From: Shamar Rinpoche “Meditation in Theravada and Mahayana Traditions” Once you connect genuinely with meditation practice, you will develop a true passion for it and your practice will begin to mature. As long as you do not understand the essence of meditation, it hasn’t been properly experienced. Only when you experience the essence does it really get interesting. Concentration-Insight Meditation Meditation by concentration of the mind to remove the Five Hindrances is known as samatha , while the contemplation of physical body, feelings, mental functions and phenomena (dhamma) to develop Right Wisdom is called vipassana . The Vijja Dhammakaya approach …
1421 – Gavin Menzies Interesting site listing evidence that supports the author’s claim that Chinese explorers arrived in North America before Spanish ones. Of course, the Viking record still stands. Why doesn’t anyone ever mention that Lief Eriksson actually was the first non-Aboriginal person to visit here?
From “Awakening the Buddha Within” by Lama Surya Das: The Korean Zen master I studied with, Nine Mountains, used to exclaim with gusto, “What is it?” This, his main koan or Zen conundrum, was boldly calligraphed in Korean as a hanging scroll on the wall. This is an intense, heartfelt, visceral question: “What the hell is it?” That was his whole teaching. What the hell is going on? What is this? Who is this? This is a fundamental existential question, turning our exploration inward. What is this presenting itself right now?
For the Latin word, Bellum, WAR, comes from the old word, Duellum, a DUEL, as Bonus from Duonus, and Bis from Duis. Now Duellum was derived from Duo; and thereby implied a difference between two persons, in the same sense as we term peace, UNITY, from Unitas, for a contrary reason. So the Greek word, polemos, commonly used to signify war, expresses in its original, an idea of multitude. The ancient Greeks likewise called it lye, which imports a DISUNION of minds; just as by the term dye, they meant the DISSOLUTION of the parts of the body. Nor does …
There are 159 articles in the fourth iteration of the Geneva Convention which was signed on 12 August 1949. It’s worth having a perusal through the Convention, to see what the powers of the world agreed to with respect to protecting civilians in times of war. At times the document reads very coldly such as in article: Art. 3. In the case of armed conflict not of an international character occurring in the territory of one of the High Contracting Parties, each Party to the conflict shall be bound to apply, as a minimum, the following provisions: (1) Persons taking …