Australian Muslim preacher compares women to meat, condemns Christians and polytheists to Hell

In this previous post, I mentioned Sheikh Taj al-Din al-Hilali [شیخ تاج الدین الهلالی] (parts of his name are variously written as Tajeddin or al-Hilaly), the leader of the Lakemba Mosque in Sydney, in connection with his reprimand of another Muslim leader, Dr. Ameer Ali, for allegedly criticising Muslims for taking a close-minded approach to religion. So the Sheikh is, shall we say, a bit of a religious hardliner.

Now Sheikh al-Hilali is in trouble for making derogatory remarks comparing women to meat during his Ramadan sermon. This weekend's edition of The Australian has a number of articles discussing various aspects of the incident.

First, the transcript of the actual sermon may be found here. In the part of the sermon that the media has focused on, the Sheikh compares unveiled women to uncovered meat left in the open, which is snatched up by wandering cats:

But the whole disaster, who started it? The Al-Rafihi scholar says in one of his literary works, he says: If I come across a crime of rape - kidnap and violation of honour - I would discipline the man and teach him a lesson in morals, and I would order the woman be arrested and jailed for life.

Why, Rafihi? He says, because if she hadn't left the meat uncovered, the cat wouldn't have snatched it. If you take a kilo of meat, and you don't put it in the fridge, or in the pot, or in the kitchen, but you put in on a plate and placed it outside in the yard. Then you have a fight with the neighbour because his cats ate the meat. Then (inaudible). Right or not?

If one puts uncovered meat out in the street, or on the footpath, or in the garden, or in the park, or in the backyard without a cover, then the cats come and eat it, is it the fault of the cat or the uncovered meat? The uncovered meat is the problem! If it was covered the cat wouldn't have. It would have circled around it and circled around it, then given up and gone.

If she was in her room, in her house, wearing her hijab, being chaste, the disasters wouldn't have happened. The woman possesses the weapon of seduction and temptation. That's why Satan says about the woman, "You are half a soldier. You are my messenger to achieve my needs. You are the last weapon I would use to smash the head of the finest of men. There are a few men that I use a lot of things with, but they never heed me. But you? Oh, you are my best weapon."

For some reason that is unknown to me, the Sheikh seems to really have it in for Canadian women in particular:

On the issue of stealing, when the man is responsible for earning. He's responsible for the expenses, for the food and water. He is the one who has to pay the rent, he is responsible for the alimony, he is responsible for feeding his children. Maybe circumstances forced him and Satan tempted him, and there is a woman like hell behind him; she never has enough. She wants to change the furniture, change the lounge every year. And behind every man who is a thief, a greedy woman. She is pushing him. Not our women in Australia, the women of Canada. The hall up there is full. They are the women of Canada and Mexico, the ones who encourage their men - to do what? Go! Get me! And no matter how much he brings her, she wants more. She wants to change the car, and change ... Of course, the woman keeps demanding from her husband more than his ability. Either she will tell him to go and deal in drugs, or to go and steal. What's more than that? Spend as much as you have! You know your husband, upside down! If you demand from your husband more than his ability, then what does that mean? Who is the one who would have to become a mafia? A gangster? And steal cars? And smash banks? And deal in the "blue disease" (drugs)? Who is the one who commits these crimes of stealing? Who? The man or the woman? It's the man.

So, according to the Sheikh, Canadian women are responsible for gangsters and bank robbers. Got it.

Most articles and commentaries have focused on the Sheikh's reprehensible comments about women. However, he also attacks Christians and polytheists, whom he lumps together into one group:

Why wasn't the verse ended with forgiveness and mercy? Because there is a crime of polytheism. God does not forgive polytheism, and forgives everything else. These people said that God took a son, these people said that divinity united with man, and the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and they will see mercy? They will never see it, not him or his father. Not dad or mum. No one will see mercy, of those who believe in polytheism. Our Master Jesus knows that the crime is big. And there is no appeal for it. No way the judgment can be appealed. And they will never have intercession on the Day of Judgment, because polytheism is a great injustice. If it was a simple matter, the verse would have ended with "For God is forgiving, merciful". But it ended with "If You punish them, they surely are Your servants. And if You forgive them." They'll never see it. You will be wise, You will rule, then they'll cop it.

Those who disbelieve amongst the people of the Book and the polytheists, where will they go? Surfers Paradise? Gold Coast? Where? To the fire of hell. And not part-time, they'll be in it for eternity. What are these people? The most evil of God's creation on the face of earth. The issue is clear. So, the verse should be ended with what? "For God is mighty, wise." Not "For God is forgiving, merciful".

What kind of god is so pathetically weak that he has to resort to threats of violence to keep his believers in line? It is said that a man creates his god in his own image, and by al-Hilali's description of God, we know just what kind of man he is.

The idea that blasphemy should be treated as a crime, or that any crime against an omnipotent being is even possible, is patently absurd. As some atheists say, "blasphemy is a victimless crime." Or, as Mark Twain quipped:

Blasphemy? No, it is not blasphemy. If God is as vast as that, he is above blasphemy; if He is as little as that, He is beneath it.

The absoluteness and arbitrariness of God is one of the major philosophical problems that Buddhism has with monotheism. In Buddhist philosophy, all beings are subject to the same laws of the universe, even the highest gods. This means that the gods, no matter how powerful they might seem, still suffer from decay and even death. Furthermore, their actions produce karma, and it would be impossible for a god to burn sentient beings in a fire (for eternity, no less!), without incurring tremendous negative consequences for himself.

That is why no Buddhist can take seriously the idea that moral conduct should be motivated by "the fear of God" (i.e., really, the fear of punishment). To a Buddhist, placing beliefs above actual conduct seems like a case of misplaced priorities. How can not believing in God, or believing in multiple gods, be a "worse crime" than actually hurting other living beings, by murder, theft, sexual misconduct, lying, etc.?

Sheikh al-Hilali is seriously out of step with the times, as is a segment of the Muslim community who hold views similar to those of the Sheikh.

Also from The Australian:

• Metaphor hides mufti's real message
• Muslims at odds over Hilali ban
• Islam's gender crisis
• Editorial: Sheik's values out of step with modernity
• Sheikh al-Hilali: I was just protecting their honour

南無阿彌陀佛

Madonna adopts Malawi orphan

So, pop star Madonna has adopted a Malawi orphan. I wonder if she will be asked to remove any crucifixes from her home?

From MSNBC:

The singer, who plans to visit Africa in October, credits her faith in Kabbalah with shifting her priorities.

“One of the main precepts of Kabbalah is that we’re put on this Earth to help people,” she says. “And your job is to figure out how you can help, and what it is that you can do.”

An orphan care center, being built with a goal of feeding and educating about 1,000 children a day, will have programs based on Spirituality for Kids, Kabbalah’s children’s program, according to the magazine.

Meanwhile, religious leaders in Italy have criticized Madonna for wearing a crown of thorns and singing while hanging from a mirrored cross during her “Confessions” world tour concerts. She is scheduled to perform Sunday in Rome.

It seems that adopting a Third World orphan is the latest fad among celebrities. Not everyone is thrilled with this trend. From The Sydney Morning Herald:

Madonna was pilloried with accusations of fast-tracking the adoption by donating money to a Malawian orphanage, though reports suggested the Ritchies had been planning the addition to their family for some months.

Prospective parents in Australia said that while the adoption process was long in this country, the system of comprehensive checks was generally welcome and was in the interests of the children.

They also said incidences of queue jumping by financial means were unfair on those waiting to adopt who were following due process.

For Trevor and Melanie Rees, Madonna has joined Angelina Jolie as persona non grata in their Cessnock home.

"They are two celebrities we don't have in our house," said Mrs Rees, a teacher. She and her husband have been waiting to adopt an African baby for more than five years.

Mr Rees, 31, a boilermaker, said: "We've boycotted their music and movies because they are throwing our struggles in our faces. It's an absolute joke.

"I think it's terrific that celebrities are taking the same avenues that we're taking and drawing attention to the plight of these kids.

"It's just not fair that they can take shortcuts or pay extra money or say they're going to build this or do that."

The attention that celebrities bring to a cause is often a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it's important for the plight of orphans in the Third World to receive media attention. On the other hand, celebrities often have their own agendas and the issues often get distorted when they are involved.

南無阿彌陀佛

Shaolin Temple to become Buddhist Disneyland

I wrote about the commercialization of Buddhism in China in this previous post.

One of the central characters in this drama is the Venerable Shi Yongxin [釋永信], the charismatic abbot of the Shaolin Temple [少林寺]. From China Daily (via The Buddhist Channel):

The Shaolin Temple, widely considered the birthplace of Chinese Kungfu, has frequently been in the spotlight following some headline-grabbing events, such as the super-girl-style Kungfu Competition, a luxury sports car awarded to the temple, and the latest Wushu festival, with Shi Yongxin, the abbot, at the core of it.

"Super Girl" [超女] is China's version of pop idol singing contests such as American Idol. In the Shaolin version, called "Star of Chinese Kung-Fu" [中國功夫之星], the competitors don't sing, but rather demonstrate their martial arts skills. The winner receives a contract to star in a television show about the Shaolin Temple.

A picture of the luxury sports car mentioned above accompanied this previous article at China Daily about the abbot:


Anyway, the article continues:

Shi was admitted to the Shaolin Temple in 1981, when the temple was in a stark recession with only a dozen monks living on 28 mu (about 1.86 hectares) of farmland. He began to act as abbot in 1987 at 22, five years after the internationally acclaimed martial arts movie 'Shaolin Temple', starring Hong Kong movie king Jet Li, which put Shaolin Kungfu as well as the temple in the international spotlight.

So, he was admitted to the temple at age 16, and 6 years later, he had become the abbot. He seems like quite the ambitious fellow!

Ever since his inauguration, Shi has stressed the importance of cultural exchange with foreign countries, and has carried out a series of reforms to expand the influence of the temple, securing international renown for the temple and making it a pillar of the tourism industry in Dengfeng where it is located.

In spite of his success in gaining unprecedented attention for the Shaolin Temple, people are questioning whether the temple remains a holy place of Zen Buddhism or has become a commercialized tourist site, and whether the abbot is hero for his reforms or a temple CEO stinking with money. [...]

When Shi took over the temple as abbot 20 years ago, it was a little-known ancient temple. Today, the temple has under its flag a special liaison office, a temple affairs office, a website, and two commercially-run companies, and the abbot is often hailed as the 'CEO' of Shaolin Temple. [...]

I would hardly call Shaolin "a little-known ancient temple". It was certainly well-known 20 years ago among people of East Asian cultural background, as well as martial arts aficionados. And long before Jet Li's movie "Shaolin Temple", it was made famous in the West by the television series starring David Carradine.

Back in 1993, Shi Yongxin took a ham manufacturer to court for promoting the ham under the brand "Shaolin," which he claimed constituted a trademark infringement. It was the first case on brand rights in China's religious circles. [...]

Hmmm... ham. (Homer-Simpson-drool.)

Many suspect such commercial aspirations will disturb the tranquility of the temple. Shi, however, believed such establishment is a result of the interplay between business and brand, likening Shaolin Temple to the American Disneyland, which is a brand as well as a business.

But should the Shaolin Temple be likened to Disneyland, rather than, for example, St. Peter's Basilica? In other words, is it primarily a tourist attraction, or a religious site?

南無阿彌陀佛

Police recover stolen Buddha statue

One of the Buddha statues stolen from the Patna museum (see this post) has been recovered. From BBC news:

Police in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh say they have recovered one of 18 priceless antique idols stolen from the Patna Museum in nearby Bihar state.

Police have arrested five suspects who were allegedly trying to sell the idol in the city of Benares.

One down, seventeen to go.

南無阿彌陀佛

Police task force to investigate smuggling of Buddhist relics

The theft of Buddhist relics from India is becoming quite a problem. From Reuters:

More than 3,600 Buddhist antiques have been smuggled out of the eastern Indian state of Bihar in the past one year, forcing police to set up a special force to tackle the menace, officials said on Tuesday.

"We are deeply concerned about the situation and stopping smugglers is a major challenge," Arun Chandra Verma, a top police official told Reuters from the state capital, Patna.

Rare and priceless Buddhist idols and other relics have also gone missing from the neighbouring states of Jharkhand and Orissa in the past year, police and archaeologists said.

Verma said a special force -- led by 25 specially trained officers -- has been set up to bust smuggling rackets in the region.

Buddhist relics are in great demand in Japan, China and Thailand where Buddhism is deeply rooted, as well as in Europe where a single idol can easily fetch tens of thousands of dollars.

What part of the second precept taught by the Buddha don't the buyers of these relics understand? If Buddhism were really deeply rooted in those countries, there wouldn't be a demand in them for stolen goods.

南無阿彌陀佛

United States population tops 300 million

From CNN:

The population of the United States surpassed the 300 million mark on Tuesday, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The U.S. is the only industrialized nation in the world whose population is rising substantially.

This news reminds me of a clip excerpted from a video called "Immigration by the Numbers" that I saw some months ago:


The speaker featured in the main part of the video clip is Roy Beck, the Executive Director of NumbersUSA. The population charts presented in the video, along with relevant data and background explanations, may be found on that organization's website. (Another excerpt of this video may be seen here.)


I am an immigrant myself, so some people find it strange that I support tighter restrictions on immigration. But as Roy Beck so powerfully demonstrates in the video, it isn't about the people but the numbers.

Buddhism teaches that compassion must be balanced with wisdom. We welcome immigrants from many places all over the world because we feel compassion for those who come from backgrounds less fortunate than our own. However, it would be foolish to take in so many immigrants that we end up harming ourselves, and in turn, reducing our ability to help those who are in need.

南無阿彌陀佛

Not quite a hundred thousand

From the Ambedkar 2006 blog:

The much hyped Hyderabad conversions have proved a damp squib. The ceremony I attended today where the organisers had claimed 100,000 would convert attracted perhaps one percent of that number.

The BBC reports that:

Udit Raj, a Dalit leader, told the BBC that around 2,500 people converted to Christianity and Buddhism.

According to The Hindu:

Hundreds of Dalits on Saturday embraced Buddhism and Christianity at a programme here, where copies of the Gujarat Government's anti-conversion Bill were burnt.

The Ambedkar 2006 blog has a round-up of the media coverage in this post.

南無阿彌陀佛

Indians turn to Buddhism on the 50th anniversary of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar's conversion

From the Ambedkar 2006 blog:

A hundred thousand people will become Buddhists in Hydrabad on 14th October in a huge meeting in the East Indian state of Andhra Pradesh [ఆంధ్ర ప్రదేశ, आंध्र प्रदेश], that will include up to 400,000 people. The chief organizer is KSR Murthy, a former member of India’s parliament, the Lok Sabha.

The event will take place at Dr. Ambedkar Statue on the Tank Bund: the spiritual center for Hydrabad’s Ambedkarites. Every year a very large gathering marks the anniversary of Dr Ambedkar’s conversion on 14 October; this year Murthi expects 3-400,000 to attend with 100,000 converting for the first time. Many similar ceremonies will take place around India on the same date, but this will probably be the largest conversion ceremony. The wave of conversions will culminate in a much larger ceremony in Bombay on 16 December.

Presiding over the ceremony will be Ven. Hsing Yun [星雲大師], President of the Buddha's Light organization, which is based in Taiwan and has 120 centers around the world. The presence of a senior figure in Chinese Buddhism is a significant development for the conversion movement, which has mainly made connections with the Theravadin Buddhism of South East Asia and Sri Lanka. Ven. Hsing Yun will administer the Buddhist refuges in Chinese (the ceremony through which one becomes a Buddhist) and the Ven. Vinayarakkhitha will translate them into Telugu, the local language. [...]

Similar events are also taking place in other states. The following article from The Hindu describes a similar event taking place in Karnataka [ಕನಾ೯ಟಕ, कर्नाटक]:

Nearly three lakh people are likely to embrace Buddhism at the "Dhamma Diksha" programme to be held in Gulbarga on October 14, International Buddhist Youth Organisation founder and president Bhante Bodhidhamma has said.

He told presspersons here on Monday that people from all faiths and from districts of north Karnataka would participate in the programme, where "diksha" would be provided to them. The "Dhamma Diksha" programme was being held at the MSK Mill Grounds in the city. [...]

He said he had taken up awareness programme on Buddhism in the State and south India since the last five years. "So far, nearly 30,000 people have embraced Buddhism in the State, and the one being held on October 14, would be the biggest," he claimed.

He said in these last five years, Hindus, Dalits and Christians had embraced Buddhism, but it was mostly the Dalits as they were the "most harassed". Moreover, some members of the Muslim community in Tamil Nadu had also expressed their desire to embrace Buddhism, he added.

He said, at present, there were nearly two crore Buddhists in the country, and of them nearly six lakh were in the State.

Note that a lâkh [लाख] is one hundred thousand, while a crore [करोड़] is ten million.

See also: "An Overview of India’s Buddhist Movement" from the Ambedkar 2006 blog.

南無阿彌陀佛

In Uttar Pradesh, Dalits turn from Brahmin priests to DIY Buddhism

In the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh [उत्तर प्रदेश], Dalits are turning away from Brahmin priests to a do-it-yourself form of Buddhism inspired by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar. From Hindustan Times:

Deep in the heartland of Uttar Pradesh, the underclass is doing away with centuries of dependence on Brahmins. And priests are getting sacked.

In dozens of villages across the state, Dalits have stopped depending on Brahmin priests for weddings, funerals and other ceremonies. Instead, they have turned to a Buddhism-inspired book which has rituals that can be performed by any literate person. The wide use of the Bhim Patra, named after Bhimrao Ambedkar, is part of a quiet rebellion against upper-caste domination.

"We have nothing to do with the Brahmin pandits," said Chhabi Lal of Ghunghter village, 45 km from Lucknow. "They tell us, 'Your parents died; so to make their souls happy, give us a bed and a cow as gifts.' As if it is all going to reach them." [...]

I like Chhabi Lal's attitude.

Buddhism also teaches that one can obtain merit for one's departed ancestors by making offerings to the Sangha. The rationale, however, is quite different. The Sangha does not receive these gifts on behalf of the deceased. Instead, the act of giving accrues merit to the giver, which he or she then dedicates to his or her deceased relatives.

However, in many nominally Buddhist countries, popular religious belief and practice is probably not all that different from what Chhabi Lal described above.

So, weddings are now being performed before a statue of Ambedkar. The ceremony is inexpensive and takes only a couple of hours. The bride and the groom light candles, take wedding vows and garland each other.

The Bhim Patra also has instructions on funerals and other ceremonies.

Aside from any religious justifications, inexpensive weddings and funerals are always a good idea.

The following quote is quite interesting, consider the row stirred up in Gujarat when the government declared Buddhism to be a sect of Hinduism, which I wrote about in this post.

"We are all Hindus; we have not converted," said Mohan Lal Gautam, who sells books at a traffic intersection at Hazratgunj in Lucknow. "But we have stopped following the old rituals. We follow the Bhim Patra. There is no pandit, no worship of gods and goddesses, no dowry and no auspicious time for any wedding."

Amar Pal Bharti of Jyotiba Phule Nagar district said: "This is the result of our anger against the system. What do we have to do with the gods? Why worship someone we have not seen?"

Priests are feeling the heat. "Dalits have mostly stopped coming to us. They conduct their own ceremonies," said Jagdamba Prasad Bajpai, a priest at Deora village, Lucknow.

Anger at one religion is definitely not a good reason to convert to another. On the other hand, it's a classic case of capitalism at work — if you don't like one product, switch to another.

南無阿彌陀佛

Dalai Lama warns against stigmatising Muslims

From The Bangkok Post:

The Dalai Lama called Sunday for the harmonious co-existence of religions and warned against the stigmatising of Muslims against a backdrop of increasing inter-religious tension.

It was wrong to brand all Muslims as militant because of the activities of individual radical Islamic terrorists, the Tibetan spiritual leader told the foreign press in New Delhi.

It was dangerous to give the impression that there was a culture clash between the West and Islam, the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate said, adding that there were also wicked people among Christians, Hindus and Buddhists.

There may very well be wicked people among the followers of other religions, but it is Islam that is currently going through a particularly bloody phase, and it doesn't do anyone any good to ignore that.

In any case, the Dalai Lama's message is especially timely in Thailand, where an insurgency in the predominantly Muslim south has killed around 1700 people since the beginning of 2004.

Just yesterday, two Buddhist civilians were murdered in cold blood by the insurgents. From The Times of India:

A Buddhist man and his son were shot dead on Saturday by suspected Islamic militants in Thailand's troubled south, police said.

A 52-year-old rubber plantation worker and his 20-year-old son were gunned down by insurgents on a motorcycle in the southern province of Songkhla, which is next to three restive provinces bordering Malaysia.

The latest attack came as Thailand's coup leader, General Sonthi Boonyaratglin, said he had agreed to hold talks with separatist insurgents in the Muslim-majority south.

The insurgents are not targetting just Buddhists. Muslims who are considered too sympathetic to the government have also been the victims of their violence. From Khaleej Times online:

Three Muslims and a Buddhist have been killed in separate shootings by suspected Islamic militants in Thailand’s troubled south, police said on Sunday.

A Muslim rubber plantation tapper was shot dead Sunday morning in Pattani, one of three southern provinces bordering Malaysia that has been plagued by separatist violence and other unrest. His death followed three killings late Saturday.

In Pattani, a Muslim policeman was shot dead as he travelled to work, while in Yala province a Muslim villager who worked as an informant for the military was shot dead in front of his house.

In Narathiwat province, a 65-year-old Buddhist villager was shot four times by two men on a motorcycle as he walked home. He died instantly.

While I agree that all Muslims should not be stigmatised because of the actions of a few, I also believe that only Muslims can put a stop to the violence perpetrated by their co-religionists.

南無阿彌陀佛

Buddha fetches record price at auction

From the Xinhua news agency:

A gilt-bronze Buddha of the Ming Dynasty Saturday set a record high auction price of Chinese artworks in the world at Sotheby's Hong Kong Autumn Sales 2006.

The company said the Yongle Shakyamuni bought for 116.6 million HK dollars (14.99 million U.S. dollars) by an Asian art collector set a record high of auction price for Chinese works of arts in the world. [...]

The article is entitled "Chinese artwork sets record high auction price", and the article refers to the buyer as an "Asian art collector". (Does that mean an art collector who is Asian, or a collector of Asian art?)

But the Buddha statue isn't merely a work of art — it is also an object of religious devotion.

I suppose I've just answered the question I asked in this post about why someone would want to buy a Buddhist relic unless one were an admirer of the Buddha. It's because, to such a person, a Buddha statue is just "artwork".

南無阿彌陀佛

The Buddha's ash is scared

Two topics about which I've posted previously, Buddhist tourism and the theft of Buddhist reclics from a Bihar musuem, converge in this post.

From The Times of India:

The Nitish government's move to put the scared [sic] ash of Lord Buddha on display has sparked a political row. RJD leader and Union rural development minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh wants the holy urn to be moved to his constituency. "The urn was excavated from Vaishali," he averred. [...]

And why is the Lord Buddha's ash so scared? Because someone almost stole the urn recently.

Though Lord Buddha's "asthi kalash" has been kept under lock and keys for over three decades in Patna Museum, it has been displayed to foreign dignitaries time and again. Foreign tourists have to shell out $100 for a glimpse of the holy urn.

If I'm shelling out $100, I'd better get more than just a glimpse.

In recent times, a social organisation has taken up the cause to put the sacred urn on display at some public place. The chief minister has accepted the demand, sources said. The state government is even considering the demand of keeping the holy urn near the Patna Junction under tight security, they added. [...]

Hopefully, it'll be some place with tighter security than the Patna Museum.

南無阿彌陀佛

More on Bihar museum thefts

More information on the thefts of Buddhist relics from a Bihar museum, which I've posted about previously. From ZeeNews:

A total of 18 Buddha statues and figurines of the 8th-9th century 'Pala Period' were on Tuesday found stolen from the Patna Museum, a treasure-trove of metal and stone sculptures of the Mauryan period.

However, the urn containing the relics of the Buddha are safe.

The heist came to light this morning when the museum staff opened the 'bronze gallery' housing 'Ashtdhatu' (alloy of eight metals) artefacts after it had closed on Sunday evening, Director of Museums of Bihar Sahdev Kumar said. [...]

Also from Tribune India:

In a daring late-night robbery on Monday in Patna Museum, located in the heart of the city, unidentified miscreants stole 18 statues of Buddhist and Jain eras worth crores of rupees.

The police said that the miscreants had broken the backside grill of the museum to steal these relics of immense historical importance.

[...]

The authorities of Patna Museum informed that the building was being guarded by four security personnel in the night which was much less than the required strength to man the precious exhibits within the museum.

The holy urn of Lord Buddha was also being kept inside the museum.

Sources in the police said the Chief Minister, Mr Nitish Kumar, already asked the higher-ups of the law enforcing authority to alert the administration in all the border districts with Nepal and Bangladesh in particular, as well as with West Bengal, UP and Jharkhand, to prevent any possible attempt to smuggle out these historical relics outside Bihar.

I can't fathom the mentality of buyers of stolen Buddhist relics. It's easy enough to understand the motive of the thieves — money. But presumably, one wouldn't buy a Buddhist relic unless one were, in some way, an admirer of the Buddha. And one who admires the Buddha should realize that the Buddha disapproves of theft.

南無阿彌陀佛

Chinese border guards fire on Tibetan refugees escaping to Nepal

From AsiaNews:

Chinese guards stationed at the border between China and Nepal killed seven – not two as initially reported – people on 30 September when they opened fire on refugees fleeing to the mountains. A Buddhist nun and a child were among the victims.

Lama Tsering, a Buddhist monk from Kushinagar monastery in northern India, confirmed this to AsiaNews. He said: "In the monastery, we observed a day of prayer and fasting yesterday after it was confirmed that seven refugees were killed, including our sister and a child. According to initial reports, two people were killed but now we are certain that the death toll has risen."

The lama said: "The genocide by the Chinese Han soldiers against Tibetans is beyond description. They persecute us and have no scruples about killing us like flies just because of our Buddhist faith and deep reverence for the Dalai Lama."

The massacre was perpetrated when a group of about 70 refugees stumbled upon Chinese soldiers near Nangpa La pass, close to Mount Everest. As soon as the guards saw them, they opened fire and only 40 refugees managed to escape. [...]

The international community needs hold China accountable for its rampant abuses of human rights.

See also: 7名藏人中尼边境被中国边防人员打死 from The Epoch Times, and reports from BBC News and The Independent.

南無阿彌陀佛

Bihar's Buddhist sites draw tourists to India

In this previous post, I commented on what a shame it was that Bihar [बिहार], the state in India with the most number of sites associated with early Buddhism, is also one of the poorest. This story from CNN says that the government is trying to change that, with help from Buddhist tourism:

While the state doesn't track religious tourists, officials say the Buddhist trail is increasingly hot. Since 2002, when the Mahabodhi Temple was named a World Heritage site, Bodh Gaya has seen a steady rise in visitors. As India's torrid summer gives way to the monsoon rains and cooler weather in October, they come flocking.

"In the fast-paced lives that people lead, increasingly — perhaps instinctively — there is a trend to discover our inner selves. And most of the tourists who come here are doing so in search of that inner peace," said Rama Shankar Tewari, Bihar's top tourism official.

Tourism authorities are trying to cash in with an ambitious tourist campaign, "Come to India: Walk with the Buddha." As part of that, roads are being re-paved, museums are being refurbished and public restrooms being built or repaired.

I love that slogan: "Come to India: Walk with the Buddha."

Along the Eightfold Path, of course.

南無阿彌陀佛

Buddha: the Movie (re-visited)

An update on this previous post.

From India eNews:

Producer Bhupendra Kumar Modi organised a special luncheon party in Los Angeles to seek the blessings of the Dalai Lama before launching his $120 million epic feature film ‘Buddha’ to be directed by Shekhar Kapur. [...]

Hollywood luminaries Sharon Stone, Goldie Hawn, Laurence Fishburne, Robert Downey Jr, Chris McGurk, and Carol Mendelsohn also graced the occasion at the Peninsula Hotel, Beverley Hills.

I cringe every time Hollywood celebrities are mentioned in connection with Buddhism.

The English film, which will be made under the banner of Modi’s M Films, is a screen adaptation of Vietnamese Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh’s book ‘Old Path White Clouds’. It is to focus on the life and teachings of the Buddha.

Hanh, who was present at the luncheon, said his book was a ‘manual for the practice of peace’.

The writer of the article seems to have mistaken the last character of the name Thích Nhất Hạnh [釋一行] for the monk's surname. In East Asia, however, surnames are traditionally placed before the given name. Furthermore, Thích Nhất Hạnh is not the name he was given at birth, but is rather his Dharma name. In the case of Buddhist monastics in the Vietnamese tradition, the first character of the Dharma name is always Thích [釋], which comes from (the Sinicized form of) the Buddha's clan name Śâkya [釋迦, शाक्य]. This signifies that Buddhist monks and nuns are members of the Buddha's family.

To add further to the confusion, when East Asian names are Anglicized, the order of the components is not consistently preserved, i.e., it depends on the whims of the particular writer or editor. This has led to diplomatic faux-pas, but is also sometimes deliberately done for humour (such as referring to a certain unpopular dictator as Mr. Il).

Said Modi: ‘We intend ‘Buddha’ to be a major film across the globe. We’re confident this will be every bit the exciting epic Hollywood film we envisioned from the start.’

Just about the last thing a movie based on the life of the Buddha needs to be is an "exciting epic Hollywood film".

‘Buddha’ will be shot in the US, Japan, China, Thailand and India.

I'm curious to know why scenes are going to be shot in the US, Japan, and China. Will parts of the movie be taking place in these countries (i.e., Little Buddha style), or will these countries be standing in for parts of India? (I suppose the jungles of Thailand are similar enough to the jungles of India to serve as a substitute.)

‘It will make history as the most expensive film ever to be shot in India. Casting for the film will begin immediately and the producers are currently considering A-List stars for the lead roles. Principal photography is slated to begin in 2007 and the film should be ready for worldwide release in 2008,’ said Modi.

M Films has also roped in Hollywood Producer Michel Shane, executive producer of Hollywood blockbusters like ‘I Robot’ and ‘Catch Me If You Can’ for the film.

The fact that it will be "the most expensive film ever to be shot in India" doesn't seem to quite mesh with its "focus on the the life and teachings of the Buddha", who after all was a prince who gave up his wealth to become a beggar. But of course, the followers of the Buddha are famous for their lavish projects.

南無阿彌陀佛

China uses modern technology to protect Buddhist grottoes

From Xinhua comes a story about China's efforts to protect its archeological and cultural heritage, in this case the Kizil Buddhist Grottoes:

China will invest 17 million yuan (about 2.12 million U.S. dollars) to install an electronic monitor system in Kizil Thousand-Buddha Grottoes in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

The system, which will cover every grotto with infrared detectors and cameras to protect the relics, will start to be built at the end of this year, according to experts with a grotto research institution in Xinjiang.

The Kizil grottoes, one of China's most valuable ones with 10,000-square meters of frescoes and colorful sculptures, were first built in the third century. They depict life in the region where Buddhism thrived after the third century.

The frescoes of the Kizil Grottoes have been seriously damaged by nature and people during the 20th century.

In 1961, the grottoes were listed by the Chinese government as a cultural relic [and] put under the state protection.

Important Buddhist heritage sites in China have suffered an enormous amount of damage at the hands of humans over the centuries, having been the victims of thieves, looters, treasure hunters, Muslim iconoclasts, European adventurer-archeologists, Japanese imperialists, and most recently, Chinese Communists. The Cultural Revolution, which saw a spree of destruction of the symbols of Buddhism in China, was only 40 years ago. So it's heartening to see that the Chinese government seems to have realized the importance of protecting the cultural heritage, that belongs to all humanity, which lies within its borders.

南無阿彌陀佛

Ameer Ali: Islam's prophet had character flaws

Update: Ameer Ali has now denied making the comments attributed to him below. From The Australian:

Dr Ali has denied a report in The Australian newspaper last week which quoted him as saying that Muslims should not blindly follow the Koran and that Mohammed was not the perfect model and had human flaws.

But Dr Ali said the comments and a caption underneath a photograph saying "Muslim minds closed" were deeply offensive to all Muslims.

Federal parliamentary secretary for multicultural affairs, Andrew Robb, said Dr Ali should be congratulated for the comments.

But Dr Ali has been inundated with complaints from angry Muslims since the story appeared and Australia's most senior Islamic cleric called for him to be ostracised.

"I have received a number of emails from my fellow Muslims who have taken this opportunity to ridicule me and I do not deny their right to do so," Dr Ali said.

"The description projected by the article in The Australian totally misrepresents the noble character of the Holy Prophet who was sent as a model to humanity.

"Any part that I may have unwittingly played in this depiction is deeply regretted."

So, did the original article misquote him, or is he now backpedalling because of backlash from certain segments of the Muslim community?

---

In Australia, Ameer Ali, the chairman of Prime Minister John Howard's Muslim advisory board, says some things which sound like just plain old regular common sense to non-Muslims, but which could be dangerous for someone to say who is in a position of authority in the Muslim community. From The Australian:

A leading adviser on Islam, Ameer Ali, has attacked Muslims who "blindly" follow their faith and fail to question the veracity of the Koran, saying that even Mohammed had "flaws".

[...]

"The jihadists are interpreting the Koran literally and that's the problem ... Popular Muslims, because of their lack of knowledge about religion, are vulnerable to these sort of teachings."

This is a problem with all religions that are based on an allegedly holy text. The literalists always have the advantage over the non-literalists, in the sense that the onus falls on the latter, rather than the former, to justify their position.

Dr Ali, who is writing an academic paper entitled "Closing of the Muslim Mind", said even Mohammed was not the "perfect model" as most Muslims believed. Asked if the prophet had character flaws, he said: "Of course - you must look at him as a human being also."

[...]

I wonder if the title of his paper is a play on "The Closing of the American Mind" by Allan Bloom or "The Closing of the Islamic Mind" by David Brooks? And one mustn't forget "The Closing of the Western Mind by Charles Freeman.

(Maybe I should write "The Closing of the Buddhist Mind".)

His comments came as a French philosophy teacher was forced into hiding after describing the Mohammed as a ruthless warlord and mass murderer. Robert Redeker has been under police protection, moving between secret addresses, since threats against him appeared on Islamist websites last week. His home address was published with calls to murder.

Dr Ali criticised community members for playing victim when Muslims reacted violently against criticism, as after the publication of the Danish cartoons and the recent comments by the Pope.

He said it was time for Muslims to "confront this challenge head-on and look critically at their behaviour and mode of response to alleged blasphemy".

The Muslim world needs leaders like Dr. Ali to spread a radical idea which is commonly taken for granted in the West, namely, that the proper response to words – whether it's criticism or even (perceived) insult – is not violence or threats, but words in rebuttal.

Dr Ali called for Hezbollah to be removed from the Government's terror organisations list two months ago, saying they were freedom fighters defending their country against Israeli invasion.

I think most non-Muslims would disagree with this idea, but it needs to be discussed rather than dismissed.

The former president of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils said there were sections of the Koran that were relevant to "everybody at every time".

But he said people needed to read into the scripture and not merely accept it as the final word.

This will be a difficult mental shift to effect in the Muslim world, as it will require a moving away from the literal meaning of the text as well as going against centuries of tradition.

Dr Ali - who heads the Muslim Community Reference Group set up last year following the London bombings to improve communication channels between the federal Government and Australia's 300,000 Muslims - labelled the idea of going to hell for questioning the Koran a "load of rubbish". [...]

No sooner had Dr. Ali spoken the above words than he was roundly criticized by Sheik Taj al-Din al-Hilaly, leader of the Lakemba Mosque in Sydney and, according to this article, Australia's most senior Islamic cleric:

Sheik Taj al-Din al-Hilaly yesterday accused the chairman of John Howard's Islamic reference board, Ameer Ali, of selling out his religion to gain the support and financial backing of Muslim critics.

Dr Ali said in The Australian yesterday that Mohammed had flaws, and criticised Muslims who blindly follow the faith and failed to question the veracity of the Koran.

Sheik Hilaly, the head of Lakemba Mosque in Sydney's southwest, said Dr Ali's "defamatory" remarks were akin to those that in 1989 earned Rushdie a fatwa from Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini.

Is Sheik Hilaly calling for Ameer Ali to be killed? It looks that way to me.

While Sheik Hilaly backed Dr Ali's call for a reinterpretation of the Koran to fit modern times, he condemned his "dangerous" and "ignorant" comments about the prophet.

"We forbid such statements, from both Ameer Ali and anyone who has encouraged him to say what he said," Sheik Hilaly said in an interview conducted in Arabic.

"We refuse to have him stand with us at any religious ceremony from now on, unless he revokes what he said about the faith and the prophet."

If the matter weren't so serious, this threat would be humourous. What is this, elementary school? "If you don't do as we say, you can't sit at the lunch table with us!"

But the Howard Government yesterday strongly backed Dr Ali's comments, with Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration Andrew Robb saying Dr Ali should be congratulated.

"I do think that Ameer Ali seems to be encouraging the teaching and the practice of Islam in an Australian context, and I think that's to be warmly applauded," Mr Robb said.

"I think it's critical that Islam is presented to Australian Muslims in an Australian context."

Of all the Western nations (yes, I know Australia is in Asia), Australia seems to be the most unabashedly unashamed of Western culture and civilization. I think the other Western nations have a lot to learn from that.

Naturally, The Australian applauds Ameer Ali in its editorial:

Islamic scholar Ameer Ali has shown great courage and done Australia a big favour in opening debate on how best to interpret Muslim faith in the modern world. The immediate reaction of Australia's Islamic leaders to Dr Ali's controversial comments is as predictable as it is disappointing.

[...]

Australia's Mufti, Taj Din al-Hilali, immediately criticised Dr Ali for daring to speak out, suggesting that he find another occupation. Sheik Hilali said anyone who said the prophet was human and had flaws could be renounced from the faith. He challenged Dr Ali to withdraw his remarks or be barred from standing at any religious ceremony. Sheik Hilali said Dr Ali's comments were worse than those by the Pope in his Regensburg lecture - in which Benedict XVI quoted a medieval text to discuss violence, religious conversion and reason - because they were his own. Other Muslim leaders have gone further. Muslim Youth leader Moustapha Kara-Ali argued that the scriptures should be translated literally and that Dr Ali's comments were like the publication of the Danish cartoons depicting Mohammed, and the Pope's Regensburg comments.

[...]

Dr Ali can expect to pay a price for his courage. Hardliners will attempt to undermine his credibility, accusing him of selling out his religious conviction to curry favour with the Government. Far from it, Dr Ali is to be congratulated for his courage in promoting honest discussion that is in the interests of Islam, its followers and the Australian community.

Amen to that.

南無阿彌陀佛

Naser Khader: there are now those with a vested interest in making matters worse

Naser Khader, a Syrian-born member of the Parliament of Denmark and a founder of Demokratiske Muslimer, points out that Muslims are being deliberately provoked and manipulated into causing trouble for the West, in this article from the National Review Online (via Tao of Defiance):

As for Khader, the cartoons hadn’t bothered him too much (“if you don’t like them, don’t buy the newspaper”). There had been “such cartoons before,” and there hadn’t been any trouble. The real significance of Jyllands-Posten’s impious portfolio was that it had appeared “at the right time, and in the right place” to be exploited by people who wanted to foment “confrontation,” which could be milked for “money and support.”

To grasp exactly why Khader thinks that “money and support” might be required, and by whom, is to glimpse a far darker future than conventional pessismism about Europe would have it. Given profound cultural differences, made even more difficult by continued mass immigration, integrating the continent’s new Muslims minorities was never going to be easy, but as Khader sees it there are now those with a vested interest in making matters worse. He’s not a believer in the much-advertised clash of civilizations, an idea with something of a bleak, tectonic inevitability to it, but in a different sort of conflict altogether: something more controlled, planned, and directed.

It’s a conflict being promoted, Khader believes, by Islamists (“well organized,” he argues, and established worldwide) set on “controlling Muslim society in the West.” After that, the next objective will be to establish regimes more to their liking in the Muslim heartland. And then? “A global jihad. That’s why we have to stop them now.” [...]

I had made the same observation in a previous post about the reaction to the Pope's lecture at the University of Regensburg:

But I suspect that is precisely what these provocateur Muslim clerics want. [...] The political clout and personal prestige of many Muslim clerics depend precisely on maintaining the ignorance of their followers and limiting their followers' exposure to ways of thought not sanctioned by them. If the common Muslims could examine their situation dispassionately, they would realize that they are being manipulated into acting in a way that is beneficial to their leaders but harmful to themselves. Thus the Muslim clerics use every opportunity and find any excuse that they can to inflame the masses.

It is very clear that the protests against the Pope, as well as earlier protests against Danish cartoons and anything else that offends Islamic sensibilities (which seems to be pretty much everything), are staged. The theatrics are carefully managed to create the impression that the clerics are more powerful and influential than they really are. [...]

As more and more people, Muslim and non-Muslim, realize this, it will become increasingly difficult for the provocateur clerics to maintain their grip on power.

南無阿彌陀佛

Wafa Sultan: "first cracks in the walls of our prison"

Dr. Wafa Sultan [وفاء سلطان], an ex-Muslim who now proclaims herself a humanist, was interviewed on Danish television recently (via Little Green Footballs):


Dr. Sultan became notorious in the West earlier this year when she appeared on Al-Jazeera and debated Dr. Ibrahim al-Khouli, a lecturer at Al-Azhar University in Cairo (for background, see here).

Her message in the above interview was directed at non-Muslims rather than at Muslims, and it urged non-Muslims not to be afraid to question or to challenge Islam. She strongly emphasized that constant and vehement criticism by non-Muslims will pressure Muslims into examining their religion, and is needed to help Muslims improve and transform it.

One of the main problems that an ex-Muslim faces when trying to explain her rejection of Islam to Muslims is that she is often immediately dismissed as a lackey of the West, someone who has sold out her own religion and culture and is playing right into the hands of Western imperialists. This is one of the major differences between Islam today and Christianity at the time of the Protestant Reformation. Protestants – and later, atheists, secularists, and humanists – may have been accused of many things, but generally they did not also carry the stigma of being associated with an outside political enemy who is perceived to have the intention of weakening Christianity in order to facilitate foreign imperialism over Christian countries. (The exception, and it is a major one, is Communism. For example, American Christians reacted to this atheistic ideology by having the words "under God" added to the Pledge of Allegiance.) So an ex-Muslim like Wafa Sultan will have an extremely hard time reaching the typical Muslim in the Islamic world with her message.

(For a discussion of the same problem facing reformist Muslims, see this post "The Reformist Dilemma & Neo-Imperialism" at Eteraz [اعتراض]; see also this post at Winds of Change.)

南無阿彌陀佛

Reformist Muslims and ex-Muslim transformers of Islam

In my very first post, I stated that the purpose of this journal was as a place to express my thoughts on religion and society. Before becoming a Buddhist, I had studied the major world religions intensively (and I continue to do so), and so my perspective on these religions is neither like that of the believer nor like that of the typical outsider.

In particular, I had studied Islam as a "prospective convert" long before this religion became a hot-button issue in modern international politics. Of course, nowadays there is no shortage of commentators on Islam. But they fall mostly into a few major camps, none of which I fall into. So I hope that I can contribute something to the discourse. Unfortunately, I am very busy and often don't have the time to write the essays that I want to write at the pace that I want.

Today I saw three items that are related by a common theme, and I thought that I should at least post about them, so that I can comment on them later. And that theme is (as the title of this post says) "reformist Muslims and ex-Muslim transformers of Islam". It is an undeniable fact that the interaction between modernity and Islam has caused massive social upheavals throughout the Muslim world. Some Muslims have reacted to the intrusion of modernity by retreating into religious fanaticism and obscurantism, while others aspire to reform Islam and reconcile it to modern standards of rationalism and norms of human rights, while yet others have rejected the religion entirely.

It was only several hundred years ago that factions within Christianity underwent a similar struggle, resulting in the loss of political power for the religious fanatics and a flowering of both reformist Christian movements and skeptical thought. As someone who is the product of these historical currents, I naturally wish that the reformist Muslims and ex-Muslims would succeed in the end against their fanatical adversaries. However, there are many differences between Islam and Christianity, as well as between the situation of today's Muslims compared with yesteryear's Christians, so that one cannot draw on the Christian template for a "Reformation" of Islam. The outcome of the struggle for "the soul of Islam" is as yet unclear.

The posts:

1. Wafa Sultan: "first cracks in the walls of our prison"
2. Naser Khader: there are now those with a vested interest in making matters worse
3. Ameer Ali: Islam's prophet had character flaws

南無阿彌陀佛

Atrocious "Animal Olympics" in China

From UK's Daily Mail:

A black bear perches precariously on a scooter and is forced to drive a circus performer across a tightrope.

This shocking image is just the latest picture to emerge from the barbaric Animal Olympic Games in China, a country with a shameful animal rights record.

The event has provoked outrage and serious concerns among animal rights groups around the world including The Captive Animals' Protection Society.

Craig Redmond, UK-based campaigns manager, said: "The things these animals are being made to do are not natural acts, and there will no doubt be cruelty involved in making them perform these tricks."

Shirley Galligan from the Born Free foundation added: "This is degrading for the animals, insulting to our intelligence and a disaster for any possible chance of increasing respect for the wild animals we share the world with. The Shanghai Animal Olympics is about domination and manipulation."

Previous pictures from the 'games' have included kangaroos being forced to take part in boxing matches with their supposed keepers and a monkey cycling while tied by the collar to the children's bike.

Other events have included a sea lion high jump and a tug of war between an elephant and members of the audience, with more than 300 animals taking part.

[...]

The protests from animal rights groups has been felt by the Chinese Government, which is keen to improve its reputation among the international community in terms of both animal and human rights. This year's Olympics could therefore be the last.

The article links to a picture gallery and to other articles about animal abuse for entertainment in China. If decency and compassion don't move the Chinese government to outlaw these "games", or keep the Chinese people from patronising them, perhaps shame before the international community will cause them to reconsider.

南無阿彌陀佛

Nepalese Hindus and Buddhists protest animal sacrifice

From Asia News:

A reform-minded group of Hindus and Buddhists has called on the Nepali government and their respective religious leaders to ban the annual animal sacrifice in honour of the goddess Durga, which can entail the butchering of up to two million animals in three days.

Dasai celebrations to honour the goddess, one of the most loved divinities in the Hindu pantheon, takes place every year for ten days. In the last three days, about two million animals — chickens, pigeons, geese and even buffaloes — are sacrificed. Both Hindus and followers of Tantric Buddhism practice this age-old ritual.

Until last April’s popular revolts against King Gyanendra, which turned the hitherto ‘Hindu’ kingdom into a secular state, the ritual was untouchable. Now the presence of a democratic government has encouraged many reform-oriented Hindu and even Buddhist groups to call for a ban on the ritual, which they see as “diabolic”. [...]

“Some Nepalese Buddhist practice this sacrifice,” added Bhante Satyabrata, a Buddhist monk from Lumbini (Buddha’s birthplace). “This is horrible. Lord Buddha would never have allowed such a monstrous act.”

Anyone with the slightest knowledge of the Buddha's teachings would know that animal sacrifice is completely contrary to the Dharma. (For example, see this essay by Professor Mahinda Palihawadana, President of the Sri Lanka Vegetarian Society.) Ritual slaughter on this grand scale is quite simply a massive violation of the first precept given by the Buddha.

Whenever I read or hear about a large-scale ceremonial animal sacrifice, I am reminded of the following passage from Sir Edwin Arnold's poem The Light of Asia:

     The King stood in his hall of offering.
On either hand, the white-robed Brahmans ranged
Muttered their mantras, feeding still the fire
Which roared upon the midmost altar.  There
From scented woods flickered bright tongues of flame,
Hissing and curling as they licked the gifts
Of ghee and spices and the soma juice,
The joy of Iudra.  Round about the pile
A slow, thick, scarlet streamlet smoked and ran,
Sucked by the sand, but ever rolling down,
The blood of bleating victims.  One such lay,
A spotted goat, long-horned, its head bound back
With munja grass; at its stretched throat the knife
Pressed by a priest, who murmured: "This, dread gods,
Of many yajnas cometh as the crown
From Bimbasara: take ye joy to see
The spirted blood, and pleasure in the scent
Of rich flesh roasting 'mid the fragrant flames;
Let the King's sins be laid upon this goat,
And let the fire consume them burning it,
For now I strike."

                      But Buddha softly said,
"Let him not strike, great King!" and therewith loosed
The victim's bonds, none staying him, so great
His presence was.  [...]

The Nepalese Buddhists who practise animal sacrifice need to be educated about their religious heritage, which rejects precisely this kind of ritual.

南無阿彌陀佛

Meditation a popular way to improve health

From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch comes a story about how meditation is catching on among people who want to focus their minds and improve their health:

Meditation, the practice of controlling your focus to feel better, has been a mystic art since before recorded history. Every culture in the world has practiced some form of meditation and still does.

But in the past 40 years, meditation has inched its way into Western mainstream health care, and for good reason.

Research shows that it counteracts chronic stress, a condition many scientists believe underlies most illnesses. Federally supported studies are looking into meditation as a means to improve heart health, relieve symptoms of diseases and improve the brain's long- and short-term health. [...]

The article focuses primarily on the mental and physical effects of meditation, while ignoring its spiritual or religious aspects, which is understandable given the audience. However, in the Buddhist tradition, one of the foundations of meditative training is morality, from which it cannot be separated. Buddhist teachings maintain that one does not get the full benefit of meditation without also engaging in moral training, such as upholding a set of precepts.

The article describes meditation as "the practice of controlling your focus to feel better", which is certainly not the goal of meditation in Buddhism at all, although it is one of its universally recognized side-effects.

The most telling research comes from the Keck Laboratory for Functional Brain Imaging and Behavior in Wisconsin. A team led by neuroscientist Richard Davidson performed brain scans on a master meditator and found that his brain activity surpassed that of a professional athlete during intense competition.

While scientists still don't know exactly how meditation works, the research shows that it does work and can change the brain for the better.

For one thing, meditation appears to generate a biochemical anti-stress reaction that counteracts the biochemical stress reaction.

During meditation, the body produces nitric oxide, the chemical used by pharmaceutical companies to lower blood pressure. (That's not to be confused with nitrous oxide, which dentists use as an anesthetic or revelers use to liven up parties.) Nitric oxide lowers blood pressure by dilating blood vessels to take pressure off the heart.

"That's been shown... that when you meditate, or do yoga or tai chi or other methods, they actually reduce the blood pressure," says Jeffrey Dusek, a psychobiologist who teaches at Harvard Medical School and an associate research director at the Mind/Body Institute in Chestnut Hill, Mass.

It would be great if Buddhist meditative practice can be distilled into a secular form that helps a large number of people. But meditation is by its very nature introspective, so I'm skeptical that it can be turned into something like a dieting plan that a doctor can prescribe for a patient.

南無阿彌陀佛

Buddhist orphanage asked to remove Buddha statues from dorms

From Ecumenical News International via The Buddhist Channel:

Malawi's Human Rights Commission has ordered a Taiwanese-funded orphanage to remove statues of Buddha from all dormitories, saying their presence amounts to brainwashing children into joining Buddhism against their will.

The Amitofo Care Centre near Blantyre opened three years ago and was touted as the biggest orphanage in southern Africa operated by followers of Buddhism. The centre has statues of Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, in all the dormitories and an elaborate temple situated within the orphanage. [...]

Someone who isn't familiar with the ubiquity of statuary in Chinese Buddhist culture might get the mistaken impression that this was unusual, but in fact it's quite common in a "Buddhist building" to find Buddha statues outside of the main temple or shrine, such as in the library or in the dining hall. Many Chinese restaurants, for example, have a Buddha statue near the entrance even if their proprietors aren't religious. (One would not expect, for example, a prominently displayed crucifix in most Italian restaurants.) On the other hand, how these statues are interpreted by the local Malawi culture must be taken into account by the orphanage.

Commissioner John Kapito said the body acted on research at the centre stemming from concerns expressed by relatives of orphans about the statues in the dormitories and that the children may be forced to become followers of Buddhism. Relatives, he said, had also complained that children there are not allowed to eat meat and were only occasionally allowed to visit their relatives.

"This contravenes Section 23 of the Malawi Constitution, which stipulates on how best children and orphans ought to be treated," said Kapito during the orphanage's open day. "This exposure to statues can easily influence them into joining the religion unwillingly since they cannot decide their future on their own."

At the same function Malawi's deputy information minister, John Bande, hailed the Buddhist community for constructing an imposing and beautiful orphanage but asked officials at the orphanage to consider allowing children to eat meat.

I wonder if Catholic orphanages in Malawi, for example, are allowed to display crucifixes or statues of the Virgin Mary? Are Christian orphanages allowed to teach from the Bible? As long as the laws are fair and are designed with the protection of the orphans (rather than political intentions) in mind, there should be no problem for the Buddhist orphanage to follow them.

The orphanage would probably be less willing to compromise on the meat-eating though, since the Buddhist monastics who run it are neither allowed to eat meat nor to prepare meals containing meat for others. I suppose there's no comparison with the other major religions in this case, since they only require abstinence from certain kinds of meat or on certain days.

Responding to concerns raised by the two government officials, the centre's director, Master Hui Li, said that while the centre was a Buddhist organization, no child was ever forced into becoming a follower of Buddhism. He said, however, that the centre emphasises to children the importance of respecting the religion which he said, preaches peace. He also called for the understanding of the government regarding the statues in the dormitories saying they were icons of peace and children should be guided and learn from them.

"We will introduce the orphans to Buddhism but they will make their own choices on which religion they want to join when they grow up," Li had said during the opening ceremony of the orphanage two years ago, stressing that matters of religion, race and culture are trivial for those doing charity work. He said his foundation was ready to help any human being.

Children raised by an orphanage that is run by members of a religious organization will likely gravitate towards that religion, out of gratitude if not anything else. It is, of course, extremely difficult to separate charity work from what might be perceived as proselytization, a problem which Christian groups have had to deal with for some time.

南無阿彌陀佛

Congressional Gold Medal for the Dalai Lama

From The Sydney Morning Herald:

President George W. Bush signed into law Wednesday a bill to present to the Dalai Lama a Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honour bestowed by the U.S. Congress.

The decision to honour the leader of Tibetan Buddhism, who is still widely revered in the mountainous region ruled by China, caused outrage in Beijing when the House of Representatives passed the measure two weeks ago.

At the time, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang denounced the decision, which he said "seriously interferes with China's internal affairs and damages China-U.S. relations." [...]

Other non-Americans who have been awarded the Congressional medal include Britain's World War II prime minister, Winston Churchill; Albanian-born humanitarian Mother Teresa; and Nelson Mandela, the first president of post-apartheid South Africa.

When the Dalai Lama is presented with the medal, he and Nelson Mandela will be the only two people who are both Congressional Gold Medal recipients and honourary Canadian citizens.

南無阿彌陀佛

Buddha statues stolen from Bihar museum

From BBC news:

India has alerted Interpol after 18 priceless antique Buddha statues were stolen from a Bihar museum, police say.

Police say robbers broke in through a first-floor window and stole the 9th and 10th century works [on] the weekend.

The museum director called the theft of the bronze statues, insured for millions of dollars, "a major loss". [...]

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar convened an emergency meeting of police and security officials on Tuesday night.

Major domestic and international airports have been put on alert across India.

Forensic experts are examining fingerprints at the gallery and police say they suspect the involvement of a major international criminal gang.

Bihar has a reputation [as] India's poorest and most lawless state.

Unfortunately, the theft means that the items will probably be sold to a private collector and never be displayed in public again.

By the way, Bihar [बिहार] comes from the Sanskrit vihara [विहार] meaning "dwelling". The word is used to denote the dwelling places of Buddhist monastics, which used to dot the landscape. It was a major centre of Buddhism in ancient times and contains both Bodhgayâ [बोधगया] and Nâlandâ [नालन्दा] within its borders. It is a shame that it is one of India's poorest states today.

南無阿彌陀佛