American Buddhist Net

The great Buddhist teacher Padmasambava warned of a dangerous time when "the snow mountains wear black hats."

The sage, revered by Tibetans as the second coming of Buddha, made his prophecy more than a millennium ago.

Many Buddhists believe that his prediction is being fulfilled today as mountain glaciers around the world recede as a result of global warming. And a growing number are responding to the threat of ecological catastrophe by embracing eco-Buddhism, a movement that injects Buddhist principles of compassion and mindfulness into environmentalism.

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Tuesday is known as Wan Khao Phansa, and starts the interlude during which monks “retreat” from the world and devote their time to study and meditation. This is after the grand finale Monday night of Asarnha Bucha day, one of the three most important Buddhist holidays in Thailand.

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THIMPHU, Bhutan (CDN) — The ambiguity in Bhutan over the status of Christians has brought with it a new difficulties. A national daily recently reported that at least eight graves of Christians had been exhumed and the skulls and thigh bones extracted for a Buddhist ritual.

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Who am I? What am I? How am I? We’ve all asked these questions. Throughout history, people have asked these questions, and come up with countless answers and religions and philosophies to answer them. Just who or what is this “self” we all have to deal with?

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This lifetime of ours is transient as autumn clouds.
To watch the birth and death of beings
Is like looking at the movements of a dance.
A lifetime is like a flash of lightning in the sky.
Rushing by, like a torrent down a steep mountain.

-- Buddha

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Bernie Glassman, founder of Zen Peacemakers, has been a student of Zen for over 50 years. Since 1996, he has been leading Bearing Witness retreats in the Auschwitz concentration camp with people from all different faiths and nations. This November, Zen Peacemakers are planning the first retreat involving young adults from key conflict areas. The three tenets of the Zen Peacemakers are not-knowing, bearing witness and loving actions. They deepen the practice of bearing witness at Auschwitz and on the streets, and they practice loving actions based on the first two tenets through their service projects of the Montague Farm Zen House. In the following interview, Bernie Glassman discusses Zen Peacemakers' Auschwitz retreat.

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MARFORK, W.Va. – Protestors associated with Climate Ground Zero and Mountain Justice have locked to and shut down a highwall miner on Coal River Mountain today. Colin Flood, 22, and Katie Huszcza, 21, are locked to the mining equipment on Massey Energy’s Bee Tree Surface Mine, near to the Brushy Fork Sludge Impoundment. Their banner states “Save Coal River Mountain” alongside images of ginseng, a morel, a deer and a bear.

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Colin Flood, 22, and Katie Huszcza, 21, thank you. Here is a map of the area in question: Coal River Mountain. Take a look, zoom in and out. These destructive mines are huge and scattered all over the area. ABN

...The former journalist [Australian Donna Mulhearn] and one-time political adviser to NSW education minister John Aquilina, was one of a number of Australians opposed to the war who answered an appeal on a Triple J interview for volunteers to go to Iraq in 2003 and act as human shields during the US bombing.

...Disillusioned with conventional politics, she had embarked on a spiritual pilgrimage and just spent three months in Tibet in a Buddhist nunnery and studying the philosophy of Christian non-violence.

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Well-worth listening to this short audio. ABN

Precious relics believed to be part of the skull of Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, found three years ago, were enshrined on Saturday at Qixia Temple in Jiangsu province in China.

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My four-year-old wouldn’t come to me to comb her hair. After calling her several times I told her “Oh, look at that red bird eating berries.” Of course, there was no bird and no berries. She quickly ran to me, keen on looking at the bird. “Where’s the bird ....?” she looked around.

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ATLANTA, Georgia - You could call it true performance art with religious connotations. As part of Emory University's annual "Tibet Week" earlier this spring, Buddhist Monks spent six days creating a Mandala of colored sand.

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A Buddhist monk burnt himself to death Monday to protest the administration’s controversial four rivers project, according to police.

Locals found 47-year-old monk Moonsu of the Jogye Order, Korea’s largest Buddhist sect, dead near a stream in Gunwi County, North Gyeongsang, at around 3 p.m. on Monday. He left a suicide note inside his clothes that read, “The Lee Myung-bak administration must stop its four rivers restoration project immediately, eradicate corruption and do its best for poor and underprivileged people instead of the rich.”

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Monk burns himself to death

A monk’s suicide

Buddha’s birthday has been celebrated all week in most pagodas of Hanoi, but many Buddhist followers made a point of admonishing themselves to do good things by visiting pagodas again on May 28 (April 15 on the lunar calendar).

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..."Some release their own pets, but the animals can't live in such wild environments. This, in reality, hurts the animal and that's definitely not what we advocate," said Sik Chuan Hou, Chief Officer-in-Charge, Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery.

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Good! Wise monks everywhere should either end this practice or amend it in a way that makes it good for the animals and the environment. Instead of releasing some fatigued animal into the wrong environment, people might clean up habitats, reclaim habitats, vow to pollute less, or possibly release beneficial insects after consulting with a knowledgeable ecologist. ABN

New Delhi, May 27 (IANS) Thousands of Buddhists from all over the world, including the Dalai Lama and the Karmapa, Thursday led the Buddha Purnima celebrations in India that was attended by hundreds of monks from as far as Tibet and Nepal.

The Dalai Lama, leader of the Tibetan community, inaugurated a sprawling 22-acre park in Patna to commemorate Lord Buddha's 2,554th birth anniversary that is celebrated as Buddha Purnima.

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Nearly 800 Buddhist monks and lamas from Tibet, Nepal and India will gather here Thursday to offer special prayers on the occasion of Buddha Purnima -- which, they say, for the first time will fall on the same day as per the Hindu and Tibetan calendars.

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At a time when the relationship between science and spirit seems characterised by mutual suspicion, common ground for enquiry is all the more refreshing. Like at last Sunday's opening of the University of Wisconsin's centre for investigating healthy minds, where the Dalai Lama shared a platform with the new centre's director, Professor Richard Davidson.

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"Foulness Meditation"

"The Lord Buddha advised those who are ardent on attaining Nibbana to contemplate the body with its impurities..."

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In old and traditional Buddhist texts, the "Foulness Meditation" is one of the most highly praised of all Buddhist practices. Sometimes it is called "meditation on uncleanness" or "contemplation on uncleanness." It involves surface sensibilities that are profoundly at odds with the modern age, and for this reason probably turns many people off to Buddhist practice. It bothered me when I first started studying Buddhism because it seemed so negative and depressing. It does not take much practice, though, to realize that this contemplation is wonderful and very beneficial. It can be used for any overly-bright and probably incautious desire, not just sexual lust. This meditation basically involves contemplating the negative aspects of a strong, or excessive, desire, one that may bring more harm than good. Want a new motorcycle? Contemplate the expense, upkeep, danger, how the bike will wear out, etc. Your desires will lessen if not go away. One important note: for the most part, the "foulness mediation" should be used to target specific desires, excessive desires. If you are sad or depressed or feel apathetic, this is not the meditation for you. If you feel those ways, try meditating on the Buddha's life or on compassion. ABN

The Norwegian Embassy has supported the formation of the Sri Lanka International Buddhist Academy (SIBA) in Pallekele, Kandy. SIBA is a unique liberal arts higher educational institution set up within a monastic and eco-friendly environment. It is both national and international in scope, grounded on Buddhist principles, and designed to produce local, national, and international religious, social, and political leaders who are simultaneously Dhamma practitioners and disseminators. At the core of the academic programme of the SIBA is a philosophy of active and co-operative learning, critical thinking and critical analysis for finding viable solutions for the world-wide human and environmental problems and issues, in a spirit of collaboration, inquiry and multicultural understanding.

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Every morning, along with a handful of volunteers, including some foreigners, British national Jodie Underhill sets out to collect non-biodegradable waste dumped carelessly in the mountains surrounding McLeodganj, the seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile in Himachal Pradesh.

She is a follower of Buddhist spiritual leader Dalai Lama and also a believer in Gandhian values. But Jodie has earned a fan following of her own in this Himalayan town by helping clean up mountains of trash.

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Arjan Tia is a buddhist monk that currently stay in Wat Sungai Siput, he is major in different discipline, for more info please visit http://www.archantia.info

From Current and Former Members of the U.S. Military

Peace be with you.

To all of those who were injured or lost loved ones during the July 2007 Baghdad shootings depicted in the “Collateral Murder” Wikileaks video:

We write to you, your family, and your community with awareness that our words and actions can never restore your losses.

We are both soldiers who occupied your neighborhood for 14 months. Ethan McCord pulled your daughter and son from the van, and when doing so, saw the faces of his own children back home. Josh Stieber was in the same company but was not there that day, though he contributed to the your pain, and the pain of your community on many other occasions.

There is no bringing back all that was lost. What we seek is to learn from our mistakes and do everything we can to tell others of our experiences and how the people of the United States need to realize we have done and are doing to you and the people of your country. We humbly ask you what we can do to begin to repair the damage we caused.

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CHICAGO – No one knows how a tabby cat named Charles traveled the 1,300 miles from his New Mexico home to Chicago, but he's set for a complimentary flight home on American Airlines in a carrier donated by an Albuquerque business.

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Security camera footage taken one May afternoon at the Union Station mall in Kansas City revealed that a small boy had wandered away from his mother, noticed an elaborate half-completed mandala rendered on the floor in colored sand by a visiting group of Tibetan Buddhist monks, and begun to dance around on it, completely undoing several days of work. Apparently unworried about karma, the mother chose not to report the damage but simply grabbed the boy and fled. The monks started over the next day; according to the Kansas City Star, an English-speaking monk said it was the first time one of their mandalas had been destroyed before completion, but the group leader's (translated) response to the setback was simply "No problem."

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Back in the day, when I had a bit of cash, I used to love getting a manicure. Waaay back in the day :)
As a practicing Buddhist, I sometimes wear jewelry with an Om or a Buddha. This is not to make any sort of "I'm a Buddhist and you're not" statement. It's just that when I do, I will find myself glancing at my reflection, or looking down at my hand, and will see the icon, and it reminds me to try to be good. Try. (I know Yoda, there is no try there is just do.)
Anyway, back in the day, I lived in San Diego and there were many Asian Americans working in nail salons. As they would begin to work on me, invariably they would say, Oh, you Buddha? I Buddha too!
At the time, I took it as language limitation, lost in translation kind of thing.

A father who pushed his 10-year-old daughter out of the path of a speeding car died after he was hit by the vehicle a split second later.

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Volunteers of Taiwan's Buddhist charity organization, the Tzu Chi Foundation, have recently distributed vital supplies, including food and blankets, to the victims of a powerful earthquake that hit Chile in February, according to the charity yesterday.

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