Every Hindu is a Buddhist

ASTROLOGY
Jyotish - The Vedic Astrology of
Lanka India Nepal and Tibet

Popular Interactive Astrology Pages

Feng-shui

Chinese art of Feng-shui. is something similar to "Vastu" in Vedic traditions. In Chinese, Feng-shui means understanding "The forces of Nature".

This Feng-shui site is from Vincent Koh. A Chinese Buddhist in Singapore

VedicWorld

Dedicated to the memory of world heritage Bamiyan Buddha statues destroyed by fanatics for no reason at all.

Vedic civilization was on it's highest glory during the last 2000- 4000 year period. The crown jewels of the vedic era was the emergence of two great religious philosophies , Buddhism and Hinduism. Both philosophies are based on the theory of Karma with the ultimate aim of ending the recurring cycle of life and death. The Vedicworld contains hundreds of links to good high quality web sites related to Vedic traditions, such as

Yoga, Vastu, Ayurveda, Jyotish Astrology, Hinduism and Buddhism......

Sun Shuyun

Sun Shuyun grew up in China during cultural revolution. Her grandmother was a devout Buddhist, her father a zealous follower of the Communist party. Sun Shuyun remembers growing up in Mao's China - a world of deception, distrust and misunderstanding. More at.guardian.co.uk

Ten Thousand Miles Without a Cloud

A book worthy of having in every Library, specially in Sri Lanka, India, China and Japan. A book which must be translated to Singhalese and Hindi by some one who can.

Click here to buy the book from Amazon.com

Perhaps, you may remember the TV series Monkey , made by NTV in the late 1970s, and viewed by Sri Lankans in mid 80's

It's based on one of the great quest stories, a 16th century Chinese epic " Buddhist Records of the Western Countries" (Click hereto read that book) written by Hsien-tsang circa 650 AD. In his era, China was isolated from India and all the homelands of Buddhist tradition; this was a grief to Chinese Buddhists, who had no direct contact with the heartland of their religion, the land where the Buddha himself had lived and taught Hiuen Tsang (Xuanzang). actually lived and really did go to India in 629 A.D. to get Buddhist scriptures.

Synopsis

At the heart of this book lies Sun Shuyun's own personal journey towards understanding the Buddhist faith of her grandmother, recognizing also the passionate idealism of the communist beliefs of her own family and discovering her own beliefs.... Read More about Sun Shuyun.. here BETTER NOT KILL ANYTHING:Sun Shuyun was shocked by the effect of the violent cultural revolution in 1960's as described in the chapter 2 THREE MONKS AT WILD GOOSE PAGODA Chapter 6 is about her visit to Pakistan and the present day distraction of the cultural heritage by Taleban. IMAGINING THE BUDDHA. In Chapter 8 , Sun Shuyun records her encounter of the new breed of Buddhists at Buddha Gaya in the following way.. NOT A MAN ? (WHO IS BUDDHA) In chapter 9 Sun Shuyun records, what caused the decline of Buddhism in India. The Birth place of Buddha EVERY HINDU IS A BUDDHIST

Other Book Reviews.

ABC Online - In search of Buddha Spirit of things - An interview with Author by Australian TV. (A must Read)

The Book was published by HarperCollins UK, in 2003 , ISBN 0007129734 Ten Thousand Miles Without a Cloud ( Click here to buy the book from Amazon.com)

Visitors today

EVERY HINDU IS A BUDDHIST

In chapter 9 Sun Shuyun records

…..Xuanzang headed for South India in 636, after five years of study in Nalanda. His goal was to visit Ceylon: the home of Theravada Buddhism and many of its greatest masters. On the eastern coast, he passed through Kalinga, modem Orissa: as Xuanzang would have known well, the scene of Asoka's bloody victory which led to his shame and conversion to Buddhism. Xuanzang stayed at a seaport….. He talked about evil kings who cut the Bodhi Tree, killed monks and destroyed monasteries he did not know that the most fatal blow to Buddhism came from Shankara only a hundred years after he left India. Shankara was born in Kerala in about 700 AD, and became ascetic in his teens. Like every seeker of the truth he studied Benares, rapidly showing his brilliance and acquiring a reputation as a philosopher. But knowledge, even personal salvation, was not his final goal. He was unhappy with numerous sects, each claiming supremacy and creating cord. He felt the Brahmin priests were mainly intent emphasizing their separateness and safeguarding their privileges, leaving out a large section of society. Something nee to be done to reclaim the ground, moral, doctrinal, ritualis, as well as social, that had been lost to the Buddhists.

'Who are you? Who am I? From where do I come? Enquire thus and you will realize that the entire world is but a mere hallucination, born of imagination. With such a realiz-ation, you will be freed from the delusions of the world,' Shankara wrote. For fifteen years Shankara travelled all over India, teaching his new creed. He started in villages until he had a considerable following. Then he went into the cities where the Buddhists and jains were strong. Here the battle for people's minds began. He convinced and converted a great many people by inviting them to challenge him - if they lost, they would become his followers. Observing how important the Sangha was for Buddhists as a centre of learning, propagation and worship, he too set up monasteries which the Hindus call "Mathas". Today they are the holiest places for many Hindus…

…Shankara was indeed responsible for creating a u Hindu religion, which reduced the appeal of Buddhisrn refuge from Brahmin dominance and caste prejudice. Buddhism was deeply undermined never recovered; and the physical destruction wrought by Afghan invaders four hundred years later completed the process. In the whole of North India there was scarcely a statue that was not defaced by the invaders, scarcely a temple was not ravaged, with all the monks either killed or fleeing to Nepal or Tibet. Muslim chronicles record that an order out from the new ruler to find someone capable of re the books in a monastery library, but no one was found. Hinduism survived because Hindu temples were not the be and end-all of the religion: Brahmins were the custodians the sacred texts and knowledge; holy men, sages and sa wandered the country; people could perform pujas at ho in time new temples were built again, many on Buddhist sites. But for Buddhism, the Sangha was all-important and the monks were gone, Buddhism in India was dead.

Buddhism. was not dead after all. It has lived on and its influence can be felt in all aspects of Indian life, reaching even into the deepest recesses of the Hindu mind. I remember I was puzzled when I read this bold claim in a study of Buddhist culture in India during the seventh and eighth centuries: 'Every Hindu is a Buddhist, in spite of all outward appearances to ,the contrary.' I began to realize what it meant.

….Ten Thousand Miles Without a Cloud ( Click here to buy the book from Amazon.com)

Dharma

An appearance of a Buddha & the opportunity to know Dhamma (The way Karma works) is rare indeed, unfortunate are those who miss it.

Stupa, murals found in Bamiyan

Researchers have been over Bamiyan, site of ancient Buddhist relics, with a tooth comb. Yet on Wednesday, a Japanese team reported the first discovery in 40 years of new cave murals. The paintings, found in the Da'uti area of Afghanistan's Bamiyan Valley in June, are near the remains of two giant Buddha statues destroyed by the Taliban in March 2001.

The team, from the National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, also confirmed during field work conducted June 15 to 29 that a 2.5-meter tall enclosure in the Bamiyan Valley was an old stupa site. The team is helping preserve the Buddhist cultural heritage of the Silk Road center, designated a World Heritage site in July 2003.[Follow article link...]

True Heros

American Col. Olcott, and Tibetan Rev. S. Mahinda are regarded as National Hero's of Sri Lanka. Their service to the country is immense. The works and influences of great personalities transcend the time for hundreds of years to the posterity.

Because of that, it is important to have their life and work to be researched, translated, documented and published. Such as production of a TV documentary, biographies etc. But as usual Sri Lankans were an ungrateful nation. The time has come for some one or an association such as old Anananda or Nalanda, association in US to take the initiative and get on with rather than organizing parties, dances and BBQ's.

It is also important to mention that we have lot to learn from Tibet. There is a great need to do a comparative study of Buddhism in the two countries in an equal footing open minded manner compare one by one all the aspects including Sutras and traditions etc. (The importance of this is immense, but you need the capacity to understand that. I can write a whole web page full, explaining why we should do it. But unfortunately very few Sri Lankan Buddhists and specially priests have the capacity, the open mindedness, the genuine thirst for knowledge and exploration. To understand what I am talking about. As there are very few Rev. Ananda Mithriyas are among us. You can not do that with the mind set of that, Heenayana is better than Mahayana or the other way around (It is as foolish as saying that "Loken Uthum Rata Lankawai" {Sri Lanka is the best country in the world} as it is not true now and it is the bitter truth. Only those who have not seen and lived in other countries may accept that delusion). You have to do it with the mind set of that, both are from the same original sources and what pollutants had the both attracted on the course of flow for thousands of years in different directions and piece together the original quality of the water of the source by analyzing the present samples of water of the two rivers and matching. It is not easy. To do that you need to know Buddhism as well as Pali, Sanskrit, Tibetan, Sinhalese etc. So an extra ordinary person or persons are needed)

Why not some one do a PhD project on that ? Why not do some exchange of scholarly Bikkus for a period of years between Tibet and Sri Lanka ?.

Some Mahanayaka's think their duty is to advice corrupt politicians, whilst there are millions of important things to do are being neglected. What a disgrace.

~Lakshman~

Copyright © 2001 Sri Lanka Jyotisha . All rights reserved. Copyright information
The Best Sri Lankan Resource site