The Kashmiri monk who helped spread Buddhism across Asia

 

Javanese folklore contains the story of a late 4th century Hindu king named Vadhaka who converted to Buddhism. According to the legend, one night, Vadhaka’s mother had a dream about a holy man coming to Java on a flying boat. The very next day, a Kashmiri monk named Gunavarman reached the shores of the island.

On Gunavarman’s arrival, Vadhaka’s mother asked the king to welcome the monk. The conversations that followed between the monk, the king and his mother are recorded in Memoirs of Eminent Monks, a combination of biographies of monks in China that was compiled by Hui Jiao of the Jiaxiang temple in the 5th century.

Buddha’s teachings with dhrupad in a leap of artistic faith (Scroll.in)

“Buddha, Kabir, or the many abhangs in Marathi, the vachannas in Kannada or the cryptic verse from Thirukkural that talk of life, death and everyday truths,” he said. “There’s so much of good secular poetry in the many languages of South Asia that can be sung in raga. If I sing something that’s over 2000 years old today, am I not being more traditional? The parampara of ragas is to me truly modern because I am modern. My practice is influenced by Ambedkar who led me to both Kabir and Buddha.” details Click for a link in Scroll. in) 

A Sinhalese missionary’s quest to reclaim the Mahabodhi Temple (Scroll.in)

 

In the 19th century, when the English poet and journalist Edwin Arnold called on Buddhists everywhere to help restore their religious shrines in India, a young Sinhalese man decided to take up the cause of the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya. Anagarika Dharmapala was just 26 then and had a religious status that lay between a monk and a layperson. In 1891, spurred by Arnold’s exhortation, he decided to go on his first pilgrimage to the Mahabodhi Temple and pray at the spot under the Bodhi Tree that is believed to be where the Buddha attained enlightenment. For details  click on the link on Scroll.in  Claim on Bodhgaya Temple 

How Does a Buddhist Monk Face Death?

George Yancy: I was about 20 years old when I first became intrigued by Eastern thought, especially Buddhism. It was the transformation of Siddhartha Gautama to the Buddha that fascinated me, especially the sense of calmness when faced with competing desires and fears. For so many, death is one of those fears. Can you say why, from a Buddhist perspective, we humans fear death?

Dadul Namgyal: We fear death because we love life, but a little too much, and often look at just the preferred side of it. That is, we cling to a fantasized life, seeing it with colors brighter than it has. Particularly, we insist on seeing life in its incomplete form without death, its inalienable flip side. It’s not that we think death will not come someday, but that it will not happen today, tomorrow, next month, next year, and so on. This biased, selective and incomplete image of life gradually builds in us a

Hinduism and Talibanism ( By Mukundan C. Menon)

Which is more deplorable: destruction of Buddhism in its own birth place in ancient India by Hindus, or of Buddha statues by present day Islamic Talibans in Afghanistan?

Two well known academicians of Kerala - Prof KM Bahauddin, former pro-vice chancellor of Aligarh Muslim and Osmania universities, and Dr MS Jayaprakash, professor of history at Kollam - throw some deep insights into the dark history of India when Buddhism was systematically eliminated by Brahminical forces who control Hinduism, then and now. 

Buddha's teaching in the Kalama Sutta

Do not believe in what you have heard;

do not believe in the traditions because they had been handed down for generations,

do not believe in anything because it is rumoured and spoken by many;

do not believe merely because a written statement of some old sage is produced;

do not believe in conjectures;

do not believe in that as truth to which you have become attached by habits

do not believed merely the authority of your teachers and elders.

After observation and analysis, when it agrees with reason and is conductive to the good and gain of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.

Pray do not, therefore, believe me when I come to the philosophical issues until and unless you are convinced of what I say, either as a sequel to proper reasoning or by means of a practical approach.

To abstain from evil;

           To do good;

              To purify the mind

These are teachings of all the Buddhas. 

It sounds simple but is so difficult to practice.  One cannot be a true Buddhist unless he puts he doctrine of Buddha into practice.  

Buddha said:

Ye to whom the truths I have perceived have been made known by me, make them surely your own; practice them, meditate upon them, spread them abroad; in order that the pure religion may last long and be perpetuated for the good and the gain and the weal of men.  

[ Buddhism is not religion. It is a system of philosophy coordinated with code of morality, physical and mental. The in view is the extinction of suffering and death.]

जानिए क्या है बौद्ध धर्म! ( रविश कुमार के बोल)

बौद्ध धर्म को हम मानवीय धर्म कह सकते हैं, क्योंकि बौद्ध धर्म ईश्वर को नहीं, मनुष्य को महत्व देता है। भगवान बुद्ध ने अहिंसा की शिक्षा के साथ ही अपने धर्म के अंग के तौर पर सामाजिक, बौद्धिक, आर्थिक, राजनैतिक स्वतंत्रता एवं समानता की शिक्षा दी है। उनका मुख्य ध्येय इंसान को इसी धरती पर इसी जीवन में विमुक्ति दिलाना था, न कि मृत्यु के बाद स्वर्ग प्राप्ति का काल्पनिक वादा करना।

 बुद्ध ने साफ कहा था कि उनका उपदेश स्वयं उनके विचार पर आधारित है, उसे दूसरे तब स्वीकार करें, जब वे उसे अपने विचार और अनुभव से सही पाएं। जिस प्रकार एक सुनार सोने की परीक्षा करता है, उसी प्रकार मेरे उपदेशों की परीक्षा करनी चाहिए। दूसरे किसी भी धर्म संस्थापक ने कभी यह बात नहीं की।