පූජ්ය විද්යාවේදී, පිටිදූවේ සිරිධම්ම ස්වාමීන් වහන්සේ විසින් දේශනා කරන ලද, "ධජග්ග සූත්රය" සහ "මුර පිරිත" සිංහළ
"Dhajagga Suttraya" ,the Buddhism speech is made by Ven. scientist. Pitiduwe Siridhamma Thero.
here is it in YouTube , The Video made by me, Priyantha De Silva, for your best knowledge.
අපි නොදන්නා පාලි සද්ධර්මය , පිරිසිදු සිංහලෙන් දේශනා කල වදාල පිටිදූවේ සිරිධම්ම ස්වාමීන් වහන්සේට ප්රාර්ථනීය බෝධිය කින් නිවන් අවබෝධ වීමට මේ පිං උපකාරී වේවා !
Showing posts with label International Opinian about Buddhism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label International Opinian about Buddhism. Show all posts
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Practise of Buddhism in Singapore
Practise of Buddhism in Singapore
Dhamma in practise, not just words
--Lakbima Online
by Dharma Sri Thilakawardena
Extracts from an interview with Ven.Dr.K.Gunarathana Thera, a patron of the Maha Karuna Buddhist Organization of Singapore.
Q. People in developed countries enormously rich with power and wealth are grappling with the search for spiritual tranquility in the modern world. How is the trend in Singapore where you are domiciled? Are the people in Singapore inspired to embrace Buddhism to meet this end?
A. Yes. This is especially so in the case of Chinese domiciled in Singapore. These people do not take for granted the Buddhism that we preach. They probe and argue before accepting. They are not in the habit of practising Buddhism as a fashion to impress the neighbours. They are not prepared to roam about temples merely for the purpose of salutation. In their view, realisation of the truth is a mental process. Because of this attitude Chinese Singaporeans are amazingly attracted to Buddhism nowadays in Singapore. They study the Dhamma not to pass examinations but to apply the teachings practically in day-to-day life.
The people in our country under the modern way of life have no time to be conscious of spiritual solace. They are weary of finding solutions to economic problems. Our ancestors did not have too many aspirations. As against this background, modern life of people is filled with desires covering a vast spectrum from the unborn child right up to the aged who are nearing the grave. Therefore, they are ignorant of spiritual bliss and are concerned with only material welfare.
Europeans suffer from mental unrest more than the people living in Sri Lanka. Europeans are imprisoned in a mechanical world. As far as Singapore is concerned, every citizen is indebted to the state. Therefore, they have to work day and night in order to repay debts. They earn money but have no mental rest. Under such circumstances they are prone to look out for places where they can obtain mental calmness. The majority of Europeans who embrace Buddhism are those who seek mental relief.
Q. Do you observe a decline in organised activity among Buddhists in Sri Lanka?
A. Yes. All Buddhist organizations in our country should unite under one banner. If that takes place, the so-called threats to Buddhism will not be difficult to be brought under control. Singapore is the only country where you find a Buddhist organisation in which Sinhala Buddhists wield power.
Q. All the time we are talking about ushering in a righteous society in Sri Lanka. Yet, crime is soaring high day by day. Why is that?
A. Leniency of the law is the basic factor behind the rise of crime. Whatever the gravity of the crime committed, there are people to defend the offender. This phenomenon tends to erase from the criminal, the fear to commit crimes. They start committing murders, assault people and molest women under the eyes of hundreds of people in broad daylight. People who witness such criminal scenes turn the other way fearing repercussions if they intervene. Criminals must be punished. Even during the time of Buddha, offenders were subject to severe punishment.
In countries like Singapore, not only law enforcers, but also those who are protected under the law are keen to abide by the law. In Singapore, a young woman can walk in the streets at 12 midnight without any harm. On the contrary, even at 12 noon, a young woman is not safe on our streets.
First of all we must be true to ourselves.
Before we blame the neighbour or the ruler, we must identify ourselves and correct our frailties. To do wrong and blame others in order to cleanse ourselves is not the right thing to do.
For instance, our President took steps to put an end to alcoholism.
At the beginning, criticism rose from all corners. But the President was determined and went ahead with the campaign. It has proved to be a success. This is an example worthy of emulation. Things started with good intention will not fail.
We need not strive to make Sri Lanka another Singapore. We have a religion, a culture and a civilisation to call our own. We have a set of rules and regulations.
Sri Lanka was reckoned as the spring of justice and the source of morals over a period of 2500 years. We have to mend our way. We must obey the law.
The Buddhist clergy has a great responsibility to discharge this.
If laymen do not come to the temple may Bhikkus go after laymen to put them on the correct track. If a layman cannot understand the word of the Buddha even after preaching 100 times, revisit him another round of 100 times to make him understand.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Merkel backs Dalai Lama's quest for Tibetan cultural autonomy
Merkel backs Dalai Lama's quest for Tibetan cultural autonomy
German Chancellor Angela Merkel meets Dalai Lama.
BERLIN : Defying pressure from China, German Chancellor Angela Merkel held an historic meeting with the Dalai Lama on Sunday, and gave support to the Buddhist leader's quest for cultural autonomy for Tibet.
"The chancellor paid tribute to the Dalai Lama as a religious leader and assured him of support for his efforts to preserve the cultural identity of Tibet and for his peaceful quest for religious and cultural autonomy," her spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm said afterwards.
The meeting lasted almost an hour and marked the first time that the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, whose worldwide following is a thorn in China's side, has been received by a German chancellor.
It came just weeks after a three-day visit by Merkel to China in which she took a tough line on human rights issues.
Merkel's office, like the Dalai Lama in an interview with a German newspaper, took care however to point out that he is not demanding full independence from China, which sent its troops into Tibet in 1950.
Wilhelm said the Dalai Lama told Merkel about his role as the highest spiritual authority of Tibetan Buddhism and his work on behalf of the Himalayan region he fled almost half a century ago.
"The 1989 Nobel Peace prize winner stressed the peaceful, non-violent nature of his engagement, which expressly excludes striving for independence for Tibet from the People's Republic of China," he said.
In recent days, China has denounced the Dalai Lama as a separatist who seeks to harm the country interests and warned Berlin to retract the invitation to the chancellery.
On Sunday, Chinese officials snubbed a meeting with German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries in Munich in apparent retaliation.
The Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily at the weekend spoke of "a crisis" between the two countries and said Merkel had gone against the advice of senior officials in pursuing the meeting.
China is Germany's biggest trading partner in the Asia-Pacific region.
Merkel was seen as breaking diplomatic ground during her visit in August when she invited President Hu Jintao to discuss human rights, met with a journalist who has fallen foul of Chinese censors and called for freedom of expression.
The Dalai Lama, in an interview with the same German newspaper, said he was "very impressed" with the chancellor. He said he felt a special bond with her because, having grown up in East Germany, she has also experienced communism.
"What I appreciate about Ms Merkel, is her steady engagement on human rights and religious freedom, as well as her commitment to the environment.
"Perhaps that is why she wants to see me, in spite of all the pressure from China."
He accused China of arrogance and said it would one day have to bow to international pressure on Tibet.
"It is simply China's attitude. It is the arrogance of power. Wherever I go, China protests," he said.
"I believe that in the long run, international opinion will have a positive influence on the Chinese government. The more sensitive among the country's political leaders realise that their image in the outside world depends strongly on how they treat Tibet."
The Dalai Lama has led a Tibetan government-in-exile in India since fleeing his home region in 1959 after a failed uprising.
Observers have remarked that he is maintaining a strong presence on the world stage at a time when China's human rights record is under the spotlight as it prepares to host the 2008 Olympic Games.
He met with Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer last week, also amid protest from China, and will receive the "Congressional Gold medal" from US lawmakers in October. He is also expected to hold talks with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper next month.
He won the Nobel prize for his non-violent approach to relations with Beijing.
- AFP /ls
German Chancellor Angela Merkel meets Dalai Lama.
BERLIN : Defying pressure from China, German Chancellor Angela Merkel held an historic meeting with the Dalai Lama on Sunday, and gave support to the Buddhist leader's quest for cultural autonomy for Tibet.
"The chancellor paid tribute to the Dalai Lama as a religious leader and assured him of support for his efforts to preserve the cultural identity of Tibet and for his peaceful quest for religious and cultural autonomy," her spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm said afterwards.
The meeting lasted almost an hour and marked the first time that the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, whose worldwide following is a thorn in China's side, has been received by a German chancellor.
It came just weeks after a three-day visit by Merkel to China in which she took a tough line on human rights issues.
Merkel's office, like the Dalai Lama in an interview with a German newspaper, took care however to point out that he is not demanding full independence from China, which sent its troops into Tibet in 1950.
Wilhelm said the Dalai Lama told Merkel about his role as the highest spiritual authority of Tibetan Buddhism and his work on behalf of the Himalayan region he fled almost half a century ago.
"The 1989 Nobel Peace prize winner stressed the peaceful, non-violent nature of his engagement, which expressly excludes striving for independence for Tibet from the People's Republic of China," he said.
In recent days, China has denounced the Dalai Lama as a separatist who seeks to harm the country interests and warned Berlin to retract the invitation to the chancellery.
On Sunday, Chinese officials snubbed a meeting with German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries in Munich in apparent retaliation.
The Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily at the weekend spoke of "a crisis" between the two countries and said Merkel had gone against the advice of senior officials in pursuing the meeting.
China is Germany's biggest trading partner in the Asia-Pacific region.
Merkel was seen as breaking diplomatic ground during her visit in August when she invited President Hu Jintao to discuss human rights, met with a journalist who has fallen foul of Chinese censors and called for freedom of expression.
The Dalai Lama, in an interview with the same German newspaper, said he was "very impressed" with the chancellor. He said he felt a special bond with her because, having grown up in East Germany, she has also experienced communism.
"What I appreciate about Ms Merkel, is her steady engagement on human rights and religious freedom, as well as her commitment to the environment.
"Perhaps that is why she wants to see me, in spite of all the pressure from China."
He accused China of arrogance and said it would one day have to bow to international pressure on Tibet.
"It is simply China's attitude. It is the arrogance of power. Wherever I go, China protests," he said.
"I believe that in the long run, international opinion will have a positive influence on the Chinese government. The more sensitive among the country's political leaders realise that their image in the outside world depends strongly on how they treat Tibet."
The Dalai Lama has led a Tibetan government-in-exile in India since fleeing his home region in 1959 after a failed uprising.
Observers have remarked that he is maintaining a strong presence on the world stage at a time when China's human rights record is under the spotlight as it prepares to host the 2008 Olympic Games.
He met with Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer last week, also amid protest from China, and will receive the "Congressional Gold medal" from US lawmakers in October. He is also expected to hold talks with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper next month.
He won the Nobel prize for his non-violent approach to relations with Beijing.
- AFP /ls
Saturday, September 8, 2007
THE SIX PATHS and THE FOUR NOBLE WORLDS
How To Live as Humans:
THE SIX PATHS and THE FOUR NOBLE WORLDS
What separates humans from animals is less distinct than we might expect. The examination of human nature not only holds interest for philosophers, but concerns all of us directly. How should humans live? If we trace our lineage in the context of life’s evolution on the Earth, we find that our species is a comparatively recent phenomenon. The Earth is about four and a half billion years old. The origin of the ancestral stock of the African apes and humans, although uncertain, seems to be no earlier than thirteen million years ago. The Neanderthals, an early relative of modern human beings, are believed to have lived about 100,000 to 30,000 years ago. Although scientific investigation has not yet pinned down the moment of divergence between humans and apes, it is clear that we have a far longer history as animals than as humans.
In the course of evolution, Homo Sapiens have developed the ability to reason as this name "man the wise" indicates. Animals live predominantly according to instinct. As a result, their influence cannot exceed what is prescribed by their natures. Through our intelligence, however, humans can exercise good or bad influence far beyond what seem to be our natural limits. A shark may bite a surfer’s leg dangling beneath the surface, but it cannot make a bomb capable of annihilating all life on the planet. Perhaps due to our long history as animals, we amplify--ironically through intelligence--our animalistic impulses to seek selfish pleasure and thus destroy what we fear and bring harm not only upon ourselves, but also upon many other species.
From various perspectives, Buddhism throws light on the workings of human nature. One Buddhist concept that does so is the Ten Worlds, originally described as distinct realms into which people are born according to their past actions (karma). From the lowest, they are the worlds of hell, hungry spirits, animals, asura (warlike demons from Indian mythology), human beings, heavenly beings, voice-hearers, cause-awakened ones, bodhisattvas and Buddhas. In Nichiren Daishonin’s Buddhism, however, the Ten Worlds are viewed as various states of being we experience from moment to moment, rather than distinct physical realms or categories. Then Ten Worlds, therefore, may be understood as the following states: (1) Hell--intense suffering and despair, (2) Hunger--insatiable desire, (3) Animality--selfish stupidity, (4) Anger--arrogance and belligerence, (5) Humanity--temporary balance and tranquillity, (6) Heaven--passing joy and pleasure, (7) Learning, (8) Self-realization, (9) Bodhisattva--altruism, and (10) Buddhahood--supreme happiness characterized by compassion and wisdom.
Buddhism classifies those Ten Worlds into two categories. The six lower states are called "the six paths," and the four higher states "the four noble worlds." Such distinction is made because those who dwell in the six paths are controlled by their environment or physical condition; they experience any of those six states at any moment in response to changing circumstances. People of the four noble worlds, on the other hand, are self-aware, striving to improve themselves regardless of external conditions. The Daishonin succinctly explains the six paths as follows: "Rage is the world of hell, greed is that of hungry spirits, foolishness is that of animals, perversity is that of asura, joy is that of heaven, and calmness is that of human beings" (The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, p. 358, "The Object of Devotion for Observing the Mind"). Common to all six is that they are passive states. It may be said that animals like dogs and cats manifest those states whenever they have an appropriate stimulus. Those of the six paths are slaves to their desires and environment though sat times they may seem carefree, doing whatever is pleasurable. Simply put, those of the six paths are trapped in the dungeon of desires and external circumstances, and have locked the gate to true happiness from the inside through ignorance of their higher potential.
On the contrary, the four noble worlds only emerge when we make deliberate efforts to develop ourselves beyond our natural tendencies. Buddhism, in this sense, defines our humanity in our active will for self-reflection and self-improvement. Regarding those four higher states, the Daishonin comments as follows:" "The fact that all things in the world are transient is perfectly clear to us. Is this not because the worlds of the two vehicles are present in the human world? Even a heartless villain loves his wife and children. He too has a portion of the bodhisattva world within him. Buddhahood is the most difficult to demonstrate. But since you posses s the other nine worlds, you should believe that you have Buddhahood as well" (WND, 358, "The Object of Devotion for Observing the Mind"). Here "the worlds of the two vehicles" refers to the states of learning and self-realization. As people see the transience of the world around them, they come to realize the shallowness of letting their self-worth raise and fall with the ups and downs of circumstance, and seek to expand their knowledge of themselves and the universe. The Daishonin also points out that we are all capable of extending our love and care to others despite our baser instincts. Regarding the state of Buddhahood, the Daishonin also points out that we are all capable of extending our love and care to others despite out baser instincts. Regarding the state of Buddhahood, the Daishonin urges us to overcome our disbelief and reveal this supreme state of happiness through faith. What characterizes people of the four noble worlds is their awareness of the slavish reality of the six paths and their conscious efforts to free themselves from the shackles of selfish desire and attachment.
In once sense, Shakyamuni and other Buddhist teachers expounded their teachings so that people might escape the entrapment of the six paths and pursue more humane ways of living. In early monastic Buddhism, practitioners were encouraged to establish the states of learning and self-realization. Mahayana Buddhism stressed the altruistic state of a bodhisattva. The Lotus Sutra, the supreme teaching of Mahayana Buddhism, illuminates the path of Buddhahood. In this regard, Buddhism teaches us the importance of transforming the animalistic, passive conditions of the six paths into the self-aware, humane states of the four noble worlds.
The necessity to transcend our animalistic nature is stressed not only in Buddhism, but also in many intellectual traditions of the West. For example, in medieval and Renaissance Europe, the human existence was divided into the four categories of the mineral, vegetable, sensual and rational. The man of stone is a man of despair and sloth. He exists but has no will to act; his existence is living death. The vegetable man only lives; he is a man of gluttony who eats, drinks and procreates. The sensual man, like many animals, lives and feels; he seeks pleasure and avoids pain. The rational man, unlike the previous three, lives, perceives and understands; he knows, chooses and acts. An image of the rational is a man at his book, trying to expand his awareness and understanding. As in the Buddhist concept of the Ten Worlds, Renaissance philosophy characterizes humans by their active will to challenge themselves.
In reality, however, it is easy for us to fall into the lifestyle of the six paths where we mistake pleasure for supreme happiness and fail to challenge our weaknesses. This maybe the result of our long history as animals. But if we truly wish to experience the profound sense of fulfillment as human beings, we must, as taught by the wisdom of both East and West, challenge ourselves to manifest the higher states, especially those of bodhisattvas and Buddhas.
Plato quotes his teacher Socrates: "I only wish that ordinary people had an unlimited capacity for doing harm; then they might have an unlimited power for doing good, which would be a splendid thing, if it were so." The ominous first half of his wish has come true with the arrival of the nuclear age. The fulfillment of the rest of Socrates’ wish, it seems, depends greatly upon how willing we are to challenge ourselves to live as humanly and humanely as possible in the twenty-first century.
July 2000
Living Buddhism
Page 6
By Shin Yatomi, SGI-USA vice Study Department chief, partly based on Yasashii Kyogaku (Easy Buddhist Study), published by the Seikyo Press in 1994.
THE SIX PATHS and THE FOUR NOBLE WORLDS
What separates humans from animals is less distinct than we might expect. The examination of human nature not only holds interest for philosophers, but concerns all of us directly. How should humans live? If we trace our lineage in the context of life’s evolution on the Earth, we find that our species is a comparatively recent phenomenon. The Earth is about four and a half billion years old. The origin of the ancestral stock of the African apes and humans, although uncertain, seems to be no earlier than thirteen million years ago. The Neanderthals, an early relative of modern human beings, are believed to have lived about 100,000 to 30,000 years ago. Although scientific investigation has not yet pinned down the moment of divergence between humans and apes, it is clear that we have a far longer history as animals than as humans.
In the course of evolution, Homo Sapiens have developed the ability to reason as this name "man the wise" indicates. Animals live predominantly according to instinct. As a result, their influence cannot exceed what is prescribed by their natures. Through our intelligence, however, humans can exercise good or bad influence far beyond what seem to be our natural limits. A shark may bite a surfer’s leg dangling beneath the surface, but it cannot make a bomb capable of annihilating all life on the planet. Perhaps due to our long history as animals, we amplify--ironically through intelligence--our animalistic impulses to seek selfish pleasure and thus destroy what we fear and bring harm not only upon ourselves, but also upon many other species.
From various perspectives, Buddhism throws light on the workings of human nature. One Buddhist concept that does so is the Ten Worlds, originally described as distinct realms into which people are born according to their past actions (karma). From the lowest, they are the worlds of hell, hungry spirits, animals, asura (warlike demons from Indian mythology), human beings, heavenly beings, voice-hearers, cause-awakened ones, bodhisattvas and Buddhas. In Nichiren Daishonin’s Buddhism, however, the Ten Worlds are viewed as various states of being we experience from moment to moment, rather than distinct physical realms or categories. Then Ten Worlds, therefore, may be understood as the following states: (1) Hell--intense suffering and despair, (2) Hunger--insatiable desire, (3) Animality--selfish stupidity, (4) Anger--arrogance and belligerence, (5) Humanity--temporary balance and tranquillity, (6) Heaven--passing joy and pleasure, (7) Learning, (8) Self-realization, (9) Bodhisattva--altruism, and (10) Buddhahood--supreme happiness characterized by compassion and wisdom.
Buddhism classifies those Ten Worlds into two categories. The six lower states are called "the six paths," and the four higher states "the four noble worlds." Such distinction is made because those who dwell in the six paths are controlled by their environment or physical condition; they experience any of those six states at any moment in response to changing circumstances. People of the four noble worlds, on the other hand, are self-aware, striving to improve themselves regardless of external conditions. The Daishonin succinctly explains the six paths as follows: "Rage is the world of hell, greed is that of hungry spirits, foolishness is that of animals, perversity is that of asura, joy is that of heaven, and calmness is that of human beings" (The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, p. 358, "The Object of Devotion for Observing the Mind"). Common to all six is that they are passive states. It may be said that animals like dogs and cats manifest those states whenever they have an appropriate stimulus. Those of the six paths are slaves to their desires and environment though sat times they may seem carefree, doing whatever is pleasurable. Simply put, those of the six paths are trapped in the dungeon of desires and external circumstances, and have locked the gate to true happiness from the inside through ignorance of their higher potential.
On the contrary, the four noble worlds only emerge when we make deliberate efforts to develop ourselves beyond our natural tendencies. Buddhism, in this sense, defines our humanity in our active will for self-reflection and self-improvement. Regarding those four higher states, the Daishonin comments as follows:" "The fact that all things in the world are transient is perfectly clear to us. Is this not because the worlds of the two vehicles are present in the human world? Even a heartless villain loves his wife and children. He too has a portion of the bodhisattva world within him. Buddhahood is the most difficult to demonstrate. But since you posses s the other nine worlds, you should believe that you have Buddhahood as well" (WND, 358, "The Object of Devotion for Observing the Mind"). Here "the worlds of the two vehicles" refers to the states of learning and self-realization. As people see the transience of the world around them, they come to realize the shallowness of letting their self-worth raise and fall with the ups and downs of circumstance, and seek to expand their knowledge of themselves and the universe. The Daishonin also points out that we are all capable of extending our love and care to others despite our baser instincts. Regarding the state of Buddhahood, the Daishonin also points out that we are all capable of extending our love and care to others despite out baser instincts. Regarding the state of Buddhahood, the Daishonin urges us to overcome our disbelief and reveal this supreme state of happiness through faith. What characterizes people of the four noble worlds is their awareness of the slavish reality of the six paths and their conscious efforts to free themselves from the shackles of selfish desire and attachment.
In once sense, Shakyamuni and other Buddhist teachers expounded their teachings so that people might escape the entrapment of the six paths and pursue more humane ways of living. In early monastic Buddhism, practitioners were encouraged to establish the states of learning and self-realization. Mahayana Buddhism stressed the altruistic state of a bodhisattva. The Lotus Sutra, the supreme teaching of Mahayana Buddhism, illuminates the path of Buddhahood. In this regard, Buddhism teaches us the importance of transforming the animalistic, passive conditions of the six paths into the self-aware, humane states of the four noble worlds.
The necessity to transcend our animalistic nature is stressed not only in Buddhism, but also in many intellectual traditions of the West. For example, in medieval and Renaissance Europe, the human existence was divided into the four categories of the mineral, vegetable, sensual and rational. The man of stone is a man of despair and sloth. He exists but has no will to act; his existence is living death. The vegetable man only lives; he is a man of gluttony who eats, drinks and procreates. The sensual man, like many animals, lives and feels; he seeks pleasure and avoids pain. The rational man, unlike the previous three, lives, perceives and understands; he knows, chooses and acts. An image of the rational is a man at his book, trying to expand his awareness and understanding. As in the Buddhist concept of the Ten Worlds, Renaissance philosophy characterizes humans by their active will to challenge themselves.
In reality, however, it is easy for us to fall into the lifestyle of the six paths where we mistake pleasure for supreme happiness and fail to challenge our weaknesses. This maybe the result of our long history as animals. But if we truly wish to experience the profound sense of fulfillment as human beings, we must, as taught by the wisdom of both East and West, challenge ourselves to manifest the higher states, especially those of bodhisattvas and Buddhas.
Plato quotes his teacher Socrates: "I only wish that ordinary people had an unlimited capacity for doing harm; then they might have an unlimited power for doing good, which would be a splendid thing, if it were so." The ominous first half of his wish has come true with the arrival of the nuclear age. The fulfillment of the rest of Socrates’ wish, it seems, depends greatly upon how willing we are to challenge ourselves to live as humanly and humanely as possible in the twenty-first century.
July 2000
Living Buddhism
Page 6
By Shin Yatomi, SGI-USA vice Study Department chief, partly based on Yasashii Kyogaku (Easy Buddhist Study), published by the Seikyo Press in 1994.
The Roots of Today's Buddhism
The Roots of Today's Buddhism
By PETER STEINFELS
Even though the historic Buddha, Prince Siddhartha Gautama, is said to have lived approximately 2,500 years ago, Buddhism is often viewed as the most modern of world religions.
Nontheistic, nondogmatic, nonviolent, emphasizing individual practice rather than institutional membership or obligations, the Buddhism expounded by, say, the Dalai Lama fits nicely with a modern, largely Western world view based on science and respect for the individual. Maybe that explains why it seems to attract so many physicists and psychotherapists.
Is this modernity surprising? Not really, because this Buddhism is itself a modern creation, a late-19th-century development deeply influenced by Western ideas even while emerging as a counterweight to Western colonial domination.
That, at any rate, is the intriguing point made by Donald S. Lopez Jr., a leading scholar of Buddhism, in his introduction to "A Modern Buddhist Bible: Essential Readings from East and West," just published by Beacon Press and excerpted in the fall issue of the Buddhist review Tricycle.
Professor Lopez, who teaches Buddhist and Tibetan studies at the University of Michigan, describes how a handful of cosmopolitan Buddhist intellectuals from Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Thailand, Burma (now Myanmar), China and Japan created this modern Buddhism. They were aided, curiously enough, by an American, Col. Henry Steel Olcott.
In 1875, Olcott co-founded, with Helena Blavatsky, the Theosophical Society for the study and propagation of an esoteric religious knowledge drawing on spiritualism, Eastern religions and 19th-century science. Five years later, Olcott and Blavatsky went to Ceylon where he embraced Buddhism and was soon founding a Young Men's Buddhist Association, publishing the first "Buddhist Catechism," trying to unite all the different forms of Asian Buddhism around a common denominator of beliefs and encouraging the leaders and intellectuals who would reshape Buddhism for their time.
Naturally, this new Buddhism presented itself as a return to the authentic teachings of the Buddha. The Buddhism of the Buddha's experience of enlightenment was seen, Professor Lopez writes, as "most compatible with the ideals of the European Enlightenment, ideals such as reason, empiricism, science, universalism, individualism, tolerance, freedom, and the rejection of religious orthodoxy, precisely those notions that have appealed so much to Western converts."
In effect, this modern Buddhism distanced itself from the actual Buddhism surrounding it. It rejected many ritual elements, Professor Lopez writes, implicitly conceding the charges of Western officials and missionaries that Buddhist populations were ridden by superstition and burdened by exploitative monastic establishments: "The time was ripe to remove the encrustations of the past centuries and return to the essence of Buddhism."
That essence was to be found in Buddhist texts and philosophy, not in the daily round of "monks who chanted sutras, performed rituals for the dead and maintained monastic properties."
The pervasive Buddhist practice of venerating images and relics of the Buddha, which Christian missionaries had considered idolatry, was de-emphasized. Traditional lines dividing monks and lay people were blurred. Important roles were restored to women. The fundamental Buddhist concern to bring an end to suffering now encompassed support for social justice, economic modernization and freedom from colonialism.
Central to modern Buddhism was meditation, an emphasis, Professor Lopez says, that "marked one of the most extreme departures of modern Buddhism from previous forms," which had made meditation only one of many spiritual activities and not necessarily the highest, even within monastic institutions.
Meditation now became a practice recommended for everyone, and also "allowed modern Buddhism generally to dismiss the rituals of consecration, purification, expiation and exorcism so common throughout Asia as extraneous elements that had crept into the tradition," he writes.
The emergence of modern Buddhism, as Professor Lopez describes it, played out a little differently in each Buddhist land. It did not touch Tibetan Buddhism, for example, until the Dalai Lama left Tibet and interacted with a Western audience.
Professor Lopez also notes that this idea of periodically reforming Buddhism from inevitable decline by returning to its roots was found within the tradition itself. But a Westerner reading this history cannot help but think of another religious response to modernization, the Protestant Reformation, with its claim to restore a pure primitive Christianity, its emphasis on equality rather than hierarchy and its rejection of sacrament and ritual in favor of individual piety and introspection.
Protestant as well as Enlightenment ideals were of course very much part of the Western modernity that these Asian Buddhist thinkers were coming to terms with. After all, the British arrived in India, where Buddhism had begun and once flourished, centuries after it had died out there. So they found "Buddhist texts, artifacts and stupas," Professor Lopez said in a phone conversation, "but no Buddhists."
Thus Buddhism, he said, was a screen on which Europeans could project many of their own notions: the British in India, for example, sometimes calling the Buddha the "Luther of India" because he had supposedly challenged the Vedic priesthood and its rituals just as Luther had the Catholic priesthood and its sacramentalism.
Not only did British ideas of Buddhism reflect Victorian anti-Catholicism, he said; sometimes they carried a whiff of anti-Semitism, too: Buddhism could be admired because, unlike Judaism, Christianity and Islam, it had no Semitic origins.
Professor Lopez, it should be emphasized, is not questioning the authenticity of this modern Buddhism; he wants to give its creators, who have often been dismissed by scholars, their due.
Of course, his account does give the lie to the idea that the Buddhism the West, and even some of the East, now knows is the one true Buddhism, rather than one of the many Buddhisms that have evolved as an ancient teaching has interacted over two millennia with different cultures.
But that idea should be disturbing only to those who believe that great religious traditions can remain immutable and untouched by history.
By PETER STEINFELS
Even though the historic Buddha, Prince Siddhartha Gautama, is said to have lived approximately 2,500 years ago, Buddhism is often viewed as the most modern of world religions.
Nontheistic, nondogmatic, nonviolent, emphasizing individual practice rather than institutional membership or obligations, the Buddhism expounded by, say, the Dalai Lama fits nicely with a modern, largely Western world view based on science and respect for the individual. Maybe that explains why it seems to attract so many physicists and psychotherapists.
Is this modernity surprising? Not really, because this Buddhism is itself a modern creation, a late-19th-century development deeply influenced by Western ideas even while emerging as a counterweight to Western colonial domination.
That, at any rate, is the intriguing point made by Donald S. Lopez Jr., a leading scholar of Buddhism, in his introduction to "A Modern Buddhist Bible: Essential Readings from East and West," just published by Beacon Press and excerpted in the fall issue of the Buddhist review Tricycle.
Professor Lopez, who teaches Buddhist and Tibetan studies at the University of Michigan, describes how a handful of cosmopolitan Buddhist intellectuals from Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Thailand, Burma (now Myanmar), China and Japan created this modern Buddhism. They were aided, curiously enough, by an American, Col. Henry Steel Olcott.
In 1875, Olcott co-founded, with Helena Blavatsky, the Theosophical Society for the study and propagation of an esoteric religious knowledge drawing on spiritualism, Eastern religions and 19th-century science. Five years later, Olcott and Blavatsky went to Ceylon where he embraced Buddhism and was soon founding a Young Men's Buddhist Association, publishing the first "Buddhist Catechism," trying to unite all the different forms of Asian Buddhism around a common denominator of beliefs and encouraging the leaders and intellectuals who would reshape Buddhism for their time.
Naturally, this new Buddhism presented itself as a return to the authentic teachings of the Buddha. The Buddhism of the Buddha's experience of enlightenment was seen, Professor Lopez writes, as "most compatible with the ideals of the European Enlightenment, ideals such as reason, empiricism, science, universalism, individualism, tolerance, freedom, and the rejection of religious orthodoxy, precisely those notions that have appealed so much to Western converts."
In effect, this modern Buddhism distanced itself from the actual Buddhism surrounding it. It rejected many ritual elements, Professor Lopez writes, implicitly conceding the charges of Western officials and missionaries that Buddhist populations were ridden by superstition and burdened by exploitative monastic establishments: "The time was ripe to remove the encrustations of the past centuries and return to the essence of Buddhism."
That essence was to be found in Buddhist texts and philosophy, not in the daily round of "monks who chanted sutras, performed rituals for the dead and maintained monastic properties."
The pervasive Buddhist practice of venerating images and relics of the Buddha, which Christian missionaries had considered idolatry, was de-emphasized. Traditional lines dividing monks and lay people were blurred. Important roles were restored to women. The fundamental Buddhist concern to bring an end to suffering now encompassed support for social justice, economic modernization and freedom from colonialism.
Central to modern Buddhism was meditation, an emphasis, Professor Lopez says, that "marked one of the most extreme departures of modern Buddhism from previous forms," which had made meditation only one of many spiritual activities and not necessarily the highest, even within monastic institutions.
Meditation now became a practice recommended for everyone, and also "allowed modern Buddhism generally to dismiss the rituals of consecration, purification, expiation and exorcism so common throughout Asia as extraneous elements that had crept into the tradition," he writes.
The emergence of modern Buddhism, as Professor Lopez describes it, played out a little differently in each Buddhist land. It did not touch Tibetan Buddhism, for example, until the Dalai Lama left Tibet and interacted with a Western audience.
Professor Lopez also notes that this idea of periodically reforming Buddhism from inevitable decline by returning to its roots was found within the tradition itself. But a Westerner reading this history cannot help but think of another religious response to modernization, the Protestant Reformation, with its claim to restore a pure primitive Christianity, its emphasis on equality rather than hierarchy and its rejection of sacrament and ritual in favor of individual piety and introspection.
Protestant as well as Enlightenment ideals were of course very much part of the Western modernity that these Asian Buddhist thinkers were coming to terms with. After all, the British arrived in India, where Buddhism had begun and once flourished, centuries after it had died out there. So they found "Buddhist texts, artifacts and stupas," Professor Lopez said in a phone conversation, "but no Buddhists."
Thus Buddhism, he said, was a screen on which Europeans could project many of their own notions: the British in India, for example, sometimes calling the Buddha the "Luther of India" because he had supposedly challenged the Vedic priesthood and its rituals just as Luther had the Catholic priesthood and its sacramentalism.
Not only did British ideas of Buddhism reflect Victorian anti-Catholicism, he said; sometimes they carried a whiff of anti-Semitism, too: Buddhism could be admired because, unlike Judaism, Christianity and Islam, it had no Semitic origins.
Professor Lopez, it should be emphasized, is not questioning the authenticity of this modern Buddhism; he wants to give its creators, who have often been dismissed by scholars, their due.
Of course, his account does give the lie to the idea that the Buddhism the West, and even some of the East, now knows is the one true Buddhism, rather than one of the many Buddhisms that have evolved as an ancient teaching has interacted over two millennia with different cultures.
But that idea should be disturbing only to those who believe that great religious traditions can remain immutable and untouched by history.
Buddhism and the Blues
Buddhism and the Blues
Buddhist psychology's core techniques of meditation and awareness may have much to offer ordinary Westerners.
By:Hara Estroff Marano
To most people Buddhism is an ancient Eastern religion, although a very special one. It has no god, it has no central creed or dogma and its primary goal is the expansion of consciousness, or awareness.
But to the Dalai Lama, it's a highly refined tradition, perfected over the course of 2,500 years, of analyzing and investigating the inner world of the mind in order to transform mental states and promote happiness. "Whether you are a believer or not in the faith," the Dalai Lama recently told a conference of Buddhists and scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, you can use its time-honored techniques to voluntarily control your emotional state.
Yes, the Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of over 300 million Buddhists worldwide. Yes, he is the head of the Tibetan government in exile. But in the spirit of Buddhism, the Dalai Lama has an inquiring mind and wishes to expand human knowledge to improve lives. At its core, Buddhism is a system of inquiry into the nature of what is.
He believes that psychology and neuroscience have gone about as far as they can go in understanding the mind and brain by measuring external reality. Now that inner reality—the nature of consciousness—is the pressing subject du jour, the sciences need to borrow from the knowledge base that Buddhism has long cultivated.
A comprehensive science of the mind requires a science of consciousness. Buddhism offers what MIT geneticist Eric Lander, Ph.D., called a "highly refined technology" of introspective practices that provide systematic access to subjective experience. Yet Buddhist psychology offers more than a method of investigation. Its core techniques of meditation and awareness may have much to offer ordinary Westerners, whose material comforts have not wiped out rampant emotional distress.
Over the past 15 years, starting with his own personal interest, the Dalai Lama has set up discussions with Western scientists in an effort to further knowledge about the emotions. The recent meeting, held at MIT, was actually the eleventh in a series of annual conversations sponsored by the Colorado-based Mind & Life Institute. But it was the first one that was open to other participants.
The Buddhist view of how the mind works is somewhat different from the traditional Western view. Western psychology pretty much holds to the belief that things like attention and emotion are fixed and immutable. Buddhism sees the components of the mind more as skills that can be trained. This view has increasing support from modern neuroscience, which is almost daily providing new evidence of the brain's capacity for change and growth.
Buddhism uses intelligence to control the emotions. Through meditative practices, awareness can be trained and focused on the contents of the mind to observe ongoing experience. Such techniques are of growing interest to Western psychologists, who increasingly see depression as a disorder of emotional mismanagement. In this view, attention is hijacked by negative events and then sets off a kind of chain reaction of negative feeling, thinking and behavior that has its own rapidity and inevitability.
Techniques of awareness permit the cultivation of self-control. They allow people to break the negative emotional chain reaction and head off the hopelessness and despair it leads to. By focusing attention, it is possible to monitor your environment, recognize a negative stimulus and act on it the instant it registers on awareness. While attention as traditional psychologists know it can be an exhausting mental activity, as Buddhists practice it it actually becomes a relaxing and effortless enterprise.
One way of meditation is to use breathing techniques in which you focus on the breathing and let any negative stimulus just go by—instead of bringing it into your working memory, where you are likely to sit and ruminate about it and thus amplify its negativity. It's a way of unlearning the self-defeating ways you somehow acquired of responding catastrophically to negative experiences.
Evidence increasingly suggests that meditation techniques are highly effective at helping people recover from a bout of depression and especially useful in preventing recurrences. Medication may be needed during the depths of an acute episode to jump-start brain systems, but at best "antidepressants are a halfway house," says Alan Wallace, Ph.D., head of the Santa Barbara Institute for the Study of Consciousness. But meditation retrains the mind to allow ongoing control over the content of thoughts and feelings.
Basic Meditation Exercise
1. Sit with an alert and relaxed body posture so that you feel relatively comfortable without moving. (You can sit either in a straight-back chair with your feet flat on the floor or on a thick, firm cushion three to six inches off the floor.)
2. Keep your back, neck and head vertically aligned, relax your shoulders and find a comfortable place for your hands (usually on your knees).
3. Bring your attention to your breathing. Observe the breath as it flows in and out. Give full attention to the feeling of the breath as it comes in and goes out. Whenever you find that your attention has moved elsewhere, just note it and let go and gently escort your attention back to the breath, back to the rising and falling of your own belly.
4. When you can maintain some continuity of attention on the breath, try expanding the field of your awareness "around" your belly to include a sense of your body as a whole.
5. Maintain this awareness of the body sitting and breathing, and, when the mind wanders, bring it back to sitting and breathing.
Buddhist psychology's core techniques of meditation and awareness may have much to offer ordinary Westerners.
By:Hara Estroff Marano
To most people Buddhism is an ancient Eastern religion, although a very special one. It has no god, it has no central creed or dogma and its primary goal is the expansion of consciousness, or awareness.
But to the Dalai Lama, it's a highly refined tradition, perfected over the course of 2,500 years, of analyzing and investigating the inner world of the mind in order to transform mental states and promote happiness. "Whether you are a believer or not in the faith," the Dalai Lama recently told a conference of Buddhists and scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, you can use its time-honored techniques to voluntarily control your emotional state.
Yes, the Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of over 300 million Buddhists worldwide. Yes, he is the head of the Tibetan government in exile. But in the spirit of Buddhism, the Dalai Lama has an inquiring mind and wishes to expand human knowledge to improve lives. At its core, Buddhism is a system of inquiry into the nature of what is.
He believes that psychology and neuroscience have gone about as far as they can go in understanding the mind and brain by measuring external reality. Now that inner reality—the nature of consciousness—is the pressing subject du jour, the sciences need to borrow from the knowledge base that Buddhism has long cultivated.
A comprehensive science of the mind requires a science of consciousness. Buddhism offers what MIT geneticist Eric Lander, Ph.D., called a "highly refined technology" of introspective practices that provide systematic access to subjective experience. Yet Buddhist psychology offers more than a method of investigation. Its core techniques of meditation and awareness may have much to offer ordinary Westerners, whose material comforts have not wiped out rampant emotional distress.
Over the past 15 years, starting with his own personal interest, the Dalai Lama has set up discussions with Western scientists in an effort to further knowledge about the emotions. The recent meeting, held at MIT, was actually the eleventh in a series of annual conversations sponsored by the Colorado-based Mind & Life Institute. But it was the first one that was open to other participants.
The Buddhist view of how the mind works is somewhat different from the traditional Western view. Western psychology pretty much holds to the belief that things like attention and emotion are fixed and immutable. Buddhism sees the components of the mind more as skills that can be trained. This view has increasing support from modern neuroscience, which is almost daily providing new evidence of the brain's capacity for change and growth.
Buddhism uses intelligence to control the emotions. Through meditative practices, awareness can be trained and focused on the contents of the mind to observe ongoing experience. Such techniques are of growing interest to Western psychologists, who increasingly see depression as a disorder of emotional mismanagement. In this view, attention is hijacked by negative events and then sets off a kind of chain reaction of negative feeling, thinking and behavior that has its own rapidity and inevitability.
Techniques of awareness permit the cultivation of self-control. They allow people to break the negative emotional chain reaction and head off the hopelessness and despair it leads to. By focusing attention, it is possible to monitor your environment, recognize a negative stimulus and act on it the instant it registers on awareness. While attention as traditional psychologists know it can be an exhausting mental activity, as Buddhists practice it it actually becomes a relaxing and effortless enterprise.
One way of meditation is to use breathing techniques in which you focus on the breathing and let any negative stimulus just go by—instead of bringing it into your working memory, where you are likely to sit and ruminate about it and thus amplify its negativity. It's a way of unlearning the self-defeating ways you somehow acquired of responding catastrophically to negative experiences.
Evidence increasingly suggests that meditation techniques are highly effective at helping people recover from a bout of depression and especially useful in preventing recurrences. Medication may be needed during the depths of an acute episode to jump-start brain systems, but at best "antidepressants are a halfway house," says Alan Wallace, Ph.D., head of the Santa Barbara Institute for the Study of Consciousness. But meditation retrains the mind to allow ongoing control over the content of thoughts and feelings.
Basic Meditation Exercise
1. Sit with an alert and relaxed body posture so that you feel relatively comfortable without moving. (You can sit either in a straight-back chair with your feet flat on the floor or on a thick, firm cushion three to six inches off the floor.)
2. Keep your back, neck and head vertically aligned, relax your shoulders and find a comfortable place for your hands (usually on your knees).
3. Bring your attention to your breathing. Observe the breath as it flows in and out. Give full attention to the feeling of the breath as it comes in and goes out. Whenever you find that your attention has moved elsewhere, just note it and let go and gently escort your attention back to the breath, back to the rising and falling of your own belly.
4. When you can maintain some continuity of attention on the breath, try expanding the field of your awareness "around" your belly to include a sense of your body as a whole.
5. Maintain this awareness of the body sitting and breathing, and, when the mind wanders, bring it back to sitting and breathing.
Buddhism and the badge
Buddhism and the badge
By Debbie Howlett, USA TODAY
MADISON, Wis. —
An internationally known Buddhist monk who teaches non-violence will lead a five-day retreat for police officers and others in public service here to help them handle job-related stress.
At least 12 city police officers are among more than 500 workers and their families scheduled to attend the retreat starting Monday. The retreat will include meditation, silent meals and instruction in the practice of "mindfulness," a basic tenet of Buddhism to be aware of the consequences of one's actions. The retreat will also offer golf, swimming and hiking.
Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh (pronounced tick-not-hawn) will lead the retreat, which is called "Protecting and Serving Without Stress or Fear." It is billed as a health and wellness event for those in "community service ... desiring a more peaceful, non-violent way of life." (Related item: Chat with Thich Nhat Hanh on Buddhism at 7 p.m ET on Wednesday, Aug. 20)
Capt. Cheri Maples, the Madison Police Department's director of training and recruiting, organized the retreat. She says it is non-sectarian. "This is not about converting anyone," says Maples, a practicing Buddhist. "This is just about giving people another coping tool."
Madison police officials say the retreat is secular and is not sanctioned by the city. Police officers will be given leave to attend, but they must pay the $600 cost.
Constitutional questions
Organizations such as Americans United for Separation of Church and State have objected. "Just as the city may not promote Christianity, Judaism or Islam, it may not advance Buddhism," Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United, says in a letter to the city. "Encouraging (officers) to go to a religious retreat doesn't pass constitutional muster."
Maples says she has received hundreds of similar letters and e-mails.
Nhat Hanh, an exiled Vietnamese monk, is among the most respected Buddhist leaders and is nearly as revered as the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in the 1960s by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
The retreat is aimed at police and other public-service workers in stressful jobs, such as firefighters, prosecutors and paramedics, and their families. "Together we will look deeply into the challenging situation we face in serving our communities, in our work places, as well as in our families and our personal lives," a brochure for the retreat says.
Police officers who have problems in their personal lives often attribute them to the stress of their job. Fewer than 100 police officers, on average, die yearly in the line of duty nationwide, but as many as 300 commit suicide each year, according to a 1999 FBI study. The study showed that the police suicide rate — 22.1 per 100,000 — is twice the rate in the general population.
"Cops are taught to 'stuff' their feelings deep inside. At some point that black hole gets full and manifests itself in violence, alcohol, gambling or other undesirable behaviors," says Renae Griggs, a former South Florida police officer who runs the National Police Family Violence Prevention Project.
Kevin Gilmartin, who has written extensively about police stress and is a consultant to police departments, says police officers work in a constant state of "hyper-vigilance." In their off hours, mundane chores such as mowing the lawn can't provide the same intensity as their work.
"Police have to view the world as one big felony in progress," Gilmartin says. "That's a tough way to live."
Buddhism may seem an unlikely antidote to the stresses of fighting crime. But Maples says stereotyping police officers as tough and insensitive is part of the problem, especially in Madison, a traditionally liberal city of 214,000 that is the state capital and home to the University of Wisconsin.
Few rank-and-file officers have objected to the retreat, says Officer Scott Faber, the department's union representative.
"We're a different kind of department," he says. "Most of our officers have four-year degrees. And we have a higher number of women (32%) than any other police department."
The difference is clear for Maples, who has a law degree and a master's degree in social work. Before she became a police officer 19 years ago, at age 31, she was an advocate for battered women.
"A lot of the skills that work so well in policing don't work so well at home," she says. In searching for ways to handle stress, she went to her first Buddhist retreat in 1990, led by a follower of Nhat Hanh.
Monastery visit
Last year, she spent three weeks at Nhat Hanh's monastery, Plum Village near Bordeaux in the south of France. During the visit, she reconciled the idea of being a police officer with a respect for life that includes not killing any living creature. "One of the nuns said to me, 'Who else would we want to carry a gun except someone who does it mindfully,' " Maples recalls.
She says the idea was so powerful to her that she invited Nhat Hanh to Wisconsin to talk about policing and the principle of mindfulness. He is also scheduled to lecture in Chicago; Denver; Boulder, Colo.; Estes Park, Colo.; and Washington, D.C., where he will give a talk and offer a retreat for members of Congress titled "Leading With Courage and Compassion."
Mindfulness is essentially total awareness of what is happening at each particular moment and deciding how to respond in that moment, Maples says.
Responding to stress with compassion and kindness, rather than cynicism, would allow a police officer to do the job and go home at night without anger, Maples says.
Lynn of Americans United still objects.
"Religion plays many positive roles," says Lynn, who is an ordained minister. "But government is not supposed to be the preacher of religious values, whether Buddhist or fundamentalist Christian."
By Debbie Howlett, USA TODAY
MADISON, Wis. —
An internationally known Buddhist monk who teaches non-violence will lead a five-day retreat for police officers and others in public service here to help them handle job-related stress.
At least 12 city police officers are among more than 500 workers and their families scheduled to attend the retreat starting Monday. The retreat will include meditation, silent meals and instruction in the practice of "mindfulness," a basic tenet of Buddhism to be aware of the consequences of one's actions. The retreat will also offer golf, swimming and hiking.
Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh (pronounced tick-not-hawn) will lead the retreat, which is called "Protecting and Serving Without Stress or Fear." It is billed as a health and wellness event for those in "community service ... desiring a more peaceful, non-violent way of life." (Related item: Chat with Thich Nhat Hanh on Buddhism at 7 p.m ET on Wednesday, Aug. 20)
Capt. Cheri Maples, the Madison Police Department's director of training and recruiting, organized the retreat. She says it is non-sectarian. "This is not about converting anyone," says Maples, a practicing Buddhist. "This is just about giving people another coping tool."
Madison police officials say the retreat is secular and is not sanctioned by the city. Police officers will be given leave to attend, but they must pay the $600 cost.
Constitutional questions
Organizations such as Americans United for Separation of Church and State have objected. "Just as the city may not promote Christianity, Judaism or Islam, it may not advance Buddhism," Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United, says in a letter to the city. "Encouraging (officers) to go to a religious retreat doesn't pass constitutional muster."
Maples says she has received hundreds of similar letters and e-mails.
Nhat Hanh, an exiled Vietnamese monk, is among the most respected Buddhist leaders and is nearly as revered as the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in the 1960s by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
The retreat is aimed at police and other public-service workers in stressful jobs, such as firefighters, prosecutors and paramedics, and their families. "Together we will look deeply into the challenging situation we face in serving our communities, in our work places, as well as in our families and our personal lives," a brochure for the retreat says.
Police officers who have problems in their personal lives often attribute them to the stress of their job. Fewer than 100 police officers, on average, die yearly in the line of duty nationwide, but as many as 300 commit suicide each year, according to a 1999 FBI study. The study showed that the police suicide rate — 22.1 per 100,000 — is twice the rate in the general population.
"Cops are taught to 'stuff' their feelings deep inside. At some point that black hole gets full and manifests itself in violence, alcohol, gambling or other undesirable behaviors," says Renae Griggs, a former South Florida police officer who runs the National Police Family Violence Prevention Project.
Kevin Gilmartin, who has written extensively about police stress and is a consultant to police departments, says police officers work in a constant state of "hyper-vigilance." In their off hours, mundane chores such as mowing the lawn can't provide the same intensity as their work.
"Police have to view the world as one big felony in progress," Gilmartin says. "That's a tough way to live."
Buddhism may seem an unlikely antidote to the stresses of fighting crime. But Maples says stereotyping police officers as tough and insensitive is part of the problem, especially in Madison, a traditionally liberal city of 214,000 that is the state capital and home to the University of Wisconsin.
Few rank-and-file officers have objected to the retreat, says Officer Scott Faber, the department's union representative.
"We're a different kind of department," he says. "Most of our officers have four-year degrees. And we have a higher number of women (32%) than any other police department."
The difference is clear for Maples, who has a law degree and a master's degree in social work. Before she became a police officer 19 years ago, at age 31, she was an advocate for battered women.
"A lot of the skills that work so well in policing don't work so well at home," she says. In searching for ways to handle stress, she went to her first Buddhist retreat in 1990, led by a follower of Nhat Hanh.
Monastery visit
Last year, she spent three weeks at Nhat Hanh's monastery, Plum Village near Bordeaux in the south of France. During the visit, she reconciled the idea of being a police officer with a respect for life that includes not killing any living creature. "One of the nuns said to me, 'Who else would we want to carry a gun except someone who does it mindfully,' " Maples recalls.
She says the idea was so powerful to her that she invited Nhat Hanh to Wisconsin to talk about policing and the principle of mindfulness. He is also scheduled to lecture in Chicago; Denver; Boulder, Colo.; Estes Park, Colo.; and Washington, D.C., where he will give a talk and offer a retreat for members of Congress titled "Leading With Courage and Compassion."
Mindfulness is essentially total awareness of what is happening at each particular moment and deciding how to respond in that moment, Maples says.
Responding to stress with compassion and kindness, rather than cynicism, would allow a police officer to do the job and go home at night without anger, Maples says.
Lynn of Americans United still objects.
"Religion plays many positive roles," says Lynn, who is an ordained minister. "But government is not supposed to be the preacher of religious values, whether Buddhist or fundamentalist Christian."
:: Buddhapadipa Thai Temple
:: Buddhapadipa Thai Temple
Today, Buddhism is found in Thailand, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Japan, China, etc, and in some parts of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal, also in the European countries and the USA. It is believed that the Buddhist population of the world is over 500 million.
The Buddha's teachings consist of three basic principles; they are:-
o Sila
o Samadhi
o Panna
Sila is the development of morality. While Samadhi is the tool to purify the mind on order to see its nature, how to control it, how to develop it, and make use of it. Panna is wisdom or enlightenment – the realization of the true nature of life and universe at large. The whole teaching of the Buddhais based on the three pillars. They are some time called "Majjhima Patipada" or the Middle Path of life. These are:
o Right Understanding
o Right Thought
o Right Speech
o Right Action
o Right Livelihood
o Right Effort
o Right Mindfulness
o Right Concentration
It is the Middle Path as it avoids the two extremes: the Sensual Pleasure, and the Self-mortification in the different form of asceticism. Both of them are useless, ignoble, and unprofitable though long in practice. The Buddha had first tried these extremes before but found them useless. He discovered the Noble Eightfold path through his personal experiences, which gives vision, knowledge, leading to peace,insight, enlightenment and Nibbana.
The Buddha attained Enlightenment only by the development and and use of superhuman energy. He became Enlightened not by praying, sacrificing or making offerings to a god nor by performing, rites and rituals, nor by any aid of external power.
He attained Enlightenment only after he managed to develop himself through self-discipline, self-restraint, self-sacrifice, and abstaining from all kinds of evils; and practicing morality, rejecting worldly pleasures, sacrificing his own comfort for the sake of others spiritual development, and by purifying his heart and mind and realising the true nature of life and the world. Thus this diversity of teaching was introduced by Him. Buddhism is saturated with the spirit teaching of the open mind, and the sympathetic heart which lights and warms the whole universe with rays of wisdom and compassion. Another outstanding feature is his teaching of the law of cause and effect or the natural law that describes the existing universal cosmic order. This law of cause and effect, the doctrine of Kamma explains the secrets of the inequalities and the differences that occur amongst men and other creatures.
Today, Buddhism is found in Thailand, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Japan, China, etc, and in some parts of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal, also in the European countries and the USA. It is believed that the Buddhist population of the world is over 500 million.
The Buddha's teachings consist of three basic principles; they are:-
o Sila
o Samadhi
o Panna
Sila is the development of morality. While Samadhi is the tool to purify the mind on order to see its nature, how to control it, how to develop it, and make use of it. Panna is wisdom or enlightenment – the realization of the true nature of life and universe at large. The whole teaching of the Buddhais based on the three pillars. They are some time called "Majjhima Patipada" or the Middle Path of life. These are:
o Right Understanding
o Right Thought
o Right Speech
o Right Action
o Right Livelihood
o Right Effort
o Right Mindfulness
o Right Concentration
It is the Middle Path as it avoids the two extremes: the Sensual Pleasure, and the Self-mortification in the different form of asceticism. Both of them are useless, ignoble, and unprofitable though long in practice. The Buddha had first tried these extremes before but found them useless. He discovered the Noble Eightfold path through his personal experiences, which gives vision, knowledge, leading to peace,insight, enlightenment and Nibbana.
The Buddha attained Enlightenment only by the development and and use of superhuman energy. He became Enlightened not by praying, sacrificing or making offerings to a god nor by performing, rites and rituals, nor by any aid of external power.
He attained Enlightenment only after he managed to develop himself through self-discipline, self-restraint, self-sacrifice, and abstaining from all kinds of evils; and practicing morality, rejecting worldly pleasures, sacrificing his own comfort for the sake of others spiritual development, and by purifying his heart and mind and realising the true nature of life and the world. Thus this diversity of teaching was introduced by Him. Buddhism is saturated with the spirit teaching of the open mind, and the sympathetic heart which lights and warms the whole universe with rays of wisdom and compassion. Another outstanding feature is his teaching of the law of cause and effect or the natural law that describes the existing universal cosmic order. This law of cause and effect, the doctrine of Kamma explains the secrets of the inequalities and the differences that occur amongst men and other creatures.
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