Hindus in Malta are urging the government to subsidise cremations abroad until a crematorium is available in Malta.

"Malta, not having a mechanism for the cremation of deceased Hindus, is forcing the community to bury their loved ones in contradiction of their long-held beliefs that burial hindered souls journey; Hindu statesman Rajan Zed said in a statement in Nevada (USA).Zed is president of Universal Society of Hinduism, indicated.

He said that if the government wasunable to offer a subsidy for cremations abroad, then in the meantime, Hindus should be allowed to cremate their deceased on traditional open pyres in Malta. For this purpose, Malta Government should allot a cremation ground near a body of water where Hindus could cremate their deceased on open pyres.

The Hindu community said cremation abroad comes to around 5,000, but added options can raise the cost. Many non-Hindus now also prefer cremation over burial.

Zed said that Malta should show some maturity and be more responsive to the hurt feelings of its hard-working, harmonious and peaceful Hindu community which, he observed, has been in the country since 1800s and has made lot of contributions to the nation and society.

As an interfaith gesture, Zed urged Archbishop Scicluna and Cardinal-elect Mario Grech to support their Hindu brothers and sisters on this issue.

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Written by ZEESHAN SHAIKH , Edited by Explained Desk | Mumbai | Updated: October 31, 2020 12:08:17 pm Members of the Peoples Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (an alliance of political parties including National Conference, PDP, CPI, CPM and Peoples Conference) at a meeting on October 24, 2020. (Express Photo: Shuaib Masoodi)

The land laws that were amended and notified by the Centre for the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir on Monday (October 26) have omitted the protection earlier available to its permanent residents. It allows the purchase of non-agricultural land by outsiders, even though the government may provide some protection through notifications.

The decision, celebrated by BJP leaders and spokespersons, has given fresh wind to fears expressed by political parties in Kashmir about attempts to fundamentally alter the demography of the Valley. On Tuesday, National Conference leader Omar Abdullah posted on Twitter that the Centre had now ended even the tokenism of domicile, and that J&K is now up for sale.

The Census of 2011 showed that the religious make-up of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir had remained almost entirely unchanged over the previous half century. The special status of Jammu and Kashmir under the Constitution was removed on August 5, 2019, and the state was split into two Union Territories.

What was the demographic make-up of the state of Jammu and Kashmir before Independence?

The pre-Independence Census of 1941 recorded Muslims as constituting 72.41% of the population, and Hindus 25.01%. Thereafter, the proportion of Muslims in the states population fell gradually.

So how did the demography of Jammu and Kashmir change between Independence and now?

Jammu and Kashmir was not a part of independent Indias first Census in 1951. The 1961 Census showed that Muslims, with a population of 24.32 lakh, constituted 68.31% of the states population of 35.60 lakh, while Hindus, numbering 10.13 lakh, made up 28.45%.

A full 50 years later, these percentages came out identical: the Census of 2011 recorded the Muslim population at 85.67 lakh again, 68.31% of the total population of 125.41 lakh (1.25 crore). And the Hindu population was 35.66 lakh 28.43% of the total. Express Explained is now on Telegram

And how did the share of population of the two communities change in the Censuses in between?

The percentage of Muslims in the (erstwhile) state started to fall after the 1961 Census when the community made up 68.3 per cent of the population. In the Census of 1971, it was 65.83 per cent and, in the Census of 1981, it fell to 64.19 per cent.

The beginning of militancy ensured no Census could be conducted in Jammu and Kashmir in 1991. But in the next Census in 2001, the proportion of Muslims in the population touched 66.97 per cent more than the communitys share in 1971. And in 2011, it had risen further to reach exactly what it was in 1961 (68.31%).

Consequently, the share of Hindus in the population moved in the opposite direction increasing from 28.45 per cent in 1961 to 30.42 per cent in 1971, and peaking at 32.24 per cent in 1981; before falling to 29.62 per cent in 2001 and further to 28.43 per cent in 2011.

Dont miss from Explained | The Kashmir action for which October 27 is marked as Infantry Day

How has the demography changed at the level of individual districts?

Jammu and Kashmir originally had 14 districts six each in the Kashmir and Jammu divisions, and two in Ladakh. Ten of these districts were Muslim-majority all six in Kashmir, three in Jammu, and one in Ladakh.

The remaining three districts in Jammu had a Hindu majority, and the remaining district in Ladakh was Buddhist majority.

In 2006, eight new districts were created, taking the total number of districts in the erstwhile state to 22.

Of these, 17 are Muslim majority 10 in Kashmir, six in Jammu, and one in Ladakh. Hindus are the majority community in four districts of the Jammu division; Buddhists are the majority in Leh.

In most districts of Kashmir, the percentage of Hindus went up in the 2011 Census as compared to 2001. The same was the case with Muslims in the districts of Jammu.

What is the share of migrants in the population of (the erstwhile state of) Jammu and Kashmir?

Only about 1.64 lakh (1.31 per cent) of the 1.25 crore population of Jammu and Kashmir (as per the 2011 Census) are people who stay there, but who were born elsewhere. In India as a whole, 4.64 per cent of the population lives in a state in which they were not born.

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Why do Buddhists talk about many Buddhas?

Often when we speak of the Buddha, we mean the historical figure Siddhartha Gautama, who attained enlightenment and began teaching the dharma around 2,600 years ago. But Buddhist tradition holds that this individualalso known as Shakyamuni Buddhawas only one in a series of awakened ones that stretches back into the distant past and extends into the farthest reaches of the future.

Of the many buddhas who preceded Shakyamuni, one of the most important was Dipamkara. His name means light maker: it is said that at his birth many lamps appeared and that he predicted Shakyamunis enlightenment.

After a long period, Dipamkaras teachings faded and were forgotten. Then came a succession of other buddhas, leading up to Shakyamuni, the buddha of our era. In the distant future, after a similar decline, it is said a buddha named Maitreya will emerge. Dipamkara, Shakyamuni, and Maitreya are often depicted in a triad representing past, present, and future. Past buddhas and future buddhas are objects of devotion that exist eternally and are available to those who seek them.

Although buddhas are infinite in a cosmic sense, the appearance of one in our world is rare. Buddhist cosmology describes a vast array of worlds of which ours is only one. Each of these worlds is overseen by a buddha, and rebirth in these worlds, known as buddha-fields, is the goal of many Buddhists.

Two of these prominent buddhas are Amitabha (Japanese, Amida), the Buddha of Infinite Light, and Bhaishajyaguru, the Medicine Buddha.

Amitabha Buddha is central to Pure Land Buddhism. He rules over the Western paradise of Sukhavati, literally blissful land, a place where enlightenment is much easier to achieve than elsewhere.

Bhaishajyaguru is the patron of doctors and healers and rules over an Eastern paradise. Rays of light that emanate from his blue body illuminate the world so that practitioners will never be in darkness. Devotion to him is said to ensure longevity, wealth, and prestige.

The Eastern and Western paradises are both said to be located trillions of buddha-fields away from our (impure) realm, which gives an idea of the epic scope of Buddhist cosmology.

Many other buddhas also reside in Pure Lands across the cosmos, serving as objects of reverence.

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Other Buddhas Across the Cosmos - Tricycle

A story from the Karmashataka illustrates how true devotion can be a source of energy and joy.

When the Blessed One was in Shravasti, there was a young god named Maniprabha who had hoops in his ears and necklaces around his neck and whose body was graced with strings of precious stones. He had a luminous celestial mansion of exquisite, divine jewels. Karmashataka

One of our favorite avadanas, or teaching stories, from the Karmashataka is the tale of the god Maniprabha, whose body, like the celestial mansion he lived in, shone with light and was adorned with fine jewels. One day when the Buddha was teaching at Jeta Grove (near the ancient Indian city of Shravasti), the brightly shining deity came to the garden with flowers, which he scattered over the Buddha to show homage. He then bent down to touch his head to the Buddhas feet in a traditional gesture of respect before sitting to hear the dharma. (The image of a god bowing down to the Buddha may be surprising for some readers. But in the Buddhist framework, buddhas far exceed the gods in spiritual realization. Maniprabhas deference to the Buddha is an embodied expression of this truth.) The Buddha offered a teaching that had such an immediate and profound effect on Maniprabha that the young gods eventual awakening became inevitable. In celebration he rose from his seat, again touched his head to the feet of the Blessed One, circumambulated him three times, and disappeared upon the spot.

Some of the other monks in the sangha were confused. They had been studying with continued, earnest, and sleepless efforts at dusk and dawn when they saw Maniprabhas great light emanate and then disappear. They went to the Buddha to ask what had happened. The Buddha explained, but the monks still had questions. They inquired how it came to be that Maniprabha had taken rebirth as a god whose residence was a celestial mansion and whose body was ornamented with divine jewels.

As is often the case in the Karmashataka, the Buddhas response comes in the form of a story within the story. The story takes place long before Siddhartha Gautama became the Buddhabefore he was even born. Back then, Buddha Kashyapa, one of the other buddhas the sutras say have appeared throughout history, was teaching the dharma. At the time, there lived in Varanasi a householder of tremendous wealth. After Buddha Kashyapas final passing, the householder, out of deep devotion, built a great stupa (shrine) containing the hair and nail relics of Buddha Kashyapas holy body. This stupa was so magnificent that even its rain gutters glimmered with jewels. Not only that, but the householder organized the construction of an associated monastery. For the rest of his life, he faithfully served the monks who studied and practiced there and provided for their every need.

The Buddha explained to the monks that after going for refuge and maintaining the fundamental precepts of a lay vow-holder all his life, the householder was reborn among the gods in a celestial mansion made of jewels. That householders name? Maniprabha, which means Jewel-Light.

Like all the stories of the Karmashataka, the story of Maniprabha is a gem that crystallizes for us certain essential teachings on karma. One facet is the enormous power of actions taken from a mindset of devotion.

True devotion does not actually drain us. It is a source of vibrant energy that makes our commitments come alive and become a source of joy.

When we think about our actions, we often focus on their effects, but the Buddhist view of karma easily overlooks the importance of the underlying intention. Yet as Joseph Goldstein points out, the Buddha used the term karma specifically referring to volition, the intention or motive behind an action. He said that karma is volition because it is the motivation behind the action that determines the karmic fruit. Inherent in each intention in the mind is an energy powerful enough to bring about subsequent results. Indeed, the Buddha stated, Action (karma) is volition, for after having intended something, one accomplishes action through body, speech, and mind.

The story of Maniprabha starts with a description of his numerous acts of devotion. Far from being a set of isolated occurrences, these actions are an upwelling of Maniprabhas devotion in previous lifetimes. In honor of the earlier buddha Kashyapa, he built a magnificent stupa and an associated monastery where he rendered service all his life, and provided for the material well-being of the monastics there. But Maniprabhas devotion was directed not only to these two buddhas. From his consistent, lifelong support of the monastery, we recognize that his devotion is also to the dharma and sangha, to notions of love and service, to compassion, and to putting others first.

In the course of the story, Maniprabha is never depicted as wavering. He appears with purpose, fulfills that purpose, and departs. Moreover, in the story of his past life, we are given to understand that the service he rendered was a joyful commitment that he never abandoned. The purity of that devotion later manifests concretely in the pristine qualities of his future rebirth in the god realmin his brilliant appearance, his splendid ornamentation, his divine residence, and his clear intention. Practitioners will find it particularly interesting to note that his acts of devotion gave rise to the auspicious circumstances needed to receive teachings directly from a buddha. Not only that, but Maniprabha was able to comprehend the teaching so deeply that he arrived speedily at the threshold of liberation.

Seen in relation to our own practice, the potential benefits of devotion are numerous. Devotion has the quality of stabilizing the mind. When something occurs that in other contexts might set us off balance, devotion helps us stay on course. For example, at times when we hear criticism from others, we may notice that our potential reactivity and defensiveness are allayed by the depth of our conviction in the dharma. We are able to actually hear their feedback and contemplate its validity without losing our emotional center.

Devotion is akin to love: when cultivated, it grows over time. It develops within the context of an ongoing relationship. When that relationshipwith a person, to the teachings generally, or to a certain lineage or practiceis healthy and not excessively predicated on projected longing, devotion matures and deepens. It is balanced. It becomes less superficial as it increases.

In keeping with our individual temperaments and inclinations, we may find ourselves drawn to certain devotional acts and disinclined to others. Traditional forms such as making offerings, building stupas, or bowing our heads or bodies are certainly important. But there are also contemporary forms more familiar to us: we can set out the cushions at the dharma center, like and subscribe to our favorite dharma sources on social media, or help to update Rinpoches iPhone. We may be spontaneously engaging in these activities without recognizing the devotion we are already expressing.

Simply attending dharma teachings with a mind that is genuinely open and receptive, not armored or argumentative, can itself be an act of devotion. It is a practice to notice where devotion already exists in our minds and hearts. That mindful awareness increases their power.

When emphasizing intention and devotion, the thought does come to us: Isnt it enough that Im here at the dharma talk? Or that I made it onto this cushion? Arent these virtuous actions good enough on their own? There can be a sense in our daily practiceand in our livesthat going through the motions is enough. This is especially true when were experiencing the challenges of life, and we find ourselves tired, overwhelmed, scared, anxious, busy, or burdened, as we often have every reason to be. Devotion feels like yet another item on our to-do list.

True devotion, however, does not actually drain us. It is a source of vibrant energy that makes our commitments come alive and become a source of joy.

Strengthened by devotion, we are more resilient when we encounter exhaustion, criticism, or the questions that arise naturally along the way. Our efforts will continue to grow in spite of challenges and even in response to them.

We know were experiencing devotion when we feel a genuine, spontaneous appreciation for the gifts we are receivingfor the fact that we can meet with qualified teachers, hear the word of the dharma, and find support in the sangha. Devotion is the wish to demonstrate this appreciation in respectful form, to pay homage as Maniprabha did.

Maniprabha leaped to repay the Buddhas kindness without hesitation. Similarly, the dharma can inspire a realization of our wondrous good fortune that naturally overflows in an abundance of gratitude.

This is the second installment in a four-part series on the Karmashataka (A Hundred Deeds) Sutra, a collection of ancient teaching stories on karma that has recently been translated from Tibetan into English. Read the first installation here.

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Maniprabha and the Power of Devotion - Tricycle

How lifes little annoyances can teach us ever-greater tolerance.

The 8th-century Indian Buddhist sage Shantideva dedicated a chapter of his work The Way of the Bodhisattva to the subject of patience. In the new book Peaceful Heart: The Buddhist Practice of Patience, the Tibetan Buddhist teacher Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche follows the 134 verses from the Patience Chapter and explains how they apply to our busy lives today. In this excerpt, he discusses verses 15 through 18, translated by the Padmakara Translation Group.

15 And do I not already bear with the common irritations Bites and stings of snakes and flies, Experiences of hunger and thirst, And painful rashes on my skin?

16 Heat and cold, the wind and rain, Sickness, prison, beatings Ill not fret about such things. To do so only aggravates my trouble.

If we look at our lives, we already have a certain amount of patience. We can bear many difficult circumstances quite well. For example, we all have to endure minor illnesses such as colds and headaches. We have to deal with plenty of weather we dont like. We put up with mosquitoes and mice and many other creatures that cause us minor trouble.

Rather than constantly seeking to eliminate all small irritations from our lives, we can use them as a basis for developing more patience. If you emphasize comfort over the practice of patience, your mind will get weaker and weaker. If you want your life to be free of the challenge of needing patience, your mind will be in constant fear. You will feel increasingly under threat, increasingly provoked, increasingly paranoid. This will lead you to act more negatively and to reject much of the world.

Practitioners need to be going in the opposite direction. We need to have a little oomph to work with all the challenges we encounter. A lot of people wonder, Why does my life have so much struggle? But there is no such thing in samsara as a life free of struggle. There is no such thing as a life where nothing threatens us. So instead we should ask ourselves, Why doesnt my life have more oomph?

Its interesting that its easier to be patient with things or beings that cannot be held responsible, such as the weather or infants. We should also notice that its relatively easy to muster our tolerance toward people we want to please or impress, such as those we find attractive or our superiors at work. These examples show how capable we are of having control over our minds. If we use these easier situations as a training ground, we are also capable of extending our patience to situations or people that tend to provoke our anger more strongly.

Shantidevas point here is that developing patience depends a lot on our self-confidence and self-image. If we see ourselves as nervous, shaky, and irritable, our experiences will tend to follow that image. So we need to change our attitude to see ourselves as tolerant and not easily disturbed. This will make a great difference in how we react to outer conditions and will set in motion more favorable ways for things to unfold. When we see ourselves in such a positive light, it will be easy to tolerate small disturbances, let go, and move on with ever-increasing patience. As our minds become more agile and ready to make use of discomfort and adversity, we will gain more strength to face the great disturbances of life with tolerance.

17 There are some whose bravery increases At the sight of their own blood, While some lose all their strength and faint When its anothers blood they see!

18 This results from how the mind is set, In steadfastness or cowardice. And so Ill scorn all injury, And hardships I will disregard!

Our reactions to situations, people, and our own states of mind are based on how we condition our minds. For instance, if you have habituated yourself to be brave in battle, seeing your own blood flow may give you even more courage to fight. But if youve habituated your mind to weakness and oversensitivity, you may faint or panic even when you see someone elses blood. Your response in that moment comes from how youve built up your habits in the past.

You can train your mind to be strong and resilient, or you can train your mind to be fainthearted and easily discouraged. This is your choice. If you want to be a bodhisattva, its not viable to act like a weak dog and run away with your tail between your legs, succumbing to your habitual reactions. A bodhisattva needs to endure countless challenges, so you have to shed any tendencies toward cowardice.

In these modern times, particularly in the West, its common for people to give up on themselves easily. Many dharma students tend to judge themselves too harshly and then become discouraged. Part of the problem is they want to be too good. So when they see their neuroses and their imperfections, they have a hard time accepting themselves. This comes from having unreasonable expectations. It is a puritanical mindset. I hear people say, Ive been practicing for the last twenty years. How could this happen? How could I do this? How could I have this thought, this feeling? This often happens just when they think theyve made some progress. The result can be deep despondency.

Our thoughts, feelings, and reactions come about due to a vast number of interdependent circumstances. When the perfect circumstances converge for you to have a particular reaction, its almost impossible not to have that reaction, at least initially. As a result, no matter how long youve practiced, its very unlikely that nothing will bother you anymore. It isnt realistic to think youll be exempt from getting frustrated or losing your temper. The mark of a true practitioner is not what arises in your life and mind, but how you work with what arises.

It all comes down to your perspective and your self-confidenceyour oomph. Now you may think, What can I do about that? Im just not a self-confident person. Its important to know that self-confidence isnt something were born with. Everyone can develop self-confidence if they want to. But we must understand that here we are talking about genuine self-confidence, not egos bloated version, which is more like arrogance.

The process begins with your willingness to take a chance. Rather than having everything absolutely clear and predictable ahead of time, you have to be willing to go into the unknown. This may require a leap of faithfaith in your own mind and its innate wisdom and ability. Then, having taken that leap, you have to work with your intelligenceskillfully, mindfully, and patientlyas the situation unfolds. Going through this kind of process repeatedly will increase your self-confidence, especially when you encounter difficulties and find ways to turn them around or bring about the best outcome possible.

The mark of a true practitioner is not what arises in your life and mind, but how you work with what arises.

Here it is helpful to remember verses 15 and 16, in which Shantideva advises us to train ourselves in cultivating positive qualities by beginning with relatively small things. This is a realistic, doable approach to developing any desirable attribute in your mind. For example, you may wish to be a generous person but realize that youre not very generous. Resigning yourself to being stingy by nature will get you nowhere. That is just making an excuse based on laziness.

If youre genuinely interested, you can always find small ways to be generous. You can even practice by passing money or some object youre attached to from one of your hands to the other. The Buddha actually suggested this simple practice to a disciple who thus got over his miserliness and eventually became a great patron of the dharma. Starting small will serve as an effective beginning to your generosity practice, which you can then take as far as you want it to go.

With patience especially, we can use the small irritations that come up in our lives as wonderful opportunities to train. For example, sometimes we feel offended, but at the same time we realize its silly to be offended. Here we have a great chance to apply the humor we already see in the situation. This humor is based on realizing the irony of what is happening: were blaming somebody else, but the real problem is our own ego, manifesting in the form of a ridiculous uptightness. This kind of ironic humor is not just a patch we use to cover up pain. It is an insight that can turn irritation into a genuine laugh or smile, which gives us a feeling of release. A humorous perspective gets us through the slight pain of the offense and enables us to turn that pain into wisdom. We can then appreciate the pain as we would the pain of an immunization. We need to take advantage of these situations, which are within our reach to work with successfully. If we forgo such opportunities to practice in small ways, then to believe we will be patient when bigger things come around is just wishful thinking.

Because humor and appreciating irony are such effective means of cutting through irritations, I would like to share a contemplation I once had, which I found both funny and helpful. It occurred to me that people come with different shoe sizes, but that doesnt bother me. They have different pants sizes and hat sizes. That also doesnt bother me. So why should I be bothered that people come with different sizes of ego? Just as I dont have to wear other peoples shoes, I dont have to wear other peoples egos. I can just let them wear their own egos, whatever size they are. Why should I take the size of someone elses ego personally and let it bother me? It is theirs and theirs alone to wear. I can just let them be.

The size of another persons ego can make you feel very bothered and uncomfortable. But if you can find other ways of looking at your irritation, especially using humor, then you have a better chance of being patient. In this way, your patience will increase not only in trivial situations but also in serious situations where humor and irony are more difficult to find.

Excerpted from Peaceful Heart: The Buddhist Practice of Patience by Dzigar Kongtrul 2020. Reprinted with permission of Shambhala Publications.

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Dzigar Kongtrul: The Path of Patience - Tricycle

Our expert explains the meaning of dukkha.

The Pali word dukkha (duhkha in Sanskrit), usually translated as suffering, sits at the heart of the Buddhas four noble truthswhich boil down to (1) dukkha exists, (2) dukkha arises from causes, and (3) we can end dukkha (4) by following the Buddhas path to awakening. This central term is best understood alongside the related word sukha. The prefix su- generally means good, easy, and conducive to well-being, and the prefix du- correspondingly means bad, difficult, and inclining toward illness or harm. On the most basic level, then, sukha means pleasant while dukkha means unpleasant. The noble truth of suffering, however, does not simply refer to bodily pain; its meaning is far more subtle and rich.

One can also feel mental pleasure and pain. Here, the twin prefixes are employed again. A good mind (su-manas) is contrasted with a bad mind (du-manas) to yield the Pali words most often used to describe happiness (somanassa) and sorrow (domanassa), also known as mental pleasure and mental pain. Here, happiness and sorrow simply refer to the experience of a painful or pleasurable feeling, which is different from emotional pleasure or pain. When Buddhist teachings talk about emotions, such as love and hate, they are describing our disposition toward the things we encounter. This important distinction can be easily lost in translation.

Dukkha is further used to describe the disappointment that comes when the things we are fond of inevitably change and slip through our hands. The Pali term for this is viparinama-dukkha, meaning the suffering of change, which the second noble truth explains is caused by craving and attachment. We experience emotional pain when we crave either pleasure or the absence of pain, and dont get what we want. Mind- fulness practice is designed to help us abandon this craving by replacing it with emotional equanimity.

Beyond the physical, mental, and psychological sense of dukkha, we might add an existential sense of these words. In Pali texts, the feeling that the very conditions of the world we inhabit are unsatisfactory is called sankhara-dukkha, or the suffering of conditioned reality. The fact that all beings must consume to live and that we will age, become ill, and die are also sources of suffering.

Fortunately, there is a corresponding state of existential well-beingthe liberation from suffering that comes about with awakening.

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November 1, 2020 3:35:06 am

Written by Vinaya Rakkhita Mahathera

On October 14, 1956, along with his 5 lakh followers, Dr B R Ambedkar went to the refuge of The Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha. Committed as he was to rationality and empiricism, he was attracted to Buddhisms rational outlook tuned with morality and further strengthened by scientific temper. Its teaching of equality and solidarity, and its emphasis on transforming both the self and the world through self-effort attracted him.

Ambedkar was the brightest thunderbolt of intellect elicited from the darkest storm of casteism. Therefore, the followers of Ambedkar, the Ambedkarites, must emulate their leader and should give up the repeated labelling of themselves as suppressed class. By repeating such labels, they are giving an auto-suggestion that they are suppressed and therefore can do nothing except to look for help from someone up there in the sky or may be waiting for another Ambedkar or Buddha to arrive to relieve them.

Today we should reflect together on the predicament in which the Ambedkarites find themselves. On the one hand, they confront the exploitation they continue to suffer in a casteist society that refuses to acknowledge them as equals; on the other, they can be manipulated by an opportunist Dalit political style that has turned Ambedkar into an icon but betrays his ideals in practice of Buddhism. One is ready to take the political reservations earned by him but not his religion, Buddhism, when he himself has said that to serve Buddhism is to serve humanity.

Ambedkarites should have self-confidence and believe in self-effort to gain self-respect. Ambedkarites should try to be like Ambedkar of high moral character, highly educated, self-confident and believing in self-effort.

One may ask why Ambedkar left Hinduism. To which Ambedkar himself says: I thought for long that we could rid the Hindu society of its evils and get the depressed classes incorporated into it on terms of equality Experience has taught me better. I stand today absolutely convinced that for the depressed classes there can be no equality among the Hindus because on inequality rest the foundations of Hinduism.

Most of the Hindu leaders are hypocrites who profess to fight casteism while in reality are committed to its rules. Brahminical bureaucrats who claim to have democratic ideas wish to raise the backward castes but crave nothing better than an oligarchy for themselves. Untouchability and inequality cannot be removed if education produces only slavish and selfish-minded leaders. Moreover, how can we gain anything by staying in the caste system?

Buddhism has been in the service of the poor and the oppressed. The Buddhas teachings are based on this fact called suffering, the cause for suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the path leading to the cessation of suffering. This is the reason why Ambedkar chose The Buddha. The Manuvadis want to keep the masses in the casteist religion so that they can go on exploiting them.

Ambedkars call for conversion to Buddhism has been ignored and deliberately marginalised by his own community leaders with few exceptions. It is interesting that Ambedkar fought for the rights of Dalits and had a broader vision, which couldnt be inculcated by post-Ambedkar Ambedkarites. He wanted to give his people an identity so that they get out of the varna system but here, what we see is the stimulation of the culture of varna and caste among the Dalits.

If only constitutional guarantees would have been sufficient, Ambedkar would have rested in peace. He would never have spent years of his life even in bad health, digging out Buddhism from oblivion.

The segmented morality endemic to Hinduism is oppressive to those who suffer under it. Both uneducated and educated Dalits seems to vacillate between two discourses. On one hand they praise Ambedkar as the symbol of the Dalit movement for his conversion to Buddhism and on the other, they themselves stick to their old casteist life.

The writer is a Bahujan Ambedkarite associated with Alok Sangharam Mahavira.

Suraj Yengde, author of Caste Matters, curates the fortnightly Dalitality column

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Oct. 31 (UPI) October will have its second full moon a rare Blue Moon beginning Saturday and lasting through Sunday.

The moon appears at its fullest, opposite the sun in earth-based longitude, at 10:49 a.m. EDT on Saturday, according to NASA. It should appear full through Sunday night.

The first full moon after the Harvest Moon which appeared Oct. 1 this year is also called the Hunters Moon, according to the Farmers Almanac, a moniker that appears in the Oxford English Dictionary dating back to 1710.

This full moon will appear smaller Saturday night because it occurs nearest to the time when the moon is farthest in its orbit from the Earth, at its apogee, so NASA calls it a Micro Moon as opposed to a Supermoon.

In astronomical terms, Blue Moons occur with a regular pattern about once every two and a half years. After October 2020, the next Blue Moon will take place in August 2023. A full moon will occur on Halloween once every 19 years in the 21st century.

The Native American name for the second full moon of autumn is the Beaver Moon, also called the Frost or Frosty Moon, or the Snow Moon, NASA says.

In North America, the deer rut mating season is in full swing and snow geese arrive at the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland and southern Delaware. The Old Farmers Almanac says its best to plant garlic and dig up sweet potatoes during the Hunters Moon.

In the Indian subcontinent, this full moon coincides with the end of monsoon rains, and is called the Sharad Purnima, coinciding with Hindu festivals marking the end of the rainy season.

Buddhist names for the full moon mark the end of Vassa, or the three-month retreat also called the Buddhist Lent.

The full moon falls near the end of the Buddhist Hpaung Daw U festival in Myanmar and Indochina which lasts between Oct. 17 and Nov. 3. In Thailand, this full moon coincides with the Loi Krathong festival, in which decorated baskets are floated in rivers.

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Halloween weekends Blue Moon to last through Sunday - Gephardt Daily

In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, many people who have elderly parents will share the sentiment below:

Things that make the heart lurch with anxiety: When a parent looks out of sorts, and remarks that theyre not feeling well. This particularly worries you to distraction when youve been hearing panicky tales of plague sweeping the land.

You may be surprised to learn that this plangent quote comes from a text written more than 1,000 years ago by a Japanese author and court lady named Sei Shnagon.

The medieval Japanese experienced crises that inflicted tragedies and unexpected deaths on many ordinary people. In his essay Hjki, for instance, the 13th-century author and poet Kamo no Chmei vividly describes sorrows and affliction suffered by citizens in Kyoto, who experienced a series of disasters such as great fires, whirlwinds, famines, earthquakes and plagues.

In the west, life-threatening crises are often considered challenges to religious faith how can we believe that there is an all-powerful and all-loving god if there is so much pain and suffering in the world? This is the problem of evil for believers in the Judeo-Christian tradition.

Medieval thinkers in Japan also contemplated crises within a religious framework but their perspective was radically distinct. They regarded sudden and tragic deaths in crises as exemplifications of impermanence ( muj), which is, along with suffering ( ku) and non-self ( muga), one of three marks of existence according to Buddhism.

Chmei writes, for example, that deaths in the midst of crises are reminders that we are impermanent and ephemeral beings comparable to tiny floating bubbles in a ceaseless stream of water flowing down a river.

How did the medieval Japanese react to disasters and tragedies? Interestingly enough, some of their responses are similar to our reactions to the COVID-19 crisis.

Chmeis response to disasters and tragedies was to become a hermit, which is comparable to the self-isolation approach that has been recommended for the global pandemic. Chmei maintains that the best way to live peacefully is to stay away from any potential danger and live in isolation. He chose to live a simple life in a tiny ten square-foot house in the mountains. He writes:

Small it may be, but there is a bed to sleep on at night, and a place to sit in the daytime. The hermit crab prefers a little shell for his home. He knows what the world holds. The osprey chooses the wild shoreline, and this is because he fears mankind. And I too am the same. Knowing what the world holds and its ways, I desire nothing from it, nor chase after its prizes. My one craving is to be at peace, my one pleasure to live free of troubles.

tomo no Tabito, an eighth-century court noble and poet, provides a sharp contrast to Chmei. His approach to disasters and tragedies is hedonism. He is reminiscent of people today who wilfully eschew self-isolation and instead throw parties without fearing the pandemic. One of Tabitos waka poems reads:

Living people Will eventually die. Such are we, so While in this world Lets have fun!

By having fun, Tabito means enjoying alcoholic drink. In fact, the above poem is among his Thirteen Poems in Praise of Sake. Tabito presents his hedonism as a form of anti-intellectualism. He says that people who seek wisdom but do not drink are ugly and that he does not care if he will reincarnate as an insect or a bird as long as he can have fun in his current life.

On the face of it, hermits and hedonists live in diametrical opposition to one another. Yet both firmly accept the Buddhist view of impermanence. Hermits think that the best way to live our ephemeral existence is to eliminate unnecessary worries through self-isolation their interest is not in increasing pleasure but in minimising worries. Hedonists think that the best way to live our ephemeral existence is to enjoy ourselves as much as possible their interest is not in minimising worries but in maximising pleasure.

Which approach is more commendable? From a Buddhist viewpoint, hermitism is clearly better because Buddhism teaches its adherents to relinquish all worldly concerns. By detaching themselves from civilisation, hermits can pursue equanimity ( sha), a perfectly balanced mental state free of emotional disturbances. This can be cultivated to advance one along the way towards nirvana.

Hedonism is not, on the other hand, commendable because it only amplifies our worldly concerns. Hedonists cannot reach nirvana because they try to forget about impermanence only by intoxicating themselves.

Yet self-isolation may have its own shortcomings. Saigy Hshi, a 12th-century poet and Buddhist monk who also pursued hermitism, writes:

And vow renouncement of the world but cannot let it go Some who have never taken vows Do cast the world away.

Saigy is criticising himself in this waka poem. He wonders if a hermit like himself is really better than ordinary people. He worries that in making such a radical move as renouncing the world and living in isolation he has revealed a stronger attachment to the world than ordinary people have. Ordinary people living ordinary lives sometimes appear less concerned about worldly desires than reflective intellectuals like himself.

COVID-19 is certainly a new phenomenon and has presented new personal crises and worries which individuals must face. Yet classical literature reminds us that people in the past also experienced crises and catastrophes, forcing them to ponder how we should live.

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Coronavirus: medieval Japanese thinkers had similar reactions to plagues isolate or party - The Conversation UK

Top of mind for voters in 2020 is how to spark Americas economy as it struggles to rebound from COVID-19, yet the stakes go well beyond recovery. Our government faces a historic opportunity to rethink ways to promote prosperity for the long haul.

Bipartisan legislation recently introduced in Congress, calling for targeted government support of technology, holds tremendous promise for reversing a trend toward what is increasingly becoming a nation of haves and have nots.

For the past 50 years, the boom in U.S. technology has been most pronounced in so-called superstar cities on the coasts, places such as San Francisco, Seattle and Boston. Just five of the top innovation centers in the United States have generated a staggering 90 percent of innovation-sector growth.

The result has been soaring incomes and abundant jobs in those cities, while wide swaths of the country remain neglected, fueling income inequality. At the same time, people living in booming cities have suffered prohibitive living costs, declining quality of life, and social problems such as homelessness that have befuddled their politicians.

We have an opportunity to fix this.

The Brookings Institution has argued that a targeted federal effort could transform heartland metro areas into centers of economic expansion. Their economists concluded last year that government investment is needed to break the cycle where innovation-based companies tend to congregate near each other in pursuit of talent and hothouse thinking.

There is evidence that such bold acts can work. Seventy-five years ago, Vannevar Bush authored one of the most pivotal reports in U.S. history: Science The Endless Frontier. The policies based upon his call for investing in innovation propelled the United States to become the undisputed leader in many scientific fields. But recently, amid fierce global competition, we have started to lose this edge.

Inspired by this postwar victory, Sens. Chuck SchumerChuck SchumerHouse Democrats introduce bill to invest 0 billion in STEM research and education Graham dismisses criticism from Fox Business's Lou Dobbs Lewandowski: Trump 'wants to see every Republican reelected regardless of ... if they break with the president' MORE (D-N.Y.) and Todd YoungTodd Christopher YoungRepublicans: Supreme Court won't toss ObamaCare Vulnerable Republicans break with Trump on ObamaCare lawsuit Senate GOP eyes early exit MORE (R-Ind.), along with Reps. Ro KhannaRohit (Ro) KhannaHouse Democrats introduce bill to invest 0 billion in STEM research and education Biden says he opposes Supreme Court term limits Dozens of legal experts throw weight behind Supreme Court term limit bill MORE (D-Calif.) and Mike GallagherMichael (Mike) John GallagherActors union blasts Democrat for criticizing GOP lawmaker's wife Federal commission issues recommendations for securing critical tech against Chinese threats Government watchdog recommends creation of White House cyber director position MORE (R-Wis.), introduced the Endless Frontier Act in May, legislation to invest $100 billion in 10 tech opportunities. New investment in the most promising technological areas think artificial intelligence, quantum computing and advanced manufacturing has the potential to boost the American economy and promote key areas of national interest.

Critical to this approach will be ensuring that the benefits of federal investment are spread across the country, not just along the coasts, which is why the Endless Frontier Act includes money for 10 regional technology hubs. No place in the country offers a greater payoff for this type of government investment than the Badger Belt, a string of Wisconsin communities across a state filled with abundant natural resources, world-class universities, and hard-working families.

Wisconsin can be the centerpiece of a revitalized American heartland. We earned our nickname in the 19th century when pioneers were moving west. A few industrious souls burrowed into the Midwestern soil as miners, making Wisconsin their home and eventually turning the state into an innovative powerhouse. Todays Badgers are just as industrious and even more diverse.

Our initial focus begins with a segment of the Badger Belt anchored in Madison. Like the supercities, we have a powerhouse university that puts tremendous effort into transferring ideas into real-world technologies. We are a national leader in stem cell research and digital health technology. Madison also has a young, educated professional workforce and was identified by Moodys as one of the top 10 cities to weather the pandemic crisis.

The Brookings report last year called for 10 more Madisons, but we need all of Wisconsin to get this right. Most importantly, we are able to draw on the manufacturing heritage of communities along Lake Michigan, from Green Bay to Milwaukee to Kenosha, and the incredible potential such partnerships provide.

Progress on the Endless Frontiers Act has faltered, in part because of the pandemic-related turmoil and tight budgets of 2020. Congressmen Gallagher and Khanna continue to advocate for this legislation; they know reinvigorating this discussion must be a priority for the incoming Congress.

Political and industry leaders alike should endorse this bold first step toward broadening economic growth in the United States. This kind of targeting funding, when combined with other efforts such as workforce development, tax and regulatory benefits, business financing, and infrastructure support, could transform vital centers for economic growth.

The strength of American ingenuity once belonged to the American Midwest. With a smart technology policy from Washington, we are ready to take it back.

Erik Iverson is CEO of the nonprofit Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, which manages the transfer of technology and innovation coming out of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The foundation would not directly benefit from the Endless Frontier Act, though the universitys researchers could be among those applying for grants.

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Reestablishing American prosperity by investing in the 'Badger Belt' | TheHill - The Hill