Word: buddhism
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...such groups find themselves flooded with interest and inquiries from people whose hope for a peaceful outcome rests in cross-cultural religious understanding. A Judaism and World Religions program at Valley Beth Shalom, a conservative synagogue in Sherman Oaks, Calif., drew 1,400 people to hear a speaker on Buddhism. "I hear people say, 'Isn't it wonderful how we're coming together as a nation?'" observes the Rev. Don Sperber, pastor of the 700-member Grace United Methodist Church in Denver. "I'm troubled when the most common song I hear sung today is God Bless America...
...temple in America? Outrageous, perhaps, but if anyone can judge the group's authenticity, it ought to be Yan Ming himself. He's a legitimate scion of the original Shaolin Temple, the 1,500-year-old monastery a few kilometers away whose monks' melding of the gentle tenets of Buddhism with ancient combat techniques has earned it renown as the symbolic birthplace of Chinese martial arts. Just ask the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service: it thought Yan Ming should register his hands as lethal weapons when he applied for a green card. Just ask the Henan Tourist Bureau...
...Despite this turmoil?or perhaps because of it?Yan Ming thrived at Shaolin. As one of the few youngsters in residence, he enjoyed the often undivided instruction of the older monks, who schooled him in the improbably paired disciplines of Chan (Zen) Buddhism and kung fu, for which the temple was famous. Daily exercises sharpened both his physical and mental control: 30-minute handstands were followed by meditation; bare-handed wood chopping was a prelude to chanting sutras. "Buddhists believe in reincarnation," Yan Ming says, "and I figure I must have been a martial artist or a monk...
Dzongs are found across Bhutan. Huge fortress-like structures that combine the administrative center and principal monastery of each region, they embody the national marriage of Buddhism and politics. Non-Buddhists will find a peek into the courtyard is often all they are allowed: at Wangdue Phodrang, a village in central Bhutan, we were deterred from entering by stories of the regional administrator's fondness for whipping. In Paro, however, some high-ranking officials were happy to guide us around their temple. Inside, a sweet fog of cypress incense fought with the stench of butter lamps, which threw out flickering...
...longer to realize about the regulated optimism in Japan is that it may not be Panglossian so much as simply pragmatic: the Japanese I know see happiness not as something to be pursued, but as something to be found wherever they happen to find themselves. The first rule of Buddhism, which lies at the heart of Japan's ancient rites and assumptions, is the reality of suffering (which means that anything other than suffering is an unexpected luxury). The second rule is impermanence, which in this context translates into taking the long view of things. The economic forecast calls...