Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Korean Buddhist Sutras on Wood

On June 19, Korean Buddhists organized a procession of ancient Buddhist sutra on wooden blocks in Seoul. With the participants lined up with the wooden blocks on their heads, the line was 1.5 km long:













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Friday, June 17, 2011

Alan Watts - On Śūnyatā



Alan Watts was the first author I ever read on Zen Buddhism, I remember reading ‘The Way of Zen’ and deciding that when my son had graduated from college that I would move to Japan and study Zen with a Zen Master. So, he was the impetus that initially set me on this path. I like this collaboration of some of his talks on Śūnyatā as the Video is a kind of MTV version of related snippets. The following is a synopsis from his life from Wikipedia for those who are interested.

In 1936, Watts' first book was published, The Spirit of Zen, which he later acknowledged to be mainly digested from the writings of Suzuki.

In 1938 he and his bride left England to live in America. He had married Eleanor Everett, whose mother Ruth Fuller Everett was involved with a traditional Zen Buddhist circle in New York. A few years later, Ruth Fuller married the Zen master (or "roshi"), Sokei-an Sasaki, and this Japanese gentleman served as a sort of model and mentor to Alan, though Watts chose not to enter into a formal Zen training relationship with Sasaki.

During these years, according to his later writings, Watts had another mystical experience while on a walk with his wife.

Watts' fascination with the Zen (or Chan) tradition – which began for him during the 1930s – developed because that tradition embodied the spiritual interwoven with the practical, as exemplified in the subtitle of his Spirit of Zen: "A Way of Life, Work, and Art in the Far East". "Work," "life," and "art" were not demoted due to a spiritual focus.

Watts left formal Zen training in New York because the method of the teacher didn't suit him. He was not ordained as a Zen monk, but he felt a need to find a professional outlet for his philosophical inclinations. He entered Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, an Anglican (Episcopalian) school in Evanston, Illinois, where he studied Christian scriptures, theology, and Church history. He attempted to work out a blend of contemporary Christian worship, mystical Christianity, and Asian philosophy. Watts was awarded a master's degree in theology in response to his thesis, which he published as a popular edition under the title Behold the Spirit. The pattern was set, in that Watts did not hide his dislike for religious outlooks that he decided were dour, guilt-ridden, or militantly proselytizing — no matter if they were found within Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, or Buddhism.

All seemed to go reasonably well in his next role, as Episcopalian priest (beginning in 1945, aged 30), until an extramarital affair resulted in his young wife having their marriage annulled. It also resulted in Watts leaving the ministry by 1950. He spent the New Year getting to know Joseph Campbell; his wife, Jean Erdman; and John Cage.

In early 1951, Watts moved to California, where he joined the faculty of the American Academy of Asian Studies in San Francisco. Here he taught alongside Saburō Hasegawa, Frederic Spiegelberg, Haridas Chaudhuri, lama Tokwan Tada, and various visiting experts and professors. Hasegawa, in particular, served as a teacher to Watts in the areas of Japanese customs, arts, primitivism, and perceptions of nature.

Besides teaching, Watts served for several years as the Academy's administrator. When he left the Academy, the position was inherited by another faculty member, the Sanskrit scholar, former Theosophy insider, and practicing yogi Ernest Wood.

Watts also studied written Chinese and practiced Chinese brush calligraphy with Hasegawa as well as with some of the Chinese students who enrolled at the Academy. While Watts was noted for an interest in Zen Buddhism, his reading and discussions delved into Vedanta, "the new physics", cybernetics, semantics, process philosophy, natural history, and the anthropology of sexuality.
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Thursday, June 16, 2011

Chanting for Joko Beck



As most of you already know, one of the pillars of Western Zen, Charlotte Joko Beck, recently left her earthly form. As my Dharma brothers and sisters have already adequately posted tributes to Joko, I felt I could help those who have felt deeply affected by her teaching. You can click on the photo above, it is an altar plate that can be printed out and placed upon your home altar. Then I would suggest chanting, Jizo Butsu (Japanese), Ji-jang Bosal (Korean), or Dizhang Pusa (Chinese) 108 times for the next 49 days. At the end of that time you can hold your own Memorial Ceremony for our great teacher. I have included an explanation of the theology below for those who might be interested.

Kshitigarbha literally means "earth store bodhisattva." One of the four Great Bodhisattvas in Asian Buddhism. He is venerated in folk belief as a savior from the torments of hell and helper of the deceased. Sometimes he is also regarded as a protector of travelers. He is the only bodhisattva portrayed as a monk, however also with an urna (one of the thirty-two marks of perfection) on the forehead. His attributes are the wish-fulfilling gem and a monk's staff with six rings, which signifies that Ji-jang Bosal stands by all beings in the six realms of existence.

Ji-jang Bosal, through his supernatural power, can take on six different forms in order to help the beings of the six modes of existence. In a special ceremony, which is generally held on the 49th day after the death of a sangha member, the sangha member invokes Ji-jang Bosal in front of an ancestor tablet erected on behalf of the deceased and supplicates him to guide the deceased to the pure land of the Buddha Amitābha. Then follows the recitation of a mantra through which the deceased is summoned back so that he/she can hear the teachings expounded. The ceremony ends with the invocation of Amitābha Buddha and Ji-jang Bosal.

In addition, Ji-jang Bosal is well known for his vow: "If all sentient beings in hell are not released from the cycle of existence, I would never attain enlightenment.

According to certain Buddhist lore or myth, when someone dies they go to the place of the Ten Kings, wherever such place may be. Every seven days the Ten Kings serve as judges at a court. Seven times seven, they go to court. The judges ask the newly deceased, “What kind of good action did you do when you were alive and what kind of bad action did you do?” According to your good or bad action, a certain kind of rebirth is attained or you may be sent to a certain realm.

Of course, there is an inner meaning to all of this. At this time after someone dies, during this 49 period, their mind opens up in an unusual way and all of their karma comes before them. So their energies lead them in particular ways and they gravitate according to their energy pull toward those things that they need yet to learn in a rebirth. That is the inner meaning of this ‘judgment’ of the Ten Kings.

The Ten Kings dwell only in one’s own mind. Perhaps they may be viewed as ten levels of awareness. Therefore, if someone has made good karma then they go to a place that is good. If someone has made bad karma, they go to a place that is bad. However, if someone has perceived the essential true meaning that there is no birth and not death, then they perceive the Mind of No Hindrance and then coming and going is all just this Bodhisattva path or Bodhicitta “Altruistic Intention.”

Therefore, this 49 day period has several aspects to it. In a sense this is not so much a ceremony or a period for us as it is a time to try to help the person who has died to keep a clear mind during this time before rebirth. We chant certain mantras and names of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas to call on the mystic powers of those Buddhas and Bodhisattvas to help the dead person wake up and get enlightenment. There are certain Dharma speeches given during this time to remind the person to keep clear mind and perceive the essential true meaning of no life, no death. In addition, besides offering the service to the person who has just died, we also make compassionate offerings toward all suffering beings in tall realms who are still wondering somewhere. We transfer the merit of any good karma that comes from this to our dearly departed love ones.
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Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Tohoku Earthquake Memorial Sutra Mound



Rieko Sekine, who is one of the representatives of the project (10,000 shakyo for Japan / Tohoku Earthquake Memorial Sutra Mound Executive Committee) requests that people around the world to participate in the making of shakyo, which is the hand-copying of the Heart Sutra for the victims of the Japanese earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident.

The participants of the Committee will recite each of the shakyo one by one in a Buddhist ceremony (Gongyou). After that, they will bury all the collected copies at the top of Mt. Gassan (literally "Moon Mountain" in Japanese) which represents the three sacred Mountains of Dewa where the souls of the victims of the Tohoku Earthquake are to rest in peace, and at the same time they will erect a "Tohoku Earthquake Memorial Sutra Mound" at the site on October 9th. In addition, they plan to broadcast the ceremony on either ustream or youtube.

The Committee’s aspiration would chant together with the people around the world that the devastated area will be reconstructed as soon as possible and that all the victims can be relieved from terrible sufferings and hardships.

To download the template for hand-writing the Sutra click on this link for the pdf :
http://homepage.mac.com/ssxlh1200/10000sfj/dl/hannyas_in_dl.pdf
or the website on facebook "10,000 Shakyo for Japan"
http://www.facebook.com/pages/10000-Shakyo-for-Japan/20026808000397

They are anticipating to collect 10,000 shakyo by the end of August.

your faithfully,
Rieko Sekine

10,000 Shakyo for Japan / Tohoku Earthquake Memorial Sutra Mound”

Executive Committee Chairman: Hoshino Fumihiro
(Dewa Sanzan Haguro-san Shokubo “Daiseibo”)
Yamagata Prefecture, Tsuruoka City, Haguro Town, Toge 99 

Head of the Secretariat: Sekine Rieko
Tokyo, Kiyose City, Noshio 1-348-5

seki-hase@mail.goo.ne.jp

Adviser and Translator: Sekine Yasumitsu
jack_yasumitsu_sekine@yahoo.co.jp

address:

10,000 Shakyo for Japan
Poste Restant
Kiyose Noshio PostOffice
kiyose,Noshio 204-0004
Japan

e-mail: 10000shakyoforjapan@gmail.com
10,000 Shakyo for Japan

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Friday, June 10, 2011

Temple ban on politicians called off

JoongAng Daily
by Moon Gwang-lip

Govn officials, GNP, snubbed after temple budget cut

Seoul, South Korea -- The Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism, the nation’s largest Buddhist sect, said yesterday it is lifting a ban on government officials and Grand National Party members entering Buddhist temples across the country.

“We will consider a change in the stance we’ve taken over the past six months in dealing with the government,” the Venerable Jaseung, the head of the order, said at a press conference. “We will annul the suspension on communication [with the government and ruling party members] and [their] entry to temples,” he said.

The ban was put in place in December to protest the GNP’s passage of the 2011 budget, which included a cut in subsidies for temple stay programs. The sect complained of “Buddhist-bashing” policies by a predominantly Christian administration.

The signature tourism program for Korean Buddhism was slashed from 18.5 billion won ($17.1 million) in 2010 to 12.2 billion won. The sect has been complaining of unfairness since President Lee Myung-bak, a Presbyterian elder, took office in February 2008.

The passing of a hefty budget for Lee’s four-rivers restoration project was also mentioned as a basis for the ban.

The Blue House yesterday welcomed the move.

“We highly appreciate efforts by the Buddhist community to resolve conflicts in Korean society and promote inter-religious harmony and its resolution to improve the relationship with the administration,” said a high-ranking official at the presidential office of the Blue House.

“The Blue House and the administration will strengthen cooperation with the religious community for social integration.”

Conciliatory gestures between the two groups have been made since March, when a group of Buddhist GNP lawmakers was allowed to hold a meeting inside Jogye Temple in central Seoul, the headquarters of the sect. Later that month, the Venerable Hyechong, one of the high-profile Jogye leaders, attended a meeting of Buddhists at the Blue House.

The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs announced a plan on May 25 to ease regulations on the construction of temples, which will allow old temples to be renovated and expanded.
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Sunday, June 5, 2011

Military's first Hindu chaplain brings a diverse background

By CHRIS CARROLL
Stars and Stripes
Published: June 2, 2011

WASHINGTON — As a child in New Delhi and other cities of India’s northern Plains, Pratima Dharm moved easily through a kaleidoscopic swirl of religions and cultures.

“My neighbors were Muslims, my neighbors were Jews, Buddhists, Jains, Hindus, Christians,” she said. “My close friends in school represented all the different faith groups, and it never occurred to me then that we were different or there was anything strange about it.”

She feels the same decades later. The U.S. Army, where she holds the rank of captain, and the United States itself, where she immigrated just months before the 9/11 attacks, were founded on the idea that people can be united while worshipping differently, she said.

Dharm, 40, has been named the first Hindu chaplain to serve the Department of Defense. Hinduism, with nearly a billion adherents worldwide — but fewer than 1,000 active servicemembers, according to Pentagon statistics — was the largest of the world faiths not represented by a chaplain.

Though the Army hasn’t yet publicized her appointment, the rumor has spread among Hindu servicemembers around the world. And Dharm, a chaplain on the medical staff at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, has started getting emails from them.

“I’m already on the job,” she said. “There’s this tremendous sense of hope and relief that there is someone who understands their story at a deeper level, coming from the background I do.”

Still, most of her time at Walter Reed is spent reaching across faiths to minister to anyone who needs it. That’s a key responsibility of military chaplains, she said.

“Some of them come back having lost their buddies, some of them come back having lost their limbs, and things have changed for them forever,” she said. “To be able to sit down and show compassion for soldiers I have never met before is part of the message of Christ as well as [the Hindu teachings] of Vedanta.”

Dharm speaks easily of Christian teachings. A unique aspect of her story is that until this year, she wore the cross of a Christian chaplain on her battle fatigues. When she started on active duty in 2006, she was endorsed by the Pentecostal Church of God, based in Joplin, Mo.

But she’s now sponsored by Chinmaya Mission West, a Hindu religious organization that operates in the United States. A Washington, D.C.-area religious teacher who interviewed her for the organization before giving her an endorsement said her multifaith background is an advantage.

“She knows Christian theology, and she has a great grasp of Hindu theology,” said Kuntimaddi Sadananda of Chinmaya Mission’s Washington center. “This means she can help everyone.”

She didn’t convert from Christianity to Hinduism, she said.

“I am a Hindu,” she said. “It’s how I was raised and in my heart of hearts, that’s who I am.”

But — and perhaps it is hard for some Western Christians to understand — she hasn’t rejected Christianity either.

“In Hinduism, the boundaries are not that strict,” she said. “It is to base your life on the Vedantic traditions, and you can be a Christian and follow the Vedantic traditions.”

An Indian-American Army Reserve veteran said that during his years in the service, he was always comfortable meditating in Christian services and talking to non-Hindu chaplains about spiritual matters.

“Hinduism has a strong interfaith philosophy,” said Chaturbhuj Gidwani.

But having a Hindu chaplain available, even if only by email, will make one important group very happy — military mothers who want to make sure their children can practice their faith properly. Sometimes that means explaining cultural fine points.

“Mothers would ask, can you give proper rites to the soldiers?” he said. “For example, if I die, I don’t want to be buried, I want to be cremated. I don’t want to eat beef, I want vegetarian food.”

The Air Force officer who led the Pentagon action group that established Chinmaya West as a chaplain endorsing agency said Dharm’s story is testimony to American pluralism and democracy.

“I get emotional when I talk about it,” said Lt. Col. Ravi Chaudhary, a cargo plane pilot and acquisitions officer. “When you consider Pentagon bureaucracy ... when people here saw that in a fundamental way this is an expression of American values, people moved so quickly to accomplish this.”

Dharm spent a year at a forward operating base near Mosul, Iraq, in 2007 and 2008. She received a Bronze Star and an Army Commendation Medal, among other awards, but the most important thing she came home with was a deeper understanding of what Army chaplains are there for.

It isn’t to advocate for their own faiths, but to bind up the wounded spirits soldiers of any background receive in the brutality of battle.

“You learn to grieve with someone you don’t know on a deep level,” Dharm said. “You watch someone die in front of you and comfort the soldier left behind who had a connection to that person.

“Things of that nature you don’t learn in seminary.”

carrollc@stripes.osd.mil
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Thursday, June 2, 2011

Temple stay program marks 10th anniversary

This year marks the tenth anniversary of temple stay programs in Korea. 

The program began in 2002 as the government and the Korean Buddhists community sought new ways to accommodate the growing number of overseas tourists who visited Korea for international soccer matches during the Korea-Japan FIFA World Cup.

Since then, temple stays have become a key tourism program, allowing visitors to learn about traditional Korean culture and Buddhism firsthand while experiencing the beauty of local temples. 

The number of temples participating in the program grew from 33 in 2002 to 122 this year, and the number of participating tourists, both local and international, has also risen dramatically.

In 2002, slightly more than 2,500 people enjoyed a temple stay. In only two years time, the program had increased 14-fold to include 37,000 people in 2004 alone. More than 170,000 people took part in the program in 2010, and is predicted to surpass 710,000 this year. 

To improve the quality of temple stay program, the Temple Stay Information Center run by the Jogye Order, plans to develop more programs with new and more diverse activities.  

The center plans to introduce new programs targeting people with distinct interests in programs on temple food and multiculturalism and healing programs people dealing with divorce, unemployment and other problems.

Earlier this year, the center upgraded its English homepage and added access in Chinese, Japanese, German, French and Spanish. It also recently developed a temple stay application in English for smartphone users. The app contains not only temple stay information but also overall tourism information and pictures. (To visit the homepage of the Temple Stay Information Center, click here)

To celebrate the program’s tenth anniversary, the Temple Stay Information Center and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism held a cultural event from May 30 to June 1 at the Traditional Buddhist Cultural Center in Gongju, South Chungcheong Province. About 200 people, including the abbots of participating temples, attended the event.

By Yoon Sojung
Korea.net Staff Writer
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Wednesday, June 1, 2011

The Sound of One Hand: Paintings and Calligraphy by Zen Master Hakuin

Pavilion for Japanese Art, East Wing, Levels 1–3
May 22, 2011–August 14, 2011


Part 1: May 22–June 28, 2011


Part 2: July 1, 2011–August 14, 2011
The exhibition will be closed Thursday, June 30, 2011.
Hakuin Ekaku (1685-1768) is widely acknowledged as the most important Zen Buddhist master of the past 500 years. He was also the most influential Zen artist of Edo-period (1615-1868) Japan, but unlike the highly studied monk painters of earlier centuries, he received no formal artistic training beyond the basic skills in handling brush, ink, and paper that were required for everyday writing.

Hakuin’s self-taught, spontaneous, yet masterly and inspired painting and calligraphy, just like his teachings and writings, expressed the mind and heart of Zen for monks and lay followers alike. With the aim of reaching out to people of all social and economic classes, rather than just the élite, he invented a new visual language for his religion, depicting everyday subjects and themes from other Buddhist sects, as well as Zen patriarchs and masters.

For this first exhibition in the West devoted to Hakuin, nearly 80 of his scrolls will be gathered from collections in the United States and Japan. Organized in collaboration with New Orleans Museum of Art, and curated by Audrey Yoshiko Seo and Professor Stephen Addiss. The Los Angeles presentation is made possible by LACMA’s East Asian Art Council.

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