A Poem That I Like

Growing Old

What is it to grow old?
Is it to lose the glory of the form,
The lustre of the eye?
Is it for beauty to forego her wreath?
Yes, but not for this alone.

Is it to feel our strength -
Not our bloom only, but our strength -decay?
Is it to feel each limb
Grow stiffer, every function less exact,
Each nerve more weakly strung?

Yes, this, and more! but not,
Ah, 'tis not what in youth we dreamed 'twould be!
'Tis not to have our life
Mellowed and softened as with sunset-glow,
A golden day's decline!

'Tis not to see the world
As from a height, with rapt prophetic eyes,
And heart profoundly stirred;
And weep, and feel the fulness of the past,
The years that are no more!

It is to spend long days
And not once feel that we were ever young.
It is to add, immured
In the hot prison of the present, month
To month with weary pain.

It is to suffer this,
And feel but half, and feebly, what we feel:
Deep in our hidden heart
Festers the dull remembrance of a change,
But no emotion -none.

It is -last stage of all -
When we are frozen up within, and quite
The phantom of ourselves,
To hear the world applaud the hollow ghost
Which blamed the living man.

Matthew Arnold

“There are five things which no one is able to accomplish in this world: first, to cease growing old when he is growing old; second, to cease being sick; third, to cease dying; fourth, to deny dissolution when there is dissolution; fifth, to deny non-being.”

Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha

Mindfulness - Throwing the Baby Out with the Bathwater?

The West Wight Sangha subscribe to Tricycle magazine and as such have access to their excellent website. There is currently an on-line discussion on Western Buddhism which is particularly relevant as we have also been discussing the current trend for simplified, sanitised mindfulness stripped of its Buddhist roots......

In "Buddhist Training for Modern Life" (Interview, Spring 2012), Segyu Rinpoche, the founder of the Juniper School, discusses how Juniper is extending the lineage of Buddhist transmission in a way that is suited to a Western understanding. In this community discussion we will be exploring culturally appropriate ways to transmit Buddhist teachings to Westerners. How do we avoid, on one side, the danger of mimicking cultural artefacts that have little meaning in a new place and, on the other side, losing the potency of the tradition? What is the benefit of holding a lineage for ourselves and others, and how do we meet the responsibility of doing so?

Follow the discussion HERE.

Civilisation faces ‘perfect storm of ecological and social problems’

Celebrated scientists and development thinkers warn that civilisation is faced with a perfect storm of ecological and social problems driven by overpopulation, overconsumption and environmentally malign technologies.

In the face of an “absolutely unprecedented emergency”, say the 18 past winners of the Blue Planet prize – the unofficial Nobel for the environment – society has “no choice but to take dramatic action to avert a collapse of civilisation. Either we will change our ways and build an entirely new kind of global society, or they will be changed for us”.

The stark assessment of the current global outlook by the group, who include Sir Bob Watson, the government’s chief scientific adviser on environmental issues, US climate scientist James Hansen, Prof José Goldemberg, Brazil’s secretary of environment during the Rio Earth summit in 1992, and Stanford University Prof Paul Ehrlich, is published today on the 40th anniversary of the foundation of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). The paper, which was commissioned by UNEP, will feed into the Rio +20 earth summit conference in June.

 “The current system is broken,” said Watson. “It is driving humanity to a future that is 3-5C warmer than our species has ever known, and is eliminating the ecology that we depend on for our health, wealth and senses of self.”

"Many of the earth´s habitats, animals, plants, insects and even micro-organisms that we know to be rare may not be known at all by future generations. We have the capability and the responsibility to act; we must do so before it is too late." The Dalai Lama

The paper urges governments to:

• Tackle overconsumption in the rich world, and address population pressure by empowering women, improving education and making contraception accessible to all.

• Conserve and value biodiversity and ecosystem services, and create markets for them that can form the basis of green economies.

• Replace GDP as a measure of wealth with metrics for natural, built, human and social capital – and how they intersect.

• Eliminate subsidies in sectors such as energy, transport and agriculture that create environmental and social costs, which currently go unpaid.

• Transform decision-making processes to empower marginalised groups, and integrate economic, social and environmental policies instead of having them compete.

• Invest in knowledge through research and training.

More on the Anti-Buddhist Vandalism in the Maldives

Further to our recent post "Maldives President Resigns - Buddhist Image Vandalised" this from TheBhutanese.......

Last December, the Maldivian government ordered the city counsel of Addu to dismantle the monument presented as a gift from Bhutan by the prime minister, Lyonchen Jigmi Y Thinley. The monument, unveiled by the prime minister there last November, was a wooden carving on which the mythical four friends (Thuen Pa Puen Zhi) were carved. The four friends were especially chosen since it reflected the cooperative spirit of the regional organization.

Asked about the removal of the monument, including destruction of monuments from Pakistan and Sri Lanka, the director general for the Department of SAARC and Regional Organization (DSRO,) Sonam Tshong, said, the vandalisation of the monuments was not directed against any of the SAARC member states.

“But for some reasons (we) had become a victim of the current domestic political unrest in the Maldives, he said.

The monuments were dismantled following a series of protests by certain quarters of the Maldivian society, claiming it were ‘idolatrous’ and was against Islam. The monument gifted by Pakistan was removed while the Sri Lankan monument (statue of a lion) was decapitated and that gifted by Nepal was stolen.

However, the Bhutanese monument was not vandalized and the local city officials have removed the monument for safekeeping. But reportedly, the monuments would not be reinstated soon if ever. The Sri Lankan high commission to Maldives asked the Maldivian government to return their monument if the latter is unable to take care of it.

The monument depicts the Buddhist parable of the Four Friends which tells that four animals were trying to find out who could be considered as being the oldest. The elephant said that the tree was already fully grown when he was young, the monkey that the tree was small when he was young, the hare that he saw the tree as a sapling when he was young and the bird claimed that he had carried the seed from which the tree grew. So the bird was recognized by the other animals as the oldest, and the four animals lived together in harmony, helping each other to enjoy the fruits of the tree.

NEW MOON - Tuesday 21st February 2012

All chains of confinement fall away
from those who see clearly
and know well the states
of concentration and insight.

Dhammapada v. 384


A visitor to the monastery asked the meditation master, Venerable Ajahn Chah, how we can practice concentration meditation (samadhi) when in reality there is no self. The teacher explained that when we are developing concentration we work with a self. When we are developing insight (vipassana) we work with non-self. Then when we truly know what’s what, we are beyond both self and non-self.

With Metta, Bhikkhu Munindo

To study the Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be enlightened by all things of the universe. To be enlightened by all things of the universe is to cast off the body and mind of the self as well as those of others. Even the traces of enlightenment are wiped out, and life with traceless enlightenment goes on forever and ever.

Eihei Dōgen

Olympic Truce Walk

The Olympic Truce is an ancient tradition of nations observing ceasefires for the duration of the Games so that competitors can travel safely to and from the event.

After lobbying government, one member of the House of Lords is trying to raise the profile of the truce which has been signed by all 193 member states of the U.N.

To show his support for this Olympic ideal, Lord Michael Bates of Langbaurgh, is walking from Olympia in Greece to London – a journey of over 3,000 miles. Through his Walk for Truce initiative, Lord Bates hopes to encourage others to do something to show their commitment to the London 2012 Olympic Truce resolution. Watch the following video to find out more...........

Animation Against Factory Farming

A stop-motion short slamming factory farming practices aired at the Grammys on Saturday.

The short film follows the story of one farmer as he industrialises his land to help support his growing family. As time goes on, he realizes the ugliness and unsustainability of factory farming, and converts his farm back to focusing on free-range livestock. It also features a cover version by Willie Nelson of Coldplay’s “The Scientist”.

Compassion in World Farming was founded over 40 years ago in 1967 by a British farmer who became horrified by the development of modern, intensive factory farming.

Secularism under attack

The High Court ruled on Friday the saying of prayers as a formal part of a council meeting was unlawful, following a case brought by the National Secular Society and an atheist town councillor from Bideford, Devon.

On Friday, Mr Justice Ouseley said: "The saying of prayers as part of the formal meeting of a council is not lawful under section 111 of the Local Government Act 1972 and there is no statutory power permitting the practice to continue."

The ruling went on to state prayers could be said in a council chamber before a formal meeting as long as councillors were not required to attend.

But church leaders said it amounted to a victory for an “aggressive secularist agenda” intent on banishing religion from public life.

Eric Pickles, the Communities Secretary, has lawyers preparing to issue emergency legal guidance to councils, effectively urging them to ignore the ruling.

MPs and peers will not be prevented from praying at the start of parliamentary proceedings, Downing Street has confirmed. A source at Number 10 said the prime minister "thinks that the prayer sessions are very important and that we should keep them".

Cllr Imran Khan a Tory member of Reigate and Banstead Borough Council in Surrey, said: “Religion has no place in politics. This High Court judgment is a victory for everyone who believes that democracy and religious freedom is the cornerstone of western free society.”

In a speech to be given during a visit to the Vatican, Baroness Warsi, chairman of the Conservative Party, will once again criticise 'militant secularisation' as 'intolerant' and 'illiberal' and call for Christianity and 'Christian values' to be reaffirmed in Europe (she's a Muslim although she has been pelted with eggs for not being Islamic enough).

Here on the Island prayers are traditionally said before every full council meeting. Prayers appear on Isle of Wight Council full meeting agendas but before the numbered items of business.

Council leader Cllr David Pugh said: "It remains our view that our prayers precede full council meetings and are not part of the formal agenda.

"We will, however, be reviewing our procedure with a view to ensuring prayers can continue to take place before the formal meeting commences."

See  http://secularbuddhism.co.uk/