God made Man (used Monkey to do it)?

According to the Ohio band Devo (devolution), "God made Man, but He used a Monkey to do it."

 

Scientists studying a 4.4-million-year-old fossil named Ardi may have uncovered the evolutionary step ["missing link"] that turned ancient [nonhuman] climbers into early [human-hybrid] walkers

Here’s what there is to learn when reading this Popular Mechanics' story:

• Ardi is the oldest known partial skeleton of a hominin and shows foot features that are transitioning from vertical climbing to bipedal walking.
• While Ardi has the primitive grasping big toe of the more apelike human ancestors that came before her, other parts of her feet are more evolved.
• It is Ardi’s talus, a bone in the ankle, that lies somewhere between the morphology of the same bone in apes and humans.

As humans, it’s important to remember that some of our oldest primate ancestors were apelike creatures.

Besides our much larger brains and visibly obvious differences, such as facial [structure and] features, one thing we evolved to be much more adept at than chimps and gorillas (which we, according to Darwinism, diverged from millions of years ago) is walking on two feet.

But just when did human predecessors first descend from the trees and walk upright?

A 4.4-million-year-old female skeleton named Ardi may answer that question. Predating even the iconic Lucy (Australopithecus) by a million years, she belongs to the species Ardipithecus ramidus and is revealing more about our human origins and how we became bipedal.

Unearthed in the Ethiopian desert back in 1994, Ardi is the oldest known partial hominin skeleton, though her species has been known since 1925 under the name Australopithecus ramidus.

Biological anthropologist Thomas Prang of Washington University in St. Louis and his research team discovered that Ardi was able to walk upright but still retained a grasping foot and other apelike features.

“Our observations of the human and ape fossil record are inconsistent with recently proposed models of human origins, which envision the last common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees as a generalized arboreal ape,” he said in a study recently published in Communications Biology.

“Instead, our results strongly imply that humans evolved from an African ape-like ancestor.”

• Related video: 300,000-year-old fossils: The true origin of Homo sapiens (History with Kayleigh Official) My name is Kaylee, and I guess it's safe to... (13:41)

Homo sapiens [not plural homos ("mankind") but Latin for "Thinking man"] belong[s] to the Homo-Pan clade, a group that evolved from a common ancestor and includes [violent, aggressive, militant] chimpanzees, [peaceful sex-centered hippie] bonobos, and both extant and extinct hominin species [Sasquatch, Bigfoot, Almasty, Yakkhas, Yeti, Orang Pendek, etc.]

This is part of a larger clade that gorillas also belong to. It has been argued that Ar. ramidus was more humanlike than apelike and had already evolved out of climbing trees vertically and dropping to all fours and walking on its knuckles in order to get around on land.

What Dr. Prang found was that Ardi is a mashup of primitive and modern features. She has a big toe designed for grasping branches, but other features of her feet, cranial base, and pelvis suggest that her species was adapting to bipedalism.

There is one bone that especially stands out: Ardi’s talus, a bone in the ankle which is also the second largest bone in the back of the foot. It transfers body weight between the lower leg and foot and helps African apes climb.

The talus enables dorsiflexion, or the backwards flexing of the foot, and inversion, the sideways turning of the foot. Both put the animal’s center of mass in a position closer to support, so apes are at much less risk of suffering lethal backward falls.

In ape species that primarily climb trees and primarily use dorsiflexion for vertical climbing, the forefoot is shorter than those of bipeds and quadrupeds, so Dr. Prang’s team turned its focus to the front of Ardi’s foot and also figured out her approximate body mass using the widths of the talar trochlea, or the upper joint surface of the talus.

There have been previous arguments that the morphology of the talar trochlea may not be the greatest indicator of how apes and early humans moved. Gorillas, chimps, bonobos, and gibbons have short forefeet for their body masses, while orangutans and larger monkeys have the longest forefeet.

The human forefoot is longer than those of chimps and gorillas and shorter than those monkeys, but there is still some overlap with bonobos. More

• 

  Extraterrestrials have intervened many times.

  Michael Cremo, the Forbidden Archeologist, has something to say to the contrary: Human life is FAR older on this earth (bhumi) than science yet admits. And "modern humans" are a misnomer because we are far older, according to ooparts and other pieces of inconvenient (and suppressed) evidence in the fossil and archeological record: We are not evolving but devolving and have been for hundreds of millions of years (in yugas and kalpas as declared by the Dharmic religions).
• Popular Mechanics via MSN.com, She Was Half Ape, Half Human—and She May Hold the Secret to What Makes Us Who We Are; Eds., Wisdom Quarterly

The Earthing Movie: barefoot grounding

(The Earthing Movie) The Earthing Movie is a documentary that reveals the scientific phenomenon of how we can heal our bodies by doing the simplest thing that a person can do -- standing and walking (grounding electrons) barefoot on the raw earth. See earthingmovie.com.

Barefoot earthing

There are many health benefits and a few risks associated with going barefoot in modern cities. Shoes, while they offer protection, can limit the flexibility, strength, and mobility of the foot and can lead to higher incidences of flexible flat foot, bunions, hammer toe, and Morton's neuroma.

Walking and running barefoot results in a more natural gait, allowing for a more rocking motion of the foot, eliminating the hard heel strike and generating less collision force in the foot and lower leg [1][2].

There are many sports that are performed barefooted, most notably gymnastics, martial arts, and swimming, but also beach volleyball, barefoot running, barefoot hiking, and barefoot waterskiing.

Historical and religious aspects

Buddhist monks are obligated when on alms round to do at least part of it barefoot. While this is regarded as a mark of respect, it may have been implemented for its many health benefits.

• WIKI VIDEO: Theravada Buddhist monks in Mahagandhayon Monastery (Amarapura, Myanmar, Burma).
• Secret to Happiness: 48-hours as a Buddhist monk, barefoot on alms round

Walking meditation

Buddhist monks line up barefoot to accept their late morning meal offered by donors.

Zen Buddhist monks and practitioners engage in kinhin or "walking meditation" barefoot or in natural (cloth or straw) sandals for best results, touching the earth and grounding.

The ancient Greek Spartans required boys to go barefoot as part of their obligatory military training [3], and the athletes at the ancient Olympic Games typically participated barefoot and naked [4].

Although the ancient Greeks had a great variety of footwear, many—famously including Socrates [5]—preferred to go barefoot [3]. More

One man WALKS across the world

The planned route for The Goliath Expedition

Karl Bushby (born March 30, 1969), 55, is a walking adventurer, former British paratrooper, and author, currently attempting to be the first and only person in the history of the world to completely WALK an unbroken path around the world [which seems to be a circular flat earth]. Bushby's trek is known as The Goliath Expedition.

[Has he become a Buddhist with all this walking meditation?]

Group kinhin in Zen practice

Walking meditation (Chinese 經行, Pinyin jīngxíng, Romaji kinhin or kyōgyō, Korean gyeonghyaeng, Vietnamese kinh hành) is a Buddhist meditative practice done while walking. It can be done as a standalone practice or as a break between long periods of static sitting meditation [1]. In different forms, the practice is common in various Buddhist traditions of both Theravada and in Mahayana Buddhism. The Zen term kinhin consists of the Chinese words 經, meaning "to go through (like the thread in a loom)," with "sutra" as a secondary meaning, and 行, meaning "walk." Taken literally, the phrase means "to walk straight back and forth." More

• Walking Meditation - A Guide to Mindful Walking | [Theravada] Buddhism in English

Early life of Bushby

Bushby was born in Hull, England. He attended a local comprehensive school and joined the British Army at the age of 16. Bushby served with the 3rd Battalion Parachute Regiment for 11 years.

(Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche) Walking meditation in Vajrayana

Goliath Expedition

The Goliath Expedition is Bushby's attempt to walk around the world "with unbroken footsteps," from Punta Arenas, Chile, to his home in Hull, England.

He began his journey on November 1, 1998, and originally expected to finish the trek of 36,000-mile (58,000 km) in eight years; however, due to numerous delays, it is still in progress as of September 8, 2025 [1], having made it through the impossible Darién Gap, the barrier between South and North America. More

U.S. monk serves Los Angeles Buddhists

UrbanDharma.org; Wisdom Quarterly

Ven. Kusala on The World (PRI.org, Public Radio Int'l) with U.S. and Vietnamese children.

Rev. Kusala

Rev. Kusala, an American Mahayana Buddhist monk (born Lutheran) living in Los Angeles, shares his understanding of Buddhism in a simple, non-technical way. He uses stories, humor, and personal insights. Rev. Kusala speaks about the Buddha and his teachings in churches, high schools, colleges, and universities throughout Los Angeles and Orange County.

• AUDIO: radio appearances (PRI, VOA, etc.)

(Kusala Bhikshu) We can choose calm over chaos through meditation. This is a short interview with Rev. Kusala on meditation by Lissa Coffey for "Coffey Talk" (coffeytalk.com).

The Buddha to come (sutra)

Dhr. Seven, CC Liu, Amber Larson (eds.) Wisdom Quarterly; "The Wheel-turning Emperor" (Cakkavatti Sutra, DN 26) Ven. Thanissaro (Geoffrey DeGraff, trans.); G.P. Malalasekera; Wiki

The Future-Buddha Maitreya, Diskit monastery, Himalayas (MickeySuman/flickr)

Mountain-size "Giant Buddha" of Leshan's foot photographed from stairway that leads toward base of the statue that stands 253 feet (77 meters), making it the largest stone Buddha in the world -- even larger than the known monoliths in Afghanistan, where the Buddha was likely born and where a larger reclining Buddha remains be discovered). It is carved into the Chinese cliff face facing Mt. Emei in the distance (Andrew MacDonald).

.

Maitreya (Dboo/flickr.com)

This sutra consists of a narrative illustrating the power of skillful karma. In the past, unskillful behavior was unknown among humans.
 
As a result, people lived for an immensely long time -- as long as 80,000 years [which is likely a stereotype rather than literal number signifying an extraordinarily long time, an ayu-kalpa, an average lifespan within a larger cycle, an incalculable or innumerable] -- endowed with great beauty, wealth, pleasure, and strength.

Leshan head and tourists (Joegwolf/flickr)

Over the course of time, however, they began behaving in various unskillful ways. This caused the gradual shortening of the human life span, to the point where it now stands at 100 years, with human beauty, wealth, pleasure, and strength decreasing proportionately.
 
In the future, as morality continues to degenerate, human life will continue to shorten to the point were the normal life span will be just 10 years, with people reaching sexual maturity at five.
 

The Giant Buddha of Leshan, China (Qasimism/flickr.com)

 
"Among those human beings, the Ten Courses of Action (AN 10.176) will have entirely disappeared... The word "skillful" will not exist, so from where will there be anyone who does what is skillful?
 
Those who lack the honorable qualities of motherhood, fatherhood, shraman (wandering ascetic)-hood, and Brahmin-hood will be the ones who receive homage... Fierce hatred will arise, fierce malevolence, fierce rage, and murderous thoughts: mother for child, child for mother, father for child, child for father, brother for sister, sister for brother."
 
Ultimately, conditions will deteriorate to the point of a "sword-interval," in which swords appear in the hands of all human beings, and they will hunt one another like game. A few people, however, will take shelter in the wilderness to escape the carnage. And when the slaughter is over, they will come out of hiding and resolve to take up a life of skillful and virtuous action again.
 
With the recovery of virtue, the human life span will gradually increase again until it reaches a very long time (listed as 80,000 years), with people attaining sexual maturity at 500 [another number that literally means "a large number" instead of 500].

The Friend

Maitreya (Kushan)

The Sanskrit name Maitreya (Metteyya in Pāli) is derived from the Sanskrit word maitrī (Pāli mettā) which means "loving-kindness." This term is in turn derived from the noun mitra (Pāli mitta) in the sense of "friend." Maitreya is typically pictured seated, with either both feet on the ground or crossed at the ankles, on a throne, waiting for his time. He is dressed in the clothes of either a bhikshu or Indian royalty. As a bodhisattva, he would usually be standing and dressed in jewels. Usually he wears a small stupa in his headdress that represents the stupa of the Buddha Sakyamuni's relics to help him identify it when his turn comes to lay claim to his succession, and can be holding a Dharmachakra (wheel of life) resting on a lotus. A khata (ceremonial scarf) is always tied around his waist as a girdle. The Stupa on his head was actually seen by disciples when Maitreya received teachings from his master Buddha Shakyamuni as a sign of his outstanding devotion. That is the reason why he is pictured with a Stupa either on his head or in his hands. Also the original Stupa was a crystal one, which stands for the purity of his devotion. In the Greco-Buddhist art of Gandhara, in the first centuries CE in northwestern India, Maitreya is represented as a Central Asian or northern Indian noble (kshatriya caste, warrior, ruler, royalty), holding a "water phial" (kumbha) in his left hand. Sometimes this is a "wisdom urn."
 
The Future Buddha

One of the most beautiful representations of the Future Buddha, the second most important figure in populist Mahayana Buddhism. Kwan Yin, like the Virgin Mary in Catholicism, is the most important. Thikse monastery, Ladakh, Buddhist India, Himalayas (WQ).

.

Only three diseases will be known at that time: desire, lack of food, and old age. Another buddha -- Metteyya (Sanskrit, "Maitreya") -- will gain enlightenment and have a Sangha [a monastic community of monks, nuns, and novices] numbering in the thousands.

Future largest Buddha statue, India

• Maitreya is regarded as the future buddha of this world in Buddhist eschatology. In some Mahayana Buddhist literature, such as the Amitabha Sutra and the Lotus Sutra, he is referred to as Ajita Bodhisattva. He is the bodhisattva, or buddha-to-be, who in Buddhist tradition will be reborn on Earth, achieve complete enlightenment, and again make known the liberating Dharma unique to buddhas. According to sutras he is the immediate successor of the historic Śhākyamuni Buddha. The prophecy of his arrival refers to a time when the Dharma will have been forgotten by most on Jambudvipa [more likely a reference to this planet or region in space than to the subcontinent of India]. It is found in the canonical literature of all major Buddhist schools (Theravāda, Mahāyāna, Vajrayāna), and is accepted by most Buddhists as a statement about an event that will take place when the Dharma will have been mostly forgotten on Earth.

The greatest ruler of the time, King Sankha, will go forth into homelessness and attain arhatship under Metteyya's guidance.
 
The story, after chronicling the ups and downs of human wealth, life span, and so on, concludes with the following lesson on karma and skillful action.
 

..."Meditators, live with yourself as your island, yourself as your guide (not refuge), with nothing else as your guide. Live with the Dharma as your island, the Dharma as your guide, with nothing else as your guide. [To this might well be added the noble-Sangha, those who have successfully followed the Buddha's ennobling Dharma and gained one or more of the stages of enlightenment. These three -- Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha -- are regarded as the Three Precious Jewels of tradition].

• This may also be translated as: "Live with dharma [rather than the Dharma, the Teaching, the Doctrine] as your island, mental phenomena as your guide, with nothing else as your guide." Dhamma has many meanings, one in particular is phenomena. Another more common definition in India is "social obligations" or "duties" (as opposed to karma, which are one's personal choices for action). The Buddha, a karmavadin, or teacher-of-karma, was not recommending one simply do whatever one feels like, but to live in accordance with Truth, with justice, in harmony with others.

"And how does one with oneself as island, oneself as guide, with nothing else as guide; with the Dharma as island, the Dharma as guide, with nothing else as guide?

"There is the case where a meditator remains focused on the body in and of itself -- ardent, alert, and mindful -- putting aside greed and grief with regard to the world. One remains focused on feelings (sensations) in and of themselves... mind (process of consciousness) in and of itself... mental qualities in and of themselves -- ardent, alert, and mindful -- putting aside greed and grief with regard to the world. [We stop here because Maitreya is not mentioned again, and why is that? The suggestion is that it is because this sutra was never really about Maitreya. See commentary below.] More

• SEE PART 2: "World's Largest Buddha: Afghanistan"
• AFGHAN: New Bamiyan Buddha find amid destruction

Commentary

R. Gombrich (ahandfulofleaves.org)

Doubt about this discourse: Metteyya (Sanskrit Maitreya) is mentioned in the Cakavatti (Sihanada) Sutta (DN 26) of the Pali Canon. He appears in no other sutra in the Pali Canon, and this has cast doubt as to the sutra's authenticity. Most of the Buddha's discourses are presented as having been presented in answer to a question, or in some other appropriate context. But this sutra has a beginning and ending in which the Buddha is talking to monastics about something totally different. This leads Gombrich to conclude that either the whole sutra is apocryphal (of unknown origin), or that it has at least been tampered with (Richard Gombrich, Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benares to Modern Colombo, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1988, pp. 83-85).

Why become a Buddhist ascetic? (King Milinda)

Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly, "The Questions of King Milinda" [Menander] (Miln), Milindapañha (as.miami.edu/phi/bio/Buddha/Milinda)

Indo-Greco art from Mes Aynak ("Copper Well"), Afghanistan (irtiqa-blog.com)

 

Lay Life vs. Monasticism

Greek King Milinda (Menander 1) coin

King Milinda (Greek, Menander) asked the Buddhist sage: "Venerable Nagasena, the Blessed One has said:
 
"‘Right spiritual progress is praiseworthy for householders and wandering ascetics alike. Both householders and wandering ascetics, when progressing rightly, can accomplish, because of their right progress, the right method, the Dharma, which is wholesome.’ 

"If, Nagasena, a householder, dressed in white, enjoying the pleasures of the senses, inhabiting a house overcrowded with spouse and family, using fragrant sandalwood of Benares, as well as garlands, perfumes, and creams, owning gold and silver, wearing a turban ornamented with gold and jewels, can, if s/he progresses rightly, accomplish the right method, the Dharma, the wholesome, and if a wandering ascetic, bald-headed, clad in saffron robe, dependent on alms offerings for a livelihood, careful to fulfil correctly the four sections of monastic virtue, submitting to the 150 path-to-liberation (pratimoksa) rules, and observing all 13 Sane Ascetic Practices (dhutanga), without omitting any, can also, if progressing rightly, accomplish the right method, the Dharma, the wholesome -- then, venerable sir, What is the difference between the householder and the wandering ascetic? 

 

"Fruitless is your austerity, useless is the homeless (wandering ascetic) life, barren is the observation of the monastic rules, in vain do you observe the sane ascetic practices! What is the use of inflicting pain upon yourself if you can gain nirvana while remaining at ease?"

UCLA: Save Buddhist-Afghan site (WQ)

Nagasena replied: "You have quoted the Blessed One's words correctly, your majesty. To make right progress is indeed the most excellent thing of all.

"And if the wandering ascetic, in the consciousness of being a wandering ascetic, should fail to progress rightly, then one would be far from the state of an ascetic, far from a supreme life. Still more so would that apply to a householder dressed in white.

"But both the householder and the wandering ascetic are alike in that, when they progress rightly, they accomplish the right method, the Dharma, the wholesome.

Wish-fulfilling gem

"Nevertheless, your majesty, it is the wandering ascetic who is the master of the pure life. To be a wandering ascetic has many and numerous, even infinite, virtues (benefits). To measure the virtues of being a wandering ascetic is not at all possible. It is like a [chintamani] jewel that fulfills all one's wishes; one cannot measure its value in terms of money and say that it is worth so much.

 

Like the waves in the great ocean, one cannot measure and say that there are so many. All that the wandering ascetic still has to do, one succeeds in doing rapidly and without taking a long time over it. And why is that? It is because the wandering ascetic, your majesty, is content with little, easily pleased, secluded from the world, not addicted to society, energetic, independent, solitary, perfect in conduct, austere in practice, skilled in all that concerns inner purification and spiritual progress.

 

Beautiful Buddhist jewelry recovered from the Mes Aynak monastic complex/town archeological site, Afghanistan, suggesting that beauty, baubles, and sensual delights were quite popular. Treasure dated from 500 AD to 700 AD (Kadir/Salam Viking).

 

Such a person is like your javelin, your majesty -- smooth, even, well polished, straight, clean, and shining. When it is well thrown, it will fly exactly as you want it to. In the same way, whatever the wandering ascetic still has to do, one succeeds in doing it all rapidly and without taking a long time over it."

 

"Well spoken, Nagasena. So it is, and so I accept it."

Nagasena continued: "In any case, your majesty, all those who as householders, living in a home and in the enjoyment of sensual pleasures, realize the peace of nirvana, the highest good, they have all been trained in former lives in the 13 Sane Ascetic Practices peculiar to [Buddhist monastic] disciples, and through them they have laid the foundations for their present realization and attainment. It is because they had purified their conduct and behavior by means of them then that now even as householders, living in a home and in the enjoyment of sense pleasures, they can realize the peace of nirvana, the highest good.

Child plays with novice monk, Leh, Ladakh, Buddhist India (Vincenzo Rossi/flickr.com)

 

House or Monastery? 

Bad dog! Check your motives.

"But whoever enters the Monastic Order bad motives -- from covetousness, deceitfully, out of greed and gluttony, desirous of gain, fame, or reputation, unsuitably, unqualified, unfit, unworthy, unseemly -- that person shall incur a twofold comeuppance, which will prove ruinous to all one's good qualities.

In this very life, one shall be scorned, derided, reproached, ridiculed, and mocked. One shall be shunned, expelled, ejected, removed, and banished. 

What could account for Sam winning the "Ugliest Dog in the World" contest? (EIT)

  

Aw, poor baby! (ugliest dog in the world)

In the next life, like foam which is tossed about, up and down and across, one shall cook for many hundreds of thousands of aeons (kalpas, which also be interpreted as meaning "ordinary lifespans") in the great Waveless Deep (Avici) hell, which is a hundred leagues big, and all ablaze with hot, scorching, fierce, and fiery flames. 

"And when one has been released thence, one's entire body will become emaciated, rough, and black, one's head swollen, bloated and full of holes. 

As hungry as a ghost or preta (WP)

Hungry and thirsty, disagreeable and dreadful to look at, one's ears all torn, eyes constantly blinking, entire body one putrid mass of sores, dense with maggots, bowels afire and blazing like a mass of fire fanned by a breeze, helpless and unprotected, weeping, crying, wailing, and lamenting, consumed by unsatisfied longings -- that person who once was a religious wanderer shall then as a large hungry ghost roam about on the earth bewailing that fate.
 

"But if, on the other hand, a person enters the Monastic Order (Sangha) suitably, qualified, fit, worthy and seemly, content with little, easily pleased, secluded (withdrawing and protecting the senses) from the worldly, not addicted to society, energetic and resolute, without fraud or deceit, not gluttonous, not desirous of gain, fame, or reputation, devout and with confidence (saddha, faith), out of a desire to free oneself from old age and death and to uphold the Buddha's dispensation (sasana), then one deserves to be honored in two ways, by both devas and humans.

 

The devas find one dear (wallpaper.365greetings.com)

  

Beauty pageant

"One is dear and pleasing to them. They love and seek after one. One is to them as fine jasmine flowers are to a person bathed and anointed with oil, or good food to the hungry, or a cool, clear, and fragrant drink to the thirsty, or an effective medicine [antidote] to those who are poisoned, or a superb chariot drawn by thoroughbreds to those who want to travel quickly, or a wish-fulfilling jewel to those who want to enrich themselves, or a brilliantly white parasol, the [spaceship-like] emblem of royalty, to those who would like to be rulers, or as the supreme attainment of the fruit of enlightenment (arhatship) to those who wish for Dharma.

The 37 Requisites of Enlightenment

 "In that person

• The Four Foundations (Posts or Pillars) of Mindfulness reach their full development, as do
• The Four Right Efforts,
• The Four Roads to [Psychic] Success,
• The Five Faculties,
• The Five Powers,
• The Seven Factors of Enlightenment, and
• The Noble Eightfold Path.

"One attains to calm and insight, and one's progressive attainments continue to mature, and one becomes a repository of the Four Fruits of the Spiritual Life (Samana Phala), of the Four Analytical Knowledges, the Threefold Knowledge, and the Six Super Knowledges, in short, of the whole Dharma of the spiritual life, and one is consecrated with the brilliantly white parasol of emancipation." More

Heal Your Heart by Grounding (video)

Grounding: Part I "The Barefoot Revolution"

"Earthing" (a.k.a. “grounding”) is an amazingly simple yet powerful therapy to reconnect. The Earth’s gentle, negatively-charged surface to restore and maintain the body’s natural electrical balance. We can ground ourselves by simply walking barefoot, or sitting/laying down, on the Earth --and through grounding devices. Earthing may be the solution for the cause of most common modern disease, chronic internal inflammation. What is Earthing in detail? More>>

• Website: HeartMDinstitute.com
• Listen to Dr. Sinatra interview today by Dr. Northrup
• Flow Dreaming (Summer McStravick)

Three-Year Silent Retreat

James Connor, author of The Perfection of Marketing, and Founder and CEO of The James Group, appears on "Happy Hour" (FOX Business). Connor discusses his plan to give everything away and leaving to embark on a three-year silent Buddhist retreat. To learn more about James Connor, visit perfectionofmarketing.com.

(GOOD.is) In late 2010, in the sun scorched highlands of Arizona's Chirakawa Mountains, some 50 Buddhist students will embark on a retreat. For three years, three months, and three days, they will have no contact with the outside world, and they will not speak a word.

The retreat will be lead by Lama Christie McNally, one of the only women in the world to carry the title of "lama" (or teacher), and Geshe Michael Roach. (The Buddhist degree of geshe is comparable to a doctorate in the United States.) McNally and Roach are the founders of Diamond Mountain, a school some 100 miles from Tucson which is modeled after Buddhist monastic tradition, and which is not far from where the retreat will take place.

Earlier this month, while Lama McNally was visiting the Asian Classics Institute of Los Angeles's Mahasukha Center to teach from and talk about her book, The Tibetan Book of Meditation... More>>

• Controversy during previous retreat (diamond-cutter.org)

One Foot in the World

"Miss Tibet" beauty contest in a devout culture once steeped in monasticism (AP)

Buddhist Approaches to Present-day Problems
Prof. Lily de Silva (WQ edit)

• Contents
• Preface
• A Layman's Happiness
• The Mechanics of Bondage and Suffering
• Understanding and Managing Stress
• The Buddhist Attitude to Gain and Honor
• Livelihood and Development
• Facing Death Without Fear
• The Human Body
• Sensualist Social Trends and Buddhism in Modern Times
• About the Author
• Footnotes

Preface
The dispensation of the Buddha includes not only monks and nuns, but male and female lay followers as well. All four groups, which comprise the Buddhist community, have but one ultimate goal. That goal is the attainment of nirvana (Pali, nibbana).

Though nirvana means "final liberation" from the world, while walking along the Path to liberation a Buddhist has to live in the world and deal with the conditions of worldly existence.

This problem is likely to be felt especially acutely by the lay Buddhist, who may find that the demands and attractions of secular life tend to pull away from the Path to deliverance. However, the Buddha was not unaware of or unconcerned about this dilemma confronted by lay disciples. He gave it his careful attention.

He taught lay followers to organize lay life in accordance with the ethical principles of the Dharma and how to lead successful lay lives without deviating from the Path of rectitude.

As lay Buddhists, we must be ever vigilant so that in our pursuit of worldly goals -- such as wealth, pleasure, and success -- we do not lose sight of our spiritual goal.

Care should be taken especially to avoid the violation of the basic moral principles summed up in the Five Precepts. Such violation leads to regression on the Path. We must often remind ourselves that the first two of the four stages of enlightenment or holiness can be attained by those still leading a married life; that there have been non-returners of the third stage who continued to remain in lay life though observing celibacy; and that the texts record instances of laymen who even attained arahatship prior to their deaths.

The Pali canon contains ample evidence of exemplary laypeople, such as Anathapindika, Visakha, and the parents of Nakula, to mention only the most prominent. Therefore, a layperson should make every endeavor to follow the way to the end of suffering in this very life, by leading a life of moderation and self-discipline and by practicing meditation with the aim of developing insight into the ultimate truths of life and death.

The essays here explore various facets of experience from lay life that require the attention of the lay aspirant to deliverance. They deal particularly with those that have become more pronounced and urgent in our contemporary materialistic and secularized world. My wish is to share these ideas with others who also may be attempting to follow the Buddha's Path in the lay life.

They are thus walking with one foot on the way to nirvana and "one foot in the world." I hope these essays will assist them to understand and overcome the problems they may face in their day-to- day lives. More>>