Angulimala and Tantric Buddhism

Tricycle, April 22, 2011

The British scholar of Buddhism Richard Gombrich has a seemingly endless supply of insightful readings of texts that we as Buddhists assume we know through and through. Take Angulimala (please).

The standard story is one of the most famous in all of Buddhism. A fierce robber and murderer named Angulimala cuts off the fingers of unwary travelers in his forest. He wants to get 1,000 fingers and already has 999 sewn together in a monstrous necklace (hence his name: anga, finger + mala, garland/necklace). Along comes the Buddha. Angulimala chases him and though the Buddha simply walks at a slow and stately pace and Angulimala runs as fast as he can, the villain can't catch up. Amazed by this and by the Buddha's calm in the face of danger, Angulimala renounces his evil ways and becomes a devoted Buddhist.

There is no right and wrong decision.....Ajahn Brahm

Buddhism in Russsia

Historically, Buddhism was incorporated into Russian lands in the early 17th century. Buddhism is considered as one of Russia's traditional religions, legally a part of Russian historical heritage. Besides the historical monastic traditions of Buryatia, Kalmykia and Tuva, Buddhism is now widespread all over Russia, with many ethnic Russian converts.

The main form of Buddhism in Russia is the Gelukpa school of Tibetan Buddhism, with other Tibetan schools as minorities. Although Tibetan Buddhism is most often associated with Tibet, it spread into Mongolia, and via Mongolia into Russia.

It primarily spread into the Russian constituent regions geographically and /or culturally adjacent to Mongolia, or inhabited by Mongolian ethnic groups: Buryatia, Zabaykalsky Krai, Tuva, and Kalmykia, the latter being the only Buddhist region in Europe, located to the north of the Caucasus. By 1887, there were already 29 publishing houses and numerous datsans. After the Russian Revolution, the datsans were closed down. By the 1930s, Buddhists were suffering more than any other religious community in the Soviet Union with lamas being expelled and accused of being "Japanese spies" and "the people's enemies".

After the fall of the Soviet Union, a Buddhist revival began in Kalmykia with the election of President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. It was also revived in Buryatia and Tuva and began to spread to Russians in other regions.

In 1992, the Dalai Lama made his first visit to Tuva in Russia.

There are several Tibetan Buddhist university-monasteries throughout Russia, concentrated in Siberia, known as Datsans.

Fyodor Shcherbatskoy, a renowned Russian Indologist who traveled to India and Mongolia during the time of the Russian Empire, is widely considered by many to be responsible for laying the foundations for the study of Buddhism in the Western world.

5 Surprising Things I Learned About Love From Hanging Out With Buddhist Nuns

I spent two weeks at Plum village, a Buddhist monastery in France. I came to recover from burn out, and what I found was not only wisdom and practice around how to be present with life, but also wisdom on love. While the nuns must abstain from any kind of romantic or sexual activities, they shared heartfelt and grounded advice about dating and romantic relationships. The fact that they must face their desire for romantic love by looking into it deeply, and by cultivating love for the community, they are well equipped to answer any break-ups, marriages and dating questions.

1. The surprising effect of asking why.

When you feel attracted to someone, and before taking it to the next level, stop and ask yourself why. It is easy to attribute it to magic, intuition or chance. But when you actually ask yourself why, it gives you clarity and honesty. According to one of the senior nuns, more often than not when she is attracted to someone she realizes she is actually attracted to a quality they have, that she wishes she had in her. So instead of clinging to the idea of being with that person, she cultivates the quality in her. When I applied the advice to myself, I realized that for the relationships that did not last, my attraction was an expression of my loneliness.

Breath

Breath is the bridge that connects life to consciousness, the bridge that unites your body to your thoughts. Whenever your mind becomes scattered, use your breath as the means to take hold of your mind again.

Thich Nhat Hanh

Unique exhibition spotlights Afghanistan’s Buddhist period

by Daniela Lazarová, Radio.cz, March 3, 2016

Prague, Czech Republic -- An exhibition called Afghanistan: Rescued Treasures of Buddhism organized by the National Museum aims to present the war-torn country in a different light, to draw attention to its rich cultural history and point out the many influences that left their mark on Afghan culture and traditions.

The exhibition focuses on the country’s pre-Islamic Buddhist period. Its chief organizer Lubomír Novák showed me around and began by explaining what makes the exhibition so special.

“The exhibition Afghanistan: Rescued Treasures of Buddhism is the first exhibition of Afghan Buddhism in Europe and the second exhibition of Afghan art to be presented on the territory of Europe so the exhibition is really special in this respect and also in that it presents the largely unknown history of Afghanistan before the coming of Islam.

Not many people around the world know that Afghanistan is not just an Islamic country but that it has a rich Buddhist history which reaches to the so-called Kushan period which started approximately in the 1st century AD. So in this respect the exhibition is really amazing and we are happy that here in Prague we can present this unknown part of the history of a country that is known as a country of war.

The first historical reference to the territory of present-day Afghanistan is linked to military campaigns of Persians and many wars and military conflicts followed in the history of the country, but Afghanistan is not just a country of war but a country of art, knowledge and literature. 

The Alms-bowl of a Theravāda monk or nun

Theravada Buddhist Council of Malaysia

The alms-bowl of a monk or nun is only used to receive cooked food offered by willing donors. The monk or nun strictly does not accept money with his/her bowl or on his/her alms-round.

A Theravāda Buddhist monk or nun only consumes food between the break of dawn (around 7am in Kuala Lumpur) and noon (12pm). Thus, he/she does not go about collecting alms-food after mid-day. The monk or nun goes on Pindacāra mindfully observing ‘noble silence’. He/She does not engage in talking or chatting with others.