OznAsia

When I first started spending time in Asia I was drawn to the many beautiful temples in Thailand. At the same time I couldn't help noticing how many people in that country live in poverty. Eventually I came to realise that the reason the temples were so elaborate was that people would give money to the temple building fund in order to make merit. Money was often given for the building of new temples but nothing would be given to maintain old ones so they were often left in disrepair.

Everyday Buddhist practice in Asia depends on the interpretation placed on the teachings. The concept that we in the West usually refer to as karma may have a slightly different interpretation in Asian countries.

Most Asians who consider themselves at least nominally to be Buddhists place a lot of emphasis on the practice of making merit. The belief is based on the principle of what goes around comes around; what you give out, you get back. Most Buddhists are not seeking enlightenment in this life. They generally believe there are a few more lives on their way after this one and they see it as a gradual process. By making enough merit in this life they hope to be born into a better life next time around.

Practices that are adopted for the making of merit include donating to temple building funds and feeding the monks. But do these donations actually bring much benefit to anyone? I know monks in some temples barely have enough to eat but in others food is thrown away. I recently visited a temple in Malaysia which was a huge complex and the building was just going on and on and on—another pagoda, more Buddha images, a huge statue of Kwan Yin. And everywhere there were notices encouraging visitors to donate to the building fund. The same temple had many shops around the complex selling items of worship or perhaps more accurately, souvenirs. It seemed obvious to me that this was a huge money-making concern. Some of these buildings were being used at times for teaching dhamma but I suspect most served very little practical purpose.

When I was in China I found that many old temples had been beautifully restored and they charged admission to tourists. Chinese people were queueing to get into such temples. And yet when I wandered into another temple there was no entry fee. There were no tourists there but many people were busy actually doing things that might be considered as practicing dhamma. I felt a much warmer atmosphere in this temple than those being used as a tourist attraction.

In another temple in another Chinese city I noticed there were many monks and nuns entering a pagoda meeting hall. I struck up a conversation with a monk who could speak English. He told me there was a conference to discuss the problem of commercialisation of Buddhism. Apparently what was happening was that businessmen would invest money for the restoration of an old temple and later they would get a cut from the entry fees paid by tourists.

Another supposedly merit making process involves the release of captive wildlife. There will be a market outside a temple. A vendor will sell you a cage full of birds which you then liberate. You feel good because you've freed the birds. But unless there was a market created by this practice the birds would not be captive in the first place.

Many markets also sell tortoises for 'liberation'. The tortoises already had their freedom in the wild but someone caught them so they could then sell them in the market for releasing, hopefully back into the wild. This process gets even more crazy.
The large temple complex I mentioned above has a 'tortoise liberation pond'. People bring the tortoises to the temple and they think they will make merit by 'liberating' the tortoises into this extremely overcrowded pond from which they have no escape. If only someone would liberate the thousands of tortoises from the liberation pond.

It's not all like that though. In one temple I bought some home-made cookies. As the woman took my money she said that the money raised from the sale of cookies supported the orphanage. I'd much rather contribute to an orphanage than a building fund.

If you've been reading this blog for some time you'll know that in the past I've done volunteer work for Tzu Chi. This organisation encourages supporters to make merit by donating to their charity work that really does help people in need in what I'd like to believe is the true spirit of Buddhism.

I'd like to end today by paraphrasing Buddhadassa who said that the Buddha said that a glimmer of mindfulness makes more merit than to feed the entire sangha and the Buddha himself.

Labels: Asia, Buddhadasa, Buddhism, Malaysia, religion, thailand

On the way back from Mahasarakham I dropped into Korat to spend some time with Nid. She knows that I don't mind visiting the occasional temple so had picked out one or two of the, literally, thousands of temples in the district, that she thought I might find interesting. But first we took a look at the floats for the Tian pansa candle procession. You can see the photos of these on my flickr page.

We started at Wat Phayup which includes a 'cave' temple. Wat or วัด is Thai for temple or monastery. At Wat Phayup we found a small open-air tour bus that was doing the rounds of temples and other interesting sites of Korat. It was only 20 baht (less than A$1) a head so we joined and got commentary as well—in Thai.

I would have been happy with this. Nid seems to feel an obligation to this man she calls 'Dad'. I have no such expectation. Still, she wanted to show me even more on Sunday before I checked out of my hotel at midday and headed on to Bangkok.

She met me for breakfast Sunday morning. She'd managed to find a map and we set off to Wat Narai Maharaj. The main temple was locked and Nid went off to find someone to let us in. She returned with monk, a young man about the same age as my son David.

Chut (ฉัดร) was a friendly guy who spoke good English and after he'd shown us the various shrines around his monastery he offered to take us to Mahajula University, a Buddhist university that he had attended. I was concerned about how much time we had but neither he nor Nid seemed to think there was a problem. So we set off in a sorngtheau.

At the university we passed some classrooms and even though it was Sunday morning there were classes in progress. Chut started a conversation with a teacher from one of the classes and next I was invited to take over the lesson. It turned out that it was an English class and the Thai teacher was keen to have a native speaker talk with his students, just as I used to invite any visiting foreigner to speak with my students at Wat Xam in Cambodia.

Eventually it was decided that we should start making tracks back to the wat and then to my hotel. While we were waiting for the sorngtheau Nid and Chut were carrying on a conversation in Thai about what Chut should call me. He wanted to call me 'Dad' (he actually said 'Daddy') as Nid does and I have no problem with this. I really like this young man who was going out of his way to be kind to two people he'd only just met. Then again, this sort of thing is not uncommon in Thailand. On the other hand Nid suggested to him that 'Sir' might be more respectful considering the age difference. He felt that 'Dad' was indeed respectful and suggested a much closer relationship and I agree. The last thing I need is to have someone calling me 'Sir', especially someone I am fond of.

So, to Nid and Chut, thank you for your kindness and respect during my visit to Korat. I look forward to seeing you both again on my next visit.

Labels: Asia, Buddhism, religion, thailand, travel

In countries such as Thailand and Cambodia I observe that spirit beings are often a part of local belief systems. Often these beings are considered to be evil. These beliefs come from Animism that dominated these cultures before Buddhism was introduced. Unlike some religions, Buddhism doesn't usually attempt to replace existing religions but offers its teachings as further enrichment. Over the years the two have blended. It is not uncommon to find Buddhist monks refer to spirit beings. In fact, such beings have been adopted into Buddhist teachings.

In my early study of Buddhism I read several books by Trevor Ling whose interest was largely with the Theravada Buddhism of Burma. Recently I discovered a book of Ling's 'Buddhism and the mythology of evil' first published in 1962 which discusses the various mythological 'evil' creatures and compares them to Mara as a symbol of evil.

Ling points out that Buddhist teachers have embraced the existing folk beliefs rather than contradict them but have used the all-encompassing name of Mara. Instead of trying to teach that these beings do not exist (as I'm aware of Christian missionaries doing in Cambodia) the Buddhist teachers have used them as a way of describing that which is a distraction from ones path. The stories may describe horrible beings that do terrible things but this is intended as a metaphor for our own inability to concentrate on our path. Ling also sees the Christian concept of Satan in the same light.

The problem this raises in teaching religious paths in the modern world is that science has cast doubt on the existence of such beings. However the existence of distractions from ones path is very real. Ling suggests that perhaps the symbols of Satan and Mara have had their day but the reality which is symbolised by these mythological creatures is still relevant.

'If, because the symbol is outworn and irrelevant in a scientific age, it is discarded, then the reality to which it pointed has no longer any representation by means of which men may be constantly reminded of it. There is thus a need to find other effective ways of speaking of this reality which these symbols formerly represented.'

Buddhism and the mythology of evil
A study in Theravada Buddhism
Trevor Ling
first published George Allen & Unwin, 1962
republished 1997 by Oneworld Publications, Oxford

Labels: Asia, book review, Buddhism, Burma, Cambodia, folklore, religion, storytelling, teaching, thailand

I was visiting the Biological Sciences Building again. When I walked past the room where I'd seen the dead bodies I peeked in. They were still there. Maybe not the same ones but ones in a similar state of dismemberment. There was a class of medical students busily cutting them up. I wandered in and had a chat with their teacher and here is what I learned.

People will their bodies for medical research and/or study. After death they are put in chemicals to preserve them. Two years later they arrive at MSU where they are kept for one year.

The university uses them to teach human anatomy to students of medicine, nursing and other relevant courses. In this case the students were second-year medical students. Anatomy is seen as belonging to the Biology Department so the bodies are kept by them and students from other faculties visit for their anatomy lessons.

I stayed about ten minutes for this chat but admit I was feeling mildly queasy again. I chose to not look too closely at the corpses. These young med students, on the other hand, appeared to be completely comfortable as they hacked away and pulled out bits and pieces that they compared to the pictures in their anatomy text books.

Denial of death is very strong in Western society and perhaps humanity in general. I've written before about the use of the euphemism 'to pass away' because, for some reason, we are afraid to mention death. The idea that we should die and end completely is something we seem to not be able to accept. We have to go to heaven or be reborn.

While Buddhism appears to accept the concept of rebirth it is a little vague on what is reborn as Buddhism denies the existence of a soul.

Buddhism teaches detachment from the body we are living in and also from any others that we might happen to become attracted and attached to. Theravada Buddhism in particular teaches one to contemplate one's own or another's body as a rotting corpse as a means of bringing about this detachment. I'm not aware of any lay Buddhists here who put this into practice. A friend who considers himself to be a staunch Buddhist could not bring himself to look at any of my photos of the corpses.

I suspect those young medical students have learned detachment in a very practical way. Maybe we could all gain something by this type of interaction with the dead.

This is a follow up to an earlier blog.

Labels: Asia, Buddhism, death, fear

I’m aware that some of my friends check this blog from time to time to make sure I’m still alive. Therefore I’ll post this one to let you know that I am not sick, dead or in jail—just busy.

I’ve had a few trips to Bangkok lately as my flickr page will attest. In fact, I have more pictures to post but haven’t had time to process them. And I have another trip away this weekend. More about that later. I’m still finding time to do a little reading so I’ll share a quote from my favourite Buddhist teacher:

'Allow me to oppose the statement "Work is money. Money is work." which is a false statement not in line with Buddhist principle which teaches that work is duty and duty is work and the "work" here implies the morally right kind of work for every kind of living being. Work is not something to be done for the sheer purpose of earning money to pander and indulge ourselves in vices or various sensual pleasures which are in reality, merely a matter of "flashes of madness".'

Buddhadasa Bhikkhu
'A Consigned Legacy'

Labels: Buddhadasa, Buddhism

Over 2,500 years ago Siddhartha Gotama sat in meditation under a fig tree (ficus religiosa). He stayed sitting until he achieved enlightenment and became known as the Buddha. Cuttings from that tree were planted and cuttings from the progeny also. Since then cuttings from the descendants of the original tree under which the Buddha achieved enlightenment have spread around the world and are revered by Buddhists as Bodhi (enlightenment) trees.

Before Siddhartha left home to take up the path of searching for enlightenment he had one son named Rahula. At the age of seven Rahula joined his father as a novice monk, apparently the first. I assume Rahula remained a monk until his death and so there are no descendant of the Buddha himself.

Perhaps we can think of the Bodhi trees that have now been planted around the world as the closest thing to a living descendent of the Buddha. I photographed this one close to the bank of the Mekong River in Mukdahan which I visited yesterday for the first 90-day reporting of my current visa for staying in Thailand.

Labels: Asia, Buddhism, religion, thailand, travel

On Sunday night I watched the BBC's review of the week's news. It showed the presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan along with Barack Obama showing their solidarity and talking about the need to suppress the Taliban in these two countries. And of course there is the suggestion that is so often raised that if the Taliban take control of Pakistan they will have access to Pakistan's nuclear weapons. The thought is planted in our minds but no one seems to want to take this suggestion any further. We are left with the thought to do what it will in our minds.

I want so much to give Barack Obama a chance. He talked about the need for change and he talked about withdrawing from Iraq. Is this man sincere? I hope so, but...

And then it dawned on me. Change? Nothing has changed.

I cast my mind back to the late 60s and early 70s, to the time of the Vietnam war. The justification for that war was the domino theory—if one country fell to communism all the others would fall too like a row of dominoes. We were inculcated with the fear of communism to entice us to accept that war just as now we are inculcated with the fear of al-Qaeda and extreme Islam so that we support today's wars.

Did the communist dominoes fall as we were told they would after Vietnam won the war?

'If you want to shrink something, you must first allow it to expand.
If you want to get rid of something, you must first allow it to flourish.
If you want to take something, you must first allow it to be given.
This is called the subtle perception of the way things are.'

Ajahn Sumano Bhikku
Monk in the Mountain

Labels: Barack Obama, Buddhism, Islam, propaganda, religion, terrorism, US, Vietnam

We've been having an abundance of holidays here lately. After nine days straight for Songkran we had Coronation Day last Tuesday. Friday was Wesak and Monday the Royal Ploughing Ceremony. The astrologers who chose that date gave us another four-day weekend.

I decided that was a good opportunity for a change of scenery. I decided to go to Udon Thani because I remember that when I was there years ago there was a bookshop where I bought a few English-language second-hand books.

As I said it was years ago when I was last there. I figured my memories and a 2003 edition of LP Thailand would be enough for me to find everything I needed in Udon. I did have a quick look at a more recent LP a week or so ago and the description of one hotel being suitable for conversion as a prison made me think that the one I stayed in was still there. The 2003 edition also listed another in the same street that looked more promising. I figured with two in the same street I'd probably be able to find one that was suitable.

When I got off the bus, off course I was approached by a tuk tuk tout. I figured it wasn't too far to the hotel but it was hot so I asked him if he knew the street. He didn't. Nor did he know either of the hotels. I decided to trust my feet rather than a tuk tuk.

I walked up one of the streets running off the highway and shortly ascertained that it was the right one to get me where I was going. I came to a major intersection that looked promising. I asked a couple of passers by if it was Thanon Mak Khaeng. They said it was but didn't know the hotels. There was another hotel named Siri Udon in this street that looked about my budget level but I didn't remember seeing it in LP. When I reached the other end of the street I realised it was not Thanon Mak Khaeng at all but Thanon Amphoe. I remembered it from the LP map and knew I still had a way to walk in the heat.

Eventually I reached Thanon Mak Khaeng and walked up and down the block where I should have found the hotel Tang Porn Dhiraksa but I couldn't. No worries, the other one would do. Headed further up the block. And right where I remember my prison-like hotel being a few years back there is now a brightly coloured almost refurbished building that will no doubt be a hotel when it reopens. Or was Chaiya Porn hotel in the vacant block next door?

I found a shady seat and pulled out my 2003 LP again. Siri Udon was indeed listed and while they didn't say anything good about it, they didn't say anything bad. So I headed back there. They had a fan room for 180 baht. The sheets looked clean and so did the bathroom. The bed felt firm. I took it. The room was cool and the bed was comfortable. I crashed for about an hour.

It was already mid afternoon when I woke and I hadn't had any lunch so I headed off to find somewhere to eat. On the way I noticed the bookshop I wanted to visit and returned there after lunch. They mostly stock Thai books. In fact, from the front you'd think it was a specialist Buddhist bookshop but the back half of the shop has more general books. They used to have quite a few second-hand English language books but I must say the range has declined in those years. Perhaps they're not restocking as they sell them. I didn't see anything there I couldn't live without but still grabbed half-a-dozen that looked OK.

When I had paid for those I asked if they had any other English books. He said 'no'. But as I was leaving, walking through the Buddhist section, my eagle eyes noticed 'Monk in the Mountain' by Ajahn Sumano Bhikkhu. It looked appealing so I bought that too. When the shop man realised I was interested in Buddhism he went off and returned with a selection of books in English. Five of these were by Phra Buddhadasa (Buddhadasa Bhikkhu on the cover). I had owned one of them before but had to dispose of it when moving on. I bought all five. I might not see them again in a hurry—not likely in Mahasarakham anyway.


Vendors gather in Thanon Amphoe and around the corner in Thanon Pho Si selling Buddhist amulets and also some Buddha images. The amulets are supposedly blessed by monks and have powers. It is not unusual to see a man wearing five or more amulets around his neck. No doubt he thinks that'll protect him from his bad karma. I don't go in for this sort of thing. I believe the Buddha specifically denounced the practice. Still, I find it an interesting aspect of Thai culture. Newsagents stock many magazines for collectors of these amulets. When I went out for breakfast the next morning a stall had set up right outside the door of the hotel. They had a mountain of amulets selling for 20 baht each. I have a friend in Australia who is fascinated by Buddha images showing the Buddha in his anorexic stage. I thought I might find an amulet like that. I did but the woman said it wasn't the Buddha. I asked who it was and she replied 'Samdet'. I would have liked to know more but that was the extent of my ability in Thai. I found another that interested me. A Buddha-like image with hands covering eyes. I asked what it was and she said 'pit dah'. I could already see that. 'Pit dah' equals 'eyes closed'. 'Thammai pit dah'. 'Why are the eyes closed?' I asked. But once again her answer was beyond my Thai language ability. I bought both of them anyway. I'm not sure what these are going to do for me. Maybe I'll never get fat nor see any evil.

Labels: Asia, Buddhism, hotel, thailand, travel, Udon Thani

I recently had a conversation with a friend about the subject of karma. We agreed that neither of us believed there was some omniscient being who kept tabs on everyone in the universe. So what is karma?

I don't claim to know. I've heard many versions, many interpretations, and I can't say that I know which is correct. Who truly does? And yet in some sense I still believe in karma.

The Buddhist view is that karma is action and that it brings a result dependent on the intention behind the action. If one rolls over in the night and inadvertently kills an insect that happened to be in the bed there is no bad intention so no bad karma results. At times I choose to kill a mosquito knowing exactly what I am doing. I make a decision that I would prefer this mosquito to be dead rather than buzzing around me with the potential to make me sick if it bites me. Often in such circumstances I say to myself, 'I accept any karma that comes to me from killing this mosquito.'

I believe that in countries where most people consider themselves to be Buddhist there is often a misinterpretation of karma. People go out of their way to make merit (good karma). They feed the monks or give money to the temple. I remember the time a friend had gone to the bank and got brand new notes to make a donation to the temple because she believed that more merit would accrue. I doubt that such actions result in any merit because according to Buddhist teachings karma is the result of intention. If the intention was to create merit then the intention was selfish and no merit would accrue.

Many people in such countries drive fast under all circumstances whether safe or not. There is no mindfulness of karma at this time. The intention is 'I want to get to my destination as quickly as possible and I don't care about anyone else'. Such selfishness cannot lead to merit. If such people drove with more care for others they might not feel so much need to create merit through donations.

I seem to remember a quote from the Buddha saying that one glimmer of mindfulness brings more merit than to feed the entire sangha and the Buddha himself.

In India at times I encountered people whose way of doing business I would consider to be dishonest. It was suggested to me that such practices were so entrenched in India that if you don't adopt them yourself you lose—if you can't beat 'em join 'em. I strongly disagree. No one is responsible for my karma except me. It is only by maintaining my integrity that I maintain any good karma I might have. If someone else is intent on dragging themselves into 'hell', let them do it. I can't stop that. But I can take responsibility for myself.

And what about the bad stuff that does happen to me? There is plenty of evidence of it in the pages of this blog. I've been robbed quite a few times. I have been in situations that I have found to be extremely challenging. Does this suggest that I have been a very bad person in the past?

I don't claim to know but what I believe is this. We do influence our karma by the attitude we carry in our minds. I know many people who have very little to complain about and yet they suffer from deep depression. In the Western world (and perhaps Asia too) how many people are there who can say they can live without the aid of drugs? Nor just the illegal ones, when I say drugs I'm talking about the many drugs that society offers us to help us cope with the unsatisfactoriness of our existence: from caffeine to heroin. The fifth precept of Buddhism requires one to refrain from the taking of intoxicants. Many of the intoxicants popular today were not available in the time of the Buddha. Would they have been acceptable to the Buddha if they were?

When shit happens to me I too sometimes get depressed. I immerse myself in this depression and observe. I don't take anything to get me out of it. And eventually I reach a point where I can say 'thank you'. I say 'thank you' to the situation that brought it about and I ask myself what I have learned. The reality is that I have not learned anything new, I've just been reminded of the Buddha's first noble truth: there is dukkha (unsatisfactoriness). I'm also reminded of the second noble truth: the cause of my dukkha is my attachment to my desires. Basically, I am attached to things being different from the way they are. I have an expectation that things should be otherwise.

I can't change the world. I can only change myself. I ask myself what can I change in my life that will improve my situation. The reality is that while I can change the situation my new situation will also contain dukkha to the extent that I am attached to an expectation of how things should be. I can choose how to see that dukkha. I can let it get me down or I can smile and move on. In this way, I believe I am creating my karma each and every day. What happens to me is not in itself my karmic inheritance. It's the way I handle it that creates my karma.

Labels: Buddhism, karma

This blog has not been particularly active lately because I have not been particularly active. Well, I'm active but I'm following a routine and it is not terribly exciting. Two days a week I go into the city to Thai language school. My main priority on the other days is to study Thai at home which I do with the aid of two online dictionaries and off course my good friend Tee who lives downstairs in my apartment building.

Recently I discovered that an eight week Buddhist dharma and meditation class was to be presented at a wat in the city one night a week by an English monk. I went along on the first night, was pleased and have been going ever since. The course is presented on Thursday evenings and as I am already going to my Thai class on Thursday mornings it makes sense to stay in the city but that of course means I have a lot of time to fill between classes. One week I made a return visit to Little India and got some more movies. Was going to go to a movie another time but got there too late for one session and the following session would finish too late for my timetable so I spent a few hours browsing in a bookshop (and spending a little money).

Last week I came prepared with a book to read. I decided to relax in one of my favourite places in Bangkok, the Saphan Taksin jetty. It's always cool there with a breeze coming off the river and I enjoy watching the many and varied boats coming and going. Thursday it was very cool because there was a storm coming which you can see in the photo here that I snapped with my Panasonic FX3. That's the little camera that I bought so I could take it anywhere. It's usually in my bag.

I reached Wat Yannawa a little early for the dharma class so snapped a few shots there too. As you can see the floor is still damp from that storm. I believe the building behind the wat is empty. Bangkok still has quite a few buildings such as this as a result of the Asian economic slump of about ten years ago. Apparently ownership issues are so complex that nothing can be done to either complete or destroy such buildings.

If you are interested in these dharma classes, there is a short version of the talks here and also from this site you can pick up information about other Buddhist teachings and get-togethers in English happening in Bangkok.

Labels: Asia, Bangkok, Buddhism, camera, fx3, Panasonic, thailand, travel

Regular readers of this blog will know that I have had a four year association with Buddhist charity, Tzu Chi. You will also know that last year I spent some time in Vietnam and stay in touch with friends there. Today I give you a link to a site that brings these two parts of my life together—an article on Vietnam in the Tzu Chi magazine. I hope you find it interesting. While you are there perhaps you might follow some links and learn a little about the work of Tzu Chi.

Labels: Asia, Buddhism, Hanoi, Tzu Chi, Vietnam

A report in Thai English-language newspaper, The Nation, states that 'protesters disrupting tomorrow's Olympic-torch relay will be arrested immediately and prosecuted for public disturbance...foreigners will be expelled and banned from returning.'

It seems the current government in Thailand is more interested in sucking up to the Chinese government than allowing their own people and visitors the right to freedom of expression—to express, if they wish, their solidarity with fellow Buddhists in Tibet.

A large proportion of the Thai population has Chinese blood—more than the Tibetans. It wouldn't be a huge step for the Chinese dictators to decide that Thailand too is part of China. If they could do it in Tibet, why not here?

Labels: Asia, Buddhism, China, Olympics, politics, thailand, Tibet

I consider that death is the greatest taboo of humanity. We never mention it. No one ever dies we simply 'pass away'. Most religions cater to our fear of death by telling us that death is not the end. While the Buddha told us that everything that exists is impermanent and has no soul, Buddhists still cling to the notion of rebirth.

I intensely dislike euphemisms. When I was editing at Tzu Chi an article mentioned someone's 'passing away'. I took it up with the head of publishing. 'We are Buddhists. The Buddha taught that everything that exists is impermanent. Why are we afraid to say that this person died?'

The publisher agreed with my argument from a Buddhist perspective but she wouldn't change it. 'It is very strong in our Chinese culture. We have difficulty with the word "death".'

Am I different or is it a male thing? Do other men fear death because I feel I don't.

As a young man I dated a colleague whose sister was studying psychology. One night she gave a few of us a psychology test based on Freudian symbolism. It was a narrative and you had to say what you would do in various situations. 'You are going down a narrow laneway. At the end there is a high brick wall, what do you do?'

Without hesitating I responded, 'Climb over it.'

Apparently the wall represented death and according to my girlfriend's sister not many people responded as I did.

In my lifetime I have faced death on three occasions, the first at the age of 17. What I mean by this is that I reached a point where I thought, 'This is it. I am about to die.' Obviously death rejected me each time. The point is that on each occasion I was 100% calm about the situation.

I don't say this to make out that I have any special quality. I have my fears. I would fear living if it meant living in severe pain. Death would be my preference.

So, what about you? Anyone game to comment on this one?

Labels: Buddhism

Having had an interest in Buddhism for most of my adult life I have read one or two books by the Dalai Lama. The essence of his message seems to be that we should care for each other. I can understand that such subversive teachings are considered dangerous by the Chinese government. They are indeed wise to filter him from their internet. Who knows what might happen in China if people started caring for each other.

Labels: Asia, Buddhism, censorship, China

Is there censorship in China? I can't really say but I have experienced filtration.

To quote Lonely Planet: '...Internet operations were already under scrutiny by the government and in the summer of 2001, 2,000 operations were closed and 6,000 suspended. Cafes that are allowed to operate have to use filters to strain out irregular content.'

I'm not sure how much this concerns local users. Most of the Chinese people I saw in internet cafes were playing games. Perhaps those who want access to politically sensitive material go elsewhere.

My personal experience was this. I could access the blogger Dashboard and blog creation pages to post my blogs. After I post the blog I get a page telling me, 'Your blog has been successfully uploaded. View blog.' This with a link. When I click this link the page never downloads. Apparently you are able to read my blog in Australia, Thailand, Malaysia and elsewhere but in China I can't read my own blog.

I had a similar problem with flickr. I had no trouble uploading my photos but viewing them was at best hit and miss. The pages download but the pictures almost always are represented by broken links. I made contact with another flickr user who lives in China. He put me onto an add-on program for Firefox which allows me to bypass the filter. It worked on my own computer. Most of the time the pictures showed up. The program was created in Iran where there are apparently similar problems. It didn't make any difference to blogger.

In Hangzhou I never solved the problem of connecting my own computer. I made use of a university computer instead. I installed Firefox on that computer and the add-on program. It helped a little but I still could not see most of my own photos on flickr.

One day someone sent me the name of a Tibetan Buddhist teacher who had escaped from Tibet when the Chinese invaded in 1959. I decided to do a search of his name 'Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche'. This led me to his homepage which downloaded successfully. When I went to Wikipedia and did a search of his name the page started to download. It was half way there when it disappeared and I got an almost blank page instead. I decided to try 'Dalai Lama'. The result was the same.

I'm not sure what happens using a personal computer from someone's home. I didn't have that opportunity. But from internet cafes and at the university I experienced filtration.

Labels: Asia, Buddhism, censorship, China

In many Asian Buddhist countries it is the custom for people to make donations to the temple. Many practise Buddhism by creating merit (good karma) to benefit themselves in future lives. Personally I believe this misses the point of what the Buddha was really about. Never-the-less this is what happens. I found temples in Thailand, for example, to be beautiful but extravagant and in light of poverty in the country perhaps this is not the best way for people to make merit.

Temples in China are a different story again. Perhaps many of the people lost their Buddhist roots during the communist years and the Cultural Revolution. It seems now that most temples are a tourist attraction. There is invariably a fee to enter and it is usually quite high. Sometimes there is one fee to enter the complex and another to get into the most relevant part. In this fledgling capitalist society the people are queuing to see these temples and I should add that most tourists in China are Chinese.

When I had not been long in Hangzhou I spent a day or two visiting a few of the sights listed in the local guide book which included a few temples. One temple seemed different from the rest. There was no admission fee. They were serving food in one area outside the main part of the temple. When I enquired about the cost a monk came and helped me to order. The price was reasonable and the food simple but good.

Many of the temples are promoted as having a history dating back many centuries. However the building you see has probably been rebuilt in fairly recent times. They are well preserved and look beautiful but how much real Buddhism is practised there I am uncertain.

People pay their money, come in, touch the statue of the Buddha and leave. The Buddha has been made into a prostitute. I wonder what would happen in such a temple if you went in and asked for a dharma lesson.

I gave up visiting temples in Hangzhou but had some time to kill in Xiamen and decided to visit one there. Most of the complex looked to be reasonably old and not recently painted. There is a hill behind, which I climbed and when I returned I discovered a much newer large pagoda-style building. There were many monks and nuns entering. Obviously something was happening there.

I got chatting to a monk outside who spoke English and asked him what was going on. He said they were holding a forum on commercialization of Buddhism. I told him of my observations. He said that businessmen were investing in temples so that they could be restored and attract tourists. The businessmen then take a return from the entrance fees paid by the tourists.

So much for the teachings of the Buddha.

Labels: Asia, Buddhism, China, Hangzhou, money, poverty, thailand, Xiamen