Word: buddhists
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...Buddhist Monks in South Korea are fighting over...
...country where people routinely have their wallets blessed by Buddhist monks before the weekly lottery, belief in the long shot runs deep. The newspapers are rife with stories of benevolent ghosts who solve financial and familial problems. And last April, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was duped into thinking he could wipe out the national debt by unearthing lost World War II treasure in a muddy cave near the Burmese border. So who can blame Thailand's 700,000 AIDS patients for putting their faith in such cures as bitter melon extract (at one point certified by government officials), magic herbs...
...success in breaking the movement, the government has not yet addressed the sense of spiritual emptiness that gave birth to Falun Gong. Incense smoke flows thick in Buddhist temples across China, and the number of Christians has increased tenfold to about 40 million since the communists first swept to power. Even Liu Shujuan, the apostate who now leads people away from the movement, still seems ambivalent about her conversion. "It's hard to say," she responds when asked if she would still practice if the government hadn't banned Falun Gong. A pause. A glance at her minders. "I think...
...With its slow-motion calisthenics and Buddhist philosophical bedrock, Falun Gong seems incontrovertibly Chinese. But the world is a hungry place for new beliefs. And while Falun Gong has been labeled a dissident movement within China?which is how many non-Chinese first heard about Falun Gong and became interested?there are practitioners around the globe with little or no political agenda. Adherents say Falun Gong practice groups can now be found in more than 40 countries and that Master Li Hongzhi's writings have been translated into 10 languages...
...Self-immolation is a shocking act. The motivation is often complex, not subject to simplistic generalization. Take the case of Thich Quang Duc. In Saigon, on June 11, 1963, the venerable 73-year-old Buddhist monk sat down in a busy intersection and had two monks pour gasoline over him. Thich lit a match, clasped his hands in prayer and burned himself to death. The horrifying dignity of his protest against government persecution stunned the world. Other monks followed in subsequent self-immolations, protesting against persistent religious suppression by the minority Catholic government in a nation with a long Buddhist...