This is the third essay in The Angsty Buddhist, a series about being Chinese American, nonbinary, and finding my own relationship with Buddhism, in a country where so many of its ideas have been whitewashed.

I usually think of 23 as when my body started to rebel, but it could have been earlier. Before that, there was the drive between San Francisco and LA where I felt like my entire body was being contorted by the seatbelt. There was the way I couldnt understand how other people carried shoulder bags didnt that make them feel lopsided? There was the way I flinched when other people tried to touch me. My mom always said I was tense, even when I was a little kid. Shed squeeze my shoulders, and theyd be like cement. When I tell people about this, I laugh. Isnt it funny that Ive never been able to relax?

But 23 was when my body and its tension became the center of my life how I scheduled my day, chose what I wore, and spent most of my critical thinking skills trying to figure out how to manage. More than my angst about gender, what propelled me towards mens clothing was that the pants have pockets and it hurt too much to carry a purse.

I also thought I was making it all up and didnt mention it to my friends, even ones that I saw almost every day. Youre just doing this for attention, I told myself, even though I wasnt getting any attention because I refused to talk about it. The couple of times, I did bring it up vaguely, people dismissed me by saying I probably spent too much time on the computer, which Im sure I do, but not more than anyone else my age.

In the midst of this, or maybe because of it, I started going to meditation sessions at an acquaintances Zen Center. The Zen Center practiced a type of Buddhism that a Korean monk had started in Providence, Rhode Island because he thought Brown students would be the most receptive to his teachings (And they have money, I thought). This type of Zen gained popularity in the U.S. and Europe before making its way back to Asia. At the time, I was living in Hong Kong, and even though I didnt connect with this version of Buddhism and chafed at the fact that many of its leaders were white men, I reserved my biggest judgments because there were many people I met there whom it seemed to be helping.

What surprised me was how much meditation soothed my chronic pain. Afterwards, I walked back to the minibus feeling light, reveling in the fact that I was not thinking about the knots in my back, at least for the moment. I started researching mindfulness after that, trying to see if there were other things I could do to manage my pain. Yoga was something that always came up.

I started doing those white lady yoga videos everyday. Sometimes, when the teacher would start chanting or say namaste: at the end, I would groan performatively or mutter fuck you

I felt conflicted about this. I didnt want to be like a white yoga lady whose life centered around cultural appropriation. As someone who grew up with Buddhism and feels pretty pissy about white Buddhism, it felt hypocritical to try yoga. In the end, though, my own self-interest won out, and I found a short yoga video on YouTube. The teacher was a white lady who liked to talked a lot about self-love. I followed her instructions about when to inhale and exhale grudgingly.

Afterwards, my muscles did feel looser, and I could go a few hours without really thinking about my body. I started doing those white lady yoga videos everyday. Sometimes, when the teacher would start chanting or say namaste at the end, I would groan performatively or mutter fuck you, which made me feel a little less embarrassed about how much this was helping me.

Two of the most common questions I get when I tell people about my chronic pain are Have you seen a doctor? and Have you tried yoga? I hate both of these questions.

I have seen a doctor, many times. Because Im privileged to have insurance, I feel bad complaining about the care Ive received. Whenever my doctor doctor finishes examining my spine or the x-ray comes back clear, I feel like a fraud. You should just take more breaks when youre working, she says, misgendering me often during our conversations because Im too wimpy to tell her my pronouns and the intake sheet only offers two options for gender. When I say that I do take breaks, something that always makes me nervous because I dont want my boss to think Im slacking off, my doctor says, Are you stressed? Its probably stress. Try getting a standing desk.

Being asked if Ive seen a doctor annoys me because I feel like the people asking think that Im being lazy or silly for being in pain just go see a doctor, as if this will fix everything. When people ask if Ive tried yoga (or meditation or acupuncture), its usually because they dont know what else to say. I think it freaks people out to have to sit with someones pain and not be able to do anything. It freaks me out, too. That doesnt make the questions about yoga any less irritating.

I find it interesting, though, that many of the miracle cures that people offer up when there isnt a clear diagnosis are from the East. It feels connected to the ways we are always trying to find healing in the Other.

I find it interesting, though, that many of the miracle cures that people offer up when there isnt a clear diagnosis are from the East. It feels connected to the ways we are always trying to find healing in the Other. So much of the way we characterize Eastern medicine in this country, regardless of what culture or spirituality it comes from, is as something spiritual and holistic, collapsing the divide between body and mind. Probably this is sometimes true and someone will whitesplain why this is so in the comments. But I think a lot of this is orientalism Asia is too big of a place, with so many different and conflicting peoples and cultures, to make sweeping generalizations like that.

I think that these ideas do not tell us anything about what defines Eastern cultures and does tell us more, at least subconsciously, about what were lacking. What do we do with pain that is ongoing? What is the connection between emotions and the physical body? How do we talk about this in a way that is not gaslighting and dismissive of the often very physical causes of pain? I dont know, and I see how it seems so easy to look to the Other the Buddhist nun, the Hindu goddess, that incense burner on sale at Ross and ask them to hold that for us.

Healing is a buzzword in queer and trans spaces. This makes sense, given how much there is to heal from. The first people I felt comfortable talking to about chronic pain were other trans Asian Americans. They seemed to understand, without explanation, the way that the body is shaped by everything it has experienced, its traumas and its joys.

I hear a lot of people talking about ancestors a lot, about lineage and intergenerational healing. Ive been told I should try to reclaim my ancestral healing practices, and this is something I would like to do. When I try to learn about Chinese things, it feels performed. I wonder if me learning qigong is any better than yoga, and the other day while my partner and I were trying to learn how to make an herbal soup, we were more amused by the fact that one of the herbs was called Semen Euryales than anything else.

Sometimes, these practices helps relieve the pain in my body, and sometimes they also help quiet my anxieties. Other times, they dont do anything at all. It always seems like a bit of a crapshoot. But even when I dont feel the immediate effects of these practices or if Im not doing them correctly, theres something healing about learning practices that were taken away from me and my family because of the violence of white supremacy and assimilation. For me, this makes learning Chinese healing practices feel different than doing white lady yoga, at least just a little.

Once, in a BIPOC writing group that I am part of and love, we had a guest host, who led us through some exercises that were definitely culturally appropriated from yoga, before instructing us to free write. The host didnt mention the cultures that these practices came from or from whom he had learned them. I dont think he was South Asian, but I could be wrong. I reluctantly did his breathing exercises and felt the muscles in my neck ease.

There was one point where he led everyone in chanting Om. When this started, one person left the Zoom call. I am assuming that this person was South Asian because of their name, but maybe I was wrong. Maybe they just left because they had something else to do. Maybe I was just projecting how uncomfortable I was feeling. I should private message one of the hosts and tell them this is a little weird, I thought but didnt.

At the end of the session, many people thanked the guest host, including me. I was grateful that hed taken the time to be at our group. I was thinking about how so many BIPOC spaces are held together by people giving their labor for free. Other people liked the exercises. This is the first time Ive been able to be in my body, someone said, and I felt guilty for being judgy because BIPOC folks are so often cut off from the resources they need to heal. Why would I want to take this away from anyone?

Still, I think its important to connect to our own ancestral practices, even if this process is imperfect. I dont want to become a white yoga lady.

During a recent pain flare, I tried taking a new medication, but all it did was make me drowsy. I tried to meditate but after a few minutes got frustrated and crawled back into bed. I went through my normal procession of unhelpful thoughts, youre faking this, youre lazy, get up, but this time, it seemed like it was more out of habit than anything else. Instead of spiraling, I let the thoughts pass. Instead of trying to get up, I let myself cry until I fell asleep.

I think a lot about my own body, whose pain I often try to aggressively breathe and stretch away. What would it mean to stop trying to find a way around this?

I think a lot about how disability justice activists critique the idea of cure. That it is ableist to treat cure as the end goal, that the disabled body is not something to be fixed. I think a lot about my own body, whose pain I often try to aggressively breathe and stretch away. What would it mean to stop trying to find a way around this? This is not to say that I enjoy being in pain. I want to be in less pain but not in a way that only makes me better at capitalism or that allows me to dissociate from the histories and traumas that caused me to be in pain in the first place.

This is similar to how I think about culture. Even if I am trying to connect to my own cultures and histories, I dont want to return to an identity that existed before imperialism and diaspora. It would be impossible to erase the ruptures that have already occurred. Im not sure what the end point of this kind of healing is, or if I should even be thinking about this in terms of end points. I dont think anyone knows for sure. I still think I need to try.

Excerpt from:
The Angsty Buddhist: Chronic Pain & Trying Not To Be A White Yoga Lady - Autostraddle

The life of Thich Nhat Hanh has come full circle. Two years ago, the government of Vietnam quietly allowed the revered Zen master to return to his homeland and live out his remaining days at Tu Hieu Temple, near the city of Hue, where he became a monk at the age of 16.

Thay, or teacher, as he is affectionately known, is 94 and continues to suffer the effects from a severe stroke in 2014, which left him unable to speak and in a wheelchair. Because of his opposition to the Vietnam War, he had lived in exile for more than 50 years, during which time he established several monasteries and practice centers from Plum Village in Southern France to three in the United States, including Deer Park in Escondido. Hes written more than 100 books many of them best sellers as he spread the gospel of mindfulness around the world.

As with the Dalai Lama of Tibetan Buddhism, he amassed widespread popularity. The late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize. President Barack Obama quoted him. And last year, a congressional delegation visited him in Vietnam.

During his visits to Deer Park, I interviewed him on topics ranging heaven to happiness. Here is some of what he had to say.

Heaven: The kingdom of God is really available in the here and now. This is important, he says, because once you understand that, you will behave better. If you have the kingdom of God, youll not have to search for happiness in sex, wealth or fame anymore.

Mindfulness: Mindfulness is the capacity to live deeply in the moments of your entire life. There is freedom from worries, anger and forgetfulness. Forgetfulness is the opposite of mindfulness.

Proselytizing: When Christian missionaries came to Vietnam when he was young, they tried to convert Buddhists. When Nhat Hanh brought his spiritual practices West, he did just the opposite, urging people to use mindfulness and meditation to deepen their own faiths. People are free to take from Buddhism as much as they want. Buddhism is inclusive, not exclusive.

America: Americans are not as accepting as they used to be. The war on terrorism, for example, has put an entire religion under suspicion. When a culture goes like that, it goes wrong. It only serves to create more hate and terrorists. In Buddhism, every person is looked at as a potential Buddha an attitude and a perception that he prefers.

Happiness: The art of happiness is to learn how to be there, fully present, to attend to your needs and to attend to the needs of your loved ones. And if you dont do the first step, its very difficult to do the second. Stop running and begin to make steps.

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Meet Thich Nhat Hanh, the man behind Escondido's famed Deer Park Monastery - The San Diego Union-Tribune

In Vietnams Red River, navigating the space between environmental conservation and cultural preservation can be trickier than it first appears.

November 11, 2020

On a chilly, gray January morning in Hanoi, Vietnam, a local development worker named Anh Ngoc Thi Nguyen volunteered at a river clean-up at the Red River near Chuong Duong Bridge. Keep Hanoi Clean (KHC), a nonprofit funded by USAID, had organized a crew of nearly two dozen volunteers to form a human chain, passing sack after sack of trash from the riverbank to a small parking lot beneath the bridge. KHC organizers planned to remove over 11 tons of garbage.

But when Nguyen noticed that some of the sacks contained ceramic incense bowls and urns, and waterlogged bits of wooden altars, she refused to take part. I didnt want to touch them, she says. It was scary.

In Hanoi, almost every house and storefront has its own wooden altar. Twice a month and on special occasions, residents offer food, alcohol, and cigarettes in the altars as a gift for their ancestors. When homeowners move, tradition dictates they must discard that house altar in a large body of water. Many in Hanoi choose to throw the altar and its contents from one of the many bridges that span the Red River.

Nguyens family members rigorously follow the many customs and traditions passed down to them by their elders. When Nguyens fathers body was reinterred, for example, her mother threw the ceramics that sat on top of his former grave into the river not far from where they lived. Nguyen and her family believe that those ceramics belong to the spirits of their ancestors and the water helps to carry them away.

The altars and offerings represent just one small part of the pollution picture on the Red River. Once the lifeblood of Hanoi, the river, through years of unfettered dumping of plastic waste, illegal sand mining, and industrial runoff, has become a symbol of the degradation caused by rapid industrial development.

At the KHC cleanup site, a debate ensued among volunteers on whether or not the discarded urns and altars represented spiritual artifacts to leave alone, or if they should be disposed of alongside the trash clogging the river. Ultimately, the events coordinator and KHCs founder, James Kendell, decided that these artifacts would be removed.

Watching KHC remove these artifacts from the river made Nguyen feel unsettled. Why couldnt they just leave them where they were? she asked later. They werent hurting anyone.

This debate on the Red River is a microcosm of a much larger question of how we balance environmental activism and cultural traditions. A 2013 paper in the Journal of Cleaner Production estimates that each year, more than 2 million pilgrims to Mecca emit 60.5 kilograms each of carbon dioxide per day (as opposed to a global average of just under 14 kilograms per person per day) during their pilgrimage as a result of transportation and lodging.

During the Lunar New Year, the Chinese set off fireworks to ward away evil spirits. In 2018, Beijings air quality soared above 500 on the Air Quality Index due to this tradition. Anything over 50 is considered unsafe.

And each year, during Christmas time, the United Kingdom produces 30 percent more waste than usual, air travel around the world spikes, and 540,000 tons of wrapping paper fill Canadian landfills.

In Hanoi, Keep Hanoi Clean has been trying to figure out how to navigate its programs with consideration to cultural practices on the Red River. According to Doug Snyder, KHCs general director, up until the January volunteer event, the nonprofits policy has always been to leave spiritual artifacts where they lay.

In previous years we did not touch the urns because one of the people on our team told us not to, he says.

But now, the organization is changing course.

Diep Ngoc Bui, chief operating officer at KHC, says complaints against river clean-ups mostly come from older people for whom the custom of immersing altars, ashes, and other sacred items in rivers is heavily ingrained. Bui says in these situations she tries to explain why the ceramics and altars should not be thrown into the river in the first place. But that tactic is not always successful.

Its really hard to tell the older generation you shouldnt throw these things into the river, she says. [They believe] its going to affect their business or health of the family, the rest of the year. Its really a delicate issue.

We really have to get on the education side, says Snyder. Unless we put out some information about giving them an alternative thats less destructive, then theyll just keep doing it.

Snyder says there are plans to consult with members of the local Buddhist community to help to initiate a public education program.

Thich Tinh Giac is a Buddhist monk and reformist who runs Chua Phuc Son, a buddhist pagoda just outside of Hanoi. He says that people throwing religious artifacts into Hanois waterways have got it all wrong. He says the idea that this practice brings good fortune is all superstition.

It does not, he says, have any significance in the Buddhist faith.

Giac also makes one other important observation: He notes that the Vietnamese people have historically been poor. They could not traditionally afford to make sacrifices the size and scope of those they make now.

The GDP per capita of Vietnam has increased six-fold since the year 2000. As a result, per-capita consumption has also increased, and Vietnam is now the worlds fourth largest contributor to ocean plastic waste, producing an estimated 730,000 tons each year.

Snyder has made a similar observation. At one cleanup event, he and a Vietnamese volunteer confronted two women who had been throwing plastic flowers into the river. Snyder and a Vietnamese volunteer then collected the flowers.

It was kind of like a comedy skit, Snyder says. But then one of them got really upset.

A conversation about the origins of the practice for this woman ensued.

What did you put in the water in the past? asked the Vietnamese volunteer.

Well, we didnt put this kind of stuff in, the woman replied. We were too poor but now were rich.

In other words, a big issue that Snyder and the KHC staff are dealing with is how plastic waste has infiltrated a cultural practice.

Of course, this may seem a minor issue given the bigger problems facing the Red River. Admittedly, KHCs work is somewhat piecemeal given the size and scope of the environmental challenges facing Vietnam, such as mining, urban and industrial runoff, and rampant corruption and top level apathy toward environmental issues that hinder any form environmental activism that goes beyond picking up rubbish.

This is particularly true when money is involved. For example, in May, a local newspaper called Phu Nu TPHCM (HCMC Women) tried to expose a local developer for damaging Vietnams natural heritage. As a result, the newspaper was fined and its website taken offline for a month. Advocacy can be risky when it jeopardizes profits.

So KHC is doing its best to clean up the river by picking the safer option: working with local traditions to find a solution that helps the river.

Luckily, Giac says that support for these practices is waning, particularly as Buddhist leaders occupy an important role in society.

Because I am a monk, they believe me, they respect me, Giac says. At his pagoda he has urns he has retrieved that he now uses to grow plants. He says repurposing rather than destroying the bowls makes a lot more sense.

In this vein, Giac says he has an important role to play in helping to save Hanois waterways. He often confronts worshippers in the process of making their offerings and counters that Buddhist doctrine actually supports protecting the environment.

In Buddhism, we say, you reap what you sow, he says. So the environment, you look after it and over time you get good results.

More:
One Man's Trash, Another Man's Tradition - Earth Island Journal

I could have never dreamed my life would be so good," the 41-year-old father of two, who by tradition uses only one name, said in comments translated by a local official. Foreign journalists can only report from the region on trips organized by the government.

Asked about the Dalai Lama, Tibets 85-year-old spiritual leader now living in exile and condemned by China as a separatist, Sunnamdanba said: I never met him and I dont understand him."

And Buddhism, the religion that has for more than a millennium been the foundation of Tibetan culture? I spend most of my time and energy now on work and making a living," he said. Theres less time to spend on religion."

Why hang a portrait of President Xi Jinping in your living room? None of this could have happened without the party."

Legitimacy to Rule

For China, showcasing Tibetans singing the Communist Partys praises helps affirm its legitimacy to rule the region, something thats weighed on Beijings ties with the West since a failed uprising in 1959 forced the Dalai Lama to flee and set up a government-in-exile in northern Indian. Its become more important recently as politicians in the U.S., Europe and India accuse China of using forced labor, detentions and re-education campaigns to assimilate ethnic minorities in its borderlands.

The Trump administrations newly appointed special envoy for Tibetan issues met with the head of the exiled Tibetan administration this month, generating outrage from China. India, which only recognized Beijings sovereignty over the area in 2003, also recently venerated a Tibetan soldier who died fighting against China this year in the worst fighting along the border since a 1962 war.

Tensions have risen in other areas as well. Earlier this year, a Chinese government effort to make Mandarin Chinese the language of instruction at schools in a region inhabited by ethnic Mongolians sparked street protests. And in Xinjiang, a province directly north of Tibet, outrage over Chinas move to detain more than a million minority Uighur Muslims in re-education camps has led some U.S. lawmakers to push for the actions to be declared genocide."

Xi has personally defended the moves in Xinjiang, saying they are necessary to stem terrorism and improve the lives of people. In comments last month, he called the partys policies completely correct," urged more economic development and pushed for more nationalism in education to allow the sense of Chinese identity to take root in people."

Sinofication of Buddhism

At a meeting on Tibet issues in August, Xi told officials to actively guide Tibetan Buddhism to adapt to socialist society, and promote the Sinofication of Tibetan Buddhism."

In Tibet, often called the Roof of the World" because of its high elevation along the Himalayas, ethnic Tibetans comprise about 90% of the 3.5 million people spread across an area the size of South Africa. Their language bears no relation to Chinese, most are Buddhists, and many consider the Dalai Lama their spiritual head -- if not their political leader.

In 2008, deadly riots erupted in Lhasa, leaving at least a dozen dead. A spate of self-immolations by ethnic Tibetans followed a few years later, with the Dalai Lamas followers and human-rights activists attributing the actions to government oppression. Beijing has blamed the Dalai Lama for fomenting the unrest, and that sentiment continues to be expressed by officials today who see religion as the root cause of some of Tibets biggest challenges.

Due to some outdated conventions and bad habits -- particularly the negative influence of religion, people put more attention on the afterlife, and their desire to pursue better living this life is relatively weaker," Tibet Governor Qi Zhala told reporters at a briefing that was part of the trip. Therefore, in Tibet, well need to not only feed the stomach, but also fix the mind."

Tibetans are allowed to continue with religious practices only under strict controls: Those who openly show reverence and support for the Dalai Lama can face harsh punishment.

This Is How You Control Tibet

Now they want Buddhism to be taught in Chinese language," Lobsang Sangay, president of Tibets exiled government, told a seminar in Washington on Sept. 28. This is how you control Tibet and this is how you control the Himalaya belt. This is how you control Asia."

But Beijing is also investing heavily in Tibet, betting that new roads, jobs, better housing and improved access to education and healthcare will bring stability to the region. Its also counting on modern life to erode the sway that religion has had over Tibet since the seventh century.

A gift makes you indebted to the giver," said Emily Yeh, a professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, who is the author of the book Taming Tibet: Landscape Transformation and the Gift of Chinese Development." The bottom line is loyalty to the state and the party."

Tibet is crucial to Beijing for strategic purposes. Its mountainous terrain abuts a 4,000-kilometer (2,500-mile) border with countries including India, Nepal and Myanmar, forming a natural security barrier. Beijing has recently reinforced troops stationed in Tibet as it prepares for a long winter in its high-altitude standoff with India.

To govern a country, its necessary to govern the border," Xi told the Tibet symposium in August, where the party set policy directions for developing the region. To govern the border, its required to stabilize Tibet first."

Family Relocations

For Xi, the key to snuffing out calls for independence in Tibet and strengthening Communist Party rule is delivering economic growth in one of Chinas poorest regions.

Since 2016, China has spent more than $11 billion on poverty alleviation efforts in Tibet. Authorities say theyve pulled 628,000 people above the countrys absolute poverty threshold, which Beijing currently defines as those with annual earnings of less than approximately $600 -- or $1.64 a day.

Those efforts have included building roads to far-flung villages, securing safe drinking water and providing access to health care. But theyve also fueled concern about the loss of Tibetan culture, in particularly due to widespread relocations of families.

Sunnamdanba is among roughly 266,000 Tibetans who have been relocated to new villages over the past five years as part of Xis poverty alleviation campaign. He said his family now makes about $13,000 annually, four times what it used to make in a good year, from his job as a security guard, his wifes work as a cleaner and renting out three rooms in their new home to Chinese tourists.

The governments stance that it hasnt forced anyone to move as part of the poverty alleviation drive was backed up by an ethnic Tibetan researcher who studies relocations in the region. Asking not to be named for fear of retribution, the researcher said he is aware of villages where only two out of 120 households took up the offer to be relocated.

However, a new drive by the government to move 130,000 people from fragile ecosystems at high elevations has been less flexible. According to the researcher, villagers in these locations arent given a choice.

I Believe in the Party

Those presented to reporters on the trip appeared happy to change locations. Among them were 35-year-old Luoce, who used to graze animals on his grassland some 5,000 meters (16,000 feet) above sea level, where he says the thin air gave him nosebleeds.

In 2017, he moved to a so-called relocation village and now works as a security guard and firefighter. His earnings have tripled thanks to his wages and various government subsidies, including one he receives to not graze animals on his land for environmental reasons. Luoces goal is to give his seven children the education he never received.

I believe in the party and in science more than I believe in religion," he said through a government translator.

Still, a poorly executed relocation program could also leave people worse off and foment the very kind of instability improved economic conditions were meant to prevent.

A notable example of this occurred in Inner Mongolia about a decade ago, when provincial authorities relocated herdsmen from the steppe to so-called milk villages. Chinas dairy industry imploded shortly afterward following a tainted milk scandal, forcing many of the herdsman to eke out a living doing odd jobs.

Disadvantaged Underclass

Large-scale resettlement involves major changes to social structures, family links, culture, lifestyle, communities and class structure, according to Robbie Barnett, who headed Columbia Universitys Modern Tibetan Studies Program until 2018 and has written about the region since the 1980s.

Its impossible to overstate the enormity of these new forms of development and economic policy in Tibet and Tibetan areas, particularly resettlement," he said. To put it at its crudest, the risk is that, while some will prosper, many farming and herding communities will be transformed into a dislocated, disadvantaged underclass."

Officials interviewed during the reporting trip spoke extensively about that risk, and highlighted two solutions: Teaching Tibetans new skills to make money, and expanding education.

Outside Shigatse, Tibets second-largest city, low-income families are growing mushrooms -- something Tibetans havent traditionally done -- and then selling them to a government-financed company. More than 600 kilometers away in Nyingchi, authorities are planning to spend more than $100 million on a vocational training center designed for students who failed a test to continue onto high school after compulsory education in Tibet ends after grade nine.

One of those students is Suolanyixi, the 19-year-old son of pepper farmers. Hes already mastered the cappuccino in his quest to become a professional barista, and hopes to one day land a job at one of the roughly half-dozen five-star hotels in Lhasa.

And while none of the other students whove studied coffee making at the school has ever gotten a job outside of Tibet, Suolanyixi is not ready to rule out the thought -- something that would further the Communist Partys goal of integrating the region with the rest of China. Maybe if I am lucky," he said in fluent Mandarin Chinese.

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China wants to build a Tibet with more wealth and less Buddhism - Livemint

Although religion is commonly thought to divide people, the Peacemakers hosted a forum on Oct. 26 about Buddhism to bring students together to open a dialogue.

Dr. Kenneth Faber was present at Buddhist Insights on Peace & Love, to highlight details of his own personal journey with Buddhism. His initial interest in Buddhism was sparked by his involvement in martial arts at a young age.

Faber most recently studied under Venerable Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche at the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center (PBC). Although the PBC is based in New York, Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Rinpoche has visited Nashville before.

Faber earned his doctorate degree in philosophy from Vanderbilt University. He also taught at Belmont University and Austin Peay State University.

Faber introduced the program by discussing his background as well as major parts of Buddhism. Some of these components included the four brahmavihrs and the six pramitas.

Faber also explained Buddhism from a scholarly perspective. His background in philosophy allows him to detail how the area of study relates to Buddhism.

In religious-philosophical studies, students can expect to learn about various principles between different religions. Questions regarding peace relations, virtue, and violence in Buddhism were also covered in the forum.

However, in line with the Peacemakers mission, Faber centered the talk on how the act of compassion was connected to both subjects at hand. The intersection where philosophy and Buddhism relate is also reflective of the Peacemakers call to action to incite peace across the campus.

For example, the idea of karuna is a Buddhist concept that emphasizes compassion. Karuna is also studied in philosophy in questions of compassion versus pity. Philosophers and Tibetan Buddhist practitioners are not the only sources of education in this conversation.

The Peacemakers are also working on more efforts to promote peace, human rights, and compassion across campus and the global community as a whole.

After all, as Faber emphasized to the Peacemakers crowd, How can you have joy if others are suffering?

I am a senior studying for a major in Political Science and a minor in International Studies. During this semester, I am using my past education and experience in politics to focus on coverage for the 2020 presidential election. Aside from The All State, I am also involved in APSUs Pre-Law Society and Pi Sigma Alpha. Ultimately, I am interested in law and public policy. Outside of academic pursuits, I often spend outside hiking and exploring. However, I am also a homebody and I enjoy time at home with family. I am usually at home trying new cooking recipes or making music playlists.

Read more:
Buddhist Insights on Peace & Love, Hosted by the Peacemakers - The All State

This is the second essay in The Angsty Buddhist, a series about being Chinese American, nonbinary, and finding my own relationship with Buddhism, in a country where so many of its ideas have been whitewashed.

My college roommate taped a poster of Dalai Lama quotes on the ceiling over her bed so that she could lie down and reflect on them. I didnt think much of this at a time. She did a lot of things that I thought were odd, like drinking fruit-flavored tea and insisting we end each day by listing three good things that had happened. I was and still am the kind of person who copes by stress eating potato chips and making jokes about death and was kind of annoyed at being forced into gratitude by my roommate every night, but I just went with it.

Despite our differences, A. and I were close for our first year living together, mostly because we went to a school where neither of us felt like we fit in. A. was the child of Ukrainian immigrants, and I was a nonbinary Chinese American weirdo. The school we went to was named after a former owner of the East India Company who made his fortune off of slavery. The students there were wealthier than I had known was possible, the children of CEOs of huge corporations, and Wall Street bankers. One of the kids in our freshman dorm was the son of the third richest man in India. The university used the protection of the student body to justify the heavy policing of the Black and brown communities in the surrounding city. For those of us on financial aid, we were told both directly and indirectly that we should be grateful to the billionaires who had funded our education. Werent they generous for deeming us worthy of becoming like them?

I appreciated having A. around because even though both of us were bad at articulating why exactly we felt so uncomfortable in our environment, it was nice to have someone around who also felt awkward trying to make small talk with the children of corporate attorneys. For the most part, we were both absorbed in our own lives. A. threw herself into her pre-med classes and extracurriculars, always running between meetings and study sessions. Because I had grown up middle class, I had more wiggle room to make questionable decisions, like taking an ancient Greek history class and falling in love with a boy who kept miniature busts of George Washington and Alexander Hamilton on his desk. When our schedules overlapped, I liked hanging out with A. Mostly, we sat on our Ikea futon and drank cheap tequila out of mugs wed stolen from the dining hall while complaining about classes.

A. had grown up Ukranian Catholic and struggled to find religious community during the time we lived together. Every Sunday, she seemed to go to a new church and reported back each week that something had felt off. At the time, I had started sporadically attending meditation sessions held by the campus Buddhist life organization, Indigo Blue. Indigo Blue was run by a white man but one that I actually liked. He was, for the most part, conscious of his privileges as a white man and didnt presume to know more about Buddhism than any of the students many of whom were Asian and Asian American. Instead, he opened up the space for people to practice the way they wanted, in keeping with their own cultures and traditions. We didnt even have to meditate. I appreciated this because I had grown up with a type of Buddhism that didnt center meditation and Id felt alienated before in spaces where meditation and Buddhism were equated. Mostly, I spent my time arranging the candles into smiley faces and chattering at anyone who was willing to be distracted. I felt at ease there in a way I didnt feel anywhere else on campus.

A. attended one of the meditation sessions one night I wasnt there. Later, she told me, It just wasnt what I was looking for. She seemed mildly offended by this. I remember thinking, So what? What does it matter what you were looking for? It wasnt made for you.

A. said a lot of things I told myself werent a big deal, like the time she joked about me being a generic Asian girl or how whenever I tried to talk about race, she said, Thats something youre into. Its not what Im into. I was used to dismissing my own anger.

I brushed this off, though. A. said a lot of things I told myself werent a big deal, like the time she joked about me being a generic Asian girl or how whenever I tried to talk about race, she said, Thats something youre into. Its not what Im into. I was used to dismissing my own anger. Wasnt she going through a lot? I should be less sensitive.

Eventually, A. found a church, sort of. One Sunday, she came back to our room to announce that she had gone to the Black Church at the campus African American Cultural Center. I know its weird, she said to my perplexed face. But I really like the preacher. There were many things I should have said to her then and every Sunday afterwards, when she came back complaining about how people didnt seem to want her there. Its like Im the white girl, she said once.

You are the white girl is something I could have said. Maybe you should think about how you being there makes other people feel? What makes you think youre entitled to be in a Black space? But by that point, our friendship was strained, and I had given up on feeling responsible for her, though in this situation I realize now that I should have tried. I still think about A. sometimes. About how white people turn to cultures and spiritualities that are not their own when they are looking for solace or trying to fill a void in themselves how they do this carelessly without realizing how violent that can be.

In college, I was obsessed with white Buddhism in a wrathful sort of way. Whenever I heard someone saying something like Buddhism is a peaceful religion or Buddhism is more a philosophy than a religion, I felt myself seething. Then I would tell myself to calm down. Whats wrong with them thinking Buddhism is peaceful? Think about Islamophobia. This is not a big deal. And I thought you didnt like organized religion, so isnt it better for it to be a philosophy?

I have always had a hard time allowing myself to feel anger. I always think that I am being selfish for expecting more of people, and I dont want to center my own feelings when there are other people we should be focusing on. When it comes to the cultural appropriation of Buddhism, I feel this especially if people are feeling like whatever version of Buddhism theyre practicing helps them, then why should I care? Arent there more important things to be thinking about?

Then around my junior year of college, Indigo Blue was suddenly shut down. Students arrived at the shrine for the nightly chanting session and found a sign on the door that said, This event has been cancelled. Later, we found out that all Buddhist life activities had been suspended without a replacement and that this had to do with some internal politicking and office drama. After a couple of weeks, a group of students got the head chaplain, a white woman, to meet with them. At the meeting, she started crying and said, I didnt know there were any of you going to those Indigo Blue things. How was I supposed to know?

Eventually, they hired teachers from a nearby Zen center who came to give dharma talks and hold meditation sessions. These teachers were, like the head of Indigo Blue, all white and mostly men. I only went to one of their events, a dharma talk given by one of the white men. The talk started with meditation, but I didnt feel like closing my eyes and relaxing in that room. I remember that it felt overly philosophical and that part of it was about dealing with anger. I didnt like that a white man was telling me what to do with my anger. There were other Asian and Asian American students at the talk who I chatted with after, and they seemed to like it. But I never went back.

I remember that it felt overly philosophical and that part of it was about dealing with anger. I didnt like that a white man was telling me what to do with my anger.

I hadnt realized how much Indigo Blue had meant to me until it was gone, and the way it had been replaced by this whitewashed version of Buddhism made it hurt even more. Still, I felt self-conscious about how much this had affected me. Why are you so upset about not being able to go to meditation sessions where you didnt even meditate?

At the same time, I got obsessed with proving that white Buddhism is bad. I took a bunch of classes on Buddhism and latched onto anything that suggested Buddhism wasnt really peaceful or rational, that it was an actual religion and not more of a philosophy. I was really into Buddhist depictions of hell, which often involved demons dismembering humans, and would show pictures of Buddhist hell to people in the dining hall who annoyed me.

But it was in learning about how imperialism has shaped Western ideas of Buddhism that I finally was able to articulate a lot of the problems I had with white Buddhism. In one of my classes, I learned about how Western ideas of Buddhism originated in Sri Lanka in the nineteenth century. Leaders there decided to frame Buddhism as rational, not as ritualistic or spiritual as other religions, so that Sri Lanka would seem civilized and worthy of independence from British colonialism. Many of the cultural aspects were toned down in order to be more accessible to a Western audience, instead highlighting practices that we now associate with mindfulness and meditation. These ideas underlie why I think white people find it so easy to claim Buddhism. The version most know was made to appeal to them.I also learned about the violence Buddhists had committed and continue to commit against Muslim and Hindu communities in countries where Buddhists are the majority.

I also learned about the violence Buddhists had committed and continue to commit against Muslim and Hindu communities in countries where Buddhists are the majority.

I also learned about the violence Buddhists had committed and continue to commit against Muslim and Hindu communities in countries where Buddhists are the majority. Once in a class on Himalayan cultures, we talked about the ethnic cleansing of the Lhotshampa in Bhutan. Most of my classmates were white, and I got the feeling many of them were in the class because they wanted to go backpacking in Nepal or had gotten into Tibetan Buddhism. It was obvious that thinking about the atrocities a Buddhist country had committed against a Hindu minority made them uncomfortable, and they quickly rushed through the discussion and onto the next reading. It made me think about how people would rather cling to their orientalist fantasies than start thinking about the real violence that their fantasies obscure.

When I complain about white Buddhism, sometimes people ask me about white people who practice Buddhism respectfully. Im not sure what people mean by respectfully, but I think they mean learning the correct practices and not simply buying into Western, commercialized ideas of Buddhism. I think this is important, but it isnt enough.

Right now, Im quarantining with family in San Francisco Chinatown. People have varying and sometimes infuriating ideas of what it means to behave respectfully towards other people in a pandemic, especially the white people. The white people are much less likely to wear masks, and they always seem to be jogging or walking their dogs, oblivious to the people around them. In the whiter neighborhoods adjacent to Chinatown, there are fewer people on the sidewalks. I guess thats an excuse to not think about how your body takes up space. Occasionally, Ill see a white person jogging mask-less towards one of the busier Chinatown streets, and Ill wonder why Im so conditioned to shrink out of their way than scream, Wear a fucking mask!

It is not just how much knowledge you have of the religion, how much you respect the teaching themselves, but also how we engage with the histories that have shaped our views of Buddhism and our relationship to it, how we take up space, how entitled we do or dont feel to take up space how this is related to legacies of white supremacy and imperialism.

Then there is the outdoor dining, the white restaurants that spill out on the sidewalks. I try to avoid the streets with lots of these restaurants because its impossible to walk on the sidewalk without passing through a large clump of laughing, mask-less white people. I dont begrudge the restaurants this. Its not like they have much of a choice. But most of the restaurants in Chinatown dont have room for outdoor dining. The sidewalks are too narrow. There are too many people walking around. It makes me think again about who is allowed to take up space and the ways in which people take up space can be a matter of survival.

This is similar to how I feel about what it means to practice Buddhism respectfully. It is not just how much knowledge you have of the religion, how much you respect the teaching themselves, but also how we engage with the histories that have shaped our views of Buddhism and our relationship to it, how we take up space, how entitled we do or dont feel to take up space how this is related to legacies of white supremacy and imperialism. Grappling with this is an ongoing process, and it makes me think about the idea of interconnectedness, not in the white hippy way where we hug trees and braid flowers in our hair, but the kind where we refuse to ignore the complex webs of power that we are all oppressed by and complicit in, the ties that bind us all together.

When it comes to Buddhism and cultural appropriation, I still sometimes worry that Im making a big deal out of nothing, that Im angry for no good reason. But I also think that dismissing my own anger is dismissing the histories that have shaped our ideas of Buddhism in the West that even if my own anger is only a small blip, it still points to a larger system. Ignoring it is not useful because then I wont be able to see how I fit in.

I mediate now, not in a religious way but to manage anxiety and chronic pain. Sometimes, the meditation recordings will reference Buddhism, usually when theyre talking about finding calm or learning not to be attached to negative emotions. Im often invited to cultivate inner peace, which I think is funny and kind of irritating. If Buddhism has taught me to cultivate anything, its anger, the kind that gives clarity. This isnt always something that is easy for me to access, but I would never give up the moments I can touch anger, even in exchange for enlightenment or whatever. It is something I will hold onto, earthly and overly attached, as long as I can.

See the original post:
The Angsty Buddhist: Learning Anger And White Buddhism - Autostraddle

On October 14, 230 residents of a Ghaziabad village, who were members of Valmiki community, said they converted to Buddhism in the presence of Rajratan Ambedkar, great-grandnephew of Dr B R Ambedkar.

On October 14, 230 residents of a Ghaziabad (Karera) village, who were members of Valmiki community, said that they converted to Buddhism in the presence of Rajratan Ambedkar, great-grandnephew of Dr B R Ambedkar. On Thursday, days after the incident, the filed an FIR against unknown persons for allegedly spreading false rumours about religious conversion, the Indian Express reported.

An FIR was filed on Thursday at Sahibabad police station after a 22-year-old social worker, Montu Chandel filed a complaint. The FIR has been registered under IPC Sections 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, etc) and 505 (whoever makes, publishes or circulates any statement, rumour or report).

Some unknown persons and organisations spread false rumours about religious conversion of 230 people. The certificates issued in its connection bear no name and address and there is no date of issuance, nor is there a registration number. Anyones name can be written on it. There has been an attempt to flare caste-based tensions as per a criminal conspiracy, the FIR states.

Rajratan Ambedkar, the great-grandnephew of Dr B R Ambedkar, said certificates were issued to 236 people by The Buddhist Society of India, founded in 1955 by Dr Ambedkar. The certificates bear the signature of Rajratan, who is the organisations trustee-manager, and Bhadant Arya Nagarjuna Surai Sasai, chairman of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Memorial Committee, as per the Indian Express report.

Mr Ambedkar said: How can they say religious conversion in Karera on October 14 is a rumour? I was present there. There is aFacebookLive video of the event; there are photographs of the event. What is the basis of this FIR?

Keshav Kumar, Sahibabad circle officer said, We are investigating the allegations. The certificates only bear the date of conversion. The allegation that the documents are not authentic will be investigated. No arrests have been made in the matter so far.

According to the report, Pawan, a resident of Karera village, had coordinated the October 14 event. Pawan, who used to work as a housekeeping supervisor at an apartment complex until March, said the religious conversion did take place on October 14. Stressing that we did convert, Pawan rejected the rumour theory. He said: This is not a rumour. We dont know this complainant. He is not a resident of the village. We have not been paid by any political party.

Excerpt from:
Days After 230 Dalits Accepted Buddhism In UP, FIR Registered Over "Conversion" Rumour | HW English - HW News English

Isabella and enlightenment.

When it came time to meet Isabella, I was so into a Zen calm that it wasnt possible to overthink what to wear. To fake it would be resisting the new spiritual stream that was carrying me along.

I put on Brooks Brothers cotton shorts with a blue grid pattern, a gray t-shirt with Rita Hayworth on it, a denim jean jacket and J. Crew black blucher shoes.

Isabella and I hadnt seen each other in decades, since high school. But I knew shed like the shoes. They were me, kind of preppy and stylish but not obnoxiously so. Shed get that. Wed reconnected after Id been the focus of intense national attention in 2018 when I got tangled up in a sinister and ridiculous political hit. That people cared enough about politics to engage in extortion, lies and death threats made me sad; what hollow lives they led, making Washington the lodestar of their entire existence.

In the aftermath of that war I got a job washing dishes. From there I went to a garden center, working in the mulch pit. I toss big sacks of fertilizer into idling cars.

The workcomes in waves. Ill be out there for an hour and nothing happens, with me leaning against a five-foot tower of Scotts Red Mulch, thinking about God or sex or a good song, just watching the birds go by. Then suddenly its five cars deep: Do-it-yourselfers getting 10 bags of Miracle Grow, a bored housewife with two of the Leafgro compost, guys with erosion problems need four rolls of topsoil and two units of peat moss, landscapers loading up with 50 bags of the black mulch and a couple bales of hay.

After years in journalism and caring about politics, the new job made it easy to adapt to a Zen way of living. As Buddhist master Norman Fisher explains it, Zen Buddhism is a stripped-down, determined, uncompromising, cut-to-the-chase, meditation-based Buddhism that takes no interest in doctrinal refinements. Not relying on scripture, doctrine or ritual, Zen is verified by personal experience and is passed on from master to disciple, hand to hand, ineffably, through hard, intimate training.

Essential to that is physical workmundane, repetitive, physical work, not work sitting behind a computer or doing Zoom meetings. As Fischer notes, In Zen practice, our work itself is an essential avenue for waking up. He explains that for centuries Indian Buddhist monks were prohibited from working; this changed when Buddhism arrived in China, where people didn't understand a group of aesthetics meditating and living off the generosity of others. One old Zen master, Abbot Baizhang, refused to eat when his students tried to save him from work sayinga day without work is a day without food!

I spend all day loading bags of peat moss, mulch, topsoil, sod, and the occasional hay bale into cars. It builds your muscles and focuses your mind so sharply on the immediate task in front of you that the mind becomes free. You forget about current events, bills and personal dramas. You come home worn out but satisfied in your labor, attaining a kind of Buddhist living-in-the-present vibe, if not flat-out enlightenment.

During the 2018 battle my past, particularly my Reagan-era high school days, got dragged onto the national stage. While sides were drawn between left and right, some of us reconnected because we care for each other outside of politics. One of the people I rediscovered is Isabella. We only dated briefly as teenagers, but our personalities clicked on several different levels. The daughter of a Puerto Rican mother and Scottish-Irish father, Isabella was artistic, very intelligent, passionate and spiritual, and witty. Back then she looked like Ana Gonzalez-Barrara of the Pew Research Center. She had moved to Mexico after college and lived there for 23 years, and wed lost touch decades ago. Now her father, who lives in D.C., is ailing, and she was back in the area. She contacted me and we decided to meet at the Tastee Diner, a spotthat had been a late-night gathering place when we were younger.

When word got out that we were meeting, some of her friends asked Isabella why in the world she was seeing me, and several of my friends asked me the same thing about her. It was a note-for-note repeat of what we heard when we dated in high school. She was artistic, sarcastic, and whip-smart, the kind of thing that intimidated young boys. I was, everyone knew, a bit of a lunatic. Both of our sets of friends didnt understand why we were with each other.

I wasthrilled to see Isabella, knowing that we could still lock in to each others frequencies the way we did in high school. We both were spiritual seekers, liked literature and culture, and loved music and parties. After the political fiasco, after bouts with illnesses, after broken relationships, I was almost desperate for someone who knew me deep down and who could read me without saying too much. Isabella and I could be on different sides politically and still have a beautiful affection for each other, the kind that only comes from people you were close to when young. On top of that, the garden job was both tiring me out and energizing me so much with its physical demands that a kind of preternatural Buddhist calm was vibrating in my being, allowing me to gently propel myself through life without overthinking things.

It didnt take long for us to pick up where wed left off decades earlier. Isabella is still vivacious, funny, intense and beautiful. We talked about the whereabouts of old friends, laughed about our teen makeup sessions, empathized about caring for ailing parents, empathized about failed loves. The Tastee Diner, where we had been for so many late nights in the 1980s, was now dwarfed by a new $600 million Marriott global headquarters, built on top of where we sat eating French fries. Like the diner, Isabella and I had refused to sell out.

After a few hours we hugged and parted ways.Hey, she said before heading off, I really like those shoes. Theyre really you.

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Miracle Grow: Zen in the Mulch Pit - Splice Today

September 26, 2020, 10:08 AM

1 min read

NEW DELHI -- India on Saturday announced a $15 million grant for the promotion of Buddhist ties with its neighbor Sri Lanka.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made the offer during a virtual summit with his Sri Lankan counterpart, Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Buddhism is practiced by more than 70% of Sri Lanka's population, while most of India's people are Hindu.

Indias External affairs Ministry said the promotion will be through construction and renovation of Buddhist monasteries, capacity development, cultural exchanges, archaeological cooperation and reciprocal exposition of Gautam Buddhas relics.

India recently upgraded its airport in Kushinagar, an important Buddhist pilgrimage site in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, to receive international flights. India plans to fly a Buddhist delegation from Sri Lanka on the inaugural flight soon.

His followers believe that Buddha attained a transcendent state after his death in Kushinagar.

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India to spend $15 million to boost Buddhist ties in region - ABC News

WASHINGTON, Sept. 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --On September 24, 2020, the Chairperson of both the World Peace Prize Awarding Council and the World Peace Prize Religious Leaders Title Awarding Council Suzi Leggett announced the ultimate resolution of the two Councils at the Holy Miracles Temple of the World Buddhism Association Headquarters: "The return of the conferment decree and the Pope of Buddhism Scepter by H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III is not effectible. The title, status, and authority of the Pope of Buddhism belong only to H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III, and cannot be exercised by anyone else."

In 2018, after extensive vetting, the World Peace Prize Awarding Council and the World Peace Prize Religious Leaders Title Awarding Council officially conferred the title of Pope of Buddhism to H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III. The conferment decree and the Pope of Buddhism Scepter was signed and presented by the then Chairperson of the two Councils Han Min Su. Nonetheless, to everyone's surprise, H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III was totally unmoved by the noble status and tremendous honor that came with the Pope of Buddhism title, and did not accept the conferment. H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III said: "Within the field of Buddhism, there are Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. There are titles of Dharma kings, rinpoches, Dharma masters, eminent monastics, greatly virtuous persons, and Holy Gurus. There is no need for a Pope. I am a humble cultivator. I am not able to take on such a heavy responsibility."

When the World Buddhism Association Headquarters presented the conferment decree and the Pope of Buddhism Scepter that they received to H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III, His Holiness the Buddha saw that there was a seated statuette of Namo Shakyamuni Buddha on the Scepter and immediately raised the Scepter above His own head to show respect to Namo Shakyamuni Buddha, the Lord of Buddhism of the saha world. No one would have anticipated that H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III actually returned the conferment decree and Pope Scepter directly to the two Councils.

In today's announcement, Chairperson Suzi Leggett said: "Over the past several decades, the World Peace Prize Awarding Council has presented the World Peace Prize to President Ronald Reagan, Hon. Mahatma Gandhi, H.E. Yitzhak Rabin, and presidents and prime ministers of other nations. There has never been a precedence of retraction. All determinations made and implemented by our Councils are very solemn, serious, and absolutely cannot be changedThe return of the conferment decree and Scepter of the Pope of Buddhism by H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III is deemed not effectible. The title, status, and authority of the Pope of Buddhism belong only to H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III, and cannot be exercised by anyone else. This is a permanent and unalterable determination!" Despite the fact that H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III still would not accept the conferment, Chairperson Leggett once again presented to the World Buddhism Association Headquarters the conferment decree and Pope Scepter that H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III previously returned.

Venerable Mozhi Rinpoche represented the World Buddhism Association Headquarters to receive the conferment decree and Pope Scepter signifying the conferment of the title of Pope of Buddhism by the two Councils to H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III. He said, "The World Buddhism Association Headquarters considers the decision made by the two Councils to be remarkably proper and sagacious. Ever since Namo Shakyamuni Buddha entered parinirvana, there has not been a supreme leader who has the authority to guide all Buddhists the same way that the Buddha did. However, the authoritative position of the Pope of Buddhism certainly is not a role that a leader of a single Buddhist sect would have the attributes to fulfill; rather, the Pope must be a leader who has authority over the entirety of Buddhism, namely, a Buddha. Namo H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III holds the perfect teachings of Buddhism and meets the criteria used by all Buddhist sects to recognize a Buddha. His inherent nature is that of a Buddha, His unsurpassed, complete, and perfect enlightenment is that of a Buddha, and His state of virtue is that of a Buddha. Just based the accomplishment of H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III in Lifting the Pestle onto the Platform, surpassing His own base weight standard by 59 levels, no one can possibly match such a record. H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III also has perfect mastery of Exoteric and Esoteric Buddhism, perfect accomplishments in the Five Vidyas, and so forth, all of which truly are attributes of the perfect enlightenment of a Buddha. No other Buddhist Holy Guru in this world possesses such qualities.

"Just by the facts that H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III vowed to benefit living beings purely on a voluntary basis and does not accept any offerings throughout His entire life, and that He possesses perfect wisdom and unimpeded accomplishments, no other Holy Guru can be of comparison. Only Namo H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III can take on this immensely noble, holy, and heavy responsibility of the Pope of Buddhism, to properly guide Buddhists onto the correct path of learning Buddhism. Therefore, on behalf of Buddhists, the World Buddhism Association Headquarters thanks the World Peace Prize Awarding Council and the World Peace Prize Religious Leaders Title Awarding Council for having made the ultimate decision."

Below is the statement announced by Suzi Leggett, the Chairperson of the World Peace Prize Awarding Council and World Peace Prize Religious Leaders Title Awarding Council:

The Conferment of the Pope of Buddhism to His Holiness Dorje Chang Buddha III is Unchangeable, The Return of the Conferment Decree is Deemed Not Effectible

The field of Buddhism in today's world is rather chaotic, there needs to be a preeminent Buddhist leader of authority to lead and correctly point Buddhists to the right direction. All Buddhists know that other than a Buddha, no great Bodhisattva, great Dharma king, great lama, or great Dharma master is qualified to hold the title and status of authority to be the world's highest leader of Buddhism. In particular, the entire field of Buddhism has now been infiltrated by many fake rinpoches and fake Dharma masters who are not true Buddhists. As a result, Buddhism all over the world has fallen into a state of chaos and confusion.

Within the traditions and formal systems of Buddhism, there are several dozen sects, such as Esoteric, Exoteric, Zen, Pure Land, Mahayana, Theravada, and so forth. Regardless of how high the status of a Dharma king or a great master of any school may be, such a person can only lead their own school. Besides, each school of the sectarian system has also been infiltrated by a great number of fake rinpoches and fake Dharma masters. These people are amateurs who do not understand Buddhist teachings in the Sutras; yet they feign to be greatly virtuous people or eminent monastics. Thereupon, gradually and inconspicuously, evil and non-Buddhists teachings have been mixed into authentic Buddhism founded by Shakyamuni Buddha. This is mainly because there is currently no preeminent leader in the entirety of Buddhism. There is no supreme leader of authority to take hold of true Buddhist teachings and true Buddha Dharma.

Since a Dharma king, patriarch, or great master of any school can only lead their own school, none of them is eligible, either in virtue or realization power, to be the authoritative leader of the entirety of Buddhism. Only a Buddha can be the King of the entirety of Buddhism and the authority in all Buddhist teachings and principles, in the same way the God in Christianity has authority over the entirety of Catholicism. Ever since Buddhist history in this world began with Shakyamuni Buddha, H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III is the only Buddha who has truly been recognized by all major sects of Buddhism. A total of more than 100 documents of recognitions, corroborations, and congratulations have been formally issued by Buddhist leaders, Dharma kings, regent Dharma kings and great rinpoches of all major sects. Such a feat of recognition has never been achieved by anyone else in the history of Buddhism.

In particular, the Pope of Buddhism H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III is the first person in Buddhism to possess substantive holy realization power of a Buddha and perfectly flawless accomplishments at the pinnacle of the Five Vidyas. His selfless state of virtue is revered by all. His Holiness the Pope of Buddhism is also the one and only who possesses the inherent nature and physical constitution of a Buddha that no other eminent Buddhist monastic or virtuous person in this world has so perfectly attained.

After the Chairpersons of the World Peace Prize Awarding Council Han Min Su and myself, as well as the World Peace Prize Religious Leaders Title Awarding Council spent two years vigorously examining all evidences in great detail, we have formally made the ultimate, permanent, and irreversible determination that on January 31, 2018, the conferment decree and the Scepter of the Pope of Buddhism were to be presented to H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III. That date signified the official ascent of H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III to the authoritative throne of the Pope of Buddhism.

The World Peace Prize Awarding Council and the World Peace Prize Religious Leaders Title Awarding Council had officially conferred the title of the Pope of Buddhism to H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III in January 2018. However, at that time, the Pope of Buddhism H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III refused to accept the conferment decree and the Pope Scepter, stating His reasons being: "Within the field of Buddhism, there are Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. There are titles of Dharma kings, rinpoches, Dharma masters, eminent monastics, greatly virtuous persons, and Holy Gurus. There is no need for a Pope. I am a humble cultivator. I am not able to take on such a heavy responsibility." In light of this, the World Buddhism Association Headquarters took the liberty to accept the conferment decree and the Pope Scepter for H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III.

However, H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III returned the conferment decree and Pope Scepter to the World Peace Prize Awarding Council and the World Peace Prize Religious Leaders Title Awarding Council. The two Councils deem the return of the conferment decree and Scepter to be unjustifiable. The conferring of the title of Pope of Buddhism was a determination reached by both Councils after serious and solemn vetting, and the conferment has already been implemented. Under no circumstances can we be so lacking in rigorousness to accept the return of the conferment. This decision has been made by the two Councils. This is not a decision for H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III to make on his own.

Over the past several decades, the World Peace Prize Awarding Council has presented the World Peace Prize to President Ronald Reagan, Hon. Mahatma Gandhi, and H.E. Yitzhak Rabin, and presidents and prime ministers of other nations. There has never been a precedence of retraction. All determinations made and implemented by our Councils are very solemn, serious, and absolutely cannot be changed. Therefore, the World Peace Prize Awarding Council and the World Peace Prize Religious Leaders Title Awarding Council hereby issue our ultimate statement regarding this matter as follows: The return of the conferment decree and Scepter of the Pope of Buddhism by H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III is deemed not effectible. The title, status, and authority of the Pope of Buddhism belong only to H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III, and cannot be exercised by anyone else. This is a permanent and unalterable determination!

We wish that under the Pope of Buddhism H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III, true Buddhism will greatly flourish, and the world will be greatly benefitted!

SOURCE World Peace Prize Awarding Council

worldpeaceprize.org

Excerpt from:
The Return of the Pope of Buddhism Scepter by His Holiness Dorje Chang Buddha III was Rejected - PRNewswire