Buddhism

© FWBO.org

The first question Buddhists get asked when they meet non-Buddhists is, as likely as not, What is nirvana? Certainly, when I was a Buddhist monk travelling about India, I used to find on trains that no sooner had I taken my seat than someone would come up to me (for in India people are by no means bashful when it comes to striking up conversation) and say, You seem to be a Buddhist monk. Please tell me — what is nirvana?Indeed, it is a very appropriate question to ask. The question is, after all, addressing the whole point of being a Buddhist. You may see Buddhists engaged in all sorts of different activities, but they all have the same overall purpose in view. You may see shaven-headed Japanese monks in their long black robes sitting in disciplined rows, meditating hour after hour in the silence and tranquillity of a Zen monastery.

You may see ordinary Tibetans going in the early morning up the steps of the temples, carrying their flowers and their candles and their bundles of incense sticks, kneeling down and making their offerings, chanting verses of praise to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha, and then going about their daily business. You may see Sri Lankan monks poring over palm-leaf manuscripts, the pages brown with age. You may see layfolk in the Theravadin countries of South-east Asia giving alms to the monks when they come round with their black begging-bowls. You may see western Buddhists working together in Right Livelihood businesses. When you see unfolded this whole vast panorama of Buddhist activities, the question that arises is: Why? What is the reason for it all? What is the moving spirit, the great impulse behind all this activity? What are all these people trying to do? What are they trying to achieve through their meditation, their worshipping, their study, their alms-giving, their work, and so on? If you asked this of any of these people, you would probably receive the traditional answer: We’re doing this for the sake of the attainment of nirvana, liberation, Enlightenment. But what then is this nirvana?...

A boy chosen by the Dalai Lama as a reincarnation of a spiritual leader has opted to turn his back on the Buddhist order, claiming that he had been taken away from his family and that he had suffered a great deal as a result of him being chosen."As a toddler, he was put on a throne and worshipped by monks who treated him like a god.

But the boy chosen by the Dalai Lama as a reincarnation of a spiritual leader has caused consternation – and some embarrassment – for Tibetan Buddhists by turning his back on the order that had such high hopes for him."

View: Full Article | Source: GuardianUnlimited

The Sarnath Buddhist monastery, in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, is revered as the site of the Buddha"s first discourse after his enlightment - the stream from which the teachings of Buddhism flowed.But if you visit the monastery between 20 and 31 January, you couldwitness the start of a new stream of teaching.

More than 30 Tibetan monks, plus a handful of nuns, will be collaborating with a team from San Francisco"s Exploratorium ("the museum of art, science and human perception") to build exotic machines to create patterns from sunlight using cardboard, dowels, reflective sheets of mylar and electroniccomponents.

View: Full Article | Source: New Scientist

Chinese archaeologists have claimed that a 1,000-year-old miniature pagoda, unearthed in Nanjing, holds a piece of skull belonging to Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism. The pagoda was wedged tightly inside an iron case that was discovered at the site of a former temple in the city in August. The four-storey pagoda, which is almost four feet high and one-and-a-half feet wide, is thought by archaeologists to be one of the 84,000 pagodas commissioned by Ashoka the Great in the second century BC to house the remains of the Buddha. Ashoka, one of India"s greatest emperors, converted to Buddhism after waging a bloody war in the eastern state of Orissa. He is widelycredited with spreading Buddhism throughout Asia, and across his kingdom, which stretched from Pakistan through Afghanistan and into Iran.

The pagoda found in Nanjing is crafted from wood, gilded with silver and inlaid with gold, coloured glass and amber. It matches a description of another of Ashoka"s pagodas which used to be housed underneath the Changgan Buddhist temple in Nanjing. A description of the contents of the pagoda was also found: a gold coffin bearing part of Buddha"s skull inside a silver box. Although scans have confirmed that there are two small metal boxes inside the pagoda, experts have not yet peered inside. The pagoda is currently on display in the museum. Qi Haining, the head of archaeology at Nanjing Museum, told state media: "This pagoda may be unique, theonly one known to contain parts of Buddha"s skull". But he said there would be a lengthy process before the cases could be opened. In 2001, Chinese authorities found a case that was said to contain a relic of Buddha"s hair, but declined to open the welded box in case it damaged the contents. De Qing, an expert in Buddhism in Nanjing, said: "The discovery of the relic will have a huge influence on the cultural history of Buddhism in China and will establish Nanjing as a premier site.

View: Full Article | Source: The Telegraph