Dhammakaya: Meditation Made Easy (video)

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Meditation allows the mind to move less so that it finally stops wandering. With concentration it intensifies and becomes able to see reality as it truly is. This insight is liberating -- as the Truth sets one free.

Meditation is not mere relaxation. A well-centered mind is the gateway to happiness, wisdom, and eventually complete freedom.

Meditation is the gateway to other realms and to the timeless nirvana (nibbana). What is nirvana? It is the condition beyond the cycle of samsara, which is the round of rebirth and suffering.

(meditationthai.org)

Meditation bridges samsara and nirvana so that one experiences them together -- free from suffering within the round. One does not wait to be "reborn" in nirvana the way one must await rebirth in any of the many heavens. Nirvana is to be experienced here and now.

All buddhas of the past as well as followers of the Dharma who mastered the highest levels of meditation are able to enter the condition of nirvana which, while it is achieved in samsara, leaves it behind.

The center of the movement is a massive world stupa on the outskirts of Bangkok with obvious space (heavenly deva) influences (dmc.tv).

• DHAMMAKAYA is a lay meditation movement that originated with Thai Buddhists and became a worldwide organization providing meditation instruction, bringing together traditions and Sanghas (monastic orders) in harmony for the benefit of keeping the Buddha's message regarding enlightenment alive and making it relevant in daily life.

THE TECHNIQUE

Wisdom Quarterly

The simplified Dhammakaya ("dharma body") meditation technique is straightforward. One visualizes a small, clear crystal globe vibrating the soothing mantra Samma Arahan ("right enlightenment," /saa-MA ah-rah-HAN/). The crystal is first visualized floating outside the nostril (right side for males, left side for females due to subtle nervous system differences). It then enters the body, still vibrating, until it stops at its second station up the nostril. It then moves to the center of the brain. The mantra is recited in sync with slow, natural breathing, inhaling the first word and exhaling the second, stopping at each of seven points in the body (as shown on chart). They are considered dantian, but their exact location is unique to this system. Attention and the visualized object finally comes to rest at the center of the body just above the bellybutton. It is useful to wear all white and often helpful to sit in guided visualization until one becomes accustomed to entering a meditative state.

(Meditation Thai)

• Service to humanity is honoring the Buddha

Catholic: Molestation vs. Monasticism

Priests molest children; Nuns offer spirituality

Is homosexuality the Church's excuse for massive pedophilia and cover up scandals?

(AlterBoys) "The problem is not just with the fraction of priests who molests youngsters, but in an ecclesiastical power structure which harbors pedophiles, conceals other sexual behavior patterns among its clerics, and uses the strategies of duplicity and counterattack against the victims" (Joughin, M. "Church response to the sex abuse priest," In Fidelity, No.8., Sept. 1995, pg. 1).

Catholic nuns launch lay monastic movement

(CathNews.com) An order of Benedictine Sisters in Pennsylvania has launched what they describe as a lay monastic movement for seekers of God and a meaningful life, calling it “our gift to the next generation,” reports NCR Online.

“Monasteries of the Heart: A New Movement for a New World” offers an opportunity for anyone -- regardless, or even in the absence, of faith tradition -- to live Benedictine spirituality and values with online communities or in face-to-face groups of family, friends, neighbors, or fellow churchgoers, they say.

Members create their own “monastery” by supporting each other in shaping their spiritual lives around Benedictine values of community, prayer, meaningful work, peace, and care [proper stewardship not human exploitation] of creation. They can gather around a table or in an online “monastery without walls” for prayer, discussion, and reflection. More

• Defending the Faith from Falsehoods (mostholyfamilymonastery.com)

Study: Priests molested due to Sexual Revolution

(Joe.My.God-blog) According to a five year study commissioned by the Catholic Church, the real reason all those priests committed child molestation is because they were "poorly prepared and monitored" during the social tumult of the sexual revolution. Blame it on Woodstock.

The researchers concluded that it was not possible for the Church, or for anyone, to identify abusive priests [and bishops] in advance. Priests who abused minors have no particular “psychological characteristics,” “developmental histories,” or mood disorders that distinguished them from priests who had not abused, the researchers found.

Since the scandal broke, conservatives in the Church have blamed gay priests for perpetrating the abuse, while liberals have argued that the all-male, celibate culture of the priesthood was the cause. This report will satisfy neither flank.

The report notes that homosexual men began entering the seminaries “in noticeable numbers” from the late 1970s through the 1980s. By the time this cohort entered the priesthood, in the mid-1980s, the reports of sexual abuse of minors by priests began to drop and then to level off.

If anything, the report says, the abuse decreased as more gay priests began serving the Church. Many more boys than girls were victimized, the report says, not because the perpetrators were gay, but simply because the priests had more access to boys than to girls, in parishes, schools, and extracurricular activities.

The $1,800,000 study was conducted by New York's John Jay College, with the Department of Justice contributing $280,000.


The Pope knows Catholic priests molest children.

The future Pope Benedict XVI resisted pleas to defrock a California priest with a record of sexually molesting children according to a 1985 letter. AP writer Gillian Flaccus says the letter reveals then-Cardinal Ratzinger was aware of the case (April 9, 2010).

Ancient Buddhist Model for Today's World

Lewis Richmond (Huffington Post)

In my ongoing effort to find ways to adapt Buddhism to modern American life, I have long been influenced by the example of Vimala-Kirti, the "householder sage" of ancient India (pictured).

According to the Vimala-Kirti Sutra ("scripture"), Vimala-Kirti was a wealthy layperson or householder who was one of the Buddha's leading lay disciples. Although he was a householder, his wisdom was said to exceed that of all of the Buddha's leading monastic disciples.

Much of the sutra is spent recounting arguments between Vimala-Kirti and the monastic disciples about Buddhist doctrine -- disputes which Vimala-Kirti invariably won. The notion of a layperson's wisdom exceeding that of a monastic is only one of many radical notions put forward by the sutra.

There are several English translations of the Vimala-Kirti Sutra. The one I like best is by Dr. Robert A. Thurman entitled The Holy Teaching of Vimala-Kirti. Dr. Thurman's translation is from the Tibetan, as the Sanskrit original has been lost.

Like the better-known Heart and Diamond Sutras, the Vimala-Kirti Sutra was an important text for the Zen traditions of China and Japan. In many Japanese Zen monasteries even today there is an alcove with a statue of Vimala-Kirti, wearing the hair and clothing of a layperson, expounding the teaching.

In Zen, Vimala-Kirti is best known for his "thunderous silence," referring to the time when he ended a long debate about the essence of wisdom by saying nothing at all. Vimala-Kirti was a popular figure among the ruling classes of ancient China, who could identify with his role in society.

The highest spiritual stage in Zen is called "return to the marketplace," in which the spiritual adept, after long years of spiritual training, returns to society to live as an ordinary person and teach others. Vimala-Kirti is traditionally seen as the embodiment of this highest stage.

This is how the sutra describes Vimala-Kirti's lifestyle:

• He wore the white clothes of a layman, yet lived impeccably like a religious devotee...
  
• He had a son, a wife, and female attendants...
  
• [He] made his appearance at the fields of sports and in the casinos, but his aim was always to mature people [there]...
  
• He engaged in all sorts of businesses, yet had no interest in profit or possessions...
  
• He visited all the schools to help develop children...
  
• He was honored as the official among officials because he regulated the functions of government according to the Dharma. More

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