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The quality of one's life is not determined by the circumstances. Is life perfect? No. I still manage to hit rough patches, or as friends say, "Oh great, another f-&*king growth opportunity." Read more: Buddhism Maitri, Coping Grief, Spirituality Grief, Pema Chodron, Friends in Deed, Grief, Crisis Opportunity, Buddhism, Chogyam Trungpa, Impact News
As someone dedicated to living a life of service to others, I have been struck recently by how little attention is paid to the amount of suffering in ... Read more: Congress, Poverty, US Poverty, Spirituality and Politics, Democrats, Tea Party, Compassion, Libertarians, Republicans, Buddhism, Culture News
By my rough estimation, we spend perhaps 50 percent or more of our waking hours in storytelling. Humans make stories but, in some sense, we are also made by our stories. Read more: Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, History, Islam, Sri Lanka Civil War, The Bible, Postmodernism, Science, Quran, Morality, Psychology, Religion and Science, Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud, Stories, Myths, ...
Is there a quality of happiness, is there a kind of peace that is not a compounded thing subject to change, to destruction, as conditions change? Read more: Meditation, Buddha, Wisdom, Loving Kindness, Buddhism, Meditation Practice, Happiness, A True Refuge, Religion News
Foreign writings on Sri Lanka are an important source for information on ancient Sri Lanka. There are many Greek and Roman references to Sri Lanka. These are largely based on the Greek experiences in the Indian Ocean. Sri Lanka was mentioned by Onescritus (4 Century BC) and Megasthenes (3 Century BC,) Onescritus was a pilot attached to the navy of Alexander the Great. Megasthenes was an ambassador...
Gautama the Buddha and Buddhism have made excellent contributions towards strengthening the Indian Way, which is based on universal acceptance, particularly in making it dynamic and bringing the common man into its fold. Buddha’s contribution for taking this way in his time, when it was a narrow path, cannot be underestimated.
Stars may come and stars may go but barely a handful of artistes remain immortalised in the hearts and minds of the people. More than 20 years have elapsed since the demise of the inimitable playback vocalist of the Sri Lankan silver screen, H.R. Jothipala but his songs are still among the most demanded numbers in the country today.
It is increasingly obvious that natural limitations will soon force economic growth to cease. Buddhist teachings emphasize that this does not require a reduction in the quality of life. Read more: Sustainability, Green Living, Buddhism, Peak Oil, Economic Crisis, Green Faith, Eco-Theology, Eco-Buddhism Project, Free Market Capitalism, Economic Reform, Gross National Happine...
I came across an article in The Daily Beast the other morning entitled ""America the Angry"." In it, political consultant Douglas Schoen discusses the findings of a recent Newsweek/Daily Beast poll revealing that the vast majority of Americans are in a bad mood. As unemployment, gas and grocery prices are on the rise, so are people's levels of anger, anxiety and frustration. Three-quart...
A picture may say a thousand words, but taken by Kenro Izu it is more like a thousand silent breaths. In Izu's photography, ethereal moments, sacred places and holy people are frozen in motion. His medium -- platinum prints -- has a timeless, contemplative quality. And in fact, meditation is a part of how he gets the shot. Asked how he decides it's time to snap the photo, he responded, "...
In mindfulness meditation practice, we are instructed to rest our attention on our breathing as a way to focus and stabilize our mind. This is an ancient and time-honored approach that clearly has relevance for those of us living in the modern world -- who are often racing around, feeling stressed out, and having a hard time catching up with ourselves! For those of us practicing in this...
Buddhist women are celebrating a landmark victory: In April, the renowned Institute for Buddhist Dialectical Studies (IBD) in Dharamsala, India, conferred the degree of "Geshe" -- the Tibetan equivalent of Ph.D. -- to Venerable Kelsang Wangmo, a German nun. This is a historical first in so many ways: Traditionally, Geshe degrees are conferred on monks after 12 or more years of rigorous st...
Attending a silent meditation retreat can produce deep, lasting rewards. But for short-term pleasure, nothing beats that magical moment when you perceive that, having slogged through several difficult days doing nothing and saying even less, you're as high as a hippie in the seventh hour of a Grateful Dead gig. My most recent "far-out" flash arrived midway through a week-long affair a...
When I first heard the Buddhist teachings on lovingkindness, compassion and forgiveness, I was incredibly skeptical. Coming from a background of drugs and violence, I saw those heart qualities as undesirable and perhaps unsafe. In the circles I ran in, compassion was seen as equivalent to weakness and would make you vulnerable to harm and abuse. I learned early on that this world was full...
Bodhisattva is a term Buddhists use to describe someone who is on the path to enlightenment but postpones the ultimate goal for the sake of helping others arrive there first. Bodhi generally means awakened, and Sattva most often means being, essence or spirit. I have also known Sattva to mean warrior. I like "awakened warrior" best. What might this mean to us in our daily lives? In his ...
There is a famous Buddhist saying: "It is not the appearance that binds you, it's the attachment to the appearance that binds you." What does that really mean, and how might it apply to you and me? If you and I are anything alike, then I know there is a constant hunger in you that longs for something. Just stop and look for a moment, and you will find it. You may be successful, yet stil...
I don't get to see my brother very often. I live in Los Angeles, and he's in New York City, but the few moments a year that I do get are always worth the wait -- quality versus quantity. I've got a birthday coming up, so we got on the topic of life landmarks -- and aging. He told me of a time that he had spent his birthday at a Buddhist Monastery in Thailand with his "Achan" (the Thai w...
Last week I attended the festive opening of the Guibord Center at St. John's Cathedral in downtown Los Angeles. Founded by the Rev. Dr. Gwynne Guibord, former Officer of Ecumenical and Interreligious Concerns for The Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, the center's mission is "to bring people together, to challenge assumptions, unleash The Holy and affirm the faith that transforms the wor...
Over the past month, there has been some speculation among members of the global Tamil community on whether Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa visited Texas to obtain cancer treatment in secret. The story in itself is not particularly interesting, but it does have relevance for the post-conflict situation in Sri Lanka. Many reacted to the news not with sadness, but with a sense that c...
In Tibetan Buddhism, there is a popular notion called lungta (Tbn) or windhorse (English). The central image of windhorse is a powerful horse that can fly through the air, representing strength, vitality and energy that can meet and transform obstacles. The image of a flying horse is a cross-cultural and ubiquitous archetype found in various places and times. It represents the "force" t...
Anyone who has followed my writings here knows that I do NOT consider music to be a universal language. On the contrary, as we grow, we learn to process music as our culture dictates. In the west, music systematizes harmony, melody and rhythm into what we recognize as our classical and popular music. Yet even those wonderful elements absorbed too specifically can limit the way we perceive...
By Vishal Arora Religion News Service NEW DELHI (RNS) India plans to lend rare fragments of the Buddha's bones to Sri Lanka for the 2,600th anniversary of Buddha's Enlightenment in May, and some see it as part of India's strategy to gain a regional edge over neighboring China. Indranil Banerjie, head of New Delhi-based think tank Security and Political Risk Analysis, said India's mov...
Our charity looks to define its school mission in Cambodia so that all its students -- and not just the good students -- benefit even after they leave our program. Meet Ri Sotheara Ri Sotheara can't remember his birthday, except that he was born in 2001. He tells us that besides playing marbles, he likes coming here to our School for Orphans and Vulnerable Children in Battambang, Cambodi...
Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard, often called the happiest man alive, recently sat down with ABC News's Dan Harris to discuss happiness clichés, the benefits of meditation and why he never has a bad day. Although Ricard laughs at the notion that he could be the happiest of the planet's six billion people, he doesn't deny how interesting it is that neuroscientists, who studied him and other...
Say the word "relief" and here's my first association: Right after "Plop-plop, fizz-fizz," the next thing that comes to mind when I hear "relief" is Joseph Goldstein, a Western-born, Asian-trained meditation teacher. What could the two possibly have in common? The vintage Alka-Seltzer jingle is the product of a simpler time. Back then people said what they meant. "Just spit it...
Brain drain can be identified as a significant feature which can be seen in developing countries. It is an important pattern of international human migration. Brain drain refers to ‘Migration of the highly skilled professionals to the foreign countries in search of better opportunities’. In modern world large number of intellectuals leave their native lands and settle in the developed...
A decade ago, having recently begun Buddhist meditation practice, I attended a lecture/Q&A with a Tibetan master at a Buddhist center in Hollywood. The warm vibes and the stunning icons and paintings suggested a sacred, healing space. The speaker -- I knew so little at the time, I thought his name was "Sri" -- seemed the embodiment of enlightenment. He described how we can foster spiritua...
Today, all over the world, Zen Buddhists are celebrating the day of the Buddha's enlightenment. Known in Japan as "Rohatsu" (literally, the 8th day of 12th month) this Bodhi Day marks the defining event in the legend of Shakyamuni Buddha: his enlightenment experience. After sitting through a night of doubt and temptation -- in the form of the many kinds of mental obstacles that cover t...
Human beings are only temporary ‘able-bodied’. Irrespective of positions and possessions, our abilities to stand up, move, see and hear are sure to be taken away at some stage in life. No one can escape from these inevitable happenings. Only difference is for some it happens sooner and for others, later. The Convention on the Rights of Disabled Persons, the first United Nations Human ...