Buddha: Buddhist documentary (video)

(ComeThailand) This documentary, made by David Grubin and narrated by Richard Gere, tells the story of the Buddha's life, a journey especially relevant to our own bewildering times of violent change and spiritual confusion. It features the work of some of the world's greatest artists and sculptors, who across two millennia have depicted the Buddha's life in art rich in beauty and complexity. Hear insights into this ancient narrative by contemporary Buddhists, including Pulitzer Prize winning poet W.S. Merwin and the 14th Dalai Lama.

• ComeThailand.com
• PHOTO: The Buddha in Thailand by BobyBahar
  

War in Iraq Ends! (almost)

Actually, US Promises to End its War on Iraq...later

I didn't end the war on Iraq. I ramped it up. But now I'm promising to end it. Vote for me.

Spoofing The Times with the hard truth

"The message we're getting, to be frank about it, is, 'Don't let the door hit you [on the @$$] on the way out,'" a senior military official said in a conversation on Sunday.

Iraq War Ends With a Whimper, Not a Bang
Yochi J. Dreazen (The Atlantic Home, senior correspondent for military affairs and national security, National Journal)

The Iraq War is rapidly winding down, and no one -- American or Iraqi -- seems inclined to talk about it.

The Iraq War began with Pentagon officials boasting about an initial offensive that would "shock and awe" the enemy, then-President George W. Bush flying a military plane to an aircraft carrier for a high-profile address to thousands of cheering troops, and round-the-clock coverage on the nation's TV networks. Eight and a half grueling years later, the deeply unpopular conflict is set to end with a whimper, not a bang.

[Notice the graph does not flatten out to zero troops but reveals a permanent presence as part of the US military-industrial empire, with its largest base in Mesopotamia. So the war will "end," but we will leave behind ~50,000 troops.]

Washington and Baghdad's failure to agree on a troop-extension deal means that virtually all of the 43,000 U.S. troops now in Iraq will stream out of the country over the next six weeks, bringing a quiet end to a conflict that began with so much bombast.

Radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has called for public rallies on Jan. 1 to celebrate the U.S. withdrawal, but the idea hasn't gained much traction with other Iraqi political leaders. For now, there are no formal ceremonies planned in Iraq to mark the end of the U.S.-led mission there or to commemorate the thousands of Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis killed in the conflict.

Iraqi officials have also rebuffed the U.S. officers at many individual bases who have proposed low-key events in which the American flag would be lowered and the Iraqi one raised to mark each facility's passage into Iraqi control. More

• Iraq War Ends?
• Dear Kitty. Some Blog

Shaolin: Kung Fu Buddhism (film)

Lewis Beale (Washington Post, Sept. 9, 2011)

Buddhist monks in "The 36th Chamber of Shaolin” (The Weinstein Company)

[It's] arguably the most popular franchise in film history, featuring the 1,500-year-old martial-arts tradition of some Chinese Buddhist monks.

• I'll kick your @$$... once I finish this video game
  

The Shaolin Temple, founded in the fifth century, has been the key element in hundreds of movies and TV shows: “Kids From Shaolin,” “American Shaolin,” “The 36th Chamber of Shaolin,” “Shaolin Soccer” -- and now “Shaolin,” a new movie starring Jackie Chan and Andy Lau that debuted Friday on video-on-demand.

All are based on the martial-arts practices of the Buddhist monastery -- a special brand of kung fu that combines physicality and Buddhist spirituality and is, according to the Shaolin Temple’s Web site, “based on a belief in the supernatural power of Buddhism.”

“Most people don’t realize kung fu is internal and external, a peaceful and a martial application, and a Shaolin movie will include both... “Shaolin is all about spirituality, karma, your well-being,” adds Doris Pfardrescher of Well Go USA, which is distributing “Shaolin.” All other martial-arts films are “ just about action, fighting,” she adds, “but Shaolin is about religion, spirituality, being with Buddha.” More

Sex Scandals in Religion (video)

(TimothySpeaks, June 8, 2011)

In this exclusive Web chat, Robin Benger and Peter Kavanagh deliver a very enlightening perspective on the making of "Sex Scandals In Religion." This discussion delves more deeply into the subject matter, beyond what was possible to cover in the broadcast documentaries themselves.

The producers reveal the similarities between the four religions covered in the episodes -- as well as the similar responses to allegations of sex abuse that have occurred in religious organizations.

From Robin and Peter's experience, it becomes very clear just how difficult and dangerous it can be to cover such subjects. Intelligent and thoughtful questions came from the online audience, which highlighted the growing interest in these issues.

Man searches for 2600-yr-old Buddha spirit

Buddhist heritage sites are found throughout greater India, from modern Iran to Bangladesh

Lone man searches for 2,600-yr-old Buddha spirit in north Indian ruins
Sanjay Sharma, Times of India, Wisdom Quarterly, and TheBuddhistForum.com

CHANDIGARH, India - A rural Hindu boy found peace sitting in Buddhist ruins around historically important Yamunanagar, his hometown, when he felt low pursuing his engineering degree from Kurukshetra University.

Siddhartha Gauri, 35, just like the historical Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, found hope thinking of reviving dilapidated structures around his town.

The Buddha traveled throughout the north interacting with brahmins and others, which later influenced the development of Hinduism (systematized by Adi Shankara).

Prince Siddhartha, who became the Buddha at 35, was on a spiritual quest that started when he first noticed or was deeply struck by the uncommon sight of death, disease, and old age in his charmed life. The Buddha found answers to his quest 2,600 years ago on this very day [May 17, 2011, the full-moon day of the Indian month of Vesak].

While collecting pictures of such sites, an idea occurred to Siddhartha Gauri -- making a documentary to capture the plight of the historically important sites. It took three years but he succeeded in making a 22 minute documentary: "Dhammashetra -- The Lost Land of Buddha."

As he started researching on the ruins, he found too many of them across the country, mostly in Haryana.

Gauri was, however, shocked to know that nothing much was happening in terms of conserving Buddhism's heritage, which is so important for world peace, tourism, as well as the diplomatic and economic ties of India with the rest of the world, particularly China and Japan and neighboring Buddhist countries.

Despite his film being shown on Doordarshan International, he launched a website thebuddhistform.com to attract the attention of the world towards the plight of Buddhism's heritage in India.

The Buddhism that developed in ancient India spread to ancient Greece before moving to China and north Asia, leaving behind imprints of Mahayana that went on to influence Christianity and Western ideals like democracy.

The website is attracting 100,000 visitors a month, mostly from America and Russia, both of which have significant Buddhist populations (indigenous Buddhists as well as new adherents).

His efforts to draw the attention of the Indian government brought him disappointment as nothing tangible has happened on the ground.

Gauri, however, started getting recognition from the international community. In April, he had a meeting with Magsaysay Award winner Sri Lankan Gandhian Dr. A.T. Ariyaratne to save the Buddhist heritage of North India.

The "Buddhist circuit" in ancient Magadha, Northern India

Barely managing so far by borrowing funds from family and friends, the Yamunanagar City youth is planning to visit Buddhist countries to drum up support for his cause. the first international screening of his film was held in Sri Lanka in April. He was invited to the island nation's celebrations of the 2,600th anniversary of the Buddha's enlightenment (Buddha Jayanthi).

"My name and my work on stupas [alabaster Buddhist burial mounds and reliquaries] have almost made me a Buddhist in the eyes of the world despite retaining my Hindu belief close to my heart," Gauri told The Times of India.

Gauri has already written letters to all 700 MPs to preserve India's Buddhist heritage in their areas. And he has sent 21,000 signatures to India's president for saving stupas.

Whether there is a controversy on Chaneti Stupa being spoilled during conservation work or villagers demanding the return of the Ashokan pillar from Delhi back to Topra village, Gauri is on the forefront.

Talking to The Times of India, Gauri said one of the biggest challenges for his campaign came when he found out that the Indian state of Jammu & Kashmir has a large number of Kushan period remains. It was from here that Buddhism went to Bamiyan in Afghanistan [where the Buddha may have grown up, the real Kapilavastu, the Kingdom of the Shakyas].

But one courageous Kashmiri Muslim, Siraj-ud-din Salam, of the Kashmir Humanity Foundation has stood by him. Together they launched a signature campaign in Kashmir to save the Buddha.

We Are All One... or are we? (video)

What does it mean to say "We are all one"? A very spiritual girl I knew scoffed at the notion. Even after becoming an expert Buddhist meditator, she did not speak of nonduality, Oneness, or unity. She could see through the delusion of separation, yet she would not make the claim of all being one. She asked, "Do you think we're all one? What does that even mean?"

"Of course," I answered emphatically. "It's not even that hard to understand." One needn't be St. Francis or Thich Nhat Hanh (or "Nitch Natch Hans Christian Anderson" as we would refer to him, never being able to get our Vietnamese or Thai lessons to stick) to understand the unity (nonduality) concept.

It was not by direct mystical experience that I understood it. But there's almost no one I know who hasn't had intimations of sensing how we are all interconnected.

Official trailer for Tom Shadyac's film, "I AM" now in theaters: iamthedoc.com

• On a subatomic level, we're all constantly exchanging ions (and not just the living beings, but rocks, streams, blades of grass...unseen emanations of energy).
• On a social level, we're all going through the same thing -- even as we experience it differently according to our attention, intention, and habitual reaction patterns).
• On a physiological level, we are all more or less the same: subject to the same follies, mortal, morbid (when we get a boo boo, we instinctively exclaim ouch).
• On a psychological level, we have the same neurotic tendencies and stumble into the same thought traps.
• On an emotional level, we can empathize with one another (by force of our mirror neurons being triggered before we're even consciously aware of it).
• On a biological level, we're all built up out of DNA, cellular material, the Four Great Elements, subatomic particles, properties, name-and-form (nama-rupa)
• On a spiritual level, we all have the same potential (enlightenment, buddhahood, basic goodness, Buddha Nature, humanity, self-actualization, altruism)

It might be better to ask, In what way are we actually different? Take a set of building blocks and build something. Everything tangible is the same. Everything intangible (the arrangement of all the tangible things) is within the potential of others.

When we're in love, we love connecting, merging, losing our burdensome ego (our sense of separateness or isolation). But even when we hate someone or something, we are bonding with it by our attention/intention, and so we run into it again and again. How great, then, to cleanse the heart of bias and partiality and accept everything with the same equanimity and peace of mind that still allows us to act and respond appropriately without getting snared and entangled.

Our main separation -- and our main problem -- is the delusion that we are apart, independent actors, isolated, alone, abandoned, forgotten, or left behind. We are not.

We are united (whether we like it or not at any given moment), we are together, we are in the same boat (Earth as our own Easter Island, and we all know what happened there -- and if not, we can all get on the same Network and find out), we are inter-dependent, we are All One in this sense and probably many others.

And it is possible to glimpse in a mystical/shamanic/DMT (the spirit molecule)-fueled state that this is literally true at all times and in all situations even though we now look back and feel we were alone a lot of the time. We were never alone. She agreed.

It's easy to forget this growing up in our competitive society watching "Survivor" and wondering why Donald Trump seems to get off firing people and feeding a scarcity mentality. But even Christians have an easy reference to this universal truth in theistic terms: There's that poster in the bathrooms of footprints in the sand; when we felt most alone and look back to prove it, we were actually being carried.