Can Buddhism do More?

I posted this in 2007. I hope we will get more response from local Buddhists to be more engaged.

We open our eyes and ears every morning to some news about our world being destroyed. The Polar Caps are melting away, the breath we inhale have lost its freshness. A recent trip to Frasers' Hill shows how much we are missed mother nature. Can we shut our eyes in meditation and retreat from the world knowing very well the law of dependent origination (paticca-samuppada) ties us all together?

Should we open out hearts and minds and do more?

Site for meditation retreat center?



Some interesting sites

• Buddhism & Environmental Protection
• Earth Sangha
• An Ethical Approach to Environment Protection
  
• Dharma Gaia
  
• Forest Sangha

much more on the net, what can we do?

The 4Rs of Buddhism and our Environment

Can we just overcome the climate change by planting trees? It is a good initiative but I think we need to go deeper and address causes closer to the roots. Is is enough to just Reduce, Reuse and Recycle? I think the Buddha-Dharma has more to offer.

To save the world and reduce the effects of global warming, everyone must play a role. However, we need to go deeper to explore such. First, it is about lifestyle change. One cannot merely go on planting trees while Buddhist continue to print books for free distribution where the supply exceeds demand. One cannot just talk about the 3Rs of Reduce, Reuse and recycle while we continue to use tons of plastics disposable bottles and polystyrene containers during Buddhist functions.

We need to study and appreciate the Buddhist practice as not just for the attainment of enlightenment but a lifestyle that encourages sustainable development. The Buddhists has the 4Rs - REFUSE, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. REFUSE represents the practice of avoidance of tanha (craving). It is this craving or thirst for more that gets us dukkha (suffering, or dissatisfaction). Craving is not just about a chant we recite from the Dhammachakkapavattana Sutta every Poshada Day. It is a way of life of simplicity. The simplest form of simplicity is renunciation - to be a bhikkhu/bhukkhuni. As lay people we can and should try to attain some level of simplicity as our practice. In that way, we contribute to a livestyle that sustains our environment for the future.

I am trying to get a couple of Buddhist friends to get together to understand the Buddha Dharma from the perspective of our ecological environment. In turn, we look share this with others. If you are interested to join me, we will meet in line first and subsequently meet on a regular basis.

Buzz me! Let's make a difference at beyond.buddhism@gmail.com

Metta

Bodhi Day: METTA for a Better Earth

Today is one of the very important day in the Buddhist calendar, especially the Mahayana tradition, known as Bodhi Day. The day Siddhartha at under the Bodhi Tree and attained enlightenment. The day He became Buddha!

This year, 2009, is important day for us as this year is special - it coincides with the United Nations Climate Change Conference (December 7 - 18, 2009) in Copenhagen. This conference is particularly important it is know recognize that global warming is affecting the world's climate - in more negative ways than positive. Everyone is concerned. Spiritual leaders have come together to move governments to make bold decisions on carbon reduction, to help save our world. Read the Buddhist Declaration on Climate Change

Let's commit ourselves everyday, for the next 10 days until Dec 18, dedicate metta and prayers to the world leaders at Copenhagen - make the change to save our world!

The Buddha attained enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree, if we venerate and appreciate the tree as much as we say it - meditate and send metta.

Let's do it!

PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD!

According to the entry in Wikipedia

Bodhi Day traditionally the 8th day of the 12th lunar month has been observed on December 8 in Japan since the Meiji Restoration (1862-1869). It is the Buddhist holiday that commemorates the day that the historical Buddha, Shakyamuni or Siddhartha Gautauma, experienced enlightenment, also known as Bodhi in Sanskrit or Pali.

In the Pali Canon, there are several autobiographical discourses of the Buddha, relating to this story. In The Longer Discourse to Saccaka (MN 36), the Buddha describes his Enlightenment in three stages:

• During the first watch of the night, the Buddha discovered all of his past lives in the cycle of rebirth, realizing that he had been born and reborn countless times before.
• During the second watch, the Buddha discovered the Law of Karma, and the importance of living by the Eightfold Path.
• During the third watch, the Buddha discovered the Four Noble Truths, finally reaching Nirvana. In his words:

“My heart, thus knowing, thus seeing, was released from the fermentation of sensuality, released from the fermentation of becoming, released from the fermentation of ignorance. With release, there was the knowledge, 'Released.' I discerned that 'Birth is ended, the holy life fulfilled, the task done. There is nothing further for this world.' ”

While there were different of the the Buddha's enlightenment, almost all traditions agree that as the Morning Star rose in the sky in the early morning, the third watch of the night, Siddhartha finally found the answers he sought and became Enlightened, and experienced Nirvana. Having done so, Siddhartha now became a Buddha or "Awakened One".

The word Rōhatsu (臘八) is Japanese and literally means 8th Day of the 12th Month. It is typical for Zen monks and layman followers to stay up all evening in the night before Rohatsu practicing meditation and the holiday is often preceded by an intensive sesshin.

Editorial: 14 days to seal history's judgment on this generation

for Malaysia, I took this from The Sun

Minute by minute update of the conference HERE

14 days to seal history's judgment on this generation

By: (Mon, 07 Dec 2009)

This editorial was published yesterday by 56 newspapers around the world in 20 languages including Chinese, Arabic and Russian. The text was drafted by the editors at the Guardian newspaper in UK during more than a month of consultations with editors from more than 20 of the papers involved.

LONDON: Fifty-six newspapers in 45 countries today took the unprecedented step of speaking with one voice through a common editorial. They did so because humanity faces a profound emergency.

Unless we combine to take decisive action, climate change will ravage our planet, and with it our prosperity and security. The dangers have been becoming apparent for a generation. Now the facts have started to speak: 11 of the past 14 years have been the warmest on record, the Arctic ice-cap is melting and last year’s inflamed oil and food prices provide a foretaste of future havoc. In scientific journals the question is no longer whether humans are to blame, but how little time we have got left to limit the damage. Yet so far the world’s response has been feeble and half-hearted.

Climate change has been caused over centuries, has consequences that will endure for all time and our prospects of taming it will be determined over 14 days. We call on the representatives of the 192 countries gathered in Copenhagen not to hesitate, not to fall into dispute, not to blame each other but to seize opportunity from the greatest modern failure of politics. This should not be a fight between the rich world and the poor world, or between east and west. Climate change affects everyone, and must be solved by everyone.

The science is complex but the facts are clear. The world needs to take steps to limit temperature rises to 2°C, an aim that will require global emissions to peak and begin falling within the next 5-10 years. A bigger rise of 3-4°C -- the smallest increase we can prudently expect to follow inaction -- would parch continents, turning farmland into desert. Half of all species could become extinct, untold millions of people would be displaced, whole nations drowned by the sea. The controversy over emails by British researchers that suggest they tried to suppress inconvenient data has muddied the waters but failed to dent the mass of evidence on which these predictions are based.

Few believe that Copenhagen can any longer produce a fully polished treaty; real progress towards one could only begin with the arrival of President Obama in the White House and the reversal of years of US obstructionism. Even now the world finds itself at the mercy of American domestic politics, for the president cannot fully commit to the action required until the US Congress has done so.

But the politicians in Copenhagen can and must agree the essential elements of a fair and effective deal and, crucially, a firm timetable for turning it into a treaty. Next June’s UN climate meeting in Bonn should be their deadline. As one negotiator put it: "We can go into extra time but we can’t afford a replay."

At the deal’s heart must be a settlement between the rich world and the developing world covering how the burden of fighting climate change will be divided — and how we will share a newly precious resource: the trillion or so tonnes of carbon that we can emit before the mercury rises to dangerous levels.

Rich nations like to point to the arithmetic truth that there can be no solution until developing giants such as China take more radical steps than they have so far. But the rich world is responsible for most of the accumulated carbon in the atmosphere – three-quarters of all carbon dioxide emitted since 1850. It must now take a lead, and every developed country must commit to deep cuts which will reduce their emissions within a decade to very substantially less than their 1990 level.

Developing countries can point out they did not cause the bulk of the problem, and also that the poorest regions of the world will be hardest hit. But they will increasingly contribute to warming, and must thus pledge meaningful and quantifiable action of their own. Though both fell short of what some had hoped for, the recent commitments to emissions targets by the world’s biggest polluters, the United States and China, were important steps in the right direction.

Social justice demands that the industrialised world digs deep into its pockets and pledges cash to help poorer countries adapt to climate change, and clean technologies to enable them to grow economically without growing their emissions. The architecture of a future treaty must also be pinned down – with rigorous multilateral monitoring, fair rewards for protecting forests, and the credible assessment of "exported emissions" so that the burden can eventually be more equitably shared between those who produce polluting products and those who consume them. And fairness requires that the burden placed on individual developed countries should take into account their ability to bear it; for instance newer EU members, often much poorer than "old Europe", must not suffer more than their richer partners.

The transformation will be costly, but many times less than the bill for bailing out global finance — and far less costly than the consequences of doing nothing.

Many of us, particularly in the developed world, will have to change our lifestyles. The era of flights that cost less than the taxi ride to the airport is drawing to a close. We will have to shop, eat and travel more intelligently. We will have to pay more for our energy, and use less of it.

But the shift to a low-carbon society holds out the prospect of more opportunity than sacrifice. Already some countries have recognised that embracing the transformation can bring growth, jobs and better quality lives. The flow of capital tells its own story: last year for the first time more was invested in renewable forms of energy than producing electricity from fossil fuels.

Kicking our carbon habit within a few short decades will require a feat of engineering and innovation to match anything in our history. But whereas putting a man on the moon or splitting the atom were born of conflict and competition, the coming carbon race must be driven by a collaborative effort to achieve collective salvation.

Overcoming climate change will take a triumph of optimism over pessimism, of vision over short-sightedness, of what Abraham Lincoln called "the better angels of our nature".

It is in that spirit that 56 newspapers from around the world have united behind this editorial. If we, with such different national and political perspectives, can agree on what must be done then surely our leaders can too.

The politicians in Copenhagen have the power to shape history’s judgment on this generation: one that saw a challenge and rose to it, or one so stupid that we saw calamity coming but did nothing to avert it. We implore them to make the right choice.

Buddhism and the Culture of Peace: A Brief Report from the 2009 International Network of Engaged Buddhists (INEB) Conference

Buddhism and the Culture of Peace

A Brief Report from the 2009 International Network of Engaged Buddhists (INEB) Conference

(Chiangmai, Nov 10-17, 2009)

The International Network of Engaged Buddhists (INEB) began in February 1989 in Siam (Thailand) at a conference of 36 concerned ordained and lay people from 11 countries organized by Sulak Sivaraksa and other thinkers and social activists Buddhists and non-Buddhists.

INEB is an organization that has firm confidence in compassion, non-violence and co-existence as revealed by The Buddha. Confrontation with suffering, analysis and actions to put out suffering, particularly in the modern world context is the core mission. The issues of interest revolve around integration of spirituality and social activities

The network expanded through out years and included members - individuals and organizations - from more than 20 countries from Asia, Europe, America and Australia. Out of this diversity, an understanding of engaged Buddhism has emerged which integrates the practice of Buddhism with social action for a healthy, just and peaceful world. This commitment to global community based on the universal truths of wisdom and compassion guides all of our activities. INEB's areas of concern have centered on peace, human rights, gender issues, spirituality based development, diversity tolerance and interfaith dialogue.

From November 10-17. 2009, INEB celebrated it’s 20^th Anniversary with the Engaged Buddhist Festival of Peace and Social Transformation in Chaingmai, Siam (Thailand).

The Buddhist Missionary Society Malaysia (BMSM) ha d 4 members attended the INEB Conference and Anniversary Celebrations. They were:

Bro Vidyananda K V Soon, Sis Adeline Woon Lai Shan, Bro Mark Low (all from BMSM Shah Alam) and Bro Tan Jong Shyan (from BMSM Kajang). Bro Soon has been involved in INEB in its early years from its inception.

(At KLIA’s LCCT. from left: Bro Vidyananda K V Soon, Bro Tan Jong Shyan, Sis Adeline Woon, Bro Mark Low)

Meditation Retreat (Nov 10-12)

The Anniversary started off very aptly with a meditation retreat held that International Meditation Center of the Mahachulalongkronrajavidyalaya University (IMC-MCU). It was a 3-day retreat lead by Dharmacari Lokamitra of the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order. It was somewhat a light retreat with focus on the grounding on the practice of meditation and the building and re-kindling of spiritual friendship. In the retreat, the participants discussed and reflected on the the following topics:

a. The original context of the Sangha in contemporary multi-cultural context

b. Kalyana-mitra (Spiritual friendship)

There were all also group sharing sessions related to the above.

Dharmacari Lokamitra conducting a session at the backdrop is the main shrine hall of the International Meditation Center.

INEB Conference (Nov 13-15)

As soon the retreat was over, the Conference proper went on the way. The Conference was attended by over 200 participants from Buddhist organizations from different parts of the world. There were representatives from Thailand, Burma, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India, Bhutan, Nepal, Ladakh, Tibet, Europe, South Africa, Australia, and the U.S. The theme of the conference was: Engaged Buddhism: Past, Present and Future Towards a Turning Point in Buddhist Identity and Community.

In the conference we heard one of the key founders of INEB, Sulak Sivaraksa, present the keynote address where he shared INEB’s vision and strategic direction. Throughout the conference, participants heard very moving and inspiring accounts of how lives and have been transformed when Buddhism became truly engaged in our hearts, our communities and our societies. We also heard accounts of how lives continue to be mired in dukkha and how efforts continue to be provided. Some of the other topics covered in the conference by way of paper presentations and group discussions were:

a. Economics and development – the need to search for a Buddhist perspective of economics.

b. Environment justice, what some members are doing and how that would affect our lives.

c. The issues and challenges of gender biases and how re-visioning is greatly needed.

There were also separate group that talked discussed about, among other things, Alternative Education, Gender and the Environment. There were also specific country and regional discussions.

A section of the participants during the conference

The conference ended on Nov 15 with a Buddhist Culture of Peace Festival held at Wat Suandok in the evening. It was a spiritual as well as cultural event aimed at articulating the value of peace – within and without.

The Festival of Peace at Wat Suandok (Chaingmai)

Overall the conference was special as there was as much focus on individual, inward transformation as social transformation – emphasizing the importance of grounding onto the practice of meditation.

International Alms Round (Nov 16)

On the following day, monks, nuns, novices and ordained people from all traditions participated in an international alms round to collect medical supplies to be passed to refugees and those in need of such supplies and not able to access them. Over USD1000 worth of medical supplies were collected and shall be distributed to refugees along the Thai-Myanmar border as well as other areas of need.

Members of the public prepared medical supplies

(Bikkhuni Dhammananda of the Theravada tradition and Rev Alan Senauke of the Soto Zen tradition)

(Thai Novices)

(Japanese monk)

The rest of the day and the following morning say a series of public forums on “Buddhist Culture of Peace and social Justice.

Peace Walk (Nov 17)

The last and final day of the festival saw the chanting of the Uppapata Santi Gatha by 200 monks and nuns of all traditions and peace walk that started from Buddhasathan to the Tha Phae Gate. Several hundred monks, nuns and lay people walked peacefully which drew a lot of attention from the general public.

At the Tha Phae Gate the following conference statement was read out. A fitting conclusion to INEB’s 20^th anniversary conference and festival of Peace.

INEB CONFERENCE STATEMENT

This week in Chiang Mai the International Network of Engaged Buddhists celebrated its 20th anniversary with a successful conference dedicated to peace and social transformation. As kalyanamitta, more than two hundred socially engaged Buddhists from twenty-five countries – from Asia and the Pacific region, from North America and Europe – joined together for study, dialogue, and dharma practice, committing ourselves to work for peace.

We affirm our deep belief that the suffering of society – war, racism, poverty, gender oppression, destruction of the environment, and cultural degradation – can be transformed into liberation for all beings.

We affirm and have seen ourselves that peace can arise from even the fiercest of conflicts.

Together we confronted critical concerns that affect life on this precious and fragile planet:

• the intertwined disasters of consumerism and environmental destruction;
• the vital need to empower and educate young people;
• the pervasive oppression of women, and all gay-lesbian-bisexual-transgendered men & women;
• the denial of human rights and meaningful livelihood;
• the need to preserve Buddhism and all traditional culture and religion;
• and the obscenity of war, civil strife, and violence.

These concerns, wherever they arise in the world are our concerns. They are close to our hearts. In the Buddha's way and in the way of every great religion, we know that we must meet this suffering not with faith alone, but with all our efforts and action day by day.

— 17 November 2009

Conclusion & Action Plan

The entire event was overall inspirational and the recognition that the message of Buddhism needs to be more engaged needs to be developed. Malaysia’s representative have committed to develop and educate a core group to explore this further and BMSM Shah Alam has committed to lead this.

With metta

Vidyananda K V Soon