Buddhist Monk Spends Life Saving Rare Bamboo Species

Bernama, Apr 16, 2015

Hanoi, Vietnam -- Buddhist bikku (monk) Thich The Tuong has been working hard to turn his one hectare farm into a bamboo conservatory on the Son Tra Mountain, which is the home for over 110 bamboo species including the four considered on the verge of extinction in Viet Nam.

<< Buddhist bikku Thich The Tuong works at the bamboo conservation garden on Son Tra Mountain. VNS Photos Cong Thanh HA NOI (VNS-BERNAMA)
The garden, located on the Son Tra mountainside, eight kilometres from the city centre is open to all visitors, who wish to see bamboo conservation in a rural setting, along with a fishing pond and a stone installation.
"It has been a long and hard journey since I planted the first bamboo. I loved gardening since I left my native village of Vy Da to enter religious life at a small pagoda in Con Hen in Hue," said Tuong.
"I left the pagoda after my master died and found the Quan The Am Pagoda in Da Nang to continue my religious life."The garden was donated by a farmer in Son Tra after he became too tired to plant any trees. I worked the land and grew different bamboo species that I had collected from different provinces," he recalled.
"I have collected a third of the total 300 bamboo varieties in Viet Nam. Bamboo plantation has grown over the past decade, dotting the sloping hills of the Son Tra Mountain."
He said he had named the garden Son Tra Tinh Vien (Son Tra Tranquil garden).
A CONNECTION BETWEEN BAMBOO AND BUDDHISM
The 48-year-old monk said he had settled down in the area and started looking after thegarden as he wanted to continue with his religious work and preserve the bamboo gene at the same time. "I studied literature at HCM City's Social Sciences and Humanities College, so I found a connection among bamboo, literature and Buddhism," he explained.
"The Bamboo garden is my effort to preserve nature on the Son Tra Mountain, which has been recognised as a nature reserve. It would help protect the evergreen peninsula in the tourist city in the future," he said.
"Bamboo has inspired me to compose poems and literature, as well as lead a religious life. I have also created a tranquil corner in the garden for religious meditation," he said.
Four bamboo species feared on the verge of extinction are growing well in the garden.
THE MONK'S GARDEN A BAMBOO GENETIC POOL
Meanwhile, Le Thi Thoa, an ex-student of biology and environment at the Da Nang's Teachers' Training college, said the garden was literally a bamboo genetic pool.
"I spent two years working on a thesis on bamboo, and the garden was my approach for research. The monk assisted me considerably in my study of bamboo," Thoa said.
"It is a precious garden of bamboo genes in Viet Nam as bamboo forests on the upstream have been over-exploited or destroyed. Bamboo is rare in villages as the local people prefer to grow CASH crops or profitable plants," she said.
Thoa, who is a teacher at a junior secondary school in A Luoi District of Thua Thien-Hue, said she had proposed the idea of growing bamboo in environmentally polluted areas in Da Nang.
"I had read a document saying that bamboo reduces the content of dioxin in soil or air. Other plants cannot grow because of the chemical contaminating the air or land, but bamboo can develop well anywhere," she said.
The 25-year-old teacher said the development of more bamboo conservation centres would help protect valuable sources of flora and their genes in Viet Nam.
"Bamboo also plays a role in biodiversity, along with other plants. It is a source of food for animals in the forest. Bamboo can slow down heavy floods upstream and smooth downstream flows," said Nguyen Thi Tinh, a biologist from the Frankfurt Zoological Society of Germany.
"Land for bamboo in rural villages has been reserved for farming or urban development. So, the ever green plant has gradually disappeared," she said.
She said bamboo was also symbolic of the vitality and power of Vietnamese culture and its people.
BAMBOO IS VERSATILE
The monk said he had brought species from Japan, Thailand, India and Africa, whenever he visited these countries. "Bamboo can be grown as bonsai in a family garden or can be sold in the market. People just think bamboo is for construction of cottages, but it can be a source of craft in rural areas," he explained.
"Bamboo is also used as raw material for production of bamboo charcoal-based toothpaste or tooth brushes in China and Korea," he said.
The monk is worried that he will not be able to preserve the garden as the city plans to convert the farm into a tourist resort.
"I had proposed better alternatives for the bamboo conservatory, but the city's departments or agencies are yet to respond," he said.
"The directorate of the private Duy Tan University had asked me to move the garden to the university village as a field research project for students. However, I am still hesitant as I am waiting for a decision from the city authorities regarding the garden," he said.
"I will devote the garden to Da Nang as it could promote the city as a bamboo conservation centre in Viet Nam," he said.
The garden is a favourite photography spot for young people on the weekends, since it is still rare to find a precious bamboo genetic garden in the central region.

The largest Buddhist settlement in the world is in China

By Becky Pemberton, The Daily Mail, 19 April 2015

Inside the village where 40,000 monks and nuns are segregated and televisions are banned... but iPhones are allowed
Larung Gar, China -- Among the green rolling hills in the Larung Gar Valley in China, the last thing you would expect to see in the countryside are thousands of red wooden huts that have been built in a massive cluster.

<< Larung Gar Buddhist Academy is home to 40,000 monks and nuns, who travel to the settlement of Sertar to study Tibetan Buddhism
Despite its secluded location it is home to the Larung Gar Buddhist Academy, the world's largest Buddhist settlement.
A vibrant splash of red, this colourful settlement has sprung up in the 1980s and is now a haven for over 40,000 monks and nuns. 
The sprawling settlement, Sertar, sits on elevations of 12,500ft, and the religious devotees battle harsh climates to study at the remote dwelling.
The wooden huts are built so closely together, they look like a red sea spreading up the hilly terrain. Conditions are basic, with residents having to share communal toilets, and each unheated hut ranging from one to three rooms in size.
An isolated religious haven, Sertar is located around 370 miles from Chengdu, and those wishing to visit have to travel by coach for a gruelling 20 hours.
TVs are prohibited at the picturesque retreat, with monks and nuns flocking to benefit from the studies, prayers and lectures ran at the academy.
Photographer Wanson Luk journeyed to the secluded location from Chengdu on a 20-hour bumpy coach ride.
The 34-year-old Buddhist said the Larung Area has two small guest houses, but as these were occupied, he had to stay near the entrance.
He stayed two days at the Buddhist centre, taking part in ceremonies.
Luk said that the settlement welcomes everyone, and they maintain their life in the hills from donations and by small businesses like the guest house or small grocery store.
'I was most surprised about how people feel about death,' Luk said.
'I took part in the sky burial ceremony where there were hundreds or thousands of condors waiting quietly. There were 7 corpses on that day...one of them was a child.
'During the ceremony a monk will pray then the "sky burial master" will start cutting the corpses. When he is done, the condors will all fly to the corpses
'They believe the more the condors eat, the better it is and they will not eat bad people's body.'
One encounter which struck a chord for Luk was the meeting of a nun who was on her 'no speech day'.
When the photographer was asking how to get to the top of the hill for night shots she resorted to all forms of gestures to try to assist.
She ended up taking him around the whole monastery, showing him how to spin the prayer wheels and teaching him how to pray.
Although TVs are prohibited in the monastery, iPhones strangely are permitted, with her typing words to instruct him as they went.
Many of the Buddhists own second-hand iPhone 4s.
The incredible academy was established in 1980 in the uninhabited valley by Jigme Phuntsok, an influential lama of the Nyingma tradition.
Despite its remote situation, Larung Gar evolved from a handful of disciples to be the largest Buddhist settlement in the world.
It attracts a mix of students from ethnic Chinese students to pupils from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia, who attend separate classes taught in Mandarin, while larger classes are taught in Tibetan.

Kerala Mahabodhi Mission organised Dhamma class

Kerala mahabodhi mission Organised Dhamma class for students and upasakas at Dhamma bodhi hall Palakkad.Topic was 'What is Buddha Dhamma'.Brother Binoj Babu was the Faculty.

13 Buddhist Antidotes to Anger

Source: http://www.peaceful-traveler.com/Buddhism/life/, April 2, 2015

Here is a summary of various approaches to anger. They obviously will be most efficient when used with a calm and concentrated mind, either during meditation or at the moment you realize that something needs to be done about your anger. Obviously, the problem during an actual difficult situation is to have a calm and concentrated mind – a regular meditation practice can be of great help then! One of the best ways to really make progress with understanding and changing the functioning of our own mind is to try out analytical meditation, combined with these clues.

ANTIDOTE 1 – Patience.
Patience is the main antidote to anger. As common wisdom says: just count to 100… During this time, any of the below methods can be effective. The most effective method will depend on the actual situation. Especially in our age of rush and intense change, patience may not be seen as a positive quality, but take a minute to think about it – impatience can easily give rise to a general feeling of anger.
ANTIDOTE 2 – Realisation of the Noble Truth of Suffering.
Once one understands that problems and frustration are a basic fact of life, it can reduce our impatience with our own unrealistic expectations. In other words: nothing is perfect, so don’t expect it. If I believe that things should be perfect, it is almost unavoidable to feel disappointed and hurt.
ANTIDOTE 3 – Understanding Karma.
As explained in the page on Karma, the real reason for our problems are our own actions, which are in turn caused by our own negative states of mind. If someone makes us angry, it can have a sobering effect if we dare to think that the real reasons for this situation are our own past actions, and the person is just a circumstance for our own karma ripening.
ANTIDOTE 4 – Changing or Accepting.
Basically, we can find ourselves in two types of unpleasant situations: ones we can change and ones we cannot change.
– If I can change the situation, I should do something about it instead of getting all worked-up and angry. Not acting in such a situation will cause frustration in the end.
– If I cannot change the situation, I will have to accept it. If I don’t, it will only lead to frustration and a negative and unpleasant state of mind, which will only make the situation worse.
For reasons unclear to me, Westerners (including myself) appear to have big problems with accepting unpleasant situations which we cannot change. Could this be a result of impatience (a form of anger) with imperfection (an unrealistic expectation)?
Do consider the wisdom in the following remarks:
“How does this effect my Buddhist practice?
It doesn’t.
These reported events are like an arrow shot at my heart but it lands at my feet.
I choose not to bend over, pick it up, and stab myself with it.”
ANTIDOTE 5 – Realistic Analysis.
For example: someone accuses me of something.
– If it is true, I apparently made a mistake, so I should listen and learn.
– If it is untrue, the other person makes a mistake. So what? Nobody is perfect. I also make mistakes, and it is all too easy to label the other as “enemy”, in which case a helpful discussion or forgiving becomes difficult.
It may also be worthwhile searching for the real underlying reason of the problem. Of special importance is to evaluate one’s own role in the situation: my own fears, insecurity, being very unfriendly, or not being blameless (like leaving home much too late for an appointment and blaming the 5 minute delay of the train).
ANTIDOTE 7 – Realisation of Emptiness.
See the page on Wisdom. To summarise it briefly, if one deeply realises the emptiness of inherent existence or interdependence of the other person, the situation and oneself, there is nothing to be angry about. The realisation of emptiness is therefore the ultimate means of ridding oneself of unrealistic negative emotions like anger.
ANTIDOTE 8 – Equanimity.
Equanimity means that one realises the basic equality of all sentient beings; others want happiness, just like I do. Others make mistakes just like I do. Others are confused, angry and attached, just like I often am. Is the other person happy in this situation, or just struggling like I am?
ANTIDOTE 9 – Openness
Be prepared to be open for the motivation of others to do what causes you problems. Talking it over and being prepared to listen can suddenly make a problem acceptable. Have you ever noticed the difference when a plane or train is delayed and nobody provides any reason for it? People very quickly become irritated and hostile. Then when the driver or pilot explains there is a technical defect or an accident, suddenly waiting becomes easier.
ANTIDOTE 10 – Relativity.
Ask yourself: is this situation is actually important enough to spoil your own and other people’s mood? Is this problem worth getting upset in a life where death can hit me at any moment?
ANTIDOTE 11 – Change Your Motivation.
In case a situation is really unacceptable, and another person needs to be convinced that something is to be done or changed, there is no need to become upset and angry. It is likely much more efficient if you show understanding and attempt to help the other understand the need for change. If one needs to appear angry for some reason to convince the other person of the seriousness of the situation, one can think like a parent acting wrathful to prevent the child from harming itself.
In general, to be really effective one needs to reflect on quite a number of aspects in one’s own mind like: forgiveness, peace of mind, fears, self-acceptance (no acceptance of others is really possible without self-acceptance), habits, prejudices etc. A list of aspects to start with is given in the page about the mind, under the 26 non-virtuous mental factors.
ANTIDOTE 12 – Watch Your Hands.
An interesting suggestion from Jon Kabat-Zinn, from ‘Wherever You Go, There You Are‘:
“All our hand postures are mudras in that they are associated with subtle or not-so-subtle energies. Take the energy of the fist, for instance. When we get angry, our hands tend to close into fists. Some people unknowingly practice this mudra a lot in their lives. It waters the seeds of anger and violence within you ever time you do it, and they respond by sprouting and growing stronger.
The next time you find yourself making fists out of anger, try to bring mindfulness to the inner attitude embodied in a fist. Feel the tension, the hatred, the anger, the aggression, and the fear which it contains. Then, in the midst of your anger, as an experiment, if the person you are angry at is present, try opening your fists and placing the palms together over your heart in the prayer position right in front of him. (Of course, he won’t have the slightest idea what you are doing.) Notice what happens to the anger and hurt as you hold this position for even a few moments.”
ANTIDOTE 13 – Meditation.
Last, but certainly not least, meditation can be the ultimate cure for completely eliminating anger from your mind. In the beginning, one can do analytical meditations (like this meditation on anger), but meditations on compassion, love and forgiving reduce anger as well. Ultimately, the realization of emptiness eradicates all delusions such as anger.