“This assembly, Ānanda, is impure.”

Although rare, there was one occasion where a respected monk in the Buddha's sangha used force on another monk. The Buddha was presiding at an assembly and noted that there was a corrupt and immoral monk present. Ven Moggalana identified him with his psychic powers. He then got up from his seat, walked over to the corrupt monk and asked him to leave, several times. But the immoral monk would not leave. So Ven Moggalana grabbed him and threw him out.

Here is the account from the Uposatha sutta AN8:20

“This assembly, Ānanda, is impure.”

Then it occurred to the Venerable Mahāmoggallāna: “What person was the Blessed One referring to when he said: ‘This assembly, Ānanda, is impure’?” Then the Venerable Mahāmoggallāna fixed his attention on the entire Saṅgha of bhikkhus, encompassing their minds with his own mind. He then saw that person sitting in the midst of the Saṅgha of bhikkhus: one who was immoral, of bad character, impure, of suspect behavior, secretive in his actions, not an ascetic though claiming to be one, not a celibate though claiming to be one, inwardly rotten, corrupt, depraved. Having seen him, he rose from his seat, went up to that person, and said to him: “Get up, friend. The Blessed One has seen you. You cannot live in communion with the bhikkhus.” When this was said, that person remained silent.

A second time … A third time the Venerable Mahāmoggallāna said to that person: “Get up, friend. The Blessed One has seen you. You cannot live in communion with the bhikkhus.” A third time that person remained silent.

Then the Venerable Mahāmoggallāna grabbed that person by the arm, evicted him through the outer gatehouse, and bolted the door. Then he returned to the Blessed One and said to him: “I have evicted that person, Bhante. The assembly is pure. Let the Blessed One recite the Pātimokkha to the bhikkhus.”

“It’s astounding and amazing, Moggallāna, how that hollow man waited until he was grabbed by the arm.”

https://suttacentral.net/en/an8.20

Buddhist chaplain helps deliver six Parapan Am medals

by Pamela Kiss, Centennial College for Postmedia News, August 20, 2015 TORONTO, Canada -- The Buddhist chaplain who helped guide athletes to six medals at the Pan Am Games helped to deliver six more medals at the recently completed Parapan Ams. Toronto native Zenji Nio, working out of a temple in the Athletes Village, provided spiritual guidance to athletes who went on to win one gold, two silver and three bronze medals. Brazilian tennis player Guilherme Da Costa, who plays in a wheelchair and has reduced function in his racquet arm, credits Nio with helping him to his first big win. “I had been doing meditation in Brazil, but when Zen taught me about Buddha, my practice became so much more powerful,” said Da Costa.

An Update on Thay’s Health: 8th September 2015

An Update on Thay’s Health: 8th September 2015

'It has been two months now since Thay arrived in America, with the hope of getting more intensive treatment to recover from his stroke. Thanks to the incredible support of our Beloved Community we have been able to obtain the very best doctors and therapists for Thay, across all treatment modalities. We are happy to be able to share that Thay is benefitting from the best of Western, Eastern, conventional, and alternative medical approaches. ..'

'A recent breakthrough has been that whilst using a partial weight support walking frame, Thay’s right leg has started to make small movements, initiating the stepping motion.'

'Thay has received training from three different speech therapists over the last two months, one of whom was able to help Thay speak his first words since the stroke. It was a legendary day. ..'

Read the Update in full here ...
http://plumvillage.org/…/an-update-on-thays-health-8th-sep…/

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Adopting A Buddhist Ritual To Mourn Miscarriage, Abortion

by Deena Prichep , NPR, August 15, 2015 Clatskanie, Ore (USA) -- When parents lose a child, there are rituals to mark their grief - holding funerals, sitting shiva, bringing casseroles. But when that loss happens before birth, it often isn't marked. Sometimes, it's barely even mentioned. It's different in Japan, which has a traditional Buddhist ceremony that some Americans are adopting as their own. A Jizo figure at the Great Vow Zen Monastery in Clatskanie, Ore. Deena Prichep for NPR When photographer Ali Smith was trying for a second child, she had four miscarriages. With each pregnancy, she tried to keep her hopes in check. But, she explains, you can't always help yourself. "There's always a part of you that goes into the future, and starts to build a little idea of what your life's going to be like. Once that stops, something very large has stopped for you," Smith says. And it can be tough to move forward. "The pain of miscarriage is very private," she says. "And you're not even really sure how much you're supposed to be grieving. Even when that loss is a choice, it can still be a hard one. Katherine Rand is a chaplain who had an abortion in high school. She explains that she carried around her grief for a long time, but felt as though she couldn't talk about it. "There's going to be a lot of shame. And there's going to be a lot of stuffing stuff down, because you don't want to be judged," she says. Both Rand and Smith decided to come face-to-face with their grief in a ritual that more and more American Zen centers are offering: mizuko kuyo. Zen teacher Jan Chozen Bays participated in one of the earliest American mizuko kuyos, about 20 years ago.

Former Buddhist monk creates home for 85 abandoned children

By Kimberly Winston, Charlotte Observer, Aug 20, 2015 The HBO documentary “Tashi and the Monk” tells the story of a former monk and the children he takes in. Courtesy of HBO Boston, MA (USA)  Imagine the Dalai Lama hand-picking you to teach Buddhism in Boston.Then imagine turning your back on that to open an understaffed, underfunded, overburdened school for orphans and other abandoned children in a corner of India so remote it takes three days to get there from the nearest airport. That’s the story of Lobsang Phuntsok, a 30-something monk who runs a children’s community called Jhamtse Ghatsal – Tibetan for “garden of love and compassion” – in the foothills of the Himalayas. How that story turned out is the subject of “Tashi and the Monk,” a short documentary that is showing for about a month on HBO. In it, Phuntsok and a small staff do the best they can to care for 85 children, some as young as 4, who are orphans or have been given up by families so poor they cannot feed them. He calls them “uninvited guests of the universe.” It is a label Phuntsok shares. The film shows him visiting the children’s dormitory and telling a bedtime story – his own.

WORTH WHILE

It is easy enough to be pleasant
When life flows by like a song,
But the man worth while is the one who will smile
When everything goes dead wrong.
For the test of the heart is trouble,
And it always comes with the years,
And the smile that is worth the praises of earth
Is the smile that shines through tears.

It is easy enough to be prudent
When nothing tempts you to stray,
When without or within no voice of sin
Is luring your soul away;
But it's only a negative virtue
Until it is tried by fire,
And the life that is worth the honour on earth
Is the one that resists desire.

By the cynic, the sad, the fallen,
Who had no strength for the strife,
The world's highway is cumbered to-day -
They make up the sum of life;
But the virtue that conquers passion,
And the sorrow that hides in a smile -
It is these that are worth the homage on earth,
For we find them but once in a while.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox.
1910.

How intelligent will pratise