Meditation 101: A Beginner's Guide Animation

Published on Jun 24, 2015

Are you new to meditation, and interested in finding out how to start a practice? We'll walk you through the basics!

Narrated by Dan Harris, Animation by Katy Davis (AKA Gobblynne) www.gobblynne.com 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqoxYKtEWEc

Zen and the art of moneymaking

The Economist, Jun 27 2015 Beijing, China -- The white steel lady overlooking the South China Sea has three heads, three bodies and toenails bigger than human heads. Guanyin, the Buddhist goddess of mercy, stands atop a temple on a man-made islet, each of her heads facing a different way. Her public-relations staff call the six-year task of putting her there, in the resort town of Sanya on tropical Hainan island, “the number one statue-project in China”. The structure’s height, at 108 metres, was intended to be auspicious: Buddhists consider the number sacred. Good fortune was certainly on the minds of local officials when they approved the project, in which the local government has a share. It was intended to be a money-spinner. It costs 60 yuan ($9.66) just to get in the lift that whisks visitors up to pray at those giant feet. That is on top of 126 yuan to enter the Nanshan Cultural Tourism Zone with its Auspicious Garden, Temple of 33 Guanyins and colourful Dharma Door of Non-Duality with its 94,000 portals. Guanyin is clearly not intended as a magnet for the faithful who have given up worldly possessions. Visitors are gouged without compassion, even having to pay for tassels “blessed” by souvenir salespeople. Gift stores are everywhere, selling knick-knacks such as prayer beads and Buddhist statuary. For visitors who want to sleep in the presence of Guanyin, a room at the site’s hotel can cost more than $280. Cheni Foo, a tourist from Copenhagen, surveys the goddess from a boardwalk connecting the islet with the shore. She wrinkles her nose and says she has seen enough. “For me, it’s a little bit too fake. It’s built for the purpose of tourists.” Ms Foo is right. Buddhism is big business in China.

American monk communicates meaning of Buddhism to Korean kids

By Jung Dae-ha, The Hankyoreh, Jul 6,2015 Gwangju, South Korea -- It was the morning of July 5 at Mugak Temple in downtown Gwangju. “We do yoga, too. It isn’t hard, it’s fun,” said Lee Ji-won, 12, a student in the sixth grade of elementary school. Gyeong-bon Temple in Gwangju will also open to visiting athletes and staff during the Universiade Lee was taking part in an English-language Zen meditation program at the temple, which is affiliated with the Jogye Order of Buddhism. The meditation program takes place at the Meditation and Practice Center on the 3rd floor of the culture building at the temple at 10 am on the first and third Sunday of each month. Gyeong-bon, 29, the monk in charge of the program, comes down the stairs surrounded by children. After the meditation is over, Gyeong-bon, who is from Missouri, takes the 14 children to the temple’s cafeteria and teaches them the American way to make tasty sandwiches. “Children have a hard time doing things while sitting down. We just do meditation for five or ten minutes and then have conversation and play games in English,” the monk said.

The real miracle

Buddhist Philosophy Eric Fromm’s views

By Dr Ruwan M Jayatunge M.D., Lanka Daily News, May 30, 2015 ‘Buddhism helps man to find an answer to the question of his existence, an answer which is essentially the same as that given in the Judeo-Christian tradition, and yet which does not contradict the rationality, realism, and independence which are modern man’s precious achievements. Paradoxically, Eastern religious thought turns out to be more congenial to Western rational thought than does Western religious thought itself’ – Erich Fromm Colombo, Sri Lanka -- The social psychologist and humanistic philosopher, Eric Fromm was vastly influenced by Freud and Karl Heinrich Marx. He became a follower of Neoanalytic tradition. In later years, Fromm started reading Zen Buddhism in depth.  He saw Buddhism as a philosophical-anthropological system based on observation of facts and their rational explanation. (Buddhism and the Mode of Having  vs. Being – Erick Fromm 1975). Fromm believed that Buddhism is a completely rational system which demands no intellectual sacrifice. Fromm’s interest towards Buddhism was obvious. Among the Western scholars, Caroline A F Rhys Davids was one of the pioneers to conceptualize canonical Buddhist writings in terms of psychology. Professor William James was making some comparisons between the consciousness and thought process that was described in the Western Psychology and what the Buddha had taught two millenniums ago.  Many former members of the Freud’s Psychoanalytic society were reading Buddhist philosophy and making evaluations. By this time Carl Jung had highlighted the mind analysis in Buddhism. Therefore Fromm’s interest towards Buddhism was not an abrupt event.

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