Your Religion Is Not Important

The following is a brief dialogue between a Brazilian 

theologist Leonardo Boff and the Dalai Lama. 

Leonardo is one of the renovators of the Theology of Freedom. 

In a round table discussion about religion and freedom in which 

Dalai Lama and myself were participating at recess. 

I maliciously, and also with interest, asked him: 

      “Your holiness, what is the best religion?”

I thought he would say:

     “The Tibetan Buddhism” or 
     “The oriental religions, much older than Christianity”


Dalai Lama paused, smiled and looked me in the eyes ….
which surprised me because I knew of the malice 
contained in my question. 


He answered: 
      “The best religion is the one that gets you closest to God. 
        It is the one that makes you a better person.”


To get out of my embarassment with such a wise answer, I asked:
      “What is it that makes me better?”


He responded:
     “Whatever makes you
                         more Compassionate,
                         more Sensible,
                         more Detached,
                         more Loving,
                         more Humanitarian,
                         more Responsible,
                         more Ethical.”
  
    “The religion that will do that for you is the best religion”


I was silent for a moment, marvelling and even today 
thinking of his wise and irrefutable response:
    “I am not interested, my friend, about your religion 
      or if you are religious or not.

    “What really is important to me is your behaviour in 
      front of your peers, family, work, community, 
      and in front of the world.


    “Remember, the universe is the echo of our actions and our  thoughts.


    “The law of action and reaction is not exclusively for physics.  
      It is also of human relations.
      If I act with goodness, I will receive goodness.
      If I act with eviI, I will get evil.


    “What our grandparents told us is the pure truth. 
      You will always have what you desire for others. 
      Being happy is not a matter of destiny. 
      It is a matter of options.”


Finally he said:
   “Take care of your Thoughts because they become Words.
     Take care of your Words because they will become Actions.
     Take care of your Actions because they will become Habits.
     Take care of your Habits because they will form your Character.
     Take care of your Character because it will form your Destiny,
     and your Destiny will be your Life
     … and …


  “There is no religion higher than the Truth.”

  

Dhamma books to be released for the coming Vesak Day 2010

For those who are interested to sponsor these titles, please contact Mr. Lim Hock Eng, contact number: 012-4302893, email address: sunandahelim@gmail.com

SADHU, SADHU, SADHU!!

INTERNATIONAL PETITION TO PROTECT LUMBINI'S ENVIRONMENT

Dear Friends of Lumbini:

The Lumbini Environmental Protection Alliance (LEPA) is writing to ask for your help in protecting Lumbini's environment and the health of its local population. As you may know, Lumbini is the birthplace of the Buddha and is situated in Nepal. It is one of the four holy sites of Buddhism, the other three being Bodh Gaya, Sarnath and Kusinagar, all located in India. In recognition of its religious significance, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) designated Lumbini as a World Heritage Site in 1997. LEPA is an international alliance that includes the Lumbini Development Trust (established by the government of Nepal to oversee this World Heritage Site), Lumbini Institutions (all the Buddhist monasteries in Lumbini), and the Lumbini Stakeholder Committee, comprising numerous Buddhist and non-Buddhist organizations as well as individual supporters from around the world. LEPA was established for the purpose of protecting Lumbini's sacred environment and the health of its community.

Shortly before his great passing away (maha parinibbana), the Buddha spoke to his disciple Ananda as follows:

There are four places the sight of which should arouse a sense of urgency in the faithful.

1) Here the Tathagata was born (Lumbini)
2) Here the Tathagata attained supreme enlightenment (Bodh Gaya)
3) Here the Tathagata set in motion the Wheel of Dhamma (Sarnath)
4) Here the Tathagata entered maha parinibbana (Kusinagar)

And, Ananda, the faithful monks and nuns, male and female lay-followers will visit those places. And any who dies while making the pilgrimage to these shrines with a devout heart will, at the breaking-up of the body after death, be reborn in a heavenly world.

(Digha Nikaya 16, adapted translation by M. Walshe)

Today, environmental pollution from heavy industry (cement and steel plants) that have located in the Lumbini region of Nepal is degrading air and ground water quality and local agriculture. It is likely impacting human health as well. A campaign has been underway for some years now to stop this desecration of Lumbini's sacred space. As the collective voice of Lumbini's friends around the world, LEPA is writing to humbly request your support in an international effort to protect and safeguard Nepal's Lumbini from the growing impacts of environmental pollution.

The full petition prepared by LEPA with complete background information is viewable at . This petition is an appeal to Nepal's Ministry of Industry’s Industrial Promotion Board (IPB) to:

(1) create an industry-free zone around Lumbini,
(2) freeze the establishment of new industries outside of this industry-free area, and
(3) strictly monitor existing industrial firms.

The document requests that the Ministry of Environment of the Government of Nepal undertake a continuous, professional industrial pollution monitoring and assessment program of the industries and environment in the Lumbini Road Industrial Corridor, with certain provisions as noted therein.

As the voice of concern for Lumbini, we urge you to sign this petition by adding your name and country of residence to the form embedded below (and by answering the optional questions as well if you wish); and clicking the 'Submit' button. You will be adding your voice thereby to that of other individuals and organizations around the world who understand the importance of cherishing and preserving this world treasure.

The Lumbini Environmental Protection Alliance wishes to express its maha-gratitude for your anticipated support of its effort on behalf of current and future generations of beings everywhere!

With much metta!

Lumbini Environment Protection Alliance


Please follow the link below

spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dF8xYzkteHFmNi1jTFA2R3J4a28zRWc6MA

      

Annoucement on the Resume of Meditation session

This is to inform/remind that our regular
Metta Meditation Session at
Inward Path, 52 Rangoon Road
will resume on
Tuesday April 27.


However,
we won't be having our
Vipassana session on
Thursday April 29.


Instead we will, after April 27, have our

Metta Session
every M O N D A Y
beginning from
the Monday of May 3

and

Vipassana Session
every T U E S D A Y
beginning from
the Tuesday of May 4.

We are unable to have our session on Thursday as
the Charismatic Church on the first floor is now
having activity every Thursday and
their loud drumming and music
will disrupt our meditation.

ANNOUNCEMENT

Please be informed that
there will not be any
meditation sessions from
March 30, 2010.

The session will
resume on
April 22, 2010
(Tuesday).

NEW RELEASE

THE JHANAS & THE LAY DISCIPLE
According to the Pali Suttas
by VENERABLE BHIKKHU BODHI

ISBN 978-983-3512-70-6
IJ175/10
Size: 5.5” x 8.25”
Pages: 48 pages

In Theravada Buddhist circles during the past few decades a debate has repeatedly erupted over the question whether or not jhāna is necessary to attain the “paths and fruits,” that is, the four graded stages of enlightenment. The debate has been sparked off by the rise to prominence of the various systems of insight meditation that have become popular both in Asia and the West, especially among lay Buddhists.

Those who advocate such systems of meditation contend that the paths and fruits can be attained by developing insight (vipassanā) without a foundation of jhāna. This method is called the vehicle of bare insight (suddhavipassanā), and those who practise in this mode are known as “dry insighters” (sukkha-vipassaka) because their practice of insight has not been “moistened” by prior attainment of the jhānas. Apparently, this system finds support from the Visuddhimagga and the Pāli Commentaries, though it is not given a very prominent place in the commentarial treatment of the path, which usually follows the canonical model in placing the jhānas before the development of insight.

The booklet helped to answer these three specific questions:

1. Do the texts indicate that a worldling must attain jhāna before entering upon the "fixed course of rightness" (sammatta-niyāma), the irreversible path to stream-entry?
2. Do the texts typically ascribe the jhānas to lay disciples who have attained stream-entry?
3. If the texts do not normally attribute the jhānas to the stream-enterer, is there any stage in the maturation of the path where their attainment becomes essential?
   

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The 31 Planes of Existence

Free distributional copies of the 31 Planes of Existence Poster
are available at the centre.
Please feel free to come and collect a copy.

Poster Size: 13.75" x 20.5" (34.93cm x 52.07cm)