High in the Himalayas, this sacred place is not just a destination—it is a spiritual home where ancient [Vajrayana] traditions are kept alive.
I created this film to honor their way of life and share the profound peace of this holy site.
π SUPPORT THE MONASTERY AND SPONSOR A BUDDHIST MONK/NUN: This video was made to support the community at Namo Buddha. If this journey touched you, please consider supporting them either by visiting the monastery or directly right now. Sponsorship helps provide food, education, and healthcare for kids, monks, and nuns.
π Book a stay via email or call through their website
π It is also possible to stay at Hotel Sonam. Call for booking.
The Legend of Namo Buddha
I'm so hungry that I can't feed my cubs.
Located in the Kathmandu Valley, Namo Buddha is one of the holiest pilgrimage sites in Nepal. It is the place where, according to legend, the historical Buddha [as the Bodhisattva] in a previous life sacrificed [parts of] his body to feed a starving tigress and her cubs [Mankiala]. This [unlikely but legendary] act of supremecompassion (karuαΉΔ) echoes through the monastery to this day.
(SciShow) Curious why cats have certain behaviors? Why do they knead blankets? Why do they love cardboard boxes? Join Olivia Gorden for a fun new episode all about those lovable kittens and their strange cat-ttitudes.
I'm Nature's own eating-machine. I don't mean no harm. (Phil Blackburn/flickr.com)
The horror movie "Jaws" ruined summers at the beach for countless Americans (MAD).
C'mon, Jaws, just a little kiss...on the butt cheek. Don't be like that! (Huff Post)
An innovative solution we are planning for our surfing expeditions at Wisdom Quarterly, good both in California and Australia, where sharks attack what they think are paddling seals, is a body board painted to look like a vicious rival shark (wierdpalace.com).
Another shark attack, the seventh this year, 2015, Ocracoke Island, N.C. (AP)
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There has been an eighth shark attack in North Carolina, this time on a Marine. Why? Global warming has led to change in the seas -- temperature, the water highway (the movement of rivers within the oceans, regular movement based on temperature differences and other factors), acidity, pollution, over-fishing, destruction of fish stocks, and periodic resurgence... we all know what's happening.
Why would anyone camp deep in Nature?
The only surprise is that wild animals seem to not understand who we are -- the destroyers of the planet -- or do they? Why are big cats attacking? Why do cryptozoological hominins like Yeti and Sasquatch and Almas abduct women and children? Why are so many more shapeshifting (skin walkers) creatures being sighted and interacted with?
We would like to think that there is a better reason than group punishment as Bhumi (Gaia) strikes back on such thoughtless mortals. We'd like to think it has something to do with personal karma.
Faye, don't taunt wild beasts with your female wiles!
If "group or collective karma" (like the Shakyans met with) is yielding its results and fruits (vipaka and phala), why is the epicenter North Carolina? The Earth shakes, trembles, and quivers all over the U.S. "San Andreas" is coming to Los Angeles, but all that toxic fracking is bring tremors to places that have no history of such shaking.
Moreover, why don't the cows rise up? We kill (the actual butchers and all of us who pay them to kill by buying their slaughtered flesh) them in numbers too terrible to think? A million farm animals and more are killed a DAY in the United States! Countless chickens and smaller living beings (like useless chickadees) are dragged to slaughter.
A sad strange fact about life is that stationary farmers are far more warlike and murderous than hunter-gatherers, not only among humans where we protect our vast farmlands with guns and weapons of mass destruction (courtesy of the state), it also appears to be the case among animals.
Maybe we are all being bombarded with the same negative programming via HAARP, microwaves, or other pulse weapons, or perhaps it has something to do with "protecting" what is "ours." The biggest killer of humans in Africa, other than other humans, are hippos. And in the U.S. and elsewhere, cows take out more humans than anyone imagines. Ungulates, particularly mothers with babies to care for, are hardly harmless.
Buddhist sutras are littered with attacks by deadly cows, so much so that we tend to scoff, and commentators attribute the high number to "possession" by angry inimical spirits. How could docile cows suddenly become warmblooded killers? Karma may have something to do with it, but the strange thing is that -- in the ultimate sense we are not the ones who inherit our karma.
It is conventionally true that "Beings are heirs of their karma (past actions, be they deeds, words, or intentions). But we will not be the same when we meet with the results of those actions, for we are not the same for two consecutive moments, how then when whole lifetimes pass by before circumstances are met with for the fruition of a past action?
So when anyone speaks of karma as a cause of our woes now, people cry, "Blaming the victim!" The working out of karma is a staggering endeavor, too much for our sharp minds. As sharp as we are, the currents are too subtle, the playing out too mysterious, the odds and probabilities too immense even for our supercomputing devices to handle. If we meditate we will see that.
One of the super-knowledges that arises when pursued with a purified mind founded on attaining the absorptions (jhanas) and concentrations (samadhis) is knowledge of past lives and a limited view of how we came to be where we are -- the past karma that brought us here. In fear we kill, so beware of fear!
Hate (phobia) is a choice. It's NOT my flag.
Why this sort of sudden animal attack death should befall spontaneous arhats, suddenly enlightened beings who hear just enough of the Truth to awaken, is even more mysterious. The truth is we are animals, a very high and well-born kind of animal, and the attackers are animals. We are far more dangerous to them than they are to us. Just look at the case of Bahiya of the Bark Cloth.
It's a dangerous planet; we did not really evolve here (though some other beings likely did); and we have had to settle and be at peace with the limited danger here, like in the new animated movie "Almost Home," a parable about how humans arrived on the planet in line with a "Buddhist Genesis" story (Aganna Sutra):
(DreamWorksTV) "[Almost] Home" They're almost here... meet our future leaders. When "Oh," a loveable misfit from another planet, lands on Earth and finds himself on the run from his own people, he forms an unlikely friendship with an adventurous girl named "Tip" who is on a quest of her own. Through a series of comic adventures with Tip, Oh comes to understand that being different and making mistakes is all part of being human, and together they discover the true meaning of the word HOME.
Sharks keep the sea clean. Keep sharks in the ocean and out of the soup (SSF)
There is a temple in Western Thailand where devoted Buddhist monks live among unwanted tigers, nurturing them and releasing them into the wild when they reach maturity!
The temple is in the Saiyok district of Thailand’s Kanchanaburi province, close to the border with Burma (which the dictators renamed "Myanmar"), some 24 miles (38 km) northwest of Kanchanaburi along the 323 Highway.
Hey, your thirsty tiger scratched me!
The story goes that in 1999 a tiger cub was given to the temple by villagers because it had been abandoned by its mother. Unfortunately, it later died due to the inexperience of the monks regarding tiger keeping.
Soon several more tiger cubs were given to the temple to care for, and the rest is history. As of records up to 2012, there are more than 100 tigers living in the temple.
(Etienne Verhaegen) "The Little Buddhas and the Tigers" (Les Petits Bouddhas et les Tigres)
Big predator cats love milk (strangefeed.com).
Tourists are attracted from around the world, where they can see enormous tigers lazily lounging wild around monk caretakers who go about with their daily routines. Some wildlife organizations have claimed that the temple has no permit from the Thai Wild Animals Reservation and Protection Act of 1992 and should be closed due to shady dealings with a tiger farm in Laos, allegations based on an investigation between 2005 to 2008.
Fortunately, in 2008, ABC News reporters spent three nights in the monastery and found no evidence of calming drugs being administered to the tigers or any other mistreatment. Both Thai and Western employees who were interviewed claimed that the animals were well treated. The head of the temple was interviewed and stated that their mission is clear, "To breed tigers and release them into the wild.” When in Buddhist Thailand, visit this wondrous place!
"Taming the Tigers" (2013): Thailand's Tiger Temple is one of the country's best known tourist attractions. Although marketed as a sanctuary to help conserve an endangered species, some activists claim it has a history of exploitation and abuse.
"If you're selling animal exploitation as a conservation project, then I have a serious concern," states Edwin Wiek of the Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand. There's something undeniably mysterious and majestic about tigers, even in captivity. But while tourists are told the temple is a sanctuary for rescued animals, conservationist and animal rights activist Sybelle Foxcroft claims they are treated appallingly. "I personally saw sticks being broken across tigers' backs." The temple claims "assertive treatment" is the only way to train these powerful animals. In stark contrast, Foxcroft describes it as "probably one of the most horrific things I've ever seen."
Journeyman Pictures is an independent source for the world's most powerful films, exploring the burning issues of today. It represents stories from the world's top producers, with brand new content coming in all the time. Its channel has outstanding and controversial journalism covering every global subject imaginable.
Thailand's Tiger Temple is full of real meat eating predators (Steve Winter/NatGeo).
Channeled interpretation of delicate sex-related issues
Vegetarian Teens May Face Higher Eating Disorder Risk Young vegetarians eat healthier than most but may be more prone to binge eating Dan Childs (ABC News) 4/1/09
Even as teens and young adults who choose to be vegetarians reap a number of benefits -- including a healthier overall diet and a decreased risk of obesity -- some may also have a higher risk of eating disorders such as binge eating. More>>
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