First hint of 'life after death' in biggest ever scientific study

Southampton University scientists have found evidence that awareness can continue for at least several minutes after clinical death which was previously thought impossible

Some cardiac arrest patients recalled seeing a bright light; a golden flash or the Sun shiningPhoto: Shaun Wilkinson / Alamy

By Sarah Knapton, Science Correspondent 12:00AM BST 07 Oct 2014

Death is a depressingly inevitable consequence of life, but now scientists believe they may have found some light at the end of the tunnel. The largest ever medical study into near-death and out-of-body experiences has discovered that some awareness may continue even after the brain has shut down completely.

How an intensive ten-day meditation retreat could transform your life for the better

It was 5:30 in the morning on my third day of silent meditation when I noticed something in me take a sharp turn left. I was groggy, frustrated by my inability to sit still and hungry for the breakfast that was still an hour off. I got up from the spot on the floor of my bedroom where I’d been attempting to meditate and walked outside, to the new-growth woods behind the residential quarters at the Vipassana Meditation Centre in Shelburne, Massachusetts. It was springtime, and the outdoors seemed spring-loaded with potential: the buds on the trees were sharp little things, and hundreds of fuzzy fiddlehead ferns dotted the forest floor, curled snug. I walked down a little looping path that stopped unsatisfyingly soon; “course boundary” signs curtailed my meandering to an area the size of a soccer field. Exercise, like so many things here, was not permitted.

For the past three days, a brass bell had woken me at 4am, along with the 129 others who had committed to this 10-day silent saga. We meditated, with guidance, for roughly 10 hours a day, broken up by meals and “free time”, which was free only in the sense that we weren’t meditating. We weren’t allowed to read or write, speak to one another, make communicative gestures or even look at one another in the eye. So we all paced the small loop in the woods, staring at trees, careful not to acknowledge one another’s existence. No nodding, no smiling.

Theravada Bhikkhuni and the Buddha's Four-fold Assembly

by Dr Dion Peoples, The Buddhist Channel, Aug 8, 2015 A properly functioning Sangha has four aspects: bhikkhus, bhikkhunis, lay women and lay men. All are equally required to uphold and support the Buddha's doctrinal tradition and practices. Bangkok, Thailand -- When I was in the US Air Force, stationed in Germany, I was given a set of books - the writings of Nicherin, by an older woman co-worker.  I also came into contact with a Taiwanese Buddhist woman who owned and operated a Chinese Restaurant, near the base where I was stationed.    The Theravada Bhikkhuni - the missing leg in the Four-fold Assembly. When I spoke with these respected and strong-minded women, we all knew that there were nuns in Buddhism. The Taiwanese woman prepared me, through our philosophical debates, to become a Bhikkhu - my dream at that time. I was already reading the Tipitaka and it mentions the existence of  Bhikkhunis.  I was always around strong Buddhist women but often never realized it. I was even influenced by a very wise Thai Buddhist-woman columnist of a national newspaper in Thailand, who often writes about social issues and problems in the Thai Sangha.

Monks, critical thinking and how Theravada Buddhism would benefit the world

by Kooi F. Lim, The Buddhist Channel, Aug 6, 2015 Bangkok, Thailand -- The Buddhist Channel catches up with the manager of the International Association of Buddhist Universities (IABU), Dr. Dion Peoples. The following are his views on saddha (faith, or as he prefers - confidence) vs critical thinking, Asian monks' knowledge in general of the Buddha Dhamma and how Theravada Buddhism would benefit the world. This is the first of a two part interview. Tomorrow, we will publish Dr People's views on support for the ordination of women as Theravada Bhikkhunis. Thank you Dr. Peoples for agreeing to this interview. To start off, please tell us when and how did you get in touch with Buddhism. I first came into contact with Buddhism through Chinese Kung Fu movies, when I was a young boy, perhaps around age 7-8 (1980?).  I remember seeing the Shaw Brothers' Kung Fu movies, in particular the ones featuring Shaolin monks.  I remember seeing the Abbot of the Shaolin Temple (in the movie), and reading the subtitles of the movie, and thinking that the wisdom that he was saying was very profound. I was attracted to the wisdom-tradition, and always wondered to be a disciple of a wise master.  Years later, and not coming into contact with Buddhism, the Dalai Lama would win the Nobel Peace Prize.  I joined the US Air Force in January of 1992, and when I arrived at my first duty-station in Germany, I would go to the bookshop sometimes to purchase some books.  Since he was so famous, the only Buddhism books in the shop were those by him.  I bought them, and read them, but felt these texts were not genuine Buddhist texts.

Two Levels of Truth by Lama Chime Rinpoche

Posted on 17 June 2015 by Buddhism Now

We discuss the subject of relative and absolute truth a great deal in Tibet; to understand it is really to understand the root of Buddha’s teaching. The relative is the particular and limited, the absolute is the unlimited and universal.

What is it that one sees when one looks at the world? In one sense one sees the relative — particular things happening which are changing all the time. And yet how does one perceive them altogether, as a whole? Only because of the absolute. For example, suppose you are watching a river flowing by. How do you know it is a river? There is no continuity in the particles of water; from moment to moment the water changes and we do not see the same river twice. It only becomes a river by virtue of the absolute nature of flowing water by which the particulars are joined together into the whole; without the universal one cannot form any connection between the particulars.

Refuge and the God-Idea

During the Buddha's time, there was a monk who strived to develop his mind such that he could enter the realms of the gods. With great effort, he succeeded in transporting himself to the first heaven, the Heaven of the Four Great Kings. The reason he wanted to see the gods was to ask them a really profound question, "Where does the four great elements cease without remainder?"

When he reached the Heaven of the Four Great Kings, he asked all the gods this question. None of them knew the answer. "Perhaps u can ask the Four Great Kings", they suggested. So the monk asked the Kings, but none of them knew the answer too. So they suggested, "Perhaps u can ask the 32 Gods in the higher heaven".

Benefits of Meditation