Chinese Buddhist Pagodas

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

THREE MONKS AT WILD GOOSE PAGODA

Sun Shuyun was shocked by the effect of the violent cultural revolution in 1960's as described in the chapter 2

… The young monk explained. Lang Zhao was a very good Old man. He left home out of compassion for the poor, searching in for a way to end suffering. He supported the Party for the same reason - to bring about a better life for millions of Chinese. He raised money for 'Chinese Buddhist' - the fighter plane that Buddhists throughout China had been asked to contribute to the Korean War effort - and he went to the front line to comfort the troops. He tried hard to help the Party realize the Communist ideal of 'paradise on earth'. He was rewarded: he was made the head of the Man Buddhist Association, the most senior monk in the city.

But for all his efforts, he was one of the first targets of the Red Guards - August 18, 1966, the day he took his life, was when Mao received one million Red Guards on Tiananmen Square, openly showing his support for them. They would be his vanguards for the Cultural Revolution. He met some of of them in person afterwards, including a girl called Binbin, to meaning 'the polite one'. Mao told her that revolution was in. not a gentle business and she should change her name to ve Yaowu, 'with force'. There could not have been a dearer signal a for the use of violence. As soon as they heard the message he on the radio, the Red Guards in Man stormed Lang Zhao's monastery, destroying it completely. He felt a great injustice had been done: he had been so loyal to the Party; he had really tried to use Buddhism in helping to build the new China ….

…Duan still remembered the day when the Red Guards stormed the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. It was early in the summer of 1966 and they were about to have supper. Suddenly there was a thunderous noise outside, a group of Red Guards then broke in, shouting, 'Smash the old world, build a brand-new. Two of them came into his cell and grabbed the scriptures from his table and threw them on the floor. They ordered him to tread on them to show his support. 'How could I? They were the holy words of the Buddha. I would incur so much wrath, I would be condemned to hell for ever.' He refused. The Red Guards stamped on the sutras themselves. 'Confess, and we will deal with you leniently; resist, and we will punish secure, sheltered you severely. Think carefully. We will come back for you tomorrow.' With that warning, they left the cell. Outside, some Red Guards were putting up Mao's portrait and posters in large characters, while others were throwing ropes on to the big Buddha and Bodhisattva statues in the shrine hall. The cadres from the Cultural Relics Bureau rushed in to stop them, saying those and the Big Wild Goose Pagoda were not feudal objects but the nation's treasures, from the time of the Monkey King - they had a certificate from the State n. The bare Council to prove it. The Red Guards were caught by surprise and stood there, not sure what to do. Then one of them started puffing down the silk banners that were hanging from the ceiling. 'These cannot possibly be state treasures,' she said harshly. In a few minutes all the banners were thrown outside, joined by the monastery's precious collection of sutras, many of them Xuanzang's own translations, and other ancient manuscripts. They asked the monks and cadres to come out and stand around the pile, as witnesses to their revolutionary action. Amid mad shouting and clapping, they set the lot on, fire. The fire went on all night..

The Big Wild Goose Pagoda survived, but the loss for the, whole country was unbelievable. In 1949, there were some two: hundred thousand Buddhist monasteries throughout China. One campaign after another accounted for many of them -they were either demolished or turned into schools, factories, houses and museums. By the time the Red Guards finished their work and the Cultural Revolution was over, barely a hundred remained intact. In Beijing, there were, once, more than a hundred monasteries and temples, and now only five belong to the monks. Grandmother was very upset that the three temples in her village were destroyed and the farmers used the stones to build pig-sties and houses. In Tibet, the destruction was almost total. Gone with them was a large part of our history, culture and life - a part we had denounced as antiquated, feudal and backward, a part whose value we did not know until it was gone.....

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

Buddha

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~

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