Taliban Thought They Destroyed This World’s Wonder. But Now This Ancient Giant Buddha Statues of Bamiyan Have Returned

Buddhism, News

The Taliban thought it had destroyed one of the world’s wonders, the monumental Buddha statues of the Bamiyan Valley. But the Buddhas shine again in the towering cutouts in the mountainside where they stood for centuries. They are back, thanks to 3-D light projection. And they look great.

THE ITCH ~ Ajahn Chah

"Blaming somebody else for your suffering is like having an itch on your head and scratching your bottom. Now you have two itches for the price of one"

A Buddhist Monk's 4-Year Quest For Awareness

By John Merfeld, WPR, July 21, 2016

Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche Left His Monastery And Survived Alone In A Cave

Bodhgaya, India -- One morning in June 2011, residents of the Tergar Monastery in Bodhgaya, India, awoke to find that celebrated the master of Buddhist meditation, Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, had vanished.

<< Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

He appeared to have packed nothing, but did leave behind a short letter to his followers. It said that he would be traveling "with no plans or fixed agenda, just an unswerving commitment to the path of awakening."

No one in his community saw him again for four and half years.

Rinpoche was already a major leader in the Buddhist world before embarking on his wandering retreat. He was the leader of a global meditation practice and had been formally recognized as a reincarnated 17th century lama. His mission, then and now, is to make meditation accessible to the modern world. After his years of retreat, he said that he returned as a different person.

Loving-kindness

Cults

'Cultism exists in almost every religion. Cults often come into being whenever there are charismatic leaders who claim to possess certain powers or profess direct communication with gods or deities and are therefore empowered to speak on their behalf. They allege that they have the power to heal the sick or reverse one's misfortunes. These leaders, preachers, monks, priests or even heads of corporations often have a wealth of knowledge, strong persuasive personalities, and are charming, manipulative and cunning. ...'

Searching for Dalits: A yatra (procession) by Buddhist monks taking BJP to Dalits across UP

The Indian Express, Jul 30, 2016

Ahead of Uttar Pradesh polls, a yatra (Sanskrit: 'journey', 'procession') by Buddhist monks across the state is perhaps the party’s biggest Dalit outreach at a time when it battles a backlash

New Delhi, India -- The Dhamma Chetna Yatra is on its way to Mathura. Suddenly, the first car of the convoy stops near Raya town. Former local BJP MLA Ajay Kumar Poiya steps down, signals the convoy to stop, and approaches a Buddhist monk in the car behind. “There’s an Ambedkar statue here. Let’s garland it,” Poiya says. Some 40 monks come out, pay tributes to the Dalit leader. Just three minutes, and the yatra moves on.

<<  A follower with a calendar containing photos of Buddha, Ambedkar and Modi at a village in Uttar Pardesh (Source: Express photo by Praveen Khanna)

It is not a planned stopover, but there’s no taking chances with B R Ambedkar’s statues. These monks have either garlanded or inaugurated some 800 statues of Ambedkar and Buddha in the last three months, since the yatra began on April 24. It’s only the half-way mark.

The establishment of a sima and bhikkhu ordination in Africa.

June 27 · Entebbe, Uganda

"Venerable Bhkkhus from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Mexico, India, Myanmar, USA, UK, Germany and other parts of the world establishing SIMA ground at the Uganda Buddhist Centre, Entebbe, Uganda. This was followed by ordination of some Ugandan and one Rwandan Buddhist follower"

Feeling wonderful to be able to a part of the historical even ever happen in the world Buddhist history, of Africa. For the first established the Sima (a boundary where Buddhist monks get the higher ordination), for the first time higher ordination of Buddhist monk in Africa.