

All 10 of the monks who visited Shepherd University last week as part of a four-day residency program are from India. "All originally from Tibetan families," Phentsok said.

"I think the people of the United States are freedom lovers, people who love freedom and democracy and live with more openness to new things," Phentsok said. "That's why I believe the Tibetan culture is embraced here, it is very much based on openness, as well as love, compassion and wisdom."

Phentsok said the traveling group's mission is to bring more peace and happiness to the world.

"As sentient beings we all want to be free from suffering," he said. "All happiness involves inner values, not materialistic things, which provide not even a single moment of recurring joy and happiness."

Please click on "external source" to view the mandala and read the entire article.

Labels: Buddhism, global peace, kindness, mandala, Ron Cassie

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Friday, April 10, 2009

Youth Survey: Teens lose faith in droves

Youth Survey: Teens lose faith in droves

Islam and atheism are on the rise while Christianity fades

Teens lose faith in drovesEvery day, Mohamed Hadi wakes up before sunrise for morning prayer. The 19-year-old then boards a bus for the 90-minute ride from his home in Richmond, B.C., to the campus of Simon Fraser University, where he’s studying to become a physiotherapist. He’s involved in the Muslim Students’ Association, and with Rich in Faith, a Muslim youth group he founded that offers tutoring and mentoring services. Hadi’s a busy guy, yet he always finds time for his religion, including prayer five times a day. “It helps me stay composed,” he says, “and to maintain balance in my life.”

Such devotion is rare among teens these days—or at least, among those from Protestant and Catholic households. Just as the younger generation is abandoning the Christian faith, though, non-Western religions, such as Islam and Buddhism, are growing in Canada at a surprising speed. According to new data from Project Teen Canada, more teens now identify as Muslim than Anglican, United Church of Canada and Baptist combined. As a group, the percentage who adhere to so-called “other faiths”—including Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Sikhism—has grown fivefold since Project Teen began its surveys in 1984, while the percentage of teens who identify as Roman Catholic has declined by one third, and the percentage who identify as Protestant is down by almost two-thirds.

A side effect of this trend is a hollowing-out of the religious middle ground in Canada. Reginald Bibby, the University of Lethbridge sociologist who heads up Project Teen, says the grey zone of those who believe in God, but don’t regularly practise an established religion, is rapidly emptying out, leaving behind two distinct camps: teens who are very religious and actively practise their religion, and those who don’t believe in God at all. “For years I have been saying that, for all the problems of organized religion in Canada, God has continued to do well in the polls,” Bibby writes in The Emerging Millennials, a new book based on Project Teen’s latest findings. “That’s no longer the case.”

The growth in popularity of faiths such as Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism can largely be attributed to immigration, Bibby says. Indeed, there are more new Canadians than ever—immigrants made up 20 per cent of the population in 2006, according to Statistics Canada, up from 16 per cent in 1981. And the majority of new Canadians now hail from the Middle East and Asia, whereas most came from Europe a decade before.

Foreign-born teens are more likely to be religious when they arrive, but whether that faith will persist over the coming generations remains to be seen. “Because these faith groups are so small, they often can’t hang on to their kids,” Bibby explains. “They have this maddening tendency to socialize with Protestant, Catholic, and ‘no religion’ friends, and marry out of their parents’ groups.” But immigration will continue to supply fresh believers, so it’s likely that their community support will grow too. That’s been Hadi’s experience. Amongst his friends, many of whom are Muslim, “we all know when it’s time to pray. If we forget, we’ll remind each other,” he says. “Community is an integral part of the equation.”

For Canada’s Christian teens, meanwhile, the community is shrinking like never before. Since 1984, the percentage of teens who call themselves Christian has almost been cut in half while the number who call themselves atheist has grown to 16 per cent, up from just six per cent in the mid-1980s. Just as the boomers shifted toward agnosticism, teens are now going a step further and rejecting religion entirely. “Belief is learned, pretty much like the multiplication table,” Bibby writes. “So is non-belief.”

Labels: belief, Buddhism, Canada, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Project Teen, religion, teenagers

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Sunday, April 05, 2009

Smorgasbord religion on the grow throughout United States

Smorgasbord religion on the grow throughout United States E-mail
By Daniel Burke, Religion News Service
Published: April 03, 2009

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Friday afternoons find Ann Holmes Redding at the Al-Islam Center in Seattle, reciting Muslim prayers. Come Sunday, she heads about two miles south to kneel in the pews of St. Clement’s of Rome Episcopal Church.

“My experience and my call is to continue to follow Jesus,” said Redding, an Episcopal priest for the past 25 years, “even as I practice Islam.”

Redding insists she is both Christian and Muslim, fully following both faiths.

And for that, Redding expects to be defrocked by the Episcopal Church, which has warned the 57-year-old to renounce Islam or leave the priesthood.

Some Episcopalians are urging the church to take a similar stand against Kevin Thew Forrester, who was elected bishop of the sparsely populated Diocese of Northern Michigan in February. The only candidate on the ballot, Thew Forrester, 51, has practiced Zen meditation for a decade and received lay ordination from a Buddhist community.

Conservatives are outraged at the election of this “openly Buddhist bishop,” as they call him, charging him with syncretism—blending two faiths and dishonoring both.

The bishop-elect and the Lake Superior Zendo that ordained him say the angst is misplaced. The ordination simply honors his commitment to Zen meditation, they say. He took no Buddhist vows and professed no beliefs that contradict Christianity.

While people like Redding, who claim membership in two religions, are quite rare, scholars say the number of Americans who borrow bits from various traditions is multiplying.

Current sociological surveys, with their one-size-fits-all categories, don’t tell us exactly how many Americans hybridize their spiritual lives.

Sociologist Barry Kosmin, co-author of the recent, massive American Religious Identification Survey, said “the tendency of academics and everyone else is to try to disabuse them of this syncretism.”

For sure, “syncretism” is a dirty word to many Western monotheists; in Asia, “multiple religious belonging,” as scholars call it, is common.

Kendall Harmon, an Episcopal theologian from South Carolina, argues that Thew Forrester is a greater threat to his church than the openly gay bishop whose 2003 election has led four dioceses to secede.

The store, in this metaphor, is that big ice-cream parlor in the sky.

Fewer than three in 10 Americans claim their religion is “the one, true faith leading to eternal life,” according to data from the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, and 44 percent say they’ve switched religious affiliations since childhood.

At the same time, traditional religious boundaries are falling and interfaith marriages are rising, meaning Americans increasingly are likely to attend a grandmother’s church funeral and a cousin’s bar mitzvah.

It’s little surprise then, that people who pledge allegiance to two traditions are proliferating.

John Berthrong, a Boston University scholar whose book, The Divine Deli, explores multiple religious belonging, said: “While churches are still having formal discussions about religious pluralism, the laity has bolted down the street to a Buddhist temple where they’re learning meditation.”

Sometimes those temples house Catholic nuns like Sister Rose Mary Dougherty, who leads a multifaith group of Zen students in Silver Spring, Md.

A nun for 50 years, Dougherty also is a sensei in the White Plum Lineage of Zen Buddhism, meaning she is entrusted to teach meditation to others.

Like many Christians who practice Zen, she uses its meditation techniques to clear the mind and focus on the present moment, but she doesn’t consider herself a Buddhist.

Labels: Buddhism, Christian, Daniel Burke, Episcopalians, Islam, religion, syncretism

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Friday, March 27, 2009

Faith In Focus: Meditation as a spiritual practice

By James Bowman, Special to the Sentinel,
March 26, 2009

NOTE: Another kind of meditation is to be found here - called "Jesus-Style" meditation, it is a different, and very effective form of meditation practiced by the Master while he walked the earth.

What is meditation? Depending on who you ask, you might get a variety of different answers.

These days, many people are interested in meditation because it relieves stress and contributes to overall health and fitness.

For millennia, meditation has not only been a way to relax, but also a very important part of spiritual life for Buddhists.

If you have ever been to a group meditation, you know that everyone sits silently, and it can be hard to know what’s happening. This is how it works: In a single meditation session we actually engage in two types of meditation, one called analytical meditation and the other called placement meditation.

First, it is helpful to begin by taking a few moments to allow the flurry of distracting thoughts that normally consumes our minds to settle. One simple way to do this is to sit comfortably and focus on the sensation of the breath as it passes through the nostrils. With practice, distractions gradually diminish, and a peaceful feeling arises in their place.

Then, with our minds clear and free of distractions, we can begin analytical meditation. With this type of meditation we spend time analyzing or contemplating the meaning of a spiritual teaching.

For example, Buddha explained that having compassion for others leads to inner peace. If we deeply contemplate how others have been very kind to us, the disadvantages of selfish attitudes and the advantages of cherishing others, we will be able to develop a caring attitude toward others.

Once this caring attitude arises in our minds, we have found what we call the object of our meditation, which is said to be virtuous because it causes our mind to become peaceful and happy.

At this point we stop contemplating and begin the second type of meditation, placement meditation. This means we simply hold our caring attitude toward others for as long as possible without thinking of anything else. Gently allow your mind soak it up and become familiar with it. If the object of meditation is lost among other thoughts, then simply repeat the process, beginning with analytic meditation again.

Labels: Buddhism, compassion, James Bowman, meditation, peace, spirituality

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Friday, March 20, 2009

Worldly religions find their way to Franklin

By VICTORIA GRAY
Sunday, March 15, 2009

FRANKLIN — Those interested in learning about world religions don't need to go to Harvard Divinity School, or even a closer university or college. They only have to go as far as West Main Street, where a series of interfaith dialogues begins today at Franklin Congregational Christian Church.

Rev. Jeff Stevens, pastor, said as part of the church's adult education program he has invited speakers representing various religions and members of the public to participate in these discussions.

The first of these dialogues is today at the church hall at 1 p.m. and features Mohamed Ebrahim, PhD, an Imam and director of the Dover-based Islamic Society of the Seacoast Area, as the guest speaker.

The next discussion is scheduled for Thursday, March 19, when Manitonquat, an elder of the Assonet Band of the Wampanoag Nation, will speak about his culture's spiritual traditions.

Manitonquat, whose name translates to Medicine Story, is a counselor and lecturer with a Ph.D. in Religious Counseling. He is a retired ceremonial leader and is currently involved in a prison spirituality program in New England, including at the Concord State Prison for Men.

Manitonquat, who lives in Greenville, said he is looking foward to Thursday's discussion in Franklin.

"I'm always interested in interfaith dialogues," Manitonquat said. "It's very exciting for me to connect with people from various faiths and talk to them about Native American spiritual beliefs."

He added that Native American spiritual beliefs do not constitute a religion or religions and that there are many different traditions among the various tribal councils and nations in North America.

One universal belief is that of respect — that everything in creation, including every person, deserves respect.

He said that, in his prison programs, this concept resonates with inmates, many of whom have neither been given nor seen examples of respect in their lives before.

The next common belief is in "the primacy of the circle as the form in which people should gather together."

The circle, also an important symbol of the life and death cycle, symbolizes the equality of members in gatherings, as there is no head or end.

The third belief is one of continually thanking the spirit and natural world.

Manitonquat has written a book that is soon to be published, called "The Original Instructions," which he said is based "on a lifetime of listening to elders and trying to figure things out."

He said the title comes from a frequent answer elders gave when he asked, "What is wrong with human beings today?"

The answer he often got was "They have forgotten the original instructions."

Manitonquat says this means that the earliest inhabitants of world, including on the North American continent, lived more in harmony with the natural and spiritual world than people do today.

He said since Europeans settled the continent it has been their religions and spiritual traditions that have dominated and been propagated.

"No one really understands the wealth of spiritual understanding that existed here before," Manitonquat said.

Stevens said that, as the population in New Hampshire becomes more diverse, it is increasingly important that people learn about and respect each other's cultural, spiritual and ethnic backgrounds.

He added that there is a Buddhist population in the state and a growing number of Sikhs and members of the Bahá'í faith.

Sikhism is a religion that formed in India approximately 500 years ago. Followers believe in a single, formless God who can be known through deep meditation. They believe in samsara, karma and reincarnation as Hindus do, but reject the caste system.

Stevens has been pastor at the church since December 2007.

Originally from Williamstown in Western Massachusetts, Stevens received a master's degree from Harvard Divinity School and has always been interested in world religions.

He said one of the professors at the school, Diana Eck, started and still directs the "Pluralism Project," which began in 1991 to explore America's changing religious landscape. The project has recorded the growth of religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism and Zoroastrianism in the U.S. as a new wave of immigration that began 30 to 40 years ago continues.

"The Lakes Region is sort of on the edge of the movement toward more religious diversity, this wave of great change," Stevens said.

He said he is excited that the first speaker will be discussing Islam, as he worked with Muslim (followers of Islam) communities in the greater Boston area while at Harvard.

Stevens said despite the substantial Muslim population in the U.S., many people still know little about Islam, though the religion, along with Judaism, shares some of the same history as Christianity.

He noted that Thomas Aquinas, in the 1100s, wrote a letter to Christians, Jewish people and Muslims about the things their religions shared in common.

Islam began in the Middle East more than 1,400 years ago and is the second largest religion in the world with more than 1 billion followers. The word Islam means "submission to the will of God (Allah in Arabic)".

Muslims believe there is only one God and that God sent a number of prophets to humanity to teach them how to live, including Jesus, Moses and Abraham.

The final Prophet was Muhammad, who Muslims believe most perfectly delivered God's message, therefore they follow his example (called the Sunnah) and base their laws on the holy book, the Qur'an.

The five basic Pillars of Islam are a declaration of faith, praying, fasting, charity and undertaking a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in one's lifetime.

The Islamic Society of the Seacoast Area is located in Dover and serves more than 300 Muslim families in coastal communities in New Hampshire and Southeastern Maine.

...Amala Dharmacharini, program director of the Aryaloka Buddhist Retreat Center, will lead a discussion on Buddhism.

Buddhism developed out of the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama who, in 535 BCE, reached enlightenment and assumed the title of Buddha.

He promoted 'The Middle Way' as the path to enlightenment rather than the extremes of mortification of the flesh or hedonism. Buddhists believe in reincarnation and that, after many lives, a person can attain nirvana by releasing their attachment to desire and the self.

Stevens said he also is working on booking a speaker from the Bahá'í Faith, a faith that arose from Islam in the 1800s. Bahá'í beliefs promote gender and race equality, freedom of expression and assembly, world peace and world government.

Other speakers may include representatives from neopagan traditions and from the Jainist religion.

Jainism is one of the oldest religions in India and its followers believe that the way to true bliss is through lives of harmlessness and renunciation. Followers believe every living thing in the universe is sacred and has a soul. Because of this, they follow a strict vegetarian diet and live in a way that minimizes their impact on the environment.

Labels: Bahá'í, Buddhism, Christianity, God, interfaith, Islam, Jainism, Native American Church, Pluralism Project, religion, Sikhism, Victoria Gray

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Friday, January 23, 2009

Searching for enlightenment

Is Google's 'school of personal growth' a spiritual boon or corporate fig leaf?

Business initiatives trumpeted as selfless efforts to boost human welfare understandably evoke cynicism. The conflict between the profit motive and talk of employee wellbeing seems too tense to be soothed by a few in-house yoga classes, the traditional giant cheques handed out at local schools, or office recycling schemes.

So no doubt the news that Google is offering training to foster employees' spiritual growth will be met with some disdain, especially as this could well be the first example of a major modern corporation taking staff development into the transpersonal arena.

The story has emerged from a presentation made by Chade-Meng Tan, a former software engineer who now heads up the company's "school of personal growth", one of four faculties operating as Google University in a street adjacent to the firm's main Silicon Valley base. Speaking at the "Happiness and its Causes" conference in San Francisco, Tan suggested that the school's ethos could be a blueprint for workplace education. "Google wants to help Googlers grow as human beings on all levels," he said, "emotional, mental, physical and 'beyond the self'."

It is the final ingredient in this formula which is striking – Tan is a Buddhist, and the idea of people growing "beyond the self" sounds like an allusion to the Buddhist notion of "interdependent arising" – characterised by the insight that what we experience as "me" is not a separate, solid, unchanging entity but a fluid, evolving process that is inextricably connected to and interacting with the whole web of existence. This appears to be reflected in the courses on offer at the school, which includes classes on "the neuroscience of empathy" led by Stanford psychologist Philippe Goldin, as well as instruction in mindfulness meditation from Zen teacher Norman Fischer, who has been dubbed "the abbot of Google".

The emphasis on evidence-based disciplines such as neuroscience and psychology suggests that the school's approach is based on the rigours of science rather than the superstition of church or crystal ball. At a time when many traditional religious institutional forms are associated with war, superstition, or scandal, or are failing to adapt to 21st-century life, it may be that our continued evolution is more likely to be spurred by organisations with a track record of cutting-edge services that improve the quality of lives and relationships.

It seems that in the west, it is mixing most creatively with the fields of science, technology and communications – another example of the commercial appropriation of "interdependent arising" being the recent Orange "I Am Everyone" adverts.

Whether the Google initiative leads to further innovation, greater wellbeing and continued success, or turns into a cloak for materialistic greed, will depend largely on the company's ability to sustain a skillful and compassionate modus operandi in the midst of a corporate world dominated by self-interest. Having made its fortune through improving networks, it might understand better than most firms the glaring implications of interdependence - that sustained abundance is only possible through willingness to share it with others.

As to its capacity for wisely acting on that understanding and resisting the allure of corporate egotism – the very antithesis of going "beyond the self" – that very much remains to be seen.

Labels: Buddhism, Chade-Meng Tan, Google, neuroscience, spiritual growth, transpersonal

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Friday, December 12, 2008

The History of Religion

The History of Religion, from 3000 BC to 200 AD, in about 2 minutes. Taken from mapsofwar.com

Labels: Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, maps, religion

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Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Dalai Lama describes himself as 'just one monk'

Fri, Jul. 18, 2008

By David O'Reilly
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

The most famous Buddhist in the world insists he is "nothing special."

"I am just an ordinary human being," the Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, said yesterday, one day after his daylong visit to Philadelphia.

Some people think of him "as a living Buddha," he said, and laughed. "Nonsense."

Others revere him as "a god-king."

"Nonsense," he said again, this time leaning his head back as he laughed.

"Then some describe me as a demon, or a wolf with a Buddhist robe. That also I think is nonsense.

"I am just one monk. That is all."

And that was how the 73-year-old Dalai Lama came across in an interview: spiritual, intelligent, extroverted, eager to make a personal connection, and, above all, happy.

He claps you on the shoulder to make a point. He leans forward to listen to a question, looking right into your eyes. He turns serious, then breaks out in a broad smile that just may explode into a belly laugh.

"Talking with people" and engaging with others as "human brothers and sisters" is what makes him happy, the Dalai Lama said, sitting in a chair in his room at the Four Seasons.

And when he hears that his teachings have changed a life and made a person happier, "I feel my life becomes something purposeful."

In person he seems not to have a care in the world.

Yet this man in a simple gold and red robe has carried the troubles of Tibet on his bare shoulders since he was a small boy.

In 1937, when he was just 2, a delegation of senior monks arrived at his parents' farm and pronounced him the 14th reincarnation of the Dalai Lama: head of state for all Tibet and spiritual leader of all the millions of Buddhists in his country as well as Nepal, Mongolia, Bhutan, northern India, and the rest of the high Himalayas.

He might have lived a life of isolation, little known to the outside world, had not Communist China invaded the capital of his mountaintop nation in 1951.

The boy-king was just 16.

After eight years of fruitless accommodation with the Communists, whose troops demolished an estimated 6,000 monasteries in the hope of wiping out Buddhism, he fled on foot in the dead of winter to neighboring Nepal.

Later he moved to the northern India village of Dharamsala, where he and his followers built the monastery complex that serves as his home and headquarters of the Tibetan government in exile.

By force of his personality and spirituality, he as grown from a minor Cold War figure to someone akin to pope of the world's Buddhists, and the face of Eastern spirituality to many in the West.

In 1989 he won the Nobel Peace Prize, and still leads the struggle to regain Tibet's independence from China while circling the globe to lecture on tantric, or Tibetan, Buddhism.

He is "hopeful" and "optimistic" that the world will become a better place in the 21st century, he said, provided people promote the "inner values" of peace and compassion at the heart of Buddhism.

But he does not anticipate the West will turn Buddhist - a prospect that worried Pope Benedict XVI and other Christian leaders.

"I don't think so," the Dalai Lama said. "A few hundred thousand, even a few million," might convert. "But the majority will remain Christian, as it should be."

Some Buddhist practices, such as meditation, "can be used according to your own faith. . . . Already some Christian monks and Christian ministers are practicing Buddhist methods or techniques without changing their religion."

The goal for any human is to "minimize such emotions as fear, hatred," he said, and "try to increase love, compassion with forgiveness."

"On that level, I don't think there's much difference between Eastern or Western religion," he said.

He has turned over much of the administration of the Tibetan government-in-exile over to others, he said, and so is "semiretired" from that duty.

But as for the other two duties of the Dalai Lama - "promotion of human values and promotion of religious harmony . . . till my death I am committed."

Labels: Buddhism, compassion, Dalai Lama, David O'Reilly, forgiveness, love, religion, Tibet

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Friday, July 11, 2008

Dalai Lama tells us to 'reprioritize, revalue'

By Lloyd Steffen
July 9, 2008

Why is the Dalai Lama thought to be important? Fair question.

There have been many spiritual leaders, many different heads of state, even other exiled heads of state, and quite a few Nobel Peace Prize winners -- so why is this man, who describes himself always as ''a simple monk,'' important? Let me suggest three reasons.

First of all, the Dalai is an extraordinary teacher and a gifted communicator. His fame derives from his efforts to stay in constant communication. He is a New York Times best selling author many times over, able to reach wide audiences; he is a lecturer to hundreds of thousands of people across the globe -- a true global citizen; and he is the subject of many films and documentaries, including Martin Scorsese's bio-pic, ''Kundun.'' The Dalai Lama has succeeded in translating central ideas from his Buddhist tradition to people in a way -- and through all kinds of media -- that speaks to their common spiritual needs and longings, regardless of whether they are Buddhist or even religious at all. But he has also taught Buddhism along the way. Much of what many people know about Buddhism comes from their encounter with the Dalai Lama, who has connected with people as only great teachers can, embodying in his life and words a message that speaks to the great questions about life and its meaning.

Second, the Dalai Lama is important because of the specifics of his message. The Dalai Lama reminds us that we are all in the same boat, that suffering is our common condition. He humbly suggests that we are responsible for one another, and that geographic boundaries should be no impediment to our sense of responsibility. We are all connected. And we all want the same thing out of life -- we want happiness. His teaching, then, is designed to illuminate the pathways that might get us to happiness. Learn patience. Show tolerance. Seek wisdom. Forgive. Make love your aim as well as your mode of operation. Offer compassion and help those who are in need. Calm yourselves and seek peace within -- meditate. Bring peace to the world through a life of care and empathy. Shun violence and hatred. Channel anger and overcome fear. Build your life around these values, rejecting the excesses of materialism and the temptations to resolve conflict by resorting to violence. Make kindness your ethic. You cannot be too kind.

These are messages that can be found many places, including the religion of Christianity. What is unusual about the Dalai Lama as teacher is that he has extracted these messages from theological trappings and offered them as wise counsel and living directives to those seeking spiritual enlightenment. This is radical business and the kind of teaching that many Christians find difficult, since in many versions of Christianity the message about what is required to do is subordinated to requirements about belief. The Dalai Lama dissociates the two-- he focuses on the doing, on the requirements of peaceful living and wisdom seeking. He does not force his Tibetan beliefs on those outside his tradition -- when people tell him they don't accept reincarnation he laughs and says, ''How could you? How is that a part of your life?''

And this leads to a third consideration. The Dalai Lama is important because the challenge of his message is this: ''Stop doing business as usual.'' The idea that we can find peace through force of arms or happiness through acquisition is illusory. He urges people to rethink what they want and how to get what they want, and with so much misery and unhappiness in the world, the way to happiness will not come from doing things as we are used to doing them. Reprioritize and revalue, he seems to be saying. Emphasize dialogue, not confrontation. Think about cooperation rather than competition. Think about advancing the interests of others as much as you do advancing your own. Make every encounter with another person the greeting of a new friend. And when you are told this is impractical, remind your skeptic that if we do not reshift to an alternative set of values and refocus our concern to include all others, even the well-being of the planet itself, we imperil our very existence.

The Dalai Lama relates this message from his Buddhist sources -- it is not an alien message for me as a Christian. What I celebrate is that the Dalai Lama has found a way to make this message heard today, even if it is through massive media exposure and paper doll cut out books. The message goes to the hope for human happiness. The message is that business as usual is a well doomed to run dry, and alternative values, an alternative spirituality, will be required to energize peaceful and meaningful life in the days ahead. The Dalai Lama offers an alternative path away form the present unhappiness; he emphasizes a way of living that challenges what most of us value and how most of us live-and that, for me, is why the Dalai Lama stands in a long line of great spiritual teachers; that for me is why the Dalai Lama is so important.

Lloyd Steffen is professor of religion studies and chaplain at Lehigh University.

Labels: Buddhism, China, compassion, Dalai Lama, kindness, Lloyd Steffen, love, Tenzin Gyatso, Tibet

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Monday, June 23, 2008

Eckhart Tolle: This man could change your life?

We live in an age of revitalised New Age mumbo jumbo; and these days no one is more jumbo with his mumbo than Eckhart Tolle.

Tolle, whose real first name is Ulrich, was born into a German Catholic family in 1948. He changed his name to Eckhart in a homage to the German spiritual leader Meister Eckhart. He refused all forms of formal education between the ages of 13 and 22, preferring instead to pursue his own creative and philosophical interests. Despite all this, he went to the University of London and is acknowledged by Cambridge University to have matriculated as a postgraduate student there in 1977, when he was 29. At 15, he was given the five books written by the German mystic Joseph Anton Schneiderfranken, also known as Bo Yin Ra. He is said to have been heavily influenced by these books; his writing also draws heavily on the New Testament, the Bhagavad Gita and Sufism.

After leaving Cambridge, Tolle went into a steep decline, however. "I was unhappy, depressed and anxious," he said in a rare interview, with the environmentalist website Ecomall.com in 2003. "I was not trying to become enlightened or anything like that. I was looking for some kind of answer to the dilemma of life, but I had been looking to the intellect for the answer; philosophy, religion and intellectual inspiration. The more I was looking on that level, the more unhappy I became."

And then, he says, he had an epiphany. "Suddenly I stepped back from myself, and it seemed to be two of me. The 'I', and this 'self' that I cannot live with. Am I one or am I two? And that triggered me like a koan [a Zen statement that appeals to intuition rather than ration]. It happened to me spontaneously. I looked at that sentence: 'I can't live with myself'. I had no intellectual answer. Who am I? Who is this self that I cannot live with? The answer came on a deeper level. I realised who I was."

He spent the next two years sitting on park benches "in a state of the most intense joy". And then he wrote his first book, The Power of Now. The book, published by Penguin in 1999, sat at the top of the bestseller lists for years.

There is not very much new about The Power of Now – it is Buddhism mixed with mysticism and a few references to Jesus Christ, a sort of New Age re-working of Zen. Its central message is that the root of our emotional problems is our habit of identifying too much with our minds. The past and the future are creations of thought and only the present moment is real and only the present moment matters.

The follow-up to The Power of Now, A New Earth, is an extended riff on the same subject. It aims to "provide a spiritual framework for people to move beyond themselves in order to make this world a better, more spiritually evolved place to live". The encapsulating idea, again, is that by abandoning your ego, you become "Present" in the immortal "Being".

William Bloom is a former professor at the London School of Economics, and one of the UK's most experienced teachers, healers and authors in the field of holistic development. He believes that Tolle's work provides a valuable perspective on Western culture.

"Tolle is offering a very contemporary synthesis of Eastern spiritual teaching, which is normally so clothed in arcane language that it is incomprehensible," says Bloom. "Some people might find him confusing but when he asserts that Descartes' major insight ("I think therefore I am") – one of the foundations of Western thinking – is ostensibly wrong, it's a conceptual challenge to how we think about ourselves. And that has always been the major assertion of Eastern religion: that thinking is not the core of who you are. The core of who you really are is that part of you that can watch yourself thinking – that's very Buddhist, very Eastern, very attuned to the whole field of transpersonal psychology.

"Second, he asks people to exist as best they can in any given moment and to connect with the sensation of the physical body – so instead of just staying in your head thinking, to be aware of what's happening in your feet, your hands, your whole body.

"This is particularly useful in the UK at the moment, because as part of Ofsted's initiative Seal [Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning], teachers are being asked to be very attentive to children's emotions and feelings; the foundation of emotional literacy is being present and to notice what's going on in your body and to feel its subtle sensations as a way of identifying your emotions. Tolle's approach is very body aware. He's done it in a nice accessible way for people.

"The thing that's really good about him," Bloom concludes, "in the midst of all the psychobabble to do with happiness being based on getting what you want, Tolle sounds a clear note stating that happiness comes from a state of consciousness and a connection with being present to the wonder of life. Which is just what's needed."

Tolle's detractors, aside from the Church, dismiss him as New Age rubbish of the worst kind, popular only because he has managed to get the attention of Oprah Winfrey. "Even by the standards of the self-help book industry, Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth is unutterable twaddle," said one newspaper book reviewer. "Oprah Winfrey's golden touch has turned a stinker into a bestseller for Penguin." Another dismissed the book by saying, "Its 313 pages are, frankly, baffling – a mix of pseudo-science, New Age philosophy and teaching borrowed from established religions."

Indeed, it is difficult sometimes to know what sense to make of Tolle's convoluted discursive style. Try this one, for example: "Something suddenly was there that actually had always been there but had been obscured continuously by identification with the heavy mind structure."

Despite this – or perhaps because of it – Tolle does have fans in academic, even Christian, circles. Andrew Ryder, a theologian at All Hallows College, Dublin, wrote in praise of Tolle in The Way, the modern Christian spirituality magazine: "Tolle's writing is based on his own experience and personal reflection. This makes his approach to the challenge of living in the present moment both practical and fresh. While he may not use the language of traditional Christian spirituality, Tolle is very much concerned that, as we make our way through the ordinary events of the day, we keep in touch with the deepest source of our being."

It's easy to see why Tolle's self-help schtick appeals to such ne'er do wells as Paris Hilton; his central advice about living for now and not dwelling on the mistakes of your past appeals to those with a colourful back history. Too many people, he says, defensively hold on to and preserve guilty, hostile feelings from past events and allow these memories to make them anxious and unhappy.

And really, what Tolle is trying to say is: "chill out" – but you can't sell five million copies of that.

Additional reporting by Photini Philippidou

Quote Unquote
Tolle in his own words

The Power of Now
"The pain-body consists of trapped life-energy that has split off from your total energy field and has temporarily become autonomous through the unnatural process of mind identification"

"Pain can only feed on pain. Pain cannot feed on joy. It finds it quite indigestible"

"In the normal, mind-identified or unenlightened state of consciousness, the power and creative potential that lie concealed in the Now are completely obscured by psychological time. You cannot find yourself by going into the past. You can find yourself by coming into the present. Life is now. There was never a time when your life was not now, nor will there ever be"

A New Earth
"Is humanity ready for a transformation of consciousness, an inner flowering so radical and profound that compared to it the flowering of plants, no matter how beautiful, is only a pale reflection? "

"There are three words that convey the secret of the art of living, the secret of all success and happiness: One With Life. Being one with life is being one with Now. You then realise that you don't live your life, but life lives you. Life is the dancer, and you are the dance"

"If you are not familiar with 'inner body' awareness, close your eyes for a moment and find out if there is life inside your hands. Don't ask your mind. It will say, 'I can't feel anything'"

"Can human beings lose the density of their conditioned mind structures and become like crystals or precious stones, so to speak, transparent to the light of consciousness?"

"You do not become good by trying to be good, but by finding the goodness that is already within you, and allowing that goodness to emerge. But it can only emerge if something fundamental changes in your state of consciousness"

Labels: Buddhism, Eckhart Tolle, ego, Ether Walker, happiness, Jesus, spirituality

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Sunday, June 01, 2008

Insights into living and dying - Book Review

The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, 10th Anniversary Edition, Sogyal Rinpoche, Patrick D. Gaffney, Andrew Harvey

ENNAPADAM S. KRISHNAMOORTHY And
NIRANJANA BENNETT

Modern healthcare professionals can learn much from the Tibetan Buddhist belief that it as important to die with dignity as it is to live happily. Another look at a classic, a book by Sogyal Rinpoche, that had its 10th anniversary reprint recently.

The book, authored by Sogyal Rinpoche, a renowned Buddhist teacher, has been revised and updated to commemorate its 10th anniversary. The book begins rather impressively with a foreword by the Dalai Lama, who sets the tone: “No less significant than preparing for our own death is helping others to die well”. Sogyal Rinpoche places life and death contextually together for our consideration, describing why we must address death during our lives. The realm of gods in the Buddhist teachings, who lived lives of fabulous luxury and pleasure with little thought or time for spirituality until death appeared, and who were unprepared for it, are alluded to here, as is active laziness whereby unimportant tasks become responsibilities, part of a rigid schedule, and begin to dictate one’s existence.

“The fate of the gods reminds me of the way the elderly, the sick and the dying are treated today. Our society is obsessed with youth, sex and power and we shun old age and decay. Isn’t it terrible that we discard old people when their working life is finished and they are no longer useful? Isn’t it disturbing that we cast them into old people’s homes, where they die lonely and abandoned?”

Contemplating deeper meanings

He highlights instead, the importance of spirituality, contemplation and the need to devote some time each day to examining the deeper meaning of life.

He speaks of two groups of people whose attitudes to death clearly affect the way they live life. One group lives in denial of death — repressing and refusing to acknowledge its potential impact. The second group has a casual attitude towards death, not attributing to it the seriousness of thought it deserves.

The author advocates that each individual attempts to understand the nature of the mind, and then move on to train the mind through different practices of meditation. Mindful meditation (having roots in ancient Buddhist practice) is applicable to anyone suffering from stress, anxiety or pain and Rinpoche describes its three essential components. Rinpoche goes on to expound on several Buddhist beliefs: rebirth, karma, reincarnation, bardos etc. and stresses on the importance of the mind.

In its second section the book deals with Dying. Most of us, even medical professionals, are bewildered when confronted by the prospect of death. Often we feel inadequate or embarrassed, not knowing what we should say to the person who is dying, and to his near and dear ones. Indeed, the most typical human response to death is denial of the condition or the diminishing of its impact. However, the person who is dying often has a much clearer knowledge and vision of this inevitable outcome, achieved after weeks of intense suffering. Helping the dying person achieve an early, more graceful acceptance of death, without denying or diminishing his thoughts and feelings is thought to be important. Rinpoche describes the case of a lady doctor friend who, having dealt (in her perception) unsuccessfully with a dying individual, asked Rinpoche what he would have done in that situation.

“I would have sat by his side, held his hand and let him talk. I have been amazed again and again by how, if you just let people talk, giving them your complete and compassionate attention, they will say things of a surprising spiritual depth, even when they think they don’t have any spiritual beliefs. I have been very moved by how you can help people help themselves by helping them discover their own truth, a truth whose richness, sweetness, and profundity they may have never suspected”.

Essential qualities

Two things most useful at the deathbed are, a sense of humour, a useful tool to dissolve the gravity of the situation; and the ability to not take things personally, since anger is a common response of the dying person, and may be directed towards the person trying to help. It is also important to show unconditional love, which can be facilitated by thinking of yourself in the dying person’s place (empathy). Rinpoche also emphasises the importance of telling the truth with love, a rare blend of virtues that directly addresses the dying person’s needs. Active compassion (expressed in action, not mere words) is another ingredient that enables the experience of dying. The Buddhist practice of Tonglen, the ability to take on the suffering and pain of others and give them your happiness, well being and peace of mind and the powerful Tibetan tradition of phowa (pronounced po-wa), the transference of consciousness, are described as being invaluable to the dying person. To be able to deal effectively with the dying person’s fears, it is important to introspect and be aware of one’s own fears about death.

“Caring for the dying makes you poignantly aware not only of their mortality but also of your own.”

While saying goodbye, two explicit verbal statements are pre-requisites. The dying person must be given permission to die with the assurance that his loved one(s) will be taken care of in the aftermath. When the loved one is a child, Rinpoche suggests that it is commendable to encourage the young one to pray, as it gives them a sense of having contributed in some way. He also addresses the people that the dying person leaves behind, saying that it is useful to be open to grief rather than repress it, and try to learn from the grief.

“Bereavement can force you to look at your life directly, compelling you to find a purpose in it where there may not have been one before.”

In its third section, the book deals with Rebirth.

Accepting death

In the final part of the book, Rinpoche speaks about the significance of understanding and accepting death because it is a universal process. In his view, we live in a world that appears to be too besotted with life to give much thought to death, an unhealthy attitude that needs to change. It is not uncommon today, to have a beloved elderly relative admitted in a hospital ICU, with multiple tubes and support systems for his sustenance, often an unwilling participant in the seemingly interminable fight for his life. Pray, what price are we paying, to defy death under these circumstances? What dignity is there in challenging death in this manner? Indeed, what crime would we commit in allowing a person who has lead a full life to meet his maker in a natural, dignified and well-prepared manner? These philosophical thoughts assail one’s mind, as one contemplates life and death in the modern context. Rinpoche’s exhortation to the health professional is particularly moving.

For doctors, nurses and others confronted with the experience of death he also has other valuable tips to share.

“I never go to the bedside of a dying person without practising before hand, without steeping myself in the sacred atmosphere of the nature of the mind. Then I do not have to struggle to find compassion and authenticity for they will be there and radiate naturally.”

Undeniable realities

Death and dying are an undeniable reality; a natural consequence of all human existence. Dying well is a dream that most elders have (we talk of Anayasa maranam in Hindu culture) and helping people die well and peacefully is a duty, not just for the healthcare professional but also for their near and dear ones. This book, therefore, has obvious implications for every one of us, as we will all have to face death at some point of time in our lives. Even individuals who do not share Rinpoche’s religious and spiritual inclinations have plenty to learn from the book, as it offers practical insights into dealing with dying.

However, several of the principles expounded in the book are not scientifically verifiable. Instances of the occurrence of a rainbow body for example or beliefs about near death experiences and rebirth have their testimony in anecdotal repetitions and not empirical evidence. The book, therefore, is likely to appeal more to those with spiritual inclination than those who subscribe strictly to modern scientific tradition. Nevertheless, as the Tibetan saying goes, “If you are too clever, you could miss the point entirely.”

Sogyal Rinpoche’s ability to clearly express himself, capturing the reader’s attention, with interesting anecdotes and quotations from learned works is unquestionable. Even more commendable, however, is his choice of subject… Most books speak of life and living happily ever after. This one speaks of death as well.

Dr. E.S. Krishnamoorthy is Director, T.S . Srinivasan Chair and Senior Consultant Neuropsychiatrist at The Institute of Neurological Sciences-VHS, Chennai. E-mail: esk@nsig.org

Niranjana Bennet is a M.A. Psychology student at Christ College, Bangalore. She researched for and co-wrote this article while interning in TINS-VHS.

The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, 10th Anniversary Edition, Sogyal Rinpoche, Patrick D. Gaffney, Andrew Harvey

Labels: Buddhism, death, Ennapadam S. Krishnamoorthy, Niranjana Bennett, Sogyal Rinpoche

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Monday, April 07, 2008

The Dalai Lama's Appeal Transcends Religion, Politics

April 5, 2008

Star Power

By JANET I. TU
The Seattle Times

SEATTLE | On his first visit to Seattle 30 years ago, the Dalai Lama drew a couple of thousand people. On his second, the crowds totaled more than 10,000.

The Dalai Lama's popularity - here and worldwide - reflects his rise during the past half century from a relatively obscure spiritual and political leader to a prominent global figure with transcendent star power.

SPREADING FAME

The Dalai Lama's increased prominence in recent decades can be attributed to several factors - including the spread of Buddhism worldwide, his Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, the many books written by or about him, movies and stories on Tibet, and his own charisma.

He draws people as an ethical leader, rather than strictly as a religious leader, said Paul Ingram, professor emeritus of the history of religion at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma. "They see him as a very gentle spirit whose values don't contradict their own."

The current - 14th - Dalai Lama, named Tenzin Gyatso, was born in Tibet in 1935 and, according to Tibetan tradition, was recognized at age 2 as the reincarnation of his predecessor, the 13th Dalai Lama.

'ENLIGHTENED BEING'

He is considered to be a manifestation of the bodhisattva of compassion. A bodhisattva is an enlightened being who chooses to remain in this world to serve others.

For centuries, Tibet and China have had a complex relationship. Many times in history, Tibetans have acknowledged the Chinese emperor as a kind of overlord, while administering their own affairs with almost no interference, said Stevan Harrell, a University of Washington anthropology professor specializing in China and ethnic relations.

Their language, culture, religion and political systems were completely separate from those of China, Harrell said.

In 1950, Chinese Communist troops invaded Tibet and established direct control, but allowed the Dalai Lama to remain as spiritual leader.

In 1959, after an unsuccessful Tibetan revolt and subsequent crackdown by the Chinese government, the Dalai Lama fled Tibet with about 85,000 followers. They eventually established the Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamsala, India.

While the Chinese government has improved schooling, health care and infrastructure in Tibet, Harrell said, it has also placed enormous restrictions on the practice of religion, which is immensely important to most Tibetans.

CURRENT UPROAR

Perhaps causing the most resentment over the past decade, he said, is the Chinese government's requirement that monks undergo "political education," which includes renouncing the Dalai Lama.

The Dalai Lama has characterized what is happening in Tibet as cultural genocide. But he did not call for the protests, Thurman said, and he remains open to talking with Chinese leaders.

Tenzin Wangyal, a lab assistant in Seattle who is Tibetan, says he disapproves of violent protests, and that the Dalai Lama's approach is noble. But "we're also tired of not seeing any results from this" - especially from the Chinese side, he said.

Labels: Buddhism, China, Dalai Lama, ethics, Janet I. Tu, Tibet

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Thursday, January 10, 2008

Buddhism forced to turn trendy to attract a new generation in Japan

Priests visit bars to reach out to young sceptics amid dramatic decline

Justin McCurry in Tokyo
Thursday January 10, 2008
The Guardian

In the days ahead, millions of Japanese will visit Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples to mark the arrival of the Year of the Rat. For many, this will be the only contact they have with their spiritual roots for the entire year.

More than 1,200 years after its arrival in Japan from mainland Asia, Buddhism is in crisis. About 75% of Japan's 127 million people describe themselves as Buddhists, but new year apart, many see the inside of a temple only when a local head priest is asked to arrange a traditional (and expensive) funeral for a dead relative.

As a result, public donations are drying up and many of the country's 75,000 temples are in financial trouble. Applications to Buddhist universities have fallen so dramatically that several schools have dropped the religious association from their titles.

Being served sake by a priest is just one of the novel ways in which sceptical Japanese are being encouraged to get in touch with their spiritual roots. Baijozan Komyoji temple in Tokyo has opened an outdoor cafe in front of its main hall, and in Kyoto, Zendoji temple operates a beauty salon. At Club Chippie, a jazz lounge in Tokyo, the saxophone makes way for Sanskrit once a month as three shaven-headed monks wearing robes chant sutras and encourage bemused customers to join in.

And recently, dozens of Buddhist monks and nuns took to the catwalk in colourful silk robes as part of a public relations exercise at Tsukiji Honganji temple in Tokyo. The event, called Tokyo Bouz Collection, opened with the recital of a Buddhist prayer to a hip-hop beat and ended in a blur of confetti shaped like lotus petals.

"Many priests share the sense of crisis and the need to do something to reach out to people," said Kosuke Kikkawa, a 37-year-old priest who helped organise the event. "We won't change Buddha's teachings, but perhaps we need to present things differently so that they touch the feelings of people today."

Explainer: How faith spread

Buddhism found its way to Japan via China and Korea in the sixth century, according to early historical records.

In its earliest forms Japanese Buddhism was considered the preserve of learned priests, who spent their days praying for the health of the imperial household from their lairs in the great temples of the ancient capital of Nara.

The forerunner of the Jodo Shinshu - True Pure Land - sect was founded in 1175 and promoted the idea of gaining salvation through belief in the Buddha Amida. Jodo Shinshu continues to have millions of followers today.

Zen Buddhism, which reached Japan at about the same time, proved popular among members of the military elite, who were attracted by its message of enlightenment through meditation and discipline. Another influential sect, Nichiren, revelled in opposing other Buddhist schools and remains popular, providing the basis for many of Japan's "new religions".

They include Soka Gakkai, which was founded in 1930 and whose members went on to form the political party Komeito, now the junior partner in Japan's ruling coalition.

Japan's Buddhists have survived several political struggles, notably with the Meiji government of the late 19th century, which promoted Shinto as the new state religion.

About 90 million Japanese say they are Buddhist, compared with only about 1% of the country's 127m-strong population, who consider themselves Christian.

Labels: Buddhism, Japan, Justin McCurry, priests, religion

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Friday, October 19, 2007

History of Religion Video

How has the geography of religion evolved over the centuries, and where has it sparked wars? Our map gives us a brief history of the world's most well-known religions: Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Judaism. Selected periods of inter-religious bloodshed are also highlighted. Want to see 5,000 years of religion in 90 seconds? Ready, Set, Go!

Labels: Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, religion, video, war

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Sunday, September 30, 2007

American Buddhism: Eastern faith seeing Western growth

By Ryan Holeywell — The Monitor
September 29, 2007

EDINBURG — Government security forces in Myanmar have reportedly killed at least three Buddhist monks who were peacefully participating in massive, ongoing protests against that country’s military government.

Tensions started to rise last month, when the government drastically raised fuel prices in the impoverished country.

Persecution of Buddhists in Myanmar and Tibet have consistently garnered media attention and cries for justice from activist groups in the United States.

Experts say the number of Americans who actually identify themselves as Buddhists — as opposed to just sympathizing with them — continues to steadily grow.

Appeal to Westerners

About 401,000 Buddhists lived in America in 1990, but by 2001 that number had climbed to more than 1 million, according to a City University of New York survey. There are an estimated 6 million Buddhists living in America today, said Charles Prebish, a professor at Utah State University.

Experts attribute the growth of Buddhism in America to the increased volume of literature on the subject available in books and online, as well as the growing number of university courses about the religion.

“Buddhism tends to appeal to Westerners because it’s very rational,” Kojin Dinsmore, a priest at the Austin Zen Center.

“(Buddhism) doesn’t ask you to believe in anything. It is mostly psychological.”

Those in the Valley drawn to Buddhism say one of its aspects that they find particularly attractive is meditation, a central component of the religion.

“When you meditate you have to clear your mind and think only of the present moment,” said Jen Klement, who lives near La Feria. “That’s not easy to do because these thoughts keep coming in. You mainly focus on your breathing. If you’re thinking about your breathing you can’t be thinking about much else.”

Growth in America

Buddhism first found its way onto the U.S. religious scene with Chinese and Japanese immigrants in the 19th century. It resurged during the Vietnam War era as Asian immigrants came to the United States.

But about 20 percent of Buddhists in the United States are not of Asian descent, which means there are more than 1 million American converts by Prebish’s estimates.

Labels: America, Buddhism, meditation, Ryan Holeywell

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Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Theologian Küng: Christianity Gets on Many People's Nerves

For Catholic theologian Hans Küng, religion has again become a power factor. While Islam and Buddhism are getting more popular, Christianity isn't. The controversial theologian spoke to DW-WORLD.DE about the reasons.

Born in 1928, Catholic theologian and church critic Hans Küng made his mark as a promoter of dialogue between religions and as president of the Global Ethic Foundation. In 1979, the Vatican withdrew his license to teach after the Swiss native questioned the infallibility of the pope. In the fall of 2005, Pope Benedict XVI invited Küng to a private meeting.

DW-WORLD.DE: Professor Küng, people -- and not only in Germany -- are again enormously interested in religious issues. Can we speak of a return of religions?

Hans Küng: "Return of religions" -- that is an ambivalent term. Religion never disappeared. Just like music, religion is something that stays, even if it is suppressed for some time. It is true, that since the new awakening of Islam, since the creation of the Islamic republic of Iran in 1979, Europeans have realized that they don't rule the world by themselves. For a long time, secular Europe had not realized that it was an exception, and that elsewhere, religions is a power.

"No peace among the nations, without peace between the religions! No peace between the religions without dialog between the religions!" Those are two central sentences of your World Ethic principle. In a time of globalization, there are many undreamed-of possibilities for communication on the Internet. The access to knowledge is easier than ever before. Can this development improve the dialog of religions?

In principle, I would say yes, even though this brings many problems. It's a positive thing that today we can know a lot about other religions. A different question, of course, is whether we do want to be in the know. There are people who don't -- they already know everything, without studying the Islam.

Who doesn't want to know?

For one, the fundamental Christians who take everything the Bible says literally and say they don't need any other religions. Then there are the very secular people, dogmatists of laicism. They get worked up simply when the word religion is mentioned, and they think that we should not talk about it in schools. They have issues with the fact that religion, again, is a powerful factor in world history.

According to a survey, not Christianity but Buddhism is the most likeable religion for Germans. How do you explain that?

Buddhism, in the West, is perceived as being free from dogmas, as a religion without many rules. It is a religion that's turned to the inside and that emphasizes meditation. It is a religion, which has no anthropomorphic, concrete picture of the last reality.

The other is that Christianity -- with its concentration of power -- gets on many people's nerves. When we have a pope, who claims that -- as theological Lord of the world -- only those who are with him are true Christians and that only his Roman-Catholic Church is the true church, it gets on many people's nerves. Even though they don't protest publicly, they will turn away and say they don't want to have anything to do with that.

Labels: Buddhism, Christianity, Germany, Global Ethic Foundation, Hans Küng, Islam, religion

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Tuesday, June 19, 2007

S Koreans go online for divine

Mon May 28,
SEOUL (AFP) -

Online worship is thriving among South Koreans who are too busy to attend churches or temples, or who simply want to browse their preferred sermon, a news report said Monday.

Chosun Ilbo newspaper said some 135,000 people a day heard sermons on the website of
South Korea's largest church, the Yoido Full Gospel Church, compared to 40,000 or 50,000 who attended its Sunday services.

It said the number of religious websites on the country's largest Internet portal Naver was rising, with non-Catholic Christian churches accounting for 5,394, Catholicism 815 and Buddhism 1,439.

"It saves time and also allows me to pick whatever sermon I like," artist Lee Seong-Su, 32, who logs on to a church website at home on Sundays, told the paper.

In lieu of a collection plate, he makes an online donation.

Some believers in Won Buddhism, a religion indigenous to South Korea, observed Buddha's birthday last week only through the Internet, Chosun added.

It said priests were divided over the trend.

"The reality is that people are getting too busy to gather at a church service or Sunday mass," one told Chosun, describing the Internet as an effective evangelical tool.

But another priest hit back, saying: "A crucial part of religious activities is to meet with people. Salvation is in the temple, not on the Internet."

About 70 percent of South Koreans have access to broadband. The country also has East Asia's largest Christian population, after the Philippines.

Labels: Buddhism, Christian, church, Korea, online

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Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Dalai Lama: Feeling Of Peace

Wednesday, April 25, 2007 20:47
By Christie Wilson
Advertiser Neighbor Island Editor

The Honolulu Advertiser WAILUKU, Maui —

Even before the Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso appeared on stage yesterday at War Memorial Stadium, his message of peace and compassion permeated through the crowd, estimated at more than 10,000."You get that vibe that everyone's together," said Mike Serro, 27, of Brooklyn, N.Y., as he wandered around the booths selling food and Tibetan crafts with Jen Bino, 25, of Toronto.

"I'm just thinking how lucky I am that he's here right now. It's amazing," Bino said about the Dalai Lama's first visit to Maui.

Wailuku resident Tina Del Dotto said she's not a Buddhist and never studied Buddhism, but felt a need to experience the occasion. "If there was going to be an opportunity to be with people of Maui who have a heart of peace and kindness in this world of turmoil, I want to feel that Maui energy and the peace," said Del Dotto, 55.

The 71-year-old spiritual leader, Nobel Peace Prize winner and author of the best-selling "The Art of Happiness" fled into exile in India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese communist rule in Tibet. He continues to negotiate with the Chinese government over maintaining some degree of self-rule and cultural autonomy for Tibet.

A group of kumu hula from four islands yesterday welcomed the Dalai Lama with a series of oli and lei offerings, followed by a performance by Halau Hula Wehiwehi O Leilehua. The guest of honor noted with a chuckle that the women's Hawaiian garb resembled the robes worn by Buddhist nuns.

He was quick to laugh throughout his hour-plus talk, titled "The Human Approach to World Peace," enchanting the crowd with his humor and humble demeanor.

The Dalai Lama said religion may not be essential to a happy life, but that respect for basic human values is.

Many people consider love and compassion as a religious matter and not important in daily life, the Tibetan leader said. "That's totally wrong, he said." In fact, in a busy world, love and compassion are even more critical than ever, he said.

Just as we choose the right foods that are good for our bodies, we should make proper choices from our "supermarket of emotions" for the good of our mental health, he said, avoiding hatred, jealousy, envy and anger.

Labels: Buddhism, Christie Wilson, compassion, Dalai Lama, love, values

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Saturday, March 31, 2007

Finding simplicity and beauty

by Interfaith Works or The Olympian.

It has been reported that when Albert Einstein was asked about the secret that holds the universe together, he replied, "When we discover it, the answer will be simple and beautiful."

We are bombarded by the complexities of life everywhere we turn; we are exposed to more information in a few years than our ancestors 100 years ago ever had to contend with. It seems like we are drowning in knowledge and thirsting for wisdom. The Rev. Richard Rohr noted that we can put a man on the moon, but fathers don't know how to talk to their sons.

The great commandments are simple - love God and each other with the same passion - yet it seems that such simplicity asks too much of us, so we build nuance upon commentary, and in so doing, free ourselves from the obligation to love.

We are entering a holy season for many and it invites us into a period of reflecting upon the wisdom of our faith. In April alone, we will be celebrating Passover, Holy Week, Easter, the organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and the Buddha's birthday.

Faith traditions offer simple guidance that shimmers across the spiritual landscape, but there is something within us that resists such wisdom. Perhaps it's because we don't like the challenge that such simple words offer to our sense of sophistication.

To celebrate this season of rebirth and renewal, I would like to offer a few words from the major faith traditions, hoping to entice each of us to return to our roots and know the joy that wisdom brings.

In Buddhism: "Hatred never ceases by hatred, but by love alone is it healed." The Dhammapada, Chapter 1, verse 5

In Christianity: "Love your enemies and pray for those who hurt you." Matthew 5:44

In Judaism: "He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." Micah 6:8

In Islam: "Those who act kindly in this world will have kindness." Qur'an 39.10

Can you imagine what human history would look like if people of faith had taken these simple injunctions seriously? My prayer is that for these days of April, each of us, regardless of our tradition, would return to the sources of our faith and see what simple words would nourish our souls if we would but let them. Then, from that wellspring, may we come together to create a world that is simply beautiful.

The Rev. Canon David C. James is rector for St. John's Episcopal Church in Olympia.

Labels: Buddhism, Christianity, Islamic, Judaism, simplicity