China vs. India: the battle for Buddha

China and India seek to leverage their ties to Buddhism for soft power in the region.
Jason OverdorfJanuary 19, 2012 06:32

A Nepalese woman lights prayer candles at the stupa Boudhanath for the Buddha's birthday in Kathmandu. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

LUMBINI, Nepal — For a few short hours, as dancers imported from Kathmandu leapt and twirled for the bemused president of this tiny Himalayan republic, the sleepy, provincial town of Lumbini, in western Nepal, became the focus of the great chess game underway between India and China.

After a sudden, unannounced, and brief visit from Chinese premier Wen Jiabao in Kathmandu, Nepalese President Ram Baran Yadav had flown in to take the stage here — at the birthplace of Buddha — to inaugurate “Visit Lumbini Year 2012” on behalf of Nepal tourism.

But as he set fire to a symbolic, Olympic-style “peace flame,” more than a few observers were wondering about the fortuitous timing of the event, which coincided, like the flourish of a magician's cape, with the preventive detention of hundreds of Nepalese Tibetans in the capital.

The detention of Tibetans is nothing new, of course. And Nepal is always rife with rumors and conspiracy theories. But for the past several months a curious mystery has unfolded around Lumbini — the latest beachhead in the quiet battle for Buddha underway between China and India.

With competing conferences, organizations, and cultural tours, both China and India have sought to leverage their historical ties with Buddhism for so-called soft power in the region.

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India seeks to use its common cultural heritage to overcome China's ethnic ties to the overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia, and China seeks to limit the damage from its repression of religious freedom in Tibet and its incessant sparring with the Dalai Lama.

“This is part of China's effort to use Buddhism to gain an entry into Nepal, [and] to show to their Buddhists that they're showing equal attention to Buddhism outside the country,” Jayaveda Ranade, formerly additional secretary for East Asia with the Indian government, said of a Chinese proposal for the development of Lumbini.

Yadav, Nepal's president, made no mention of China before the crowd gathered at Buddha's birthplace, though in Kathmandu Wen pledged more than $140 million in aid for the building of infrastructure and other projects. Wen also agreed to consider Nepal's request to extend the 1,200 mile Qinghai-Tibet railway onward to Kathmandu and Lumbini.

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“Both sides started worrying about this once the Dalai Lama started giving intimations of mortality, shall we say,” said Jabin Jacob, assistant director of the New Delhi-based Institute of Chinese Studies, an independent think tank.

“If the Dalai Lama is disappearing from the scene or he is going to be stepping back from the political scene, as he already has, then there is this huge resource lying out there untapped,” he said.

India and China: their claims to Buddhism

Born Prince Gautama Siddhartha in what is today Nepal, the Buddha achieved enlightenment, gained his spiritual following, and died (or achieved final nirvana) in India. As a result, Bodhgaya, Sarnath and Kushinagar, located in the north Indian state of Bihar, remain major pilgrimage centers for believers from around the world.

But in India Buddhism was subsumed by Hinduism, and New Delhi has done little to spread the wealth from tourism to Lumbini — which most view as less significant than the three pilgrimage sites in India. So as Nepal's tourism ministry seeks to lure 500,000 visitors to Lumbini in 2012, expectations of Indian support are not too high — though India claims to be “more than happy” to contribute.

“Most of the inter-governmental bodies are dysfunctional,” said Aditya Baral, director of the publicity department of the Nepal Tourism Board.

At the same time, even though China is notorious for its suppression of Tibetan Buddhism, and India is home to the exiled Dalai Lama, in its other forms Buddhism is reportedly the fastest-growing religion in China and accounts for only a tiny, neglected minority in the land where it originated.

And China's largesse, at least on paper, or in rumor, appears to know no bounds.

“Nearly 40 percent of Chinese believe in Buddhism. Several of the Chinese leaders themselves are practicing Buddhists, despite being members of the Communist Party,” said Shrikanth Kondapalli, a professor of Chinese studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University.

“So from that point of view it's quite natural for China to be interested in Buddhist projects,” he said.

According to Ranade, China held its first World Buddhist Forum in 2006 in an effort to project its handpicked candidate, Gyaltsen Norbu, as the legitimate Panchen Lama, after secret police allegedly kidnapped and spirited away the boy chosen by the Tibetans in 1995.

A second conference in 2009, for which the concluding ceremony was held in Taiwan, was aimed at convincing neighboring Buddhist nations that China had embraced the religion, despite its continued opposition to the Dalai Lama.

Similarly, Beijing has undertaken other cultural intiatives, such as the displaying of tooth and hair relics of the Buddha in a traveling exhibition in Myanmar.

“All of this is to keep the Dalai Lama in his place,” said Jacob. “It's to ensure that they have a handle on his succession, an influence on his succession, and that they will be seen as legitimately intervening in that succession.”

At the same time, India has sought to build on the goodwill it receives naturally as home to the exiled leader of Tibetan Buddhism and reach out to other sects.

In 2007, for instance, the loan of an extensive collection of Buddhist art and artifacts from India's National Museum subtly reinforced the message that the religion traveled from India to China and beyond in conjunction with an East Asia Summit where Beijing had sought to shoulder out New Delhi.

Together with representatives from Singapore, China, Japan and Thailand, India has undertaken a $1 billion project to develop a modern university in the ancient Buddhist learning center of Nalanda, in modern day Bihar, under the leadership of Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen.

Beginning this summer, however, the struggle for soft power has begun to seem as though it were scripted by John Le Carré.

The plot thickens in Lumbini

For Lumbini, the story begins in July, when China's state-run People's Daily reported that a peculiar Hong Kong-based outfit called the Asia Pacific Exchange & Cooperation Foundation (APECF) had signed a memorandum of understanding with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) to create a “special cultural zone” in Lumbini.

Touting a planned investment of $3 billion, APECF claimed to have the full support of the Nepal government for its scheme to build roads, telecommunications networks and tourist facilities in the area.

The dusty, one-horse town of Lumbini could certainly use the money. But at nearly one-tenth of Nepal's entire gross domestic product, $3 billion was a stupendous sum — and, some suspect, a wholly fictional one: a carnival barker's cry, crude propaganda, or a “trial balloon” to gauge how Nepal might react.

The answer was swift.

Soon afterward UNIDO and Nepal, by turns, disavowed the project. It surfaced that both Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the Maoist leader popularly known by his nomme de guerre Prachanda, or “Fearless,” and the controversial Paras Bir Bikram Shah Dev, Nepal's former crown prince, held positions on APECF's board of directors.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) blasted APECF's scheme as a threat to Lumbini's status as a World Heritage site. And Culture Secretary Modraj Dotel resigned in protest over alleged pressure to approve the project.

“What to me was worrying was the wheeling and dealing through which they had managed to get both Prince Paras and Prachanda, an unholy alliance from opposite ends of the spectrum,” said Kul Chandra Gautam, a former assistant secretary general of the UN who has publicly criticized the project.

“All kinds of shady deals happen in Nepal, and for our most influential political leader to be made part of this venture to me sounded very fishy.” (Prince Paras is no longer listed as a board member by APECF's website).

For Indian foreign policy think tanks, APECF — nominally a non-governmental organization (NGO) — was an obvious clandestine arm of the Chinese government.

Its Lumbini project was a transparent attempt to leverage Buddhism to station platoons of People's Liberation Army engineers within a stone's throw of the Indian border. And the bizarre snafu of the fake agreement with UNIDO was simply another example, apparently, of the inscrutability of Chinese espionage.

So, too, it goes in New Delhi.

This week, Beijing's special representative Dai Bingguo is in New Delhi hoping to flag off a “golden period” for India-China relations. But it's lucky he made it at all, in the wake of the latest Indian salvo in the battle for Buddha.

In November, Beijing scrapped Dai's planned visit to discuss an outstanding dispute over China's borders with Arunachal Pradesh and Kashmir in protest over an Indian rival to its own World Buddhism Conference. Organized by the Asoka Mission, another NGO that receives government funding, the meeting brought Buddhist leaders from around the world together with the Dalai Lama the same week that Dai was to arrive for talks.

“Clubbed with the South China Sea dispute, clubbed with the Yellow Sea incident where the Chinese opposed the USS George Washington into that region and a host of other problems that China had with the US and their neighbors, including even with India, it did cost [Beijing] some soft power,” said professor Kondapalli.

“The convention decided to set up an international Buddhist institution somewhere in India, to codify the Buddhist scriptures and so forth,” he said.

Coincidence? Representatives of the Indian government say so. But just as in Lumbini, there are plenty of people ready to concoct a master plan behind the chaos.

CAMBODIA: Buddhist thought for the New Year

FOR PUBLICATION
AHRC-ETC-002-2011
January 14, 2011

An article by Dr. Gaffar Peang-Meth published by the Asian Human Rights Commission

As we enter the fifteenth day of the New Year 2011, I would like begin this first article of the year for the Asian Human Rights Commission, with the words of Lord Gautama Buddha (563 B.C.-483 B.C.): "Everything changes, nothing remains without change".

Change is a constant. We can expect change in our lives and in our environment. Some changes will make us smile while others we wish never happened. But change there will be. Facing this inevitability, it behooves us to seek how to influence the change that we would like to see, because "yes, we can." Doing nothing increases the likelihood that we will not like the change that affects us.

"A New Soul"

We, humans, are creatures of habit, of reproductive thinking, of self-piloted, fossilized responses; and yet some wonder why they don't get different results. We are reminded, "When you do what you've always done, you will get what you've always got."

Yet, as many of us like to think of the New Year as new beginnings, an opportunity for a fresh new start, so English writer Gilbert K. Chesterton (1874-1936) wrote, with a new year "we should have a new soul."

Is a new soul possible if we continue patterned thoughts while the world changes?

"What we think, we become"

Buddha teaches, "We are what we think"; "What we think, we become"; "The mind is everything."

If indeed "We are formed and molded by our thoughts," as Buddha says, then what becomes of individuals who engage endlessly in negative thoughts of others, gossiping, and throwing venomous words? What kind of a hostile, angry world are they making?

Buddha refers to those activities as "evil of the tongue," and counsels their avoidance. Buddhists know it but there's the usual disconnect between rhetoric and action.

Buddha teaches: "If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him. If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him." Buddha reminds, what good will all the holy words you read and speak do, "if you do not act upon them?"

Contemporary Cambodians' struggle against oppression, in pursuit of universally recognized individual rights and freedom, may be explained through Buddha's precept, "We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think."

Our thoughts and behaviors are conditioned by what we learn and by what is expected of us in a society that promotes class, status, rank, role relationships, backed by a culture of asymmetric leader-follower, superior-inferior, master-servant, patron-client practices. Khmer teaching, to "korup, kaowd, klach, smoh trawng" -- respect, admire, fear, be loyal -- has been inculcated in the Cambodian persona for centuries.

In a perfect world, society's teaching, our cultural heritage can actually improve society. But our world is imperfect. It's easy to see, if we are objective analysts, how the culture and the teaching have reinforced the status quo of asymmetry in Cambodia and have promoted the Leviathan's oppression.

Thus, followers follow their particular leader -- rather than a set of rules, high principles, and good thinking -- even if the leader leads them toward the abyss; and those recognized as belonging to society's lower social, political, economic strata are expected to respect, admire, fear, and be loyal to those personalities in positions above them.

Creativity, criticality, innovation threaten the status quo; deviators are nonconformists; those who deviate from the "party line" are challengers, who eventually are denounced as traitors.

Thus, it is easier and safer to conform.

Thoughts that make the world

Buddha says, "All that we are, arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world."

Recall Pol Pot. He believed there was "no gain in keeping, no loss in eliminating" those with "incorrect thinking" -- "incorrect" because it did not conform to his. His solution was "tbaung chawb" -- a hoe blade to strike at the neck of "incorrect" individuals.

And Buddha teaches, "In a controversy, the instant we feel anger we have already ceased striving for truth, and we have begun striving for ourselves." Buddha tells us, "I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act."

In other words, one's fate follows one's inaction.

It's not unusual to hear from time to time some individuals assert, not unreasonably, that one person cannot bring about change; millions are needed. I question if such assertion is meant to excuse them for their inaction.

A Khmer saying goes: "Samboeurm tae peark, trokieark slab s'dok," or "Awesome are the words, (but) the hip joints lie dead".

"Work of a Single Man"

Recall Robert F. Kennedy, mortally shot by Sirhan Sirhan at The Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles in June 1968. He made famous a quotation of Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw's: "Some men see things as they are and say, 'Why'? I dream of things that never were and say, 'Why not'?"

Kennedy declared in a speech: "Some believe there is nothing one man or one woman can do against the enormous array of the world's ills. Yet many of the world's great movements, of thought and action, have flowed from the work of a single man. A young monk began the Protestant reformation, a young general extended an empire from Macedonia to the borders of the earth, and a young woman reclaimed the territory of France. It was a young Italian explorer who discovered the New World, and the thirty-two-year-old Thomas Jefferson who proclaimed that all men are created equal."

The young monk was German professor of theology Martin Luther (1483-1546). At age 34, Luther who led the Protestant Revolt, argued that people could have a direct relationship with God. He nailed his famous 95 theses to the door of a Catholic church in Wittenberg; he translated the Bible from Latin so that non-Latin-speaking people the world over can read the words of God. The Revolt unleashed the Thirty Years War between the Protestant and Catholic leagues.

The young general was Ghengis Khan (1162-1227), who started to unite nomadic tribes at a young age, and when he was 44, founded the Mongol Empire, that spread and covered 22 percent of the Earth's total land area, stretching from Central Asia to Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East.

The young woman was Jeanne d'Arc -- Joan of Arc (1412-1431) -- a French peasant girl who claimed divine guidance for her to liberate her homeland from English domination late in the Hundred Years War. While veteran commanders were dismissive of her, she rallied France's flagging troops against the English and lifted the Orleans siege in only 9 days in 1429, when she was only 17, and had Charles VII crowned King of France. She was later captured, put on trial by an ecclesiastical court, found guilty, and was burned at the stake for heresy in Rouen, France, in 1431, at age 19.

And we have read about the young Italian explorer, Christopher Columbus, who claimed he said he had first gone to sea when he was 10, who docked in England when he was 25, landed at the Americas when he was 41. We also studied the influential American forefather Thomas Jefferson, principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence, at age 32, and promoter of the ideals of republicanism in the U.S.

Of course, it took many people to help Luther in the Protestant Reformation; many to help Ghengis Khan build and spread the Mongol Empire; many to fight alongside Joan of Arc. Columbus didn't sail alone; nor did Jefferson work on the Declaration, alone.

As Kennedy said, "many of the world's great movements, of thought and action, have flowed from the work of a single man."

New Year, New Thoughts?

The often-quoted words of India's pre-eminent Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) say, "You must be the change you wish to see in the world."

He also says, "As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world . . . as in being able to remake ourselves."

For years, I have devoted my columns to discussing how we can "remake ourselves" before we can remake anything else. This holiday season, as I wandered through a store, I stumbled on a piece of wood carved with a Chinese saying: If you want product in a year, grow grain; in 10 years, grow trees; in 100 years, grow people.

If Cambodians want to maintain their nation's survival, they should be busy with growing people – starting with growing themselves. Learning and unlearning does not yield instant results, and I have no illusion that I will see this change in my lifetime, but my children's children will. The time to learn and unlearn should have started years ago. Still, it's better late than never. This New Year is a good time start. And we should begin with Confucius' (551 B.C.-479 B.C.) teaching: "Do not do to others that which we do not want them to do to us."

A "yes can do" attitude makes our tasks easier. It uplifts our spirit, assures that we are less likely to fail. A "no can do" attitude makes a simple task difficult, like a dark cloud hovering over us, and assures us we will not succeed.

There's a true story worth retelling. It's about Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919), who migrated to America with his parents from Scotland in 1848 and resettled in Pennsylvania's Allegheny region. At age 13, he began his life's first job as a bobbin boy, changing spools of thread 12 hours a day, six days a week, in a local cotton factory. He earned .20 per week.

Five years later, at 18, young Andrew took a job at the Pennsylvania Railroad. He learned about the railroad industry and about business in general.

When he was in his late 30s, Carnegie founded the Carnegie Steel Company. The company grew and became the world's largest steel manufacturer in the 1890s -- when he was 55. Carnegie, the refugee boy, became a businessman, an industrialist, and later, the world's richest man, a classic rags to riches story.

Between the ages 66 and 84, when he died, Carnegie donated most of his money to build libraries, schools, universities in the United States, England, and other countries. He famously said something that inspired me: "You cannot push anyone up a ladder unless he is willing to climb it himself."

You Choose

Like the saying, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink," you can choose to maintain your habitual reproductive thinking and reproductive behavior with predictable results, or you can choose productive, critical (which probes to understand, compares to determine options, and selects which is the best) and creative (which generates something new from nothing) thinking and behavior, to reach your vision of the future you want.

Not unlike people in other cultures who have their own myths, Cambodians have theirs. Some wish for the mythical Preah Bat Thoam-moek to emerge to lead them to a better future, and to protect and provide them with safety.

Yet, there are many leaders all around us, in families, at work places, in schools, in non-governmental institutions and groups. As I have written before, there are Cambodian theorists, catalysts, improvisers, and stabilizers, of Linda V. Berens's model; Cambodian peacemakers, organizers, revolutionaries, and steamrollers, of Katharine Giacalone's model; and you can read "Primal Leadership" (2002) and identify Cambodian visionaries, coaches, affiliates, democrats, pacesetters, and commanders, of Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee's model; amongst others.

There doesn't seem to be a shortage of leaders -- we learned we don't have to have a charismatic leader like Mahatma Gandhi or Martin Luther King, Jr., to fight oppression.

But there is this huge lack of willingness to humble ourselves to reach out to Cambodians for a common goal of liberation, conforming to the Khmers' "A vieach york mok thveu kang; A trang york mok thveu kamm; A sam ro-nham york mok thveu oss dot" -- "Curved wood makes wheel; straight wood makes spoke; twisted-crooked wood makes firewood."

And there is a shortage of understanding that productive and creative thoughts will have a positive impact on our collective future.

To end this article, a Buddhist proverb is in order: "When the student is ready, the master appears."

Happy New Year 2011!

.....................

The views shared in this article do not necessarily reflect those of the AHRC, and the AHRC takes no responsibility for them.

About the Author:

Dr. Gaffar Peang-Meth is retired from the University of Guam, where he taught political science for 13 years. He currently lives in the United States. He can be contacted at gmeth@gmail.com. pean

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About AHRC: The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional non-governmental organisation that monitors human rights in Asia, documents violations and advocates for justice and institutional reform to ensure the protection and promotion of these rights. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984.

Angelina Jolie on Religion & the Meaning of Life

Angelina Jolie regards Buddhism as an important part of her son's Cambodian heritage and considers him a Buddhist. She has said, "We spend a lot of time [at our house in Cambodia]. And I’m learning about Buddhism and I’m teaching him what I can. He spent a lot of time in temples with monks and he's learning." {7}

Angelina Jolie (b. 1975) is an American actress known for her exotic beauty, wild-child image, award-winning acting, and more recently, her globe-trotting humanitarian work with refugees, her growing international family, and her high-profile relationship with Brad Pitt. Angelina Jolie was born Angelina Jolie Voight on June 4, 1975 in Los Angeles, California.

Angelina Jolie does not identify herself with any single religion, nor has she declared herself an atheist (contrary to the claims of some atheist websites {5}). The subject of religion has not often come up in her interviews, so her beliefs about such things as God and the afterlife are not well documented.

The most direct statement Jolie is known to have made on the subject was reported by the website A.V. Club (associated with the online magazine The Onion), which asked a number of celebrities the question, "Is there a God?" and published the answers from 52 of them in a September 2000 feature story. Angelina Jolie gave the following answer:

Hmm... For some people. I hope so, for them. For the people who believe in it, I hope so. There doesn't need to be a God for me. There's something in people that's spiritual, that's godlike. I don't feel like doing things just because people say things, but I also don't really know if it's better to just not believe in anything, either. {6}

So at least in 2000, Angelina Jolie had no specific religious beliefs, didn't personally feel the need for a God and disliked authority-based religion, but was not willing to go so far as atheism and expressed hope that there might be a God for the sake of those who dedicate their lives to religious belief.

Angelina Jolie regards Buddhism as an important part of her son's Cambodian heritage and considers him a Buddhist. She has said, "We spend a lot of time [at our house in Cambodia]. And I’m learning about Buddhism and I’m teaching him what I can. He spent a lot of time in temples with monks and he's learning." {7}

Shortly after adopting Maddox, Angelina tattooed a prayer for protection for him on her upper back in Khmer script (left). She said, "I asked for it to be done in Buddhist Sanskrit, which is part of (Maddox's) history." {8}

Jolie with earthquake survivors in Pakistan, November 2005.

Some have speculated that Angelina Jolie is now a Buddhist (rumor also has it that Angelina and Brad had a Buddhist marriage ceremony), but she has not indicated a commitment to Buddhism more than any other faith. In fact, she seems to take a United-Nations inspired approach to her family, and perhaps, to her religion. She is reported as saying,

"I have a Buddhist son and I'd like a Christian and a Muslim child, too." {9}

Aside from any particular religion, Angelina Jolie has given a great deal of thought to the meaning of life, something she has been searching for with great intensity since childhood, as well as considerations of morality.

Having first found happiness in acting, and then in her marriage to Billy Bob, Angelina Jolie now finds meaning and contentment in her children and her ongoing work with refugees.

Question: Have you learned any important lessons since you became an ambassador, and if so what are they?
Angelina: I've become a better human being. I've learned the strength of the human spirit. I see different aid workers in camps helping each other from everywhere - people who have come together from all over the world to help people in Africa. It's changed my view of what is important. I'm not so concerned with things I used to be so concerned with. I care now that my son is healthy. I feel that I'm of some use to other people in the world. {10}


I've been traveling for the last three years and the last two I've been goodwill ambassador. I initially set out because I wanted to learn about what’s going on in the world and wanted to become a better person and simply educate myself. When I found I could be useful in communicating what I had learned and maybe inspire other people to educate themselves and do some good, it made me so happy and gave me a sense of purpose.

Angelina Jolie in a refugees camp in Tanzania on behalf of the UNHCR.

I’ve learned more about life from refugees and people that are the survivors from around the world than anywhere else. I admire them. I’ve learned about family and just respect them so much and have seen so many horrible things and seen so much survival and so much beauty in these people. So they’ve changed my life and I hope to keep working with them and do what I can to raise awareness. {12}

I want to fill my mind with valid issues in the world. I'd like there to be less refugees. I'd like all girls to go to school. That's what we need to be thinking about, and working on making our own families good and strong and our own kids happy. Not to cloud our minds with things that don't matter." {13}

"I've been crazy in my life, and I've been wild in my life, I've never been a bad person. I've never intentionally hurt other people just to hurt them. And I'm trying to do a lot of good things with my life." {14}

I love films, but I'm more aware of being a parent now and I'm more aware of the world now. I spend as much time as I can in a day trying to educate myself and travel whenever I possibly can. I'm grateful to be able to live in both. It's increasingly harder to come back into a world that is focused on material possessions...when you've just spent time doing something you feel is much more important. {15}

To read full article, please go to this link: http://www.religionfacts.com/celebrities/angelina_jolie.htm

Deciphering the Four Noble Truths

By Kate Fechter

Washburn Review

Published: Friday, May 7, 2010

Updated: Friday, May 7, 2010

Photo courtesy of http://media.dailyonigiri.com/2010/01/amida-buddha-daibutsu-kamakura-japan.jpg

Amitaba Buddha: This figure, located in Japan, is Amitaba Buddha, the Buddha of infinite light. Buddhism is the fourth largest religion in the world and is widely practiced in China, Japan and other parts of southeast Asia.

Nirvana was a grunge band in the 90s. It is also the name for when a Buddhist reaches Enlightenment. The fourth largest religion in the world, Buddhism, originated in India but is now mostly practiced in China, Japan and other parts of southeast Asia.

Professor Barry Crawford, a professor of religion and philosophy, explained the story of Buddhism’s founder Siddhartha Gautama, who was an Indian prince of the Sakya Clan, lived from 563-483 B.C. His father kept him locked in the palace because he wanted his son to be a great political leader, not a great religious leader. It had been prophesized that he could be either. Siddhartha escaped and witnessed the four passing sights: an elderly person, a sick person, a corpse and a monk meditating.

“How much of this story is true we don’t know,” said Crawford.

Disturbed by this, Siddhartha ran away to find inner peace. He practiced every technique he could think of to find peace. He became the Buddha and became enlightened.
He also discovered the four noble truths. The first noble truth is that all of life is suffering. Next, we suffer because we thirst to have things we cannot get. The next noble truth is that we can stop this suffering. The fourth is that by following the eight fold path you can stop this suffering. The eight fold path includes right thinking, right attitude, right effort and right livelihood, for example.

“In Buddhism, you have to know and internalize the four noble truths,” said Crawford. “You have to realize everything is impermanent and nothing lasts. For example, you want to be young forever and that can’t be.”

Crawford explained that in Buddhism thirsting for yourself causes the most suffering. The belief is there is no self, there is no soul.

“This is a hard concept for Westerners and non-Buddhists to understand,” said Crawford. “Think of it like a mirage. You are conscious of it and perceive it, but it’s not there. The same idea applies to the self. You want continuity but it’s not there.”

The goal in Buddhism is to reach enlightenment or Nirvana. Nirvana translates to “no wind,” like blowing out a candle explained Crawford.

“When you retain enlightenment your consciousness of yourself disappears,” said Crawford. “It’s an ultimate no-thingness.”

According to religioustolerance.org there are three main types of Buddhism. These are: Theravada, Mahayana and Vrjiana Buddhism. Crawford explained the differences between the three main types.

Theravada is “the way of the monk” and they hold closest to the teachings of Buddha. Mahayana Buddhism focuses on the model of love and compassion exhibited by Buddha the person. Finally Vrjiana Buddhism is also known as Tibetan Buddhism. This is the Buddhism practiced by the Dali Lama.

“Vrjiana is a mixture of Buddhist beliefs and a Tibetan religion called Bon,” said Crawford. “Bon has to do with strategies for survival in a hostile environment by placating hostile spirits. It also involves chants, mantras and charms.”

Mahayana Buddhism is very popular in Japan, where they have a 40-foot statue of the Amitaba Buddha, or the Amida as they call him. The Amida is the Buddha of infinite light.

“Amida reigns over paradise in the west,” said Crawford. “He is a cosmic Buddha and people pray so that he will have pity and share his grace and merit. The hope is that after they die the Amida will admit them into paradise.”

The Amitaba Buddha is often sold in stores as a figurine. Another figure that many would recognize is the laughing Buddha, or Ho Thai. He is a fat and happy Buddha. He is a Chinese folklore figure and his name Ho Thai means “cloth sack.”

Buddhists believe in reincarnation. According to Crawford, it is called Samsara which means rebirth.

“If you don’t reach enlightenment in this life, you will be reborn until you see the truth and see what Siddhartha himself saw,” said Crawford.

Although Buddhism began in India, it is not a popular religion there today. A large portion of India practices Hinduism. Crawford explained the connection between Buddhism and Hinduism.

“Like Christianity began as a movement within Judaism, Buddhism started within the bosom of Hinduism,” said Crawford. “Buddhism became so different that eventually it became its own religion.”

Religioustolerance.org addresses the debate about whether or not Buddhism is actually a religion or a philosophy. It is said that Buddhism is a philosophy, not a religion because there is no talk of a god or deity. Mahayana Buddhism treats its many Buddha figures as cosmic figures like gods. However Siddhartha never addressed any god.

“Buddha didn’t pay attention to gods,” said Crawford. “Still, it’s not quite accurate to say he was an atheist.”

The contributions of the Buddha and Buddhism

(Photo/Stephanie Carter) Meerut, India, May 06 — Gautama Buddha and Buddhism have made excellent contributions towards strengthening the Indian Way, which is based on universal acceptance, particularly in making it dynamic and bringing the common man into its fold. Buddha’s contribution for taking this way in his time, when it was a narrow path, cannot be underestimated.

Buddhism’s roots are deep. It is believed that Buddhism existed long before the birth of Siddhartha Gautama. Buddhist texts say that Gautama Buddha was one among a thousand awakened to attain Buddhahood. The chain of Buddhas will continue, with the Maitreya Buddha being the next one to come.

Buddhism is an accessible way of life as shown by the Buddhas. By overcoming negative ideas, a Buddha develops positive virtues and rises to the stature of being a mentor to the world. Anyone, by knowing the reality of life, through self-control, restraint and discipline, and by following the Middle Way, can get through the journey of life. By continuously doing good acts, he develops virtues, escapes the bond of sorrows, and attains the stage of being a Buddha.

Siddhartha Gautama, born in 563 BC, the son of Suddhodana and Queen Mahamaya of Kapilvastu, belonged to the Ikshavaku family line, which also gave birth to most of the Jain Tirthankaras – one who achieves enlightenment through asceticism, becoming a teacher to others – as well as to the great King Harishchandra and Lord Rama. At the time of Siddhartha’s birth, social and political conditions were very complicated. People were victims of atrocities and exploitation. There was a great void of love and sympathy among people for one another. Competition and jealousies at their worst dominated human practices. People were busy with rivalries and conspiracies against one another. The religious field had become discriminatory and isolated, and the center for achieving self-interest.

At that time, Siddhartha rose to the stature of the Buddha. He, as per the demand of the time, re-established Ahimsa, the supreme human value, in different walks of life in the form of Karuna, or compassion. His unique work added a matchless dimension to the Buddhist tradition. By making the way of human equality accessible, based on the ideal of Karuna, he gave new life to the Indian Way.

Gautama Buddha’s contribution to the Indian Way and to humanity can be highlighted in three ways. On the strength of his intense and highly philosophical research based upon knowledge, logic, and exercise, and having the four Arya Satyas − sorrow, its cause, its cessation, and the means of its cessation − in the center, he described the reality of human life. This was his first great contribution. He clarified to the suffering world that sorrow was the supreme reality of life.

Birth, disease, old age, death, astonishment, depression, grief, contact with the unloving, separation from the dear, and the non-fulfillment of desire are sorrows. Desiring enjoyment, power, wealth, and the will to live are the causes of sorrow. Desire and lust give birth to a state of struggle and conflict, become the source of striving and lead people toward the ocean of sorrows. Cessation of these desires is the way to become free from sorrow. Gautama Buddha established the Eightfold Middle Way as the way to free oneself desire, the cause of sorrow.

His path, besides becoming the Way’s best introduction, proved to be a milestone of the Way. Buddhism flourished, affecting millions of Indians and becoming the basis for the lives of many around the world. It touched the heights of the spiritual world in his lifetime. The simple and practical teachings of Buddha saved man.

Shakyamuni’s call for equality and people’s response to it paved the way for social change in India. It was his second noteworthy contribution. Perhaps many are unaware that, on many occasions, Buddha expressed views on the importance of democracy. He called upon people to strengthen democratic values for the common welfare. Despite the existence of democratic institutions in India centuries before his birth, his advocacy of a democratic system, at a time of complicated social and political conditions, was a historical event.

He stressed making collective decisions; cooperating to implement them; respecting the pre-established system of welfare and law and elders’ advice; not using force on women; protecting Dharma; respecting the monks; strengthening morality and dutifulness in life; and showing reverence for others’ views and faiths. These principles continue to have significance today for the prosperity of the system, if adopted as per the demands of the time.

Gautama Buddha brought all movable-immovable objects and views within the scope of Law of Change. Purification according to the demands of the time and place is an indivisible part of this Law. Hence, his call to accept this Law for all-around progress is his third important contribution to the Indian Way and to humanity.

Reference source: http://www.upiasia.com/Blogosphere/Ravindrak/20090507/the_contributions_of_the_buddha_and_buddhism/

Buddhism fastest growing religion in West

By Janaka Perera, Asian Tribune
April 7 , 2008

Colombo, Sri Lanka -- Buddhism is being recognized as the fastest growing religion in Western societies both in terms of new converts and more so in terms of friends of Buddhism, who seek to study and practice various aspects of Buddhism. Dr. Ananda Guruge, leading Buddhist Scholar and former Sri Lankan Diplomat made this observation during a public lecture at the All Ceylon Buddhist Congress Hall Colombo on Friday, April 4. The lecture titled, "Role of the Sri Lankan Leadership in the Protection of Buddhism" was delivered under the auspices of the Buddhist and Pali University, All-Ceylon Buddhist Congress and the Buddhist Times Trust. The Chief Guest was Speaker of the House W.J.M. Lokubandara. Among the others present were Buddhist Congress President Jagath Sumathipala, Venerable Wegama Piyaratana, Venerable Professor Dhammavihari, Major-General (Rtd.) Jaliya Nammuni (Centre for Buddhist Action) and former Archaeological Commissioner Dr. Roland Silva.

Dr. Hema Goonatilake of the Buddhist Times Trust was the Convener.

Said Dr. Guruge:

"Both on account of a series of Diaspora from China, Taiwan, Korea and Vietnam, adherents to Northern Schools of Buddhism are numerically preponderant. Interestingly, the intellectual interactions between these ethnic Buddhists and those devoted to Buddhism in the West have created a new demand for a deep understanding of early Buddhism as preserved in Pali sources in Southern Buddhism.

A similar tendency is evident in the traditionally Northern Buddhist countries also. This demand has been further increased by the popularization of Vipassana Meditation by Mahopasaka S. N. Goenka. What the world needs today is not confined to what is in Pali. The Sinhala works on Buddhism have as much relevance and the translation of Sinhala classics into world languages is also a contribution to Buddhist Studies."

Noting that both Myanmar and Thailand have begun to respond to this demand, he pointed out that opportunities exist for Sri Lankan scholars to initiate cooperative activities with the growing institutions in Southeast Asia such as the World Buddhist University, established by the World Fellowship of Buddhists, and International Association of Buddhist Universities, initiated by Venerable Thepsaphong (now known as Dhammkosajahn).

"I am gratified to note that Dr. Sumanapala Galmangoda is scheduled to lead a team of scholars from Kelaniya University to conduct a panel discussion on Buddhist Ethics in a Conference organized by this Association to be held in Bangkok in September this year. Another opportunity - which is available for Sri Lankans to cooperate in a significant international venture - is to participate in contributing to the Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative (ECAI) led by Professor Lewis R. Lancaster of University of California Berkeley. Such involvement will also enable our scholars to be trained in using high-tech tools of research, which are increasingly becoming indispensable."

Dr. Guruge recalled that Lanka has many firsts in the history of Buddhism -developing commentaries on the Buddha's teachings in the national language (3rd century BCE), reducing to writing the Buddhist canon and its commentaries (1st century BCE), sending bhikkhunis to China to establish the bhikkhunisasana (5th century), enabling the dissemination of the commentaries to a wider readership through translations into Pali (5th century), unification of Southern and Northern traditions of Buddhism and evolving a form of ecumenical Buddhism (12th century), spreading that form of Buddhism to Southeast Asia along with Pali literature and traditions of Buddhist architecture and art (12th-15th century), being the foremost centre of Buddhist scholarship from the nineteenth century, taking Buddhism back to India, its land of origin (19th-20th century), serving as the focal point from which Buddhist missionaries took Buddhism to all continents in modern times, and restoring the bhikkhunisasana in Southern Buddhism (20th century).

He stressed the need for maintaining this record said that and no efforts should be spared.

"May the Sangha of Sri Lanka rise up to the challenges of the time and may the powers that be, namely and most importantly the educators and scholars take upon themselves the task of maintaining Sri Lanka's leadership in Buddhist Studies. This can easily be a major objective of the preparations for the next major event in the history of Buddhism – the 2600th anniversary of the attainment of Buddhahood in 2011-2012."

He emphasized that any strategy Sri Lanka develops to maintain her leadership in Buddhist activities has to be based on these advantages that the current internationally recognized scholars enjoy. He recommended the following are the actions for the immediate consideration of all concerned:

1. It is my conviction that the atmosphere required for the promotion of Buddhist studies has to be developed by a resurgence of dedication to scholarship in the Sangha. The higher education of the Sangha with due emphasis on original scriptural sources in Pali, Sanskrit and other Canonical languages is indispensable. One is no doubt appalled by the falling standard of Pali learning in the country. It is hardly taught in schools and one cannot be altogether satisfied with the standard of Pali teaching in the Pirivenas.

Sanskrit has gone down even further. Without a very high level of proficiency in these languages, few monastics are in a position to produce the kind of scholarly work that those of a previous generation could. It is the Sangha that had preserved the study of Pali and Sanskrit not only through the Pirivenas but also through schools. Serious attention has to be given to the promotion of these languages if Sri Lanka has to retain its leadership in Buddhist Studies.

2. A critical mass of research scholars should acquire an excellent command of the spoken and written English because the fruits of their labors would never be known outside the Island unless they are presented in impeccable standard of English. At the same time, our scholars should be able to access the research that is being done in the world. Without such access at least through the medium of English, the greatest danger in our institutions of higher education is that students are not introduced to new knowledge.

3. Some at least among them should proceed to gain some degree of proficiency in research languages useful for Buddhist Studies such as Chinese, Tibetan, Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese as well as French, German and Italian.

4. Scholars with ability to speak and write in foreign languages should be given every opportunity (with financial provisions for membership fees, travel and subsidies for publications) to -

1. Become members of international professional associations and organizations such as the Royal Asiatic Societies, International Association of Buddhist Studies, Indian Association of Buddhist Studies, International Association of Sanskrit Studies, etc.;

2. Contribute well-researched learned articles to recognized peer-reviewed foreign journals and also to have their books published abroad. (Equally important is to get articles and books of high quality in national languages translated into foreign languages. It must be stated here that Sri Lankan scholars do publish annually a substantial number of learned articles in English in Felicitation and Commemorative Volumes, the Sri Lankan Journal of Buddhist Studies and University Journals but their outreach to the world is very limited.. The efforts of Professors Y. Karunadasa, Asanga Tilakaratna and Venerable Kuala Lumpur Dhammajoti in this regard are very creditable. The speedy completion of the Encyclopedia of Buddhism has also to receive the highest priority.)

3. Review in national journals important works by foreign scholars both for the purpose of apprising local scholars and students of the availability of new research findings and also to let the international scholars know that their work is under scrutiny by our scholars;

4. Participate in international seminars and conferences, presenting papers and interacting with worldwide scholars to have an international peer review of research done by them in Sri Lanka;

5. Organize periodically international conferences inviting recognized scholars of the world and conducting them with the highest level of efficiency and effectiveness.