Sunday, June 17, 2012

Friendly Goodwill is the 9th Mental Perfection:

Friendliness means Goodwill
Friendliness means Kindness
Friendliness means Helpfulness
Friendliness means Assistance
Friendliness means Support
Friendliness means Benevolence
Friendliness means Concern
Friendliness means Care
Friendliness means Compassion
Friendliness means Cooperation
Friendliness means Mutual Aid
Friendliness means Mutual Advantage
Friendliness means Sympathy
Friendliness means Symbiosis

Only friendliness can completely evaporate the poison of hate and anger!
Its characteristic is to promote the welfare of others, its function is to
do only good, and its manifestation is kindness, sympathy, and gentleness...
The proximate cause of friendliness is seeing the good aspects of things!
The proximate cause of understanding compassion is this very friendliness!

The Blessed Buddha said about friendliness (Mettā):
"Bhikkhus, whatever kinds of worldly merit there are, all are not worth
one sixteenth part of the release of mind by universal friendliness;
in shining, glowing and beaming radiance. This release of mind by
universal friendliness far excels & surpasses them all..."

What are the 11 Advantages of cultivating such Universal Friendliness?
The 4 Brahma Viharas; The 4 Divine States: The 4 Infinite States:
"Friends, eleven advantages are to be expected as effects from the release
of mind into friendliness by the practice of Goodwill, by cultivating amity,
by making much of it frequently, by making friendliness the vehicle, the tool,
the basis, by insisting on it, by being well established in it as a sublime habit!

What are these eleven advantages ?
One falls asleep well! One wakes up Happy!
One dreams no evil dreams!
One is liked and loved by all human beings!
One is liked and loved by all non-human beings too!
One is guarded and protected by the divine devas!
One cannot be harmed by fire, poison, or weapons!
One easily attains the concentration of absorption!
One's appearance becomes serene, calm, and composed!
One dies without confusion, bewilderment, or panic!
One reappears after death on the Brahma level, if one
has penetrated to no higher level in this very life!

When the mind is released into friendliness by the practice of goodwill,
by manifesting friendliness, by cultivating amity, by frequently making much
of it, by making friendliness the vehicle, the tool, the basis, the medium, the
foundation, by persisting in it, by insisting on it, by properly consolidating it,
by thoroughly undertaking it, by making it a familiar supreme habit, by so
being well established in it, these eleven blessings can be expected!"
Anguttara Nikāya V 342

There, Oh friends, the Bhikkhu with a mind full of friendly loving-kindness
pervading first one direction, then a 2nd one, then a 3rd one then the 4th one,
as below so above, across and all around, everywhere identifying himself with
all sentient beings, he is encompassing the whole world with a mind of friendly
loving-kindness, with a wide mind, vast, refined, unbounded, cleared, exalted,
pure and bright, free from all hate and ill will ...

There, Oh friends, the Bhikkhu with a mind full of understanding compassion
pervading first the front, then the right side, then the back, then the left side,
as below so above, across & all around, all over, far & wide; identifying himself
with all sentient beings, he is perfusing the whole universe with a mind imbued
with pity, with a spacious mind, a refined mind, infinite, purified, all luminous,
freed from all anger and any trace of enmity ...

There, the Bhikkhu with a mind full of altruistic, sympathetic and mutual Joy
pervading the North, then the East, then the South, then the West, as below
so above, across & all around, universally, infinitely; identifying himself with
all sentient beings, he is suffusing all galaxies with a mind elevated by genuine
mutual and altruistic sympathetic joy, with an open mind, immeasurable, wide,
limitless, pure & shining, free from all aversion and bitterness ...

There, Oh friends, the Bhikkhu with a mind full of balanced equanimity is
pervading first the frontal quadrant, then the right, then the rear & then the
left quadrant, as below so above, across and all around, everywhere placing
himself with all sentient beings, he is permeating the whole world with a mind
satiated of stilled and balanced equanimity, calmed, with a mountain-like mind,
cultivated, endless, clean, dazzling, freed from any irritation and resentment."

"So too, Bhikkhus, others may speak to you timely or untimely, truly or untruly,
gently or harshly, beneficially or harmfully, based on kindness or on bitter hate!
If they abuse you verbally, you should train yourselves in this way:
"Our minds will remain unaffected, we shall speak no angry words, will dwell
friendly and understanding, with thoughts of kindness and no inward anger!
We shall remain friendly and beam goodwill towards that very person, and we
shall dwell extending it to the entire universe, mentally overflowing, exalted,
measureless and infinite in friendliness, without any trace hostility or ill-will."
That is how you should train yourselves. Even if bandits were savagely to cut
you up, limb by limb, with a two-handled saw, one who harbors hate on that
account, would not be one who carried out my teaching. Bhikkhus, you should
keep this instruction on this Simile of the Saw constantly in mind...
Majjhima Nikāya, Sutta 21

Thus he who both day and night
takes delight in harmlessness
sharing love with all that lives,
finds enmity with none...
Samyutta Nikāya. I 208

When one with a mind of love
feels compassion for the entire world
above, below and across,
unlimited everywhere.
Jataka 37

The Bodhisatta once was born as the righteous king Ekaraja. His kingdom was
taken by force. He and his son were buried in a pit to the neck...
King Ekaraja, however neither resisted, nor bore even slight ill will against the
invaders. Later he remembered this as his ultimate perfection of friendliness.
Ekaraja Jataka 303

On the Practice of Loving-Kindness (Mettā):
http://what-buddha-said.net/library/Wheels/wh006.pdf

More on the 10 mental perfections (paramis):
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/IV/The_Ten_Perfections.htm

Friendliness Frees!

Have a nice & noble day!

Friendship is the Greatest!
Bhikkhu Samāhita _/\_ ]
http://What-Buddha-Said.net

The Saving Aspects of Morality?

The Primary Aspect of Morality is:
Composing internal consistency in all behaviour…

The Dual Aspects of Morality are:
Keeping the rules and avoiding wrongdoing…Good behaviour and mental purification…
Good intention and complete self-control…
Dependent on prompting or own initiative…
Limited in extent or unlimited in extent…
Temporary & feeble or lifelong & stable…
Ordinary=Mundane or Supramundane=Noble…

The Triple aspects of Morality are:
Low, or medium, or superior…
Giving first priority to oneself, or to the world, or to the Dhamma…
Clung to, or not clung to, or naturally & spontaneously maintained…Pure, or impure, or dubious and doubtful…
The learner’s, the learned’s, or the neither-learner-nor-learned’s…

The Quadruple aspects of Morality are:
Leading to falling, to stagnation, to distinction, or to penetration…
That of Bhikkhus, or Bhikkhunis, or novices, or the laity…
Being natural, customary, necessary, or caused by prior events…
Regarding the rules, the sense doors, livelihood, or the requisites…

The Fivefold aspects of Morality are:
Limited, unlimited, completed, detached, and tranquillized purity…
Intending, refraining, controlling, leaving, and non-transgression…
These are the various inherent aspects of Morality…

Source: The Path of Purification: Visuddhimagga.
Written by 'the great explainer' Ven. Buddhaghosa in 5th century AC.
http://www.pariyatti.com/book.cgi?prod_id=771100

More on this basic first cause of all Good: Morality (Sīla)!
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/II/Happy_Habit.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/II/What_is_Virtue.htm
http://what-buddha-said.net/drops/V/immaculate_virtue.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/II/Best_Protection.htm
http://what-buddha-said.net/drops/V/The_Good_Disciple.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/III/The_Five_Basics.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/Best_Buddhist_Praxis.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/IV/Sila_Contemplation.htm

Morality is the Seed of all Good!

Have a nice & noble day!

Friendship is the Greatest!
Bhikkhu Samāhita _/\_ ]
http://What-Buddha-Said.net

BUDDHA VANDANA PROGRAMME CONDUCTED

Palakkad:Kerala mahabodhi mission Conducted Buddha vandana programme at palakkad on 17th June-2012.Dhammachari Dr.Rajananda moorthy was the chief guest.15 participants accepted dheeksha in this function.Anapanasathi meditation , Dhamma discourses were also conducted .Dr.Rajananda moorthi inagurated Keralamahabodhi pathasala on this day .

Buddha Vandana Programme

accepting Dheeksha

participants

Dhammachari Dr.Rajananda Moorthy inarurating Maha Bodhi Pathasala

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

On the 3 types of Persons similar to Sick People:

The Blessed Buddha once noted:
There are these three kinds of bodily sick people:
One, who will recover by himself, even without any doctor or any medicine..
One, who will never recover, even if treated by the best doctor & best medicine..
One, who will only recover if treated by right medicine and a good doctors advice..
It is for the sake of this last person, that doctors work and medicine is made!

It is similar with those mentally infected by illness of greed, hate and ignorance!
There are these three kinds of mentally sick people:
One will cure and free himself, even without meeting this Buddha-Dhamma...
One will never be cured, even if taught this Dhamma by the Buddha himself...
One will be cured & freed, if & only if, being thoroughly taught this Buddha-Dhamma...
It is for the sake of this last type of person, that this Dhamma should be shared!

The Best Doctor treating one of his disciples for a physical illness.

Mental Dis-Ease is found in almost all beings!

The Kammic Causes of Disease:
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/II/Kamma_leading_to_Health_&_Sickness.htm

Source (abbreviated excerpt):
The Numerical Sayings of the Buddha. Anguttara Nikāya. Sutta III:22
The sick [I:120] Gilānā
http://www.pariyatti.com/book.cgi?prod_id=132552
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/canon/anguttara/index.html

Incurable or not?

Have a nice & noble day!

Friendship is the Greatest!
Bhikkhu Samāhita _/\_ ]
http://What-Buddha-Said.net

Only Absence of Contact is Peace!

The Blessed Buddha once said:
Bhikkhus, if one does not really understand both the cause, the ceasing,
the satisfaction, the danger, & the escape from the 6 sources of contact,
then one has not lived the Noble life, and is far away from comprehending
this Dhamma and from practicing this Discipline...
Then a certain Bhikkhu said to the Blessed One: Venerable Sir, I am lost,
for I do neither understand the cause, the ceasing, nor the satisfaction,
nor the danger, nor the escape from any of these 6 sources of contact!
The Buddha then asked him:
What do you think, Bhikkhu, do you regard the Eye as:
This is mine, this I am, this is my self? No, Venerable Sir...
What do you think, Bhikkhu, do you regard the Ear as:
This is mine, this I am, this is my self? No, Venerable Sir...
What do you think, Bhikkhu, do you regard the Nose as:
This is mine, this I am, this is my self? No, Venerable Sir...
What do you think, Bhikkhu, do you regard the Tongue as:
This is mine, this I am, this is my self? No, Venerable Sir...
What do you think, Bhikkhu, do you regard the Body as:
This is mine, this I am, this is my self? No, Venerable Sir...
What do you think, Bhikkhu, do you regard the Mind as:
This is mine, this I am, this is my self? No, Venerable Sir...
Very good, Bhikkhu! So should you continue to clearly comprehend the eye,
ear, nose, tongue, body, and the mind through correct understanding thus:
This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self!
In this way will the six sources or contact gradually be left behind, by not
creating any future renewed existence! This itself is the End of Suffering!

Comments:
The cause of the six senses is the arising of name-&-form, body-&-mind...
The six senses cease at the ceasing of name-&-form, and body-&-mind...
The satisfaction of the six senses is the pleasure & joy they generate...
The danger of the six senses is their inherent unstable impermanence...
The escape from the six senses is the elimination of craving: Nibbāna!

Source:
The Grouped Sayings of the Buddha. Samyutta Nikāya. Book IV [43]
Section 35: On The 6 Senses. The six sources or contact: 71-2.
http://www.pariyatti.com/book.cgi?prod_id=948507
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/canon/samyutta/index.html

Sense Contact!
Have a nice & noble day!

Friendship is the Greatest!
Bhikkhu Samāhita _/\_ ]
http://What-Buddha-Said.net

On Sacred Tides: Maritime Buddhism and moving from the Silk Road to a “Great Circle”

from Buddhistdoor International

Network of Land and Sea routes

by Raymond Lam
2012-06-01

Imagine you’re about to sail the azure sea and reap its more positive maritime possibilities: trade, prosperity, or perhaps cultural exchange. But have you thought about the perilous journeys your cross necklace or wrist beads undergo to journey with their owners? Religious artifacts embody something at once primal and transcendent about human nature. People have been known to protect religious articles to the point of happily overriding their own basic sense of self-preservation. What a story, then, must it be for a devout person to embark on the seas with their pious statues, small shrines, sculptures, and even talismans or jewelry.
Here is something truly worth setting sail for: the ECAI Atlas of Maritime Buddhism Project. It’s an initiative to building new understandings of the Buddhist past. For more than a century we have seen the growth of interest in Silk Road research, and the identification of these mercantile routes as the major element in the transmission of Buddhism to China. But there is considerable available knowledge about Buddhist pilgrims, Buddhist kingdoms, and trade routes in South and Southeast Asia, and a growing awareness of the maritime contribution to the global network of trade and cultural diffusion.
As a historical project, the Atlas involves ambitious things: building a global team of researchers*, utilizing new data collection technologies, and using advanced data mapping and visualization to integrate cutting-edge results about the movements and trails of bygone ships and sailors.
Historically, mercantile activity was closely tied to the spread of Buddhism. We know that Buddhism was in many ways a religion of merchants as it made its way up and over the Pamir Mountains and into the Tarim basin. But the savvy dealers of Eurasia were not limited to caravans. There was an important group that operated a circuit of sea trade. And hence the million-dollar question: What was the role of these sea traders in the cultural life of Buddhism and, indeed, Eurasia? How does maritime Buddhism fit into the bigger picture of world history?
Buddhist history, like all other “histories,” can’t be understood in a vacuum. Non-Buddhist events like Alexander’s invasion of India and the rise of Islam all impacted trade and culture, and therefore had an effect on Buddhism too. We don’t have a complete picture of the diffusion process, but we do have some ideas about the impact of Buddhism on certain maritime trade and kingdoms.
Take Tamil Nadu, for instance. It had an intensive maritime trade link with western countries, Chinese and Southeast Asian regions. The numerous Roman coins and pottery attest to its role as a trading hub between South Asian, African and Mediterranean regions. There are also a good number of Chinese coins and products from China and Southeast Asia. The famous Chinese pilgrim, Xuanzang (he visited India in 629 – 645), wrote of a place called Molo-ku-ta or Malakuta at Tamil Nadu. During his visit, he recorded that he saw many remains of old monasteries. Xuanzang also mentioned Kancipuram, which apparently had dozens of vihāras that were all populated by monks of the Sthaviravāda tradition. He might have been exaggerating when he talked of “ten thousand” monks (a suspiciously round number), but it doesn’t change the intriguing reality that the majority of locales with Buddhist remains are also reported to have flourished as trade centers, yielding Chinese and South-East Asian pottery datable from the 9th to 14th centuries – almost the entirety of the medieval period.
Or what about Kavirippumpattinam, the celebrated capital and port city of the illustrious Cholas of the Cankam civilization (2nd century BC to 2nd century AD)? Ptolemy of the first century referred to this place as Kaberis Emporion, and Periplus of the Erthrian Sea called it as Camara. Tamil literature of the first three centuries AD gives a vivid account of Cholas, its harbor, sailors, merchants, and wares. Once more, a large number of Roman, Chinese and Southeast Asian materials have found here.
Exploring the Great Circle
The Atlas can show us how Buddhists of ancient times traveled the great circle. The preservation of archaeological sites is obviously imperative, since they contain Buddhist remains. Shipwrecks give us information about how materials were transported and traded. But we still don’t know what the pattern of migration, trade and diffusion was. How was it that Buddhism came to China influenced by its journey through South and Southeast Asia? What was the impact of Southeast Asian ideas on Buddhist culture, like the writing of Buddhist texts?
There is much to do. Primary approaches to research would include making digitally dynamic maps with the traditional historical, contextual maps, collating a GIS collection of sites, harbor locations, and shipwrecks, cataloguing locations and characteristics of Buddhist materials in historical sites and on ships, and digitizing artifacts, images, and inscriptions. As if this were not enough, there’s more. A truly modern and high-tech approach to research involves 3D, user-interactive data capturing and inscriptional and artistic details that reveal the nature of Buddhist activities. Kevin Cain of Insight Digital will be one of the collaborators in helping to preserve this cultural heritage.
The Silk Road remains one of the most important processes by which Buddhism spread across Eurasia. But if we look at the intriguing Buddhist artifacts excavated, from western India to Java, we find an equally exciting and inspiring history. Professor Lewis Lancaster is one of the scholars who have been making inroads in this field of studies. Perhaps it really is time for the Silk Road was “upgraded,” so to speak, into the Great Circle of Buddhism. It mightn’t sound so romantic, but it certainly is more accurate – and cutting-edge.
* Project Partners:
INSIGHT http://www.insightdigital.org
Institute for Study and Integration of Graphical Heritage Techniques
University of California (Berkeley) http://berkeley.edu/
Academia Sinica (Taiwan) http://www.sinica.edu.tw/main_e.shtml
University of Paris, Central Research Center
French National Centre for Scientific Research, (C.N.R.S) http://www.cnrs.fr/index.php
École française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO) http://www.efeo.fr/index.php?l=EN
Archaeological Survey of India http://asi.nic.in/
National University of Singapore http://www.nus.edu.sg/
Institute of South East Asian Studies, Singapore http://www.iseas.edu.sg/
The Nalanda-Sriwijaya Centre at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (Iseas) http://nsc.iseas.edu.sg/upcoming_events.htm
University of the West, Rosemead, California http://www.uwest.edu/site/
Atlas of Martime Buddhism
Contact Information
Professor Lewis Lancaster
Director of the Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative (ECAI)
http://www.ecai.org/
School of Information
University of California, Berkeley
E-mail: buddhst@berkeley.edu
Jeanette Zerneke
ECAI Technical Director
E-mail: jlz@berkeley.edu

The Sound of Silence

We’ve seen myriad Buddhist film festivals lately, most of them with the same ten or twelve choices. This one, in Bangkok, features some less commonly selected movies… – Buddhist art news

Actress Seeta Devi in the 1925 silent film The Light Of Asia . She plays the wife of Prince Gautama, who later becomes Lord Buddha.

An ensemble of culturally diverse musicians performs live tonight at the screening of an 87-year-old silent film at the opening of the first International Buddhist Film Festival
Bangkok Post, Published: 6/06/2012
Prince Gautama silently weeps, and the violin sighs. Gently, like a tiptoeing deer, the koto’s murmuring melody comes in beneath the rhythmic carpet of the tabla drums.
Prince Gautama _ later Lord Buddha, the prophet of the world and the light of Asia _ soon rises from grief and enters a contest with arch-nemesis Devadatta on horseback. Bustling and thunderous, that’s when the Indian percussion, played by a big man from Mumbai, mimics the rumbunctious galloping of hoofs while the Thai brass ensemble, led by the cheek-puffing trumpeter, bleats a war cry.
On the screen is the silent movie, The Light Of Asia. The 1925 German-Indian epic was the world’s first picture ever made on the life of Lord Buddha, and the restored 35mm print is crisp and rich with ghostly glory. The profundity of Prince Gautama’s eyes seems to reach an even greater depth when the film itself is soundless, but with every nuance of emotion heightened by the live music from the 15-member band gathering in the rehearsal studio.
Tonight at Scala Theatre, this quickly-assembled band of international musicians will put together what looks set to be a unique movie/music event of the year: a live performance to accompany the rare projection of The Light Of Asia.
Music director Anant Narkkong envisions the fusion of sounds in sketching the emotional colour of this hushed, lush movie.
“The music will be a simulation of different cultures, with this great movie at the centre,” says the Thai composer/musicologist. “We’re trying to create a dialogue, among the musicians who come together here, and among the audience, too.” The show tonight is a fitting curtain-raiser to the International Buddhist Film Festival 2012 Bangkok, organised by Buddhadasa Indapanno Archives to celebrate the 2,600th anniversary of Lord Buddha’s enlightenment (see right).
The Light Of Asia was co-directed by German Franz Osten and Indian Himansu Rai, and the 90-minute black-and-white film recounts the story of the Indian prince who, after pondering the inevitable scourge of sickness, old age and death, renounces his wealth and sets out to seek the ultimate truth.
After 87 years, the film’s visual expression remains distinct, and while there are elements of exoticism in the portrayal of the Indian cities _ with their Hindu shrines and Islamic mosques, with streetwise snake-charmers and ceremonial elephants _ The Light Of Asia has an authentic depth and a trascendental resonance that hardly date.
The feeling will be accentuated by the soulful serving of the music by Anant and his band.
Anant isn’t new to the film and the art of performing before a movie screen. Back in 1987, the musicologist led a band to perform live to Bangkok’s first-ever showing of this same movie at the National Theatre.
For the show at Scala tonight, Anant has returned to study the timing and grammar of the film, dissected its transition of mood and narrative, then attempted an amalgamation of various musical disciplines that altogether complement the cinematic expression.
In bringing different sounds and cultures into this temporary band, Anant’s original music is by turn impressionistic and expository, at once experimental and structured; it has an aromatic whiff of the subcontinent, yet brims with jazzy purr and improvisatory instinct.
It’s a sound effect and a tone poem, and it can be interpreted as a soundscape that regards Buddhism not strictly as a religion, but as a spiritual force that transcends frontiers.
”The music is live, it moves from beginning to end, meaning that we’re witnessing its birth, old age and death, along with the screening of the movie,” says Anant. ”Music is about listening. And before the audience hears anything, the musicians are the first to have to listen to the sound they produce and the sound their friends produce. It’s a way of focusing, which leads to the sharing of ideas, comments, and of sounds.”
Sharing is what Anant stresses almost with a philosophical occupation. Coming together for this special occasion are member guest musicians: Gary Hall, a Hua Hin resident who plays the synthesiser and also serves as the conductor; Randolf Arriola, a Singaporean guitarist specialising in ambience and ”meditation music”; the highlights are two Indian musicians, Ustad Matloob Hussain Khan on sitar, and Vasi Ahmad Khan on the tabla _ the Indian drum.
Both have come to Bangkok courtesy of the Embassy of India, and the musical dialogue has crossed over into a religious one: both Ustad and Vasi are Muslim. In case of Vasi Ahmad, he’s a member of the Cine Musician Association, and works closely with A.R. Rahman, the composer who won an Oscar for his music in the film Slumdog Millionaire.
”There’s no problem [for a Muslim to play and sing] in a Buddhist film,” says Vasi, a big, alert, smiling man from Mumbai. ”Musicians have only one religion, and that is music. This is an old religious film, and it will be a special performance tonight.”
In Anant’s sound kitchen there are also the koto, a Japanese string instrument, and guqin, its Chinese counterpart. Completing the sonic ingredients are the Thai saw-u, the tapping guitar, the erhu, the electric violin, a brass band, and even an iPad from which electronic clinking and thumping emerges.
”The combination of Buddhist culture and world music influence is what we’re looking for,” says Gary Hall, keyboardist and conductor. ”The music is half-composed and half-improvisation. What you’ll hear is an Oriental sound, but definitely not a traditional one.”
The practice of live music at film screening was invented not long after the birth of film.
In Thailand, live music was actually a great drama of the film-going experience during the reign of King Rama VII; not only during the screening, but a small ensemble was usually hired to play an overture at the cinema entrance to attract the crowd (a band called Korpai will fulfill that duty tonight).
Anant cites Nai Kun and Nai Noree as two legendary ensembles that played extensively at cinema houses in those long gone days, and their musical spectacle provided a form of transition from live music played at traditional performances like likay, or the mask-dance khon, to the new popular entertainment of film. Later when sound films became prevalent, the practice of live music grew irrelevant, then faded away.
Live sound, Anant says, has the analogue quality that pre-dates the cold precision of digital. But the real, manifest feature of live music accompaniment is that flash of uncertainty, the instinctive tweaking of notes and unplanned side-trips of melody and riff. Such quality is a perfect emblem to the film that Anant sees as a beautiful garland to salute the teachings of Lord Buddha.
”In playing along with the film, we have to move with great consciousness,” he says. ”Sound is impermanent, and live music faces uncertainty _ the same as what we experience in life as Lord Buddha told us. The musicians have to find a shared heartbeat. That way our music will be born and die together.”
Lights, camera, Buddhism!
Showing Buddhist wisdom through film is the underlying concept of International Buddhist Film Festival 2012 Bangkok (IBFF 2012), which begins tonight for invited guests at Scala before moving to public screening at SF Central World from tomorrow until Sunday.
Here are some highlights of the 33-film programme. Tickets costs 120 baht. Go to www.sfcinemacity.com for more details.
Carte Blanche: Three monks pick films
- IBFF 2012 has asked three respected monks _ Phra Jayasaro, Phra Paisal Visalo and Phramaha Vudhijaya Vajiramedhi (V. Vajiramedhi) _ to choose films that convey strong Buddhist messages.
Phra V. Vajiramedhi chose Matsuko Delivers, a Japanese film about a penniless, nine-month pregnant woman who’s left her husband to return to the old community of her childhood (Friday, 2.30pm and Saturday, 7.20pm). Phra Paisal has chosen An Army Of Peace, the documentary that records the Dhammayetra pilgrimage in 1997 (Friday, 1.20pm and Sunday, 3.55pm). Phra Jayasaro has opted for Crazy Wisdom, the documentary that explores the life, teachings, and “crazy wisdom” of the late Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, a pivotal figure in bringing Tibetan Buddhism to the West (tomorrow, 7.10pm and Sunday, 2pm).
COME, COME, COME UPWARD
Saturday at 6.50pm and Sunday at 2.40pm
- One of legendary Korean filmmaker Im Kwon-taek’s contemporary classics, the film follows the parallel paths of two Buddhist nuns on their spiritual journey that will be an ultimate test for their faith.
ABRAXAS
Tomorrow at 6.50pm and Saturday at 2.15pm
- A punk rock veteran, now a married Buddhist priest, has a crisis of identity. This film touches on karma, self, compassion, community, impermanence, a dog, fathers and sons, relative and absolute, noise and music.
KARMA
Tomorrow at 5.10pm and Friday at 7.10pm
A Nepalese nun embarks on the task of reclaiming her monastery’s money from a mysterious man in order to perform a ritual for their revered abbess. A sincere and heartwarming tale reflecting on lives in this quiet and timeless mountainous region.
BUDDHA COLLAPSED OUT OF SHAME
Friday at 12.30pm and Saturday at 5.20pm
On her way home, a little girl is taken prisoner by boys playing Taliban militants. Everything happens in the Bamiyan valley of Afghanistan, home to the giant Buddha statues destroyed by the Taliban in 2001.
BUDDHA MOUNTAIN
Friday at 5.15pm and Saturday at 12.40pm
Directed by leading Chinese female filmmaker Li Yu, the film follows the lives of three young people living in Chengdu, a region still recovering from the great earthquake. The film stars popular Chinese actress Fan Bingbing.
THE YELLOW ROBE
Tomorrow at 5.20pm and Sunday at 7.30pm
This 1957 film from Sri Lanka tells the story of Cyrill, a man dissatisfied with his introverted fiancee Sujatha. He starts a relationship with the more outgoing Sarojini and gets her pregnant. Sujatha meanwhile is fascinated by a wandering Buddhist monk.
TALKING HEART
Friday at 4pm and Sunday at 11am.
Famed Myanmar director U Thu Ka adapted the 1966 Hollywood film Madame X (directed by David Lowell Rich and starring Lana Turner) and put in traditional Buddhist wisdoms. The story concerns a doctor who falls in love with a woman but is thwarted by her family when they find out about his lowly origin.
THAI FILM PANORAMA
Friday at 7.20pm and Saturday at 3pm.
Young director Gunparwitt Phuwadolwisid’s debut film, Three Marks Of Existence, is a road comedy about a young man who, facing various problems in his life, takes on a pilgrimage to India. Also, three well-known Thai directors have been commissioned to make three new short films on the theme of Buddhism. Chookiat Sakveerakul (Love Of Siam) has made I Dreamed A Dream; Siwaroj Kongsakul (Eternity) tells the story of a family in Sang Yen; Uruphong Raksasat (Agrarian Utopia) will present In The Farm. And lastly, the festival will screen Emerald, a short experimental film by Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Monday, June 11, 2012

Xuanzang and the “Records of the Western Regions”

Abstracts:
Timothy H. Barrett, “The Xiyu-ji and Chinese Historiography”
Although a considerable quantity of Buddhist and non-Buddhist literature survives from the first millennium of the Common Era describing the world as the Chinese knew it, the Xiyu ji is generally regarded as representing the apogee of detailed Chinese knowledge of other parts of the world during this period. Certainly it provides a clear picture of China as but one of a number of civilisations which remained part of the heritage of Chinese knowledge of the wider world for as long as it was read or its influence was indirectly felt. Yet Xuanzang, for all his travels, did not arrive at his own appreciation of China’s place in the world; rather, he drew on earlier traditions of knowledge. These require examination. Equally, there is no reason to assume that once the Xiyu jiitself no longer represented current knowledge its picture of the world receded entirely in importance. No matter how sharply China turned inwards, the broader conception of the inhabited world captured in its pages still survived in some unremarked but quite important contexts.
Max Deeg, “The ‘Record of the Western Regions’ Between Chinese Text and Western Historical Imagination”
The Xiyu-ji (‘Record of the Western Regions’) has been used, since its first translation into a Western language through the French sinologist Stanislas Julien, as a source for the study of Buddhist and history in general of Central Asia and India in a assumedly positivist-objective way without really questioning the hermeneutical approach to the text in its Chinese historical context. This has led, paradoxically, to a “romanticized” view of the text as the personal account of a Chinese Buddhist monk of his travels through Central Asia and India which is historically correct and precise in its description which was, however, influenced by a confusion with another text, the Xuanzang-biography (Ciensi-sanzang-fashi-zhuan). The paper will present some examples where this confusion has resulted in an imagined Western historical reality which does not take into account the intentionality of the original text of the Xiyu-ji.
Antonello Palumbo, “Between religious disputation and imperial mentorship: Xuanzang as Buddhist partisan and ideologist”
Xuanzang’s astonishing life is usually labelled under two main rubrics: the travelling monk, author of the Xiyu ji and first-hand knower of Indian and Central Asian Buddhism; and the consummate scholar, impeccable translator of scores of Sanskrit texts and expert of Yogācāra doctrine. Far less studied is Xuanzang’s involvement in court politics and in the ideological argument of his days, which saw him as the single most authoritative spokesman for the elite Buddhist clergy between 645 and 664. This paper will offer a preliminary exploration of this intriguing facet of Xuanzang’s life, focusing on his role in the Buddhist-Taoist polemic and his exchanges with the throne, as recorded especially in the Si shamen Xuanzang shangbiao ji.
Tokio Takata, “Old Japanese Manuscript Copies of the Da Tang Xiyu ji and Their Value”
A considerable number of manuscript copies of the Da Tang Xiyuji have been transmitted until now in Japan. They were hand-copied by Japanese Buddhist monks in the Heian period (794-1185) and theKamakura period (1185-1333). The oldest one even dates back to 785 AD ( 4th year of Enryaku延暦), much older than Dunhuang manuscript fragments. The text of these Japanese manuscript copies differ in many cases from the text extant in the printed editions of the Chinese Tripitakas, and considered to represent an earlier version of the work, i.e. the text of the Tang period. They are extremely important for establishing a critical edition of the Da Tang Xiyuji. The paper attempts to shed light on the scope and nature of the emendation undertaken in the Tang court by collating all the seven ancient Japanese manuscripts available to us now, the Dunhuang fragments, and the versions in the Tripitakas.
Giovanni Verardi, “Xuanzang’s Account as Testimony of the Difficulties Faced by Buddhism in the Second Half of the Sixth and at the Beginning of the Seventh Century”
The dismal state of Buddhism in many regions of India as reflected in the Xiyuji has been the object of various evaluations, although we can say that it has been mostly attributed to a long process of decay coupled with external factors such as the invasion of the Hūṇas. But it is more appropriate to single out two periods of crisis, the first of which corresponds to the establishment of the Gupta dynasty and the acceleration of the process of Brahmanical colonization of a large part of the Indian fertile lands and the imposition of varṇāśramadharma (fourth and early fifth century).
As to the second period of crisis, it was due to the formation, in the sixth century, of regional states modelled on the Gupta state and politics in the Deccan and in Bengal, and to the instrumental use by the Brahmans of the foreign invaders, who were directed, as for instance in Gandhāra, against the representatives of the religion of Dharma. The Xiyuji mirrors this second period of crisis, although it was conceived when Harṣavardhana, for about half a century, succeeded in creating a powerful bulwark against Brahmanical revivalism.
Dorothy Wong, “Xuanzang as an Agent of Artistic Transmission”
The accomplishments of Xuanzang are multifaceted. This paper examines the role this celebrated pilgrim-monk played in the transmission of Buddhist art from India to China, and the subsequent impact he had on East Asian Buddhist art. From the icons he brought back to China to his own personal devotional focus and the Buddhist texts that he translated, he directly and indirectly contributed to the dissemination of a new Indian Buddhist art style as well as generated interests in new subjects. Some of the topics investigated in this paper include the Buddha type associated with Bodhigaya (with right hand in earth-touching gesture), renewed interests in devotion to Maitreya and Avalokiteśvara, the practice of dedicating numerous stamped clay tablets, and also Xuanzang’s request of the building of a stūpa in Indian style.
sourse: BUDDHIST ART NEWS

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Nothing Emerges without a Proximate Cause!

What causes Greed and Lust to arise?
Contacted by an attractive object, pleasurable feeling arises. If unaware
and untrained, then pleasurable feeling instantly makes craving towards
the object arise! This pleasant feeling thus causes greed and lust to arise.

What causes Ill-Will and Anger to arise?
Contacted by a repulsive object, painful feeling arises. If unaware and
untrained, then the painful feeling instantly makes craving away from the
object arise! This unpleasant feeling thus causes ill-will & anger to arise.

What causes Delusion and Ignorance to arise?
Contacted by a neither attractive, nor repulsive object, then a neither
pleasurable, nor painful, neutral feeling arises. If unaware and untrained,
then this neutral, neither pleasurable, nor painful feeling instantly makes
craving for neglecting the object arise... This neutral feeling thus causes
delusion and ignorance to arise.

What is the relationship between the Mental Defilements and Craving?
Craving is the growth force and also media for the mental defilements:
Because of craving this state (e.g. wealth), aversion for the opposite state
(e.g. poverty) arises. Possessiveness, envy and jealousy soon follows, which
again enables violence & cruelty. Pain is the result of all such defilements.

What is the relationship between the Defilements & Self-Identification?
Self-Identification (egocentrism) is the glue holding together all mental
defilements. Eg: How to ever be possessive, if there is no ego or owner? ;-)

What is the absolute absence of all Greed, Hate and Ignorance?
The state Nibbāna reached at the completion of the Noble 8-fold Way
is the absolute and irreversible absence of all greed, hate and ignorance!