Word: buddhisms
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...from the democratic visionary he painted himself as -- and which the West needed him to be, in order to believe the good guys had won out in the Soviet Union's collapse -- Yeltsin's only agenda is to be running things. "If Buddhism had been fashionable in Russia when the Soviet Union collapsed, Yeltsin would have become Moscow's Dalai Lama," says Zarakhovich. "Democracy was popular, so the former Communist Party leader became a democrat. He's the consummate political animal, at his best when he's fighting -- he's already shown that he's willing to shoot in order...
...protest introduced the world to a mystical movement little known outside Asia. China, once devoted to Confucianism and then to Maoism, is experiencing a vacuum of faith and values. The creed most successful in filling it since "freedom of religion" was announced in 1979 has been Buddhism. But others, from illegal Christian "house churches" to witchery, have also flourished. Falun Gong is a variant of Qi Gong, a blend of mind and body work (it also includes Tai Chi) that strives to harness an energy called qi. Qi Gong does not always rise to the intensity of faith, but charismatic...
Most formidable is Li's. In an interview weeks before the Beijing demonstration, he explained to TIME that he began studying Qi Gong at age 4 with masters "in the mountains," probably in Manchuria. In 1992 he went public with an amalgam of Qi Gong, Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism aimed at moral rejuvenation and a spiritual "cultivation," culminating in supernatural powers and "freedom from the worldly state." (Asked if he is a human being from earth, Li replied, "I don't wish to talk about myself at a higher level. People wouldn't understand it.") His regimen, promoted through books...
Hinduism and Buddhism, for example, insist that suffering is simply a manifestation of being human. According to these traditions, the goal of existence is to break away from the cycle of suffering by realizing that worldly possessions and desires are mere illusions. To be one with God, one must seek truth and essentially cease to be human. A noble and spiritual vision, perhaps, but one that many Americans--with our New Year's meals and our TV sets--find difficult to embrace...
...less butchery to do and more time to spend on matters of high culture, especially the observance of form in such areas as calligraphy, the "way" of tea and the artifacts that were tied into it, ceremonial dress, and brush painting linked to the imported cult of Zen Buddhism. Some of the most memorable samurai objects in this show could not have had much military use; they are kawari kabuto, spectacular parade helmets--the ancestors of Darth Vader's mask--worn to impress the living daylights out of commoners. The variety of shapes the helmets came in was mind-boggling...