A Million Peace Cranes on the Isle of Wight!

You may remember our story about Sadako Sasaki and the Paper Peace Crane from August last year, about the young Japanese girl who died of radiation poisoning from the Hiroshima bomb. She vowed to fold a thousand origami Buddhist peace cranes before she died.

Now I see from one of the Island's leading websites, the Ventnor blog, that Linda Barnes is going to fold a million peace cranes, not hopefully all on her own!

As Linda says, "The lovely thing about origami is you can share this peaceful art with others, and by sharing it you pass on that knowledge and also help a charity. So I hope many people will join in, I will continue making them for however long it takes, or until my fingers stiffen up!

I’m appealing for donations of 1 pence per crane to help the good work of various chosen charities.

Your name will go on the crane and on a sponsor sheet, and feedback on how the projects progressing – and where the money’s going. If you wish to know more please contact me via VB."

FULL MOON - Monday 9th January 2012

Just like birds that leave no tracks in the air, there are those whose minds do not cling to temptations that are offered to them.
Their focus is the signless state of liberation, which to others is indiscernible.

Dhammapada v. 92

Can we do what we do so completely, so fully, that we leave no tracks behind? Probably not. Our habits of clinging mean we tend to do things partially. Our speech can be manipulative, leaving uncertainty behind.
Our actions can be self-seeking, leaving feelings of incompleteness behind. And our thoughts can be all over the place, leaving us confused. This subtle image of birds flying through the sky, with no tracks left behind, inspires us to live without clinging. In making this effort we align ourselves with those great beings that have done what needs to be done, leaving nothing but Truth behind.

With Metta,

Bhikkhu Munindo

Note - New Videos, on the Brahma Viharas

I have just posted an excellent series of video talks by Tara Brach to our Video - Meditation section. These talks are on the Brahma Viharas or the Four Divine Abodes.

I've placed them immediately below the series Introduction to Insight meditation by Rodney Smith.

Science "Discovers" Mindfulness

There have been a considerable number of scientific studies recently "proving" the effectiveness of Mindfulness. Now, I know that there are plenty of things that lots of people firmly believe to be effective or to be true that aren't. But ever since the Buddha taught his system of meditation, over 2,500 years ago, many millions of Buddhist Monks, Nuns and lay practitioners have been well aware of its benefits.

The theory that meditation can reduce stress, depression and even chronic pain is one that has been gaining in momentum in recent years. So the BBC's David Sillito has been learning the art of mindfulness meditation in order to find out for himself.

After getting to grips with the activity, he joined some other devotees for an MRI scan to find out what impact the practice can have on brain activity, as you can see in this video.

The U.S military is also evaluating meditation and mindfulness training to help alleviate the devastating symptoms of Post-traumatic stress disorder that afflict more than 250,000 military personnel; soothe the brain trauma that’s left thousands more with tremors, speech impediments and memory lapses; and assuage the chronic pain that lingers after gruelling, repeat deployments.

Metta World Peace

In September, Ron Artest — of the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team legally changed his name to Metta World Peace. The first name, Metta, is a Buddhist term meaning “loving kindness.” The last name is self-explanatory. This has led to fans being able to chant “We want World Peace!” at a recent game.

This is, more or less, what Artest intended when he made the change: to make the public, unwittingly or consciously, seriously or in jest, consider the concept.

“If you look at a young kid and you tell them, would they love world peace? They would definitely tell you yeah,” he said Thursday after the Lakers’ shootaround. “But as we get older, we change and we adjust to our environment. And we don’t think about little things anymore. But kids love, they love other kids. They love world peace.”

The Buddha's Words on Kindness (Metta Sutta)

This is what should be done
By one who is skilled in goodness,
And who knows the path of peace:
Let them be able and upright,
Straightforward and gentle in speech.
Humble and not conceited,
Contented and easily satisfied.
Unburdened with duties and frugal in their ways.
Peaceful and calm, and wise and skillful,
Not proud and demanding in nature.
Let them not do the slightest thing
That the wise would later reprove.
Wishing: In gladness and in saftey,
May all beings be at ease.
Whatever living beings there may be;
Whether they are weak or strong, omitting none,
The great or the mighty, medium, short or small,
The seen and the unseen,
Those living near and far away,
Those born and to-be-born,
May all beings be at ease!

Let none deceive another,
Or despise any being in any state.
Let none through anger or ill-will
Wish harm upon another.
Even as a mother protects with her life
Her child, her only child,
So with a boundless heart
Should one cherish all living beings:
Radiating kindness over the entire world
Spreading upwards to the skies,
And downwards to the depths;
Outwards and unbounded,
Freed from hatred and ill-will.
Whether standing or walking, seated or lying down
Free from drowsiness,
One should sustain this recollection.
This is said to be the sublime abiding.
By not holding to fixed views,
The pure-hearted one, having clarity of vision,
Being freed from all sense desires,
Is not born again into this world.

The Lady

With all the publicity about Meryl Streep's performance as Margaret Thatcher in the film "The Iron Lady" you may have missed news of Michelle Yeoh playing Aung San Suu Kyi in Luc Besson's film "The Lady". The film has received mixed reviews, the general feeling being that it's a worthy effort that fails to capture the "enigma" of Aung San Suu Kyi who, despite her treatment by the Burmese military junta, always met their bullying threats with non-violence.

The film is not showing at any of the Island's cinemas this holiday but is being shown widely on the mainland..... so here's a taste for islanders....

NEW MOON - Saturday 24th December 2011

These three ways
lead to radiant abiding:
asserting the truth,
not yielding to anger,
and giving, even if you have only a little to share.

Dhammapada v. 224

We are the creators of the world. Our actions of body, speech and mind give form to the space we inhabit. Investing in inner awareness liberates us from a dependency on the material world. The outer conditions of our life come and go: at times, they are agreeable and rewarding, at other times wearisome and disappointing. Yet we can always make the effort to speak truth. We can always wait before succumbing to anger. And no matter how much or how little we own, we can always give. We already have the power to create a beautiful abiding.

With Metta,

Bhikkhu Munindo

Kim Jong Il lying in state

The physical body consists of bones
covered with flesh and blood.
Stored up inside it
are decay and death, pride and malice.

The Buddha,
Dhammapada, Verse 150