BEICHUAN – China marked the first anniversary of a massive earthquake today in a somber, nationally televised ceremony. The proceedings were filled with flowers and speeches, as the normally distant Chinese leadership provided an unusually cathartic public moment.
The 30-minute memorial service in front of a destroyed school in the Sichuan Province town of Yingxiu followed a minute of silence that began at 2:28 p.m. (0628 GMT), the moment the magnitude-7.9 temblor shook China — and some countries beyond — on May 12, 2008. More>>
People visit the quake devastated town of Beichuan, southwestern China's Sichuan Province, May 12, 2009. State leaders laid flowers and survivors burned paper money for departed spirits as a mournful China marked the first anniversary today of devastating quake that left nearly 90,000 people dead or missing and 5 million homeless, while ruining Sharon Stone's reputation (AP/Ng Han Guan). MORE PHOTOS
Free Burma! The struggle for freedom continues. The release of Burma's democratically-elected leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, is up for renewal this month (May, 2009).
Potential Indian prime minister, Mayawati, the Dalit (untouchable) Regina: To Mayawati and her mentor, Kanshi Ram, goes the credit of finding a strategy that allowed Dalits to parlay their numbers and position in the lower echelons of the state structure into real political power. Today, BSP supremo Mayawati wields power not as a subordinate member of a coalition led by privileged groups, but as the head of an electorally potent coalition of diverse social groups with Dalits in the vanguard.
Assembling a list of 60 people to represent sixty years of the Republic of India is a kind of indoor game, fundamentally no more important than arguing about the ten best Hindi films of the sixties.
But the nation-state is a charismatic beast: it invests everything it touches, even the trivial business of list-making, with significance. When our jurors sat down to the impossible business of finding sixty names to stand in for the nation, there was agreement, argument, accommodation.
Sometimes there were differences of opinion that couldn't be reconciled. And this despite the fact that the three jurors agreed, before they started, to exclude villains from the list, no matter how historically significant they were. See their choices>>
DUBLIN, Ireland -- When Dublin university student Shane Fitzgerald posted a poetic but phony quote on Wikipedia, he said he was testing how our globalized, increasingly Internet-dependent media was upholding accuracy and accountability in an age of instant news. His report card?
Wikipedia passed. Journalism flunked.
The sociology major's made-up quote — which he added to the Wikipedia page of "Maurice Jarre" hours after the French composer's death March 28 — flew straight on to dozens of U.S. blogs and newspaper Web sites in Britain, Australia, and India.
They used the fabricated material, Fitzgerald said, even though administrators at the free online encyclopedia quickly caught the quote's lack of attribution and removed it, but not quickly enough to keep some journalists from cutting and pasting it first. More>>
Student fools world media (Guardian) Shane Fitzgerald posts a fake quote on Wikipedia which papers around the globe reprint as legitimate. Should he be grounded by his mum or hired by the New York Times?
PARIS – French lawmakers in the lower house today passed a bill that would cut the Internet connections of those who repeatedly download music and films illegally, creating what may be the first government agency to track and punish online pirates.
The bill passed 296 to 233 in a show of force by President Nicolas Sarkozy's governing conservatives after an initial failure last month. More>>
Google-China gives away music for free
wpromote.com
In an effort to gain market share from its shady competitor, Baidu, the search engine that came to dominate the largest online market in the world by offering illegal music downloads to Internet users and has since been sued over copyright infringement and a slew of other things, Google China has officially launched a free and legal music downloading service. More>>
Patti and Mel discuss what gardeners are doing in the month of May. For more info check out squarefootgardening.com and gardengirltv.com (Distributed by Tubemogul).
Transcript: You can begin by sitting down in a comfortable position, closing your eyes. Sit with your back erect, without being strained or over arched.
Take a few deep breaths; relax your body. Feel your energy settle into your body and into the moment.
See if certain phrases emerge from your heart that express what you wish most deeply for yourself, not just for today, but in an enduring way. Phrases that are big enough and general enough that you can ultimately wish them for all of life, for all beings everywhere.
Classical phrases are things like, "May I live in safety. May I be happy. May I be healthy. May I live with ease."
You can gently repeat these phrases over and over again. Have your mind rest in the phrases. And whenever you find your attention has wandered, don't worry about it. When you recognize you've lost touch with the moment, see if you can gently let go and begin again.
We aim the attention toward the phrases without trying to manufacture a special feeling or make anything in particular happen.
"May I live in safety, be happy, be healthy, live with ease."
Call to mind somebody that you care about -- a good friend, or someone who's helped you in your life, someone who inspires you.
You can visualize them, say their name to yourself. Get a feeling for their presence, and then direct the phrases of loving-kindness to them. May you live in safety, be happy, be healthy, live with ease.
Call to mind someone you know who's having a difficult time right now. They've experienced a loss, painful feeling, a difficult situation. If somebody like that comes to mind, bring them here. More »
Shock-jock, de facto Republican party leader, and future presidential candidate Rush Limbaugh says "I DO want Obama to fail" while addressing the CPAC (Conservative Political Action Committee) Convention in Washington, DC on February 28, 2009.
Cartoon of Rush Limbaugh as leader of right-wing Republican party
(AP) In his daily press briefing today, Robert Gibbs distanced the president from comedian Wanda Sykes’s joke comparing Rush Limbaugh to a "9/11 hijacker" at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner.
At the dinner, where Obama was the guest of honor, comedienne Sykes blasted Limbaugh for saying he hoped Obama’s administration would fail, joking: “I think Rush Limbaugh was the 20th hijacker, but he was just so strung out on Oxycontin he missed his flight.”
Obama appeared to smile at the remark.
PHOTOS: 1. President Barack Obama reacts with laughter to comic/actress Wanda Sykes who entertained the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner at the Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C. on May 9, 2009 (AP/J. Scott Applewhite). 2. Rush Limbaugh and the destruction of the republican party; 3. Comic actress Wanda Sykes speaking at the White House President Obama, far left, as the guest of honor, Jennifer Loven, the White House correspondent for the AP, is at center (AP/J. Scott Applewhite).
Cheney, Limbaugh, or Powell? The US government used to be com-posed of a Bush, a Dick, and a Colon. Now former Vice President Dick Cheney makes it clear who he hopes will be the future of the Republican party.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – The United Nations condemned a "bloodbath" in Sri Lanka's northern war zone today after two days of shelling that a government doctor said killed as many as 1,000 ethnic Tamil civilians — including 106 children.
Volunteers dug mass graves in the marshland, putting 50 to 60 bodies in each pit, according to Dr. V. Shanmugarajah, who works at a makeshift hospital in the war zone. He said one nurse was killed along with his family in a trench that was then filled with soil and turned into their grave. More>>
According to the U.S. government's newly released Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates, based on 2008 data, the typical surgeon makes an average of $206,770 a year.
That puts surgeons above anesthesiologists to have the best-paying job in the country.
Internists now earn a little more than prosthodontists (people who make and fit false teeth). Otherwise, the top 10 jobs rank the same as a year ago. The biggest change is... More>>
WARNING: "Psychetruth" is a professional, ad-based production company masquer-ading as a do-it-yourself endeavor. It uses paid spokesmodels, acting and reading scripts. Enjoy without being pressured to subscribe or comment.
[On the subject of karma and talking, the Buddha said:] I declare that [physical, verbal, or mental] actions willed, per-formed, and accumulated will not become extinct as long as their results have not been experienced, be it in this life, in the next life, or in subsequent future lives. And as long as these results of actions willed, performed, and accumulated have not been experienced, there will be no making an end to suffering, I declare.
...And how is tainted failure in living fourfold in verbal acts?
There is one who is a "liar." When one is in the council in one's community or in another assembly, or among one's relatives, one's guild, in the royal court, or when one has been summoned as a witness and is asked to tell what one knows, then,
though one does not know, one will say, "I know";
though one does know, one will say, "I do not know";
though one has not seen, one will say, "I have seen"; and
though one has seen, one will say, "I have not seen."
1. One utters deliberate lies in that way, be it for one's own sake, for the sake of others, or for some material advantage.
2. One utters divisive speech: what one hears here one reports elsewhere to foment conflict there; and what one hears elsewhere one reports here to foment conflict here.
Thus one creates discord among those united, and one incites still more those who are in discord. One is fond of dissension, one delights and rejoices in it, and one utters words that cause dissension.
3. One speaks harshly, using speech that is coarse, rough, bitter, and abusive, that makes others angry and causes distraction of mind. It is such speech that one utters.
4. One indulges in frivolous chit chat: one speaks what is untimely, unreasonable, and unbeneficial, having no connection with the Doctrine or the Discipline [the Dharma or the Vinaya]. One's talk is not worth treasuring; it is inopportune, inadvisable, unrestrained, and harmful.
In this way, tainted failure in living is fourfold in verbal acts.*
*NOTE: On the threefold ripening of karma, see Text 24 and Chapter III, Note 13. The Buddha's statement -- that there is no making an end to suffering without experiencing the results of all actions performed -- must be understood with the reservation (which [the commentary] makes explicit in connection with "karma ripening in future lives") that reference is to "karma that is actually capable of yielding a karmic result" (vipakaraha-kamma).
But under certain circumstances karma can be annulled by a counteractive or destructive karma, and the arhat, by terminating the conditions for rebirth, extinguishes the potential for ripening of all one's past karma. The statement in the present text must also be understood in the light of the following sutra passage:
"If one says that in whatever way a person performs a karmic action, in that very same way one will experience the result -- in that case there will be no (possibility for) the holy life [brahmacaryaor a life leading to enlightenment], and no opportunity would appear for making a complete end to suffering.
"But if one says that a person who performs a karmic action (with a result) that is variably experienceable, will reap its result accordingly -- in that case there will be (a possibility for) the holy life, and an opportunity would appear for making a complete end to suffering" (AN III, 110).
Excerpts from "The Extinction of Karma" discourse (AN X, 206) translated by BhikkhuBodhi, from the book The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha, Chapter of the Tens, Discourse 206.
What's in a fast-food burger? Think it's just a slurry of pur-pose-slaughtered body parts, pus-laden cheese, chemically-treated bread, pesticide-taint-ed lettuce, and genetically-mod-ified tomato [with excitotoxins like MSG, artificial flavors, aluminum-salt, synthetic pre-servatives, acrylomides, trans fats, and plasticizers? Grab a napkin and think again. Top 10 tricks
Born to a standing mother, Maha Maya Devi, Siddhartha became the Buddha. Traditional stone carving, Zen You Mitsu temple, Tokyo (AssociatedContent.com).
Honoring Mothers in a Buddhist Way
As she went through the town, people gladly gave her a few seeds. But when she asked if anyone in the house had died, she was not so lucky. Not one house in the town had been untouched by death. By nightfall, she had learned the lesson that the Buddha had not had to speak [from the Buddhist story of the mother Kisagotami, who became an enlightened nun].
She was not the only person on earth who had lost a loved one. Love for the mother, in the context of the Buddhist belief in rebirth, extends to all living beings. According to the Lankavatara Sutra, in the endless cycles of time that are accounted for in Buddhist teachings, [nearly] every living being has at one time or another been your mother or father, your brother or sister, your son or daughter.
The Christian poet John Donne wrote, "Every man's death diminishes me." For a Buddhist, that is very limiting. Every death, according to Buddhist teaching, diminishes us all.
A bodhisattva [someone intent on full enlightenment] is [not quite yet] an enlightened being who vows not to leave the world of samsara -- that is, birth, death, and rebirth -- until all beings have attained enlightenment. There are many female bodhisattvas identified in different Buddhist traditions.
One of the most famous is Guan Yin. In different traditions and languages, her name may be spelled as Kuan Yin or Kwannon. Her name means "hearing the cries of the world." It is said that as she heard these cries, her two arms were not enough to reach out to all those who were suffering. She now has anywhere from eight to one thousand arms, and she is sometimes referred to as the Buddhist Madonna.... More>>
Bodhi (बोधि) is both the Pāli and Sanskrit word traditionally translated into English as "enlightenment."
The word "buddha" means "one who has achieved perfect bodhi." Bodhi is also frequently (and more accurately) translated as "awakening." Although its most common usage by far is in the context of Buddhism, bodhi is also a technical term with various usages in other Indian philosophies and traditions.
Bodhi is an abstract noun formed from the verbal root budh (to awake, become aware, notice, know, understand (as in budh-a) corresponding to the verbs bujjhati (Pāli) and bodhati or budhyate (Sanskrit).
In early Buddhism, bodhi carried a meaning synonymous with nirvana. Enlightenment precedes always nirvana but is not synonymous with it. There are different metaphors to describe the experience, which implied the extinction of raga (greed), dosa (hate), and moha (delusion). There are known as the roots of all harmful karma.
In the later school of Mahayana Buddhism, the status of nirvana was downgraded in some scriptures, coming to refer only to the extinction of greed and hate, implying that delusion was still present in one who attained nirvana, and that one needed to attain bodhi to eradicate delusion.
Therefore, according to Mahayana Buddhism, the arahant has attained only nirvana and thus is still subject to delusion, whereas the bodhisattva not only achieves nirvana but full liberation from delusion as well.
One thus attains bodhi and becomes a buddha. In Theravada Buddhism, a buddha is more than an arahant. He is a perfectly-enlightened capable of bringing others to awakening. An arahant may or may not be able to teach. In Theravada bodhi and nirvana, though different, carry the same denotation -- that of being freed from greed, hate, and delusion.
It should also be noted that in the Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra, "Great Nirvana" is equal in all respects to bodhi. Indeed, both schools agree that what the historical Buddha achieved is the state of perfect-enlightenment (samma-sambodhi) leading to buddhahood.
In Theravada Buddhism Bodhi means the awakening experience attained by Gautama Buddha and his accomplished male and female disciples. It refers to the unique consciousness of a fully liberatedyogi. Bodhi is sometimes described as complete and perfect sanity, or awareness of the true nature of the entire universe.
After attainment, it is believed that one is freed from the cycle of samsāra: rebirth, suffering, death and redeath. (See moksha).
Bodhi is most commonly translated into English as "enlightenment." This word conveys the insight and understanding (wisdom) possessed by a buddha and is used to convey a saint [arahant]'s condition of being lit by the light of wisdom. There are two images of "light" contained in the term bodhi. One is quite literally a "light of wisdom" (nimitta, see also jhana), the other more obvious and figurative:
Bodhi expresses the notion of awakening from a dream, being aware, knowingreality. It might thus be more accurate to think of bodhi as spiritual "awaken-ness" or "awaken-ment." But it is "enlightenment" because imagery of light is extraordinarily prevalent in many Buddhist texts.
Bodhi is attained when the ten fetters that bind a being to the Wheel of Samsara have been dissolved. Then the Four Noble Truths have been thoroughly and intuitively understood. All volitional conditioning has reached cessation (nirodha), giving rise to a transcendent peace (nibbana).
At this moment, the psychological root-defilements of hankering (lobha), aversion (dosa), delusion (moha), fear (bhava), ignorance (avijjā), craving (tanha), and ego-centered consciousness (attā) are completely uprooted.
Bodhi is the ultimate goal of the supreme life (brahmacarya). It is achieved by observing the Noble Eightfold Path, the development of the paramitas (virtues associated with enlightenment), and profound wisdom into the dependently arisen nature of all phenomena. In Mahayana Sutras Certain Mahayana sutras stress that bodhi is always present and perfect. It simply needs to be "uncovered" or disclosed to purified vision. Thus, for example, the "Sutra of Perfect Awakening" has the Buddha teach that, like gold within its ore, bodhi is always there within the being's mind. It merely requires the obscuring mundane ore (the surrounding defilements of samsara and of impaired, unawakened perception) be removed.... More>>
Chief: The Life and Work of K Sri Dhammnanda -- Buddhist Channel original film on Malaysia's most famous [Sri Lankan] monk, which premiered at WIFF. Now Showing: Part 1. download; Part 2. download Part 3. download
Premasara Epasinghe, Pvt. Sec'y to the Minister of Education
(WQ, Daily News of Sri Lanka)
(Buddhist Channel TV) Television is powerful and popular. It was only introduced to Sri Lanka in 1979. Why is it powerful and popular? It communicates directly and simultaneously to every home. Television captures the entire family at the same time. So its impact is enormous.
Peaceful co-existence through Dharma Television's audio-visual contents can be used for the betterment or detriment of society. Most TV channels in the world are interested in arousing the five senses.
There are many reports published in the West about social research on TV and violence. It is detrimental to society. Some Sri Lankan TV is not suitable for young minds.
Our TV Channels should give priority to presenting programs of aesthetic value, elevating artistic appreciation, showing what is good for the entire family and society at large. It should be educational.
Propagating Dharma The Buddhist Channel is comprised of programs on the teachings of the Buddha. These educational programs are based on moral-virtue, calm-concentration, and mindful-wisdom (sila, samadhi, and prajna respectively).
The idea is to teach individually moral, publicly ethical, and timelessly spiritual values. The Channel's thinking and philosophy are to build an exemplary Buddhist society in Sri Lanka. It is also to create an excellent international image for the country. With this good intention in mind, the Buddhist Channel was started as the world’s first and only global Buddhist satellite television broadcasting network.
The Sri Lankan president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, inaugurated it a year ago, stating: “One Poson Day more than 2,000 years ago, Arhat Mahinda Thera, son of the Great Indian Emperor Asoka, brought the message of the Buddha and Dharma to our island. Today using modern technology, we can send the Buddha’s message to the entire world.”
As the president stated, it is the "Gift of Dharma" that Sri Lanka is eminently qualified to send out to the world. The Buddha and Dharma illuminate the way. Humankind is thus able to cross from dark, hateful, deluded conflict and suffering into a new world of light filled with loving-kindness, compassion, wisdom, and the peace and happiness that come from that.
This is to be achieved within the next few decades, making the Channel a catalyst for a "new world order" of righteousness.
A pious Hindu, the Tamil gentleman Muhundan Kanage, was the owner of CBN SAT TV Channel (Pvt) Ltd. When his company was acquired by Dialog Television (Pvt) Ltd, he insisted on having a Sri Lankan Buddhist Channel. He made arrangements with the new owners to allocate a Buddhist Channel in their package and donated the TV equipment he owned to Sambodhi Viharaya on Gregory’s Road in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo.
The Origin Today, it is part of the religious programming of the Dialog Sat TV, which is a DTH service given to its subscribers free of charge like the other religious channels-Christianity, Hinduism and Islam. At the same time, the SLT Vision Com is also transmitting these Buddhist programs. The Buddhist channel is still in its infancy. It has not yet fully established in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lankans can view The Buddhist channel programs on TNL for a couple of hours commencing from 3:00 PM daily....
The mission has already been undertaken by the Ven. Shastrapathi Pandita Daranagama Kusaladhamma Nayaka Thera with the help of a dynamic committee for the Sri Sambodhi Viharaya. Everything is already in motion to make the Buddhist Channel a terrestrial telecasting service.
Physics of the Impossible is a fascinating exploration of the science of the impossible — from time machines and force fields to invisibility cloaks and healing devices — revealing what can be done now and what technologies might be achievable decades or millennia into the future.
Wesak (also Vesak or Vesakha, and in Sanskrit, वैशाख Vaiśākha) is the name of a month on the lunar calendar of ancient India. In Buddhism it has come to mean the full-moon day of that month (May 8 of the Gregorian calendar in 2009).
It was on this day, eighty years after his birth, that the Buddha passed into parinirvana (final release). Both events, birth and passing, occurred on the full-moon day of the same month. In between these events, something more important happened: He became enlightened on the same full-moon day (in different years of course).
Buddhists around the world therefore consider it a thrice blessed day. Buddhists and well-wishers go to large temple festivities, rededicate themselves to practice the Path that leads to the end of all suffering, and renew their undertaking to uphold the Five Precepts.
Part 1 of a Q&A with the Dalai Lama concerning teachings on "Lam Rim Chen Mo" at Lehigh University, hosted by the Tibetan Buddhist Learning Center on July 14, 2008.
Unpleasant facts within the Tibetan community are easily forgotten. Therefore, this documentary is of historical importance.
For centuries the deity Dorje Shugden has been worshipped by the greatest and most important Buddhist masters, many of whom are among the most respected in Tibetan history. This includes the Dalai Lama's own teacher, Kyabje Trijang Dorje Chang.
If the Dalai Lama thinks that all of the great masters were mistaken, he denies them their qualification. They would not be great masters.
Question: If the great masters have worshipped this deity for centuries, were they all wrong?
Dalai Lama: "Wrong! Yes, wrong!"
The Dalai Lama's criticism and defamation of his own Root Guru created the schism of the Gelug order of Tibetan Buddhism and conflicts within the Tibetan community.
Dorje Shugden practitioners are currently experiencing ostracism and oppression in India and throughout the world due to the Dalai Lama's ban on their practices.
India has been a home and haven for generations of Jews whose ancestors fled from persecution centuries ago. At its peak there were about 37,000 Jews living in India. When Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivka were murdered in the terror attack in Mumbai last year, this horror story became the public face of Judaism in India.
The truth is that, apart from this random attack by foreign terrorists, India has been an oasis of calm and freedom for Jews -- giving them citizenship and complete freedom to practice their faith, build many synagogues, and celebrate their traditional festivals with an added Indian zest.
Lavina Melwani is a New York-based journalist who writes for several international magazines. She is launching her blog/zine Lassi with Lavina next month.
Free Aung San Suu Kyi immedi-ately as well as 1,400 other Burmese political prisoners. As of today she has been detained for a total of:
13 years and 195 days
The legitimately and democrat-ically elected leader of Burma is now serving her third term of house arrest. She was arrested on 30 May, 2003 after the regime's militia attacked her convoy and killed up to 100 of her supporters.
SPANISH: Considerada una liana mágica por varios pueblos autóctonos de la Amazonía, la ayahuasca es, para Occidente, una poderosa droga. Indígenas, comerciantes, y el conocido chamán ayahuasquero Pancho Montes desvelan los misterios de una raíz que tiene el poder de provocar fuertes visiones alucinatorias que ponen al que lo toma en contacto con su más íntimo ser.
ENGLISH TRANSLATION: Considered a magic creeper by many people of the Amazon, Ayahuasca is, for the West, a powerful drug [entheogen]. Indigenous Indians, traders, and the well known shaman ayahuasquero (Ayahuasca-worker) Pancho Montes reveal the mysteries of a root-creeper that has the power to provoke strong hallucinatory visions enabling contact with ones true inner self.
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BEICHUAN – China marked the first anniversary of a massive earthquake today in a somber, nationally televised ceremony. The proceedings were filled with flowers and speeches, as the normally distant Chinese leadership provided an unusually cathartic public moment.
Student fools world media
