War is monstrous

International Bhikkhuni Day, 2014 (Part 3)

Honouring Eminent Asian Buddhist Women in the Modern Era

A. Great Meditation Masters

3. Thailand - Maechee Kaew (1901-1991)
a reputed female arahant in modern times. Maechee Kaew was very fortunate to have learnt meditation from great meditation masters like Ajahn Sao in 1914 and Ajahn Mun in 1917 when they came to stay near her village.

Let's become a human first

Dhammapada Verse 130

Verse 130

     Having empathy for others
       one sees that all beings
       love life and fear death.
             Knowing this,
one does not attack or cause attack.

“If you truly loved yourself, you could never hurt another.” Gautama Buddha

International Bhikkhuni Day, 2014 (Part 2)

Honouring Eminent Asian Buddhist Women in the Modern Era

A. Great Meditation Masters

2. Indonesia – Ayya Santini

Ayya experienced many struggles and challenges to become a bhikkhuni. She is now known for her great skills in teaching meditation especially to children until they could not get enough of it and continued to come back for more! The children’s ages are also getting younger - 5 year olds although her original limit was 12 years of age! As punishment for some wrong doings, the kids asked to be given more meditation time!

A number of monastics, including bhikkhus and devotees, visit her monastery, Wisma Kusalayani, on the cool hills near Bandung, to learn her technique of engaging the children. The only answer Ayya could give was that she gave them metta, and she has loads of it to give away. Ayya conducts retreats for adults as well and is known for her very strict rules like locking the yogis’ rooms during the day so that they do not return to rest.

Personally, she can sit very still for hours without a cushion and encourages participants to do the same. She participates in the ordination of bhikkhunis and samaneris, both in Indonesia and abroad.

18 RULES OF LIVING BY THE DALAI LAMA

Jade Small | October 25, 2014 

At the turn of this century, the Dalai Lama issued the following eighteen rules for living.

Of the many problems we face today, some are natural calamities and must be accepted and faced with equanimity. Others, however, are of our own making, created by misunderstanding, and can be corrected. One such type arises from the conflict of ideologies, political or religious, when people fight each other for petty ends, losing sight of the basic humanity that binds us all together as a single human family. We must remember that the different religions, ideologies, and political systems of the world are meant for human beings to achieve  happiness. We must not lose sight of this fundamental goal and at no time  should we place means above ends; the supremacy of humanity over  matter  and ideology must always be maintained.

By far the greatest single danger facing humankind – in fact, all living beings on our planet – is the threat of nuclear destruction. I need not elaborate on this danger, but I would like to appeal to all the leaders of the nuclear powers who literally hold the future of the world in their hands, to the scientists and technicians who continue to create these awesome weapons of destruction, and to all the people at large who are in a position to influence their leaders: I appeal to them to exercise their sanity and begin to work at dismantling and destroying all nuclear weapons. We know that in the event of a nuclear war there will be no victors because there will be no survivors! Is it not frightening just to contemplate such inhuman and heartless destruction? And, is it not logical that we should remove the cause for our own destruction when we know the cause and have both the time and the means to do so? Often we cannot overcome our problems because we either do not know the cause or, if we understand it, do not have the means to remove it. This is not the case with the nuclear threat. ~ Dalai Lama

International Bhikkhuni Day, 2014 (Part 1)

Honouring Eminent Asian Buddhist Women in the Modern Era

In conjunction with International Bhikkhuni Day, 2014, Gotama Vihara Society Malaysia has decided to honour outstanding Asian Buddhist women, both monastic and lay, who had made an impact to Buddhism in the modern times. Many of them have not received the due recognition nor had their stories written by scholars. For a start, we are focusing on Asian women as they have a long way to go to achieve recognition and support.

Below are summaries of these extraordinary women. Most of the information are obtained from a combination of either one of these sources - personal interviews, the 11^th Sakyadhita International Conference on Buddhist Women publication: Eminent Buddhist Women, Vietnam, 2010, personal blogs and world-wide web pages.

Be the change

Vipassana [mindfulness] meditation class @SABS Part 10

Lesson 10, Oct 4, 2013

The following were yogis' queries and experiences that Bro KC helped address :

1) Bright light appeared during sitting meditation [eyes were closed].

Note and label seeing, seeing, seeing without going into the content of the visual object. Then redirect your attention to the primary object of the rising and falling movements of the abdomen. The purpose of applying this mindfulness on the sensing technique similar to other sensing like hearing, hearing, hearing and thinking, thinking, thinking is to avoid likes and dislikes to arise in relation to the sense object sensed.
   

Likes tend to give rise to desire and dislikes tend to give rise to aversion. Both desire and aversion are hindrances in meditation.

Help others not only in prayers

Tibetan Buddhism in China

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-A_sjV0AyAg#t=33

Published on Aug 23, 2014

..at least don't hurt them.

Something To Lighten up your Day Part 6

http://playingforchange.com/episodes/what-a-wonderful-world/

Playing For Change is proud to present a new video of the song "What a Wonderful World" featuring Grandpa Elliot with children's choirs across the globe. In these hard times children and music bring us hope for a better future. Today we celebrate life, and we change the world one heart and one song at a time!!