"The Buddhism of Tibet" from Indonesia

Ashley Wells, Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; L. Austine Waddell (archive)

The Buddhism of Tibet or Lamaism by L. Austine Waddell (archive.org)

What was Tibet like? Dennis Jarvis of Halifax, Canada, explores Drepung Gomang, a college within monastery walls, Great Assembly Hall, Drepung Monastery, Tibet (en/wikipedia.org).

Why did formerly officially Mahayana Buddhist now officially communist atheist mainland (Han) China invade, destroy, and militarily occupy Vajrayana (a division of Mahayana) Tibet?

"Esoteric" Buddhism in Southeast Asia

Ashley Wells, Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly wiki edit

Borobudur Buddhist temple with its enigmatic "Time Travel Bells" Die Glocke stupas with Buddhas inside as dawn breaks through clouds, Java, Indonesia (TrevThompson/flickr).

Marco Polo's Old World travels to ancient Indonesia (Balkh and Shambhala)

 

Borobudur, Buddhist pyramid (22Kartika/wiki)

This Buddhist school -- now most prevalent in Tibet, Ladakh (India), Bhutan, Nepal, Mongolia, European Kalmykia, and Far East Russia -- refers to the traditions of Esoteric Buddhism found on the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra before 700 CE.

This predates the arrival of Esoteric Buddhism in Greater Tibet (a former empire) and the Himalayan region.

Indonesia is an enormous former empire.

The particular lineage in Indonesia is referred to as Mantranaya ("Mantra Path" aka Mantra-yana). Mantranaya is historically designated and evident in the oldest extant Old Javanese esoteric Buddhist literature.

• On Matranaya (Buddhist Studies)
• On Mantranaya (ChinaBuddhismEncyclopedia.com)

Scythia, Pakistan, Gandhara, Ladakh, Tibet...

Mantranaya is an extension of Mahayana Buddhism consisting of differences in the adoption of additional techniques (upāya, "expedient" or "skillful means") rather than in philosophy. Some of these means are esoteric practices, which must be initiated and transmitted esoterically only through a skilled spiritual teacher or guru (khandro.net).

The Buddhist empire of Srivijaya in Palembang, Sumatra was for more than 600 years the center of Esoteric Buddhist learning in the Far East.
 

Yi Jing (635-713) praised the high level of Buddhist scholarship in Srivijaya and advised Chinese monastics to study there prior to making the journey to the great institution of learning, Nalanda Buddhist University (said to be the first in history), a vihara in ancient India. He wrote:

In the fortified city of Bhoga, Buddhist priests number more than 1,000, whose minds are bent on learning and good practice. They investigate and study all the subjects that exist just as in India; the rules and ceremonies are not at all different. If a Chinese priest wishes to go to the West in order to hear and read the original scriptures, he had better stay here one or two years and practice the proper rules (J. Takakusu, 2005, A Record of the Buddhist Religion: As Practised in India and the Malay Archipelago (A.D. 671-695)/I-Tsing, New Delhi, AES).

The temple complex at Borobudur in central Java, which is the world's largest Buddhist temple yet discovered, was built as a mandala, like most Buddhist temple complexes. A mandala is a giant three-dimensional representation of Buddhist cosmology.

All of the Buddha statues on each of its four sides have the same mudra, hand gesture, corresponding to one of the Five Dhyani Buddhas of the esoteric cardinal compass directions.

Borobudur temple walls adorned with bas relief (TrevThompson/flickr.com)

 

Another line of thought points to the depiction of the Gandavyuha, the last chapter of the "Flower Garland" (Avatamsaka) Sutra on the median levels of the Borobudur stupa (and Buddha's birth story or jataka from the Lalitavistara on the lowest).

The English language translation of the entire Flower Garland Sutra was completed in the early 1990s in the 20th century. As yet unidentified upper bas-reliefs on Borobudur temple walls may depict episodes from this sutra. It does not preach a specific group of Dhyani Buddhas but rather insists on innumerable identical buddhas throughout the universe. More

Dalai Lama in Washington, DC (Kalachakra)

Dalailama.com


Kalachakra for World Peace

Washington, DC: Last week, during the first three days of the Kalachakra (July 6-8), the Dalai Lama and the monks from Namgyal Monastery and senior lamas conducted rituals to prepare and consecrate the venue. These included chanting of prayers, the creation of a sand mandala [as shown below], and other rituals.

Creating a sand mandala symbolizing the universe

• WEBCAST
  

From July 9-11, he gave preliminary teachings on Gyalsey Thokme Sangpo's 37 Practices of a Boddhisattva (laklen sodunma) and Kamalashila's The Middling States of Meditation (gomrim barpa). On July 12, the Kalachakra Ritual Dance was performed by the Namgyal Monastery monks.

Then from July 13-15, the Dalai Lama conferred the Kalachakra Initiation. Today, July 16, a long life empowerment (tsewang) and a ceremony offering prayers for the long life of the Dalai Lama will be performed. Kalachakra 2011 is organized by the Capital Area Tibetan Association (kalachakra2011.com).

Public Talk in Chicago, Illinois on July 17: The 14th Dalai Lama will give a public talk on "Bridging the Faith Divide" in the afternoon at the University of Illinois, Chicago (UIC) Pavilion organized by The Theosophical Society in America (dalailamachicago.com).

Discussion in Chicago on July 18: He will participate in a conversation with religious leaders on "Building Bridges" in the morning at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance organized by The Theosophical Society in America. More

• Kalachakra for World Peace 2011
• Kalachakra tickets
• Famous Faces at Kalachakra
• Obama to meet Dalai Lama at White House (AP)
• Obama urged to cancel meeting with Dalai Lama (UPI)
• China warns U.S. officials not to meet Dalai Lama (Reuters)
  
• AUDIO: A Ritual for World Peace (NPR)
• Danny Fischer welcomes Kalachakra
• July Eurozone Debt Summit (should be hint to DC)
  

Dose of Dalai Lama for $10,000 a pop

Janine Hill (sunshinecoastdaily.com.au)

China accuses the Dalai Lama (L), seen here with Richard Gere, of being a "splittist" [separatist] bent on dividing country (AFP/Getty Images/Stephen Chernin).

Tickets to the Dalai Lama’s visit to the Sunshine Coast have sold out, but a spare $1,000 or $10,000 [Australian dollars] will still buy some time in the presence of "His Holiness."

Maureen Walshe, director of the Chenrezig Institute of Buddhist wisdom and culture at Eudlo, said tickets at $50 and $35 for His Holiness’s June 16 visit sold out in February.

Benefactor packages, ranging from $1,000 for two people in the public teaching area to $10,000 for two people in the VIP area, plus a commemorative plaque and photo opportunity, remain available.

Ms. Walshe said Chenrezig had kept general ticket prices down to make the event affordable for as many people as possible.

“There are people who say we could have charged $100 a ticket, but that’s not what we’re about,” she said.

She said the $125,000 raised by general ticket sales covered the basic costs of staging the event, including a speaker’s fee.

Further money raised by the benefactors’ packages would help cover other costs, such as transport and security, she said. “We’ve just broken even,” she said. Ms. Walshe said two $10,000 packages had already been sold. More

• Richard Gere says US must do more for Tibet
• Miss Tibet 2011 Beauty Pageant kicks off
• New star steers Tibetan transition
• DHARAMSALA, India - When exiled Tibetan spiritual-cum temporal leader the Dalai Lama announced his retirement from political life in March, he had reasons to be optimistic that the torch of self-determination for his people would be carried forward by a younger generation. The timing to separate the religious mandate of the institution of Dalai Lama from its political one seemed to coincide with free elections in which a suave Harvard-educated [USA controlled?] lay intellectual was elected as the new prime minister.
• Tibetan student wins essay, offers advice to US students
• Dalai Lama to convene free forum in Brisbane, Australia
• How to draw a proper Yeti (abominable snowman)
• Sunshine Coast prepares for Dalai lama visit

Dalai Lama "won't seek rebirth"

The Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, in an interview with Taiwan television aired [in 2009], said he is in excellent health -- but won't seek reincarnation [rebirth]. In an interview with Taiwan's Formosa TV, which was conducted in India to mark the 50th anniversary of China's occupation of Tibet, the Dalai Lama said it would be up to the Tibetan people to decide if there should be a reincarnation after his death. Tibetan Buddhists believe the Dalai Lama to be the current incarnation of their supreme Buddhist leader, whose holiness has exempted him from the cycle of birth and death, and can instead be reincarnated of his own free will. More

Dalai Lama "very happy" meeting Obama

After meeting with President Obama, the Dalai Lama expresses admiration for the U.S. and pleads for religious tolerance.

• Analysis: Why the Dalai Lama angers China
• Obama meets with Dalai Lama despite Chinese objections

"Dalai Lama's Zen visit to Washington"

(Mediabistro.com) Betsy Rothstein (Feb. 17, 2010)
If anyone can inject peace into Washington, it's the Dalai Lama, who, reports Politico, will visit today and tomorrow. In tow will be actor Richard Gere. An excerpt: The Dalai Lama's meeting with Obama is first official engagement of the Tibetan New Year. "It sets the year in a good path," a spokesman says. Dalai Lama will meditate as usual; it's not likely that he'll play Wii. Read the full story here.

Chinese exhibit shows new Tibet

Photo tour, now in Nepal, in Mexico City on 10/21/08 (Xinhua/en.tibetculture.net).

China's Official State Media, August 5, 2009

KATHMANDU, Nepal - There is a popular saying, "A picture is worth a thousand words." So it is not hard to get a one-sided view of the "development" of the Tibetan Autonomous Region from a pro-China perspective -- so long as China controls the exhibition. Therefore, a 217 photo exhibit has been launched [in a likely propaganda campaign Nepal is obliged to allow to tour through] showing Tibet's antique past and modern Chinese present.

Visitors of the exhibition entitled "Tibet of China: Past and Present" spoke of their experience after viewing the exhibit in Nepal's capital Kathmandu on Wednesday. "An exhibition of lively pictures has unveiled the bitter truth of past as well as glimpse of prosperous present of Tibet," Nepalese Minister for Information and Communications Shankar Pokharel is reported to have said after viewing the array of carefully selected images.

Adding that relations between Nepal and China, culturally and socially, has roots extending back to ancient times, Pokharel said that phases of development and modernization of Tibet could be a new strategy of development in Nepal. More>>

• New Dangers for Tibetans in Nepal
• Move to allow Dalai Lama pictures: no policy change
• China: Ensure Fair Trial for Tibetan Filmmaker
• Crackdown on lawyers: legal think-tank shut down
• US Congress legislation to fund help to Tibet
• Right Way to Help China's oppressed Uighurs
• savetibet.org