Dhondup Wangchen Escapes From China

Tibetan film-maker Dhondup Wangchen was jailed in China for six years in late 2009 in the western province of Qinghai after he made a documentary in which ordinary Tibetans praised the Dalai Lama and complained about how their culture had been trampled upon.

The film, “Leaving Fear Behind”, features a series of interviews with Tibetans who talk about how they still love their exiled spiritual leader and thought the 2008 Beijing Olympics would do little to improve their lives. The film was shown in secret to a small group of foreign reporters in Beijing during the Olympics.

In a statement issued in Beijing late on Wednesday evening, the group "Filming for Tibet" said Dhondup Wangchen had arrived in the United States that day.

“After many years, this is the first time I'm enjoying the feeling of safety and freedom,” he said.

“I would like to thank everyone who made it possible for me to hold my wife and children in my arms again. However, I also feel the pain of having left behind my country, Tibet.”

Dhondup Wangchen had been released from prison in June 2014 in the Qinghai provincial capital of Xining but remained under tight surveillance with his movements and communications monitored.

Qinghai, which borders the Tibet Autonomous Region, is home to a large ethnic Tibetan population and is considered by many Tibetans as part of greater Tibet. It is also the birthplace of exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

Watch the film here............

NEW MOON - True Principles

A healthy mind is the greatest gain. 
Contentment is the greatest wealth. 
Trustworthiness is the best of kin. 
Unconditional freedom is the highest bliss. 

Dhammapada v. 204

We might assume that the perfect realization of unconditional freedom is some way off, but we can already plant the seeds of the possibility in our hearts. The conditions of the world keep changing: at times quite wonderful, at other times challenging and often something in-between. How do we stay stable with such instability? We orient our hearts toward true principles, Dhamma. Establishing an initial understanding of true principles gives our hearts direction. Contemplating these principles is nurturing the seeds. As to when they will bear fruit is not something we can control. In the meantime cultivating trust in the possibility of unconditional freedom is something we can do.

West Wight Sangha's Review of the Year

Welcome to our review of the year as told in the stories and issues featured here on the West Wight Sangha website. As always follow the highlighted orange links for the full story..................

We started the year with A Simple and Easy New Years Resolution, a mindfulness exercise consisting of simply remembering to pick up and dispose of one piece of litter every day.

Continuing the theme of new year's resolutions there's the perennial post Christmas diet resolution. Hands up, I needed to lose weight and I decided to do so mindfully.

Yes, as a Buddhist my aim is to live as much of my life mindfully as possible, but there is actually a Mindful Diet; Mindful Eating - A Resolution.........................................

Spotted on Freshwater Bay in January was this piece of very Zen art.

More Children Learn About the Buddha. In February Dave Downer and I had the pleasure of teaching the basics of Buddhism at The Island Free School over in Ventnor.

Back in the middle of November last year we received the following email...............

I stumbled across the West Wight Sangha website and thought I might send you some of the books published by our organization. You can see some of them here. http://www.bhantedhammika.net/ If you would like some copies for yourself and your friends and you give me a postal address I will happily send you some copies.

Kind regards Bhante Dhammika.

The books were ordered and duly sent on their way by ship. They arrived on the 1st of March which coincidentally was World Book Day!

Books, Books, Books

Which leads us neatly to A Buddhist Poem for World Poetry Day

"Strong In The Rain" (Ame ni mo Makezu) by Kenji Miyazawa

Strong in the rain

Strong in the wind

Strong against the summer heat and snow

He is healthy and robust

Unselfish

He never loses his temper

Nor the quiet smile on his lips

He eats four go of unpolished rice Miso and a few vegetables a day

He does not consider himself

In whatever occurs…his understanding

Comes from observation and experience

And he never loses sight of things

He lives in a little thatched-roof hut

In a field in the shadows of a pine tree grove

If there is a sick child in the east

He goes there to nurse the child

If there’s a tired mother in the west

He goes to her and carries her sheaves

If someone is near death in the south

He goes and says, “Don’t be afraid”

If there’s strife and lawsuits in the north

He demands that the people put an end to their pettiness

He weeps at the time of drought

He plods about at a loss during the cold summer

Everyone calls him “Blockhead”

No one sings his praises

Or takes him to heart…

That is the sort of person I want to be.

A Proposal for Peace - Buddhist Talk in Newport

I posted this poster to give everyone a heads-up to the the upcoming talk in May. The Isle of Wight members of the socially engaged Buddhist movement SGI-UK hosted the talk, which was followed by a question, answer and discussion session.

This story, by Dan Ackerman, appeared in the spring 2017 edition of CNET Magazine, Virtual Reality Meditation

Triratna's 50th Anniversary

On the 8th of April we noted that this weekend the Triratna Buddhist Community will be celebrating its founding 50 years ago on the 6th of April 1967.

Walk the Wight and Wesak In April I changed the date of Wesak to avoid clashing with Walk the Wight!

At the end of May we posted details of Ajahn Brahm's UK Dhamma Talks Tour which was in October .The tour was in support of the Anukampa Bhikkhuni Project.

In June we told the story of how the communist, atheistic  government of China was embracing Buddhism to Project Power.


Becoming a guardian of Buddhism is helping Xi successfully promote China as an acceptable world power with a soft image.

Buddhist globalisation helps Beijing push its economic projects – religious diplomacy makes it easier for China to win economic and infrastructural projects in Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Nepal and elsewhere.




Following the terror attacks in London and Manchester and the apparently "retaliatory" attack outside a mosque in Finsbury Park this article by Andrew Olendzki on conflict seemed so appropriate.............  The Language of Conflict

We are Ten years Old this Month!

The West Wight Sangha Website was ten years old this June. Back on Wednesday the 6th of June 2007 I posted our first item.............

This was followed on the 14th with our first proper story A Zen Monk on the Isle of Wight!



Buddhist Group Changing China (or visa versa?)

This article was by Ian Johnson from the New York Times and is about a Buddhist organisation from Taiwan called Fo Guang Shan, or Buddha’s Light Mountain.

In July we held Our Summer Retreat Day and I posted some of the poems and texts that we used. Failing atrocious weather, our Winter Retreat Day is scheduled for Sunday the 21st of January.

Talking of the island, here is a story illustrating the interconnectedness of life..........
The Isle of Wight, The Buddha, NCIS and The Ham

It Never Rains But it Pours!

A stalwart group of us gathered on the Duver at St Helens on the first Sunday of September to participate in the annual Buddhist picnic when the various Buddhist groups from across the island meet for a relaxed late summer get together and alfresco meal. This year was a milestone as it was the 20th year that we had held the picnic.

It poured down................. all day.

So we went back to Matt's and had the "picnic" in his conservatory where we could fantasise we were communing with nature by looking out at the garden.

Anniversaries and Milestones

Having said that the West Wight Sangha is ten years old this year it was nice to see that it's also the 10th anniversary of the founding of the Alliance for Bhikkhunis which is a nice coincidence.

Myanmar and the Rohingyas

On September the 12th's edition of BBC radio 4's program Today Vishvapani (a member of the Triratna Buddhist group) offered his thoughts on the situation in Myanmar and the plight of the Rohingyas..........



New Buddhist Group on the Island!

In the middle of the month a new Buddhist group, the Heart of the Island Sangha, started in Newport.

The group is affiliated to the Community of Interbeing UK (COI) which is part of the international Sangha founded by the Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh and follows his teachings and practices in the Plum Village Tradition and meets every Tuesday between 19:45 – 21:30 at the Riverside Centre, on The Quay in Newport.

Newsletter

At the end of the month we produced our first newsletter. There will be more to follow but in many ways this, the Annual review, is itself  one great big newsletter.




Some "Buddhist" Poems for National Poetry Day

The 6th of October was National Poetry Day when Britain was encouraged to “break the tyranny of prose for 24 hours by sharing poetry in every conceivable way.”

And here's Maitreyabandhu talking about the connection between poetry and receptivity.

Tuesday Talks - a New Feature At our Sangha meeting on the 10th of October we introduced a new feature, a short Dharma talk. I have been taking talks to the Newport Soto Zen group for some time but until recently very few shorter talks have been available for use in our shorter meetings.

Our first was What About Karma by David Loy.



These talks, as well as the Newport ones, are all available on our Audio Page.

Are These Hobbit Holes?

Click and find out!

We ended November with A Good Day Being Had by All and A Bit of Controversy?

The good day was a retreat at the Soto Zen group with the Reverend Gareth Milliken, the Prior of Reading Priory.

The controversy was all that fuss about dowsing............

Buddhism and Islam in Asia

We started December with this insightful analysis by Akhilesh Pillalamarri.

Arson Attack Destroys Buddhist Centre in Savoie, France

Sadly we finish our review with this story of an arson attack on the Karma Ling Buddhist centre in France.

However, it is the response of Lama Denys Rinpoché, leader of The Karma Ling Institute, that says it all.

"This person is in great pain and we want to help him or her as much as we can. I personally make prayers and wishes so that he or she become free from any torments.

If someone I cherish and protect as my child comes to think of myself as his enemy, Just like a mother for her child with an illness to give him even more affection, such is the practice of a Bodhisattva."

Arson Attack Destroys Buddhist Centre in Savoie, France

On the night of Thursday to Friday, December 1st, the old Chartreuse of St-Hugon at Karma Ling Buddhist centre in France was the victim of an arson attack. Fortunately, there were no casualties.

The fire broke out around 1 a.m. on the 1st of December at the south side of the grand temple. The flames spread quickly to the roof and engulfed the rest of the building.

A newsletter posted by Shangpa Karma Ling last weekend revealed that there had been several threats and previous arson attempts at the centre.

"Yesterday morning, exactly one week after the December 1 fire, we received what is likely a third threatening letter from the person who claims to be the perpetrator. This letter claims the burning of the Chartreuse and urges residents to evacuate, at the risk of suffering the consequences of a new attack."

The newsletter goes on to say............

"I would also like to encourage you to practice the mantra of the Buddha of Immense Goodness: “Om Mani Padme Hum” associated with a special benevolent dedication intent for the person claiming the fires and continuing to threaten. This person is in great pain and we want to help him or her as much as we can. I personally make prayers and wishes so that he or she become free from any torments.

In these circumstances, let us remember the stanza of the thirty-seven Bodhisattva practices:

“If someone I cherish and protect as my child Come to think of myself as his enemy, Just like a mother for her child with an illness To give him even more affection, such is the practice of a Bodhisattva. “

From heart to heart, May everything be auspicious."

Lama Denys Rinpoché

Excitement in Totland!

We hold our Sangha meetings weekly on Tuesday nights form 7:00 to 9:00. Last week we were bemused by the sound of nearby sirens and wondered what was occurring and where.

This, from this weeks County Press.......

Car flipped 

A MAN was taken to St Mary's Hospital following a car crash in Totland. 

Emergency crews were called to Weston Road at 8.40 pm on Tuesday after a car flipped over and ended up on its roof. Fire crews made sure the scene was safe and one man was taken to hospital by ambulance.

That was just up the road from us. Who says nothing newsworthy ever happens in Totland!

FULL MOON - Our Contribution To Sanity

By renouncing unworthy ways 
and by not living carelessly, 
by not holding to false views, 
we no longer perpetuate delusion. 

Dhammapada v. 167

The way our senses work we find it easy to look outside at that which is wrong with the world – indeed, there is plenty we would wish was otherwise. When the mind is trained with wise reflection, we remember that we can also turn our attention around and look at what can be done to help; we don’t just dwell on the deluded conduct of others. In this short teaching the Buddha is indicating how it is always possible to make a wholesome contribution. It is good to know that we are not powerless and our situation is not hopeless.

Buddhism and Islam in Asia

With the Rohingya crisis continuing in Bangladesh and Myanmar this piece by Akhilesh Pillalamarri, from The Diplomat, October 29, 2017 is a useful analysis of the cultural and historic context of the confrontation of Islam with Buddhism in Asia.

Buddhism and Islam in Asia: A Long and Complicated History

Demography and history explain troubled attitudes toward Islam in Buddhist-majority Asian regions today.

New Delhi, India -- A cursory glance at world news today may suggest that the fault-line where Buddhism and Islam meet in Asia is increasingly characterised by conflict between the two religions. Of course, in broadest sense, this is not true, as religions are made up of numerous individuals and leaders, who are generally of differing opinions.

Yet, there is an unusually high level of tension between Buddhists and Muslims in regions where the two groups share space, including Rakhine state in Myanmar, southern Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Ladakh, the eastern part of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir.

At the root of this tension is the fear among Buddhists - not completely exaggerated - that Muslims will swamp them demographically. Many Buddhists also fear that their countries will lose their culture and become Muslim, as had been the case in many parts of modern day Central Asia, Xinjiang, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, which were majority Buddhist before the arrival of Islam in the 7th-11th centuries. Often, the arrival of Islam went hand-in-hand with the destruction of Buddhism.

When the Muslim Turkic Qarakhanids captured the Buddhist city of Khotan in Xinjiang in 1006 CE, one of their poets penned this verse: “We came down on them like a flood/We went out among their cities/We tore down the idol-temples/We shat on the Buddha’s head.” In the Islamic world, a destroyer of idols came to be known as a but-shikan, a destroyer of but, a corruption of the word Buddha, as Buddhism was prevalent in much of what became the eastern part of the Islamic world.

Unfortunately, this history, and demographics, have lead to great fear of Islam among Buddhists, which in turn has led to genocide in Myanmar, and violence in Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Ladakh. If all Rohingya refugees were to be repatriated to Rakhine in Myanmar for example, they would outnumber the local Buddhist Rakhine people. And in Ladakh, the Buddhist proportion of Leh district fell from 81 to 66 percent over the past three decades (relative to Muslims and Hindus). In Ladakh as a whole, which also includes Kargil district, Buddhists are 51 percent of the population, and Muslims 49 percent, a fact of great concern to the region’s Buddhists.

Attitudes reported from Burmese Buddhists in a recent New York Times piece sum up views commonly held among both hardline monks and the lay-population of Myanmar. One monk said of the Rohingya: “They stole our land, our food and our water. We will never accept them back.” A Rakhine politician said: “All the Bengalis learn in their religious schools is to brutally kill and attack… It is impossible to live together in the future.” A local administrator elsewhere in Myanmar said, “Kalar [a derogatory term for Muslims in Myanmar] are not welcome here because they are violent and they multiply like crazy, with so many wives and children.”

Meanwhile, extremist elements in Myanmar, such as the 969 Movement, have pledged to work with Buddhist extremists elsewhere, such as in Sri Lanka, home to the Bodu Bala Sena, a Buddhist extremist organisation that lead anti-Muslim riots in that country in 2014. Ladakh was recently the scene of communal tensions between Buddhists and Muslims after the marriage of a Muslim man and a Buddhist woman, something seen as threatening to the region’s demographics. A head lama from a local monastery said, “The Muslims are trying to finish us off,” also adding that Buddhist women ought to have many more children.

Buddhism was arguably the world’s largest religion a century ago, if one counts everyone who also followed Chinese folk religion, Shinto, Muism, and other East Asian religions. In the modern era, Buddhism has been particularly vulnerable, however, to both secularism and evangelism from other religions. According to a Pew survey, alone among the world’s major religions (including Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Chinese folk religion), Buddhism and its adherents are projected to decline both in terms of raw numbers, and as a percentage of the world population. The world Buddhist population is projected to fall from 488 million to 486 million people, and from 7 percent to 5 percent of total share. Christianity and Islam are still growing; in particular, the latter will grow from around 23 percent of the global population to 30 percent by 2050. Put another way, there will be six times as many Muslims as Buddhists by then.

The nature of Buddhism may be related to the issue of the religion’s decline: there is a huge gap between the religion’s lay practitioners, who have adopted a set of customs associated somewhat with Buddhist mythology, and the monastic community, which follows the Buddha’s example. While there is an element of elite-popular division in all religions, in few other religions is the gap so stark. After all, the community, the sangha, founded by the Buddha himself was monastic.

State patronage was also important to the survival of the sangha, as in many Buddhist countries, monks beg, do not produce food, and do not engage in warfare. When a territory was conquered by non-Buddhist powers, or Buddhism was patronised less by certain rulers, the sangha inevitably declined and the lay people merged their folk customs into whatever other religions were dominant.

By the Middle Ages, after a thousand years of growth, Buddhism was sidelined as the elite religion throughout much of its former dominion, except in mainland Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka. Neo-Confucianism and Shinto prevailed in East Asia, partially due to state policies. In 845 CE, China’s Tang Dynasty launched the great anti-Buddhist persecution, stimulated in part by the fact that too many people were entering tax-free monasteries. Neo-Confucianism thereafter became the dominant philosophy among the elite in China; a similar process unfolded in Korea with the rise of the Joseon Dynasty in 1392, and in Japan, where the Tokugawa Shogunate (1603-1868) promoted Neo-Confucianism and Shinto at the expense of Buddhism, mostly for political reasons.

Buddhism also all but vanished in South Asia, as folk Buddhism was reabsorbed into Hinduism, with the Buddha being acknowledged as an avatar of the god Vishnu. Hinduism was simultaneously less dependent on state promotion for its survival, and more attuned with the ritual and political needs of kingship, as well as being more aligned with folk beliefs. The destruction of the great Buddhist university at Nalanda in 1193 by Muslim Turkic invaders sealed its fate. Throughout South Asia, after the establishment of Muslim dynasties, conversion to Islam occurred fastest in the heavily Buddhist regions of Afghanistan, Swat, Sindh, western Punjab, and eastern Bengal, compared to other areas where Hinduism was more prevalent.

This history informs Buddhist attitudes toward Islam, regardless of the actual doctrines of Buddhism, or Islam for that matter. History and demographics have created a sense of siege that is unlikely to be resolved soon. Unfortunately, ideas such as education, development, spreading awareness of family planning, or autonomous regions for Muslim minorities are taking a back seat to hysteria throughout numerous Buddhist-majority countries with Muslim-minorities.

FULL MOON - Pavarana Day - Fully Awake

Disciples of the Buddha 
are fully awake both day and night, 
taking delight 
in cultivating the heart. 

Dhammapada v. 301

The Buddha encouraged the cultivation of our heart's potential to awaken. We are already aware of the need to look after our physical health, and the benefits of maintaining mental well-being; if we heed the Buddha's advice we will also invest in those qualities which lead to wisdom and compassion. Wisdom sees the advantages and disadvantages in any given situation. Without wisdom we risk seeing only that which pleases us. Sometimes it is more wise to endure discomfort and disappointment for the sake of being able to see deeply, beyond the world of preferences. Compassion, the heart's warmth and impulse to care, is the natural expression of wisdom.