Tibetan meditation at Shambhala (July 28)

Ananda (Dharma Meditation Initiative), Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Dharma Meditation Initiative (meetup.com) to visit the all-new Shambhala Meditation Center Los Angeles (Pema Chodron's American-Tibetan Buddhist tradition now rid of disgraced guru Sakyong Mipham, son of the equally questionable guru Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche) for morning meditation. Short sits will alternate with mindful walking. Short reading and open discussion at 11:00 AM from book Natural Bravery (Gaylon Ferguson, tricycle.org). Wear loose/stretch cotton clothes for maximum comfort. Excellent for beginners/intermediate. Drop in for some or all anytime between 9:00-11:59 AM. Refreshments. FREE/by donation. Details

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World Welcomes New Year!

Even though the New Year for most isn't actually until Valentine's Day 2010 (according to the Chinese lunar calendar), Goodbye 2009! The World is ready for a more hopeful 2010!

• Buddhist New Year: In Theravada countries like Thailand, Burma, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, and Laos, the new year is celebrated for three days from the first full moon day in April. In Mahayana countries the new year starts on the first full moon day in January. However, the Buddhist New Year depends on the country of origin and ethnic background of the celebrants: Chinese, Koreans, Japanese, and Vietnamese celebrate in January/February according to the lunar calendar, while Tibetans celebrate a month later. More>>

iPod to Obama: The decade in 3 minutes
Relive the thrills, tragedies, and most unforgettable moments of the 2000s. Hello to new icons, goodbye to legends - New racial dynamics - Are we any healthier?

The world welcomes a new year
While the U.S. waits for the stroke of midnight, revelers around the globe ring in 2010 with wild displays. Highlights - New Year's photos - Revelers ponder the future - See Australian sky lit up

• Ominous 2010 hype puts Mexico on edge
  Forget the Mayas' gloomy predictions for 2012 — it's the coming year that has many Mexicans worried. Eerie pattern - Mayan 2012 prophecy - This year's "duh" moments

Int’l Buddhist Women Conference opens

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam - The 11th Sakyadhita International Conference on Buddhist Women (SICBW) opened here today, Dec. 28, attracting the parti-cipation of more than 2,000 Buddhist women from more than 47 countries and territories around the world.

Vice State President Nguyen Thi Doan was also present at the opening ceremony of the conference. The week-long event will discuss the role of Buddhist women in the world and ways for them to perform well in various areas.

The participants will discuss the most burning social issues, including environ-mental pollution, women and child trafficking, and domestic violence. The conference will also provide an opportunity for participants to exchange views on Buddhist women’s role in promoting friendship and solidarity worldwide.

In a letter sent to the conference, State President Nguyen Minh Triet spoke highly of the 2,000 year history of Vietnamese Buddhism. He stressed that the Vietnamese State always respects and ensures the people’s right of religious freedom. Mr. Triet expressed his wish that Vietnamese Buddhist women, together with their peers around the world, would make active contributions to preventing conflicts and contradictions, eliminating poverty, and highlighting the Buddha’s teachings on social life.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, President of the Vietnam Women’s Union Nguyen Thi Thanh Hoa suggested that Buddhist women continue to share and cooperate with various women’s organizations to help them improve their behavior. Source

• Website: sakyaditha.org

Indian Election 2009 (BBC)

India is the largest democracy in the world. Elections take place over the course of one month from April 16. BBC News asked people from all corners of the subcontinent:

What would you do as prime minister?

"As prime minister, I'd probably look at ways of separating religion from politics.

"That will solve most of the problems that our country is facing right now whether it is the threat of terrorism or the insecurities that dwell in people's minds.

• Indian elections battleground map
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• Indian election

"Today a regular Indian does not have confidence when walking out of his house. He doesn't know if he is going to walk back in. I would like to restore that confidence.

"Seventy percent of Indians live under the poverty line. But are we really looking at the villages where this happens? There is so much rich culture, heritage there are lots of economic opportunities as well.

"There is so much more we can do in terms of preserving, perpetuating and using all that as a means of livelihood. We have wealth and we are ignoring it" (Mita Kapur, 43, literary consultant and writer, Jaipur). More>>

World Buddhist Forum 2009

Arrival of monastics for closing of The World Buddhist Forum, Taiwan; below, nuns listen inside (AP/Wally Santana).

Buddhist nuns and monks arrive for the closing ceremonies of the second part of "The World Buddhist Forum," in Taipei, Taiwan, Wednesday, April 1, 2009.

A peripatetic Buddhist conclave backed by the Chinese government wrapped up Wednesday in Taiwan amid support from the ruling Nationalist Party and identification with Beijing's aims for both the island of Taiwan and the region formerly known as Tibet.

The first half of the forum, which opened in the eastern Chinese city of Wuxi on Saturday, is the latest example of rapidly improving relations between China and Taiwan.

Spring Equinox Meditation

Spring Cleaning refers to the practice of starting fresh. Winter has lost its grip, the sun has broken on the horizon, and today is the day for a new (cyclical) beginning. It's time to rethink meditation.

Dry insight is increasingly trendy. Goenka offers easy directions to a difficult path that offers little comfort and, consequently, slow progress. A moist serenity practice, on the other hand, offers a gradual path of progress advocated by the Buddha as the norm in meditating.

In a stock passage that occurs countless times in the Canon, presented here with similes, the Buddha defined the first four absorption (jhanas):

First Absorption
"There is the case where a meditator — quite withdrawn from sensuality, withdrawn from unskillful states — enters and remains in the First Absorption: rapture [piti, happiness] and pleasure [sukha, joy = pleasant sensation, physical pleasure, antonym of dukkha] born from withdrawal [of the mind from the Five Mental Hindrances], accompanied by applied attention and sustained attention [vitakka and vicara]. One permeates and pervades, suffuses and fills this very body with the rapture [mental pleasure] and bliss [physical pleasure] born of withdrawal. Nothing in this entire body remains unpervaded by the rapture and bliss born of withdrawal.

"It is just as if a skilled washer or washer's apprentice were to pour bath powder into a basin and knead it, sprinkling it again and again with water, so that the ball of bath powder — saturated, thoroughly suffused, moisture-laden, permeated within and without — would nevertheless not drip. Even so, the meditator permeates, suffuses, and fills this very body with the rapture and bliss born of withdrawal. There is no part of the entire body that remains unpervaded by rapture and bliss born of withdrawal...

Second Absorption
"Moving further, with the stilling of applied and sustained attention, one enters and remains in the Second Absorption: rapture and bliss born of concentration, unification of mind, free of applied and sustain attention — internally collected. One permeates and pervades, suffuses and fills this very body with the rapture and bliss born of concentration. There is nothing in this entire body unpervaded by rapture and bliss born of concentration.

"It is just as if a lake with spring water welling up from below, having no inflow from east, west, north, or south, and with the skies periodically supplying abundant showers, so that the cool fount of water welling up from within the lake would permeate and pervade, suffuse and fill it with cool waters, there being no part of the lake unpervaded by the cool waters. Even so the meditator permeates and pervades, suffuses and fills this very body with the rapture and bliss born of concentration. There is nothing in this entire body that remains unpervaded by rapture and bliss born of concentration...

Third Absorption
"With the fading of rapture, one remains equanimous, mindful, and clearly comprehending (attentive and alert, sati-sampajanna), and experiences pleasure with the body. One enters and remains in the Third Absorption, which the Noble Ones (the ariyas, enlightened ones) declare, 'Happily abides the equanimous and mindful person.' One permeates and pervades, suffuses and fills this very body with bliss, so that there is no part of this entire body unpervaded by bliss.

"Just as in a blue, white, or red lotus pond, some lotuses are born and grow and stay immersed in water, and flourish without rising above the water so that they are permeated and pervaded, suffused and filled with cool water from their roots to their petals. No part of those blue, white, or red lotuses remains unpervaded with cool water. Even so, the meditator permeates and pervades, suffuses and fills this very body with the bliss. There is nothing of this entire body unpervaded by bliss...

Fourth Absorption
"Then with the abandoning of pleasant and unpleasant sensation (sukha and dukkha = pleasure and pain) — as formerly elation and grief were abandoned — one enters and abides in the Fourth Absorption. It is a state purified by equanimity and mindfulness, having abandoned pleasure and pain. The body is permeated with a pure, bright awareness with no part of the entire body unpervaded by pure, bright awareness.

"It is just as if one were to sit wrapped from head to toe with a bright white cloth so that no part of one's body were uncovered. Even so the meditator abides, permeating the entire body with a pure, bright awareness" (AN V, 28; AN 5.28).