The Karmapa's statement on the recent acts of self immolation by Tibetan monks and nuns

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Dharmsala, India -- A Buddhist nun in China’s western Sichuan Province burned herself to death on November 3, 2011, bringing to 11 the number of Tibetan clergy and former clergy who have set themselves on fire since March. The series of self-immolations, unprecedented in Tibetan Buddhism’s modern history, has continued despite an increasingly large Chinese security presence in the predominantly ethnic Tibetan area.

In response to the gruesome events, His Holiness the Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, issued the following statement on November 9, 2011:

"Since March this year 11 brave Tibetans have set themselves on fire while calling for freedom in Tibet and the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to his homeland.

These desperate acts, carried out by people with pure motivation, are a cry against the injustice and repression under which they live. The situation is unbearably difficult, but in difficult situations we need greater courage and determination.

"Each report of self-immolation from Tibet has filled my heart with pain. Most of those who have died have been very young. They had a long future ahead of them, an opportunity to contribute in ways that they have now foregone. In Buddhist teaching life is precious. To achieve anything worthwhile we need to preserve our lives. We Tibetans are few in number, so every Tibetan life is of value to the cause of Tibet. Although the situation is difficult, we need to live long and stay strong without losing sight of our long term goals.

"As His Holiness the Dalai Lama has said, the Chinese leadership should face up to the real source of these tragic incidents. Such drastic acts have their origin in the desperate circumstances in which Tibetans find themselves living. A ruthless response will only make things worse. Where there is fear, there can be no trust.

"His Holiness the Dalai Lama has stressed that the use of force is counter-productive; repressive measures can never bring about unity and stability. I agree with him that the Chinese leadership needs seriously to review its policies towards Tibetans and other minorities. I appeal to right-thinking, freedom-loving people throughout the world to join us in deploring the repression unleashed in the monasteries in Tibet, particularly in the Tibetan region of Sichuan. At the same time I appeal to the Chinese leaders to heed Tibetans' legitimate demands and to enter into meaningful dialogue with them instead of brutally trying to achieve their silence.

"Because the Tibetan issue involves truth and justice, people are not afraid to give up their lives, but I request the people of Tibet to preserve their lives and find other, constructive ways to work for the cause of Tibet. It is my heartfelt prayer that the monks and nuns, indeed all the Tibetan people, may live long, free from fear, in peace and happiness."

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S. Korea allows Buddhist group to visit N. Korea for looted artifacts

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Seoul, South Korea -- South Korea said Friday it has allowed a seven-member Buddhist delegation to travel to North Korea next week for discussions on a joint project to return artifacts seized by Japan from the Korean Peninsula during the 1910-45 colonial occupation.

The approval is the latest apparent sign of lessening tensions on the divided peninsula. Buddhist officials from the two Koreas launched the joint project in 2000, but South Korea suspended it last year, blaming North Korea for sinking one of its warships, a charge denied by the North.

Representatives from the South's Lay Buddhist Association of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism will make the trip from Tuesday to the North's border city of Kaesong and meet their North Korean counterparts to discuss the project, officials at Seoul's unification ministry said.

"The approval was made because the project is a joint effort by the South and North to return our cultural properties seized during the Japanese colonial rule," a ministry official said on the condition of anonymity.

The ministry is in charge of South Korea's policies on North Korea. Inter-Korean relations remain tense following the North's two military attacks on the South last year, but Seoul has signaled a "flexible" approach to Pyongyang in recent months by expanding civilian contacts between the two sides.

A group of South Korean historians are now working on a joint survey in progress with North Koreans in Kaesong for another project to excavate an ancient Korean royal palace in its territory.

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Dalai Lama to visit Kashmir excavation site

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Dharamsala, India -- The excavation of a site in Jammu and Kashmir that is believed to be linked with an ancient Buddhist monastery has attracted the attention of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.

His private office based in this Himachal Pradesh town on Monday said he will visit Ambran, located along the banks of Chenab river in Akhnoor area, some 30 km from Jammu, Wednesday.

"His Holiness will visit Ambran for a day to see the relics discovered there. He will later deliver a public talk," Tenzin Taklha, joint secretary at the Dalai Lama's office, told IANS.

Before reaching Ambran, the Nobel laureate will open a photo exhibition in Jammu town by Akshat and Vijay Kranti, a father-son duo from Delhi, on the ongoing excavation and relics discovered there.

Ambran is the latest finding of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). It's believed that the site is most probably a Buddhist monastery that was active for about 900 years between the second century BC and seventh century AD, a period belonging to the pre-Kushan, Kushan, and post-Kushan Gupta eras.

The most significant findings for the site include stupas, a mound-like structure containing Buddhist relics, made of high quality baked bricks and surrounded by stone pathways, meditation cells and rooms.

A three-layer casket set of copper, silver and gold containing bone relics and ornaments is another major highlight of the findings.

Nearly 100,000 Tibetans live in exile in different parts of India.

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Tzu Chi aids Thai flood victims

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Bangkok, Thailand -- A team of Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation volunteers has been carrying out relief work for the flood victims in Thailand, which is suffering its worst flooding in 50 years.

Many areas of Thailand, including the capital Bangkok, are still submerged since floodwaters overran parts of the country beginning in August.

Thousands of people have fled their homes, while others are living on the upper floors.

From Sept. 24, Tzu Chi volunteers have been providing cooked food and comfort to the flood victims. They have delivered 120,000 bottles of drinking water not only to the residents but also to the 50,000 Thai soldiers providing security in the flooded areas.

Shipping of the drinking water from Kuala Lampur, Malaysia, to Bangkok was done by volunteers in Thailand.

“We thank you very much for fulfilling this mission to deliver the drinking water to us,” said Naraporn Chanocha, chair of the Overseas Chinese Commission based in Thailand.

Volunteers from the Philippines and Taiwan, for their part, brought rice and other goods for the flood victims when they arrived in Bangkok on Nov. 3. They also brought raincoats, water-resistant suits and vests to be used in the relief operations.

The team was led by Dr. Chien Sou-Hsin, superintendent of the Dalin Tzu Chi Hospital.

Work relief program

On Nov. 6, the group held a meeting in Bangkok with local volunteers, business people and leaders of large companies to discuss how best to distribute the aid.

They considered a work relief program for the flood victims, like the Tzu Chi Foundation did when in Taiwan and the Philippines when those places were hit by floods in August and September 2009, respectively.

Alfredo Li, chief executive officer for Tzu Chi Philippines, said he did not doubt the people would do all they could to clean up their homes.

Michael Siao, a volunteer from the Philippines, said, “At that time, we had a very simple idea, wanting to mobilize them in the shortest possible time. Master Cheng Yen said that if we did not do the cleaning job very quickly, we could have been faced with burying the dead and then it would not only have been a question of medical expenses.”

Master Cheng Yen is the founder of Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation.

Dr. Chien said during the meeting that disease carried by the water was one of the biggest issues in flooding.

“Water moves slowly but carries a large quantity of germs into the places where it flows. Most important is that people do not have wounds on their legs. These could be infected and they could be serious. The risk of infection causing leptospirosis is very high,” he said.

For inquiries on how to help, call Chieh Fang Uy at (02) 732-0001 local 218; or e-mail tzuchi_phils@ph.tzuchi.org.

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Burning with desire to learn

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   A Buddhist Channel's Special on selected projects showcased at INEB 2011   

One small school changes life of Chakma refugees in Arunachal Pradesh

Arunachal Pradesh, India -- Sometimes, a small step can have the impact of a giant leap. A school set up by a refugee community in the North-East is one such step. Like many other tribal groups in the area, the Chakmas didn't really have much say in their destiny post (India-Pakistan) partition.

<< DISTANCE LEARNING: Huts have been turned into makeshift hostels for students who come from distant areas

They would have been content to be left alone, but when the line was finally drawn in 1947, the Chittagong Hill Tracts, where the Chakmas and the Hajongs lived, went to East Pakistan. As if this were not enough, the Pakistan government decided to build the Kaptai dam on the river Karnaphuli soon after.

Over the next decade or so, between 75, 000 and 100, 000 tribals from both groups were displaced from their land and, as was the norm those days, without any compensation. Wilfuly uprooting the rural poor has been a routine pastime if not sport for South Asia's policy planners.

Large numbers of the evacuees set off for India in 1964 because of Nehru's decision to offer them shelter. About half of them settled in Mizoram and the rest were shunted around till they finally nestled in a small corner of Arunachal Pradesh. There they lived, stateless, but that at least ensured survival even though the locals wanted them out. But it's not easy to throw out 40,000 people and so they stayed, in the face of local hostility, without roads or electricity for a good forty years.

The nineties saw anti-Chakma riots in Arunachal. One consequence of this was the closing down of educational avenues for the refugees. Ironically this spurred many of them to seek education in other parts of India. So young Chakma men went to Mumbai, Guwahati, Kolkata and Delhi. It was this exposure to the outside world which led to a desire to provide education to their own children back in Changlang district in Arunachal.

In a few thatched cottages, on land loaned by a local landowner, this group of young men set up a school in 2003 with some financial assistance from the National Foundation of India, a Delhi NGO. No roads led to the school, nor did it have electricity. The initial ambition was limited - to provide basic literacy to sons and daughters of peasants who could not even imagine that education was supposed to be on their horizon.

But the founders of Sneha School, as it was called, had miscalculated badly. They had no idea of the latent desire amongst the poorest of the poor for education. Within a few days, word spread and peasants trooped in from distant villages carrying children on shoulders or on dilapidated bicycles and, lo and behold, the school took off with more than 150 students on its rolls.

The energy this generated revolutionised the area. Within two years, the number of students had jumped to over 300. The few educated Chakmas in the area all moved into teaching at the school. Their motivation level was high. They had not imagined their deprived community would have such a strong desire to pull itself out from the depths of misery. The school decided to send some teachers for training to Kolkata.

The level of teaching jumped. The landowner gave the school more land. More thatched rooms were constructed. Judo training started at the school. The number of students jumped to over 500. Today the school extends to class X, something that just could not have been imagined five years ago.

Most students are first-generation learners and belong to peasant families which still find it difficult to make two ends meet. Yet the level of motivation is so high that rarely does a child miss a class. At least half the children in the school come from villages at least 8 to 10 kilometres away. It is therefore not an unusual sight to see children setting out for school afoot or on cycles about two hours before school starts.

One of the most interesting innovations that families have made is the setting up of small independent hostels in which three or four children from a village stay over the week. Children from distant areas sometimes find it convenient to build a hut in a compound, or rent a hut, and stay in it.

There are at least 15 such establishments in Diyun.

Most of them have between three and four children from six to fourteen. They cook their own food at night, go to school in the morning, come back and eat the food cooked overnight, study before the lights go out, and then get down to preparing for the next day. This requires a level of commitment unseen in urban areas. Underlying it is a firm conviction that education is the tide that will lift their boat.

Children from the Sneha Schools now dream of a future that goes beyond the village. They dream of being air hostesses and computer engineers  >>

And change is lighting up the horizon. The children now dream of a future that goes beyond the village. The older girls are determined to leave the village. They recognise that the small village without roads or electricity cannot contain their ambition and desires any longer. They dream of being air hostesses and computer engineers. The boys dream of becoming doctors and staying on in the village and serving their families, their people.

A community which saw no future for itself has become a self-confident, outgoing community and has changed the environment it lives in. The local tribes, the Singphos, the Kamtis, Tangsas, the Tutsas, seeing the difference the school has made to the lives of the refugees, have started withdrawing their own children from other schools and shifting them to Sneha School.

Consequently the lives of the Chakmas have got intertwined with those of the local communities, thus paving the way for their integration into the area in an organic manner. In an area fractured by parochialism, insularity and suspicion, this modest school has become a beacon of hope, and survival.

About The Chakmas

The Chakmas are a simple, innocent, peace-loving community and Buddhists by faith. They possess their own language, values and culture.  In pre-independent India they inhabited mainly in two locations; one, the Chittagong Hills Tracts (CHT) of erstwhile Bengal (now Bangladesh) and the other Tripura and Mizoram which were then in Assam of India. Out of which CHT comprised the majority of the Chakmas. 

During the partition of India in 1947, CHT fell into East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) whereas Tripura and Mizoram remained with India.  As a result, only a minority of Chakmas settled  in India. As CHT comprised of 98% Buddhists, the Chakmas wanted to merge with India as they should be because India was divided on religious basis. They even hoisted Indian National Flag, gave delegation to Delhi. However CHT was given to Pakistan against their will.  To add to the injustice, they were not given an opportunity for referendum to choose the country of their choice. Hence, the Chakmas became unfortunate victims of the partition of India in 1947 and became the refugees in their own land.

For more information, visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chakma_people

About SNEHA

Sneha is a Public Charitable Trust, a non-political, non-profit making registered voluntary non-governmental organization. The Mission of Sneha is to empower and build the capacity and confidence of the most disadvantaged and vulnerable people through education, and encourage voluntarism, and infuse nationalism.

SNEHA enables children of one of the most politically and socially deprived communities in Arunachal Pradesh, the Chakmas, to access good education. By running a good school in a remote village in Arunachal, SNEHA serves 363 children studying in various grades, from kindergarten to Grade VII.

After facing immense hardships and challenges, SNEHA is now receiving slow recognition of its good quality schooling and state officials are visiting SNEHA school. Taking note of the good quality of education, parents from non-Chakma backgrounds too have started sending their children to SNEHA’s school. Villagers have a great sense of ownership for the school. They have contributed by way of donating land, labour and local building materials. There are also cases of students from faraway villages staying at homes of teachers in the absence of any boarding facilities in SNEHA.

For more information, visit: http://www.sneha.org.in/

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Healthcare relief for the poor

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THUA THIEN-HUE, Vietnam -- Free health care for the poor by Buddhist monks and physicians in Tue Tinh Duong clinics in central Thua Thien-Hue Province is saving lives and boosting moral.

<< A Buddhist nun takes care of a disabled boy at a charity health centre in the central province of Thua Thien-Hue. — VNA/VNS Photo Ho Cau

One such clinic has 30-36 good doctors who are also monks. Other doctors are contracted from outside.

Tue Tinh Duong Lien Hoa Clinic, located in Phap Luan pagoda's grounds in Hue city's Phu Hoi Ward, was founded in May 2005 and led by Venerable, physician-monk Thich Tue Tam, the Abbot and executive director.

The clinic's treatment method is the combination of oriental and western medicines, with priority given to traditional medicines. Monk physicians have spent a long time researching and making up the many precious remedies for serious diseases, including degeneration of the backbone and joints, kidney stones, high blood pressure, infertility, nervous disease, oedema and so on. They also apply traditional methods, such as acupuncture, physical therapy, vegetarianism, nurturing vitality.

Physician-monk Thich Tue Tam said the clinic was established in 1982 under the management of the local Buddhist Sangha. Sympathy Tam's human hearts, Master Thich Phap Nhan in Lien Hoa pagoda in the United States and Vietnamese buddhists in many countries and charitable organisations have contributed money to build the Tue Tinh Duong Lien Hoa Clinic.

The clinic had many difficulties, such as poor infrastructure and a narrow area. There were six doctors providing health care and delivering drugs to poor patients.

"I have seen a lot of poor people who have to fight disease and poverty. I am moved to tears. I want to use the monks' medical knowledge and conscience to save the patients' lives," Tam said.

Tam said the clinic provided health care and treatment for 200-250 people every day. Each year, the clinic served more than 50,000 patients. Some patients only had to pay 50 per cent of the drug bill. Some just paid the drug's wholesale price. Better-off patients would pay enough for treatment and services.

The clinic was now recognised as a "charity clinic" and had become internationally known. It attracted not only Vietnamese patients but also others from countries such as Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and the US.

Tran Thi Tuyen, 52, of central Quang Binh Province's Bo Trach District said her family didn't have the funds to treat her arthritic husband.

"I came here early this morning but had to wait till lunchtime for treatment because it was too crowded. My husband has been in pain for five years while my family takes care of the farming and four children. We had no money to treat him and then I heard of a physician-monk who gives free health care to the poor."

Tran Quang Thinh, of Thua Thien Hue Province's Quang Dien District, said he was too poor to pay for medical treatment and the poverty was causing great distress in his family.

He had sciatica, his wife had a similar back pain, three of his five children were suffering from malnutrition and neurasthenia, a debilitating disorder characterised by impairment of the functions of the spinal cord.

"I'm really grateful the clinic's physicians treated my family," Thinh said.

For people in remote areas who find it difficult to access health care, the physicians have organised 8-10 mobile clinics to provide free health examinations. The clinic has treated 2,000-2,500 patients at an average cost of VND50 million (US$2,380) per trip.

Another free clinic for underprivileged people, Tue Tinh Duong Hai Duc, treats 100-150 patients a day, mainly from central provinces.

Venerable Thich Tam Quang of the clinic said he had saved enough money to buy medical equipment and expand health care services to rural areas.

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Buddhist lifestyle becoming more popular

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Cache Valley, Utah (USA) -- Religious and non-religious people alike can benefit from Buddhism, according to a presenter Saturday at the Museum of Anthropology's new exhibit honoring Buddhism in the Cache Valley.

<< MICHAEL SOWDER SPOKE ABOUT Buddhist beliefs and lifestyles and led the audience in a mediation session at the Anthropology Museum Saturday. He said people of all religious backgrounds can benefit from these techniques. DELAYNE LOCKE photo

In his experience as a teacher at the Cache Valley Buddhist Sangha, associate English Professor Michael Sowder said he has worked with people of all religious backgrounds who practice meditation and study Buddhist teachings.

People with such a wide range of religious inclination can practice Buddhism because its teachings neither endorse nor reject any particular beliefs, Sowder said.

"You can have a religious belief and practice Buddhism at the same time," he said. "Buddhism will not contradict your beliefs, but it doesn't affirm something about God, either."

Dan Judd and Shawn Bliss attended Saturday's presentation. Both men said they attend a local Sangha, or Buddhist group. Judd said he's a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, while Bliss said he's not religious.

Even though they don't hold the same religious beliefs, Bliss said the two still share some of the same spiritual pursuits.

"The thing that fuels both of our paths in the Sangha, is that we're interested in the question of suffering and how to end suffering in our lives and then, hopefully, in the world," Bliss said.

Attending the Sangha at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Logan has helped him connect with his more religious neighbors, Bliss said.

"I was really struggling, not being an LDS person in Cache Valley," Bliss said. "Getting to know people like Dan and some other members of our Sangha has opened up my heart to the LDS culture and the LDS people in a way that I didn't think was ever going to be possible."

Judd said he has been practicing meditation on his own since the early 1970s. After a medical condition made meditation more difficult, he said he began to study Buddhism. Instead of contradicting his LDS beliefs, Judd said Buddhism helps him spend time in contemplation, as leaders of his church have advised.

While the Cache Valley Sangha draws from many different schools of Buddhist thought, it also has unique aspects that set it apart from its Eastern origins, Sowder said.

"I think as Buddhism has become established in the U.S., it's much more democratic," Sowder said. "In traditional Buddhist cultures you have a very hierarchical structure. You have somebody like the Dalai Llama, and then there are all the monks under him."

In the Cache Valley Sangha, Sowder said he is one of 10 teachers who share different approaches to Buddhism on a rotating, weekly schedule.

In addition to the weekly presentation by a teacher, a portion of each meeting is reserved for members to talk about their own spiritual experiences and progress, he said. The Sangha relies on the collective wisdom of its members, he said, and therefore the group exchange of expriences can often be more profound than the prepared lessons.

Sowder opened and closed the presentation at the museum Saturday with a short meditation practice, in which he asked audience members to close their eyes and focus on their breathing.

"Just let yourself be present — right here, right now," Sowder said. "Just try to let all the other worries and cares and concerns of the rest of your life rest aside, and just try to relax."

Sowder gave a brief history of Buddha and his teachings on how to gain enlightenment. All people can attain enlightenment — the end of suffering — through a combination of ethics, wisdom and meditation, Sowder said.

While many Buddhist teachings involve suffering, the philosophy focuses on the way to overcome suffering, Sowder said. Meditation meetings such as the ones held by the Cache Valley Sangha and the USU Meditation Club can provide relief from many different causes of suffering, he added.

"It helps you face and process and work through emotions," Sowder said. "It helps you heal from past suffering, wounds that you might have experienced in childhood or in other places. It helps people with addictions. It helps people with depression. It helps people with anxiety."

Nicole Fulghum, a junior studying elementary education, said after attending the presentation she would like to attend the Meditation Club meetings on campus. Though she has had some exposure to Buddhism through family members, she hasn't studied its teachings or tested its practices herself, she said, and the services she learned about through the presentation may help her learn more.

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Beijing Eyes Tibetan Buddhist Resurgence

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SERTHAR, China -- Breathless but beaming, Sheng Zisu sounds confident after five months in a maze-like Buddhist encampment high on the eastern Tibetan plateau, nearly 400 miles from the nearest city.

"Look around. They could never find me here," Sheng, 27, said of parents so anxious about their only child's turn to Tibetan Buddhism that they have threatened to kidnap her.

Sheng is far from her home -- and from the bars where she used to drink and the ex-boyfriends she says cheated on her. She is here with 2,000 other Han Chinese at the Larung Gar Buddhist Institute in Serthar, Sichuan province, the rain-soaked mountainous region of southwest China.

The province is far from the central government in Beijing, and is also a traditional gateway to Tibet, where China's Communist Party has suppressed Buddhists, sometimes brutally, for decades.

Holy chants and red-robed devotees spill down hillsides blanketed by red wooden cabins, where monks, nuns and disciples spend hours in meditation. More than 2 miles above sea level, Larung Gar is among the largest Tibetan Buddhist academies in the world, with about 10,000 mostly Tibetan students.

The academy and its rising number of converts from China's dominant ethnic group, the Han Chinese, reflect a remarkable and quiet recovery for Buddhist teachings here. Along with a building boom of new or expanded Buddhist monasteries and teaching facilities in the Ganzi Tibetan autonomous prefecture, it amounts to a reversal of some of the damage from Chairman Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution.

Mao's efforts to strip China of capitalism and religion resulted in the destruction of hundreds of Buddhist temples and the deaths of thousands of monks. Just a decade ago, the institute survived a crackdown in which Chinese officials ordered the partial destruction of its buildings.

Mao's vision has given way to a more capitalistic and seemingly more tolerant version of communism. But Buddhism's broadening popularity here is stoking tension between Buddhist monks who demand religious freedom and their longtime foe: Communist Party leadership 1,500 miles away.

In Ganzi and neighboring Aba Prefecture, 10 Tibetans -- monks, former monks and one nun -- have set themselves on fire since March, mostly in recent weeks. At least five have died from their protests for religious liberty, exile groups and China's state media Xinhua say.

Through acts of defiance -- from self-immolations to the destruction of Communist propaganda signs -- Ganzi Tibetans are showing resentment toward their Chinese overlords and loyalty to their exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

Talks between the two sides in recent years have gone nowhere. The Dalai Lama, the spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhism, blames the recent deaths on Chinese officials' "ruthless policy, illogical policy." Beijing accuses "the Dalai Lama clique" of fanning the flames of protest.

"These self-immolations are caused by being oppressed and denied religious rights," said Dukthen Kyi, a researcher at the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy in Dharamsala, India.

In Ganzi, many people welcome the growing number of Chinese students but complain their own freedoms will be restricted as long as the Dalai Lama remains in India, his home since 1959.

"I am proud so many Han Chinese come to Serthar to study, as it will help relations between the Han and Tibetan peoples," said Tashi Dengzhu, a yak and sheep herder who lives south of Serthar.

But, "we want the Dalai Lama, our leader, to come home," said Dengzhu, 55. "I know it will be very difficult."

Chinese visitors frequently describe Tibetan Buddhism as purer than the Buddhism sporadically practiced by more than 100 million Chinese in cities and towns teeming with temptation. Just how many Han Chinese have converted to Tibetan Buddhism is a sensitive and unanswered question in China.

"Ethnic Han who wish to study Tibetan Buddhism in Tibetan areas are often denied permission for long-term study there," according to a U.S. State Department report on religious freedom, released in September.

"Tibetan Buddhism is more attractive than other religions because many Chinese think it's mysterious," suggests Xu Jun, an analyst at Sichuan University's Center for Tibetan Studies.

One reason: The faith offers psychological comfort amid China's rapid social and economic changes, Xu said. The pursuit of material wealth drives most of China, but businessman Ye Liping has opted out.

"I earned $25,000 a year, and I had a happy family, that's what all the world wants," recalled Ye, 40, from Guangzhou in steamy south China. Two years ago, Ye gave up everything -- his marketing job, apartment, car, wife and child -- for the monastic hardships of life at Larung Gar.

"I sometimes wonder what my daughter looks like now," Ye said, "but I have no regrets."

Han Chinese students have risen from 1,000 when she arrived seven years ago to over 2,000 today, said Yuan Yi, a shaven-headed nun from southeast Fujian province. But the senior Tibetan lama they follow, Khenpo So Dargye, refused to discuss the Chinese student body he heads.

Such caution reflects the academy's troubled past and ongoing vulnerability. Founded in what was an uninhabited Larung valley in 1980, the institute became so popular it attracted a large-scale government assault in 2001. Hundreds of homes were demolished and thousands of residents evicted, according to exile groups.

But don't expect Han converts to soften Beijing's hardline Tibet policy, cautioned Thubten Samphel, spokesman for the Tibetan government-in-exile. Their numbers are dwarfed by China's 1.3 billion population, and their motives are apolitical, he said.

"Through Buddhism, Chinese students will come to a better understanding of the values of Tibetan culture, and realize there is no innate sense of anti-Chineseness in Tibetan culture," Samphel said. "We hope and pray that the same attitude and understanding will be shown by the Chinese Communist Party."

(Calum MacLeod writes for USA Today. Sunny Yang Contributed to this report.)

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Ritigala, evergreen misty mountain once an austere Buddhist monastery

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Ritigala, Sri Lanka -- Part of the Cultural Triangle, Ritigala is one of the less visited but most legendary ancient sites of Sri Lanka. Situated 188 km north-east of Colombo in the North Central province, it is right between the ancient cities of Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa midway on the Habarana-Maradankadawala (A11) road.

We chose to visit Ritigala as a day trip, from Kandy. Travelling to Matale and Dambulla we then took an off road from Kekirawa town towards Ganewalpola and then on to Ritigala. It was a two and a half hour drive from Kandy.

There were a few other visitors when we reached the foot of the range. The Ritigala mountain range, spreads over a 3776-acre (1582 ha) land, a Strict Nature Reserve managed by the Department of Wildlife of Sri Lanka together with the Forest Department.

One of our group began to tell us the epic story associated with the mountain. Rich in chronicles woven together with history, legend and mythology, the source of the name Ritigala is arbitrary – “Gala” means rock in Sinhala, but “Riti” may have come from the abundance of a variety of tall evergreen tree that can be seen in the forest: Riti (Antiaris toxicaria) with a trunk as straight as a pole. “Riti” is the Sinhala word for pole. On the other hand “Riti” may have originated from the Pali word “arittha”, meaning ‘safety’.
The last and smallest "roundabout" with well preserved curved curbstones

Its proud history goes back to the time of the Ramayana. This legendary mountain is believed to have been the launching pad of Lord Hanuman’s (the monkey lord) gigantic leap from Sri Lanka to India, to tell his master King Rama, where his wife, Queen Sita was being held by King Ravana of Lanka. Folklore claims that the evergreen nature of the Ritigala forest range is due to some medicinal plants dropping off from the chunk of Himalayan forest that Hanuman was carrying back to Rama's brother, Prince Lakshmana who had been wounded in combat between Rama and Ravana .

At the office of the Department of Archaeology by the entrance to Ritigala, a guide accompanies you giving historical details of the site. According to our guide, Ritigala had been used as a place of refuge, from as far back as the 3rd century BC by Prince Pandukhabaya(377-307 BC), King Dutugemunu (161-137 BC) and King Jetthatissa in the seventh century. Ritigala had also been used as an ancient Buddhist monastery by hermit (Pamsukulika) monks who practised extreme austerity. This fact is evidenced by the rock inscriptions discovered in some of the 70 odd natural caves at the site, dating back to the 1st century BC.

The guide informed us that what we see today are the remnants of the monastery that King Sena I, built in the 9th century AD for these Buddhist monks. The Archaeological Department has painstakingly restored many of the ruins.

The site reminded me of the open theatre complex at the University of Peradeniya. There before us were the remnants of a huge construction that looked like a polygonal audience of a huge arena. What resembled the seats was made of huge rectangular stones. Only a part of the construction was restored. The other part consists of scattered stone slabs.

I imagined people sitting on this huge arena but the guide informed us that this is the bund of a large man-made reservoir, with a circumference of 1,200 and not as I imagined an open theatre!

The inside is lined with stone steps to protect it and also to provide access for bathers. The top of the bund is also paved with large stones, he said. The path we strode leading to the ruins ran along the southern bank of the reservoir. And in one of the corners of this polygonal tank we could see a stream pour forth. Today this reservoir is abandoned and wild greenery has filled the base which is without water.

From the site of the tank and stream we started climbing up the mountain on a stone path of about 1.5 metres wide, carefully laid with interlocking four-sided slabs of even stones. The path was edged with proportionate curbstones, and we noticed the inner sides hewed in to accommodate space for the horizontal slabs. I marvelled at the exquisite craftsmanship of the workers who had created this in the 9th century AD. The thick canopy of tall trees reduced the blazing heat of the noonday sun. It is said that this path set through the tranquil surrounding of the jungle was used by monks as a long meditational pathway.

Meandering along this paved path which runs for about 1000 feet we came across three major stops along the way. These must have been some circular construction, of which, only the basement remains today. The first of these “roundabouts”, roughly halfway along the path, is the largest, while the second and third were progressively smaller. They might have been summer huts or resting points along the way. The craftsmanship of the curved stone curbstone was impressive.

The pathway led us to some remnants of the building complex where the monks lived. There were three such extraordinary stone sites, all aligned in the same direction. Each was built in accordance with the unique architecture known as “double-platforms”, the courtyard sunk below the ground level of the surrounding area, characteristic of other forest monasteries as well.

To the right side of the first “double-platforms” structure lie the ruins of the monastery’s hospital wing. We can still see parts of grinding stones which were used to prepare the medicinal herbs, leaves and roots. There were huge stone cut Ayurvedic oil baths where a person would be immersed in medicinal oils. There was even a decorated urinal stone in this hospital wing.

Absent were Buddha statues, stupas/ pagodas, image houses, temples or Bo trees. Our guide put this down to the intense asceticism and detachment of the Ritigala Monastery monks.

By the 10th-12th century AD, following the Chola invasions, the Ritigala monastery was abandoned by the hermit monks. The jungle and bandits took over. Chola invaders destroyed the buildings and it was rediscovered by British surveyors after seven centuries of dereliction, in the 19th century when it was explored and mapped by the first Archaeological Commissioner in Ceylon H. C. P. Bell in 1893.

Biodiversity hot spot

Ritigala is also a biodiversity hot spot in the dry zone. The steep mountain clad in evergreen foliage is covered with dense jungle and is the watershed of the Malwatu Oya which feeds the Nachauwa tank and Kalueba Ela which in turn feeds Huruluwewa. Beyond where the human trail ends, it is said that the jungle is home to wild elephants, leopards, sloth bears and diverse bird life.

Ritigala is also a paradise for bird lovers, being home to several endangered bird species, including the Black eagle, Grey hornbill, Sri Lanka spur fowl, Malabar pied hornbill and spot-winged thrush.

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Monks end rare Myanmar protest

Home Asia Pacific South East Asia Myanmar Myanmar Protest News

MANDALAY, Myanmar -- Five Buddhist monks ended a rare protest in Myanmar on Wednesday, after they attracted hundreds of onlookers with their demands for peace and the release of all political prisoners.

The protesters called off their action at a monastery in the country's second-largest city of Mandalay  after up to 700 people, most of them monks, gathered to hear an hour-long speech by the main demonstrator.

The rally was thought to be the first since mass protests led by monks in 2007 - known as the "Saffron Revolution" - were brutally quashed, with the deaths of at least 31 people and the arrest of hundreds of monks.

The two-day protest came as ministers at a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on the Indonesian island of Bali recommended that Myanmar should be handed the rotating chairmanship of the bloc in 2014.

Hopes for change in Myanmar have grown recently following a series of reformist gestures as the country appears keen to end its international isolation, but pressure is still on for the release of all political detainees.

This was a key demand of the monks, who unfurled banners in English and Burmese reading: "Free all political prisoners" and "Stop civil war now" - a reference to the decades-long conflict between the army and ethnic minority rebels.

Their third demand is freedom of speech for monks.

They had earlier vowed to keep up their protest until Friday, but called it off early after senior religious clerics at Masoeyein monastery asked them not to continue, protest leader Ashin Sopaka told AFP.

He said the rally had been "very satisfying" and insisted this was not the end of the road.

"We will continue working for peace. If our three demands are not fulfilled we must push on with them," he said.

The five demonstrators drew hundreds of people, including many monks and dozens of plain-clothes police, when they started their protest on Tuesday after an expected amnesty for political detainees failed to materialise.

Myanmar's nominally civilian government that replaced a military junta in March has surprised critics by holding direct talks with opposition leader and democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and freezing work on an unpopular mega-dam.

But the release of all of the country's political prisoners, whose exact numbers remain unclear, remains one of the major demands of Western nations which have imposed sanctions on Myanmar.

Activists have criticised the plan to hand the ASEAN chair to Myanmar in 2014, saying it could remove the incentive for more fundamental change in a nation still accused of serious rights abuses.

Authorities had been expected to free some political detainees on Monday before President Thein Sein attends the ASEAN meeting later this week.

But officials said the move was put off at short notice for reasons that remain unclear.

The Mandalay protest came after police in September prevented a planned rally by some 200 pro-democracy activists on the fourth anniversary of the bloody crackdown on the 2007 monk-led uprising.

Another monk who took part in Wednesday's action said: "We would like to say to the president: implement our demands as soon as possible."

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Kyabje Kirti Rinpoche hits out over Tibetan self-immolations

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Revered Tibetan monk says the Chinese government can put an end to the self-immolations by removing troops in Tibet, stopping the re-education sessions and changing its hardline policies

Dharmsala, India -- The exiled chief abbot of a Tibetan monastery at the centre of a wave of self-immolations this year says China's repressive policies are behind the unprecedented protests.

<< Kyabje Kirti Rinpoche said unless China tackled root problems, the immolations would continue

Kyabje Kirti Rinpoche, 70, said Beijing had responded to the immolations with tougher repression of Tibetan monks.

But he said the authorities could put an end to the protests "overnight" if they changed their approach.

The abbot, who lives in India, is spiritual leader of Kirti monastery.

It has thousands of followers in Aba prefecture in Sichuan in western China.

Kirti Rinpoche fled into exile in 1959, but said he had received information about the situation at the monastery through underground channels.

"Chinese government policies are the cause of the immolations," he said at a news conference in New York organised by the campaign group Human Rights in China.

Specifically he blamed "the drastic nature of the repression that the Chinese government has been waging all over Tibet", saying "the level of repression is similar to all of Tibet being under virtual martial law".

'Re-education'

The wave of immolations has been unprecedented - Tibetan Buddhists have not protested in this way in the past.

But since March, 11 Tibetans have set fire to themselves, at least six have died, the fate of the other five, who were all taken away by Chinese authorities, is unknown.

The first immolation at Kirti was by a 20-year-old monk, Phuntsog. China responded to that immolation, Kirti Rinpoche said, by stepping up its repression. Three-hundred monks were taken away, he said, and what has happened to them is not clear.

Hundreds of government officials were also brought in to the monastery, he claimed. They had divided the remaining monks into 55 small groups to be re-educated, and installed surveillance cameras in the monastery.

The monks, Kirti Rinpoche said, had had a "patriotic re-education campaign imposed on them almost round the clock, random searches of monks' quarters, these are the reasons that have been driving the repression to a point where the Tibetans find it unbearable".

The abbot described it as "nothing short of imprisonment", saying: "Tibetans have really reached their breaking point."

"At this point every monk in Kirti monastery has been living in a state of terror."

'Desperation'

Foreign reporters have been banned from Tibetan areas this year so it has not been possible for outside observers to travel to the region themselves.

China's government has claimed that Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, instigated the immolations, describing them as a form of terrorism, and contrary to Tibetan Buddhist traditions. It has criticised the Dalai Lama for not condemning the immolations.

But Kirti's abbot said Tibetan people make their own choices.

"We do not have the moral authority to tell them what to do or not to do. The monks have been pushed to this great desperation and they are finding they can only express their resistance to Chinese rule by setting themselves on fire," he said.

"By removing the troops, and stopping the re-education sessions and changing its hardline policies, the Chinese government can put an end to the self-immolations overnight."

"So long as the cause is there, the result will continue to unfold."

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The Stress factor

Home Healing & Spirituality

New Delhi, India -- Stress makes us always busy for nothing. Stress is caused by conformity to standards and structures. However, if we don't conform, we are considered as bad.

So, we feel that we have to do this and we have to do that, or we may get into trouble. Many such types of social and traditional structures can give us a lot of headaches.

This doesn't mean that Buddhist teaching has no structure, tradition, or culture. There is a
form, but it is there to enable those people who have a strong attachment to have something that they lean on. Buddhist teachings deal with the Universal Truth, the authentic teaching.

As we don't want to be confined within a box, we should try to lessen any rigid structures or concepts we have about customs, traditions, rules and regulations.

Buddhism is not a religion

Buddhism is not a religion. Therefore, Buddhism can never be put inside a 'box' of culture or religion. Buddhist teachings are like space or spaciousness. Anything you may point to, as the structure, culture or tradition of Buddhism is not the authentic Buddhism. We have a lot of meditation, therapies, mental and physical exercises to keep ourselves in a state of peace and calm. However, these are just skillful means and methods to keep ourselves calm and peaceful.

Authentically speaking, at some point, we have to go of all these skilful means because they are just temporary.

To experience liberation, first we have to free our minds from misunderstanding. All faults, misconceptions, sufferings and stresses stem from a lack of understanding about relative truth. Everything is relative. No truth is ultimate or absolute.

This relativity also tells us that there is no need to be stressed or worried. Everything in the world is impermanent. In addition to the suffering of impermanence, there are many kinds of stresses that derive from nervousness. You may believe that things have to be this or that way, which makes you nervous.

Nowadays our education is always concerned with competition. You have to be the best....
Children are always looking for the best, but since nothing is the best, stress comes.

You have to run after the rainbow but you cannot catch it. Therefore, the stress seems to be endless. We feel we have to work very hard because we have to show our wealth. Our home, our car, our way of living should reach a certain standard. But we will never reach a standard when we say, "Okay, now I've reached where I want to be, so now I can relax. I am now the richest and the best in the world." We will never get there.

Best of both worlds

Know that the life we live is relative and then you can work for money, have a family and lead a normal, fun-filled life. Without contentment, satisfaction and happiness, what are you working for? You are working like hell for suffering. You would be looking for more and more suffering.

We don't have to abandon this busy life in order to get rid of stress. The best solution is,
acquire some knowledge. This little bit of change in your mind will make a big difference.
Even though the change may be small, the difference that you feel in your lifestyle will be
tremendous.

According to Buddhist theory, we have lives and lives to come. Therefore, there is no need
to be anxious or have a strong emotion to run after something. This is also true for spiritual practice. We need to practise compassion well, but this doesn't mean that we need to be nervous. We don't need to practise anxiously and nervously, saying, "Oh, I'm getting old now and I have to finish all these things". No, you can get old and you can die. You may even die tomorrow, so what? You will be coming back, as there are many lives to come. We should just improve the quality of every session in the continuity of life.

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Abridged from Walking an Uncommon path. Follow HH Gyalwang Drukpa on speakingtree.in

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Ashes to beads: South Koreans try new way to mourn

Home Asia Pacific North Asia S/N Korea News & Issues

ICHEON, South Korea -- The intense grief that Kim II-nam has felt every day since his father died 27 years ago led to a startling decision: He dug up his father's grave, cremated his bones and paid $870 to have the ashes transformed into gem-like beads.

<< In this Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2011 photo, Kim Il-nam, a retired high school principal, displays beads made from his father's ashes during an interview in Icheon, South Korea. Kim dug up his father's grave, cremated his bones and paid $870 to have the ashes transformed into gemlike beads. "Whenever I look at these beads, I consider them to be my father and I remember the good old days with him," Kim said. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Kim is not alone in his desire to keep a loved one close — even in death. Changes in traditional South Korean beliefs about cherishing ancestors and a huge increase in cremation have led to a handful of niche businesses that cater to those who see honoring an urn filled with ashes as an imperfect way of mourning.

"Whenever I look at these beads, I consider them to be my father and I remember the good old days with him," a gray-haired Kim, 69, told The Associated Press in a recent interview.

"As a little boy, I often fell asleep while being hugged by my father," he says, sobbing and gazing at the blue-green beads, which sit on a silk cloth in a ceramic pot on a table.

A decade ago, six out of every 10 South Koreans who died were buried, a practice in line with traditional Confucian instructions to respect dead ancestors and visit their graves regularly. Since then there has been a big shift in South Koreans' thinking about the handling of the deceased, in part, officials say, because of Western influence and a strong government push for citizens of this small, densely populated country to consider cremation as a way to save space.

The government cremation campaign included press statements, pamphlets and radio broadcasts. A law passed in 2000 requires anyone burying their dead after 2000 to remove the grave 60 years after burial.

The results have been dramatic: The cremation rate last year was so high that only 3 in 10 were buried.

About 500 people have turned their loved ones' ashes into Buddhist-style beads at Bonhyang, a company based in Icheon, just south of Seoul. It and several other ashes-to-beads companies say they have seen steady growth in their business in recent years.

Bonhyang founder and CEO Bae Jae-yul says the beads allow people to keep their relatives close to them, wherever they go. He also says stored ashes can rot, a claim denied by crematoriums. "Our beads are clean; they don't become moldy and don't go off and smell bad," he says.

Bae uses ultrahigh temperature to melt cremated ashes until they are crystalized and can be turned into beads in a 90-minute process. The colors are mostly blue-green but sometimes pink, purple and black.

The ashes of one person can produce four to five cups of beads, Bae says, although the ashes of young people have a higher bone density that can yield up to eight cups of beads.

Bae isn't the first to use the technology in South Korea.

A meditation organization obtained similar bead-making technology in the late 1990s, but it was imperfect and wasn't long in the public eye, Bae says. He says he saw the potential, bought the technology and spent several years refining the process.

Bae believes his company has an important edge over rivals. His beads are made purely from human remains with no added minerals, which he says other companies blend in.

Bonhyang's chief rival, MiKwang, says added minerals help produce more rounded, gemlike beads in a faster time and at lower temperatures.

Mikwang officials say they have more business than Bonhyang but refuse to disclose their profits. Bae also refused to disclose business details. No special government license is necessary to start an ashes-to-beads business, according to the Health Ministry, which says individuals have the right to determine how to dispose of loved ones' remains.

The fledgling industry has drawn some criticism.

"They are only interested in making business profits," Do Young-hoon, a researcher on South Korea's funeral culture, says. "The highest level of respect for the dearly departed is to let them go back to nature."

Businesses turning the dead into beads were launched in the United States, Europe and Japan in the past, but were mostly unsuccessful because few people regarded it as a normal way to dispose of dead bodies, says Park Tae-ho, chief researcher at the Korea National Council for Cremation Promotion, a Seoul-based civic group.

Bae's customer Kim, a retired high school principal, says it took some time to persuade his family to accept his plan to honor his father "because they thought a ghost could come to our home along with these beads."

Every morning, Kim, a Catholic, prays to his father's beads, which he keeps on a bookshelf. He takes some beads with him in his car and has also given some to his five daughters.

Despite loyal clients like Kim, Bae says he is still years away from seeing a profit, partly because of the emergence of copycats. But he still feels confident about his business when he sees his customers' delighted reaction to the product.

"People are moved," Bae says, "and I feel it's something worthwhile. I'm confident this business will flourish considerably someday."

Bae says seven Buddhist temples and one Catholic church lease his bead-making machines. He is also negotiating deals over his technology with dozens of other religious organizations in South Korea, and with businesses in China, Thailand, Japan and the Philippines.

Ashes-to-beads businesses could also get a boost when South Koreans take advantage of next year's quadrennial leap month in the lunar calendar to conduct cremations. There's a traditional belief that the ghosts that supervise humans go on vacation during a leap month, so many people in South Korea don't feel sinful for relocating graves or digging up their relatives for cremation.

Kim plans to exhume his mother and make beads from her remains next year.

"I've also told my daughters I want my ashes turned into beads," he says.

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Cathkin high enjoy trip to Buddhist monastery

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CATHKIN High School pupils visited a Buddhist monastery

Eskdalemuir, Scotland -- A third-year class from the school attended the Samye Ling Monastery in Eskdalemuir, soaking up Buddhist philosophy and taking part in worship.

All 35 pupils and their three RE teachers, Orla Payne, Eilidh Colligan and Shirley Perrie, enjoyed a rain-free day at the monastery in Dumfriesshire.

As part of their Buddhism topic, the third years were immersed in Buddhist life and were shown round the monastery and its grounds by a Buddhist nun.

The nun took the group to the shrine and explained about the founder of Buddhism, Siddharta Gautama, and his life story.

The pupils were very impressed with the shrine, with its opulence and beauty, and they experienced the sounds, chants and musical instruments being played during a meditation session.

From this the pupils moved to the grounds of the monastery, taking in a quick stop at the Buddhist shop, exploring the self-sufficiency of the monks in their own herb and vegetable garden and looking through the living conditions of the monks and nuns in their day-to-day life.

From this, the pupils were brought to see the Stupa, the mound-like shrine for worship and Prayer Wheels where the Buddhists respect the dead.

Some pupils even managed to tie “wish ribbons” to the Peace Tree in order that the wind would take their wishes to the corners of the universe – a Buddhist tradition.

Kerri White, one of the pupils on the trip, said: “I think it was really good to go in person because we got to hear stories of real monks and nuns.

“It was a good experience and we all loved it. I would definitely go again!”

Jennifer Fell, another S3 pupil, said: “There were lots of little Buddha statues to represent the followers. I thought they were really cool and I was surprised how many there were.”

Fellow third year Kirsty Hailes: “I thought the trip was really good and the thing I liked most was seeing the monastery build its very own healing garden.”

Mrs Colligan was full of praise for the monastery.

She said: “It is invaluable for the pupils to witness the religion first hand in a setting that has been chosen as the only Buddhist monastery in the UK to enjoy a visit from the current Dali Lama himself.”

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Merit-making & Transference of Merit: Are we getting it right?

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Singapore -- Venerable Ajahn Chah in his article, ‘Making the Heart Good’ said:

"These days, people are going all over the place looking for merit. And they always seem to stop over in Wat Pah Pong. If they don't stop over on the way, they stop over on the return journey. Wat Pah Pong has become a stop-over point. Some people are in such a hurry I don't even get a chance to see or speak to them. Most of them are looking for merit. I don't see many looking for a way out of wrongdoing. They're so intent on getting merit they don't know where they're going to put it. It's like trying to dye a dirty, unwashed cloth….."

What really is this ‘merit’ that is so desirable that so many Buddhists seem to be so earnestly chasing after to perform and accumulate?

'Punna or Merit' means that which has a prolonging effect on our existence. It is brought forth by karmic fruition and is carried into a person’s future lives as well. Such accumulated merits do also contribute to a person’s spiritual growth towards liberation and in accordance to the law of moral causation is conducive to the future
happiness of the doer. The thing about merit is that, no matter how good the acts done to accumulate it, it will still keep us in the cycle of samsara, the world of suffering. In contrast, wholesome acts is what brings us out of suffering onto liberation as it leads to clearing the mind of wrong mental actions, such as thoughts of covetousness, ill will and wrong views.

Let’s look specifically at what the Suttas have to say on the subject of Merit.

In the Itivuttaka: The Group of Threes - Iti 51: Ground for merit-making is mentioned as the practices of giving, moral cultivation and meditation and resulting in long-lasting bliss, a mind of good-will and the wise reappear in a world of bliss unalloyed.

AN8.36 Punnakiriyavatthu Sutta: Ground for merit-making is the same as in Iti 51 above, the practices of Giving, moral virtue and meditation and Resulting in happiness, calm conduct, should cultivate lovingkindness and the wise is reborn into a happy trouble free world

AN8.39 Abhisanda Sutta - Rewards of Merits: This Sutta mentioned the ‘Taking refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha’ and the practice of the ‘Five Precepts of not Killing, Stealing, Illicit Sex, False Speech and use of Intoxicant as the ground of merit-making. The rewards are listed as; reward of skillfulness, nourishment of happiness, celestial, resulting in happiness, leading to heaven, leading to what is desirable, pleasurable, & appealing; to welfare & to happiness. And also gains a share in limitless freedom from danger, freedom from animosity, and freedom from oppression.

MN61 Ambalatthika Rahulovada Sutta: This Sutta emphasizes body, speech and mind as the observances of merit. It also states that, if actions of body, speech and mind does not bring trouble and unpleasantness to oneself and other than it is merit.

Actions of body, speech and mind would refer to the performance of the ten good deeds of:  Not killing, stealing, sexual misconduct of the Body. No lying, double-tongued, abusive, irresponsible speech of the 4 kinds of unwanted Speech and No greed, hatred and delusion referring to the Mind

SN1.47 Vanaropa Sutta - Discourse on the Merit Gained in Planting Groves: “They who plant orchards and gardens, who plant groves, who build bridges, who set up sheds by the roadside with drinking water for the travellers, who sink wells or build reservoirs, who put up various forms of shelter for the public, are those in whom merit grows  by day and by night”.

The merit from all the deeds mentioned here is of a lasting nature in the sense that whenever these deeds are recalled in the minds of the donors merit is gained. They are the people that are established in the Dhamma, that are endowed with morality and that are bound for the deva realms."

Khp8 Nidhi Kanda - The Reserve Fund: “When a man or woman has laid aside a well-stored fund of giving, virtue, restraint, & self-control, with regard to a shrine, the Sangha, a fine individual, guests, mother, father, or elder sibling: That's a well-stored fund. It can't be wrested away. It follows you along. When, having left this world, for wherever you must go, you take it with you. This fund is not held in common with others, & cannot be stolen by thieves”.

In SN3.4 Piya Sutta - Dear: “Both the merit & evil that you as a mortal perform here: that's what's truly your own, what you take along when you go; that's what follows behind you like a shadow that never leaves. So do what is admirable, as an accumulation for the future life. Deeds of merit are the support for beings when they arise in the other world”.

SN3.17 Appamada Sutta - Heedfulness: “For one who desires long life, health, beauty, heaven, & noble birth, — lavish delights, one after another — the wise praise heedfulness in performing deeds of merit”.

MN117 Mahacattarisaka Sutta - The Great Forty: Here the Buddha points out that Right view is of two sorts: There is right view with effluents, partaking of merit, resulting in the acquisitions of becoming; and there is the noble right view, without effluents, supramundane, a factor of the path which together with the remaining
seven factors of the Noble Eightfold Path leads to the eventual cessation of suffering.

The above Suttas’ teaching are directed more at lay Buddhists and preaches the acts of giving, moral virtues and mental cultivation as the main bases for the making and accumulation of merit. Giving is considered to be a good starting point as it creates goodwill amongst beings. Moral virtues is the keeping of the five precepts, and when these two bases are coupled with the practice of the ‘recollection of charity and virtue’ joy and happiness arises in the mind which is conducive to mental concentration in the third ground for merit – meditation.

Merit-making is a Buddhist concept, and not surprisingly we find in MN 8.39, taking the three refuges is also considered as one of the base for merit-making. In SN1.47 the benefit in the building of basic infrastructure that benefit a great numbers people and which lessen the hardship and suffering for those who are most in need of it, is considered a very fruitful act of giving.

The rewards coming from merit-making are numerous and varied, from happiness, long life, good health, beauty, a share in limitless freedom from danger, freedom from animosity, freedom from oppression, noble rebirth, rebirth in heaven etc.

The below three Suttas are directed more for Novice monks and for One who are already Ordained.

In MN99 Subha Sutta - To Subha: It is a discourse directed for the basic training of novice monk - Truth, Asceticism, Celibacy, Dharma recitation and Renunciation are listed as the “five duties for the making of merit”. It is stated as a prescription not just for merit-making but also for accomplishing the wholesome.

Samnamndiká Sutta: Bodily actions, verbal actions and a pure livelihood are observances for merit. They arise in the mind and minds are various and different. The minds without greed, anger and delusion are the varied and different minds. Thus observances of merit start here.

The Bhikkhu who is endowed with right understanding, right thoughts, right speech, right actions, right livelihood, right endeavor, right mindfulness, right concentration, right knowledge and right release of one gone beyond the training, endowed with these ten things, I declare is the most skilled perfect recluse with the highest merit.

MN1.9 Sammaadi.t.thisutta.m - Right View: This Sutta also mention the practice of the five precepts, including the abstaining from coveting, not bearing an angry mind and right view as merit, with the roots of merit as non-greed, non-hate and non-delusion.

It speaks more in term of the performance of wholesome acts which would brings the noble one out of suffering onto liberation as it leads to clearing the mind of wrong mental actions, such as thoughts of covetousness, ill will and wrong views.

Transference of Merit

Transference of merit and merit-making for future rebirths is a popular one especially in the Mahayanist tradition. Doing a meritorious deed and sharing that merit with ones’ dead relatives is very much stressed in some countries probably due to the traditional value of filial piety and ancestors worship. This can be seen in the Ullambana or Hungry Ghost Festival popularly celebrated by both the Taoists and Buddhists alike across the Asian region.

In the Ullambana Sutra, the Buddha told Maudgalyayana: “The fifteenth day of the seventh month is the Pravarana day for the assembled Sangha of the ten directions. For the sake of fathers and mothers of seven generations past, as well as for fathers and mothers of the present who are in distress, you should prepare an offering of clean basins full of hundreds of flavours and the five fruits, and other offerings of incense, oil, lamps, candles, beds, and bedding, all the best of the world, to the greatly virtuous assembled Sangha of the ten directions…….

If one thus makes offerings to these Provarana Sangha, one’s present father and mother, parents of seven generations, as well as the six kinds of close relatives, will escape from the three paths of sufferings. And at that time attain release. Their clothing and food will spontaneously appear. If the parents are still alive, they will
have wealth and blessings for a hundred years. Parents of seven generations will be born in the heavens. Transformationally born, they will independently enter the celestial flower light, and experience limitless bliss”.

In chapter seven of the Sutra of The Great Vows of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, it is stated that one can ‘transfer’ 1/7 merit of an act they have performed to a deceased loved one but such transference have to be performed within 49 days of the passing of the deceased person. After 49 days, the deceased is bound to receive whatever Karma he is deserving of.  Why 49 days is not stated. But one can assumed, in accordance to the Buddhist belief, especially with the Chinese and also in the Tibetan Vajrayana tradition where the ‘intermediate spirit’ of a deceased person can take up to 49 days to seek out a new body to be reborn in. It is at this stage in a person ‘life’ that one can help to change his future destiny for a better one.

If both the ‘Ullambana Sutra’ and the ‘Sutra of the Great Vows of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva’ are read literally in conjunction with each other, we will be landed in a contradiction. The ‘Ullambana Sutra’ speaks of changing the destiny of a deceased whose karmas have borne its fruit and is already reborn into a more unfortunate realm. Whereas ‘The Vows of Ksitigarbha’ implies an ‘intermediate spirit’ whose karma has yet to bear its fruition and is still seeking a rebirth. It is  only at this stage within a period of 49 days of death can the benefits of merit be effectively transferred.

We might asked, which of these two Sutras should be considered to the more authoritative version on the subject of the transference of merit to a deceased?

For a Theravadin, the transfer of merit is of even less significant going by the Malinda Pannha, as only a deceased reborn into one of four category in the realm of the ‘hungry ghost’ can benefits from any such act. Rebirth in the Theravada tradition is an immediate affair after a person’s death, so whatever transference of merit is performed, cannot logically be of any benefit to the deceased person. He would be left to shoulder the burden for whatever kamma that is due to him. The transference of merit for a deceased will however benefit the doer of the act as it should bring about a sense of lovingkindness in that person.

In the Khp 7 Tirokudda Kanda Sutta, it is stated: “As river when full must flow and reach and fill the distant main, so indeed what is given here will reach and bless the spirits there. As water poured on mountain top must soon descend and fill the plain, so indeed what is given here will reach and bless the spirits there”.

However, the ‘74th Dilemma, Offering to the Dead’ in book IV, chapter 8 of the  Milinda Pannha, did mentioned that those who are reborn in purgatory, in heaven, or as animals and petas who feeds on vomit, tormented by hunger and thirst and those who are consumed by cravings would not benefit from any transfer of merits at all. Only those in the category that live on the gifts of others do derive benefits from the offerings devote specifically to them by their relatives and those who bear them in remembrance. Even if transference of merit did not goes to the beneficiary living or dead, such offering would not go to waste as the givers themselves would derive some profit from it as well.

The transference of merit is often the most misunderstood of the grounds for merit-making, as no merit is actually ‘transferred’ or ‘given’ to a deceased person except in the sense that it will generate a sense of lovingkindness in one who is performing the act.

As Venerable Ajahn Chah had pointed out at the beginning of this article, the act of merit-making is not just about giving, we should do the all inclusive by encompassing the purification of our virtues and the cultivation of our mind through meditation as well. The goodwill and joy generated in the practice of meditation and the vanquishing of greed and hatred by keeping the five moral precepts will certainly make the act of giving itself even more wholesome and altruistic in nature.

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Kashmir solution thru talks: Dalai Lama

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Islamabad, Pakistan -- The patron Buddhists spiritual elder Dalai Lama predicted that the solution to Kashmir dispute would come via “talks” and “understanding”, recalling that Ambaran was the ancient Buddhist site and diverse religions co-existed in Kashmir for centuries.

Dalai Lama’s maiden visit to occupied Jammu Wednesday had sprung many surprises at a crucial time when three countries – Pakistan, China and India – hosting the Kashmir dispute together, are moving simultaneously towards trade and travel rapprochement in the region, a move looking rare against the bloodiest of battles fought in the past.

The Lama, reports say, evaded any direct question regarding Tibet advising media to ask political queries from the politicians only. The major events he went through his day-long visit to occupied Jammu area Akhnoor were opening of a photo exhibition, address to the youth and media interaction.

This elderly Lama had self-exiled himself to India around 1959 and since then is a guest there. The fact that he did not show any high sounding tone towards China despite sharp media pointers is in itself a healthy message. The late Kushuk Bakaula, Dalai Lama’s disciple, remained member of Srinagar assembly for over a decade representing his Ladakhi Buddhist community. Bakaula had under Nehru influence tabled in mid-fifties a strange resolution for economic integration of occupied Kashmir and Ladakh with the east Punjab.

Kashmir circles have welcomed Dalai Lama’s advice over Kashmir issue to settle it through talks and enlarging understanding.

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The Buddhist organisations that are thriving during the debt crisis

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In times of financial hardship, meditators are still willing to pay large fees to hear the teachings of high-profile Buddhists

London, UK -- Here we are stuck in an economic downturn, with the threat of a financial tsunami gathering momentum in the eurozone and with pundits telling us it can only get worse. You might expect people to be careful about their budget priorities – and that nonessential expenditure like spiritual teachings would be put on hold.

<< Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje attracted 2,000 people, paying $200 each, to hear him speak at an event. Photograph: Lobsang Wangyal/EPA

Evidence suggests, however, that the opposite is true – especially if you happen to be Buddhist. It seems that in this period of acute financial stress, Buddhists are still willing to part with their pounds, dollars, roubles and rupees in order to sustain their meditation practice. Because meditation calms the mind and generates insight, this is a predictable response – but what does come as a surprise is the amounts of money involved.

Take the 17th Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje, for example. A young, high-profile Tibetan Buddhist lama with a romantic history of escape from Tibet after dodging Chinese security. Confined for several years under conditions resembling house arrest in India, he eventually managed to visit the United States for the first time in 2008. About 2,000 people gathered at a monastery in Woodstock to catch a glimpse of him. They paid $200 each. Roughly $400,000 (£250,000) hit the coffers and after expenses, the monastery had enough left over to embark on an extensive building project.

Then there's Sogyal Rinpoche – credited as author of the bestseller The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. A recent feature in the French news magazine Marianne revealed that the cheapest tariff for a week's teachings with him at his centre Lerab Ling in France was €500 (£425) – which entitled participants to pitch a tent and eat vegetarian food. Five hundred people attended the retreat, including reporter Elodie Emery – which means that Sogyal attracted more than €250,000 on one occasion.

Emery estimates that Lerab Ling pulls in €1m to €1.5m annually in retreat fees alone – in addition to shop sales and donations. Sogyal's global organisation, Rigpa, has websites that include multiple income streams. One of them, the Tertön Sogyal foundation, targets will bequests. Board members include Pedro Beroy, the managing director of the investment banking division of Credit Suisse.

In October this year, 1,500 people flew to Tenerife for three days of teachings with Choegyal Namkhai Norbu, one of the few remaining Tibetan lamas still active who was trained in pre-Chinese Tibet. A widely respected master of the Dzogchen tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, Namkhai Norbu attracts capacity audiences wherever he goes. In Tenerife the cost was €150, excluding flights, accommodation and subsistence.

In common with pop musicians, footballers and corporate CEOs, it is the superstar Buddhist teachers who generate big money. Without them, many centres around the world would be hard pressed to make ends meet. As the older ones fade away, a new generation including the 17th Karmapa, is being groomed to take their place. These include the reincarnations of the late Ling Rinpoche, Kalu Rinpoche and Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. (Rinpoche means "precious one").

But if all this sounds like quality Buddhist teachings are beyond the reach of middle- to low-income neophytes – there is good news. In the UK, several Buddhist organisations offer meditation instruction at moderate prices. The Dechen community led by Lama Jampa Thaye offers one-day courses for £17.50, rising to £20 next year. A two- or three-day event with the high-profile lama Sakya Trizin costs £20-25 per day. Beginners classes are around £4 per session.

Gaia House in Devon has a programme of residential courses with visiting teachers, with cost on a sliding scale from £118 to £59 depending on means. Director Andy Power says there's an "element of trust" involved in this. The fees for a Zen retreat with senior teachers Stephen and Martine Batchelor range from £363 to £76.

The Theravada Buddhist organisation, The Samatha Trust, relies on voluntary donations for teachings and retreats. "The exception to this," says the treasurer, Anne Schellizi, "is that we charge beginners a flat £50 for a weekend at our centre."

When the Thai meditation master Nai Boonman visits, Anne says retreatants are "spontaneously" generous. The trust covers its overheads on an annual income of £35,000, but runs appeals for projects like new buildings.

An Indian prince, 2,500 years ago, brought up in the lap of luxury renounced all worldly possessions to become the Buddha. His example led to the foundation of an order of mendicant monks and nuns who rely on the generosity of local communities for their survival.

"The basis of monasteries is not economic production," says Rupert Gethin, professor of Buddhist studies at Bristol University, "but there's a form of social contract – if you want monks and nuns in your society you have to support them. Monastic institutions can accept financial donations and some of them do become quite wealthy."

Clearly many organisations are making healthy profits from running Buddhist events, although it is a recognised principle that the teachings are not for sale. Whether this state of affairs is corrupt – or simply a 21st century fact of life is open to debate.

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Application of Sufficiency Economy

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In a "sufficient economy", generation of material wealth is not the ultimate aim. Instead the final goal is to create environmentally healthy, self-sufficient communities in which basic human needs are met through Iocal natural production methods.

Bangkok, Thailand -- Five years ago Wat Doi Pha Som initiated an environmental revitalization process in the Samoeng District based on the principles of sufficiency economy. The initial development projects addressed the necessary prerequisite to any reforestation project, which was sufficient natural water resources. The soil quality in the local area was very dry with little nutrients and very limited growth potential.

<< Phra Sangkom Thanapanyo Khunsiri from Wat Doi Pha Som in Chiang Mai, Thailand devotes himself to promoting "sufficiency economic practices" among the local communities

Modern farming methods had made local farmers dependent upon expensive chemical fertilizers to regenerate soli nutrients for each year's crops.

The high investment required for modern farming had pushed many people to abandon their ancestral farming tradition and to take Jobs in the nearest urban center, Chiang Mai city, two hours away. The local area also suffered from bush fires and drought during the dry summer months.

The monks at Wat Doi Pha Som identified the principle cause of the many environmental and economic challenges facing the local residents to be the lack of adequate water resources in the local ecosystem. Water is a necessary ingredient for all plant growth and healthy ecosystem function. By addressing this basic need of all living organisms, the process of holistic restoration began.

Environmental Restoration and ProtectIon

The key in addressing the issue of water scarcity was creating environmental structures that retained natural water resources (mountain springs, rain water). The rainy season is capable of providing sufficient water resources to support the needs of both a thriving forest ecosystem and local agricultural practice.

Deforestation of the land in favor of expansive farmlands removed necessary natural structures for water retention and increased water lost to run-off, which left the area's soils thirsting during the non-rainy season months. The monk's initial development projects constructed a long network of check dams able to retain natural water resources in a series of small reservoirs. The construction of the check dam system involved local community members, military personnel, and government officials.

The collaboration between both local and external organizations (Government, Military, NGOs) is a key pillar In Wat Doi Pha Som's sustainable development scheme. Twelve months after the check dams' construction, the moisture content and growth potential of the local soil steadily increased. Currently there are over 100 check dams of different sizes [0.25m-2m] in the Hoi Bong watershed.

Reforestation efforts during the first year of development complemented the check dam network by supporting the soil's ability to retain natural water resources. Plants from the 'sufficiency economy' three categories of resourceful plants (Food, Usage, Economic) were planted.

<< These "check dams" helps to retain moisture content and enables growth potential of the local soil

These included banana, papaya, rice, guava, coconut, teak, bamboo, and red wood. The local ecosystem saw improvement in biodiversity and water retention and habitat restoration for numerous birds and wildlife.

In the four years following the first year of the revitalization process, development projects continued to improve the system for natural water retention. The creation of a water line system involved upgrading wooden check dams to concrete and the creation of separate water storage reservoirs, known in Thai as "monkey cheeks:'

These storage reservoirs collect and diffuse moisture to the surrounding soil and can be tapped to meet community needs during the dry season. During this time as well. the reforestation process continued. More resourceful plants were planted and as soil moisture increased, an increase in the number of annual harvests coincided.

Currently at Wat Dol Pha Som, the revitalization process focuses on maintaining the completed check dams network through monthly surveys and repairs. The current reforestation focus is on protecting local forests from wildfires as weil as environmental terrorists that seek to extract forest resources illegally and unsustalnably.

The development of the alternative energy is an essential component of Wat Doi Pha Som's sustainable development scheme. Initial experimentation in the community has been a success in creating biofuel from locally grown sunflower oil and recycled cooking oil. Future development hopes to harvest clean energy through the construction of solar cells and small scale-hydroelectric dams.

Alternative Education

In 2007 the Alternative Education School at Wat Doi Pha Som was established. Eight students were enroiled in the first class. The revolutionary school seeks to serve students, families, local communities and Thailand by teaching sustainable development practices and self-sufficiency to the next generation of Thai citizens.

Students are empowered to be self sufficient citizens through project-based learning that encourages entrepreneurial development and requires integration of traditional subject material into practical application.

Wat Dol Pha Som's sustainable development scheme helps to protect local forests from wildfires >>

Students have created their own educational pathways focusing on rice trade, herbal medicine, environmental conservation, and vegetable seed saving. The school values and strives to celebrate local customs and culture.

Local community members teach students about cultural wisdom and traditional practices. Students have learned about local agricultural wisdom, how to make clothing, and how to construct a house using local building materials.

The school also focuses on serving students' families. Students do not attend classes far from home, in order to be able to serve their parents and elders by performing chores and cooking at home.

The Alternative Education School is looking to expand to provide university and graduate level studies in Sufficiency Economy. Currently, the school is looking for qualified professionals to share the principles of sustainable development and self-sufficiency with a growing student body. The school is also very interested in collaboration and grant support with similar educational institutions and foundations around the world.

Sufficiency Economy - What lies ahead

Wat Doi Pha Som has focused on applying King Bhumibol's economic principle of sufficiency economy in the local villages of the Samoeng District, Chiang Mai Province, Thailand.

The King's guidelines of Sufficiency Economy promote the planting of three types of resourceful plants:

plants that are edible (Food), plants that can be used for medicinal, cosmetic, sanitation, and other household purposes (Usage), andplants that can be transformed into products for sale (Economic).
Plants can belong to one or all of the three plant categories. For example the coconut tree produces food for consumption (coconut milk, coconut shavings), the coconut husk can be turned into charcoal for home usage, and the tree trunk can be turned into lumber for sale. By focusing on these three types of plantations, local communities benefit in four areas: Livelihood, Environment, Economy, Society.

Community members (humans, animals, plants) have resources capable of satisfying the basic needs of life (Livelihood). The local ecosystems are revived through the regeneration of diverse plant species and protected through the application of conservational practices (Environment - organic farming, formation of tree banks). Communities generate natural resources that could be turned into products for sale or exchange in local or regional markets (Economic). Ultimately, communities become selfreliant and in control of their own social-wellbeing (Society).

Sufficiency economy is founded first on the principle of local environmental conservation/restoration. In this economic system the generation of material wealth is not the ultimate aim. Instead the final goal becomes creatlng environmentally healthy, self-sufficient communities in which basic human needs are met through local natural production methods. Economic benefit becomes only a secondary benefit in the larger development scheme.

In making this economic theory a practical model for sustainable development, the monks at Wat Doi Pha Som define four necessary concentrations of development.

The first and central concentration is on "Environmental Restoration and ProtectIon". In the Samoeng District, this concentration narrows to focus on preserving the forest ecosystem [Dipterocarp forests].
The second concentration of development is "Organic Agriculture". The application of chemical pesticides and chemical fertilizers has harmful ecological effects and also creates dependency on dlstributers outside of the local community.
The third concentration of development is the creation and usage of "AIternative Energy". The discovery and development of renewable and environmentally-loving alternative forms of energy is essential for creating environmentally healthy,
self-sufficient communities free from a destructive dependence on fossil fuels.
The fourth and final concentration of development is "Educatlon".
The future vitality of 'sufficiency economy' communities depends on the education of the younger generation. Youth need alternative education models that develop practical vocational skills, promote creativity and equip graduates to be self-sufficient upon completion of their formal education.

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