Tuesday, December 6, 2016
Real Peace, the Calming of Defilements
"You must contemplate in order to find peace. What people usually mean whenever they say peace is only the calming down of the mind and not the calming down of the defilements. The defilements are simply being temporarily subdued, just like grass being covered by a stone. If you take the stone away, the grass will grow back again in a short time. The grass hadn't really died; it was just being suppressed. It's the same when sitting in meditation. The mind is calm, but the defilements are not really calm. Therefore samadhi is not a sure thing. To find real peace you must develop wisdom. Samadhi is one kind of peace, like the stone covering the grass. This is only a temporary peace. The peace of wisdom is like putting the stone down and just leaving it there. In this way the grass can't possibly grow back again. This is real peace, the calming of the defilements, the sure peace that results from wisdom." - Ven. Ajahn Chah
Monday, December 5, 2016
Anti-Buddhist Media and Myanmar: Complex Regional and Historical Dynamics
by Michiyo Tanabe and Lee Jay Walker, Modern Tokyo Times, Nov 25, 2016Buddhism is illegal in Muslim nations like Saudi Arabia (however the same Sunni Islamist nation is intent on spreading Salafi Islam into the heart of Buddhism with the connivance of local 'Buddhist' politicians who act oblivious to the rapidly declining plight of Buddhism in traditional Buddhist countries) Yangon, Myanmar -- The mass media in both the West and Islamic world needs to find space in order to simplify hatred. It matters not if turning a blind eye to Sunni Takfiri massacres in Syria and the nations that are endorsing this, nor that in Myanmar’s recent history more Christians than any other non-Buddhist faith group have been killed based on ethnic and religious tensions. Instead, the simple version – while negating the Christian angle – is that Muslims are killed and targeted by radical Buddhists.  Ironically, the latest chain of events began after Muslims killed nine police officers in Rakhine state. International Crisis Group reports, “The attacks were carried out by Muslims, according to both government statements and local sources. An unverified video of the attackers, filmed in the wake of the attacks, has been circulating on social networks and seems legitimate. In it, one of the group calls on “all Rohingya around the world to prepare for jihad and join them”. This, the need for local knowledge to carry out the assaults, and the difficulty of moving large numbers of people around this area are all suggestive of local Muslim involvement – possibly organized with some outside support. However, many details of who exactly organized this and how remain unclear.” |
Buddhist nuns 'learning to fit in' on P.E.I.
By Shane Ross, CBC News, Nov 21, 2016
P.E.I. now home to 134 Buddhist nuns — and the number is growingPrince Edward Island, Canada -- Prince Edward Island is becoming home to a growing number of Buddhist nuns, who say the Island is a comfortable place for them to practise their spirituality.
The nunnery resembles an old farm house, but the nuns plan to move to a building in Brudenell styled after a
more traditional Chinese temple.
(Laura Meader/CBC)
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