Experience the World of Buddhist Monks
Not many people get the opportunity to experience and interact with Buddhist monks on a regular basis so I wanted to make this video to give you all a small glimpse into “our world”. The activity that the Buddhist monks in Thailand are doing is called “Pintabata” or alms round. This video was created out of sheer gratitude and respect to all the past, present and future monks who have made and will continue to make the sacrifice to train oneself to help strengthen the faith of Buddhist and Buddhism around the world. This monk life is simple but NOT easy.
What Hamilton says about race, religion and America’s ‘unfinished revolution’
The United States of America circa 2021 may seem like a far cry from the lofty ideals sung about in the hit musical Hamilton.
The “young, scrappy and hungry” nation depicted in the stage show contrasts with the reality of a country battling division and violence.
“I see an explosion taking place [in America today],” Anthea Butler, associate professor of Religious Studies and Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, tells RN’s Soul Search.
“[We’ve had] a prevalence of police shootings of African-Americans and secondly, the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol. The intersection of these two things makes for a potent stew of race and religion in America right now,” she says.
But amid this explosion, Americans like Associate Professor Butler maintain the words and ideas on which the country was founded are not only relevant, but instructive.
And she points to the musical Hamilton – which took Broadway by storm and recently opened in Sydney – as a way these words and ideas have become accessible in an entirely new way.
America’s ‘unfinished revolution’
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton tells the story of the American Revolution in the late 1700s, via its “forgotten founding father” Alexander Hamilton.
But the all-white figures of the revolution such as Hamilton, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson are played by a racially diverse cast.
Characters sing about the founding of the American republic – and principles of freedom, liberty and equality – in hip-hop, R&B and soul.
“Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; We fought for these ideals, we shouldn’t settle for less,” Thomas Jefferson raps at one point.
Dr Butler says this racially diverse cast recalibrates the ideas of the founders.
“The way in which that cast was put together, having these things come out of people’s mouths that didn’t look like [Thomas] Jefferson or Aaron Burr, it makes an interesting juxtaposition,” she says.
“It calls us back to what the words really mean and what this is all about to begin with.
“[It reminds us] that we have people who have not realised all of the promises of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.”
She says African Americans “are continually asking that people in America and its leadership pay attention to the words that the founders made”.
Jonathan Den Hartog, professor of history at Samford University in Alabama, says the Hamilton musical is a call to action for modern audiences.
“Hamilton talks about an unfinished revolution. That [America] started on the road to fulfilling the ideas, but it hasn’t reached them yet,” he says.
Hamilton and religion
For Professor Den Hartog, Hamilton is also a springboard to think about the role of Christianity and religion in the USA, both at its founding and now.
While not as overt as other themes, religion is present in Hamilton, with George Washington quoting Scripture and Aaron Burr citing his “fire and brimstone preacher” grandfather Jonathan Edwards.
Professor Den Hartog says references like this point to a key event in the lead-up to the American Revolution — the “spiritual revolution” of the Great Awakening.
During the Great Awakening in the early-to-mid 1700s, there was a religious revival in the American colonies, where enthusiasm for new interpretations of Christianity boomed.
“The Great Awakening showed a real popular movement where people questioned established authority and that would then happen in a political sense in the revolution,” Professor Den Hartog says.
Associate Professor Butler agrees.
“There was a sense of growing unrest and upheaval that shows up in religions in this time period,” she says.
In the musical, Hamilton himself waxes and wanes with the exact role of his Christian faith – like the country did then and does now.
“Going into the American Revolution, there are competing religious visions and that carries through after the American republic is set up, through the 19th century, through the 20th century and today,” Professor Den Hartog says.
“The fact that we have competing religious visions shouldn’t come as a surprise to observers, it’s been there all along.”
Relevance to Australia
Six years after Hamilton hit Broadway, the musical opened in Sydney in March and is set to run until at least November.
Like the US production, the Australian cast is multicultural, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander performers as well as actors of Samoan, Maori, Filipino, Jamaican, South African, Nigerian, Egyptian and Japanese heritage.
Jason Arrow, who plays Hamilton in the Sydney production, says the musical is “about people, it’s about history … how Americans got where they are”.
“[But] that’s still relevant to us as well. As a country, we’re still finding our feet in a lot of different respects,” he tells 7:30.
The musical – which has perhaps become the most well-known retelling of the US Founding Fathers story – has triggered discussion about Australia’s Federation.
Professor Wayne Hudson, of Australian National University and Charles Sturt University, says although the US Constitution has worthy ideals, Australia has a far better relationship with its Constitution.
“In America, the Constitution … is the holy, founding, sacred document of the republic. So what happens in America, is the Constitution is sacralised and the country gets civil religion,” he says.
“[But] I think that sacralising the Constitution produces political disaster, as you see in the case of gun control in the US.
“Australia doesn’t suffer from the same worship of our Constitution. We change our Constitution, we’re critical of it in certain respects. That’s much harder to do in the US.
“[And] with civil religion in America, you get this funny sort of feeling that only people of a certain colour or people of a certain set of views are really meant [in it].”
<
p class=”_1HzXw”>That is an idea that Hamilton the musical is trying to change, one hip-hop lyric at a time.
What’s a ‘Jew of no religion’? American Jews open up about their non-religious identities
Jesse Wilks had a bar mitzvah — just not a religious one.
His parents raised him in a secular home in New York City but still instilled him with a strong sense of Jewish identity. His mother — who worked for the Workers Circle and is now on the editorial board of the left-wing Jewish Currents magazine — hosted holiday dinners, minus the religious prayers. Instead of attending Hebrew school at a synagogue, Wilks grew up going to a “shule,” or non-religious school that taught him Yiddish.
The pattern continued with his coming-of-age ceremony, which gathered family and friends at a synagogue he never attended.
“It did not involve a Torah reading but instead involved picking any topic related to Judaism that interested me, and then working with a tutor … doing research and basically reading the equivalent of a 13-year-old’s paper” during the ceremony, he said. He chose to explore social justice in Judaism and Jewish history, with a focus on labor movements.
Now a 34-year-old architect living in Philadelphia, Wilks does not believe in god and defines himself explicitly as atheist — but also Jewish. That makes him squarely a “Jew of no religion” according to the survey of U.S. Jews released last week by the Pew Research Center.
Pew categories
As it did in 2013, Pew researchers broke American Jews into two broad categories: “Jews of religion” and “Jews of no religion.”
People in the second group, the researchers wrote, “describe themselves (religiously) as atheist, agnostic or nothing in particular, but who have a Jewish parent or were raised Jewish, and who still consider themselves Jewish in any way (such as ethnically, culturally or because of their family background).”
Out of the survey’s 3,836 total respondents, 882 identified as Jews of no religion, suggesting that nearly a quarter of American Jews — 1.5 million people — fall into the category.
Becka Alper, a 2021 study co-author, said the term captures a large and diverse part of the Jewish community that can’t be summarized by other terms such as “cultural Jews” or “ethnic Jews.”
“It really wouldn’t be sufficient to simply ask people about their religion and categorize [only] those who said Jewish as Jews,” she said. “We’d be missing a really big and important part of the Jewish community, those who are Jewish but not namely or at all as a matter of religion.”
Different Opinion
Critics of the term say it draws a distinction where there should be none.
“The fact that 24% of ‘Jews of no religion’ own a Hebrew-language prayer book should give us pause,” Rachel B. Gross, a professor of Jewish studies at San Francisco State University, wrote in an essay for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency after the study was released.
Gross argues that the study’s categories reflected a division that makes sense to Christians, but not in Judaism, where practice has always shifted over time.
“American Jews continue to find meaning in emotional connections to their families, communities, and histories, though the ways they do so continue to change,” she writes. “Expanding our definition of ‘religion’ can help us better recognize the ways in which they are doing so.”
That argument resonated with three “Jews of no religion” who told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency about their Jewish identities. Here’s what they had to say.
“I feel Jewish every day”
Triggers
Certain things trigger Wilks’ sense of Jewishness — for instance, watching the Netflix show “Unorthodox,” about a woman leaving her Hasidic community in Brooklyn. While most days Wilks’ knowledge of Jewish customs, rituals and history stays in the “background” of his mind, “Unorthodox” brought it to the “foreground.”
And when he traveled to Berlin during college, he felt his Jewishness turn to visceral vulnerability, in an uncomfortable way.
“I couldn’t walk around and get out of my head that, you know, if I had been there 70 years before, I would have been murdered. And that colored my entire visit there,” he said. “And that was surprising to me that, you know, that my Jewish identity rose and bubbled up there.”
That experience mapped to one finding in the Pew study: 75% of American Jews overall said that “remembering the Holocaust” was important to their Jewish identity, including two thirds of Jews of no religion.
On the other hand, Pew found that while 60% of American Jews say they are strongly or somewhat emotionally attached to Israel, only a third of Jews of no religion described such an attachment. Wilks said he never thinks about the country, where he is entitled to citizenship because of his Jewish lineage.
“Zero Connection”
“I feel zero connection to Israel. To me, it’s the same [as] any country that I haven’t visited,” he said.
Right now, he is still figuring out what kind of Jewish identity he wants in his life as an adult. Growing up, his mother projected a strong sense of non-religious Jewish identity built on her family history, as a descendant of secular Jewish socialist activists from Eastern Europe.
But now living apart from her, and being married to a non-Jewish woman, Wilks feels more disconnected from Jewish culture. (Jews who are married to people who are not Jewish identify three times as often as Jews of no religion, according to Pew.)
Wilks admitted he would be forced to deal with the issue more head on if he had kids, but he and his wife aren’t planning on having any.
“There’s no question I feel Jewish every day and would always identify myself as that. But I don’t know, it’s hard for me to articulate what role that plays in my life,” he said.
In contrast, Sophie Vershbow knows exactly who she is: an atheist cultural Jew.
The 31-year-old social media manager who works for one of the “big five” publishing houses in New York has a deep connection to Jewish culture. She pointed to two things off the top of her head she feels a particular affinity for: actor Mandy Patinkin, and bagels.
Patinkin is an Emmy and Tony winner who became a minor icon this year for weaving Jewish and social justice themes together on social media. People like him in pop culture create a sense of community for other Jews, Vershbow said, and help familiarize non-Jews with Jewish culture.
That’s something the born-and-bred New Yorker said she realized was needed after she left the city for Hamilton College in upstate New York.
Wakeup Call
Jews make up close to 15% of the population of New York City, where she grew up in the Chelsea neighborhood. While Hamilton’s student body was still far more Jewish than the general U.S. population, both the college and the surrounding area felt decidedly non-Jewish to her.
“I called my mom and I was like, ‘What just happened?’ And she goes ‘Sophie, what percent of the country do you think is Jewish?’” Vershbow said. “I studied the Holocaust in college, and learning about our history and how much we’ve been persecuted certainly makes me feel more connected to [my Jewish side]. And makes me feel like it’s important to carry these things on.”
But when it comes to religion, she describes participating in holidays — she still does some of the big ones with her parents, such as Passover and Hanukkah — as “going through the motions,” because she doesn’t believe in god. She grew up attending a Reform synagogue but had an early existential crisis of sorts, just before her bat mitzvah — “a pre-teenage change of heart,” in her words.
“I realized that I didn’t believe in God, and was like, I’m not going to go ahead and do my bar mitzvah. This doesn’t feel right to me,” she said. “Sort of the same way that you figure out you don’t believe in Santa and the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy. It didn’t really work for me.”
Her love of Jewish food (she’s extremely excited to be living near Zabar’s on the Upper West Side these days) is straightforward. Bagels on Sundays, latkes on Hanukkah, kugel around Yom Kippur — that’s something she sees herself instilling in her kids, if she has any in the future.
Not Just Temple
“I don’t think you have to go to temple for it to be passing [Judaism] down to your kids,” she said. “But if one ever said, you know, ‘Mommy, I want to go check it out, I want to see, I will certainly take my kids to temple and show them.”
Vershbow said she sees no contradiction in her identity — and that being Jewish is at the center of it.
“My family is Polish, Russian, all of that, but … I don’t feel personal connection to any of that. I feel a connection to the American Jewish experience. And that is a huge part of my identity,” she said. “But I think that’s an amazing thing about Judaism is that, for so many people in my own life, it seems to be pretty acceptable in a lot of communities to say: ‘I don’t believe in God, but I am Jewish.’ And these can perfectly coexist within me. And they’re not conflicting.”
Religion briefs- Ministries joining to do outreach May 15-16 in Baton Rouge – Faith
Spirit of Truth International Ministries, 1520 Thomas Delpit Drive, and other ministries are joining for outreach in the Baton Rouge community May 15-16.
Outreach including gospel music, food, clothes and giveaways begins at 11 a.m. May 15. Partnering are Apostle Brian and Prophetess Monica Lewis, Free Ministries FWC/Laplace and Morgan City; Minister Desiree Isom, Kingdom Building Outreach Ministry, Thibodaux; Pastor Joycelyn Santee, House of Esther/New Orleans; and Elder Brenda Ballard, Warfare Intercession Prayer for Families, Thibodaux.
Worship services are at 11 a.m. May 16.
Mount Pleasant celebrating graduates
Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, 1743 Convention St., is celebrating its high school graduates at 11 a.m. Sunday, May 23. The theme is “Past and Present.” Those attending are asked to wear high school shirts or colors.
At the 11 a.m. Sunday, May 30, the church is holding a Christian life program. For more information, call Deacon Henry Robins at (504) 388-5106 or the church at (225) 383-4949.
Scientology Volunteer Ministers of Italy Help Croatian Villages Rebuild and Renew
Church of Scientology Padova’s Volunteer Ministers continue their monthly missions to the earthquake-ravaged region of Croatia.
For families living in Gvozd, Croatia, when the bright yellow van of the Scientology Volunteer Ministers pulled into town last month, it not only signaled the arrival of much-needed supplies, it also meant something even more important: Five months after the devastating December 29, 2020, earthquake, their plight has not been forgotten and there are people who care.
Volunteer Ministers of the Church of Scientology Padova and members of Pro.Civi.Co.S, the Civil Protection Volunteers of the Scientology Community, have continued disaster response missions to Croatia to help families recover from the 6.4 magnitude earthquake and numerous aftershocks that ravaged the region in December. They head east again May 21.
Their last trip to Croatia’s earthquake-damaged region was April 29. When they arrived in the town of Gvozd, in addition to long-life foods such as rice, tuna, beans and peas, they brought 1,000 seedlings and garden tools so families could replace vegetable gardens that were buried in rubble. They also brought work gloves and construction tools and equipment to help residents shore up their homes.
This weekend, they plan to visit other rural areas with donations including equipment to help rebuild destroyed stables and sheds so families can care for farm animals.
“Although the situation is improving, basic necessities are still lacking,” says Ettore Botter who oversees the Scientology Volunteer Ministers program for the Church of Scientology Padova. “We want to thank fellow Paduans who support our initiative by donating materials or funds that make our continued humanitarian response possible.”
The Church of Scientology Volunteer Ministers program is a religious social service created in the mid-1970s by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard. It constitutes one of the world’s largest independent relief forces.
With the events of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City, Scientology ecclesiastical leader Mr. David Miscavige called on Scientologists to redouble their efforts to aid their fellow man. He issued a directive entitled “The Wake-Up Call,” which inspired astonishing growth within the Volunteer Minister program. Volunteer Ministers of Italy formed Pro.Civi.Co.S, which was entered into the registry of the National Department of Civil Defense the following year. Over the past two decades, Pro.Civi.Co.S and the Volunteer Ministers of Italy have responded to disasters at home and abroad, including the L’Aquila and Amatrice earthquakes in Italy, the South Asian tsunami of 2004, the Haiti earthquake of 2010, and the 2019 Albania earthquake.
Germany hit again by the US State Department for discriminating religious minorities
Executive Summary of the US State Department report on Religious Freedom, regarding Germany:
“The constitution prohibits religious discrimination and provides for freedom of faith and conscience and the practice of one’s religion. The country’s 16 states exercise considerable autonomy on registration of religious groups and other matters. Unrecognized religious groups are ineligible for tax benefits. Federal and some state offices of the domestic intelligence service continued to monitor the activities of certain Muslim groups and mosques. Authorities also monitored the Church of Scientology (COS), which reported continued government discrimination against its members. Certain states continued to ban or restrict the use of religious clothing or symbols, including headscarves, for some state employees. Senior government leaders continued to condemn anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim sentiment and acts. In September, Chancellor Angela Merkel described anti-Semitism as an attack on the dignity of individuals that “must be fought decisively” – ideally with education, but with the full strength of the criminal law system when necessary. Government officials responded to revelations of right-wing, anti-Semitic chat groups within police and the military by demanding investigations and dismissing those involved. Two additional state governments appointed anti-Semitism commissioners for the first time, bringing the total number of states with such commissioners to 15 (out of 16), in addition to the federal Jewish life and anti-Semitism commissioner. In October, the government announced it would increase social welfare funding for Holocaust survivors by 30.5 million euros ($37.4 million) in 2021 and provide an additional 564 million euros ($692 million) over the next two years to help Holocaust survivors cope with the burdens of the COVID-19 pandemic.
During a Sukkot celebration for students at the Hohe Weide Synagogue in Hamburg on October 4, a man wearing a military-style uniform struck a Jewish student in the head with a shovel, leaving the victim with a serious head injury. Police arrested the attacker, and a criminal trial was pending. Authorities including Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, Minister of Justice Christine Lambrecht, and Hamburg Mayor Peter Tschentscher condemned the attack. There were numerous reports of anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim, and anti-Christian incidents. These included assaults, verbal harassment, threats, discrimination, and vandalism. Federal crime statistics for 2019 cited 2,032 anti-Semitic crimes during the year, an increase of 13 percent from 2018. Seventy-two of those crimes involved violence. Federal crime statistics attributed 93.4 percent of anti-Semitic crimes in 2019 to the far right. In November, Federal Commissioner for Jewish Life in Germany and the Fight against Anti-Semitism Felix Klein stated anti-Semitism was emerging as a common theme among groups of widely differing political backgrounds that were gathering to protest pandemic lockdown measures. From mid-March to mid-June, the Research Center for Information on Anti-Semitism (RIAS), which is partially government-funded, registered anti-Semitic incidents at 123 separate demonstrations against restrictions to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The head of the Central Council of Jews said to the media in May that right-wing protesters were using anxieties stirred up by the pandemic to spread anti-Semitic conspiracy theories on the internet. Demonstrations also occurred expressing anti-Muslim sentiment.
The U.S. embassy and five consulates general assessed the government’s responses to incidents of religious intolerance; expressed concerns about anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim, and anti-Christian acts; and advocated for more law enforcement and other resources to prevent violent attacks on religious communities. A senior embassy official met with the federal commissioner for global freedom of religion at the Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development in September. Consuls General met with state-level government representatives and anti-Semitism commissioners. The embassy and consulates general maintained a dialogue with a broad spectrum of religious communities and human rights nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) on their concerns about religious freedom and on ways to promote tolerance and communication among religious groups.”
VIEW FULL REPORT ON GERMANY HERE
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WCC calls for end to violence affecting places of worship in Holy Land
After Patriarchs and Heads of Jerusalem Churches express concern for Al-Aqsa Mosque worshippers and Sheikh Jarrah families in a 9 May statement over the recent violence in East Jerusalem, World Council of Churches (WCC) acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca in a 12 May Statement on Israel and Palestine expressed mounting concern and profound grief at the rising toll of people killed and injured in the escalating violence in Israel and Palestine.
“We appeal urgently to all parties to step back from the brink of even more deadly and destructive conflict,” Sauca said. “We lament every one of the precious lives already lost, Palestinians and Israelis, in Gaza, in Ashkelon, near Lod, and elsewhere.”
During the demonstrations, tens of thousands of Muslims made their way to Ramadan prayers and activities at the al-Aqsa complex. Israeli police, saying Palestinians were throwing stones, stormed the building and courtyard on Monday with stun grenades and rubber-tipped bullets. Over 200 Palestinians and several officers were injured. Today, armed police clashed again with Muslim visitors.
Sauca urged people to put down their arms, and work to address the injustices and mutual antagonisms that sustain the recurrent cycles of violence. The proper response, instead of violence, should be compassion and justice for the Palestinian people affected by this unfair and unjust situation.
The Israeli army and Palestinian radicals in the Gaza Strip have been exchanging missile strikes since May 10, following the outbreak of violence near the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City. More than 200 Palestinians have been killed since the escalation of conflict with Israel, while about 5,600 people have been injured, the Wafa News Agency stated on Sunday citing the Health Ministry of the coastal enclave. The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Hamas movement that controls the Gaza Strip, announced a new wave of massive rocket bombardments of Israeli cities and army bases in response to Israel’s strikes, the Gaza radicals said in a statement broadcast by the Sawt Al-Aqsa radio station on Monday.
The statement is in concert with the WCC’s Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI), based on an appeal from local church leaders to create an international presence in the country, accompanies the local people and communities, offering protective presence and witnessing their daily struggles and hopes. EAPPI provides a continuous presence of 25-30 Ecumenical Accompaniers, who serve in the field for three months, accompanying local people and communities, offering a protective presence, and witnessing their daily struggles and hopes. EAPPI is guided by “principled impartiality”: it takes no side in the conflict nor discriminates against anyone, but it is not neutral in terms of human rights and respect for international humanitarian law. Almost 1800 hundred Ecumenical Accompaniers (EAs) have served through the programme, and many of them have stayed involved and interested in working toward a just peace in Palestine and Israel.
A Christian delegation visited the Sheikh Jarrah community on 14 May, standing in solidarity with 28 families who not only face the threat of eviction but are living their day-to-day lives under worsening oppression. Their community has become one with streets full of stones, cars with broken windows, and the smell of “skunk water” used by the police.
We can only solve it through religious peace.
A prominent Israeli orthodox rabbi Michael Melchior has charged that the deadly violence sweeping Israel and Gaza will not be resolved by military might: “We can only solve it through religious peace.”
Sheikh Imad Falogi, a former Hamas official in Gaza and close colleague of Melchior, says Muslims have no problem with people of the Jewish religion but feel disrespected by Israeli police and throngs of ultranationalist Israelis who visit al-Aqsa and are seen not as engaging in holy activities but as trying to take over “and create problems with Muslims.” When there are political problems, Falolgi adds, “the politicians should come to the rabbis and imams.”
Other Jewish, Muslim and Christian religious leaders in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza have also been calling for nonviolence and mutual respect.
Japan congratulates President-elect Penpa Tsering
Shimomura Hakubun, Japan’s former education minister (L) and Mr. Makino Seishu, a former Parliament member and Representative of Save Tibet Network Japan congratulate Sikyong-elect Penpa Tsering.
Tokyo: The All Party Japanese Parliamentary Support Group for Tibet congratulated the newly-elected President of the Central Tibetan Administration Mr. Penpa Tsering.
In his congratulatory message, Mr. Shimomura Hakubun, Japan’s former education minister and current chairman of the All Party Japanese Parliamentary Support Group for Tibet, extended his ‘heartfelt congratulations to Mr. Penpa Tsering on his election as the Prime Minister of the Tibetan Government in Exile’.
Mr. Shimomura said the Japanese Parliamentary Support Group will work in close cooperation with the countries sharing the universal values of freedom, democracy and the rule of law, adding, they will mobilize efforts towards the resolution of the issue of Tibet.
He also thanked the outgoing Sikyong, Dr. Lobsang Sangay, for his active service for the last ten years.
Mr. Makino Seishu, a former Parliament member and Representative of Save Tibet Network Japan, extended his heartfelt congratulations to Sikyong-elect Mr. Penpa Tsering.
In his letter, Mr. Makino wrote: ‘you have taken the responsibility of the prime minister at this difficult time. We in Japan will be with you in full support’.
The inauguration of Mr. Penpa Tsering as the new President of the Central Tibetan Administration will take place on 26 May.
– Filed by Office of Tibet, Japan
Creating Hope—His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s conversation with Pico Iyer
Dharamshala, 19th May 2021: This morning, after His Holiness the Dalai Lama had smiled, waved and taken his seat in front of the cameras, Celesta Billeci, Executive Director of Arts & Lectures, University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), introduced the occasion. “We’re living in a moment that calls for optimism, resilience, courage and vision,” she said. “Who better to spark these qualities in us than the Dalai Lama?” Henry Yang,
Chancellor of the University welcomed everyone and addressing His Holiness declared, “It’s an extraordinary honour to welcome you today.”
“I am delighted to share this message of hope from His Holiness the Dalai Lama,” he continued. “This is the fifth time we’ve had the privilege of welcoming him here. And it is now twenty years since we established the 14th Dalai Lama Chair of Tibetan Studies. The Dalai Lama is an incomparable Buddhist teacher and a champion of reconciliation. He radiates compassion and peace.”
With that, he called on Pico Iyer to open a conversation with His Holiness.
Pico Iyer: Welcome Your Holiness, it’s nice to see you again. We are turning our focus to hope. What does hope mean for Buddhists?
HH Dalai Lama: “To put it simply, our life is based on hope, a desire for things to turn out well. Even in the womb, their mother’s peace of mind affects the unborn child. Hope is concerned with the future. Although nothing about the future can be guaranteed, we remain hopeful, which is much better than being pessimistic. On a global level too, we have grounds for hope.
“We all come from our mother. We grow under her care. Appreciating her kindness, without which we would not have survived, is a basis on which to cultivate compassion. Experiencing our mother’s kindness gives us hope.
“If we investigate cases of children whose mothers pass away when they are young, I think we’ll find some emotional scars.
“Our lives depend on hope. If you have hope, you’ll be able to overcome problems you face. But if you’re without hope, your difficulties will increase. Hope is linked to compassion and loving kindness. In my own experience. I’ve faced all sorts of difficulties in my life, but I never gave up hope. Also, being truthful and honest is a basis for hope and self-confidence. Being truthful and honest is a counter to false hope. Hope founded on truth and honesty is strong and powerful.”
Pico Iyer: Can we train ourselves to be more realistic in our hopes?
HH Dalai Lama: “Our human brain, our intelligence, enables us to take a long view, not thinking only of our immediate needs. We can adopt a broader perspective and consider what is in our long-term interest. In terms of Buddhist practice, for example, we talk about aeons and aeons and serving all sentient beings, which strengthens our self-confidence.
Pico Iyer: Is hope not connected with religion?
HH Dalai Lama: “Generally, religion is a question of faith, but when we bask in our mother’s affection, there’s no faith involved. Faith is something human beings have created. All the major religious traditions teach the importance of kindness and love. Some say there’s a God, others deny it. Some say we go on for life after life, others assert that we live only one life. These traditions propound different philosophical points of view, but they share the message of loving kindness.
“Theistic traditions like Christianity teach that we are all created by God, who, like a father, embodies infinite love. It’s a powerful idea that can help us recognise the importance of being kind.
“We are social creatures, dependent on our community. And as members of a community, even people with no faith or belief can keep their peace of mind by being considerate, truthful and honest. Being honest and compassionate are not necessarily religious qualities, but they contribute to our being able to lead a happy life. Being concerned about our own community lends to our own survival. The key factor is compassion. Anger is its opposite. Anger destroys happiness and harmony.
“We need a sense of the oneness of humanity. It’s because I cultivate this that wherever I go and whoever I meet I regard as just another human being; a brother or sister. We seven billion human beings are essentially the same. We do have differences of nationality, colour, faith and social status, but to focus only on them is to create problems for ourselves.
“Imagine you’ve escaped from some catastrophe and find yourself all alone. If you see someone in the distance coming towards, you won’t care about their nationality, race or faith, you’ll just be glad to meet another human being. Desperate situations encourage us to recognise the oneness of humanity.
“There’s been enough war and violence in the past. Nowadays, when we face serious problems as a result of the climate crisis, we have to help each other. We have to make an effort to live together happily while we can.”
Pico Iyer: You mention global warming. How can we remain hopeful in the face of such a challenge?
HH Dalai Lama: “Global warming is a good reason not to squabble with each other. We must learn to live together. We are all human beings and we are all living on this one planet. We can’t adopt an out-of-date stance thinking only of ‘my nation’, ‘my community’, we have to take account of the whole of humanity.”
Pico Iyer: Have you ever worried about losing hope?
HH Dalai Lama: “Only on 17th March 1959 as I was leaving Lhasa. I really wondered if I would live to see the following day. Then, the next morning, the sun rose and I thought, ‘I’ve survived’. One of the Chinese generals had asked to be informed where the Dalai Lama stayed in the Norbulingka so he could avoid shelling it. Whether he really wanted to protect me or target me, I don’t know. On that occasion I felt some anxiety.
“Next day, when we reached the Che-la pass, the man who was leading my horse told me that it was the last place from which we could see the Potala Palace and the city of Lhasa. He turned my horse so I was able to take a last look.
“Eventually we reached India, the source of all our knowledge and the Nalanda approach to learning. Since childhood I’d been steeped in this tradition of investigation with its application of reason and logic. Faith rooted in logic is sound. Otherwise, it’s fragile.
“Today, scientists are intrigued by our analytical approach, which provides a basis for our discussions. In addition, we cultivate ‘shamatha’ to achieve a calm and focussed mind as well as ‘vipashyana’ insight as a result of analysis. And besides these qualities we cultivate ‘ahimsa’ and ‘karuna’ — non-violence and compassion — on the basis of reason.”
Pico Iyer: So many have been affected by the Covid pandemic. How can we deal with death and loss?
HH Dalai Lama: “I really appreciate the efforts of all the doctors and nurses who have given and are giving help those who are sick.
“As a Buddhist, I see this body as something that predisposes us to falling ill. But maintaining peace of mind makes a difference. Anxiety just makes things worse. If you have a calm mind and you can accept that we fall ill as a result of our karma, it can help.”
Pico Iyer: Your Holiness you have great faith in young people. Are they the basis of your hope?
HH Dalai Lama: “Older people tend to look to the past, to the way things have been done before. Young people tend to be more open, to have more interest in the mind. Modern education has its origins in the West, but ancient India cultivated an extensive understanding of the workings of the mind and emotions. Ancient India outlined more than fifty types of emotion. I believe that India today can combine the materialistic thinking of modern education with an understanding of how to tackle destructive emotions.”
Pico Iyer: How can an ordinary person find peace of mind?
HH Dalai Lama: “Modern education in India was introduced by the British, but as I’ve already mentioned, I believe it can be usefully combined with the ancient Indian understanding of the workings of the mind and secular ways to achieve mental comfort. In addition, it can be combined with methods for tackling destructive emotions. When the pandemic is over, I’m looking forward to holding discussions with Indian educators about how this could be done.”
Pico Iyer: Is the world a better place than it was when you were born almost 86 years ago?
HH Dalai Lama: “People no longer take things for granted as they once did. Events like this pandemic and global warming present challenges that compel us to examine how we can deal with them. Difficulties can make us open our minds and employ our intelligence. The Indian Buddhist master Shantideva advised us to examine the problems before us to see if they can be solved. If they can, then that’s what we have to do. Worrying won’t help. Challenges can wake us up.
“The younger generation tend to be more open-minded, while older people stick to established patterns. It’s the younger people who will adopt a fresh approach to overcoming problems.”
Pico Iyer: Some people worry that there is increasing anger and violence in the world today. Do you agree or do you remain hopeful?
HH Dalai Lama: “Last century there was so much bloodshed. But after the second world war, former foes, Adenauer and de Gaulle founded the EU. Since then, there’s been no fighting amongst its member states. The entire world should adopt such an attitude of concern for the greater good of the whole of humanity. Conflicts and difficult situations tend to prompt us to turn to out of date ways of thinking — a resort to the use of force, for example — when we should adopt a fresh and more humane approach.
“I think that if I had remained in Lhasa, I’d think more narrowly than I do. Coming to India as a refugee has opened and broadened my mind and induced me to use my intelligence.”
Pico Iyer: How can we help Tibet and ensure the survival of Tibetan culture?
HH Dalai Lama: “Since 2001, I’ve retired from political involvement, but I still feel a responsibility to preserve Tibetan culture. In the eighth century, the Tibetan Emperor invited Shantarakshita, a great philosopher and correspondingly great logician to Tibet. He introduced the Nalanda Tradition, which has much in common with scientific thinking. It’s founded on taking a logical, investigative approach.
“At that time, there were Chinese Buddhist teachers in Tibet who asserted that the practice of meditation was more important than study. Shantarakshita’s disciple Kamalashila debated the merits of the Chinese and the Indian approaches before the Emperor. The Indian tradition prevailed and the Chinese meditators were invited to return to China. Since then, we have embraced logic. The key Indian treatises on reason, logic and epistemology were translated into Tibetan. This, the foundation of the Nalanda Tradition, is what we have kept alive.
“Nowadays, in remote parts of Tibet, despite the efforts of Chinese communist hardliners to oppose it, study of these traditions goes on. In India we have re-established our major centres of learning and more than 10,000 monastics are engaged in rigorous study.”
Pico Iyer: Can you explain emotional hygiene?
HH Dalai Lama: “It involves recognizing, for example, that the most effective destroyer of peace of mind is anger, but that anger can be countered by developing altruism and compassion for others. Ignorance, another mental affliction, also brings us problems, and it can be undermined by study. A great Tibetan scholar once remarked that even if I’m to die tomorrow, it’s still worth studying today.”
Pico Iyer: Is interest in Tibetan Buddhism growing in China?
HH Dalai Lama: “Yes, even among university teachers. We have published several volumes in a series entitled ‘Science and Philosophy in the Indian Buddhist Classics’ and Chinese translations have reached them. As a result, they have developed a greater appreciation of our tradition. Perhaps they see that Buddhist education is so much deeper than Marxist totalitarianism.”
Pico Iyer: Do you have any words of advice for the students of the University of California, Santa Barbara?
HH Dalai Lama: “This university is important. Our future must be founded on education. We need new knowledge. It’s important that professors can conduct research and pass on what they learn to their students. This university can make a significant contribution to our ability to create a better world. Thank you.”
Michael Drake, who is President of the University of California thanked His Holiness for sharing his time. He observed that His Holiness has been associated with UCSB for forty years and that twenty years ago saw the founding of the 14th Dalai Lama Chair of Tibetan Studies. He thanked Pico Iyer for leading the conversation. He noted that compassion is important in the lives of all seven billion human beings alive today and ended with thanks to Chancellor Yang and Celesta Billeci for organizing the event.
His Holiness responded with his own thanks and the suggestion that from time to time it will be possible to hold further conversations like todays over the internet. “Any contribution I can make to the betterment of the world, it’s my duty to do. I may be getting older, but my brain is still ok. The purpose of our lives is to serve humanity.”
Celesta Billeci ended the session, thanking His Holiness, Pico Iyer and President Drake once more and expressing her optimism that the University’s initiative ‘Creating Hope’ will have benefited others. She concluded by quoting His Holiness:
“Be kind whenever possible; it is always possible.”
–Sourced from dalailama.com
Buddhists invited to attend Visakha Bucha activities online
By — Shyamal Sinha
Culture Minister, Ittipol Khunplome, has revealed that the resurgence of Covid-19 has again put a limit on Visakha Bucha Day religious activities, hosted annually by the Department of Religious Affairs (DRA) in cooperation with the clergy and other public and private businesses.
In Thailand, Buddha’s birthday is known as Visakha Bucha Day.When is Buddha Purnima?
Buddha Purnima is the most sacred day in the Buddhist calendar. It is the most important festival of the Buddhists and is celebrated with great enthusiasm.
Although Buddhists regard every full moon as sacred, the moon of the month of Vaisakh has special significance because on this day the Buddha was born, attained enlightenment (nirvana), and attained parinirvana (nirvana-after-death of the body) when he died.
To help flatten the curve of the contagion, this year’s activities on 26 May will now strictly follow preventive measures from the Ministry of Public Health. Buddhists are thereby encouraged to participate in Visakha Bucha Day 2021 “new normally” via online platforms.
The minister also addressed the ongoing cooperation between DRA and a network of clergy to host online activities from 20-26 May, to promote understanding of the essence of Buddhism. Religious practices, such as making offerings to the Buddha, will be broadcast live on the NBT channel from Wat Phra Chetuphon Vimolmangklararm on 26 May from 8.30 pm to 9 pm, along with the chanting of Buddhist mantras and traditional candle-lit temple walks.
Organisers have also put together an online exhibition of the Buddha’s life. Thus Buddhists at home can still join Visakha Bucha Day celebrations through the Stay Home, Make Merit app. Essential doctrines, insights and sermons from several monks of repute are also featured on the platform. Visitors can also write down their resolutions to perform good deeds using the Buddha’s teachings as guidance. Candle-lit temple walks can be safely joined online at www.เวียนเทียนออนไลน์.com.
To support the continued promotion of Buddhism, a Visakha Bucha Day E-Booklet is available at no cost on “Stay Home, Make Merit” application, DRA’s Facebook page, and www.dra.co.th.
On Buddha Purnima, people dress in white clothes and give out kheer (a rice pudding) as, according to legend, a woman named Sujata once offered Gautam Buddha kheer on his birthday and it has since become a tradition.
The dharmacakra or dharma wheel is a symbol often seen during Vesak. It is a wooden wheel with eight spokes. The wheel represents Buddha’s teaching on the path to enlightenment. The eight spokes symbolize the noble eightfold path of Buddhism.
source – Bangkok post
Podcast series in Ireland invites grassroots conversation
BWNS May 20, 2021
DUBLIN — Comhrá, meaning ‘conversation’ in Irish, is a recently launched podcast by the Bahá’ís of Ireland that provides a window into uplifting discussions among friends on themes central to the life of society.
“We want to engage in social discourses at a level that is not usually seen, and to hear from people who are not always heard,” says Patricia Rainsford of the Irish Bahá’í community’s Office of External Affairs.
“There is a place for high-level discussions of policy, but the conversations in this podcast look at an essential component of social change that is found at the grassroots—addressing ideas that listeners might see reflected in their own lives.”