Mayawati calls meet, aware BSP leaders from Cong, BJP
Lucknow:Bahujan
Samaj Party (BSP) supremo and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati
today called on party MPs, legislators and ministers to prepare
themselves for a bigger challenge ahead from the Congress, the BJP and
other parties who would make all effort to stall the progress of the
BSP.
Addressing
a meeting of the party MPs, ministers and legislators here, Ms Mayawati
said as the party was strengthening its base on the formula of
‘’Sarvajan Hitaya, Sarvajan Sukhaya’ and yet to face more challenges in
the future.
‘’Now
all the parties, including the Congress and the BJP have united to
hinder the growth of the BSP, which led to the survival of the UPA
government at the Centre on the July 22 trust vote,'’ she claimed.
The
CM said on August 9, the party would announce the future political
strategy of the party during the BSP national convention to be held at
Ramabai Ambedkar Maidan.
She
also asked all the BSP leaders to bring only those active members from
the respective areas in the national convention, who have the capacity
to aware the people about the party directions.
Ms
Mayawati had yesterday held a similar meeting with the co-ordinators
and other office bearers of the party to discuss over the preparation
for the national convention.
It was decided
that 15 buses with dedicated party workers from each of the 403
assembly constituencies would be brought for the convention. Thousands
of delegates from other states were also expected to participate in the
convention.
Be ready for coalitions, Mayawati tells BSP
Mayawati said the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) should be ready to
accept a pre-poll alliance taking into account the fast changing
scenario in national politics, the sources added.
The chief minister also called upon party activists to convince Muslims about the correctness of BSP’s stand over the India-US nuclear deal.
“We need to inform Muslims that by opposing the nuclear deal, we
supported them and protected their rights,” a party leader said.
Mayawati also directed district coordinators of BSP to bring active
members of their respective regions to the party’s national convention
to be organised here Aug 9.
The BSP played a key role in the opposition’s attempts to vote out
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Congress-led government in a trust vote
over the nuclear deal. The government won the motion.
Another third front is in the making. The nucleus this time is
Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party. The end game of this combination is to
install Ms. Mayawati as India’s Prime Minister. The foundation for this
formation were laid in the context of the confidence vote consequent to
the decision by the Left parties to withdraw support to the Manmohan
Singh-led UPA Government. We found all this written in the print media
and discussed on private news channels during the couple of days before
and after the confidence vote in the Lok Sabha On July 22, 2008. The
Bangalore blasts and thereafter the blasts in Ahmedabad have led to a
premature end to this discussion.
The mainstream media also
talked about how Prakash Karat’s ego as well as that of Mayawati’s
ambitions came together to bring about this front. And those of us who
are used to watch what goes in the name of news in the 24 by 7 channels
were sufficiently entertained by the reporters and the experts there
when they went about thrusting the microphones into the mouth of every
opposition leader of insignificance wanting to know if they supported
Mayawati as Prime Minister. Chandrababu Naidu, Chandrasekara Rao and
H.D.Deve Gowda were those leaders who were held significant by these
journalists and their opinions about Mayawati as Prime Ministers made
news stories! And so were Om Prakash Chautala and Ajit Singh!
Well. All these were important leaders who had impacted national
politics at some point in the past. And it is possible that they may
re-emerge as leaders with clout in the future too. There is no way one
can write off any political party or leader given the dynamics of our
political discourse. But then, there was abundant absurdity in the
manner in which this third front was discussed by the media during the
week when the confidence vote was taken by the Lok Sabha. The Left and
the BSP add up to only 77 MPs in this House; and the others who
gathered around them such as the TDP, TRS, JD(S), RLD and INLD can at
best add only less than a dozen MPs to the front. In other words, all
these parties put together were adding up to less than 100 MPs in a
House of 541 and the media began constructing tales of a front in the
making and anointed Mayawati as Prime Minister.
That was absurd
to say the least. And it was baffling and even strange that any one of
the leaders, including Mayawati, did not find it prudent to call the
media professionals what they were in doing what they did. Well. The
media professionals simply went about displaying their lack of common
sense and at some level a kind of idiocy emerging out of a false sense
of arrogance. There was a vulgar design behind this too. The media
managed to construct the spectre of a Dalit as India’s Prime Minister
in the process and provoke a reaction, from among the middle classess,
against this. All this was done by deliberately pushing, some of the
real basis to the realignment of forces, under the carpet.
Take
for instance the fact that barring the Left parties, none of the others
in this combination were definite about their attitude to the Indo-US
civilian nuclear deal. The TRS, for instance, had declared its
intention to vote against the Government only because the Congress
party and the UPA Government it led was not prepared to commit to the
formation of a separate Telengana. It was also a fact that neither the
Left nor the TDP was willing to do that but then the TRS decided to
teach the Congress a lesson and that was all. Similarly, the TDP, with
only 5 MPs (and it turned out that two of them voted with the
Government side) was consistently anti-Congress and had shown its
willingness to sup with the BJP in the past and has not shown any
determination to desist from that in the future too.
The BSP,
similarly, joined the Left-led moves only because its adversary in
Uttar Pradesh – the Samajwadi Party – had jumped on to the Congress-led
fold and had begun pushing the Union Government to abuse the CBI and
other central investigation agencies to push Mayawati around and drag
her into facing criminal charges. It was common knowledge to anyone
with even a remote understanding of the political discourse of Uttar
Pradesh to conclude that the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj
Party can never be seen on the same side of the political spectrum.
This, we know, has determined the political alignment in Tamil Nadu for
long ensuring that the DMK and the AIADMK are necessarily seen on
wither sides of the political divide between the Congress and the BJP
since the past decade.
As for the INLD, no one including its
leader Om Prakash Chautala, would know whether the party is committed
to secularism of communalism at any given point of time. And the same
holds good for Deve Gowda and his Janata Dal (secular), though
M.P.Veerendra Kumar, one of the party’s three MPs is a “natural’’ ally
of the Left simply because his political stakes are intrinsically and
intimately tied up with the CPI(M) in Kerala. The RLD, led by Ajit
Singh has shown, in the past, its willingness to strike deals and
bargain between the Congress, the BJP and any political party in Uttar
Pradesh as long as it helps Ajit Singh become a Minister or at least
make him richer. And the AGP too is no different from any of these
formations and ideologically it is closer to the BJP than the Left or
any other democratic platform in Assam.
All this is to say that
there was no way that the hotch-potch that came up in the limited
context of the confidence vote could have evolved into a third front
both in the context of this Lok Sabha as well as in the medium term
involving elections to the next Lok Sabha. In a sense, this was
essentially a creation of the media as well as the desire of the self
preserving class of leaders who constitute these parties to bask under
the prospect of emerging leaders of significance at the national level.
It is true that Mayawati was seen as believing that she is now the
pivot of a national political formation and must have imagined herself
as India’s Prime Minister. She must have, otherwise, dismissed all such
talks in real earnest and clarified that the unity was for the limited
purpose of showing that Manmohan Singh and his cabinet lacked the
majority support in the Lok Sabha. And for obvious reasons, the Left
parties too did not consider it imperative for them to clarify this
much.
Having stated this much, it is important to clarify that
all this is not to dismiss the possibility and the necessity for a
non-Congress-non-BJP political formation at the national level. In
other words, such a front, call it by any name, is necessary as well as
possible. And this will necessarily have to hinge around the Left
parties rather than being forged around one or another avatar of the
socialist platform as it had been happening in the past.
It
will be appropriate, in this context, to briefly recount the trajectory
of this process in our past. The process of opposition unity began in
the mid-sixties when the Congress began losing its position as the
natural choice of the Indian voter. The initiative and the framework
for that unity came from Ram Manohar Lohia and it yielded fruits in the
general elections in 1967 when the Congress party was voted out in 9
states and was reduced to a mere 283 seats in a 520 strong Lok Sabha.
The opposition, then, consisted of the Socialist Party, the Bharathiya
Jan Sangh, the Swatantra Party and the Left. This process continued to
unfold during the decade after it came up and evolved into the Janata
Party in 1977. If the force behind the change in 1967 was the overall
administrative failure of the regime and the weaknesses inherent to the
Nehruvian socialist agenda, the catalyst for 1977 came in the form of
Indira Gandhi’s emergency.
But then, between 1967 and 1977, the
Left had learnt substantive lessons from the experience and matured
into maintaining a distance from the formation. The collapse of the
Janata in 1978-79 and the fact that the Left had stayed clear of
promoting and preserving the formation in its original self was indeed
based on a clear understanding that an alternative to the existing
regime will have to be one that is strategic and not merely a tactical
formation. And this understanding was behind the manner in which the
Left treated the V.P.Singh experiment and the Janata Dal in 1989.
E.M.S.Namboodiripad, then led the CPI(M), and the other Left parties by
extension, to set the terms for their support to the regime rather than
being seen running around to forge just another alternative to the
Congress.
All this, however, was given up and the task of
forging an alternative was redefined from the framework of
politics-as-the-art-of-the-possible in May 1996 by Harkishen Singh
Surjeet. The United Front, in that sense, was anything but an
alternative to the Congress. Nor was it a political formation that was
committed to keep the BJP at bay and this was proved when such parties
as the TDP, the DMK (or such smaller outfots from Tamil Nadu as the PMK
and the MDMK) jumped over to join the BJP-led NDA just when that became
the ruling alliance at the Centre. And we also noticed that most
significant elements from the socialist fold of the Janata Party had
settled down with the BJP by 1998-99 because that made it possible for
the leaders of those outfits to become ministers. And in due course,
the others who had practical difficulties about joining the BJP-led
combine agreed to team up with the Congress (read Lalu Prasad Yadav)
for the same reason as a Sharad Yadav and a Nitish Kumar teamed up with
the BJP.
We have also found such players like Ram Vilas Paswan
(a product of the churning in 1967) and Ajit Singh (whose father Charan
Singh split up the Janata Party objecting to the presence of the Jan
Sangh members in that) having no problems in teaming up with both the
BJP and the Congress at various times. All this were reduced to
insignificant developments by Deve Gowda through his political games in
Karnataka in the past few years. And now we have Mulayam Singh Yadav,
another key player in the political discourse during the decade between
1989 and 1999 turning into the strategic planner in the game to
preserve the Manmohan Singh regime.
There is something common
between all these. These formations, in the name of being alternatives
to the status quo, have only emerged as promoters of the political
economy that has landed the nation into where we are and are eager to
push the same model further as a solution or a way out of the crisis.
That the nation is in the grip of a crisis that encompasses the
political, economic and social realms is a fact that all these parties
agree to. And it is also a fact that all of them have been active
players in the making of the policies that led into this crisis. While
it was a settled issue that the Congress party was responsible, through
its policies, for this crisis, the fact is that the BJP and its
policies are not too different from that of the Congress. This was
evident in July 1991 when the BJP and the Congress agreed to pass the
New Economic Policy resolution in the Lok Sabha. And the record of the
BJP-led Government between April 1998 and May 2004 was in no way a
departure from the policy that Manmohan Singh enumciated in July 1991.
The United Fronts between May 1996 and March 1998 too (of Gowda and
I.K.Gujral) were no different.
And that is where the quest for a
third front is imperative as well as possible. It is imperative because
the nation cannot remain one and a peaceful place to live with mounting
unemployment, under-employment and the increasing attacks on
agriculture on the one hand and the pronounced neglect by the state on
such critical welfare areas as the Public Distribution System, the
health-care network and the abject neglect of education as we see
across the country. The fallout of this is the spread of political
groups that consider violent reprisals as the means to liberation into
new regions. This is a cause for concern simply because whatever be the
end game of these groups – call them the Maoists or by any other name –
the consequence of their acts simply legitimize the use of more and
brutal force by the state against the ordinary people in the villages.
The ultimate result of all this could be anything but strengthening
democracy.
And at another level, we do see the resistance to
such bad policies and the measures such as land grabbing, in the name
of economic development, in Kalinga Nagar, Nandigram and Dadri (to name
a few such struggles) or the struggle for democratic rights around the
detention of Dr. Binayak Sen in Chattisgarh under draconian laws that
are illegitimate to say the least, building up across the country. The
people in the Narmada basin and in the forests across Madhya Pradesh
have been resisting the Indian state and its brutal force for several
years now. The basis for a third must be located in these struggles and
the Left can lend them a political direction if only its leaders show
the courage and honesty to revisit some of their positions that were
considered settled in the past. One of it is that technology as the
driving force of positive change and thus the tendency to celebrate any
development based on technological superiority.
Nandigram and
Singur are the fallout of that mindset. And this is a legacy that they
internalized in their thoughts from the experience of the Soviet Union
in its hey days. That baggage will have to be discarded by the Left
parties if their quest for a third front is to be realized in any
meaningful manner. In other words, the Left parties must agree to
define the Socialist alternative as one where the rights of the human
being in the political, cultural, social and economic sense of the term
is internalized as non-negotiable. In other words, the idea that
socialism is not just about a change in the men at the helm of affairs
and is instead a brand new alternate vision to capitalism will have to
constitute the very basis of their existence as a political party. For
the Left’s claims to forge an alternative, in today’s conditions, to
make sense, it will have to locate that process and that project in
these various struggles against the
liberalization-privatisation-globalisation agenda as well as the
undemocratic options that the existing regimes are resorting to against
the people and their organisations.
Let me conclude this case
recalling what Frederich Engels had to say in his own times about the
communist project. Referring to the experience of the Paris Commune,
where the working class for the first time held political power for two
whole months, Engels wrote another Preface to the Communist Manifesto
in 1888. And in that, Marx’s intimate friend and collaborator said: One
thing especially was proved by the Commune, viz., that the working
class cannot simply lay hold of the ready made state machinery, and
wield it for its own purposes.’’ Well, a third front or anything else
that the communists attempt will have to have the revolutionary
transformation of the lives of the toiling people as its strategic end
and that cannot be served by mere tinkering of the set up that we now
have.
“I
am in this race to tell the corporate lobbyists that their days of
setting the agenda in Washington are over. I have done more than any
other candidate in this race to take on lobbyists — and won. They have
not funded my campaign, they will not run my White House, and they will
not drown out the voices of the American people when I am president.”
— Barack Obama, Speech in Des Moines, IA, November 10, 2007
Lobbyists Write National Policies:
For example, Vice President Dick Cheney’s Energy Task Force of oil and
gas lobbyists met secretly to develop national energy policy.
Secrecy Dominates Government Actions:
The Bush administration has ignored public disclosure rules and has
invoked a legal tool known as the “state secrets” privilege more than
any other previous administration to get cases thrown out of civil
court.
Wasteful Spending is Out of Control:
The current administration has abused its power by handing out
contracts without competition to its politically connected friends and
supporters. These abuses cost taxpayers billions of dollars each year.
Barack Obama’s Plan
Shine the Light on Washington Lobbying
Centralize Ethics and Lobbying Information for Voters:
Obama will create a centralized Internet database of lobbying reports,
ethics records, and campaign finance filings in a searchable, sortable
and downloadable format.
Require Independent Monitoring of Lobbying Laws and Ethics Rules:
Obama will use the power of the presidency to fight for an independent
watchdog agency to oversee the investigation of congressional ethics
violations so that the public can be assured that ethics complaints
will be investigated.
Lucknow, July 27 (IANS) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati Sunday
told party MPs and ministers about the importance and usefulness of
coalition governments, party sources said. Mayawati said the Bahujan
Samaj Party (BSP) should be ready to accept a pre-poll alliance taking
into account the fast changing scenario in national politics, the
sources added.
The chief minister also called upon party activists to convince
Muslims about the correctness of BSP’s stand over the India-US nuclear
deal.
“We need to inform Muslims that by opposing the nuclear deal, we
supported them and protected their rights,” a party leader said.
Mayawati also directed district coordinators of BSP to bring active
members of their respective regions to the party’s national convention
to be organised here Aug 9.
The BSP played a key role in the opposition’s attempts to vote out
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Congress-led government in a trust vote
over the nuclear deal. The government won the motion.
Mayawati calls meet, aware BSP leaders from Cong, BJP
Lucknow, Jul 27: Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo and Uttar Pradesh
Chief Minister Mayawati today called on party MPs, legislators and
ministers to prepare themselves for a bigger challenge ahead from the
Congress, the BJP and other parties who would make all effort to stall
the progress of the BSP.
Addressing a meeting
of the party MPs, ministers and legislators here, Ms Mayawati said as
the party was strengthening its base on the formula of ‘Sarvajan
Hitaya, Sarvajan Sukhaya’ and yet to face more challenges in the future.
‘’Now all the parties, including the Congress and the BJP have united
to hinder the growth of the BSP, which led to the survival of the UPA
government at the Centre on the July 22 trust vote,'’ she claimed.
The
CM said on August 9, the party would announce the future political
strategy of the party during the BSP national convention to be held at
Ramabai Ambedkar Maidan.
She also asked all the BSP leaders to
bring only those active members from the respective areas in the
national convention, who have the capacity to aware the people about
the party directions.
Ms Mayawati had yesterday held a similar meeting with the co-ordinators and other office bearers of the party to discuss over the preparation for the national convention.
It
was decided that 15 buses with dedicated party workers from each of the
403 assembly constituencies would be brought for the convention.
Thousands of delegates from other states were also expected to
participate in the convention.
UNPA to project Maya as PM
The TD will establish a “grand alliance” with the Left, the BSP and
other “like-minded” parties in the state against the Congress.
during the trust vote.
Telugu Desam supremo N. Chandrababu Naidu disclosed this in an interview to this newspaper during his ongoing “mee kosam yatra”.
Mr Naidu said apart from joining hands with the Left in the next
elections, the TD had “in principle” decided to align with the BSP in
the state. Besides this, the United National Progressive Alliance will
project BSP chief Mayawati as its Prime Ministerial candidate in the
next General elections. Mr Naidu said it was the time for a woman
leader from the downtrodden sections to assume the highest office.
It would be on the lines of a “grand alliance” which comprises the
UNPA, the Left and the BSP at national level. Mr Naidu who camped at
Thukkuguda of Rangareddy district, the home town of TD’s former
second-in-command and chief of the newly-formed Nava Telangana Praja
Party, Mr T. Devender Goud, as part of his yatra divulged his future
course of action.
Though he kept his cards close to his chest about the separate
Telangana issue, Mr Naidu did not deny the reports on possible
electoral understanding between the TD and the TRS.
“We are not against Telangana. Our five-member committee has been
pursuing the issue. Very soon we will come out with a clear action plan
on it,” he said. Though the Left and the TD joined hands after the
India-US nuclear deal issue, the TRS is still maintaining distance with
the principal Opposition.
Epoch making steps
Taken by the
Chief Minister of Uttar
Pradesh
Sushri Mayawati Ji
Doors of Higher Education will now be open
for poor
and Original Inhabitants of Jambudvipa,
that is the Great Parbuddha Bharath to herald State’s Progress
· Students of Gautham Buddha University, district Gautham
Buddha Nagar (NOIDA) belonging to Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes and Other
Backward Castes, Religious Minorities and General Categories subsisting below
poverty line may now pursue their studies in European Universities.
· Special Scholarship Scheme started by the State Government
for this purpose.
U.P. Government’s Invaluable
gift:
Clean and Pollution Free river
Gomti
· Very important step to translate the resolve of making
Gomti pollution free into reality.
· Foundation Stone for 34.5 crore litre per day capacity
Sewage Treatment Plant in Lucknow,
laid.
· Resolve to make this Plant functional within a year.
Long ago a great man came, saved all beings, and left. His coming and his
going continues to teach us to this day.
Long ago, a great man said, “The True Way has no coming, and no
going.” To this day, this teaching is saving us.
We too, have come into this world, and will soon depart. Then, in our coming
and going, how do we attain the great man’s way of coming and going? How do we
attain the great man’s way of not coming and not going?
Our relationship with this world, how we are destroying this world, and how
we human beings can survive.
According to Webster’s, ecology is that branch of biology which deals with
the relationship of living things and the environment.
What is our relationship to our environment? That is a question which the
Exalted, Blessed, Noble, Awakened Mighty Great Mind’s teaching addresses very
clearly. In Exalted, Blessed, Noble, Awakened Mighty Great Mind’s ’s time there
were not the same kind of problems with the pollution of air, water, and
ground. The Exalted, Blessed, Noble, Awakened Mighty Great Mind, for that
reason, did not talk very specifically about those kinds of pollution. He
taught us a slightly different kind of ecology, a more basic and more
comprehensive kind of ecology.
This teaching is so fundamental that not only is biological ecology a
natural consequence of this teaching, but so is ethical ecology, spiritual
ecology, and finally through the teaching of the patriarchs the ecology of moment-to-moment
correct situation, correct relationship, correct function. If we understand
this way correctly, then we can understand all relationships, including our
relationship to our environment, which means not only ground, water, air, sky,
trees, plants, and animals, but also each other.
In view of the Exalted, Blessed, Noble, Awakened Mighty Great Mind’s
teaching, a forum for human survival is a mistake. This goal already separates
human beings from the rest of this world. It is not enough to love this world
so that human beings can survive. That is not true love, because true love is
unconditional.
What is love?
To attain true love is to become ecologically correct in our relationship
with the environment.
There is a branch of science which is relatively new. It is the study of
chaos. While for us the world “chaos” implies a state of utter
confusion, for the scientist the word “chaos” has a very specific
meaning involving an equation with a number of possible solutions at any one
moment. Equations describing turbulence, meteorological phenomena, or even
stock market behavior are examples of “chaotic” equations.
What is very interesting is that scientists have found that in any kind of a
chaotic system there is some order. They have also found that in many systems
that up to now were thought to be very orderly and very predictable, some
chaotic behavior can be found at times. That’s not so much of a surprise for
the followers of the Eastern sages.
The Korean flag is a good example of this. It is basically a yin/yang
symbol. The yang side has a little bit of the yin color. The yin side has a
little bit of the yang color. yin gives birth to yang, yang gives birth to yin.
Chaos gives birth to order, and vice versa. This is because we live in a world
of opposites, and if you take away one opposite, the other would not exist. If
you take away man, then the word woman becomes meaningless. If you take away
dark, then there can not be light. If you take away ignorance, then there can
not be awareness and awakenment.
In this world of opposites, how do we find our correct situation, correct
relationship, correct function? To understand this world of opposites is to
respect all of nature. It becomes foolish to dislike the night, for without it
the day would not exist. To respect nature is to give up the notion of
ownership of nature, of ownership of this world. To not treat this world as
“my” world is to realize that it belongs to all life.
Our job then becomes more clear. Our life is not only from our parents. The
ground, the water, the air, the sun and the moon, all support our life; in fact
they give us our life. They are all our parents. Just as we have an obligation
to our parents, this obligation extends to the whole world. That is the Exalted,
Blessed, Noble, Awakened Mighty Great Mind’s teaching. That is our true nature’s teaching. In other words, the
fundamental thing is not so much polluting the environment, but polluting our
mind.
Exalted, Blessed, Noble, Awakened Mighty Great Mind taught something very
simple. He taught how to deal with anger, desire and ignorance: three major
pollutants. If we are able to take away this pollution, then the other kinds of
pollution will also disappear. Without taking away this pollution, it is not
possible to attain the true harmony with nature. Without harmony with nature it
is not possible to avoid harming the environment.
In science class in elementary school, one learns what happens if we connect
two containers, one full of hot water, and another one full of cold water. When
the containers are joined and the water can freely mix, very soon, even without
stirring, the temperature will be uniform. The hot one becomes cooler, and the
cold one becomes warmer. The hot water has more thermal energy. This energy
seeks a level where it is equalized, seeks a kind of balance.
We observe that everywhere in nature. At the forum some people said that
this world is unbalanced. But, the world is always balanced. All of the
environmental problems result in death, sickness, hunger. This is only correct.
This is part of the balance equation. This is human beings’ bad energy
dispersing throughout our world container. That is also Exalted, Blessed,
Noble, Awakened Mighty Great Mind’s teaching. Exalted, Blessed, Noble, Awakened
Mighty Great Mind taught us balance - in our life, how to make correct balance;
in our mind, how to make correct balance; in our dealings with our family, with
our friends, with the whole world, with the animals, the trees, the air, how to
make correct balance.
The teaching of karma. Every result in this world comes from a cause. Then
any disease has a primary cause. It is very important to change the primary
cause, then any sickness, any karma can be fixed, can be changed. To do that it
is necessary for all of us to put down our opinions, our understanding, our
“I, my, me.”
keep a clear mind. This means everyone can get dharma energy. Then this dharma
energy disperses throughout the whole world.
This teaching is very simple, and very clear. But practicing people know
that while very simple, this teaching is not always easy to carry out. It is
one of a student’s great sicknesses to judge one’s own practice, and to
question one’s own ability to make the required effort.
Sometimes so many hindrances appear in our life, in our practice, that it is
tempting to indulge in self-doubt and become paralyzed. The ecological problems
confronting us appear to be overwhelming. The mental pollution, for those who
attempt some kind of practice, is often more overwhelming still. How can we
even begin to help this world? One of the most important teachings I received
is that there are two kinds of mind. There’s a mind that says “I
can,” and there’s a mind that says “I cannot.” If one thinks
“I cannot,” then one cannot. If somebody thinks “I can,”
then it’s possible. Best of all, just do it. Every moment of our life the Exalted,
Blessed, Noble, Awakened Mighty Great Mind continues to give us the great
present, his Dharma. The best present we offer in return is to apply this
teaching to our life. Then “do it” correct balance; “do it”
harmony; “do it” true love; “do it” moment-to-moment
correct situation, correct relationship, correct function. Then our life is no
longer ours, but belongs to the whole universe. Then ecologically correct life
is not something special. It is simply the correct function of our true nature.
This is indeed the great person’s way. Can we attain it right now?
If this sound is clear, then the whole universe is clear. Also the Great Way is
meticulously clear. Then, where is the Great Way?
“Believe nothing,
no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it,
unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.”
This does not mean be cynical and distrusting. This is not reconstituted and
reincarnated Abbie Hoffman. The idea here is think for yourself, be true to
those thoughts, and base those thoughts on your own experience, not someone
else’s. It also suggests that we follow our own wisdom, gained by that
experience, and not follow gurus or ministers or rabbis or, lately, life
coaches merely because they say so. Test their “truth” against your
own experience-tested truth and trust yours. This is good advice anytime but
it’s especially appropriate as we become bombarded with increasingly venomous
and often erroneous, if not entirely false, campaign advertising. “Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent
of throwing it at someone else; you are the one getting burned.”
If I could whisper this line into the ears of soldiers on the front lines,
and politicians who send those troops onto the front lines, there would be no
need to study war no more. If I could recite it to couples who’ve been
harboring resentment for years, who bicker rather than let it go, I predict the
divorce rate would drop by half. If I could slip it into the cocktails of
alcoholics who drink out of anger, bitterness, frustration and internalized
rage against society in general, there would be a whole lot more healthy livers
around - and a whole lotta happier people around. If I had a nickel for every
time I should have reminded myself of it - but forgot - I would be a very rich
man. “Words have the power to both destroy and heal. When words are
both true and kind, they can change our world.”
In a world of words, where you, me, my fellow writers and fellow readers
live, the opportunities to experience the effect (positive and negative) of
words are boundless. Same holds true for everyone who speaks words to each
other. Or even anyone who speaks only to himself. In the moral compass the
Buddha devised for living sanely and serenely, called the Eightfold Path, this
quotation would fit into the path called “right speech.” If we
abstain from false speech, slanderous speech, harsh speech and idle chatter, if
we could think about the implications of the things that come trippingly out of
our mouths or that come dashingly off our fingertips in emails and blogs (or
even in comments responding to blogs) before we release them into the universe,
just imagine how lovely communication would be.
“Your work is to discover your work and then with all your
heart to give yourself to it.”
My father used to remind me when I’d get lost in life, and I have gotten
lost often, that when I was about 10 years old I shared a precocious insight
into what motives me, and all people.
“I seem to do best at the stuff I love to do,” I am said to have
said. Mind you, I was 10.
This is reconstituted Joseph Campbell: follow your bliss. Whether
consciously or not, Campbell himself made the bridge to Buddhism in his
conversation with interviewer Bill Moyers, expanding on his famous message to
“follow your bliss.” He said: “If you do follow your bliss you
put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you,
and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you
can see that, you begin to meet people who are in your field of bliss, and they
open doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will
open where you didn’t know they were going to be.”
TELUGU DESAM PARTY SAMAJWADI PARTY RASHTRIYA LOK DAL RASHTRIYA JANATA DAL NATIONALIST CONGRES PARTY INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS DRAVIDA MUNNETRA KAZHAGAM COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA BHARATIYA JANATA PARTY BAHUJAN SAMAJ PARTY
Original Inhabitant of Jambudvipa, that is the Great Prabuddha Bharath icon aims for top job
By Soutik Biswas BBC News
Will an “Original Inhabitant of Jambudvipa, that is the Great Prabuddha Bharath” become India’s next prime minister?
The
way a number of Indian opposition parties are rallying around Mayawati,
a Original Inhabitant of Jambudvipa, that is the Great Prabuddha Bharath or “untouchable” icon, and touting her as a future prime
minister must be gladdening the hearts of 160 million members of the
community she represents.
The 52-year-old daughter of
a government clerk who grew up in a shanty town in the capital, Delhi,
has emerged as the pivot of a fledgling “third front” in Indian
politics. It is trying to throw down the gauntlet to the coalitions led
by the governing Congress and opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP). Ms Mayawati’s “third front” brings together a slew
of regional parties and communists, who are still smarting after they
stopped supporting the government over its nuclear deal with the US.
“The
impact of Mayawati has sobered a lot of political parties. She has a
larger-than-life image. Now it’s a third front with Mayawati as the
nucleus,” says Shekhar Gupta, editor of The Indian Express newspaper.
This
despite the fact that her Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), a regional party
based in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, has only 17 seats
in the parliament. Since the 2004 general election, Mayawati’s fortunes
have soared. In the last state assembly elections a little over a year
ago, her party swept to power winning 206 of the 403 seats and more
importantly, had leads in 55 of the state’s 80 parliamentary
constituencies. Her party also polled well in at least 60 parliamentary
seats outside Uttar Pradesh, making her a pan-Indian Original Inhabitant of Jambudvipa, that is the Great Prabuddha Bharath icon of
sorts.
Social engineering
The canny
political strategist has also broadened her appeal, wooing upper-caste
Hindus and Muslims - she has 29 Muslim and 52 upper-caste Brahmin
members in the present state assembly.
In India’s
fractious and caste-driven polity, this is a masterstroke in social
engineering - an unprecedented coalition of the poorest of the poor and
the rich, and of Hindus and Muslims. And this has taken place in a
state which accounts for one in seven MPs in the Indian parliament.
The
upshot, say analysts, is that her party has become a factor in about 10
states, and could play the spoiler there for the bigger parties in next
year’s general elections.
Her
homegrown charisma and mass-based leadership qualities have never been
in doubt.
“Her political
peers and journalists have persistently underestimated her and her
party. She has been regarded as an unguided missile that has explosive
intent, but no sense of direction,” says Ajoy Bose, who has written a
book on Ms Mayawati. But he says her triumphant Original Inhabitant of Jambudvipa, that is the Great Prabuddha Bharath-Brahmin alliance
in Uttar Pradesh has become a “blueprint for electoral success” in
India.
‘Despotic’
Analysts say Ms
Mayawati thrives best during periods of political instability, even
when she appears to lack the numbers to form governments. With only 66
legislators in the 403-member assembly, she took power in Uttar Pradesh
twice. She secured a third term with 99 legislators.
“Each
time she was short of majority. She was able to grab power because
other parties prevented each other from forming the government,” says
Ajoy Bose. This is exactly what could happen if the Mayawati-led “third
front” mops up about 100 seats or more in next year’s general elections
which are expected to leave no party with a clear majority.
Analysts
say that Ms Mayawati is also trying to move beyond a purely caste-based
agenda to enhance her appeal among upper-castes and classes - her
government recently brought in English in primary schools and announced
new urban housing and health plans.
The prospect of
Ms Mayawati becoming the prime minister has immense symbolic value.
“This
would be a Original Inhabitant of Jambudvipa, that is the Great Prabuddha Bharath woman from the most populous Indian state and one who
has earned her way to the top through education and political work, not
inherited it via marriage or lineage,” says analyst Mahesh Rangarajan.
The next general elections will tell whether Ms Mayawati manages to exploit this opportunity.
Mayawati to reveal BSP plan at Aug 9 convention (Lead)
Lucknow, July 24 (IANS) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati
Thursday said the future political strategy of her Bahujan Samaj Party
(BSP), including its alliances with the Left and other parties, would
be decided at a day-long convention
here Aug 9. “The party will re-work its plan for the 2009 general
elections and redefine relations with several other parties,” she told
a press conference Thursday evening.
She, however, did not elaborate how she proposed to redefine these
relations, and said she would disclose the strategy in the day-long
convention Aug 9.
She once again accused the main opposition National Democratic
Alliance of playing a dubious role in preventing the Congress-led
United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government’s fall in the trust vote
in parliament Tuesday.
Mayawati said, “Some way or the other, it appears that the NDA helped save the government which was sure to fall.”
She said the UPA had made a mockery of parliamentary democracy with
“engineered” defections to win the trust vote over the India-US nuclear
deal.
C.M. lays foundation of Rs. 170 crore STP with capacity of 345 MLD
Lucknow: July 25, 2008
The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Ms. Mayawati said that the State
Government was committed to make Gomti pollution free and also clean
its water. She said that the Government was making solid efforts to
re-generate the cities of the State by ensuring basic facilities and it
had been included in the development priorities of the Government. The
effort to make Gomti pollution free is a step in that direction. The
Chief Minister was addressing a programme after laying the foundation
of a Sewage Treatment Plan (S.T.P.) with a capacity of 345 M.L.D. based
on UASB Technique here today. The Programme was held at her official
residence. She said that a sum of Rs. 170 crore would be spent on this
project and it would be completed in a span of one year. She expressed
the hope that the Jal Nigam would focus on the project and ensure its
completion in the stipulated time and also maintain its quality. Ms.
Mayawati said that after the completion of the S.T.P. almost 26 lakh
population of Lucknow would utilise this modern and clean sewage
disposal system. Besides, the polluted water emanated by 26 nullahs
would now be recycled thus; it would ensure that Gomti remained
pollution free. Congratulating all those who were linked with pollution
free Gomti drive, the Chief Minister said that rivers have always been
very important for our society and a number of civilisations developed
on the banks of rivers. She regretted that the water of the rivers was
getting polluted and even the animals cannot drink it. She said that
the main cause of the pollution of the rivers was carelessness and
reckless industrialisation by ignoring the environment. Taking the
problem of pollution of Gomti River seriously, Ms. Mayawati said that
the previous governments did not make any solid effort to deal with
this problem. She said that the State Government had entrusted the job
of getting Gomti pollution free to the Chairman State Advisory Council,
Mr. Satish Chandra Mishra. Expressing her satisfaction over the efforts
of her government and participation of people in cleaning Gomti, she
said that the efforts had yielded positive efforts. Ms. Mayawati said
that owing to the domestic and industrial waste, Gomti was specially
polluted between Lucknow, Sultanpur and Jaunpur. Therefore, these three
districts had been included in the Gomti Action Plan under the River
Pollution Control Programme. The programme was attended by the Chairman
U.P. State Advisory Council, Mr. Satish Chandra Mishra, Urban
Development Minister Mr. Nakul Dubey, other members of the State
Council of Ministers, Cabinet Secretary Mr. Shashank Shekhar Singh,
Chief Secretary Mr. Atul Kumar Gupta, Principal Secretary Urban
Development Mr. S.R. Lakha, Principal Secretaries to C.M. Mr. Vijay
Shankar Pandey, Mr. Netram, Mr. Shailesh Krishna, Mr. V.N. Garg,
Secretary Urban Development Mr. Navneet Sahgal, Vice-Chairman LDA Mr.
Mukesh Meshram, D.M. Lucknow Mr. Chandra Bhanu, senior officers of Jal
Nigam and other departments. ******
Plan for a Clean Energy Future
“Well,
I don’t believe that climate change is just an issue that’s convenient
to bring up during a campaign. I believe it’s one of the greatest moral
challenges of our generation. That’s why I’ve fought successfully in
the Senate to increase our investment in renewable fuels. That’s why I
reached across the aisle to come up with a plan to raise our fuel
standards… And I didn’t just give a speech about it in front of some
environmental audience in California. I went to Detroit, I stood in
front of a group of automakers, and I told them that when I am
president, there will be no more excuses — we will help them retool
their factories, but they will have to make cars that use less oil.”
— Barack Obama, Speech in Des Moines, IA, October 14, 2007
Foreign Oil:
America’s 20-million-barrel-a-day oil habit costs our economy $1.4
billion a day, and $500 billion in 2006 alone. Every single hour, we
spend $41 million on foreign oil.
Climate Change:
As a result of climate change, glaciers are melting faster; the polar
ice caps are shrinking; trees are blooming earlier; more people are
dying in heat waves; species are migrating, and eventually many will
become extinct.
Barack Obama’s Plan
Reduce Carbon Emissions 80 Percent by 2050
Cap and Trade:
Obama supports implementation of a market-based cap-and-trade system to
reduce carbon emissions by the amount scientists say is necessary: 80
percent below 1990 levels by 2050. Obama’s cap-and-trade system will
require all pollution credits to be auctioned. A 100 percent auction
ensures that all polluters pay for every ton of emissions they release,
rather than giving these emission rights away to coal and oil
companies. Some of the revenue generated by auctioning allowances will
be used to support the development of clean energy, to invest in energy
efficiency improvements, and to address transition costs, including
helping American workers affected by this economic transition.
Confront Deforestation and Promote Carbon Sequestration:
Obama will develop domestic incentives that reward forest owners,
farmers, and ranchers when they plant trees, restore grasslands, or
undertake farming practices that capture carbon dioxide from the
atmosphere.
Invest in a Clean Energy Future
Invest $150 Billion over 10 Years in Clean Energy:
Obama will invest $150 billion over 10 years to advance the next
generation of biofuels and fuel infrastructure, accelerate the
commercialization of plug-in hybrids, promote development of
commercial-scale renewable energy, invest in low-emissions coal plants,
and begin the transition to a new digital electricity grid. A principal
focus of this fund will be devoted to ensuring that technologies that
are developed in the U.S. are rapidly commercialized in the U.S. and
deployed around the globe.
Double Energy Research and Development Funding:
Obama will double science and research funding for clean energy
projects including those that make use of our biomass, solar and wind
resources.
Invest in a Skilled Clean Technologies Workforce:
Obama will use proceeds from the cap-and-trade auction program to
invest in job training and transition programs to help workers and
industries adapt to clean technology development and production. Obama
will also create an energy-focused Green Jobs Corps to connect
disconnected and disadvantaged youth with job skills for a high-growth
industry.
Convert our Manufacturing Centers into Clean Technology Leaders:
Obama will establish a federal investment program to help manufacturing
centers modernize and Americans learn the new skills they need to
produce green products.
Clean Technologies Deployment Venture Capital Fund:
Obama will create a Clean Technologies Venture Capital Fund to fill a
critical gap in U.S. technology development. Obama will invest $10
billion per year into this fund for five years. The fund will partner
with existing investment funds and our National Laboratories to ensure
that promising technologies move beyond the lab and are commercialized
in the U.S
Require 25 Percent of Renewable Electricity by 2025:
Obama will establish a 25 percent federal Renewable Portfolio Standard
(RPS) to require that 25 percent of electricity consumed in the U.S. is
derived from clean, sustainable energy sources, like solar, wind and
geothermal by 2025.
Develop and Deploy Clean Coal Technology:
Obama will significantly increase the resources devoted to the
commercialization and deployment of low-carbon coal technologies. Obama
will consider whatever policy tools are necessary, including standards
that ban new traditional coal facilities, to ensure that we move
quickly to commercialize and deploy low carbon coal technology.
Support Next Generation Biofuels
Deploy Cellulosic Ethanol:
Obama will invest federal resources, including tax incentives, cash
prizes and government contracts into developing the most promising
technologies with the goal of getting the first two billion gallons of
cellulosic ethanol into the system by 2013.
Expand Locally-Owned Biofuel Refineries:
Less than 10 percent of new ethanol production today is from
farmer-owned refineries. New ethanol refineries help jumpstart rural
economies. Obama will create a number of incentives for local
communities to invest in their biofuels refineries.
Establish a National Low Carbon Fuel Standard:
Barack Obama will establish a National Low Carbon Fuel Standard to
speed the introduction of low-carbon non-petroleum fuels. The standard
requires fuels suppliers to reduce the carbon their fuel emits by ten
percent by 2020.
Increase Renewable Fuel Standard:
Obama will require 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels to be included
in the fuel supply by 2022 and will increase that to at least 60
billion gallons of advanced biofuels like cellulosic ethanol by 2030.
Set America on Path to Oil Independence
Obama’s
plan will reduce oil consumption by at least 35 percent, or 10 million
barrels per day, by 2030. This will more than offset the equivalent of
the oil we would import from OPEC nations in 2030.
Increase Fuel Economy Standards:
Obama will double fuel economy standards within 18 years. His plan will
provide retooling tax credits and loan guarantees for domestic auto
plants and parts manufacturers, so that they can build new
fuel-efficient cars rather than overseas companies. Obama will also
invest in advanced vehicle technology such as advanced lightweight
materials and new engines.
Improve Energy Efficiency 50 Percent by 2030
Set National Building Efficiency Goals:
Barack Obama will establish a goal of making all new buildings carbon
neutral, or produce zero emissions, by 2030. He’ll also establish a
national goal of improving new building efficiency by 50 percent and
existing building efficiency by 25 percent over the next decade to help
us meet the 2030 goal.
Establish a Grant Program for Early Adopters:
Obama will create a competitive grant program to award those states and
localities that take the first steps to implement new building codes
that prioritize energy efficiency.
Invest in a Digital Smart Grid:
Obama will pursue a major investment in our utility grid to enable a
tremendous increase in renewable generation and accommodate modern
energy requirements, such as reliability, smart metering, and
distributed storage
Restore U.S. Leadership on Climate Change
Create New Forum of Largest Greenhouse Gas Emitters:
Obama will create a Global Energy Forum — that includes all G-8 members
plus Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa –the largest energy
consuming nations from both the developed and developing world. The
forum would focus exclusively on global energy and environmental
issues.
Re-Engage with the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change:
The UNFCCC process is the main international forum dedicated to
addressing the climate problem and an Obama administration will work
constructively within it.
Barack Obama’s Record
Renewable Fuels:
Obama has worked on numerous efforts in the Senate to increase access
to and use of renewable fuels. Obama passed legislation with Senator
Jim Talent (R-MO) to give gas stations a tax credit for installing E85
ethanol refueling pumps. The tax credit covers 30 percent of the costs
of switching one or more traditional petroleum pumps to E85, which is
an 85 percent ethanol/15 percent gasoline blend. Obama also sponsored
an amendment that became law providing $40 million for
commercialization of a combined flexible fuel vehicle/hybrid car within
five years.
CAFE: Obama introduced a
bold new plan that brought Republicans and Democrats, CAFE supporters
and long-time opponents together in support of legislation that will
gradually increase fuel economy standards and offer what the New York
Times editorial page called “real as opposed to hypothetical results.”
Hi Jagatheesan,
In the
past month, over four hundred penguins have washed up on the beaches of
Rio de Janeiro, lost on the way to their annual migration site of the
Argentine Patagonia. Although penguins get lost every year in Brazil,
there have been an astounding number this year.
It’s currently a mystery why there are so many penguins washing up on
Brazil’s shores this year, but scientists have posed several
environmental theories, such as overfishing, pollution and global warming.
Fortunately, concerned citizens have stepped up and taken action. Niterói Zoo, the largest in the state of Rio de Janeiro, has taken in many of the surviving penguins.
Soon, the Oceanographic Museum in the southern state of Rio Grande
do Sul will be taking in the survivors to rehabilitate them and prepare
them to go back to the wild.
Please join us in sending thanks to the Niterói Zoo, president
Giselda Candiotto of the Zoonit Foundation, the zoo’s rescue relief
foundation, and all of the staff and volunteers. May our feathered
friends waddle back into the wild soon!
Thanks to the hard work of the Zoonit Foundation’s staff and
volunteers, these little guys have a chance to swim home safely!
Online edition of India’s National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 26, 2008 Poor students to get scholarships: Mayawati
Special Correspondent
Gautam Buddha University academic year begins in August
Photo: Subir Roy
New initiative: Chief Minister Mayawati during the
foundation stone laying ceremony of a sewerage treatment plant at her
residence in Lucknow on Friday.
LUCKNOW: Poor students belonging to the Scheduled Castes and general
category students below poverty line (BPL) studying at Gautam Buddha
University in Noida will be given scholarships for pursuing studies in
foreign universities.
Making the announcement here on Friday, Chief Minister Mayawati said
the university had been established with the purpose of imparting
higher and technical education to the students belonging to the
economically weaker sections of society. She told reporters that steps
have been initiated for entering into an agreement with the European
universities.
The new academic year of the university would begin in August.
About Rs.216 lakh would be spent on the scholarship scheme in the
2008-2009 financial year with the funds provided by the Social Welfare
Department.
Construction work at Gautam Buddha University is moving at a
feverish pace with one course being introduced in the inaugural
academic session from August 2008. It is proposed to introduce two more
courses from July 2009 and by 2103 other courses would be introduced.
The Chief Minister also laid the foundation stone of a 345 MLD
(million litres per day) capacity sewerage treatment plant to be set up
at Bharwara village in Chinhat tehsil of Lucknow. The plant, a
constituent of the Gomti Pollution Control Programme, will involve an
expenditure of about Rs.170 crore. It is proposed to be completed by
July 2009.
Stating that rivers were the lifeline of the nation, the Chief
Minister regretted that they were paying the price of development. She
said following rapid industrialisation most rivers had become polluted.
Gomti pollution
Taking a serious view of the pollution in the Gomti, Ms. Mayawati
slammed the previous governments for not taking effective measures to
clean the river. She said only after the Bahujan Samaj Party came to
power were steps taken to clean the river. Calling for public
participation, she said urban regeneration and making rivers
pollution-free had been accorded top priority by her government..
IIT Kanpur centre at Noida soon
Kanpur: IIT Kanpur is set to open its extension centre in Noida.
The centre, which will be located in Sector 62 covering five acres, has
got the clearance of the Union Human Resource Development Ministry. It
is estimated to cost Rs 40 crore on completion. PTI
Manuski means humanism in Marathi. A term
used by Dr B.R.Ambedkar, a great humanist of India. This blog want
stimulating debate without any prejudices of caste, religion and
nationalism. It is about humanism and human rights. All freethinkers
are welcome to contribute and participate in stimulating debates.
A no confidence in current form of Parliamentary democracy
Vidya Bhushan Rawat
There
have always been debates on which is the right form of governance for
India: a presidential form of government or Parliamentary system
adopted from the British. It is not that only two forms of governance
are found world over and whatever be the constitutional provisions, in
the end, it is the people, who are responsible make or unmake a system.
Unfortunately, a society like India and when I say India, I include all
in the South Asian region, is feudal and undemocratic in nature. Hence,
how is it possible, that undemocratic people could make democracy
successful? This question needs to be investigated and ponder over.
Dr
Ambedkar when pressed for separate electorate for the depressed
classes, feared that in the Parliamentary form of government, the
voices of dissent would always be decried. It is a majority vote but
majority can not always be right. Secondly, he feared that those who
will represent the oppressed community might not be the ‘well-wishers’
of the community as they will be more bothered about getting votes of
other communities, particularly if they are fighting from so called
reserve constituencies, their worry would be more on focusing on other
communities rather than their own. This will only create a leadership
which would be corrupt and could easily be co-opted. Hence there was
upper caste leadership of a majority of parties giving the
Original Inhabitants of Jambudvipa,that is the Great Prabuddha Bharath‘symbolic’ presence in their parties. Babu Jagjivan Ram and Dev Raj Urs
were exception and immensely talented and committed politicians who
rose to those heights despite all odds. However, they did not challenge
the brahmanical supremacy and were part of parliamentary set up.
Tamilnadu was the perhaps the only state where this ideological
challenge to brahmanical system was open and in a more crude fashion.
It
happened till 1990 before the wave of the Mandalisation process changed
the political set up in the country and our parliament saw a virtual
change in its demography as it was the dominance of Dalit Bahujan in
the apex body of decision making. A new set of chief ministers and
regional kshatraps took over the leadership who were more autonomous
and blunt in their attitude and never really depended on the mercy of a
power centre. We had likes of Ram Vilas Paswan and Sharad Yadav who
were rising high while Mulayam Singh Yadav, Lalu Yadav and others were
ruling the state. Even in the Hindutva party of BJP, Kalyan Singh and
others were enjoying their new found prominence. But one man was not in
this entire scheme of things. Far away from the power brokers, he was
silently making a revoluation in the villages and towns of India,
waking the Original Inhabitants of Jambudvipa,that is the Great Prabuddha Bharath and spreading Ambedkarite perception. His name was
Kanshi Ram. The Bahujan Samaj Party, that he formed actually could not
succeed during his life time and remained confined to Uttar-Pradesh at
large despite brave efforts to spread in states like Punjab and Madhya
Pradesh. And he gave representation to those people who could never
have even imagined to become even village Pradhan. It was a complete
change from vote hamara raj tumhara to vote hamara raj bhee hamara
philosophy. It changed the politics of Uttar-Pradesh so strongly that
the brahmanical manipulators worked overnight to deconstruct the
phenomena and break the multi caste alliance in Uttar-Pradesh.
Ambition, egos created hurdles to further the cause of Original Inhabitants of Jambudvipa,that is the Great Prabuddha Bharath bahujans
and the result is the reversal of strategies of two main political
outfits from UP, mainly the SP and BSP. Both today target the upper
castes who are enjoying this immense display of ‘affection’ from the Original Inhabitants of Jambudvipa,that is the Great Prabuddha Bharath Bahujans, as if they were dying for it from centuries.
The
slogan of Original Inhabitants of Jambudvipa,that is the Great Prabuddha Bharath Bahujan grew up and we felt that leaders would do
justice to their people. Instead they became Supremos and the distance
from the party men and common man grew larger. We have more vehicles,
armed commandos and power brokers surrounding them. These power brokers
switch their loyalties according to those in power and their character
was reflected very much during the no confidence vote in Parliament on
July 22nd. But before that whatever happened not only shames us as
Indian but will force us to think of whether we should really be proud
of this democracy which is license to legtimise the illegitimate.
Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh smiled and the devotees of the high command
danced in the street that their party has won the vote of confidence so
that they can go further their grand international agenda, which once
upon a time was the desire of saffron party. The Hindutva party was
talking of corruption that allegedly ‘purchased’ some of their MPs. The
discussion was on nuclear deal which was an important issue as it will
have long term impact on our foreign policy issue as well as internal
maters. Unfortunately, it became a war between Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav,
his loud mouth deputy Amar Singh and Behenjee who came from Lucknow to
‘take over’ Delhi. And in this entire exercise whatever happened would
make us ponder things whether this form of representative government
and parties really help us or we are just happy that some one from us
is ruling the country. The question remains whether the some one from
us will remain some one from us or some one from them. That is the
question.
The question I am raising is a bigger one. And it is
not that we became worried by seeing a few member of parliament showing
the displaying one crore rupees in parliament. That too is an issue but
from the point of view of the Original Inhabitants of Jambudvipa,that is the Great Prabuddha Bharath Bahujan perspective, and what
Ambedkar had perceived when he questioned the governance and sought
protection and participation of the Dalits in the social set up.
Let
us first come to what Ambedkar said about Indian democracy in an
interview to Voice of America on May 20th, 1956. He asks this question
whether there is a democracy in India and he says: ‘Democracy is quite
different from a Republic as well as from parliamentary Government. The
roots of democracy lie not in the form of Government, Parliamentary or
otherwise. A democracy is more than a form of government. It is
primarily a mode of associated living. The roots of democracy are to be
searched in the social relationship, in the terms of associated life
between people who form a society.’
What Ambedkar envisage and
terms ideal are completely contrast to our political parties who are
out and out there to hail their caste. As a Thakur MP of the BJP, Brij
Bhushan Sharan Singh switched his loyalty to Samajwadi Party, another
one, Amar Singh said that he is a Kshatriya and never afraid of any
one, he speak the truth, as if it is only his trait and all other
communities are liars. But what Amar Singh was speaking was a
deliberate attempt to create confusion and chaos in Uttar-Pradesh. With
Dalits solidly behind Mayawati, Mulyam has to give a call for other
communities to rally behind him. The problem in Uttar-Pradesh is not
just caste identities but now sub stratification which is refusing to
bring different Original Inhabitants of Jambudvipa,that is the Great Prabuddha Bharath communities together. Also there are many
marginalized MBCs who need to be there are simply out. Hence the
political mobilization in Uttar-Pradesh based on sub caste is becoming
a self defeating exercise and will have wider consequences. Problem
with identity and assertion is that they end up in creating a male
dominance and a culture of hatred. Here Mayawati is definitely an
exception. When the time was to sit together and discuss the issues, so
much disbelief is bound to threaten the very cause of an egalitarian
society which could be termed as democratic as Ambedkar perceived.
And
to further his cause he points out: “The Indian society does not
consist of individuals. It consists of innumerable collection of
castes, which are exclusive in their life and have no common experience
to share and have no bond of sympathy. The existence of caste system is
a standing denial of the existence of those ideals of society and
therefore of democracy. An Indian cannot eat or marry with an Indian
simply because he or she does not belong to his or her caste. An Indian
simply can not touch an Indian because he or she does belong to his or
her caste.” Ambedkar questions the political system and how Congress
party field its candidate and how they are selected carefully on the
basis of their caste. Ambedkar says : “How does an Indian vote in an
election? He votes for a candidate who belongs to his own caste and no
other Further he considers caste system as a bane to democracy. ‘
Castes are not equal in their status. They are standing one above
another. They are jealous of one another. It is an ascending scale of
hatred and descending scale of contempt. The feature of caste system
has most pernicious consequences. It destroys willing and helpful
cooperation.”
Then formation of politics based on caste
identities is relegating the basic issues and killing the individual
concerns. Hence to come to power and attract more people, you just
refuse to listen to your own people. While there is no doubt that
Mayawati and BSP has got full support from her community in particular,
the fact is that it is suffering in silence also. The prime ministerial
posts, corporations etc are under the control of the bhudevtas. The
same thing happened with Mulayam Singh Yadav who in technical terms
should have been a friend of Original Inhabitants of Jambudvipa,that is the Great Prabuddha Bharath but unfortunately can not be given
his track record, still being a farmer, his all efforts were to ignore
Yadavas and attract the other communities. So, to remain at the top,
the leaders are killing their second generation leaders. They do not
get importance. Even when RSS made BJP, were the corporate honchos who
were sitting with the party bosses in power. What I mean is that
biggest fault of Indian democracy is its hypocrisy. Of course, like
many, I too say that a bad democracy is better than any military
dictatorship or a theocratic state yet if after fifty years of
democracy, we have not been able to give justice to our communities.
Today,
BSP is in power in Uttar-Pradesh. We all are happy and should rightly
be so but what is the cost. You have got more than 65 Brahmins elected
as MLAs and another 64 upper castes who had become redundant after the
Mandalisation process particularly in politics. But today, they are the
most sought after leaders. How can a villager, who has been exploited
by these gangs, vote to same people, and simply because he has power to
capture vote and the party has fielded him. Why are we denying
individual his or her right to select people according her choice? Why
can not we question their basic qualities? Why our leadership wants
people to remain ignorant and worship them which Baba Saheb said would
be damaging to the society as a whole. It is not that the Brahmins do
not worship. They worship but then why should we follow their damn
culture which has destroyed our culture and value system which was
still much better and open in nature where individual had freedom to
enjoy and life live of his own. Kanshiram’s slogan was virtually made
redundant with the old philosophy of ‘vote huamara, top hamara baki
tumahara. and this baki tumhara has created a lot of disquiet at the
lower level as mafias, petrol pump owners, liquor mafias are the leader
of the party but people still do not complain because those who have
suffered for years, are waiting to see their leader in the position of
the prime minister but whether it can change their fate or not does not
matter.
Many of you saw the vote on the confidence Motion in
Parliament. We heard speeches and found how politicians were organizing
the press meets and happily claiming victory. A new alliance has been
formed with BSP, left parties and other groups. One hope that the
alliance will remain a long term friendship and will not disappear
because change of commercial interest and political ambition of our
leaders. In this age when politicians dine with you, sleep with enemy
in the evening, come back to you for breakfast and vote on the motion
once he is confirmed the deal as event showed, then we have to
seriously think what exactly is empowerment of the community.
Communities empowered through political process but unfortunately that
has become highly apolitical. When left parties withdrew the support
and Samajwadi Party decided to support the government, it was Amar
Singh all the way on our television channel. Rajdeep Sardesai wrote an
article how ideologies have become redundant and that the left has now
become new ‘Original Inhabitants of Jambudvipa,that is the Great Prabuddha Bharath’. While, I have no love for CPM and its allies
particularly not just because of Nandigram and Singur but because of
the prevailing violence and discrimination against Original Inhabitants of Jambudvipa,that is the Great Prabuddha Bharath in West
Bengal particularly against the immigrants scavengers in Howarah and
Kolkata, one need to compliment them on the issue of nuclear deal, at
least they were not party to government’s whims and fancies. They did
not withdraw the support but were forced to do so. But question is
different now. We have a UNPA and now Ajit Singh, Deve Gowda and
Chandra Babu Naidu have expressed opinion that Mayawati is their
‘leader’. Actually, it does not mean that the upper caste supporters of
these political parties will stop violence against Original Inhabitants of Jambudvipa,that is the Great Prabuddha Bharath. An alliance
based on conviction is natural and long term but if it is on the basis
of compulsion for survival then it would be damaging and defeat the
purpose. All of them know the importance of Dalit votes in their states
and want to have it at any cost. Despite their own parties virtually
decimated in the states for their anti poor performances, they still
feel to grab the chair in Delhi one day.
We might call it a
strategy to reach the large segment or give it whatever name, it does
not make any sense as long as the people who are victim remain the same
as well those victimizing remain the same. If upper cast leadership
used the Dalits for their purposes, the upper castes today are using Original Inhabitants of Jambudvipa,that is the Great Prabuddha Bharath Bahujan leadership for their own purposes. And that too when they
are big mafias, who exploit our people, kill innocent lives and enjoy
their freedom.
Yes, the most astonishing factor of the vote on
the confidence motion was the MPs in the jail came voting. Facing with
different charges, they were smiling and giving great sound bytes to
television cameras. They never considered them criminal as ‘charges’
have to be proved in the court and nobody has power to do so. Not even
state. During her previous tenure Mayawati taught Raja Bhaiya a lesson
but her fight against corruption and mafias remain a matter of
convenience as she targeted them according to their loyalty. Today, one
man who joined BSP on the motion, was Atiq Ahmed, a member who won on
Samajwadi Party ticket from Phoolpur constituency in Allahabad. Known
for his ‘power’ in Allahabad region, Ahmed had allegedly been
responsible for killing of a dynamic young Dalit leader Raju Pal from
his own constituency. Raju Pal was an MLA. He was killed by the goons
during the broad day light. Lot happened afterwards. As soon as
Mayawati came to power, the police filed charges against Atik Ahmed and
an Allahabad court issued non bailable warrant against him terming him
as proclaimed offender. His property was attached and both he and chief
minister Mayawati claimed that they face threat from each other.
Interestingly Atiq Ahmed was arrested by Delhi police in August last
year and then handed over to UP police. Though, Raju Pal’s widow Pooja
Pal has won the Allahabad (West) seat, the question is how long will we
compromise with those who are responsible to hit at our people at the
ground, in the villages and small towns.
Hence, when somebody
says that politics today has become non political, it reflect the grave
reality. It has become a tool to legitimize everything that is anti
people. Whether the criminals or other corporate interest, the common
man, the committed activists remain frustrated. Where are the leaders
with a vision and with pain and anguish of the community? We all feel
proud of any one who is from one among us, if he or she reaches the
height. It enlightens us, it gives us hope but when such situation
comes, one wonder how is democracy functioning. In this democracy the
biggest faith comes from the Original Inhabitants of Jambudvipa,that is the Great Prabuddha Bharath. It is they who votes in the
largest number and elect our representative, but it is they who are
betrayed. They elect leaders who later sale themselves and openly admit
of bargaining and not for their community but for themselves and for
children. They feel ‘our happiness is communities happiness and not the
vice versa’.
Ambedkar had never envisaged this society. He
talked of a Prabudha Bharat, an enlightened India. When we embrace his
ideals we leave behind all those destructive and divisive brahmanical
values which degrade us. Ambedkar, a man of dignity and modernity is
again reminding us to create rebels who could question the injustice
being done to them but also question. It is time to revisit the Poona
Pact, and ponder over the warning what Baba Saheb had given to us, the
ideals that he stood for and where do we stand. The perils of
Parliamentary democracy were well-known to Baba Saheb and that is why
he talked of separate electorate so that a responsible leadership is
elected from the Dalit communities which do not succumb to upper caste
lies and mischief. He was blackmailed to sign the Poona Pact and the
rest is history. Baba Saheb himself became the first victim of the
joint electorate system and could come to Lok Sabha from Bengal only.
Though, some may feel this debate as outdated but given wide discontent
in different communities which are still unrepresented in our system,
is not it a time to ask for a responsible and accountable
representation which could be proportionate to their numbers. Democracy
can not go on become the mistress of corporate and mafias and doing all
anti people things. It will have to rediscover it so that people do not
have no confidence in the system itself. Prime Minister may feel happy
but every right thinking person feel betrayed on the way things are
moving. Before it reach cynical condition, its time to think over it
and initiate a process.
WHILE the Blessed One was residing in the Jetavana, there was a householder
living in Savatthi known to all his neighbors as patient and kind, but his
relatives were wicked and contrived a plot to rob him. One day they came to the
householder and by worrying him with all kinds of threats took away a goodly
portion of his property. He did not go to court, nor did he complain, but
tolerated with great forbearance the wrongs he suffered. The neighbors wondered
and began to talk about it, and rumors of the affair reached the ears of the
brethren in Jetavana. While the brethren discussed the occurrence in the
assembly hall, the Blessed One entered and asked “What was the topic of
your conversation?” And they told him. Said the Blessed One: “The
time will come when the wicked relatives will find their punishment. O
brethren, this is not the first time that this occurrence took place; it has
happened before,” and he told them a world-old tale: “Once upon a
time, when Brahmadatta was king of Benares, the Bodhisattva was born in the Himalaya region as an elephant. He grew up strong and
big, and ranged the hills and mountains, the peaks and caves of the torturous
woods in the valleys.Once as he went he saw a pleasant tree, and took his food,
standing under it. Then some impertinent monkeys came down out of the tree, and
jumping on the elephant’s back, insulted and tormented him greatly; they took hold of his tusks, pulled his tail and
disported themselves, thereby causing him much annoyance.The Bodhisattva, being
full of patience, kindliness and mercy, took no notice at all of their
misconduct which the monkeys repeated again and again. One day the spirit that
lived in the tree, standing upon the tree-trunk, addressed the elephant saying,
‘My lord elephant, why dost thou put up with the impudence of these bad
monkeys?’ And he asked the question in a couplet as follows:
‘Why do you patiently endure each freak
These mischievous and selfish monkeys wreak?’
The Bodhisattva, on hearing this, replied, ‘If, Tree sprit, I cannot endure
these monkeys’ ill treatment without abusing their birth, lineage and persons,
how can I walk in the eightfold noble path? But these monkeys will do the same
to others thinking them to be like me. If they do it to any rogue elephant, he
will punish them indeed, and I shall be delivered both from their annoyance and
the guilt of having done harm to others.’ Saying this he repeated another stanza:
‘If they will treat another one like me,
He will destroy them; and I shall be free.’
A few days after, the Bodhisattva went elsewhere, and another elephant, a
savage beast, came and stood in his place. The wicked monkeys thinking him to
be like the old one, climbed upon his back and did as before. The rogue
elephant seized the monkeys with his trunk, threw them upon the ground, gored
them with his tusk and trampled them to mincemeat under his feet” When the
Master had ended this teaching, he declared the truths, and identified the
births, saying: “At that time the mischievous monkeys were the wicked
relatives of the good man, the rogue elephant was the one who will punish them,
but the virtuous noble elephant was the Tathagata himself in a former incarnation.”
After this discourse one of the brethren rose and asked leave to propose a
question and when the permission was granted he said: “I have heard the
doctrine that wrong should be met with wrong and the evil doer should be
checked by being made to suffer, for if this were not done evil would increase
and good would disappear. What shall we do?” Said the Blessed One:
“Nay, I will tell you You who have left the world and have adopted this
glorious faith of putting aside selfishness, you shall not do evil for evil nor
return hate for hate. Neither think that you can destroy wrong by retaliating
evil for evil and thus increasing wrong. Leave the wicked to their fate and
their evil deeds will sooner or later in one way or another bring on their own
punishment.” And the Tathagata repeated these stanzas:
“Who harms the man who does no harm,
Or strikes at him who strikes him not,
Shall soon some punishment incur
Which his own wickedness begot,
“One of the gravest ills in life,
Either a loathsome dread disease,
Or sad old age, or loss of mind,
Or wretched pain without surcease,
“Or conflagration, loss of wealth;
Or of his nearest kin he shall
See some one die that’s dear to him,
And then he’ll be reborn in hell.”
Paucity of funds will not be allowed to affect flood hit areas : C.M.
Lucknow: July 24, 2008
The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Ms. Mayawati reviewed the flood
situation and relief works being carried out in the flood affected
areas in the state immediately after her arrival in Lucknow. She held a
meeting of the senior officers at the airport itself yesterday. The
Chief Minister directed the officers to ensure that the people of the
affected areas did not face any difficulty and all necessary steps
should be taken so that they got timely relief. To ensure it necessary
funds had been provided to all the affected districts. Paucity of funds
would not be allowed to affect relief and infrastructure facilities in
the flood hit areas. The Chief Minister said that the Chief Secretary,
on her directives, had conducted an aerial review of the flood
situation of the adjoining areas of Gorakhpur, Siddharthnagar and
Ballia districts yesterday. It may be recalled that despite her busy
schedule during her stay in Delhi, she was closely watching the flood
situation prevalent in the State and also gave necessary orders to the
officers while taking stock of the situation. Ms. Mayawati directed the
officers that there should be no laxity and insensitivity in the flood
control and security related measures. She further directed the
officers to provide adequate relief material and other help immediately
to the flood affected people. The flood situation was not serious in
the State. The situation in Siddharthnagar, Gorakhpur and Ballia was
normal. Even then, the State Government had made special arrangements
to deal with the situation. As many as 17 companies of the PAC were
already deployed in 17 sensitive districts. Specially, the districts
adjoining Nepal border were affected because of sudden release of
water, which included districts of Lakhimpur Kheri, Behraich,
Balrampur, Sitapur, Maharajganj, Kushinagar and Gorakhpur. Rs. 3 crore
each for 11 sensitive districts and Rs. 2 crore each for 22 districts
had been provided for the development of infrastructure facilities and
other works. The State Government had already provided Rs. 55 crore for
the flood affected districts of the previous year. The district
machinery of sensitive districts had been put on high alert to deal
with the situation of flood. ******
Buddhism As An Education
The Path to Awareness and Awaken-ness
How Ananda become awakened?
Ananda was the only
one left at the time of the first council of Buddha’s own disciples who
didn’t become an arhat. He was Buddha’s attendant. He heard every word
that Buddha taught, and memorized them all, but he didn’t meditate much
because he was too busy. Some time after Buddha’s death, there was a
meeting of all the arhats, but since Ananda wasn’t an arhat he couldn’t
go. So he kept meditating, trying at the last minute to become awakened, and it got to be midnight, 2, 3 o’clock in the morning of
the first council of Buddhist arhats, but still he couldn’t make it,
even though he was the repository of all of Buddha’s words. All the
other arhats wanted him to go, but he couldn’t since he wasn’t an
arhat. Finally it got to be 3:45 in the morning, 15 minutes before the
4:00 wakeup call. Finally, Ananda just gave up and said, “Oh ********, I’m not an arhat.”
Then because of his awareness he got awakened, because he saw things as they were. It was the
end of the struggle. No more trying to become an arhat, and he became
an arhat.
Many Buddhist traditions teach this story. That says
something that is being yourself, rather than to mere doing and
self-improvement. It expresses clear vision, seeing things just as they
are, rather than as we’d like them to be. It is a lovely, timeless
story.
We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world. — Dhammapada, 1.1-3
Thus have I heard:
Once Buddha
was in the land of Shravasti, in the garden of Jeta and Anathapindika.
He was accompanied by twelve hundred and fifty great Bhikshus, all of
them great Arhats, well known to the assembly. Among them were his
leading disciples, such figures as the Elders Shariputra,
Maudgalyayana, Mahakashyapa, Maha Katyayana, and Mahakausthila, Revata,
Suddhipanthaka, Nanda, Ánanda, Rahula, Gavampati, Pindola-bharadvaja,
Kalodayin, Mahakapphina, Vakula, and Aniruddha, etc., all great
disciples.
Also present were the Bodhisattvas Mahasattva: Manjushri,
Prince of the Dharma, the Bodhisattva Ajita the Invincible, and the
Bodhisattva of Constant Progress, Gandhahastin, Nityodyukta, and other
such great enlightening beings. Also present was Shakra, the king of
the gods, along with countless numbers of heavenly beings, making up a
great assembly.
At that time Buddha said to the Elder Shariputra: “West
of here, past a hundred billion Buddha-lands, there exists a world
called “Ultimate Bliss”. In this land there exists a Buddha called
Amitabha, who is expounding the Dharma right now.
Buddha said to Shariputra: “Why is this land called
Ultimate Bliss”? It is called “Ultimate Bliss” because the sentient
beings in this land are free from the myriad sufferings, and only know
every kind of joy.
Furthermore, this land is called “Ultimate Bliss” because it is
surrounded by seven rings of railings, and seven layers of nets, and
seven rows of trees, all made of the four precious jewels.
Moreover, the Land of Ultimate Bliss has many jeweled ponds filled with
the waters of eight virtues. The bottom of each of the ponds is pure
golden sand, and the stepped walkways that lead up from all four sides
of each of the ponds are made of gold, silver, lapis lazuli and
crystal. Above the ponds there are towers which are adorned with silver
and gold and lapis lazuli and crystal and mother of pearl and red
agate. In the ponds there are lotus flowers as big as cart wheels: blue
ones shining with blue light, yellow ones shining with yellow light,
red ones shining with red light, and white ones shining with white
light, each emitting a subtle pure fragrance.
The Land of Ultimate Bliss is complete with all these merits and adornments.
And there is more — celestial music is constantly playing in this
Buddha-land, and the ground is made of tawny gold. Flowers in the shape
of heavenly orbs rain down at all hours of the day and night. Every
morning the sentient beings of this land decorate their garments with
multitudes of wondrous flowers and make offerings to hundreds of
billions of Buddhas in other worlds. When it is meal time, they return
to their own lands, to eat and circumambulate [the teaching assembly].
The Land of Ultimate Bliss is complete with all these merits and adornments.
And there is more still — in this land there are birds of all sorts of
wondrous variegated colors: white cranes, peacocks, orioles, myna
birds, cuckoos. All these birds bring forth harmonious songs day and
night. Their songs communicate such Buddhist teachings as the five
roots, the five powers, the seven factors of awareness and Awaken-ness, the
eightfold path, as well as other teachings. When the sentient beings in
this land hear the voices of the birds, they are mindful of the
Buddhas, mindful of the Dharma [Buddha’s teachings], and mindful of the
Sangha [Community of Seekers of Enlightenment].
Do not think that these birds were born as birds due to
karmic retribution for past misdeeds. Why not? In this Buddha-land, the
three evil planes of existence (as animals, hungry ghosts, and
hell-beings) do not exist. In this Buddha-land even the names of the
evil planes of existence do not exist, much less the realities. All
these birds are the creations of Amitabha Buddha, fashioned in order to
broadcast the sounds of the Dharma.
In this Buddha-land, there is a slight breeze that stirs
the rows of jewel trees and jewel nets, so that they emit subtle
wondrous sounds, like hundreds and thousands of melodies playing all at
once. All those who hear these sounds spontaneously develop the
intention to be mindful of the Buddha, mindful of the Dharma, and
mindful of the Sangha.
This Buddha-land is complete with all these merits and adornments.
What do you think: why is this Buddha called Amitabha? The light of
this Buddha is infinite, and shines on all lands throughout the
universe without obstruction. Thus this Buddha is called Amitabha.
Also, the life span of this Buddha and his people is an infinite number
of immeasurable eons, and so he is called Amitabha.
Amitabha Buddha attained awareness and Awaken-ness ten eons ago. Moreover, this
Buddha has innumerable disciples, all of whom are Arhats, and whose
numbers are incalculable. Amitabha also has a following of innumerable
Bodhisattvas.
The Land of Ultimate Bliss is complete with all these merits and adornments.
None of the sentient beings who are born in the Land of Ultimate Bliss
ever fall back into a lower realm [i.e., they are avaivartika]. Many
among them have only one more lifetime [to go before enlightenment].
These beings are very numerous, and their number is incalculable: they
can be spoken of as innumerable.
When sentient beings hear [of the Land of Ultimate Bliss], they must
take a vow to be born in this land. Why so? So that they can be
together with all these beings of superior goodness.
One cannot be born in this land through minor good roots, blessings, virtues and causal connections.
If there are good men or good women who hear of Amitabha Buddha, and
recite his name singlemindedly and without confusion, for one day or
two days or three days or four days or five days or six days or seven
days, then when these people are about to die, Amitabha Buddha and all
the sages who are with him will appear before them. When these people
die, their minds will not fall into delusion, and they will attain
rebirth in Amitabha Buddha’s Land of Ultimate Bliss.
I have seen this benefit, and so I speak these words. If sentient
beings hear what I say, they must make a vow to be born in that land.
I have seen this benefit, and so I speak these words. If
sentient beings hear what I say, they must make a vow to be born in
that land. Right now I am extolling the benefits of the inconceivable
merits of Amitabha Buddha. But in the eastern direction there are also
countless other Buddhas, like Akshobhya Buddha, and the Buddha “Marks
of the Polar Mountain”, and the Buddha “Great Polar Mountain”, and the
Buddha “Light of the Polar Mountain”, and the Buddha “Wondrous Voice”.
Each of them preaches in his own land with the eloquence of a Buddha,
and covers a whole cosmos, speaking the truth. All of you sentient
beings should believe this scripture extolling their inconceivable
merits, and which all Buddhas protect and keep in mind.
In the worlds of the southern direction there are
countless other Buddhas, like the Buddha “Lamp of the Sun and Moon”,
and the Buddha “Light of Renown”, and the Buddha “Great Flaming
Shoulders”, and the Buddha “Lamp of the Polar Mountain”, and the Buddha
“Infinite Progress”. Each of them preaches in his own land with the
eloquence of a Buddha, and covers a whole cosmos, speaking the truth.
All of you sentient beings should believe this scripture extolling
their inconceivable merits, and which all Buddhas protect and keep in
mind.
In the worlds of the western direction there are
countless other Buddhas, like the Buddha “Infinite Life”, and the
Buddha “Innumerable Characteristics”, and the Buddha “Innumerable
Banners”, and the Buddha “Great Light”, and the Buddha “Great
Illumination”, and the Buddha “Mark of Reality”, and the Buddha “Light
of Purity”. Each of them preaches in his own land with the eloquence of
a Buddha, and covers a whole cosmos, speaking the truth, All of you
sentient beings should believe this scripture extolling their
inconceivable merits, and which all Buddhas protect and keep in mind.
In the worlds of the northern direction there are
countless other Buddhas, like the Buddha “Flaming Shoulders”, and the
Buddha “Supreme Voice”, and the Buddha “Unstoppable”, and the Buddha
“Born of the Sun”, and the Buddha “Netted Light”. Each of them preaches
in his own land with the eloquence of a Buddha, and covers a whole
cosmos, speaking the truth. All of you sentient beings should believe
this scripture extolling their inconceivable merits, and which all
Buddhas protect and keep in mind.
In the worlds of the nadir there are countless other
Buddhas, like the Buddha “Lion”, and the Buddha “Repute”, and the
Buddha “Light”, and the Buddha “Dharma Banner”, and the Buddha
“Upholding the Dharma”. Each of them preaches in his own land with the
eloquence of a Buddha, and covers a whole cosmos, speaking the truth.
All of you sentient beings should believe this scripture extolling
their inconceivable merits, and which all Buddhas protect and keep in
mind.
In the worlds of the zenith there are countless other
Buddhas, like the Buddha “Pure Voice”, and the Buddha “Sojourner King”,
and the Buddha “Incense Fragrance”, and the Buddha “Fragrant Light”,
and the Buddha “Great Blazing Shoulders”, and the Buddha “Body of
Multicolored Jewel Flower Garlands”, and the Buddha “Sala Tree King”,
and the Buddha “Precious Flower Virtue”, and the Buddha “Sees All
Truths”, and the Buddha “Like the Polar Mountain”. Each of them
preaches in his own land with the eloquence of a Buddha, and covers a
whole cosmos, speaking the truth. All of you sentient beings should
believe this scripture extolling their inconceivable merits, which all
Buddhas protect and keep in mind.
Why do you think this is called the sutra that is protected and kept in mind by all the Buddhas?
If there are good men and good women who hear this scripture, accept
it, and uphold it, and they hear the names of all these Buddhas, all
these good men and good women will be protected and kept in mind by all
these Buddhas, and all of them will reach the level where they do not
turn back from complete, unexcelled, correct awareness and Awaken-ness. Therefore,
all of you should faithfully accept what I say and what all the Buddhas
have said. All those people who have vowed, or are vowing, or will vow
to be born in the land of Amitabha Buddha reach the level where they do
not turn back from complete, unexcelled awareness and Awaken-ness, whether in their
past lives, their present lives, or their future lives. Therefore; all
good men and good women, if they have faith, must make a vow to be born
in that land.
Just as I am now extolling the inconceivable merits of
all the Buddhas, all those Buddhas are likewise extolling my
inconceivable merits, with these words: “Sakyamuni Buddha is able to
carry out a most difficult and rare task. In the world “Endurance”
[this world], in an evil world of the Five Corruptions - the corruption
of the age, the corruption of views, the corruption of afflictions, the
corruption of sentient beings, and the corruption of life — he is able
to achieve complete, unexcelled awareness and Awaken-ness, and to expound the Truth
which all beings in all worlds find hard to believe.”
Know then that in the midst of this evil world of the
Five Corruptions, I am able to carry out this difficult task, attain
complete, unexcelled awareness and Awaken-ness, and expound the Truth which is so
hard to believe for beings in all worlds. This is indeed most
difficult!
When Buddha had finished preaching this scripture,
Shariputra and all the monks and all the other gods and humans and
asuras and the rest who had been listening, having heard what the
Buddha said, rejoiced and faithfully accepted it. They all bowed in
homage and departed.
48 VOWS OF AMITABHA
In Infinite Life Sutra, 無量壽經
or Larger Pure Land Sutra, Sakyamuni Buddha spoke of how the
Bodhisattva Dharmakara, after witnessing the suffering of sentient
beings, spent five eons studying all the Buddha lands. Dharmakara then
made forty-eight vows, the fulfillment of which would create the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss.
He declared that he would not attain Buddhahood unless his vows for a
perfect pure land, where all beings would advance along the Buddhist
path and never again fall back into suffering, were accomplished. Once
his vows were accomplished, Dharmakara Bodhisattva became Amitabha
Buddha. He is now speaking the Dharma in his Pure Land and helping all
who are truly sincere in their personal vows to be reborn there.
The 18th vow is among the most important as it forms a basic tenet
of the Pure Land school. This vow is most commonly known as 十念必生願 (shí
niàn bì shēng yuàn) because it states that if a sentient being makes
even “ten recitations” (十念 shí niàn) of the Amitabha Buddha’s name they
will attain “certain rebirth” (必生 bì shēng) into the Pure Land.
These are the 48 Great Vows that Dharmakara made before he ascended to Buddhahood:
If, when I attain Buddhahood, there should be in my land a hell,
a realm of hungry spirits or a realm of animals, may I not attain
perfect Awareness and Awaken-ness.
If, when I attain Buddhahood, humans and devas in my land should
after death fall again into three evil realms, may I not attain perfect Awareness and Awaken-ness.
If, when I attain Buddhahood, humans and devas in my land should
not all be the color of pure gold, may I not attain perfect Awareness and Awaken-ness.
If, when I attain Buddhahood, humans and devas in my land should
not all be of one appearance, and should there be any difference in
beauty, may I not attain perfect Awareness and Awaken-ness.
If, when I attain Buddhahood, humans and devas in my land should
not remember all their previous lives, not knowing even the events
which occurred during the previous hundred thousand kotis of nayutas of
kalpas, may I not attain perfect Awareness and Awaken-ness.
If, when I attain Buddhahood, humans and devas in my land should
not possess the divine eye of seeing even a hundred thousand kotis of
nayutas of the Buddha-lands, may I not attain perfect Awareness and Awaken-ness.
If, when I attain Buddhahood, humans and devas in my land should
not possess the divine ear of hearing the teachings of at least a
hundred thousand kotis of nayutas of Buddhas and should not remember
all of them, may I not attain perfect Awareness and Awaken-ness.
If, when I attain Buddhahood, humans and devas in my land should
not possess the faculty of knowing the thoughts of others, at least
those of all sentient beings living in a hundred thousand kotis of
nayutas of Buddha-lands, may I not attain perfect Awareness and Awaken-ness.
If, when I attain Buddhahood, humans and devas in my land should
not possess the supernatural power of travelling anywhere in one
instant, even beyond a hundred thousand kotis of nayutas of
Buddha-lands, may I not attain perfect Awareness and Awaken-ness.
If, when I attain Buddhahood, humans and devas in my land should
give rise to thoughts of self-attachment, may I not attain perfect Awareness and Awaken-ness.
If, when I attain Buddhahood, humans and devas in my land should
not dwell in the Definitely Assured State and unfailingly reach
Nirvana, may I not attain perfect Awareness and Awaken-ness.
If, when I attain Buddhahood, my light should be limited, unable
to illuminate at least a hundred thousand kotis of nayutas of
Buddha-lands, may I not attain perfect Awareness and Awaken-ness.
If, when I attain Buddhahood, my lifespan should be limited,
even to the extent of hundred thousand kotis of nayutas of kalpas, may
I not attain perfect Awareness and Awaken-ness.
If, when I attain Buddhahood, the number of the shravavakas in
my land could be known, even if all the beings and pratyekabuddhas
living in this universe of a thousand million worlds should count them
during a hundred thousand kalpas, may I not attain perfect Awareness and Awaken-ness .
If, when I attain Buddhahood, humans and devas in my land should
have limited lifespan, except when they wish to shorten them in
accordance with their original vows, may I not attain perfect Awareness and Awaken-ness.
If, when I attain Buddhahood, humans and devas in my land should
even hear of any wrongdoing, may I not attain perfect Awareness and Awaken-ness.
If, when I attain Buddhahood, innumerable Buddhas in the land of
the ten quarters should not praise and glorify my Name, may I not
attain perfect Awareness and Awaken-ness.
If, when I attain Buddhahood, sentient beings
in the lands of the ten quarters who sincerely and joyfully entrust
themselves to me, desire to be born in my land, and call my Name, even
ten times, should not be born there, may I not attain perfect Awareness and Awaken-ness. Excluded, however, are those who commit the five
greatest offenses, abuse the right Dharma.
If, when I attain Buddhahood, sentient beings in the
lands of the ten quarters, who awaken aspiration for Enlightenment, do
meritorious deeds and sincerely desire to be born in my land, should
not, at their death, see me appear before them surrounded by multitude
of sages, may I not attain perfect Awareness and Awaken-ness.
If, when I attain Buddhahood, sentient beings in the lands of
ten quarters who, having heard my Name, concentrate their thoughts on
my land, do various meritorious deeds and sincerely transfer the merits
towards my land with a desire to be born there, should not eventually
fulfill their aspiration, may I not attain perfect Awareness and Awaken-ness .
If, when I attain Buddhahood, human and devas in my land should
not all be endowed with the thirty two physical characteristics of a
Great Man, may I not attain perfect Awareness and Awaken-ness.
If, when I attain Buddhahood, Bodhisattvas in the Buddha-lands
of other quarters who visit my land should not ultimately and
unfailingly reach the Stage of Becoming a Buddha after one more life,
may I not attain perfect Enlightenment. Excepted are those who wish to
teach and guide sentient beings in accordance with their original vows.
For they wear the armour of great vows, accumulate merits, deliver all
beings from birth-and-death, visit Buddha-lands to perform the
Bodhisattva practices, make offerings to Buddhas, Tathagatas,
throughout the ten quarters, enlighten uncountable sentient beings as
numerous as the sands of the River Ganges, and establish them in the
highest, perfect Awareness and Awaken-ness. Such Bodhisattvas transcend the course
of practice of the ordinary Bodhisattva stages, manifest the practices
of all the Bodhisattva stages and actually cultivate the virtues of
Samantabhadra.
If, when I attain Buddhahood, Bodhisattvas in my land, in order
to make offerings to Buddhas through my transcendent power, should not
be able to reach immeasurable and innumerable kotis of nayuta of
Buddha-lans in a short a time as it takes to eat a meal, may I not
attain perfect Awareness and Awaken-ness.
If, when I attain Buddhahood, Bodhisattvas in my land should not
be able, as they wish, to perform meritorious acts of worshipping the
Buddhas with the offerings of their choice, may I not attain perfect Awareness and Awaken-ness.
If, when I attain Buddhahood, Bodhisattvas in my land should not
be able to expound the Dharma with the all-knowing wisdom, may I not
attain perfect Awareness and Awaken-ness .
If, when I attain Buddhahood, there should be any Bodhisattva in
my land not endowed with the body of the Vajra-god Narayana, may I not
attain perfect Awareness and Awaken-ness.
If, when I attain Buddhahood, sentient beings should be able,
even with the divine eye, to distinguish by Name and calculate by
number all the myriads of manifestations provided for the humans and
devas in my land, which are glorious and resplendent and have exquisite
details beyond description, may I not attain perfect Awareness and Awaken-ness.
If, when I attain Buddhahood, Bodhisattvas in my land, even
those with little store of merits, should not be able to see the
Bodhi-tree which has countless colors and is four million li in height, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment.
If, when I attain Buddhahood, Bodhisattvas in my land should not
acquire eloquence and wisdom in upholding sutras and reciting and
expounding them, may I not attain perfect Awareness and Awaken-ness.
If, when I attain Buddhahood, the wisdom and eloquence of
Bodhisattvas in my land should be limited, may I not attain perfect Awareness and Awaken-ness.
If, when I attain Buddhahood, my land should not be resplendent,
revealing in its light all the immeasurable, innumerable and
inconceivable Buddha-lands, like images reflected in a clear mirror,
may I not attain perfect Awareness and Awaken-ness .
If, when I attain Buddhahood, all the myriads of manifestations
in my land, from the ground to the sky, such as palaces, pavillions,
ponds, streams and trees, should not be composed of both countless
treasures, which surpass in supreme excellence anything in the worlds
of human and devas, and of a hundred thousand kinds of aromatic wood,
whose fragrance pervades all the worlds of the ten quarters, causing
all Bodhisattvas who sense it to perform Buddhist practice, may I not
attain perfect Awareness and Awaken-ness.
If, when I attain Buddhahood, sentient beings in the
immeasurable and inconceivable Buddha-lands of the ten quarters who
have been touched by my light, should not feel peace and happiness in
their bodies and minds surpassing those of humans and devas, may I not
attain perfect Awareness and Awaken-ness.
If, when I attain Buddhahood, sentient beings in the
immeasurable and inconceivable Buddha-lands of the ten quarters who
have heard my Name , should not gain the Bodhisattva’s insight into the
non-arising of all Dharmas and should not acquire various profound
dharanis, may I not attain perfect Awareness and Awaken-ness .
If, when I attain Buddhahood, women in the immeasurable and
inconceivable Buddha-lands of the ten quarters who, having heard my
Name, rejoice in faith, awaken aspiration for the Enlightenment and
wish to renounce womanhood, should after death be reborn again as
women, may I not attain perfect Awareness and Awaken-ness.
If, when I attain Buddhahood, Bodhisattvas in the immeasurable
and inconceivable Buddha-lands of the ten quarters, who have heard my
Name, should not, after the end of their lives, always perform sacred
practices until they reach Buddhahood, may I not attain perfect Awareness and Awaken-ness.
If, when I attain Buddhahood, humans and devas in the
immeasurable and inconceivable Buddha-lands of the ten quarters, who
having heard my Name, prostrate themselves on the ground to revere and
worship me, rejoice in faith, and perform Bodhisattva practices, should
not be respected by all the devas and people of the world, may I not
attain perfect Awareness and Awaken-ness.
If, when I attain Buddhahood, humans and devas in my land should
not obtain clothing, as soon as such a desire arises in their minds,
and if the fine robes as prescribed and praised by the Buddhas should
not be spontaneously provided for them to wear, and if these clothes
should need sewing, bleaching, dyeing or washing, may I not attain
perfect Awareness and Awaken-ness.
If, when I attain Buddhahood, human and devas in my land should
not enjoy happiness and pleasure comparable to that of a monk who has
exhausted all the positions, may I not attain perfect Awareness and Awaken-ness.
If, when I attain Buddhahood, Bodhisattvas in my land who wish
to see the immeasurable glorious Buddha-lands of the ten quarters,
should not be able to view all of them reflected in the jewelled trees,
just as one sees one’s face reflected in a clear mirror, may I not
attain perfect Awareness and Awaken-ness .
If, when I attain Buddhahood, Bodhisattvas in the lands of the
other quarters who hear my Name should, at any time before becoming
Buddhas, have impaired, inferior or incomplete sense organs, may I not
attain perfect Awareness and Awaken-ness.
If, when I attain Buddhahood, Bodhisattvas in the lands of the
other quarters who hear my Name should not all attain the samadhi
called ‘pure emancipation’ and, while dwelling therein, without losing
concentration, should not be able to make offerings in one instant to
immeasurable and inconceivable Buddhas, World Honored One, may I not
attain perfect Awareness and Awaken-ness.
If, when I attain Buddhahood, Bodhisattvas in the lands of the
other quarters who hear my Name should not be reborn into noble
families after their death, may I not attain perfect Awareness and Awaken-ness.
If, when I attain Buddhahood, Bodhisattvas in the lands of the
other quarters who hear my Name should not rejoice so greatly as to
dance and perform the Bodhisattva practices and should not acquire
stores of merits, may I not attain perfect Awareness and Awaken-ness.
If, when I attain Buddhahood, Bodhisattvas in the lands of the
other quarters who hear my Name should not all attain the samadhi
called ‘universal equality’ and, while dwelling therein, should not
always be able to see all the immeasurable and inconceivable Tathagatas
until those Bodhisattvas, too become Buddhas, may I not attain perfect Awareness and Awaken-ness.
If, when I attain Buddhahood, Bodhisattvas in my land should not
be able to hear spontaneously whatever teachings they may wish, may I
not attain perfect Awareness and Awaken-ness.
If, when I attain Buddhahood, Bodhisattvas in the lands of the
other quarters who hear my Name should not instantly reach the Stage of
Non-retrogression, may I not attain perfect Awareness and Awaken-ness.
If, when I attain Buddhahood, Bodhisattvas in the lands of the
other quarters who hear my Name should not instantly gain the first,
second and third insights into the nature of Dharmas and firmly abide
in the Truths realized by all the Buddhas, may I not attain perfect Awareness and Awaken-ness.
…any good person who reads the Sutra or who worships Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha will earn extraordinary merits, be free of suffering due to past karma and ultimately, be born in the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss.
Ksitigarbha (地藏王菩薩; Dìzàng Wáng Púsà) is one of the four principal Bodhisattvas in Oriental Mahayana Buddhism. The others are Samantabhadra (普賢菩薩; Pŭxián Púsà, Manjusri (文殊師利菩薩; Wénshū Púsà, and Avalokitesvara (觀世音菩薩; Guānshì Yīn Púsà).
These four Bodhisattvas represent the four basic qualities of the
Buddha i.e. Manjushri for Great Wisdom; Avalokiteshvara for his Great
Compassion; Samantabhadra for his Great Meritorious Deeds; and
Ksitigarbha for his Great Vows (to help and liberate all sentient
beings residing in the hells). The famous pronouncement of Bodhisattva
Ksitigarbha “If I do not go to hell to help them there, who else will go?” is the manifestation of this profound vow.
After the death of Sakyamuni Buddha, there would be no Buddha on Earth
until the appearance of the Bodhisattva Maitreya over a few billion
years later, who is to become the next Buddha. During this transition
period, in the era between the death of Sakyamuni Buddha and the rise
of Maitreya Buddha, Sakyamuni Buddha assigned and delegated to
Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha to act on His behalf, in order to save the
sentient beings.
The sutra was first translated from Sanskrit into Chinese in the 7th
century A.D., T’ang Dynasty by Venerable Tripiṭaka Master Shikshananda
of Khotan in Central Asia. Speaking the Dharma for the sake of his
mother, Lady Maya, this Sutra was spoken by Sakyamuni Buddha towards
the end of his life to the beings of the Trayastrimsha Heaven as a mark
of gratitude and remembrance for his beloved mother. This is also known
in Buddhism as the filial piety
sutra. It tells the story of Earth Store - (the literal translation of
the Bodhisattva’s name in Sanskrit) Boddhisattva’s vows. How in past
lives as a filial daughter of a Brahmin woman she saved her mother from
Hell by making offerings and cultivation. Later she vowed to save all
beings from suffering and is now the Earth Store Bodhisattva.
This Sutra describes the past lives of Bodhisattva
Ksitigarbha, his great vow made to that effect by him and the benefit
accruing from that vow. The vow is that “if the hell is not yet empty, I vow not to become a Buddha.”
Until the Hells are empty, I vow not to become a Buddha,
Only after all living beings are saved, will I myself attain Bodhi.
— Ksitigarbha
Presented in the form of seemingly mythic dialogue between the Buddha
and Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha, the Sutra is fundamentally a teaching
concerning karmic retribution, graphically describing the consequences
one creates for oneself by committing undesirable actions. This is
especially for the benefit of future beings in the Dharma-Ending Age in
order to help these beings avoid making the mistakes that will cause
them to be reborn in a low condition. With the motivation to help
suffering beings always in mind, the Sutra is a discourse given by the
Buddha in praise of Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha and his heroic Vow, and of
the benefits one can receive from worshipping Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha
and by reading the sutra.
Another importance of the Great Vows of Earth Store
Bodhisattva, the Ksitigharba Sutra is on the teaching of filial piety.
Filial piety is the first step in morality. That is why this Sutra is
so important for all Buddhist beginners. It not only relate to the
relationship between oneself and one’s parents but also as a universal
code of duty for all living beings. It is an initial step toward
embodying one’s universal duty, one begins with duty to one’s immediate
family and friends, of which parents are foremost in importance.
Buddha said, “….The reason why this person is protected by many gods
is that he or she respects and worships Ksitigarbha’s image and recites
this Vow Sutra. These people will removed from the ocean of suffering
and will be proof of the bliss of Nirvana.”
— The Sutra - Chapter 11
THE CAUSE & EFFECT
There was a novice monk who has only 7 days left to live. One day
on his way back home, he noticed an army of ants about to be washed
away by the current of sudden downpour. Spontaneously, he used mud to
block the flow of water and thus, saved the lives of the ants.
As the saying goes: “Good actions produce good results”, the novice
monk lived up to a ripe old age, above eighty, before he entered
Nirvana.
To understand your previous life, look at what you have in your present life;
To have a preview of your next life, examine your daily act in this life.
Of The Myriad of Dharma, The Kindness of Parents is The Greatest! The verse of Maitreya’s advice on filiality says:
In the family there are two Buddhas, regretfully, people in the world do not know;
No need to use gold and color to adorn, also no need to use chandana to carve;
Just look at your present father and mother, they are Sakyamuni and Maitreya;
If you can mark offerings to them, where is the need to do other merit and virtue.
Thus have I heard:
Once upon a gathering at Lin Shan Assembly, where 1,250 followers
attended, Ananda, one of the chief disciples, after circling thrice
with folded hands around Sakyamuni Buddha, bowing in respect, humbly
asked, “In the present dark age, where the majority of our people are
indulgent in unrighteousness, disrespectful to the Buddha’s teaching,
unfilial to their parents, immoral, miserable and sordid, among them
some are deaf, some blind, some mute, some idiotic, some handicapped in
other aspects, the most people inured to killing. How could we
understand the cryptic and fundamental principle or what consequences
each individual is to suffer eventually for his deeds. My Lord, would
you kindly explain there to us?”
Sakyamuni Buddha told Ananda and the rest of the
disciples to listen carefully, “I will now expound the Law of Karma.
Because of Karmic effects inherited from previous life, some people are
poor, some rich, and some miserable. There are four rules inseparable
in obtaining happiness and prosperity for your next life.
They are to be filial to parents; to be respectful to
Buddha’s teaching, and to Buddhist monks; to abstain from killing and
set free sentient beings; and to abstain from eating meat and be
charitable.”
Then the Buddha proceeded on the Karma Sutra: “Destiny is
the aggregate Karmic effects from past life. Past karma determined your
present destiny. Present karma are to mould your next life. Learn the
Law of Karma expounded as follows. For karma are consequential and my
words truthful.”
Effect: Why in this life you have cars and various transportation facilities? Cause: Because you have repaired broken bridges and paved roads for the benefits of other in your previous life.
Effect: Why in this life you have clothing in great variety? Cause: Because you have donated warm clothing to monks in your previous life.
Effect: Why in this life you have splendid food? Cause: Because you have donated food to the poor in your previous life.
Effect: Why in this life you are starving and clothless? Cause: Because you were to stingy to donate to charity in your previous life.
Effect: Why in this life you have houses and building? Cause: Because you have donated food to monasteries in your previous life.
Effect: Why in this life you are prosperous and happy? Cause: Because you have donated money to temples and public shelters in your previous life.
Effect: Why in this life you are pretty and handsome? Cause: Because you respectfully offered flowers to the Buddha’s altar in your previous life.
Effect: Why in this life you are so intelligent and wise? Cause: Because you were a devout Buddhist and sober vegetarian in your previous life.
Effect: Why in this life you are liked by others? Cause: Because you have created good relationship with people in your previous life.
Effect: Why in this life husband and wife are faithful to each other? Cause: Because you have decorated temples with scrolls and tapestries to Buddha in your previous life.
Effect: Why in this life you both parents? Cause: Because you have respected and helped the lonely in your previous life.
Effect: Why in this life you are an orphan? Cause: Because you were a bird shooter in your previous life.
Effect: Why in this life you have many children? Cause: Because you have printed and distributed sutras in your previous life.
Effect: Why in this life a son dies young? Cause: Because you have committed killing by drowning a baby girl in your previous life.
Effect: Why in this life you are heirless? Cause: Because you have destroyed flowers habitually in your previous life.
Effect: Why in this life you enjoy longevity and good health? Cause: Because you set free sentient beings in your previous life.
Effect: Why in this life you are short-lived? Cause: Because you committed too many killings in your previous life.
Effect: Why in this life you have no spouse? Cause: Because you have committed adultery in your previous life.
Effect: Why in this life you are a widow? Cause: Because you have ill-treated your husband in your previous life.
Effect: Why in this life you have clear and good-sighted eyes? Cause: Because you donated oil to light up the Buddha’s altar in your previous life.
Effect: Why in this life you suffer from blindness? Cause: Because you have distorted truth and misled others in your previous life.
Effect: Why in this life you have wry mouth? Cause: Because you have intentionally blown out candles before Buddha’s altar in your previous life.
Effect: Why in this life you are hunch back? Cause: Because you jeered at Buddha’s followers in your previous life.
Effect: Why in this life you have disabled hands? Cause: Because you have committed evils with your hands in your previous life.
Effect: Why in this life you have lame legs? Cause: Because you were a robber in your previous life.
Effect: Why in this life you are born as a horse or an ox? Cause: Because you never paid your debts in your previous life.
Effect: Why in this life you are born as a pig or a dog? Cause: Because you have deceived and harmed others in your previous life.
Effect: Why in this life you suffer from constant illness? Cause: Because you have offered meat to monks in your previous life.
Effect: Why in this life you are healthy? Cause: Because you have offered medicine to cure the sick people in your previous life.
Effect: Why in this life you are imprisoned? Cause: Because you have relentlessly commited evils in your previous life.
Effect: Why in this life you are starved to death? Cause: Because you have plugged snake pits and mouse holes in your previous life.
Effect: Why in this life you die of poison? Cause: Because you have intentionally poisoned a river or water source in your previous life.
Effect: Why in this life you are forlorn and friendless? Cause: Because you were unfaithful and deceitful to others in your previous life.
Effect: Why in this life you are born as dwarf? Cause: Because you have read and written sutra on the floor in your previous life.
Effect: Why in this life you spew blood? Cause: Because you have eaten meat while praying in your previous life.
Effect: Why in this life you are deaf? Cause: Because you have attended Buddhist’ instructions with levity in your previous life.
Effect: Why in this life you are afflicted with ulcers? Cause: Because you have offered meat before the Buddha’s altar in your previous life.
Effect: Why in this life you have bad bodily odor? Cause: Because you have sold incense with dishonesty in your previous life.
Effect: Why in this life you die by hanging yourself? Cause: Because you hunted animals by using ropes and nets in your previous life.
Effect: Why in this life you are bereft of a spouse? Cause: Because you have been unduly envious and jealous in your previous life.
Effect: Why in this life you are struck by lightning or burnt by fire? Cause: Because you have committed dishonest trading with customers in your previous life.
Effect: Why in this life you are wounded by beasts or snakes? Cause: Because you have created enemies in your previous life.
Whether you reap or you sow, Effect: If you suffer in hell, blame yourself for what you did in your previous life.
Cause: If you in this life recite the Cause and Effect Sutra;
Effect: You will be respected by many people in your next life.
Cause: If you in this life print and distribute the Cause and Effect Sutra free to all;
Effect: You will become a leader to humanity in your next life.
Cause: If you doubt that eating vegetarian is cultivating charity;
Effect: Witness the happy and prosperous people around you.
Cause: It is good to cultivating giving to the Triple Gems;
Effect: You will be rewarded in return.
Cause: If you carry the Cause and Effect Sutra;
Effect: You will be free from disaster and calamity.
Cause: Do not think that the Cause and Effect Sutra is fallacious;
Effect: It will manifest either immediately or later in your life.
Cause: If you spread the truth of the Cause and Effect Sutra;
Effect: You will be wise and intelligent in your next life.
Cause: You are a Minister or an Officer in this life;
Effect: You gain the fruits because you cultivated pains in your previous life.
Cause: If you in this life insult the Cause and Effect Sutra;
Effect: You are no longer a human being in your next life.
Cause: If in this life you transcribe the Cause and Effect Sutra;
Effect: The generations will be smart scholars and live happily.
Cause: If you recite and act according to the Cause and Effect Sutra;
Effect: Whatever you do will be witnessed by the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.
Cause: It is impossible to exhaust the speaking of the Law of Cause and Effect;
Effect: The fruit of a good deed will come in due course.
Cause and Effect: The good cause you have accomplished in your previous life will be the foundation of your good fortune.
Cause and Effect: The good seeds you have planted in this life will give you good fruits in your next life.
Cause: If you doubt the efficacy the Cause and Effect Sutra;
Effect: See how Maugalyayana could save his mother from suffering.
The Cause and Effect must not be treated as small matter,
The Buddha’s words are truth, you must not slight.
Cause: If people deeply believe in the Cause and Effect Sutra;
Effect: This will bring them all together to the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss.
Having spoken the sutra to Ananda and the other followers, Buddha
added, “They are innumerable examples of the Karmic law. But I have
only mentioned them generally.”
Then Ananda said, “Until the end of the present dark age
most human beings would have, through successive life, accumulated
countless misdeeds because of their ignorance of the karmic
consequences. But thanks to Our Lord and the Sutra he has so kindly
given us, whoever writes and reads, prints and distributes this Sutra,
upon venerating the Buddha, will blessed with eternal happiness and be
able to see Amitabha Buddha, Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva and all other
Buddhas in the heavenly realm.”
THE SUTRA ABOUT THE DEEP KINDNESS OF PARENTS AND DIFFICULTY OF REPAYING IT
Thus I have heard:
At one
time, the Buddha dwelt at Shravasti, in the Jeta Grove, in the Garden
of the Benefactor of Orphans and the Solitary, together with a
gathering of great Bhiskshus, twelve hundred fifty in all and with all
of the Bodhisattvas, thirty eight thousand in all.
At that time, the World Honored One led the great
assembly on a walk toward the south. Suddenly they came upon a pile of
bones beside the road. The World Honored One turned to face them,
placed his five limbs on the ground, and bowed respectfully.
Ánanda put his palms together and asked World Honored
One, “The Tathagata is the Great Teacher of the Triple Realm and the
compassionate father of beings of the four kinds of births. He has the
respect and reverence of the entire assembly. What is the reason that
he now bows to a pile of dried bones?”
The Buddha told Ánanda, “Although all of you are my
foremost disciples and have been members of the Sangha for a long time,
you still have not achieved far-reaching understanding. This pile of
bones could have belonged to my ancestors from former lives. They could
have been my parents in many past lives. That is the reason I now bow
to them.” The Buddha continued speaking to Ánanda, “These bones we are
looking at can be divided into two groups. One group is composed of the
bones of men, which are heavy and white in color. The other group is
composed of bones of women, which are light and black in color.”
Ánanda said to Buddha, “World Honored One, when men are
alive in the world, they adorn their bodies with robes, belts, shoes,
hats and other fine attire, so that they clearly assume a male
appearance. When women are alive, they put on cosmetics, perfumes,
powders, and elegant fragrances to adorn their bodies, so that they
clearly assume a female appearance. Yet, once men or women die, all
that is left are their bones. How does one tell them apart? Please
teach us how you are able to distinguish them.”
The Buddha answered Ánanda, “If when men are in the
world, they enter temples, listen to explanations of Sutras and Vinaya
texts, make obeisance to the Triple Gem, and recite the Buddha’s name,
then when they die, their bones will be heavy and white in color. Most
women in the world have little wisdom and are saturated with emotion.
They give birth to and raise children, feeling that this is their duty.
Each child relies on its mother’s milk for life and nourishment, and
that milk is a transformation of the mother’s blood. Each child can
drink up to one thousand two hundred gallons of its mother’s milk.
Because of this drain on the mother’s body whereby the child takes milk
for its nourishment, the mother becomes worn and haggard and so her
bones turn black in color and are light in weight.”
When Ánanda heard these words, he felt a pain in his
heart as if he had been stabbed and wept silently. He said to the World
Honored One, “How can one repay one’s mother’s kindness and virtues?”
The Buddha told Ánanda, “Listen well, and I will explain it to you in
details. The fetus grows in its mother’s womb for ten lunar months.
What bitterness she goes through while it dwells there! In the first
month of pregnancy, the life of the fetus is as precarious as a dew
drop on grass: how likely that it will not last from morning to evening
but will evaporate by midday!”
“During the second lunar month, the embryo congeals like
curds. In the third month it is like coagulated blood. During the
fourth month of pregnancy, the fetus begins to assume a slightly human
form. During the fifth month in the womb, the child’s five limbs, two
legs, two arms, and a head start to take shape. In the sixth lunar
month of pregnancy, the child begins to develop the essences of the six
sense faculties: the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind. During
the seventh month, the three hundred sixty bones and joints are formed,
and the eighty four thousand hair pores are also complete. In the eight
lunar month of the pregnancy, the intellect and the nine apertures are
formed. By the ninth month, the fetus has learned to assimilate the
different nutrients of the foods it eats. For example, it can
assimilate the essence of peaches, pears, certain plant roots and the
five kinds of grains.”
“Inside the mother’s body, the solid internal organs used
for storing hang downward, while the hollow internal organs used for
processing, spiral upward. These can be likened to three mountains,
which arise from the face of the earth. We can call these mountains
Mount Sumeru, Karma Mountain, and Blood Mountain. These analogous
mountains come together and form a single range in a pattern of upward
peaks and downward valleys. So too, the coagulation of the mother’s
blood from her internal organs forms a single substance, which becomes
the child’s food.”
“During the tenth month of pregnancy, the body of the
fetus is completed and ready to be born. If the child is extremely
filial, it will emerge with palms joined together inn respect and the
birth will peaceful and auspicious. The mother will remain uninjured by
the birth and will not suffer pain. However, if the child is extremely
rebellious in nature, to the extent that it is capable of committing
the five rebellious acts, then it will injure its mother’s womb, rip
apart its mother’s heart and liver, or get entangled in its mother’s
bones. The birth will feel like the slices of a thousand knives or like
ten thousand sharp swords stabbing her heart. Those are the agonies
involved in the birth of a defiant and rebellious child.”
To explain more clearly, there are ten types of kindnesses bestow by the mother on the child:
The first is the kindness of providing protection and care while the child is in the womb.
The second is the kindness of bearing suffering during the birth.
The third is the kindness of forgetting all the pain once the child has been born.
The fourth is the kindness of eating the bitter herself and saving the sweet for the child.
The fifth is the kindness of moving the child to a dry place and lying in the wet herself.
The sixth is the kindness of suckling the child at her breast, nourishing and bringing up the child.
The seventh is the kindness of washing away the unclean.
The eight is the kindness of always thinking of the child when it has travelled far.
The ninth is the kindness of deep care and devotion.
The tenth is the kindness of ultimate pity and sympathy.
The causes and conditions from accumulated kalpas grows heavy,
Until in this life the child ends up in its Mother’s womb.
As the months pass, the five vital organs develop;
Within seven weeks the six sense organs start to grow.
The mother’s body becomes as heavy as a mountain;
The stillness and movements of the fetus are like a kalpic wind disaster.
The mother’s fine clothes no longer hang properly,
And so her mirror gathers dust.
The pregnancy lasts for ten lunar months
And culminates in difficult labor at the approach of the birth.
Meanwhile, each morning the mother is seriously ill
And during each day drowsy and sluggish.
Her fear and agitation are difficult to describe;
Grieving and tears fill her breast.
She painfully tells her family
That she is only afraid that death will overtake her.
On the day the compassionate mothers bears the child,
Her five organs all open wide,
Leaving her totally exhausted in body and mind.
The blood flows as from a slaughtered lamb;
Yet, upon hearing that the child is healthy,
She is overcome with redoubling joy,
But after the joy, the grief returns,
And the agony wrenches her very insides.
The kindness of both parents is profound and deep,
Their care and devotion never cease.
Never resting, the mother saves the sweet for the child,
And without complain she swallows the bitter herself.
Her love is weighty and her emotion difficult to bear;
Her kindness is deep and so is her compassion.
Only wanting the child to get its fill,
The compassionate mother doesn’t speak of her own hunger.
The mother is willing to be wet
So that the child can be dry.
With her two breasts she satisfies its hunger and thirst;
Covering it with her sleeve, she protects it from the wind and cold.
In kindness, her head rarely rests on the pillow,
And yet she does this happily,
So long as the child is comfortable,
The kind mother seeks no solace for herself.
The kind mother is like the great earth.
The stern father is like the encompassing heaven;
One covers from above; the other supports from below.
The kindness of parents is such that
They know no hatred or anger toward their offspring,
And are not displeased, even if the child is born crippled.
After the mother carries the child in her womb and give birth to it,
The parents care for and protect it together until the end of their days.
Originally, she had a pretty face and a beautiful body,
Her spirit was strong and vibrant.
Her eyebrows were like fresh green willows,
And her complexion would have put a red rose to shame.
But her kindness is so deep she will forgo a beautiful face.
Although washing away the filth injures her constitution,
The kind mother acts solely for the sake of her sons and daughters,
And willingly allows her beauty to fade.
The death of loved ones is difficult to endure.
But separation is also painful.
When the child travels afar,
The mother worries in her village.
From morning until night, her heart is with her child,
And a thousand tears fall from her eyes.
Like the monkey weeping silently in love for her child,
Bit by bit her heart is broken.
How heavy is parental kindness and emotional concern!
Their kindness is deep and difficult to repay.
Willingly they undergo suffering on their child’s behalf.
If the child toils, the parents are uncomfortable.
If they hear that he has to travelled far,
They worry that at night he will have to lie in the cold.
Even a moment’s pain suffered by their sons and daughters,
Will cause the parents sustained distress.
The kindness of parents is profound and important.
Their tender concern never cease.
From the moment they awake each day, their thoughts are with their children.
Whether the children are near or far away, the parents think of them often.
Even if a mother lives for a hundred years,
She will constantly worry about her eighty-year-old child.
Do you wish to know when such kindness and love ends?
It doesn’t even begin to dissipate until her life is over!
The Buddha told Ánanda, “When I contemplate living beings, I see that
although they are born as human beings, nonetheless, they are ignorant
and dull in their thoughts and actions. They don’t consider their
parents’ great kindness and virtue. They are disrespectful and turn
their backs on kindness and what is right. They lack humaneness and
neither filial nor compliant.”
“For ten months while the mother is with the child, she
feels discomfort each time she rises, as if she was lifting a heavy
burden. Like a chronic invalid, she is unable to keep her food and
drink down. When the ten months have passed and the time comes for the
birth, she undergoes all kinds of pain and suffering so that the child
can be born. She is afraid of her own mortality, like a pig or lamb
waiting to be slaughtered. Then the blood flows all over the ground.
These are the sufferings she undergo.”
“Once the child is born, she saves what is sweet for him
and swallow what is bitter herself. She carries the child and nourishes
it, washing away its filth. There is no toil or difficulty that she
does not willingly undertake for the sake of her child. She endures
both cold and heat and never even mentions what she has gone through.
She gives the dry place to her child and sleeps in the damp herself.
For three years she nourishes the baby with milk, which is transformed
from the blood of her own body.”
“Parents continually instruct and guide their children in
the ways of propriety and morality as the youngsters mature into
adults. They arrange marriages for them and provide them with property
and wealth or devise ways to get it for them. They take responsibility
and trouble upon themselves with tremendous zeal and toil, never
speaking about their care and kindness.”
“When a son or daughter become ill, parents are worried
and afraid to the point that they may even grow ill themselves. They
remain by the child’s side providing constant care, and only when the
child gets well are the parents happy once again. In this way, they
care for and raise their children with sustained hope that their
offspring will soon grow to be mature adults.”
“How sad that all too often the children are un-filial in
return! In speaking with relatives whom they should honor, the children
display no compliance. When they ought to be polite, they have no
manners. They glare at those whom they should venerate, and insult
their uncles and aunts. They scold their siblings and destroy any
family feeling that might have existed among them. Children like that
have no respect of sense of propriety.”
“Children may be well taught, but if they are un-filial,
they will not heed the instructions or obey the rules. Rarely will they
rely upon the guidance of their parents. They are contrary and
rebellious when interacting with their brothers. They come and go from
home without ever reporting to their parents. Their speech and actions
are very arrogant and they act on impulse without consulting others.
Such children ignore the admonishments and punishments set down by
their parents and pay no regard to their uncles’ warnings. Yet, at the
same time, they are immature and always need to be looked after and
protected by their elders.”
As such children grow up, they become more and more
obstinate and uncontrollable. They are entirely ungrateful and totally
contrary. They are defiant and hateful, rejecting both family and
friends. They befriend evil people and under influence, soon adopt the
same kinds of bad habits. They come to take what is false to be true.”
“Such children may be enticed by others to leave their
families and run away to live in other towns, thus denouncing their
parents and rejecting their native town. They may become businessmen or
civil servants who languish in comfort and luxury. They may marry in
haste, and that new bond provides yet another obstruction which
prevents them from returning home for long periods of time.”
“Or, in going to live in other towns, these children may
be incautious and find themselves plotted against or accused of doing
evil. They may be unfairly locked up in prison or they may meet with
illness and become enmeshed in disasters and hardships, subject to
terrible pain of poverty, starvation, and emaciation. Yet no one there
will care for them. Being scorned and disliked by others, they will be
abandoned on the street. In such circumstances, their lives may come to
an end. No one bothers to try to save them. Their bodies swell up, rot,
decay, and are exposed to the sun and blown away by the wind. The bones
entirely disintegrate and scatter as these children come to their final
rest in the dirt of some other town. These children will never again
have a happy reunion with their relatives and kin. Nor will they ever
know how their aging parents mourn for and worry about them. The
parents may grow blind from weeping or become sick from extreme grief
and despair. Constantly dwelling on the memory of their children, they
may pass away, but even when they become ghosts, their could still
cling to this attachment and are unable to get it go.”
“Others of these un-filial children may not aspire to
learning, but instead become interested in strange and bizarre
doctrines. Such children may be villainous, coarse and stubborn,
delighting in practices that are utterly devoid of benefit. They may
become involved in fights and thefts, setting themselves at odds with
the town by drinking and gambling. As if debauchery were not enough,
they drag their brothers into it as well, to further distress of their
parents.”
“If such children do live at home, they leave early in
the morning and do not return until late at night. Never do they ask
about the welfare of their parents or make sure they don’t suffer from
heat or cold. They do not inquire after their parents’ well being in
the morning or the evening, nor even on the first and fifteenth of the
lunar month. In fact, it never occurs to these un-filial children to
ever ask whether their parents have slept comfortably or rested
peacefully. Such children are simply not concerned in the least about
their parents’ well being. When the parents of such children grow old
and their appearance becomes more and more withered and emaciated, they
are made to feel ashamed to be seen in public and are subjected to
abuse and oppression.”
“Such un-filial children may end up with a father who is
a widower or mother who is a widow. The solitary parents are left alone
in empty houses, feeling like guests in their own homes. They may
endure cold and hunger, but no ones takes heed of their plight. They
may weep incessantly from morning to night, sighing and lamenting. It
is only right that children should provide for aging parents with food
and drink of delicious flavors, but irresponsible children are sure to
overlook their duties. If they ever do attempt to help their parents in
any way, they feel embarrassed and are afraid people will laugh at
them. Yet, such offspring may lavish wealth and food on their own wives
and children, disregarding the toil and weariness involved in doing so.
Other un-filial offspring may be so intimidated by their wives that
they go along with all of their wishes. But when appalled to by their
parents and elders, they ignore them and are totally unfazed by their
pleas.”
“It may be the case that the daughters were quite filial
to their parents before their marriages, but they may become
progressively rebellious after they marry. This situation may be so
extreme that if their parents show even the slightest signs of
displeasure, the daughters become hateful and vengeful toward them. Yet
they bear their husband’s scolding and beatings with sweet tempers,
even though their spouses are outsiders with other surnames and family
ties. The emotional bonds between such couples are deeply entangled,
and yet these daughters hold their parents at a distance. They may
follow their husbands and move to other towns, leaving their parents
behind entirely. They do not long for them and simply cut off all
communication with them. When the parents continue to hear no word from
their daughters, they feel incessant anxiety. They become so fraught
with sorrow that it is as if they were suspended upside down. Their
every thought is of seeing their children, just as one who is thirsty
longs for something to drink. Their kind thoughts for their offspring
never cease.”
“The virtue of one’s parents’ kindness is boundless and
limitless. If one has made the mistake of being un-filial, how
difficult it is to repay that kindness!”
At that time, upon hearing the Buddha speak about the
depth of one’s parents kindness, everyone in the Great Assembly threw
themselves on the ground and began beating their breasts and striking
themselves until their hair pores flowed with blood. Some fell
unconscious to the ground, while others stamped their feet in grief. It
was a long time before they could control themselves. With loud voices
they lamented, “Such suffering! What a suffering! How painful! How
painful! We are all offenders. We are criminals who have never
awakened, like those who travel in a dark night. We have just now
understood our offenses and our very insides are torn to bits. We only
hope that the World Honored One will pity and save us. Please tell us
how can we repay the deep kindness of our parents!”
At the time the Tathagata used eight kinds of profoundly
deep and pure sounds to speak to the assembly. “All of you should know
this. I will now explain for you the various aspects of this matter.”
“If there were a person who carries his father on his
left shoulder and his mother on his right shoulder until his bones were
ground to powder by their weights as they bore through to the marrow,
and if that person were to circumambulate Mount Sumeru for a hundred
thousand kalpas until the blood that flowed out covered his ankles,
that person would still not have repaid the deep kindness of his
parents.”
“If there were a person who, during the period of a kalpa
fraught with famine and starvation, sliced the flesh off his own body
to feed his parents and did this as many times as there are dust motes
as he passed through hundreds of thousand of kalpas, that person still
would not have repaid the deep kindness of his parents.”
“If there were a person who, for the sake of this
parents, took a sharp knife and cut his eyes and made an offering of
them to the Tathagata, and continued to do that for hundreds of
thousands of kalpas, that person still would not have repaid the deep
kindness of his parents.”
“If there were a person who, for the sake of his parents,
took a hundred thousand swords and stabbed his body with them all at
once such that they entered one side and came out the other, and if he
continued in this way to do this for hundreds of thousands of kalpas,
that person still would not have repaid the deep kindness of his
parents.”
“If there were a person who, for the sake of his parents,
beat his bones down to the marrow and continued in this way to do this
for hundreds of thousands of kalpas, that person still would not have
repaid the deep kindness of his parents.”
“If there were a person who, for the sake his parents,
swallowed molten iron pellets and continued in this way to do this for
hundreds of thousands of kalpas, that person still would not have
repaid the deep kindness of his parents.”
At that time, upon hearing the Buddha speak about the
kindness and virtue of parents, everyone in the Great Assembly wept
silently and felt searing pain in their hearts. They reflected deeply,
simultaneously brought forth shame and said to Buddha, “World Honored
One, how can we repay the deep kindness of our parents?”
The Buddha replied, “Disciples of the Buddha, if you wish
to repay your parents’ kindness, write out this Sutra on their behalf.
Recite this Sutra on their behalf. Repent of transgressions and
offenses on their behalf. For the sake of your parents, make offerings
to the Triple Gem. For the sake of your parents, hold precept of pure
eating. For the sake of your parents, practice giving and cultivate
blessings. If you are able to do these things, you are being a filial
child. If you do not do these things, you are a person destined for the
hells.”
The Buddha told Ananda, “If a person is not filial, when
his life ends and his body decays, he will fall into, the great Avici
Hell. This great hell is eighty thousand yojanas in circumference and
is surrounded on all four sides by iron walls. Above, it is covered
over by nets, and the ground is also made of iron. A mass of fire burns
fiercely, while thunder roars and bright bolts of lightning set things
afire. Molten brass and iron fluids are poured over the offenders’
bodies. Brass dogs and iron snakes constantly spew fire and smoke which
burns the offenders and broils their flesh and fat to a pulp.”
“Oh, such suffering! Difficult to take, difficult to
bear! There are poles, hooks, spears, and lances. iron halberds and
iron chains, iron hammer and iron awls. Wheels of iron knives rain down
from the air. The offender is chopped, hacked, or stabbed, and
undergoes these cruel punishments for kalpas without respite. Then they
enter the remaining hells, where their heads are capped with fiery
basins, while iron wheels roll over their bodies, passing both
horizontally and vertically until their guts are ripped open and their
bones and flesh are squashed to a pulp. Within a single day, they
experience myriad births and myriad deaths. Such sufferings are a
result of committing the five rebellious acts and being un-filial when
one was alive.”
At that time, upon hearing the Buddha speak about the
virtue of parents’ kindness, everyone in the Great Assembly wept
sorrowfully and addressed the Tathagata, “On this day, how can we repay
the deep kindness of our parents?”
The Buddha said, “Disciples of the Buddha, if you wish to
repay their kindness, then for the sake of your parents, print this
Sutra. This is truly repaying their kindness. If one can print one
copy, then one will get to see one Buddha. If one can print ten copies,
then one will get to see ten Buddhas. If one can print one hundred
copies, then one will get to see one hundred Buddhas. If one can print
one thousand copies, then one will get to see one thousand Buddhas. If
one can print ten thousand copies, then one will get to see ten
thousand Buddhas. This is the power derived when good people print
Sutras. All Buddhas will forever protect such people with their
kindness and their parents can be reborn in the heavens to enjoy all
kinds of happiness, leaving behind the sufferings of the hells.”
At that time, Ananda and the rest of the Great Assembly
the asuras, garudas, kimnaras, mahoragas, people, non-people, and
others, as well as the gods, dragons, yakshas, gandharvas,
wheel-turning sage kings, and all the lesser kings, felt all the hairs
on their bodies stand on their ends when they heard what the Buddha had
said. They wept grievously and were unable to stop themselves. Each one
of them made a vow saying, “All of us, from now until the exhaustion of
the bounds of the future, would rather that our bodies be pulverized
into small particles of dust for a hundred thousand kalpas, than to
ever go against the Tathagata’s sagely teachings. We would rather that
our tongues be plucked out, so that they would extend for a full
yojana, and that for a hundred thousand kalpas an iron plough to run
over them; we would rather have a hundred thousand bladed wheel roll
freely over bodies, than to ever go against the Tathagata’s sagely
teachings. We would rather that our bodies be ensnared in an iron net
for a hundred thousand kalpas, than to ever go against the Tathagata’s
sagely teachings. We would rather that for a hundred thousand kalpas
our bodies be chopped, hacked, mutilated, and chiseled into ten million
pieces, so that our skin, flesh, joints and bones would be completely
disintegrated, than to ever go against the Tathagata’s sagely
teachings.”
At that time, Ananda, with a dignity and a sense of
peace, rose from his seat and asked Buddha, “World Honored One, what
name shall this Sutra have when we accord with it and uphold it?”
The Buddha told Ananda, “This Sutra is called THE SUTRA
ABOUT THE DEEP KINDNESS OF PARENTS AND DIFFICULTY OF REPAYING IT. Use
this name when you accord with it and uphold it.”
At that time, the Great Assembly, the gods, humans,
asuras, and the others, hearing what the Buddha has said, were
completely delighted. They believed the Buddha’s teaching, received it,
and offered up their conduct in accord with it. Then they bowed
respectfully to the Buddha, before withdrawing.
Dear Jagatheesan –
As you may have heard, Barack has been in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia this week.
Today, he spoke in Berlin, Germany.
In a city where a wall once divided the free from the oppressed, he
talked about tearing down the walls that divide all peoples so we can
address our common problems — the threats of terrorism and nuclear
weapons, global warming and genocide, AIDS and poverty.
Watch Barack’s historic speech and share it with your friends:
1.01 lakh houses to be constructed under the Manyawar Shri Kanshi Ram Ji Urban Poor Housing Scheme Lucknow: July 18, 2008
The Uttar Pradesh Government has decided to provide two-room houses
free-of-cost to the urban poor living below the poverty line, destitute
widows and handicapped under the Manyawar Shri Kanshi Ram Ji Urban Poor
Housing Scheme. The cost of these houses will be Rs. 1.75 lakh. During
the first phase (2008-09) of this scheme, as many as 101000 will be
constructed. As many as 1,500 houses per district will be constructed
in 60 districts having larger urban population, while in 11 districts
1,000 residences per district will be constructed. The State Government
has made a provision of Rs. 500 crore for the purpose and more funds
would be allocated as per the requirement. Under this scheme, 23 per
cent houses would be reserved for the SC/ST, 27 per cent for the OBC
and 50 per cent for the candidates of the general category. The
disabled persons would essentially be allotted houses on the ground
floor. Those living below the poverty line would be eligible for the
allotment. For its verification, the applicant would have to submit a
BPL certificate. For the eligibility under the destitute widows and
disabled persons category, submission of certificate would be required.
Under this scheme, the allottees would be exempted from house and water
taxes. This decision was taken at a Cabinet meeting presided over by
the Chief Minister, Ms. Mayawati. During the first phase, the districts
selected for the construction of 1500 houses would be provided 10 acres
of land for the purpose, while those districts where 1000 houses would
be constructed, would be provided 7 acres of land. The arrangement of
land would be ensured under the supervision of the concerning D.M.s.
The plinth area of every housing unit would be 35 sq. mtr. and each
house would have two rooms, a kitchen, latrine, bathroom and a balcony.
The maximum cost of the house constructed under this scheme would be
around Rs. 1.75 lakh. Sixty districts, where 1500 residence per
district would be constructed, would include Kanpur Nagar, Lucknow,
Ghaziabad, Agra, Meerut, Moradabad, Varanasi, Allahabad, Bareilly,
Bulandshahr, Muzaffarnagar, Firozabad, Mainpuri, Mathura, Aligarh,
Bijnore, Gorakhpur, Saharanpur, Jhansi, Badaun, Unnao, Shahjahanpur,
Rampur, Sitapur, Hardoi, Jyotiba Phule nagar, Lakhimpur Kheri, Jalaun,
Farrukhabad, Mau, Etawah, Pilibhit, Jaunpur, Mirzapur, Rae-Bareli,
Ballia, Deoria, Azamgarh, Faizabad, Hathrus, Kanshiram Nagar, Banda,
Bahraich, Fatehpur, Barabanki, Kannaunj, Etah, Bagpat, Gazipur,
Sonebhadra, Gonda, Hamirpur, Bhadohi, Ambedkarnagar, Auraiyya,
Chandauli, Mahoba, Sultanpur, Pratapgarh and Lalitpur.
One thousand (1000) houses each will be constructed in - Balrampur,
Gautambuddha Nagar, Kushinagar, Basti, Maharajganj, Kanpur Dehat,
Kaushambi, Sant Kabirnagar, Siddhartha Nagar, Chitrakoot and Sravasti.
A district level committee would be set up under the Chairmanship of
D.M. for the supervision, implementation and monitoring of the scheme.
The senior most A.D.M. would be Secretary of the committee and district
treasury officer, co-planner of the division, executive engineer PWD,
executive engineer Jal Nigam, Municipal Commissioner of local Urban
Body or executive officer, Vice-President/Secretary of the local
Development Authority and an officer nominated by the D.M. would be its
members. The government would provide full amount allocated for the
scheme through the concerning D.M.
According to the 2001 census, about 3.29 crore people reside in urban
areas of the State. Owing to the rapid increase in the urban
population, the number of urban poor had also increased. In the next 10
years, it is expected that the urban population would increase at a
rapid pace. The State Government is committed to bring the urban poor
into the mainstream of development. The Government has accorded top
priority to provide clean and pucca houses to almost 10 lakh families
living in the slums of the various districts of the State. The scheme
has been named after Manyawar Shri Kanshiram Ji, who is the founder of
the BSP, who devoted his entire life for the cause of dalits. ********
Scheme to be continuously monitored at the Government, division and district level
Lucknow: July 18, 2008
The Uttar Pradesh Government has chalked out the timetable for the
construction of cement concrete roads and pucca drains for Gram Sabhas
selected under the Dr. Ambedkar Gram Sabha Vikas Yojana. According to
the timetable, the concerning D.M.s would pick one third Gram Sabhas
out of the total selected Gram Sabhas by July 20, 2008 for completing
the construction of C.C. road and drain. Under the first phase,
one-third Gram Sabhas would be saturated with the construction of C.C.
roads and drains as per the amended parameters. The State Government
has made a provision of Rs. 1,173 crore and additional funds would be
allocated if needed. After the completion of first phase, the
construction work of second and third phase would be undertaken. This
decision was taken at a Cabinet meeting presided over by the Chief
Minister, Ms. Mayawati.
According to the Cabinet decision, out of the one-third Gram Sabhas,
main villages of the revenue villages and one majra having
predominantly scheduled caste population would be identified. Thus, the
list of selected Gram Sabhas would be provided to the working agency
selected for the district. By August 10, the working agency would
conduct survey and prepare an initial plan and estimates for the
construction of C.C. roads and drains. The concerning D.M.s would give
administrative and financial sanctions to it. After the sanctions were
made, the concerning executive engineer would give technical sanction
to the estimate submitted by the working agency at the district level
by August 15, 2008 and after that the working agency would present its
demand for the amount required for the purpose. The working agency
would complete the formalities of tender etc. and the work of the first
phase would be started by September 15, 2008 and the same would be
completed by December 31, 2008. According top priority to the
construction of C.C. roads and drains, the State Government has
increased the sanctioning powers of executive engineers from Rs. 40
lakh to Rs. 2 crore. The Public Works Department, as a parameter, has
fixed a cost of Rs. 139.63 lakh for the construction of the average
length of 4.5 km. between two revenue villages of the single Dr.
Ambedkar Gram Sabha. It also includes construction of 200-meter long
pucca drains to connect ponds/drains (on the basis of two villages) to
be constructed outside the habitation.
For the continuous monitoring of the scheme, a district level committee
would be set up under the chairmanship of the D.M. The members of the
committee would include additional chief officer, engineer and
financial advisor, executive engineer of the PWD/R.E.S. and district
panchayati raj officer. The divisional commissioner would also monitor
the scheme and review it on a regular basis. At the government level,
the scheme would be monitored and reviewed by a high level committee
headed by the Principal Secretary, Panchayati Raj. It may be recalled
that the Cabinet during its May 23, 2008 meeting had decided to
construct C.C. roads and K.C. drains in the Gram Panchayat. Initially,
two Gram Sabhas of Lucknow district were selected by the PWD as a model
and the C.C. roads and drains were constructed with the help of U.P.
Bridge Corporation. To remove the hurdles coming in way of the
construction, a meeting was orgainsed, which was presided over by the
Chief Secretary and the final guidelines for the construction of C.C.
roads, and drains were decided at the meeting. According to the
guidelines of the government, the selected villages and majra would be
saturated with the construction of C.C. roads and drains. Keeping the
availability of funds in mind, it was decided that the construction of
C.C. roads and pucca drains would be undertaken at the main village of
the every revenue village and one majra each dominated by SC population
of every revenue village. It was also decided that C.C. roads and pucca
drains would be constructed in a total of 4,397 Gram Sabhas which
included 685 selected Gram Sabhas for the year 2007-08 but could not be
saturated and 3,712 Gram Sabhas selected for the year 2008-09. ********
BSP supremo Mayawati and Prakash Karat, addressing the press
conference to launch a campaign against UPA, in New Delhi on Wednesday.
Photo: V.V.Krishnan
New Delhi (PTI): The Left, UNPA and BSP
on Wednesday said they will launch a nation-wide campaign against the
UPA government on nuclear deal, price rise and agrarian issues and
described the trust vote win in Lok Sabha as “immoral”.
“The UPA government might be patting
itself for whatever happened yesterday. But at the same time, it is the
defeat of the democracy,” BSP supremo Mayawati told a press conference
after a breakfast meeting with leaders of Left parties, TDP, TRS, RLD
and JD(S) among others.
Reading out from the statement adopted
at the meeting, CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat said that the
“UPA government may have won the vote in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday but
has lost the trust of the nation in the immoral manner in which it has
engineered this win.
“The Manmohan Singh government has lost
its moral authority. All the political parties present decided to
launch a national level campaign on pressing issues before the people,”
Karat said.
The statement was adopted by leaders of
ten parties — BSP, TDP, Forward Bloc, RSP, Janata Dal (S), RLD, IMLD,
JVM, CPI and CPI(M).
The campaign will be launched against price rise, inflation, agrarian crisis leading to farmers suicides, Karat said.
“We are also against Indo-US nuclear
deal, against communal forces, against gross misuse of government
institutions like CBI,” the CPI(M) leader said.
Condemning the “murder of democracy”, N
Chandrababu Naidu (TDP) said it was a “national shame” that the
government has stuck to power by indulging in horse-trading,
manipulation, threat and blackmail”.
“If you take into account the cross voting, the opposition has a clear majority,” Naidu claimed.
Naidu asserted that the coming together
of these parties showed that “we are the real alternative to Congress,
UPA and NDA. We will be number one in the coming days”.
In a similar statement, RLD leader Ajit
Singh said “this will provide an alternative to UPA and NDA and create
a real force in the country”.
Speaking in Hindi, former Prime
Minister and JD(S) President H D Deve Gowda assured full cooperation of
his party to the joint campaign.
Asked who will lead the new group, Mayawati evaded a direct reply saying all were equal.
On whether AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa
would be invited to join the group, Bardhan said the issue had not been
discussed. “We are proceeding step by step,” he said.
The breakfast meeting at Mayawati’s
residence was also attended by A B Bardhan and D Raja (CPI), Debabrata
Biswas (FB), T J Chandrachoodan and Abani Roy (RSP), K Yerrannaidu
(TDP), Ajay Chautala (INLD), Babulal Marandi (JVM) and Sitaram Yechury
((CPI-M).
The meeting constituted a committee to conduct the nationwide campaign, the dates of which will be announced “very soon”.
Mayawati says UPA should end negotiations on US-India nuke deal
Monday,21.07.2008 (GMT)
New
Delhi, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister
Mayawati said on Monday that the UPA should suspend further action on
the US-India civilian nuclear cooperation agreement and leave it for
the next government to finalise it.
Claiming that the deal was a step to
make India a “slave” of the United States, she said the country should
hold its head high to safeguard its interests.
“The Government and the Prime Minister
should not make the deal a prestige issue. They should suspend the deal
for the time being. Elections are near. Let the next government take a
decision on it,” she told a press conference in New Delhi.
She noted that the deal would also
“hamper” the USD 7.4 billion Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project
as the US was acting against Tehran in a “dangerous” manner.
“The whole world have to face the
consequences of a nuclear war between US and Iran and the blame for
which will fall on the UPA government if it goes ahead with the deal,”
Mayawati said.
Holding the UPA and Congress “guilty”
for going ahead with the deal, she said New Delhi should assert itself
for a permanent membership in the United Nations Security Council.
Asked whether the anti-Government side
has enough numbers to topple the UPA, she said, “wait till tomorrow,
you will come to know.”
However, Mayawati refused to comment
on the allegations made by Samajwadi Party leaders that the BSP was
using money power to get MPs from other parties.
On Advani’’s comment that she will not become Prime Minister, the BSP chief said, “I don'’t take note of useless talks.”
A World class education
“I don’t want to send another generation of American children
to failing schools. I don’t want that future for my daughters. I don’t
want that future for your sons. I do not want that future for America.”
— Barack Obama, Jefferson-Jackson Dinner, Des Moines, Iowa, November 10, 2007
No Child Left Behind Left the Money Behind:
The goal of the law was the right one, but unfulfilled funding promises, inadequate implementation by the
Education Department and shortcomings in the design of the law itself have limited its effectiveness and
undercut its support. As a result, the law has failed to provide high-quality teachers in every classroom and
failed to adequately support and pay those teachers.
Students Left Behind:
Six million middle and high school students read significantly below their grade level. A full third of high
school graduates do not immediately go on to college. American 15 year olds rank 28th out of 40 countries
in mathematics and 19th out of 40 countries in science. Almost 30 percent of students in their first year of
college are forced to take remedial science and math classes because they are not prepared.
High Dropout Rate:
America has one of the highest dropout rates in the industrialized world. Only 70 percent of U.S. high
school students graduate with a diploma. African American and Latino students are significantly less likely
to graduate than white students.
Teacher Retention is a Problem:
Thirty percent of new teachers leave within their first five years in the profession.
Soaring College Costs:
College costs have grown nearly 40 percent in the past five years. The average graduate leaves college with
over $19,000 in debt. And between 2001 and 2010, 2 million academically qualified students will not go to
college because they cannot afford it. Finally, our complicated maze of tax credits and applications leaves
too many students unaware of financial aid available to them.
Barack Obama’s Plan
Early Childhood Education
Zero to Five Plan: Obama’s comprehensive “Zero to Five” plan will provide critical support to young
children and their parents. Unlike other early childhood education plans, Obama’s plan places key emphasis
at early care and education for infants, which is essential for children to be ready to enter kindergarten.
Obama will create Early Learning Challenge Grants to promote state “zero to five” efforts and help states
move toward voluntary, universal pre-school.
Expand Early Head Start and Head Start: Obama will quadruple Early Head Start, increase Head Start
funding and improve quality for both.
Affordable, High-Quality Child Care: Obama will also provide affordable and high-quality child care to
ease the burden on working families.
K-12
Reform No Child Left Behind:
Obama will reform NCLB, which starts by funding the law. Obama believes
teachers should not be forced to spend the academic year preparing
students to fill in bubbles on standardized tests. He will improve the
assessments used to track student progress to measure readiness for
college and the workplace and improve student learning in a timely,
individualized manner. Obama will also improve NCLB’s accountability
system so that we are supporting schools that need improvement, rather
than punishing them.
Make Math and Science Education a National Priority: Obama will recruit math and science degree
graduates to the teaching profession and will support efforts to help these teachers learn from professionals
in the field. He will also work to ensure that all children have access to a strong science curriculum at all
grade levels.
Address the Dropout Crisis: Obama will address the dropout crisis by passing his legislation
to provide funding to school districts to invest in intervention strategies in middle school - strategies such
as personal academic plans, teaching teams, parent involvement, mentoring, intensive reading and math
instruction, and extended learning time.
Expand High-Quality Afterschool Opportunities: Obama will double funding for the main federal
support for afterschool programs, the 21st Century Learning Centers program, to serve one million more
children.
Expand Summer Learning Opportunities: Obama’s “STEP UP” plan addresses the achievement gap by
supporting summer learning opportunities for disadvantaged children through partnerships between local
schools and community organizations.
Support College Outreach Programs: Obama supports outreach programs like GEAR UP, TRIO and
Upward Bound to encourage more young people from low-income families to consider and prepare for
college.
Support English Language Learners: Obama supports transitional bilingual education and will help
Limited English Proficient students get ahead by holding schools accountable for making sure these students
complete school.
Recruit, Prepare, Retain, and Reward America’s Teachers
Recruit Teachers: Obama will create new Teacher Service Scholarships that will cover
four years of undergraduate or two years of graduate teacher education, including high-quality
alternative programs for mid-career recruits in exchange for teaching for at least four years in a
high-need field or location.
Prepare Teachers: Obama will require all schools of education to be accredited. He will also create a voluntary
national performance assessment so we can be sure that every new educator is trained and
ready to walk into the classroom and start teaching effectively. Obama will also create Teacher
Residency Programs that will supply 30,000 exceptionally well-prepared recruits to high-need
schools.
Retain Teachers: To support our teachers, Obama’s plan will expand mentoring programs that
pair experienced teachers with new recruits. He will also provide incentives to give teachers paid
common planning time so they can collaborate to share best practices.
Reward Teachers: Obama will promote new and innovative ways to increase teacher pay that
are developed with teachers, not imposed on them. Districts will be able to design programs that
reward accomplished educators who serve as a mentor to new teachers with a salary increase.
Districts can reward teachers who work in underserved places like rural areas and inner cities.
And if teachers consistently excel in the classroom, that work can be valued and rewarded as well.
Higher Education
Create the American Opportunity Tax Credit: Obama will make college affordable for all Americans by
creating a new American Opportunity Tax Credit. This universal and fully refundable credit will ensure that
the first $4,000 of a college education is completely free for most Americans, and will cover two-thirds the
cost of tuition at the average public college or university and make community college tuition completely
free for most students. Obama will also ensure that the tax credit is available to families at the time of
enrollment by using prior year’s tax data to deliver the credit when tuition is due.
Simplify the Application Process for Financial Aid: Obama will streamline the financial aid process
by eliminating the current federal financial aid application and enabling families to apply simply by checking
a box on their tax form, authorizing their tax information to be used, and eliminating the need for a separate
application.
Barack Obama’s Record
Record of Advocacy: Obama has been a leader on educational issues throughout his career. In the Illinois State Senate, Obama
was a leader on early childhood education, helping create the state’s Early Learning Council. In the U.S.
Senate, Obama has been a leader in working to make college more affordable. His very first bill sought
to increase the maximum Pell Grant award to $5,100. As a member of the Health, Education, Labor, and
Pensions committee, Obama helped pass legislation to achieve that goal in the recent improvements to the
Higher Education Act. Obama has also introduced legislation to create Teacher Residency Programs and to
increase federal support for summer learning opportunities.
A Travelogue Of My
Struggle - Ridden Life And Bahujan Movement
After going through
both the volumes of A Travelogue Of My Struggle - Ridden Life And Bahujan
Movement it is concluded that:
Bahanji Ms Mayawati, the Original Inhabitant of Jambudvipa, that is the
Great Prabuddha Bharath,
is
MUCH MORE than a
Chief Minister or would be Prime Minister
Has
EXALTED, BLESSED, NOBLE AND AN AWAKENED MIGHTY GREAT MIND
Engaged to
Organise, Educate and Concentrate one and all
For the
Welfare, Happiness and Peace within Ones self and Harmony with all
other sentient and non-sentient beings
In order to elevate them to become
Exalted, Blessed, Noble and an Awakened Mighty Great Mind
Whenever a true history is written in JAMBUDVIPA, THAT IS THE GREAT
PRABUDDHA BHARATH, 14TH OCTOBER would be observed as the real
Independence Day for the ORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF JAMBUDVIPA, THAT IS THE GREAT
PRABUDDHA BHARATH for it was on that day Baba sahib Dr. Ambedkar, seven before
attaining TheUltimate Bliss, with lakhs of his followers took Diksha and
returned back to the right path shown by EXALTED, BLESSED, NOBLE AND AN
AWAKENED MIGHTY GREAT MIND
Sharp ReactionTo The
Desecration Of The EXALTED, BLESSED, NOBLE AND AN AWAKENED MIGHTY GREAT MIND’s
Statue
EXALTED, BLESSED, NOBLE AND AN AWAKENED MIGHTY GREAT MIND
Was a super sentient
being of the universe, who gave the message of humanism, compassion. Kindness,
truth, non-violence peace and fraternity to the mankind. Bahanji Ms Mayawati,
the Original Inhabitant of Jambudvipa, that is the Great Prabuddha Bharath
sharply opposed the demolition of two massive statues of such a super sentient
being, which were world heritage, as also desecration of other memorabilia of
His in the Bamian province of Afghanistan under a proclamation of the violent
and fundamentalist Taliban Government.
As the national
Vice-President of BSP, former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and an MP, she
convenedaprès conference at her Delhi residence on March
3, 2001 and said that mere condemnation of this heinous act by the Central
Government will not do. The Government should treat this issueseriously and arrive at a firm decision to
take it up at the international level.
Addressing media persons, she said Lord EXALTED, BLESSED, NOBLE AND AN
AWAKENED MIGHTY GREAT MIND is our ideal, who gave the message of humanism to
the world. His is a religion in which all are equal.
That is why our ideal and the messiah of ORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF
JAMBUDVIPA, THAT IS THE GREAT PRABUDDHA BHARATH, Baba Saheb Dr. Ambedkar after
a study of all religions arrived at the conclusion that his downtrodden society
could get a status of religious equality only within the right path shown by
the EXALTED, BLESSED, NOBLE AND AN AWAKENED MIGHTY GREAT MIND’s religion. That
is why at Nagpur in Maharashtra, on October 14, 1956 took Diksha and returned
back to the original path shown by the EXALTED, BLESSED, NOBLE AND AN AWAKENED
MIGHTY GREAT MIND.Several lakhs of ORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF JAMBUDVIPA, THAT IS
THE GREAT PRABUDDHA BHARATH followed his example and along with him they also
got initiated, which is a continuous process.
It is not only Baba Saheb
Ambedkar, but many countries in the world which believe in the right path shown
by the EXALTED, BLESSED, NOBLE AND AN AWAKENED MIGHTY GREAT MIND practice that
path. Statues of a sentient being like Lord EXALTED, BLESSED, NOBLE AND AN
AWAKENED MIGHTY GREAT MIND are being demolished on a large scale by the violent
regime of Taliban and BSP condemned it.
On March 2, the Central Government got a motion of condemnation passed
in Parliament, but it was her submission to the Central Government that the
tallest statues of EXALTED, BLESSED, NOBLE AND AN AWAKENED MIGHTY GREAT MIND in
Bamiyan are being demolished on a big scale. Merely a statement by the Government
about it will not serve any purpose.It is the responsibility of the Government
to take the initiative of raising the issue at the International level and
seeking a diplomatic solution to it.. Merely, a statement that it is being
condemned at International level and India also condemns is altogether
inadequate. Therefore, it is our submission that this alone will not serve any
purpose. It is the responsibility of the Central Government to take the
initiative for raising the issue at the international level and make efforts to
stop the Taliban immediately from carrying out its misdeed.
However, she believed that the people with a distructive bent of mind
will never like the EXALTED, BLESSED, NOBLE AND AN AWAKENED MIGHTY GREAT MIND
because they have a separate and uncivilised culture. Buddhists areORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF JAMBUDVIPA, THAT IS
THE GREAT PRABUDDHA BHARATH and its culture. Whether it is selfe-styled Chief
of Taliban, Mulla Mohammed Omar, Chengiz Khan of Mangolia, former Prime Minsiter,
Indira Gandhi, the Prime MinisterMr.
Vajpayee and his associates, RSS, Bajrang Dal or Vidhva Hindu Parishat, they
all are the same category.
THIS IS BECAUSE THE WAY THE SELF-STYLED Chief of the Taliban, Mul;la
Omar is possessed with a madness to demolish the 2000 years old world heritage,
EXALTED, BLESSED, NOBLE AND AN AWAKENED MIGHTY GREAT MIND statues, Chengiz Khan
of Mangolia was also possessed with a similar madness. But it is said that
these statues of EXALTED, BLESSED, NOBLE AND AN AWAKENED MIGHTY GREAT MIND were
so massive that like the Taliban the Mangol army used mortar and cannons but
could not destroy these statues. They could only chip away some bits under the
feet of the statues, which are 175 feet high and massive and have been carved out
of a massive hill. They are unique. Today, if the Taliban government succeeds in damaging of
the statues more than the Mongolian army did, they are not going to be covered
with any glory. The whole world is condemning those holding responsible
position in Taliban Government.They
should know that this brutal act of theirs is nothing better than banging one’s
against stone, but what can they do? Those who cannot think of anything good
start banging their gheads against stone. These EXALTED, BLESSED, NOBLE AND AN
AWAKENED MIGHTY GREAT MIND ststues have done no harm to them. But can you
destroy the ideas of the EXALTED, BLESSED, NOBLE AND AN AWAKENED MIGHTY GREAT
MIND by breaking and desecrating these statues ?Never.
Similarly, the formerPrime
Ministers Indira Gandhi and Atal Bihari Vajpayee chose the day of EXALTED,
BLESSED, NOBLE AND AN AWAKENED MIGHTY GREAT MIND’s Jayanti (birth anniversary –
May 18, 1974 and May 11, 1998) for carrying out atomic explosions and the code
word “Buddha Smiles” was used to convey the success of these explosions.
When the entire world knows that the EXALTED, BLESSED, NOBLE AND AN
AWAKENED MIGHTY GREAT MIND gave the message of humanism, compassion, kindness,
love, truth non-violence, peace and fraternity, how can he smile at atomic
explosion ?
This can be the smile of only those with violent bent of mind, who
always entertain violent, destructive and inhuman thoughts. If such a work was
carried out by taking the name of the EXALTED, BLESSED, NOBLE AND AN AWAKENED
MIGHTY GREAT MIND, was it not akin to insulting MahatmaEXALTED, BLESSED, NOBLE AND AN AWAKENED
MIGHTY GREAT MIND in the same way as the Taliban government is doing by
demolishing His statues ?
History is witness to the fact that the Invader rulers who came from
central Asia were not any less than the
Taliban chiefs and Chengiz of Mangolia. Mrs. Indira Gandhi during her regime in
1984 issued the order for firing rockets and cannon balls at the Golden Temple
of the Sikhs and Hindu Chiefs of the then Prime Minister Vajpayee’s associate
organizations, RSS, Vishva Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal demolished the Babri
Mosque of the Muslims, which was condemned all over the world and was a blot on
Indian democracy.
But it needs to be thought what message these people with violent bent
of mind want to give to the world with their inhuman acts? And after succeeding in their object of committing such
barbaric acts how can they spend their life in peace?
It is, therefore, necessary to tell these people with barbarian
mentality that the awakened people of today will never forgive the people with
such a violent frame of mind. History is witness to the fact that the people
with such a mentality have always met with utter ruination. Today also they are
bound to be ruined.
Of all the other religions in the world, the RIGHT PATH SHOWN BY
EXALTED, BLESSED, NOBLE AND AN AWAKENED MIGHTY GREAT MIND is the most renowned,
old and first PATH devoted to the welfare for all sentient and non-sentient
beings. Even now there are many countries in the world following the RIGHT PATH
SHOWN BY EXALTED, BLESSED, NOBLE AND AN AWAKENED MIGHTY GREAT MIND. The Taliban
have tried to disfigure and demolish the statues of the EXALTED, BLESSED, NOBLE
AND AN AWAKENED MIGHTY GREAT MIND, which are massive rock structures, but the
RIGHT PATH SHOWN BY EXALTED, BLESSED, NOBLE AND AN AWAKENED MIGHTY GREAT MIND
is living and will always live. Destructive tendencies can never harm EXALTED,
BLESSED, NOBLE AND AN AWAKENED MIGHTY GREAT MIND but what a sorry fate befell
the Taliban government is known to all of us.
And now the Maitreya Buddha
Statue is to be another gem added to this crow. The statue is a
veritable temple-skyscraper that will contain 17 individual shrine
rooms. The highest room at 140 meters high — the equviliant height of
the 40th storey of a standard
building. This statue and complex will be a fusion of Indian and
Tibetan architectural styles that will adhere to ancient Vaastu Shastra
design code and will also hold the world’s largest collection of Lord
Buddha’s relics. ^
A cutaway view of the 152 meter Maitreya statue and throne building
showing the spaces and levels within. Note that the throne itself will
be a 17 storey fully functional temple, with 15 additional shrine rooms
in the the body of the Maitreya statue.
^ Maitreya Project engineers on-site
Mayawatiji govt in UP is all set to build the world’s Tallest
Buddha statue, this is an uplifting project in various means. First it
would help heal the sabotaged buddhists/dalits/Ambedkarites, second, it
would bring tourism industry at a big level to UP through which the
state can benefit in economic and social changes, it would help peace
and better living of people in this area by following Buddha’s
path……….it is a great idea and project. If done, this would just
uplift the BSP itself and it’s supremo to further higher level in the
world of Buddhism and good humans.
which is not just a statue but an academy to uplift the poor, one and all.
From correspondents in Uttar Pradesh, India, 03:33 PM IST
Decks are being cleared for the installation of the world’s tallest Buddha statue in Kushinagar town of eastern Uttar Pradesh.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati was understood to have directed officials to speed up
the acquisition and transfer of 600 acres of land required for the
Rs.10 billion project to be funded and undertaken by the global Maitryi
group. Proviuion of land is UP government’s share in the project.. The
project involves installation of a 152-metre-tall bronze statue of Lord
Buddha along with a giant meditation centre, an international
university, a state-of-art world-class hospital and a museum. The
project also envisages an entertainment complex in the neighbourhood
that would include an amusement park and a five-star hotel.
UP
Chief Secretary Prashant Kumar Misra presided over a high level meeting
of state officials, in which representatives from Maitryi were present
here Monday. A presentation on the project was made. Significantly, the
project was initiated during the previous tenure of Chief Minister
Mayawati in 2003, after which it was put on the backburner during the
Mulayam Singh Yadav regime. ‘Since then, it had been hanging fire, so
we decided to revive it after Maitryi officials approached us,’ Misra
told IANS. He said: ‘Of the 600 acres required for the project, we need
to acquire only about 300 acres while the rest is government land.
‘The
government had already started the acquisition process. The whole
project would not involve any major displacement of people and not more
than 70-80 farmers would be involved,’ he said.
‘We have worked out a handsome rehabilitation package for the farmers who would get displaced on account of the project.’
^ A view of the temple from the gardens surrounding the site
^ A View from the Maitreya Project Park
All of these features will be set in beautifully
landscaped parks with meditation pavilions, beautiful water fountains
and tranquil pools. All of the buildings and outdoor features will
contain an extensive collection of inspiring sacred art.
The Living Wall:
Surrounding the Maitreya Buddha statue is a
four-storey halo of buildings called the “Living Wall.” This ring of
buildings contains accomadation for the complex’s monks and workers as
well as rooms for functions ancillary to the statue and throne building.
The wall also serves two additional important
functions. In light of cross-border Islamist terrorist attacks against
Indian holy sites in Ayodhya, Akshardham and Jama Masjid, the Living
Wall also is designed to be a security cordon eqivalent to a modern
castle wall, staffed with security personnel and designed to withstand
an attack from 200 heavily armed raiders.
^ Prerendering of the Statue showing the location of the living wall, main gate, paths and garden areas
The final major function it
performs is that of the boundary for the enclosed sanctuary area of
landscaped gardens, pools and fountains for meditation directly
surrounding the Maitreya statue. The entry to the enclosed sanctuary
and the Maitreya statue will be serviced by a main gate.
^ The tree and stupa lined paths to the ceremonial gate, which is the entrance to the sanctuary.
The Statue of the Maitreya Buddha
The center of the Maitreya Project, of course, is the bronze plate statue of the Maitreya Buddha itself. Rising 500ft/152m in height, the statue will sit on a stone throne temple building located in an enclosed sanctuary park.
Passing the ceremonial gate, landscaped paths allow devotes to do Pradakshina (circumambulation) of the Maitreya Statue.
^ The terraced circumambulation paths, with the gate in the background.
Within the sanctuary, the gardens provide a place for
relaxing, resting, and meditating, with educational artwork depicting
the Buddha’s life.
^ A view towards the statue from one of these stupa lined terraces.
Walking further inward, the is Maitreya Statue and
Throne Temple, surrounded by tranquil ponds and fountains that will
cool the area in the intense Indian summer.
^ The Maitreya statue and throne surrounded by the tranquil ponds containing Buddha statues of the meditation sanctuary.
The Throne Temple:
The “seat” of the statue is itelf a fully functioning 17-storey temple roughly 80m x 50m in size.
The building will contain two very large prayer halls, as well as
meditation and meeting rooms, a library and facilities to deal with the
anticipated annual influx of 2 million visitors.
^ The entrance to the throne building with the Maitreya Buddha statue resting upon the lotus on top
Pilgrims will enter the throne temple through the
giant lotus that supports the Maitreya Buddha statue’s feet. The throne
temple contains several entrance rooms that contain works of art on the
Buddha’s life and teachings.
^ The first major prayer hall of throne building, containing works of art on the Buddha.
Continuing inward is the cavernous main auditorium of
the Maitreya Temple containing the Sanctum Sanctorum which in Indian
architectural tradition is the innermost most sacred room where the
actual shrine is held. This Sanctum Sanctorum is unique in that within
it contains two large auditorium temples.
The first temple in the Sanctum Sanctorum is the Temple of the Maitreya Buddha, containing a huge, 12 meter tall statue of the Buddha.
^ Upon entering the Sanctum Sanctorum, the 12 meter tall statue of the Buddha can be glimpsed.
A wall containing 200,000 images of the Buddhas rises
up to the throne ceiling over 50 metres above, behind both auditorium
temples.
^ A glimpse from the ambulatory of the side walls within the Maitreya Temple and the 1,000 paintings of the Buddhas.
The centerpiece shrine of the Maitreya Temple is the
12 meter tall Maitreya Buddha. Stairs and elevators lead to viewing
platforms around the Maitreya Temple, allowing views of the entire room
^ A view of the Maitreya Buddha statue and the wall of the 200,000 images of the Buddha, seen from viewing platforms.
The next biggest shrine in the Sanctum Sanctorum is the Temple of the Shakyamuni Buddha
which contains a 10 meter statue of the Shakyamuni (Historical) Buddha.
Behind the shrine is the continuation of the wall of 200,000 Buddhas.
^
On a higher level yet again, the Shakyamuni Temple will house a 10
metre (33 ft.) statue of the historical Buddha. The glass rear wall
will reveal the wall of 200,000 Buddhas within the Maitreya Temple.
^ Another view of the Shakyamuni Temple.
In Indian architecture, the Sanctum Sanctorum is
encircled by a pathway that allows devotees to do Pradakshina
(circumambulation) of the shrine. The Maitreya Temple, following this
tradition, also has this feature.
^
The main throne building and Pradakshina path where visitors may
circumambulate Sanctum Sanctorum of the Maitreya Temple, which can be
seen through the doorways on the right
From this area, elevators and staircases will carry
visitors to the various other rooms in the 17 storey base, including
prayer halls, meditation halls and libraries. Eventually conveying devotees to a large rooftop garden terrace upon which the Maitreya Buddha statue actually rests.
Here, rising into the upper legs of the main statue, is the Merit Field Hall
with a 10 meter, 3-dimensional depiction of over 390 Buddhas and
Buddhist masters at it’s center. Surrounding this will be 12 individual
shrine rooms devoted to particular deities in the Hindu-Buddhist
pantheon.
^ The Merit Field Hall with its 10m, 3-D depiction.
From the garden terrace, another bank of elevators
will whisk pilgrims to the higher shrine rooms contained in the
statue’s torso and head.
-=—-=—=–
The Statue:
The statue will contain 15 individual shrine rooms
and have a total height of 152 meters, with the highest shrine room in
the statue’s head, at over 140 meters up. This is roughly equivalent in height to a 40-storey skyscraper.
^ A cutaway diagram of the statue-tower.
The statue is itself an engineering marvel. Rather than simply be designed in its massive size, the statue of the Maitreya Buddha was actually reversed-designed from a carved statue only a meter and half in height and the structure’s engineering extrapolated into its current form.
^
The original statue from which the Maitreya Buddha statue tower is
extrapolated from was hand carved, and is in the Indian Gupta style.
Moreover, the statue is designed to stand for at least 1,000 years,
supporting the Project’s spiritual and social work for at least a
millennium. Due to the statue’s millenia-passing lifespan, the huge
structure is designed to withstand high winds, extreme temperature
changes, seasonal rains, possible earthquakes and floods and
environmental pollution.
Extensive research has gone into developing
“Nikalium”, the special nickel-aluminum bronze alloy to be used for the
outer ’skin’ of the statue designed to withstand the most challenging
conditions that could conceivably arise.
As the bronze ’skin’ will expand and contract
dramatically due to daily temperature changes, the statue will require
special expansion joints that were designed to be not only invisible to
the observer, but also in such a way as to protect the internal
supports of the statue from water leakage, erosion and corrosion. The
material and structural components of the statue are meant to be able
to withstand potential unforseen disasters like earthquakes and monsoon
flooding.
^ The engineering process of the Buddha statue.
—–==–=–==—–
Construction Status — June, 2007
The Maitreya Project recently passed its first major
milestone this month, when, in compliance with the Indian Land
Acquistion Act, the State Government of Uttar Pradesh has completed the
necessary legal requirements for the acquisition of the 750 acre land
site to be made available to the Project.
While there are still permissions and clearances to be obtained, it has now officially given the green light and the full support of the government.
It is expected that the Project will formally break ground either later this year or early 2008, with an expected construction time of five years. The project will employ more than a thousand skilled and semi-skilled workers in the construction phase.
—–==–=–==—–
For more information on this fantastic project, check out
Sorry for the length of the post, but I wanted this
veritable essay to be a comprehensive introduction to what Maitreya
Project organizers aim to literally be the 8th Wonder of the World, and
an everlasting symbol of Religious Syncretism, Tolerance, Compassion
and most of all, Love.
A cause truely fitting of the Buddha, Shakya Muni Sri Siddharth Gautamaji.
Lucknow: Decks are being cleared for the installation of the
world’s tallest Buddha statue in Kushinagar town of eastern Uttar
Pradesh.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati was understood to have
directed officials to speed up the acquisition and transfer of 600
acres of land required for the Rs 10 billion project to be funded and
undertaken by the global Maitryi Group. Provision of land is UP
government’s share in the project.
For more news, analysis click here>> | For more Science and Medicine news click here >>
The project involves installation of a 152-metre-tall bronze
statue of Lord Buddha along with a giant meditation centre, an
international university, a state-of-art world-class hospital and a
museum. The project also envisages an entertainment complex in the
neighbourhood that would include an amusement park and a five-star
hotel.
Nowra to get its own Kung Fu temple: Australia
Sat, 2006-06-10 08:25 — ABN
The more I read about this temple, the less I like it. See also this. ABN _______________
There will be a three-tier temple complex, with two pagodas,
500-room hotel, a 500-place kung fu academy. There’ll be some
residential subdivision, a 27-hole golf course, herbal medicine, herbal
gardens, acupuncture, special massage, and that’s about it.
AM - Saturday, 10 June , 2006 08:24:30 Reporter: John Taylor ELIZABETH JACKSON: It’s probably the most famous temple in the world.
China’s Shaolin Temple has been made famous through books, films, and TV, because of its legendary kung fu fighting monks.
Now, the Zen Buddhist temple is looking to build another home for its monks, outside Nowra in New South Wales.
A deal to purchase 1,200 hectares will be signed in China today, as our Correspondent, John Taylor, reports.
JOHN TAYLOR: In the history of kung fu, there is no other place like the Shaolin Temple.
The 1,500-year-old Zen Buddhist monastery in central China
is home to fighting monks, made famous in modern times on the big and
small screen.
If things go to plan, the monks may be about to set up a lavish home away from home, just south of Nowra.
Greg Watson is Mayor of the Shoalhaven City Council.
GREG WATSON: There will be a three-tier temple complex, with two pagodas, 500-room hotel, a 500-place kung fu academy.
There’ll be some residential subdivision, a 27-hole golf
course, herbal medicine, herbal gardens, acupuncture, special massage,
and that’s about it.
JOHN TAYLOR: Today in central China’s Henan province Mayor
Watson and the Temple’s Abbott are to sign off on the monks’ purchase
of a 1,200 hectare property south of Nowra.
Patrick Peng is the Abbott’s representative in Australia.
PATRICK PENG: The Shaolin of course is very well known in
China itself, so he like to take this opportunity to try to introduce
the Shaolin legacy, the heritage to the rest of the world, through
another outlet.
JOHN TAYLOR: The NSW Government is still to give final
approval to the project. But speaking in Beijing yesterday, Mayor Greg
Watson wasn’t expecting a fight.
GREG WATSON: What happened was, I heard via a Member of
Parliament, that the Abbott was looking for a potential location to
establish the second Shaolin temple in the world, somewhere in
Australia, and I said have I got a deal for the Abbott?
JOHN TAYLOR: Who says religion and big business can’t mix?
The Shaolin Temple already has a performance touring the world, featuring the impressive skills of its fighting monks.
The Abbott’s man in Australia, Patrick Peng, says Shaolin is not just about kung fu.
PATRICK PENG: You know, it’s culture.
JOHN TAYLOR: Well can you have the two together, a tourist attraction and a functioning temple?
PATRICK PENG: Oh yes, in fact, on the contrary. Nowadays
many religions, not only just Buddhism, Daoism, they’re all trying to
make themselves more relevant to the modern world, and really they’re
not exclusive, they’re not just men in the caves, you know.
So what they’re trying to do is to share the philosophies and the lifestyle, the healthy lifestyle, to the world.
ELIZABETH JACKSON: Patrick Peng, who represents the Abbott
of the Shaolin Temple in Australia, ending that report from John Taylor.
Uttar Pradesh to have world’s tallest Buddha statue
March 25th, 2008 - 3:37 pm ICT by admin
Lucknow, March 25 (IANS) Decks are being cleared for the
installation of the world’s tallest Buddha statue in Kushinagar town of
eastern Uttar Pradesh.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati was understood to have directed
officials to speed up the acquisition and transfer of 600 acres of land
required for the Rs.10 billion project to be funded and undertaken by
the global Maitryi group.
Proviuion of land is UP government’s share in the project.
The project involves installation of a 152-metre-tall bronze
statue of Lord Buddha along with a giant meditation centre, an
international university, a state-of-art world-class hospital and a
museum. The project also envisages an entertainment complex in the
neighbourhood that would include an amusement park and a five-star hotel.
UP Chief Secretary Prashant Kumar Misra presided over a high
level meeting of state officials, in which representatives from Maitryi
were present here Monday. A presentation on the project was made.
Significantly, the project was initiated during the previous
tenure of Chief Minister Mayawati in 2003, after which it was put on
the backburner during the Mulayam Singh Yadav regime.
“Since then, it had been hanging fire, so we decided to revive it after Maitryi officials approached us,” Misra told IANS.
He said: “Of the 600 acres required for the project, we need to acquire only about 300 acres while the rest is government land.
“The government had already started the acquisition process.
The whole project would not involve any major displacement of people
and not more than 70-80 farmers would be involved,” he said.
“We have worked out a handsome rehabilitation package for the farmers who would get displaced on account of the project.”
UP to have world’s tallest Buddha statue
Published: Wednesday, 26 March, 2008, 08:05 AM Doha Time
LUCKNOW: World’s tallest Buddha statue will be installed in Kushinagar town of eastern Uttar Pradesh. Chief
Minister Mayawati has asked officials to speed up acquisition and
transfer of 600 acres of land required for the Rs10bn project to be
funded and undertaken by the global Maitryi group. The state
government will give the land for the project which involves
installation of a 152m tall bronze statue of Lord Buddha along with a
giant meditation centre, an international university, a state-of-art
hospital and a museum. The project also envisages an entertainment
complex in the neighbourhood that would include an amusement park and a
five-star hotel. Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary Prashant Kumar Misra
presided over a high level meeting of state officials, in which
representatives from Maitryi were present here on Monday. A
presentation on the project was made. The project was initiated during the previous tenure of Mayawati in 2003, after which it was put on the backburner. “Since then, it had been hanging fire, so we decided to revive it after Maitryi officials approached us,” Misra said. “Of
the 600 acres required for the project, we need to acquire only about
300 acres while the rest is government land,” he said.- IANS
From correspondents in Uttar Pradesh, India, 03:33 PM IST
Decks are being cleared for the installation of the world’s tallest Buddha statue in Kushinagar town of eastern Uttar Pradesh.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati was understood to have
directed officials to speed up the acquisition and transfer of 600
acres of land required for the Rs.10 billion project to be funded and
undertaken by the global Maitryi group.
Proviuion of land is UP government’s share in the project.
The project involves installation of a 152-metre-tall bronze
statue of Lord Buddha along with a giant meditation centre, an
international university, a state-of-art world-class hospital and a
museum. The project also envisages an entertainment complex in the
neighbourhood that would include an amusement park and a five-star
hotel.
UP Chief Secretary Prashant Kumar Misra presided over a high
level meeting of state officials, in which representatives from Maitryi
were present here Monday. A presentation on the project was made.
Significantly, the project was initiated during the previous
tenure of Chief Minister Mayawati in 2003, after which it was put on
the backburner during the Mulayam Singh Yadav regime.
‘Since then, it had been hanging fire, so we decided to revive it after Maitryi officials approached us,’ Misra told IANS.
He said: ‘Of the 600 acres required for the project, we need to acquire only about 300 acres while the rest is government land.
‘The government had already started the acquisition process.
The whole project would not involve any major displacement of people
and not more than 70-80 farmers would be involved,’ he said.
‘We have worked out a handsome rehabilitation package for the farmers who would get displaced on account of the project.’
Population : 14,000 Distance : 55km from Gorakhpur
¤ Kushinagar - A Site of Buddhist Parinirvana
Situated
in Deoria district of eastern Uttar Pradesh, Kushinagara was a small
town in the days of the Buddha. But it became famous when the Buddha
died here, on his way from Rajgir to Sravasti. His last memorable words
were, “All composite things decay. Strive diligently!” This event is
known as the ‘Final Blowing-Out’ (Parinirvana) in Buddhist parlance.
Since then the place has become a celebrated pilgrim centre. It was the
capital of the kingdom of the Mallas, one of the 16 Janapadas (see
Sravasti).
¤ Places of Interest
Muktabandhana Stupa The
Muktabandhana Stupa was built by the Mallas just after the Buddha’s
death. It is built over the sacred relics of the Buddha himself. The
Stupa is also known as Ramabhar Stupa and is 50 ft tall. It is believed
that the Stupa was built on the spot where the Buddha was cremated.
Nirvana Stupa 1km west of the Muktabandhana Stupa is the
Nirvana Stupa that was built in the days of Ashoka. It was renovated in
1927 by the Burmese Buddhists. In front of the Stupa is the
Mahaparinirvana Temple in which is installed a colossal sandstone
statue of the Buddha in the reclining position. It was built by the
Mathura school of art and was brought to Kushinagar by a Buddhist monk
named Haribala during the reign of Kumaragupta (c. a.d.415-454).
Kushinagar
Kushinagar
Once in Kushinagar, it appears that time has
come to a complete halt. This sleepy town, with its serenity and
unassuming beauty, absorbs visitors into a contemplative mood. It is
this place that the Buddha had chosen to free himself from the cycles
of death and life and, therefore, it occupies a very special space in
the heart of every Buddhist. Location Kushinagar is situated in
the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, 51 km off Gorakhpur. The
place, which is famous for the Mahaparinirvana (death) of Lord Buddha,
has been included in the famous Buddhist trail encompassing Bihar,
Uttar Pradesh, and Nepal. Kushinagar is also known as Kasia or
Kusinara. The founder of Buddhism, Lord Buddha passed away at this
place near the Hiranyavati River and was cremated at the Ramabhar
stupa. It was once a celebrated center of the Malla kingdom. Many of
its stupas and viharas date back to 230 BC-AD 413. when its prosperity
was at the peak. The Mauryan emperor Ashoka added grandeur to this
place by getting the magnificent statue of Buddha carved on a single
piece of red sandstone. Fa Hien, Huen Tsang, and I-tsing, the three
famous Chinese scholar travelers to India, all visited Kushinagar.
With the decline of Buddhism, however, Kushinagar lost its
importance and suffered much neglect. It was only in the last century
that Lord Alexander Cunningham excavated many important remnants of the
main site such as the Matha Kua and Ramabhar stupa. Today, people from
all over the world visit Kushinagar. Many national and international
societies and groups have established their centers here.
Climate Like other places in the Gangetic plain, the
climate of Kushinagar is hot and humid in the summers
(mid-April-mid-September) with Maximum Temperature touching 40-45°C.
Winters are mild and Minimum Temperature in December can go down
to around 5°C. Monsoon reaches this region in June and remains here
till September
Population Around 22,35,505 people live here
Language Hindi and Bhojpuri
Places of Interest
Mahaparinirvana Temple The
Mahaparinirvana temple (also known as the Nirvana temple) is the main
attraction of Kushinagar. It is a single room structure, which is
raised on a platform and is topped by a superstructure, which conforms
to the traditional Buddhist style of architecture. The Mahaparinirvana
temple houses the world famous 6m (19.68 ft) long statue of the
reclining Buddha.
This statue was discovered during the excavation of 1876 by
British archaeologists. The statue has been carved out from sandstone
and represents the dying Buddha. The figures carved on the four sides
of the small stone railing surrounding the statue, show them mourning
the death of Lord Buddha. According to an inscription found in
Kushinagar, the statue dates back to the 5th century AD. It is
generally believed that Haribala, a Buddhist monk brought the statue of
the reclining Buddha to Kushinagar, from Mathura during 5th century,
during the period of the Gupta Empire.
Nirvana Stupa The Nirvana stupa is located behind the
Mahaparinirvana temple. British archaeologists discovered this brick
structure during the excavation carried out in 1876. Subsequent
excavations carried out by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI)
unearthed a copper vessel, which contained the remains of Lord Buddha
apart from precious stones, cowries and a gold coin belonging to the
Gupta Empire. The copper vessel bore the inscription that the ashes of
Lord Buddha had been interred here.
Mathakuar Shrine The Mathakuar Shrine is an interesting
place to visit in Kushinagar. It is located near the Nirvana stupa. A
statue of Buddha made out of black stone was found here. The statue
shows Buddha in the Bhumi Sparsha mudra (pose in which Buddha is
touching the earth with his fingers). It is believed that Lord Buddha
preached his last sermon here before his death.
Ramabhar Stupa The Ramabhar Stupa (also known as the
Mukutabandhana stupa) is a 14.9 m (49 ft) tall brick stupa, which is
located at a distance of 1 km from the Mahaparinirvana temple. This
stupa is built on the spot where Lord Buddha was cremated in 483 BC.
Ancient Buddhist scriptures refer this stupa as the Mukutabandhana
stupa. It is said that the Malla rulers, who ruled Kushinagar during
the death of Buddha built the Ramabhar stupa.
Modern Stupas Kushinagar has a number of modern stupas
and monasteries, which have been built, by different Buddhist
countries. The important shrines worth visiting are the Chinese stupa
and the IndoJapan-Sri Lankan Buddhist Centre.
Kushinagar Museum The Kushinagar Museum (Archaeological
Museum) is located near the IndoJapan-Sri Lankan Buddhist Centre. The
museum has a collection of artefacts like statues, carved panels etc
excavated from various stupas and monasteries in Kushinagar and places
around it.
Excursion
Gorakhpur Fifty-one kilometers
off Kushinagar is Gorakhpur, an important city of eastern Uttar
Pradesh. At Gorakhpur is the Rahul Sanskrityayan Museum, which has an
excellent collection of Thanka paintings and relics of the Buddha. The
water sports complex at Ramgarh Tal Planetarium and the Gorakhnath
Temple in the city are also worth a visit.
Kapilavastu (Piprahwa) Situated 148 km from Kushinagar
and is an important Buddhist pilgrimage. Kapilavastu was the ancient
capital of the Sakya clan ruled by Gautama Buddha’s father.
Lumbini Situated in Nepal at a distance of 122 km from
Gorakhpur, Lumbini is the birthplace of Lord Buddha. There are regular
buses to the Nepalese border, from where the remaining 26 km has to be
covered by private vehicles
How to get there
Airport The nearest airhead is located at Varanasi from where one can take flights to Delhi, Calcutta, Lucknow, and Patna.
Rail Kushinagar does not have a railway station. The
nearest railway station is at Gorakhpur (51 km), which is the
headquarters of Northeastern Railways and linked to important
destinations. Some important trains to Gorakhpur are
Bombay-Gorakhpur-Bandra Express, New Delhi-Barauni-Vaishali Express,
Cochin-Gorakhpur Express, Shaheed Express, Amarnath Express, and
Kathgodam Express.
Road Kushinagar is well connected to other parts of the
state of Uttar Pradesh by bus. The distances from places around are :
Gorakhpur (51 km), Lumbini (173 km), Kapilavastu (148 km), Sravasti
(254 km), and Sarnath (266 km), and Agra (680 km).
BUDDHIST HEARTLAND
Enlightening Odyssey
It
was a prediction that set it off. Terrified that his son might one day
renounce the world to become a great seer, King Suddhodhana of the
Shakyas, a small kingdom in the Terai region of Nepal, shielded the
young Prince Siddhartha from the evil of the world by keeping him
within the confines of his palace, in the embrace of material comforts
and loving care. From his very birth in 623 BC, in a garden at Lumbini
close to the Shakya capital of Kapilavastu, portent’s revealed that the
young man’s fate was sealed for higher things than dealing with the
earthly concerns and the business of a king.
It was chance too that rolled the dice in
favour of the spiritual world, and Prince Siddhartha was a willing pawn
when he rejected his regal life. It was an amazing journey that would
transform the deeply troubled prince into the great Buddha, the
Enlightened One, culminating in his release from the endless cycle of
rebirths, at Bodhgaya in Bihar. His great quest would become the core
of an important religious movement.
Buddhism - Charismatic Formula
For kings and commoners, criminals and
courtesans, Buddhism had the power and strength to transform their
lives forever. This is beautifully illustrated in the legendary
commitment to Buddhism of King Ashoka, after the bloody battle of
Kalinga in Orissa. The great king was enthusiastic in spreading the
Buddha’s message of peace and enlightenment across the length and
breadth of his vast empire, reaching from present day Afghanistan,
Pakistan, India and Bangladesh.
Buddhism was to travel from its home in India’s eastern
Gangetic region of Bihar, Bengal and Orissa to encompass Sri Lanka and
the countries of South East Asia, then onto the Himalayan countries of
Bhutan, Nepal and Tibet, even far-flung Central Asia, China and Japan,
under the umbrella of royal patronage and the dedication of its vast
community of monks, teachers and artists.
The essence of Buddhism is embodied in the concept of the 4
noble truths and the 3 jewels (Buddha, Dharma, Sangha) via the 8-fold
path to salvation and peace Anticipating his death in his 80th year
Buddha urged his followers, especially his chosen disciples, to
continue his work after his imminent Mahaparnirvana the attaining of
nirvana (enlightenment). As a reminder of his difficult journey and its
ultimate goal, he prevailed upon them to visit the four important
places that were the cornerstones of his great journey - Lumbini,
Bodhgaya, Sarnath, and Kushinagar.
The spread of Buddhism down the centuries was to leave in
its wake a wealth of symbolic structures, including sculpted caves,
stupas (relic shrines), chaityas (prayer halls) viharas (monasteries),
mahaviharas (universities) and numerous art forms and religious
literature. The arrival of Guru Padamasambhava, in the 8th century, was
a major impetus in the spread of Buddhism in the Himalayan region.
Today, both pilgrims and tourists can enjoy the special
appeal of these myriad experiences, in the Buddhist Heartland of
Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, and Nepal. From the moment of his birth, his
teachings, spiritual struggle, attainment of enlightenment, great
meditations, and message of peace and non-violence, are as relevant to
our life and times as it was in his day.
Buddhism - Jewels of the Lotus
Almost a hundred years later there emerged
various schools of Buddhist thought evolving somewhat from the Buddha’s
original precepts. The most prominent amongst these were the Mahayana
School, the Theravada School (based on the old Hinayana School) which
flourished in Sri Lanka and established itself quite quickly in many
South East Asian countries, and the Vajrayana School with its Tantric
features, which spread to the Himalayan regions of Bhutan, Nepal and
Tibet.
Lumbini, Sarnath, Bodhgaya and Kushinagar
are the primary pilgrimage places associated with the life and
teachings of the Lord Buddha. There are numerous other sites where the
Buddha and the saints that followed travelled during his life after his
transformation, which are held in deep veneration. Visitors can travel
through this Buddhist Heartland today, to savour the splendid beauty
and great appeal of Buddhism.
FOOTSTEPS OF LORD BUDDHA
The greatest impetus to Buddha’s teachings
came from the Indian King Ashoka who went on a great pilgrimage
visiting the important sites that are directly associated with his
life, in the Footsteps of Lord Buddha. Primary amongst these holy
places are Lumbini in Nepal, and Bodhgaya, Sarnath and Kushinagar in
India. The international Buddhist community has been active in
supporting these important religious centres. There are other places of
lesser significance on the Footsteps of Lord Buddha visitor circuit
associated closely with Buddha’s life. Amongst these are Buddha’s
monsoon retreats of Vaishali, Rajgir and Sravastii in India, and his
early home at Tilaurakot in Kapilavastu Nepal.
Primary Patronage
Lumbini. Lumbini in southern Nepal is where
Queen Mayadevi gave birth to Prince Siddhartha. It is just a short
distance from the Shakya capital of Kapilavastu. Pilgrimages focus on
the sacred garden which contains the site of the birth, the Mayadevi
temple, the Pashkarni pond and the Ashoka pillar. Designed by Japanese
architect Kenzo Tange, the sacred garden of Lumbini is a World Heritage
Site with monasteries from many Buddhist nations. It is recognised as a
supreme pilgrimage site and symbol of world peace.
Bodhgaya. It was in Bodhgaya in Bihar, India
that Prince Siddhartha found Enlightenment (nirvana) under the bodhi
tree after meditating for 49 days. No longer a bodhisattva (mentor), he
became Lord Buddha, the Enlightened One.
Primary points of homage are the Mahabodhi
Temple, the Vajrasan throne donated by King Ashoka, the holy Bodhi
Tree, the Animeshlochana chaitya, the Ratnachankramana, the
Ratnagaraha, the Ajapala Nigrodha Tree, the Muchhalinda Lake and the
Rajyatna Tree. The spiritual home of all Buddhists, devotees from many
Buddhist countries have built temples around the complex in their
characteristic architectural styles. Bodhgaya today is a vibrant and
inspiring tourist attraction.
Sarnath. Buddha gave his first sermon at
Sarnath after achieving enlightenment, about 10 km from the ancient
holy city of Varanasi. The sermon, setting in motion the wheel of the
teaching (dharamchakrapravartna) revealed to his followers the 4 noble
truths, the concept of the 3 jewels of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha via
the 8 fold path, for inner peace and enlightenment. It was here that
the Buddha established his first disciples (sangha) to promote his new
doctrine. The splendid Dhamekha Stupa at Sarnath was originally erected
by King Ashoka, as was the famous lion capital pillar, now the proud
symbol of India.
Kushinagar. At Kushinagar close to Gorakhpur
in eastern Uttar Pradesh, India en route to Kapilavastu, Lord Buddha
fell ill and left this world in 543 BC. His mortal remains were
preserved in eight commemorative chortens, and then further distributed
by King Ashoka into 84,000 stupas across his kingdom and beyond.
Important places to see here are the Mukatanabandhana stupa and the
Gupta period reclining Buddha statue in red sandstone.
Mobilising Mantras & Sutras
The Buddha preached his last sermon before
his death at Vaishali in Bihar, 60 km away from its capital Patna. It
was here that he told his disciple Ananda about his imminent demise.
The Second Buddhist Council was held in Vaishala about 110 years later.
About 70 km from Bodhgaya, Rajgir was
Buddha’s monsoon retreat for 12 years whilst he spread his doctrine. It
was at the holy Griddhikuta Hill that he expounded the precepts of his
Lotus Sutra and the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra. The Saptaparni Caves
set on Vaibhar Hill were the venue of the First Buddhist Council, held
to compile the teachings of the Buddha in its authentic form, after his
death. The world-renowned university of Nalanda is another important
landmark site.
About 150 km from the city of Lucknow in
Uttar Pradesh, Shravasti was Buddha’s favourite rainy season retreat
where he Buddha performed his first miracle.
The Ties That Bind
Around Lumbini in Nepal are seven other
pilgrimage sites. The first thirty years of Buddha’s life were spent at
Tilaurakot in Kapilavastu in his father’s home, 27 km west of Lumbini
in Nepal. The well-preserved city foundations are evocative of former
times, and the casket recovered from the original stupa is preserved in
the nearby museum. About 34 km northeast of Lumbini is Devdaha whose
Koliya people are considered to be the maternal tribesmen of the
Buddha. The forest of Sagarhawa lies northwest of Niglihawa. Another
important site is the stupa at Kudan, 5 km from Tilaurakot, where
Buddha’s father King Suddhodhana met him after his enlightenment.
LIVING BUDDHISM
The trans-Himalayan regions of Bhutan,
India, and Nepal are strongly rooted in the Buddhist faith. In
Dharamsala, in the Kangra Valley, lives his Holiness the 14th Dalai
Lama, spiritual leader of all Tibetan Buddhists. Visitors can enjoy
Living Buddhism experiences throughout the region, whether as a student
of Buddhism, meditation and yoga, or as a layperson attracted by the
vibrant culture, people and festivals.
Eastern Himalayas-The Lotus Blooms Still
Kathmandu Valley is an important Buddhist
pilgrimage circuit with 15 major sites. It is a living center of
Buddhist learning with many new monasteries and schools that attract
funding and visitors from all over the world. The most important Living
Buddhism sites are Swayambhunath and Bodhnath stupas, both with strong
links to Tibet. Protected as World Heritage Sites, they are the most
revered spiritual sites in the country, attracting thousands of
pilgrims. Many of the indigenous Newar people of Kathmandu practice a
unique form of Buddhism, unrelated to Tibet.
In the northern regions of Nepal, Tibetan
Mahayana Buddhism continues to flourish and there are many monasteries
and sacred sites. Many of these are in Mustang and Dolpa districts. The
important monasteries Thyangboche, Thame, Chiwong and Thupten Choeling
are in the Everest region of Solu Khumbu.
In the Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan, HM the
King is considered equal in status to the religious leader, the
Jekhenpo. The depth and vibrancy of the Buddhist faith is reflected in
everyday life. Devotees revere Guru Padmasambhava as the second Buddha.
Bhutan’s monastery fortresses (dzongs) are an integral feature of
governance, and the repository of precious treasures of ancient
literature, scriptures and art. The great dzongs of Thimphu, Paro,
Punakha and Wangdi Phodrang, amongst many others, offer a fabulous
journey for both pilgrim and tourist to explore Bhutan’s colourful
history and spiritual splendour. An added temptation for the visitor is
the fabulous repertoire of cultural activities associated with the
Kingdom’s renowned festivals (tsechus).
A short distance from Paro is the renovated
Taktsang monastery, the venerated location of Guru Rimpoche’s
(Padmasambhava) deep meditation before subduing evil demons. Kyichu
Lakhang in Paro and Jambay Lakhang in Bhumtang are amongst Bhutan’s
most important and oldest Buddhist sites. The famous tsechu festivities
are marked by prayers and religious dances, colourful costumes,
morality tales, and invocations of protection against evil forces.
Dungtse Lakhang is reputed for its fabulous collection of religious
paintings .The spectacular Punakha dzong is the winter seat of the
monkhood, and houses numerous sacred artifacts and important temples.
Living Buddhism flourishes in northern
India, home of the Dalai Lama. Set amongst the splendid heights of the
Eastern Himalayas in Arunachal Pradesh is the remote Tawang Monastery.
Amongst the native inhabitants, the Monpas and the Sherdupkens people
keep alive the Buddhist faith from ancient times. This 17th century
monastery is the largest of its kind in India and the second largest in
Asia. The hill town of Bomdila offers local handicrafts and religious
artifacts, and ancient monasteries
Other North East states also have Buddhist
attractions. In the shadow of Mt Khangchendzonga, Buddhism flourishes
in the sacred landscape of Sikkim which is dotted with 107 monasteries
and many sacred stupas. Amongst the most important are Rumtek, the home
of the Kagyupa sect, Pemayangtse, Tashding and Enchey. The monastery at
Chungtang marks the footprint of Guru Padamasambhava when he rested en
route to Tibet. Recently, the world’s tallest statue of Guru Rinpoche
has been erected at Namchi. The people celebrate their faith during the
chaam (masked) dances at the great festivals.
Surviving Buddhist Enclaves
Bangladesh is now largely Muslim, but the
country has important pockets of Buddhist communities that date back to
the 7th century, especially in the region of Chittagong, the Chittagong
Hill Tracts, Cox’s Bazaar, Noakhali and Barisal. There are at least 50
Buddhist settlements surviving from the 8-12th century in the
Mainamati-Lalmai range at Tipera, Laksham and Comilla
ART AND ARCHAEOLOGY
The great journey of Buddhism throughout its
2,500-year history has manifested itself in a profusion of creative
energy in its art, archaeology and architecture. These include
beautifully painted holy caves, statues and sculpted heads, bas
reliefs, mandalas, thangkas (religious paintings) and frescos, stupas
and chortens, fine chaityas, viharas, mahaviharas and temples that
offer the traveller cross-border cultural pickings that are as
enriching as they are moving.
The earliest form of Buddhism had no
iconoclastic roots. Buddha himself was regarded as a teacher not a God.
When Buddha attained nirvana he was represented only in the form of
symbols such as the lotus, the bo (peepul) tree, and the wheel.
Buddha as an icon emerged through the
influence of the Mahayana School of Buddhism, and the mystical and
highly symbolic Tantric form of the Vajrayana School. Vajrayana culture
flourished at Bodhgaya, Nalanda and Vikramshila around the 8-9 BC.
Buddhist Nalanda enjoyed the patronage of several dynasties of kings
but was annihilated by the Turks in the 12th century. Tantric ritual
and mysticism relied heavily on sutras and tantras - secret practices
linked with the mandala (magical diagram). It saw the inclusion of
occult concepts woven intricately into the rapidly expanding pantheon
of Buddha images of gods and goddesses.
The Dharma and the Kings of old Bengal
Bangladesh enjoyed the fruits of early
Buddhist thought and art. Buddhism received enormous support during the
Pala, Chandra and Deva rulers, devout Buddhists, who were responsible
for erecting a cavalcade of commemorative monuments. Amongst them was
the important university of Paharpur, now archaeological remains about
300 km from Dhaka. Along with Nalanda University in Bihar, India it was
an important centre of Buddhist teaching. Other important archeological
sites in Bangladesh are at Mahastangar, Comila, Mainamati, and Ramu.
Pillars, Sculpted Caves and the Pledge of a King
The earliest form of Buddhist architecture
is visible in the sculpted caves, monastic retreats that were in effect
temples of great spirituality. The caves at Udaygiri, Ratnagiri and
Lalitagiri in Orissa and the Barabar caves in Bihar are an excellent
example of how the art form developed. At Dhauli, the site of the great
battle of Kalinga fought by King Ashoka, 8 km from Bhubaneswar, stands
Ashoka’s rock edict revealing his pledge to become a Buddhist.
Stupas, Chortens, Chaityas, Viharas and Dzongs
The splendour of the stupas at Sarnath,
Bodhgaya, Bodhnath, Nalanda and other important Buddhist sites are an
evocative message of Buddha’s teachings. The Dhamekha stupa at Sarnath
is a cylindrical structure dating to the golden age of the Guptas (320
AD). It features the typical floral design on stone of Gupta
workmanship. Nepal’s Swayambhunath features traditional Nepalese
architectural design with its tall steeple mounting the dome,
representing the 13 Buddhist heavens.
Chortens and viharas, stupas in miniature,
were originally meant to preserve the relics of the Buddha or great
Buddhist teachers. Excellent examples of the early viharas were those
at Vaishali, Rajgir and Shravasti. Some of the most powerful
mahaviharas were Nalanda and Vikramshila in Bihar, India and Paharpur
in Bangladesh.
In Bhutan the great dzongs were ideal for
keeping precious Buddhist treasures and also as monastic retreats
thanks to their isolation and invincibility. These imposing structures
with their tapering walls, courtyards and galleries have been created
with traditional designs handed down verbally from generation to
generation, No nails mar their creation.
Buddhist Centres of Learning
With the advent of the Mahayana school, the
world-renowned university of Nalanda became an important centre for
Buddhist learning, along with Pahapur, attracting scholars from around
the known world. Nalanda enjoyed the patronage of several dynasties of
kings but was annihilated by the Turks in the 12th century. It’s an
amazing experience walking across the vast grounds of the ruins with
its great stupa and other monastic structures.
Sculptures & Paintings - Messengers of the Buddha
The first images of Buddha were formed at
Gandhara and show decidedly Hellinistic features (defined by drapery
and hairstyle) due to the trade and cultural links with Mediterranean
Europe at the time. With the emergence of the Mathura school, close to
Agra, the features of the Buddha became more indigenous, inspired by
the traditional yakshis and yakshas sculptural forms. In Bhutan, and
Nepal the elements of the highly symbolic Vajrayana Buddhist style of
iconography, so popular in the 10th-11th century, were however
discontinued around the 14th century in exchange for a less complex
range of artistic vision but which still retained its vibrancy and
colourful splendour.
The massive Mahasthangarh archeological
remains (240 km from Dhaka) throw light on the development of Buddhist
art and architectural leanings in Bangladesh. This fortified city of
the 3rd century BC, extending over an 8 km radius, is the earliest
documented urban civilization of Bangladesh. Within easy reach are the
Buddhist ruins of Govind Bhita, Gokul Medh Stupa and the Vasu Vihara
monastery. The greatest collection of early Pala sculptures have been
found in the Paharpur monastic complex at the central temple of the
renowned Somapura Mahavihara.
At the tomb of Saint Shah Sultan Mahi Swar
Balkhi, were discovered 40 bronze statues representing Buddhist
deities, and terracotta plaques with scenes from the Ramayana. The
Mainamati Museum houses an extensive range of finds from these Buddhist
sites. The Salban Vihara in the Mainamati-Lalmai hills has a complex of
115 cells around a central courtyard with its cruciform temple facing
the gateway complex, resembles the Paharpur monastery. Kotila Mura
houses three stupas representing the holy Trinity of Buddhism - the
Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. From Rupban Mura was recovered an early
standing Buddha in abhaya mudra.
The yellow-bronze statuary of Bhutan
reflects influences in bronze-casting from the craftsman who settled
here from the eastern Tibetan province of Kham, in the 16th century.
Bhutanese painters are still sought after to decorate religious
buildings all over the region.
The splendid innovation in the use of colour
and expressive elements of Buddhist art down the ages is amply recorded
in the fabulous thangkas or religious paintings of Bhutan, Nepal, Tibet
and the trans-Himalayan regions of India. Objects of veneration and an
aid to meditation, thangkas are traditional scroll paintings on cotton
cloth with vegetable and precious mineral dyes. Buddhas, Boddhisatvas,
Taras and numerous estoteric subjects reflect the artist’s vision of
his Buddhist world. Embellishments with the lotus motif and themes from
the Jataka Tales (lives of the Buddha) are a recurring form of imagery
and inspiration for paintings.
The fantastic range of Buddhist art and
archaeology in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal, carries the visitor
on a splendid journey that marks some of the most evocative and dynamic
aspects of the Buddhist faith. Time and tide have worked upon the
measures of the emerging artistic trends, but at the core of it remain
the Buddha’s basic tenets - of self-discipline and balance as a means
to the ultimate goal of the human being - the release from the endless
cycle of rebirth-pain and suffering and finding the great peace.
Giant Face-lift of World’s Tallest Buddha Statue
2001.04.18 16:25:03
CHENGDU, April 17 (Xinhuanet) – Looking through the cobweb-shaped
platforms wrapped around the head and chest of a 71 meter-tall
seated Buddha statue, the backs of repair experts’ are seen while
they are busy painting dark-red clay, which will be the new
lipstick on the Buddha’s huge mouth. Like a slow motion, another expert with a safety rope is sent
down in mid-air from the base of the 8 meter-long middle finger of
the statue’s left hand to the statue’s 8.5 meter-high flat instep
of the left foot, where 100 people could sit. This is just one scene of an ongoing facelift project on the 1,
280 year-old Buddha statue in Leshan, a city in southwest China’s
Sichuan Province. Carving of the Buddha started in 713 A.D. and was completed in
803 A.D., in the prosperous period of the Tang Dynasty (618-907). The statue was included in the World Cultural Heritage List
under the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO) in 1996. The Buddha statue, which sits on a cliff overlooking the
merging of the three rivers: Minjiang, Qingyijiang and Daduhe. The
statue is 71 meters from top to bottom and 28 meters from left to
right. It is 18 meters higher than the standing Buddha statue at
Bamian Valley, Afghanistan, once thought to be the highest of its
kind in the world. Over the past 1,000 years, erosion has become a major threat to
the statue. Owning to damage by natural environment changes and
human activities, six major repairs on the giant Buddha statue
have been carried out since ancient times. Before the largest repair project, which was initiated early
this month, Xinhua reporters visited the famous sitting Maitreya,
which looked in need of immediate repair and attention. ”Some coiled bobs on the head of the statue fell down, weed
coated on its surface rocks, and the face was darkened,” the
reporters recalled. But the reporters visited it again this week and it looks very shiny and new after two weeks of repair. The 1,000 color-faded bobs on the Buddha’s head have been
painted black, the drainage system has been dredged and the big
crack going from the right eye to the back of its head has been
fixed. ”The crack use to cause the Buddha to burst into tears on rainy
days,” said Zeng Zhiliang, an engineer of ancient architecture,
who climbed up onto the 10-story-high statue everyday to conduct
repair work. When the reporters followed Zeng to have a closer look and
touch the Buddha’s cheek, they could feel the smoothness and
brightness of the repaired surface of its’ face. The black spots on the face of the Buddha, caused by erosion have disappeared after a thorough cleaning,” Zeng said. At the Buddha’s neck, which 60 meters high from the base of the
statue, an expert is using a small hammer to carefully knock
mantlerocks, rocks which have become loose on the statue due to
erosion, away from the statue surface. With a safety rope, the
expert is crouching in the narrow space of the platform
constructed around the statue. After knocking it free, he has to use a brush and water to wash
the spot and piece it up with repair material. To achieve the
perfect result, this procedure has to be repeated three or four times. According to Zeng, the experts also take photos on the
mantlerocks in order to set up archives on the statue’s original
form and the repair work done. The most difficult parts in the face-lift are the giant facial
features, Zeng said, for example, the Buddha’s nose is the
combined size of several persons. ”If there is no accurate technique and skills, harmonious proportionment can be hardly realized,” he told the reporters. Tourists to the statue are also interested in asking questions about the repair work. ”How do you mix the face color of the Buddha,” asked Ney Johnn, a German tourist. Zeng’s answer is that the statue was carved out of red gritstone and covered by skin-color clay. ”Why don’t you use chemical paint as my country did on some historical relics?” Johnn said. Natural repair material, in the same color of the statue, is
being used, Zeng said, adding that it is a mixture of rocks,
charcoal, hemp and lime. This is in accordance with China’s law on cultural relics that chemical materials or cement are banned for repairing relics. Chinese leaders have paid close attention to the repair work.
The repair plan was made by the State Administration of Cultural
Heritage and seven universities and related cultural relics
protection research institutes across China. The face-lift project has aroused great attention at home and
overseas. The UNESCO has sent experts to the repair site, the
World Bank has provided considerable loans and foreign media
coverage with Time magazine and New York Times being contacted to
cover the event. A massive petition signing has been staged here to call for
efforts to be made to protect the statue. So far, more than 10,000
tourists signed their names on a scroll of silk 71 meters long. The Buddha statue management center said the drive has received
a donation of over 300,000 yuan (about 36,000 US dollars) from
people from all walks of life. The first phase of the repair work will be completed by the end
of April. An additional investment of 250 million yuan (about 30
million US dollars) will be used for the further repair on the
statue as well as a number of projects to build roads and highways
and control pollution in the area. Experts suggested that the statue should be inspected and
repaired every five years after this project is completed. Enditem
^ A prerendering of the Maitreya Buddha statue and temple, showing its massive
International Early Birds Brotherhood Multipurpose Cooperative Society
(IEBBMCS)
For
The Welfare and Ultimate Bliss of Entire Mighty Great Minds
The Blessed,
Noble,Awakened Mighty Great Mind once said, ‘When the ruler of a
country is just and good, the ministers become just and good; when the
ministers are just and good, the higher officials become just and good;
when the higher officials are just and good, the rank and file become
just and good; when the rank and file become just and good, the people
become just and good.
He said
that immorality and crime, such as theft, falsehood, violence, hatred,
cruelty, could arise from poverty. Kings and governments may try to
suppress crime through punishment, but it is futile to eradicate crimes
through force..
He suggested
economic development instead of force to reduce crime. The government
should use the country’s resources to improve the economic conditions
of the country. It could embark on agricultural and rural development,
provide financial support to entrepreneurs and business, provide
adequate wages for workers to maintain a decent life with human dignity.
He had
given to rules for Good Government, known as ‘Dasa Raja Dharma’. These
ten rules can be applied even today by any government which wishes to
rule the country peacefully. The rules are as follows:
1) be liberal and avoid selfishness, 2) maintain a high moral character, 3) be prepared to sacrifice one’s own pleasure for the well-being of the subjects, 4) be honest and maintain absolute integrity, 5) be kind and gentle, 6) lead a simple life for the subjects to emulate, 7) be free from hatred of any kind, 8) exercise non-violence, 9) practise patience, and 10) respect public opinion to promote peace and harmony.
Regarding the behavior of rulers, He further advised:
-
A good ruler should act impartially and should not be biased and
discriminate between one particular group of subjects against another. - A good ruler should not harbor any form of hatred against any of his subjects. - A good ruler should show no fear whatsoever in the enforcement of the law, if it is justifiable. -
A good ruler must possess a clear understanding of the law to be
enforced. It should not be enforced just because the ruler has the
authority to enforce the law. It must be done in a reasonable manner
and with common sense. —
’If
a man, who is unfit, incompetent, immoral, improper, unable and
unworthy of kingship, has enthroned himself a king or a ruler with
great authority, he is subject to be tortured‚ to be subject to a
variety of punishment by the people, because, being unfit and unworthy,
he has placed himself unrighteously in the seat of sovereignty. The
ruler, like others who violate and transgress moral codes and basic
rules of all social laws of mankind, is equally subject to punishment;
and moreover, to be censured is the ruler who conducts himself as a
robber of the public.’
It is mentioned that a ruler who punishes innocent people and does not punish the culprit is not suitable to rule a country.
The
king always improves himself and carefully examines his own conduct in
deeds, words and thoughts, trying to discover and listen to public
opinion as to whether or not he had been guilty of any faults and
mistakes in ruling the kingdom. If it is found that he rules
unrighteously, the public will complain that they are ruined by the
wicked ruler with unjust treatment, punishment, taxation, or other
oppressions including corruption of any kind, and they will react
against him in one way or another. On the contrary, if he rules
righteously they will bless him: ‘Long live His Majesty.
His
emphasis on the moral duty of a ruler to use public power to improve
the welfare of the people had inspired Emperor Asoka in the Third
Century B.C. to do likewise. Emperor Asoka, a sparkling example of this
principle, resolved to live according to and preach the Dhamma and to
serve his subjects and all humanity. He declared his non-aggressive
intentions to his neighbors, assuring them of his goodwill and sending
envoys to distant kings bearing his message of peace and
non-aggression. He promoted the energetic practice of the socio-moral
virtues of honesty, truthfulness, compassion, benevolence,
non-violence, considerate behavior towards all, non-extravagance,
non-acquisitiveness , and non-injury to animals. He encouraged
religious freedom and mutual respect for each other’s creed. He went on
periodic tours preaching the Dhamma to the rural people. He undertook
works of public utility, such as founding of hospitals for men and
animals, supplying of medicine, planting of roadside trees and groves,
digging of wells, and construction of watering sheds and rest houses.
He expressly forbade cruelty to animals.
Aims & Objects
To
enrol membership for IEBBMCS for the welfare and happiness of all the
members in accordance with the Constitution of India through their
empowerment by grabbing the master key for distributing the nations
wealth to benefit all sections of the society.
Distribution of fertile land to all poor farmers with healthy seeds.
Loan
to each and every person who is interested in starting his own business
with proper training on latest and most modern successful Trade
Practices
To train Government servants to serve the society in a most efficient manner without corruption.
To train members to become leaders for excellent governance.
To train all members on “The Art of Giving” for a happy longevity, beauty, prosperity and Authority.
To
create a database of all members with their photos, address, age, and
all other necessary information that will serve as Citizens Identity
Cards.
To help all members to be in the voters list in order to acquire the Master Key. To strive hard to convert the existing three member Chief Election Commission
as
Chief Election Committee, just like any other Parliamentary Committee
representing all sections of the society to ensure that all eligible
voters in the Country are included in the Voters list with their photo
identity for free and fair elections.
To help all members to get genuine Caste Certificates.
To train all members to become media to propagate peace within oneself and harmony with others.
To
train all members on the latest trade practices to make them to earn
more money for the wholesome desire of propagating the Practicing and
the Noble Right path shown by the Blessed, Noble and the Awakened One.
To train and cultivate the habit of early birds
To practice and train on the essential movements of the body, including walking, cycling and swimming for fitness
To practice and train to buy essential qualitative and most economic household articles and commodities
To train to cultivate the best food habits
To train to cultivate the ten disciplines for happy and peaceful life
Through the practice of Noble Eightfold Path
To
train to practice meditation such as Pabajja, Vipassana and Zen
practice for peace and happiness within oneself and harmony with others
to enable to become Great Minds in order to attain the Ultimate Bliss
To enroll minimum two members per street for cultivation of the practice by way of training
Membership Minimum Rs.200 ($100) up to 25% and above of one’s net profit.
C.M. greets people on the birth anniversary of Hazrat Ali
Lucknow: July 16, 2008
The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Ms. Mayawati has greeted the people
of State, especially Muslim brethren on the birth anniversary of Hazrat
Ali. In a greeting message, the Chief Minister said that the messages
for the good of humanity given by Hazrat Ali were still relevant. An
Ideal society could be built by following the path shown by him. She
said that Hazrat Ali message of brotherhood and social harmony was an
inspiration for all. *******
In the right
path shown by The Exalted, Blessed, Noble, Awakened Supreme Human Being with a
Mighty Great Mind (TEBNASHBMGM), the notion of balance is central. The path to
awakenment is never paved with absolutes, but with impermanence, which in
policy terms means that reality is far too changeable to be guided by rules
like those that have come to dominate these debates.
True leadership means finding the balance we have lost. It may thus come down
to this question: What would Buddha do?
Sufficiency
Economy as Part of the National Economic and Social Development Plan
The 10th
National Economic and Social Development Plan still focuses on the “Sufficiency
Economy” philosophy as guidance for the development of Thailand in the next five years.
The main principle of this plan is to create balance and sustainability in all
areas of national development.
The Cabinet on 12 September 2006
approved the 10th National Development Plan, to be implemented from
the 2007 to 2011 fiscal years. Initiated by His Majesty the King, the
Sufficiency Economy philosophy means moderation, reasonableness, and having a
healthy “immune system” to protect each level of society against any impact
caused by external and internal changes. Thailand suffered a great deal from
the 1997 economic crisis and the bursting of the economy. In his address to
well-wishers in an audience on 4 December 1997, His Majesty insisted that
people’s approach to livelihood, trade, and consumption must be changed into a
sustainable type for people to have enough to live on and to be relatively
self-supporting. Even before the 1997 economic crisis, His Majesty began
promoting the Sufficiency Economy philosophy.
The philosophy points the way for
recovery and places emphasis on basic economic development to be carried out
step by step, based on appropriate conduct in every aspect of life, in order to
maintain sustainability. His Majesty’s vision of development has guided Thailand in a
sustainable direction. It serves as insurance against the volatility of the
world economy. At least, the weak and the vulnerable will have some protection,
as everyone is encouraged to live within their means without extravagance.
In the Ninth National Economic and
Social Development Plan, 2002 to 2006, the Sufficiency Economy philosophy was
adopted as the guideline for national development and administration, together
with the “people-centered approach.” According to a report prepared by the
Office of the National Economic and Social Development Board, during the period
of the 10th National Development Plan, Thailand
is likely to face many changes in several contexts. So the country has to be
prepared for new challenges and impacts by strengthening its immune system.
The 10th National Development Plan also continues to emphasize
people as the center of development objectives, as stated in the eighth and
ninth development plans. The vision is that Thailand will strive to become a
“green and happiness society” under the democratic administration with His
Majesty the King as Head of State. In order to achieve this vision, guidelines
for the Sufficiency Economy philosophy will be adopted as the mission of the
plan.
The mission consists of four major principles. The first principle seeks to
develop people into quality citizens with both virtue and knowledge. In the
second guideline, the Thai economy will be strengthened to create more stability
and fairness. The third one seeks to maintain the country’s biodiversity, while
strengthening the natural resource base and enhancing environmental quality.
The fourth principle calls for good governance in national administration.
Five development strategies are included in the 10th National
Economic and Social Development Plan. The first strategy seeks to develop Thai
society into a knowledge-based society, and the potential of Thai people will
be enhanced to enable them to keep pace with the changing world. It focuses on
a peaceful society and maintaining the Thai identity. This strategy will also
prepare for demographic changes resulting from the growing number of older
persons.
In the second strategy, community empowerment will receive greater attention in
order to establish firm foundations for the country. Emphasis will also be
placed on social justice, while promoting processes of learning and maintaining
cultural diversity and Thai wisdom. Community economy will be stabilized and
poverty will be eased.
The third strategy calls for economic restructuring to create equilibrium and
competitiveness during this “Asian century.” In this regard, the Thai economy
will be strengthened, with less dependence on external factors. The country’s
infrastructure, logistics, and energy will be developed together with the
production sector.
In the fourth strategy, Thailand will
be developed on the basis of biodiversity. Communities will be allowed to play
a greater role in natural resource management. Environment-friendly production
and services will get a major boost.
The fifth strategy calls for the
decentralization of administrative power and distribution of resources to the
regional areas of the country. It also focuses on creating a culture of democracy
and encouraging people to participate more in national development.
His Majesty the King
has been advocating the “Sufficiency Economy” development concept for a long
time, as reflected in his speeches. The concept is gaining prominence, and
calls have been made for applying insights from His Majesty’s speeches to
national development and for promoting this concept seriously.
President of the Privy Council and
Statesman General Prem Tinsulanonda urged all sides to pay greater attention to
His Majesty’s words, as they are useful in the solving of economic, political,
and social problems. General Prem made the call in his address at the seminar,
“The Creation of a Learning Society in Accordance with His Majesty’s
Initiatives and Sufficiency Economy Philosophy.” Organized by the Foundation
for International Human Resource Development, the seminar took place on 6 June
2006 at the Chulabhorn Research Institute in Bangkok.
In his address, General Prem quoted
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan as saying that His Majesty’s
development agenda and visionary thinking are an inspiration to his subjects
and to people everywhere. The Secretary-General paid a visit to Thailand in May
2006 to present the United Nations Development Program’s inaugural Human
Development Lifetime Achievement Award to His Majesty the King.
General Prem pointed out that what Mr.
Annan had said was proof that the Sufficiency Economy concept is a modern development
trend and that it is always appropriate. Everyone knows that one of the major
problems faced by Thailand
is poverty. He believes that the Sufficiency Economy philosophy is an effective
way to help ease the poverty problem. His Majesty’s speeches provide good
answers to all problems. They are full of wisdom and will be useful for Thais,
if put into action.
In another statement, to the high-level
panel “His Majesty the King and Human Development,” at the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs in Bangkok
on 26 May 2006, General Prem said, “To me, therefore, the story of His
Majesty’s lifelong work is very much a story of promoting human development.
Sixty years ago, at His Majesty’s coronation in 1946, His Majesty articulated
his overriding goal: ‘We shall reign with righteousness for the benefit and
happiness of the Siamese people.’ Those words encapsulate the commitment of His
Majesty to placing the people of Thailand at the very heart of His
reign and at the center of his initiatives.
“Throughout the six decades since then,
these words of commitment have been reflected in deeds. His Majesty has visited
every province of the Kingdom to learn first hand the challenges facing the
people and to help. I still recall the pioneering visit made by Their Majesties
the King and Queen of Thailand
to the impoverished Northeast in 1955. Over the course of 22 arduous days, the
Royal Couple visited villages and cities, talking to ordinary people and civil
servants, learning of their problems and concerns. Since then, such visits have
become a regular feature of his reign. Countless royal initiatives followed to
bring development to people in the most remote corners of the Kingdom. The
Chaipattana Foundation was established to provide initial financial support for
development projects. The Royal Project introduced crop substitution to the
tribal people living along Thailand’s
borders with Laos and Myanmar. His
Majesty’s development learning centers served as venues for experimentation
with new crops that would enable farmers to enjoy more productive crop yield.
In all of these initiatives, the focus has always been on what the people need.
In His Majesty’s words, ‘In working out
a program, to help people, it is necessary to know the people that you intend
to help.’ I wish to reflect on what I see are His Majesty’s key guiding
principles imparted to the Thai people in pursuing their lives and development.
“First, His
Majesty has always emphasized the importance of moderation in pursuing one’s
life. The ‘Middle Path,’ when practiced at the level of individuals, families,
and communities, as well as collectively in pursuing a balanced national
development strategy, will provide a firm foundation to face the challenges of
today’s globalized world. It is reflected in His Majesty’s ‘Sufficiency
Economy’ which, though practiced for a long time, gained prominence in the
aftermath of the 1997 financial crisis. Sufficiency Economy involves applying
moderation in all human endeavors. It lessens our appetite for wealth and
wasteful consumption. It does not advocate isolationism but facilitates
smoother integration into the global economy. And it helps strengthen the moral
fiber of the nation by promoting honesty and integrity.
“Second, there
is a need for people to have perseverance to face hardships and suffering.
Whatever challenge to human security that an individual faces, it can be
overcome. But one needs to work hard. This applies to development. There is no
quick fix for any problem, no easy way to get at a solution. We need to rely on
ourselves first. Lord Buddha once taught over two millennia ago that ‘Thou art `thine
own refuge.’ That is why His Majesty’s royal initiatives have been oriented to
‘helping people to help themselves.’
“Third, people should maintain their
individuality — in identifying problems and in choosing solutions. It
presupposes freedom of choice for the individual. But it also suggests that
choices be made wisely. This requires that people have a keen sense of
awareness. At the same time, people should be willing to make sacrifices to
help the community, village, or country, to contribute to the common good. We
can have both. His Majesty once said, ‘To act for the common good does not mean
that everyone must make sacrifice what can be sacrificed in order for the whole
to survive.’
“And fourth, people should cherish the
sense of being Thai. We are an old nation of rich cultural heritage and a
wealth of collective wisdom accumulated over many generations. The Thai people
should not only be proud of this — they should seek to make use of this local
knowledge in earning their living. Knowledge from the outside world is also
important. Nevertheless, His Majesty urges prudence in the application of
knowledge, from whatever source. We should be more selective in what we seek to
embrace.
“His Majesty has been called a Working Monarch by some, a Development King by
others. But in the center of his heart lies the people of Thailand. That
is why our beloved monarch, the Soul of the Nation, has always been and will
always be the leading force for human development in this country.”
His Majesty the King
has adopted the principle of simplicity based on the laws of nature and a
self-supporting economy. His philosophy of “Sufficiency Economy” has become a
major inspiration, which provides the people with a proper way to lead their
lives and improve their livelihood.
Secretary-General of the Chaipattana
Foundation Dr. Sumet Tantivejkul said His Majesty had remarked that people
today consumed an excessive amount of natural resources. If this situation
continued, it would be difficult for future generations to survive. Dr. Sumet
quoted His Majesty as urging people not to destroy nature, as they would be
severely affected by natural destruction, as seen from frequent natural
disasters taking place in various parts of the world.
He said that simplicity and
self-sufficiency have been found in most projects initiated by His Majesty the
King. For example, in replanting forests, His Majesty instructed the growing of
three types of wood. The first one is hardwood for building houses and making
tools. The second type involves trees with edible fruit for food production.
The last one is fuel wood, which
includes mainly fast-growing trees. He has also encouraged the growing of
herbal plants.
According to Dr. Sumet, His Majesty the
King has suggested that Thai people turn to Sufficiency Economy to achieve
equitable and stable development, which is often referred to as sustainable
development. Sufficiency Economy means having enough to survive and to lead a
reasonably comfortable life without extravagance. This concept will help
improve the welfare of the people and their quality of life. In the past, the
United Nations measured the prosperity of a country in monetary terms, but
today emphasis is placed on the people’s quality of life.
Numerous speeches delivered by His
Majesty the King have urged the people to use wisdom in developing the country.
He once said that it was highly important to encourage and help people earn
their living and support themselves with adequate means, because those who were
gainfully employed and self-supporting would be capable of contributing
positively to higher levels of development.
Dr. Sumet also said that economic growth offers a good opportunity for only a
small group of people, if no emphasis is placed on income distribution. The
country’s early economic and social development plans followed foreign patterns
and focused mainly on gaining profits and bringing in earnings, without taking
into account income distribution for the nation as a whole.
It is time now for Thailand to
stand on its own feet and use His Majesty’s speeches as a guiding light in
their lives. He said that competition in development might lead to battles for
natural resources, such as a fight for energy or water. The darkness of
globalization would be evident and cause troubles, if people did not stop
taking excessively from others.
He added that the Sufficiency Economy
philosophy, initiated by His Majesty, should be an alternative development path
for Thai people, who must adopt it without the fear of falling off the global
train. He saw no use in catching a train that might take people to their own
destruction.
The Sufficiency Economy concept is connected with His Majesty’s “New Theory” in
agriculture. Its essence is efficient management in land use, aimed at
maximizing benefits for farmers from small plots of land, while supplying them
with enough water to last the entire year. The recommended method is for
farmers to divide their land into four different sections. Each would have
different purpose. The first 30 percent would be a pond to store seasonal rain.
The second 30 percent would be for rice growing to meet the family’s
consumption needs. The third 30 percent would be to grow other crops for
consumption and a source of income. The last 10 percent would be for building a
home, animal pens, and a rice barn.
His Majesty once said that he had
devised the New Theory so that people would be in a position of
self-sufficiency in agriculture. In 1989, he authorized the Chaipattana
Foundation to buy a plot of land surrounding Wat Mongkhol Chai Pattana in SaraburiProvince to serve as a demonstration
center, where people could learn this theory and try it out.
In this regard, Her Royal Highness
Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn explained that the origin of His Majesty the
King’s New Theory was another good example for conservation and management of biodiversity
and other available natural resources, to enhance food security. The
explanation was given in her address at the Food and Agriculture Organization
Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific on 18
October 2004. She said that the main purpose of this theory is to help small
landholders to increase farm income and food production through the appropriate
division and utilization of land. In their farmland, these small landholders
are encouraged to grow a range of crops, such as rice and horticultural plants.
The New Theory also calls for the establishment of farm ponds for rainwater
harvesting for dry season crops and for fishery promotion.
The Princess said that after the
successful establishment of the demonstration center at Wat Mongkhol Chai Pattana,
farmers in all parts of the country have adopted this technique and have shown
promising results. In all these tasks, His Majesty the King has promoted
environmentally friendly techniques and efficient management of local resources
to increase agricultural productivity and ensure food security.
Members of the press
have been thanked for helping publicize the “Sufficiency Economy” philosophy
more widely among the people. Director-General of the Bureau of the Crown
Property Chirayu Isarangkun Na Ayuthaya said that Sufficiency Economy had
received greater attention since 9 June 2006, which was considered one of the
most joyful days of the Sixtieth Anniversary Celebrations of His Majesty’ s
Accession to the Throne.
Mr. Chirayu spoke about the Sufficiency
Economy concept in his keynote address on the topic “Following in His Majesty
the King’s Footsteps” at a seminar marking the ninth anniversary of the Press
Council of Thailand on 4 July 2006. He said that, with media reports, Thai
people knew that they had made His Majesty the King happy on June 9, when they
showed a deep sense of love and respect for him in one of the largest public
gatherings in Bangkok.
On that day, His Majesty appeared on the balcony of the Ananta Samakhom Throne
Hall to greet crowds of well-wishers outside.
Mr. Chirayu said that many people wanted
this deep feeling they shared during the celebrations to remain forever in
their hearts and minds. In order to keep this feeling, he suggested that Thai
people follow in the footsteps of His Majesty, who serves as a role model for
everyone. His Majesty is an inspiration to all, and if people respond to his
suggestions, Mr. Chirayu believes that Thai society will improve at all levels.
He urged people to adopt the philosophy
of Sufficiency Economy in leading their life and developing the nation at the
macro level. Since 1999, this concept has been accepted widely, because the
Office of the National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB)
incorporated this philosophy into the Ninth National Economic and Social
Development Plan.
Because of the strong tide of
globalization, there is growing concern that the concept may be forgotten. So
in 2003, NESDB formed a subcommittee to promote Sufficiency Economy. The move
has broadened people’s understanding about it. Implementing the principles of
Sufficiency Economy means moderation, economizing, rationalization, and the
creation of “social immunity” for the people. Mr. Chirayu stressed that the
philosophy is an appropriate model for conduct in every aspect of life, and it
could also be applied at the individual and national levels.
He said it is hoped that by 5 December 2007, the Sufficiency Economy philosophy
will be translated into action on a wide scale, as a tribute to His Majesty the
King on the occasion of his 80th birthday anniversary. At the
international level, this concept has been well recognized by the United
Nations, as shown by the conferring of the UNDP Human Development Lifetime
Achievement Award on His Majesty on 26 May 2006 by United Nations
Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
In his remarks
at the International Buddhist Conference in celebration of the United Nations
Day of Vesak at the United Nations Conference Center in Bangkok in May 2006,
Mr. Chirayu explained that the essence of the Sufficiency Economy philosophy
comprises three main elements, namely moderation, knowledge, and resilience
against uncertainties. “Practicing these three elements in your life, guided by
the Buddhist values of integrity, honesty, perseverance and sharing with your
community, can make your life become better step by step in a sustainable way,”
he said.
The “Sufficiency Economy” philosophy advocated by His
Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej is based on the Buddhist principles of
self-reliance, contentment, moderation, and the Middle Path. These are the
principles of Buddhist economics.
The Rector of Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University, Professor
Phra Dharmakosajarn, wrote about Sufficiency Economy and Buddhist principles in
his article “Self-Sufficiency Economy as Advocated by His Majesty the King.”
The article is part of the book A Buddhist Worldview, comprising papers
written by Phra Dharmakosajarn on different occasions and for different
audiences.
It says that,
in order to fight against hunger and poverty, the Buddha gave a set of
teachings, which have become a guideline for Buddhist economics. Following the
Buddha’s teachings on economic issues, His Majesty the King delivered a royal
speech on the self-sufficiency economy to the entire nation in December 1997.
Since then, the principles of the self-sufficiency economy have been followed
by various agencies in Thailand
to rescue the country from the economic crisis.
His Majesty elaborated on the meaning of the word “self-sufficiency” by saying
that it means having enough to live on and to live for. He explained further by
contrasting his concept of self-sufficiency with the meaning of the word
“self-sufficiency” in English.
“Self-sufficiency
in English means that whatever we produce, we have enough for our own use. We
do not have to borrow from other people. We can rely on ourselves; as people
say, ‘we can stand on our own two legs.’ But self-sufficiency carries a broader
meaning. It means having enough and being satisfied with the situation. If
people are satisfied with their needs, they will be less greedy. With less
greed, they will cause less trouble to other people. If any country values this
idea — the idea of doing what is necessary just to have enough, being satisfied
at a moderate level, being honest, and not being greedy — its people will be
happy. “Self-sufficiency does not restrict
people from having much, or from possessing luxurious items, but it implies
that one must not take advantage of others. Everything must be within its
limits. Saying what is necessary, acting just as needed, and working
adequately.”
His Majesty the
King’s advocacy of a self-sufficiency economy encourages the Buddhist
communities in Thailand to return to the main values of Buddhism and to realize
that economic recovery for the country is to be obtained through the study and
practice of the Buddha’s teachings on economic issues. By advocating a
self-sufficiency economy, His Majesty has shown to Buddhist communities that
Buddhism can be relevant to the world today. Moreover, His Majesty has done a
great service for the propagation of Buddhism by translating the Mahajanaka
Jataka into Thai and English, with some modifications to suit contemporary
society. The translation was completed in 1988 and published in 1996. The book
is a bestseller and has become very popular in Thailand.
In The Story
of Mahajanaka, the Buddhist value of perseverance is emphasized. According
to the story, King Mahajanaka practices ultimate perseverance without the
desire for reward, which results in his gaining a throne and bringing
prosperity and wealth to his kingdom. The publication of The Story of
Mahajanaka was timely, as it encouraged the Thai people to endure the
economic crisis and strive for the economic recovery through “pure
perseverance, sharp wisdom, and complete physical health.”
His Majesty’s advocacy of self-sufficiency
economy and his translation of The Story of Mahajanaka have indicated
that Buddhism can be relevant to the world today, if Buddhists study the basics
of the Buddha’s teachings and interpret them with modifications to suit
contemporary society. His Majesty has represented Buddhism as a form of
religious teaching and practice that provides a basis for social, political,
and economic life in the modern world.
The Ministry of
Interior has carried out a project to establish “Sufficiency Economy” model
villages in 75 provinces to solve social and poverty problems in an integrated
manner.
The project is meant to honor His Majesty the King on the occasion of the 60th
anniversary of his accession to the throne. His Majesty’s Sufficiency Economy
concept has received increasing attention, not only in Thailand but
also in the international community. United Nations Secretary-General Kofi
Annan said in May 2006 that His Majesty’s Sufficiency Economy philosophy is of
great relevance to communities everywhere during these times of rapid
globalization.
His Majesty the King emphasized in his royal addresses and speeches on various
occasions development guidelines based on sufficiency, moderation, economizing,
rationalization, and the creation of “social immunity” for the people.
In response to this concept, the Ministry of Interior has formed a committee to
select one village as a Sufficiency Economy model in each province. The
proposed village will show other villages how to translate the Sufficiency
Economy philosophy into action. The objective of the project is to enhance
community empowerment.
A target has been set to create 5,000 Sufficiency Economy model villages in
2006. A model village must be able to reduce expenses and increase income and
savings. Local people must set a good example in pursuing their lives,
preserving natural resources and the environment, and showing care for others.
Provincial governors have been
instructed to use the Sufficiency Economy model village as the center for
knowledge sharing among local people. The project is intended to lead
communities in Thailand
toward sustainable development. With the application of this concept at the
grassroots level, many farmers have found a new sense of empowerment, since
they have become more self-reliant and increased their ability to contribute to
sustainable development.
Ban Bang Saphan in the southern province of Nakhon Si Thammarat is among the
Sufficiency Economy model villages, selected by the Department of Community
Development, Ministry of Interior. The head of this village said that Ban Bang
Saphan was very poor in recent years. Since their rice production was low
because their farms were affected by saltwater, many local villagers turned to
shrimp farming. But they suffered losses when shrimp prices fell, and, to make
matters worse, the quality of their soil had declined. Since applying the
Sufficiency Economy philosophy, however, villagers found that their living and
environmental conditions have improved. Local people have also shared knowledge
and assisted one another in ways that have improved the community and the
people.
In another development, a number of learning centers for the Sufficiency
Economy philosophy have been established in all regions of the country. In the
southern border province of Pattani, a Sufficiency Economy center project was
launched at Ban Phru Chut, Khuan NoriSubdistrict,
in Khok Pho District.
The local people joined hands in setting
up the Ban Phru Chut learning center as a peaceful community to handle the
southern unrest. The project is meant to show their love and unity and their
efforts to counter violence in southern border provinces, which, apart from
Pattani, also include Yala and Narathiwat.
Local government agencies are attaching
great importance to this center to help develop and empower the local
community. At the initial stage, the Southern Border Provinces Peace-Building
Command financed the setting up of the learning center, which consists of a
multi-purpose building. Later, the National Housing Authority constructed a
school building, a sport ground, and a plant-nursing structure for
demonstration.
Inside the center is an agricultural
demonstration plot for women and youth groups to learn about proper
cultivation. Major crops grown in this plot are rubber, watermelon, dugu (or
long-gong), and other kinds of fruit and vegetables. Bio-fertilizers have been
used, instead of chemicals, to increase productivity and for pest control. This
method of farming is expected to increase rubber output by twofold or threefold
in the future.
Similar projects have been launched in
several areas in the South, such as those in Raman District, YalaProvince,
Saba Yoi District, SongkhlaProvince, and Mueang District, NarathiwatProvince.
The Ministry of Agriculture and
Cooperatives and the Ministry of Defense are joining forces in promoting
Sufficiency Economy learning centers to spread proper knowledge to the people,
especially young ones, about His Majesty the King’s concept of Sufficiency
Economy. The demonstration plot at each center is based on the “New Theory,”
initiated by His Majesty. The New Theory puts high priority on human resource
development under the principle of people-centered development by means of
empowerment by and for the people. His Majesty explained that Sufficiency
Economy means having enough to live on and to live for. It would create “social
immunity” for the majority of Thais, who are in the farm sector.
Sufficiency Economy learning centers have become models for organizing various
learning activities to create unity among local people.
Business management
based on His Majesty the King’s “Sufficiency Economy” philosophy will promote
cooperation among businesses for balanced and sustainable growth of the entire
economic system.
Sufficiency Economy is a major concept in the 10th National Economic
and Social Development Plan, 2007 to 2011. His Majesty the King had been
expressing the Sufficiency Economy philosophy as a guideline for Thai people to
lead their lives in speeches more than 25 years before the 1997 economic
crisis. Even after the crisis, he emphasized this way to get through it in
order to maintain a stable and durable existence.
Sufficiency Economy stresses the “Middle
Way” in every aspect of life and applies to
conduct and way of life at all levels. But the question arises as to how much
the Sufficiency Economy philosophy can be applied to private businesses, which,
as everyone knows, focus on making as much profit as possible. In order to get
a clear answer to this question, the Subcommittee on the Sufficiency Economy Drive, under the
National Economic and Social Development Board, has conducted a study on the
application of this philosophy to four different private businesses.
These businesses include a community business, a small and medium-sized
enterprise (SME), a registered company, and a large industrial group. Results
of the study show that the Sufficiency Economy concept can be applied to
business operation and management. The objective is to gain profits in the long
term instead of the short term.
According to the study, a private company adopting this concept usually
emphasizes production for certain groups of customers, rather than for general
clients. It will accept orders for goods in accordance with its capacity, in
order to maintain the quality of products. This company makes profits on a
sharing basis and it does not exploit its customers. It places importance on
long-term partnerships to create confidence and trust and on prompt payment to
staff and suppliers. Part of its profits will be set aside for knowledge
development and social activities.
The company will expand its business
step by step. When it has enough profits, it will no longer seek loans. This
type of company focuses on the field of business in which it has expertise and
maintains the balance of its debt and capital at an appropriate level. With
good understanding about its core competency and key success factors, this
company is flexible in presenting its products in response to the demands of
each group of customers in various periods of time. Moreover, a company based
on Sufficiency Economy uses materials in the production process with great
efficiency. It diversifies both products and markets to reduce risks and
increase savings. It is honest to customers and develops the quality of
products on a continual basis.
Sufficiency Economy will help businesses gain benefits in the long run and
protect them against adverse impacts and risks.
In other news, many countries are interested in His Majesty the King’s
Sufficiency Economy philosophy and have sought to observe development projects
based on this concept in Thailand.
On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of His Majesty’s accession
to the throne, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs organized two study tours for
senior officials from 29 countries to observe Sufficiency Economy as an
alternative development direction. Participating in the study tour from 16 to
20 June 2006 were officials from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Colombia, China, Indonesia, Iran, Kenya, South Korea, Madagascar,
the Maldives, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Tanzania, and Vietnam. The tour took them to the
Huai Hong Khrai Royal Development Study Center and the Royal Project in Doi
Inthanon in Chiang Mai, Kung Kraben Bay Royal Development Study Center in
Chanthaburi, and an organic farm in Chon Buri.
The second study tour took place from 24 to 28 July 2006, with participants
from Bhutan, Botswana, Burkina
Faso, Djibouti,
the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Gambia, Guatemala, Laos, Mali, Nepal, Senegal, and
Timor-Leste. It took them to the Huai SaiRoyal DevelopmentStudy Center in Phetchaburi,
Pasak Jolasid Dam in Lop Buri, and Wat Mongkhol Chai Pattana in Saraburi.
The philosophy of
“Sufficiency Economy,” advocated by His Majesty the King, will be a field of
study at the Faculty of Humanities, Ramkhamhaeng University, in Bangkok.
The Vice Rector for Administrative Affairs, Associate Professor Kim
Chaisaensook, said that the Ramkhamhaeng University Council had recently
approved a liberal arts curriculum in the field of Sufficiency
Economy. Both short-term training and courses for bachelor’s, master’s, and
doctoral degrees in this field will be opened. The objective is to produce
graduates equipped with proper knowledge to help publicize guidelines for
leading a life of Sufficiency Economy among the people and various public and
private organizations.
This field of study will also be included as a compulsory course for all
students. The curriculum is being worked out by experts in this field,
especially those from the Office of the National Economic and Social
Development Board, the Thailand Development Research Institute, and the
Chaipattana Foundation under the patronage of His Majesty the King. When
completed, it will be submitted to His Majesty for granting permission for the
teaching of this curriculum.
According to Associate Professor Kim,
this field of study is in response to His Majesty’s initiative concerning
Sufficiency Economy, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of His
Majesty’s accession to the throne in 2006. It will also promote and support the
application of this philosophy for the benefit of all sectors of society.
He pointed out that many people do not have proper understanding about
Sufficiency Economy. Some think that the Sufficiency Economy philosophy means
going backwards and is involved only in farming. In fact, the concept is
related to conduct of every aspect of life, ranging from the family to the
government levels, and it can include the agricultural and industrial sectors.
The content of the Sufficiency Economy curriculum will focus on improving
knowledge about this concept, and ways that people of all professions and in
all walks of life can translate it into action. Associate Professor Kim said
that the Sufficiency Economy philosophy is the Eastern way of thinking. It is
prominent in its introduction of sustainable development, which can be applied
to various organizations at all levels.
This new course will be integrated with other fields of study, such as
political science, administration, and economics. In the initial stage, it will
be opened as a basic course for undergraduates and short-term training for
interested persons. Later, programs in this philosophy will be fully developed
and opened for a bachelor’s degree and at the graduate level.
American presidential
campaigns are always fraught with all kinds of nonsense, but this year’s takes
the cake. It’s got to be the longest on record. And I don’t know about you, but
I still haven’t recovered from that debacle of a debate in Philadelphia, where
mindless moderators switched back and forth from misinformation (remember
Gibson’s ridiculously claims that increasing the capital gains tax would hurt
the middle class)
to “gotcha” craziness.
One could be thankful, I guess, that most people probably aren’t paying much
attention yet. But soon they will be, and that’s worrisome in the following
sense. Over the Bush years, there has been damaging drift toward absolutism.
You’re with us or against us, diplomacy is appeasement, tax cuts forever, the
axis of evil, markets always work best (and government, worst)…all of these
have become mantras of the right, and McCain appears to be not only carrying
this mantel, but hoisting it even higher.
Certainly, after 9/11, it was hard not to see things in black and white. When
our nation was attacked, the instinct of the body politic was to strike back
hard and fast, without a lot a nuanced analysis. But that was almost seven
years ago, and if anything, our national disparagement of nuance or balance has
gotten to the point where it is clearly blocking our ability to address the
challenges we face, both internal and external.
Here is a brief survey, citing a few policy debates that have fallen prey to
this reductionist thinking, followed by a plea to return some balance to the
system.
Diplomacy Equals Appeasement: Under the Bush/McCain regime,
the ultimate goal of diplomacy is to draw a thick line in the sand between us
and our growing list of enemies, and tarnish–then politically bash–anyone who
considers crossing that line as an appeaser. You then cast such opponents as
naïve and soft, unable to protect us from the evil that lurks in the heart
of…Raul Castro.
Yes, there are some leaders you wrongly legitimize if you sit down with them.
But that list has become far too inclusive. Moreover, when the goal of
diplomacy becomes party politics, the nation is poorly, if not dangerously,
served. Obama and his foreign policy team understand this, and it’s one of the
main reasons we’ll be better off in the world if he’s elected. All Markets, All the Time: The unquestioning allegiance to
market forces has gotten us into all kinds of hot water, and unless we develop
a more balanced view, it’s going to keep boiling. Both the last recession and
the current downturn resulted from bursting bubbles born of deregulatory zeal
and ideologically-induced ignoring of failing market fundamentals.
With impunity, corporate banks kept their riskiest assets off their balance
sheets, so neither investors nor regulators could accurately assess or price
risk. They became dangerously overleveraged; mortgage underwriting became a
shell game, based on the premise that home prices could only move in one
direction.
This market adulation is deeply embedded in conservative health policy. The
goal of Bush’s health care plan–now adopted by McCain–is, in his words, to
get people shopping for health coverage on the open market as they would for tile or
insulation. Yet, as every other advanced economy has recognized, the
provision and delivery of health care cannot be left wholly to unregulated
markets, because they will fail to control costs, under-provide health care to
some, over-provide it to others, and lack the mechanisms to do much about
either.
Tax Cuts Forever: Conservatives since Reagan have worked hard
to reduce the debate over fiscal policy–taxing and spending–to one policy:
tax cuts. Which means, of course, that there is no debate. The idea that you
might ever need or want to raise taxes to meet a social need or even pay for
current spending, like the war, is verboten. Instead, conservative pols show
their mettle one way, and one way only: but cutting taxes even further. McCain
used to reject such thoughtless reductionism. Not
anymore.
As a commentator on CNBC, I hear this view regarding taxes incessantly in
debates with conservative policy types. The idea that the D’s would allow some
of the Bush tax cuts to sunset (a Republican idea, btw–they passed the cuts
that way to hide their real costs) is viewed as economic suicide, since we all
know how badly the economy did in the Clinton years, what with its budget
surplus instead of deficits, and much faster and more evenly shared job and
income growth.
What’s of course missing from the debate is any discussion of what taxes pay
for. A lot of us actually value the role that an amply funded government should
and could play in our lives, from reliable, public infrastructure to guaranteed
pensions and health care (Social Security, Medicare); from the environment, to
safety nets, to protection from the market failures noted above.
Even some
Democrats fall into their own version of this non-debate, urging Clinton
and Obama to campaign on program cuts and deficit reduction instead of
rebuilding the government we need to meet the challenges we face.
Ending the National Stupor: This is merely a smattering of the
important debates that have been shut down by the absolutist agenda: free trade
is all good (or bad), the Iraq war will end either in victory or defeat, we
must support either the economy or the environment, the pressure of gas prices
can only be met by drilling for more oil, versus conserving what we have.
It’s easy to argue that nuance doesn’t play in America, especially at election
time. For years, we’ve been in a kind of national stupor, induced by assurances
that the world is simple: there are good guys and bad guys; good markets and
bad governments; good tax cuts and bad tax increases; lots more good oil but
for the bad environmentalists who would block us from drilling for it.
To maintain that view today misses the opportunity to tap a historically
unique, latent desire for balance in the way we guide our affairs. The very
tangible sentiment of Bush fatigue, from which McCain will fruitlessly try to
distance himself, grows in part out of an awareness that if we care at all
about the world our children are to inherit, the long, national stupor must
end.
In the right
path shown by The Exalted, Blessed, Noble, Awakened Supreme Human Being with a
Mighty Great Mind (TEBNASHBMGM), the notion of balance is central. The path to
awakenment is never paved with absolutes, but with impermanence, which in
policy terms means that reality is far too changeable to be guided by rules
like those that have come to dominate these debates.
True leadership means finding the balance we have lost. It may thus come down
to this question: What would Buddha do?
Prakash Karat meets Mayawati
Gargi Parsai Join hands to take on the Congress-led UPA government on nuclear deal
— PHOTO: R.V. MOORTHY
new strategy: CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat
with Bahujan Samaj Party leader and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister
Mayawati after their meeting in New Delhi on Sunday.
NEW DELHI: Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary
Prakash Karat met Bahujan Samaj Party leader Mayawati here on Sunday,
in a move to take on the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance
government during the trust vote in the Lok Sabha on July 22.
The leaders discussed the India-U.S. nuclear agreement and the
coming confidence vote. Mr. Karat drove to the Uttar Pradesh Chief
Minister’s residence here for the meeting that lasted about 45 minutes.
“We wanted both parties to cooperate in the struggle against the
nuclear deal and on the trust vote in the Lok Sabha,” Mr. Karat said
after the meeting.
Ms. Mayawati reiterated her opposition to the deal. Mr. Karat
appreciated her stand and said the deal was ‘against the country’s
interests.’
“It was decided that there should be cooperation to stop the deal
and in the fight against the UPA government,” said a CPI(M) statement.
This was the first meeting between the leaders after Ms. Mayawati
withdrew her support to the UPA government on account of its ‘failure
to tame inflation,’ followed by the pullout by the Left parties on the
deal.
Assurance
Speaking at a press conference to announce a national campaign by
the Left parties against the deal and the “anti-people” policies of the
government, Communist Party of India leader A.B. Bardhan said he had
been in touch with Ms. Mayawati and she had assured him of her support
during the trust vote.
“Political tool”
He said the CBI had become a “political tool” in the hands of the
government and was being used to “switch on and switch off the
so-called investigations.”
“It is so obvious and the intention is so clear. We have told her
[Ms. Mayawati] that we condemn all such efforts,” Mr. Bardhan said.
Ms. Mayawati charged the government on Friday with “targeting her”
after the CBI filed a counter-affidavit in the Supreme Court in the
“disproportionate assets case” against her. At a press conference here,
she declined to divulge her strategy on the trust vote but made clear
her opposition to the deal.
And now the Maitreya Buddha
Statue is to be another gem added to this crow. The statue is a
veritable temple-skyscraper that will contain 17 individual shrine
rooms. The highest room at 140 meters high — the equviliant height of
the 40th storey of a standard
building. This statue and complex will be a fusion of Indian and
Tibetan architectural styles that will adhere to ancient Vaastu Shastra
design code and will also hold the world’s largest collection of Lord
Buddha’s relics. ^
A cutaway view of the 152 meter Maitreya statue and throne building
showing the spaces and levels within. Note that the throne itself will
be a 17 storey fully functional temple, with 15 additional shrine rooms
in the the body of the Maitreya statue.
^ Maitreya Project engineers on-site
Mayawatiji govt in UP is all set to build the world’s Tallest
Buddha statue, this is an uplifting project in various means. First it
would help heal the sabotaged buddhists/dalits/Ambedkarites, second, it
would bring tourism industry at a big level to UP through which the
state can benefit in economic and social changes, it would help peace
and better living of people in this area by following Buddha’s
path……….it is a great idea and project. If done, this would just
uplift the BSP itself and it’s supremo to further higher level in the
world of Buddhism and good humans.
which is not just a statue but an academy to uplift the poor, one and all.
From correspondents in Uttar Pradesh, India, 03:33 PM IST
Decks are being cleared for the installation of the world’s tallest Buddha statue in Kushinagar town of eastern Uttar Pradesh.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati was understood to have directed officials to speed up
the acquisition and transfer of 600 acres of land required for the
Rs.10 billion project to be funded and undertaken by the global Maitryi
group. Proviuion of land is UP government’s share in the project.. The
project involves installation of a 152-metre-tall bronze statue of Lord
Buddha along with a giant meditation centre, an international
university, a state-of-art world-class hospital and a museum. The
project also envisages an entertainment complex in the neighbourhood
that would include an amusement park and a five-star hotel.
UP
Chief Secretary Prashant Kumar Misra presided over a high level meeting
of state officials, in which representatives from Maitryi were present
here Monday. A presentation on the project was made. Significantly, the
project was initiated during the previous tenure of Chief Minister
Mayawati in 2003, after which it was put on the backburner during the
Mulayam Singh Yadav regime. ‘Since then, it had been hanging fire, so
we decided to revive it after Maitryi officials approached us,’ Misra
told IANS. He said: ‘Of the 600 acres required for the project, we need
to acquire only about 300 acres while the rest is government land.
‘The
government had already started the acquisition process. The whole
project would not involve any major displacement of people and not more
than 70-80 farmers would be involved,’ he said.
‘We have worked out a handsome rehabilitation package for the farmers who would get displaced on account of the project.’
^ A view of the temple from the gardens surrounding the site
^ A View from the Maitreya Project Park
All of these features will be set in beautifully
landscaped parks with meditation pavilions, beautiful water fountains
and tranquil pools. All of the buildings and outdoor features will
contain an extensive collection of inspiring sacred art.
The Living Wall:
Surrounding the Maitreya Buddha statue is a
four-storey halo of buildings called the “Living Wall.” This ring of
buildings contains accomadation for the complex’s monks and workers as
well as rooms for functions ancillary to the statue and throne building.
The wall also serves two additional important
functions. In light of cross-border Islamist terrorist attacks against
Indian holy sites in Ayodhya, Akshardham and Jama Masjid, the Living
Wall also is designed to be a security cordon eqivalent to a modern
castle wall, staffed with security personnel and designed to withstand
an attack from 200 heavily armed raiders.
^ Prerendering of the Statue showing the location of the living wall, main gate, paths and garden areas
The final major function it
performs is that of the boundary for the enclosed sanctuary area of
landscaped gardens, pools and fountains for meditation directly
surrounding the Maitreya statue. The entry to the enclosed sanctuary
and the Maitreya statue will be serviced by a main gate.
^ The tree and stupa lined paths to the ceremonial gate, which is the entrance to the sanctuary.
The Statue of the Maitreya Buddha
The center of the Maitreya Project, of course, is the bronze plate statue of the Maitreya Buddha itself. Rising 500ft/152m in height, the statue will sit on a stone throne temple building located in an enclosed sanctuary park.
Passing the ceremonial gate, landscaped paths allow devotes to do Pradakshina (circumambulation) of the Maitreya Statue.
^ The terraced circumambulation paths, with the gate in the background.
Within the sanctuary, the gardens provide a place for
relaxing, resting, and meditating, with educational artwork depicting
the Buddha’s life.
^ A view towards the statue from one of these stupa lined terraces.
Walking further inward, the is Maitreya Statue and
Throne Temple, surrounded by tranquil ponds and fountains that will
cool the area in the intense Indian summer.
^ The Maitreya statue and throne surrounded by the tranquil ponds containing Buddha statues of the meditation sanctuary.
The Throne Temple:
The “seat” of the statue is itelf a fully functioning 17-storey temple roughly 80m x 50m in size.
The building will contain two very large prayer halls, as well as
meditation and meeting rooms, a library and facilities to deal with the
anticipated annual influx of 2 million visitors.
^ The entrance to the throne building with the Maitreya Buddha statue resting upon the lotus on top
Pilgrims will enter the throne temple through the
giant lotus that supports the Maitreya Buddha statue’s feet. The throne
temple contains several entrance rooms that contain works of art on the
Buddha’s life and teachings.
^ The first major prayer hall of throne building, containing works of art on the Buddha.
Continuing inward is the cavernous main auditorium of
the Maitreya Temple containing the Sanctum Sanctorum which in Indian
architectural tradition is the innermost most sacred room where the
actual shrine is held. This Sanctum Sanctorum is unique in that within
it contains two large auditorium temples.
The first temple in the Sanctum Sanctorum is the Temple of the Maitreya Buddha, containing a huge, 12 meter tall statue of the Buddha.
^ Upon entering the Sanctum Sanctorum, the 12 meter tall statue of the Buddha can be glimpsed.
A wall containing 200,000 images of the Buddhas rises
up to the throne ceiling over 50 metres above, behind both auditorium
temples.
^ A glimpse from the ambulatory of the side walls within the Maitreya Temple and the 1,000 paintings of the Buddhas.
The centerpiece shrine of the Maitreya Temple is the
12 meter tall Maitreya Buddha. Stairs and elevators lead to viewing
platforms around the Maitreya Temple, allowing views of the entire room
^ A view of the Maitreya Buddha statue and the wall of the 200,000 images of the Buddha, seen from viewing platforms.
The next biggest shrine in the Sanctum Sanctorum is the Temple of the Shakyamuni Buddha
which contains a 10 meter statue of the Shakyamuni (Historical) Buddha.
Behind the shrine is the continuation of the wall of 200,000 Buddhas.
^
On a higher level yet again, the Shakyamuni Temple will house a 10
metre (33 ft.) statue of the historical Buddha. The glass rear wall
will reveal the wall of 200,000 Buddhas within the Maitreya Temple.
^ Another view of the Shakyamuni Temple.
In Indian architecture, the Sanctum Sanctorum is
encircled by a pathway that allows devotees to do Pradakshina
(circumambulation) of the shrine. The Maitreya Temple, following this
tradition, also has this feature.
^
The main throne building and Pradakshina path where visitors may
circumambulate Sanctum Sanctorum of the Maitreya Temple, which can be
seen through the doorways on the right
From this area, elevators and staircases will carry
visitors to the various other rooms in the 17 storey base, including
prayer halls, meditation halls and libraries. Eventually conveying devotees to a large rooftop garden terrace upon which the Maitreya Buddha statue actually rests.
Here, rising into the upper legs of the main statue, is the Merit Field Hall
with a 10 meter, 3-dimensional depiction of over 390 Buddhas and
Buddhist masters at it’s center. Surrounding this will be 12 individual
shrine rooms devoted to particular deities in the Hindu-Buddhist
pantheon.
^ The Merit Field Hall with its 10m, 3-D depiction.
From the garden terrace, another bank of elevators
will whisk pilgrims to the higher shrine rooms contained in the
statue’s torso and head.
-=—-=—=–
The Statue:
The statue will contain 15 individual shrine rooms
and have a total height of 152 meters, with the highest shrine room in
the statue’s head, at over 140 meters up. This is roughly equivalent in height to a 40-storey skyscraper.
^ A cutaway diagram of the statue-tower.
The statue is itself an engineering marvel. Rather than simply be designed in its massive size, the statue of the Maitreya Buddha was actually reversed-designed from a carved statue only a meter and half in height and the structure’s engineering extrapolated into its current form.
^
The original statue from which the Maitreya Buddha statue tower is
extrapolated from was hand carved, and is in the Indian Gupta style.
Moreover, the statue is designed to stand for at least 1,000 years,
supporting the Project’s spiritual and social work for at least a
millennium. Due to the statue’s millenia-passing lifespan, the huge
structure is designed to withstand high winds, extreme temperature
changes, seasonal rains, possible earthquakes and floods and
environmental pollution.
Extensive research has gone into developing
“Nikalium”, the special nickel-aluminum bronze alloy to be used for the
outer ’skin’ of the statue designed to withstand the most challenging
conditions that could conceivably arise.
As the bronze ’skin’ will expand and contract
dramatically due to daily temperature changes, the statue will require
special expansion joints that were designed to be not only invisible to
the observer, but also in such a way as to protect the internal
supports of the statue from water leakage, erosion and corrosion. The
material and structural components of the statue are meant to be able
to withstand potential unforseen disasters like earthquakes and monsoon
flooding.
^ The engineering process of the Buddha statue.
—–==–=–==—–
Construction Status — June, 2007
The Maitreya Project recently passed its first major
milestone this month, when, in compliance with the Indian Land
Acquistion Act, the State Government of Uttar Pradesh has completed the
necessary legal requirements for the acquisition of the 750 acre land
site to be made available to the Project.
While there are still permissions and clearances to be obtained, it has now officially given the green light and the full support of the government.
It is expected that the Project will formally break ground either later this year or early 2008, with an expected construction time of five years. The project will employ more than a thousand skilled and semi-skilled workers in the construction phase.
—–==–=–==—–
For more information on this fantastic project, check out
Sorry for the length of the post, but I wanted this
veritable essay to be a comprehensive introduction to what Maitreya
Project organizers aim to literally be the 8th Wonder of the World, and
an everlasting symbol of Religious Syncretism, Tolerance, Compassion
and most of all, Love.
A cause truely fitting of the Buddha, Shakya Muni Sri Siddharth Gautamaji.
Lucknow: Decks are being cleared for the installation of the
world’s tallest Buddha statue in Kushinagar town of eastern Uttar
Pradesh.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati was understood to have
directed officials to speed up the acquisition and transfer of 600
acres of land required for the Rs 10 billion project to be funded and
undertaken by the global Maitryi Group. Provision of land is UP
government’s share in the project.
For more news, analysis click here>> | For more Science and Medicine news click here >>
The project involves installation of a 152-metre-tall bronze
statue of Lord Buddha along with a giant meditation centre, an
international university, a state-of-art world-class hospital and a
museum. The project also envisages an entertainment complex in the
neighbourhood that would include an amusement park and a five-star
hotel.
Nowra to get its own Kung Fu temple: Australia
Sat, 2006-06-10 08:25 — ABN
The more I read about this temple, the less I like it. See also this. ABN _______________
There will be a three-tier temple complex, with two pagodas,
500-room hotel, a 500-place kung fu academy. There’ll be some
residential subdivision, a 27-hole golf course, herbal medicine, herbal
gardens, acupuncture, special massage, and that’s about it.
AM - Saturday, 10 June , 2006 08:24:30 Reporter: John Taylor ELIZABETH JACKSON: It’s probably the most famous temple in the world.
China’s Shaolin Temple has been made famous through books, films, and TV, because of its legendary kung fu fighting monks.
Now, the Zen Buddhist temple is looking to build another home for its monks, outside Nowra in New South Wales.
A deal to purchase 1,200 hectares will be signed in China today, as our Correspondent, John Taylor, reports.
JOHN TAYLOR: In the history of kung fu, there is no other place like the Shaolin Temple.
The 1,500-year-old Zen Buddhist monastery in central China
is home to fighting monks, made famous in modern times on the big and
small screen.
If things go to plan, the monks may be about to set up a lavish home away from home, just south of Nowra.
Greg Watson is Mayor of the Shoalhaven City Council.
GREG WATSON: There will be a three-tier temple complex, with two pagodas, 500-room hotel, a 500-place kung fu academy.
There’ll be some residential subdivision, a 27-hole golf
course, herbal medicine, herbal gardens, acupuncture, special massage,
and that’s about it.
JOHN TAYLOR: Today in central China’s Henan province Mayor
Watson and the Temple’s Abbott are to sign off on the monks’ purchase
of a 1,200 hectare property south of Nowra.
Patrick Peng is the Abbott’s representative in Australia.
PATRICK PENG: The Shaolin of course is very well known in
China itself, so he like to take this opportunity to try to introduce
the Shaolin legacy, the heritage to the rest of the world, through
another outlet.
JOHN TAYLOR: The NSW Government is still to give final
approval to the project. But speaking in Beijing yesterday, Mayor Greg
Watson wasn’t expecting a fight.
GREG WATSON: What happened was, I heard via a Member of
Parliament, that the Abbott was looking for a potential location to
establish the second Shaolin temple in the world, somewhere in
Australia, and I said have I got a deal for the Abbott?
JOHN TAYLOR: Who says religion and big business can’t mix?
The Shaolin Temple already has a performance touring the world, featuring the impressive skills of its fighting monks.
The Abbott’s man in Australia, Patrick Peng, says Shaolin is not just about kung fu.
PATRICK PENG: You know, it’s culture.
JOHN TAYLOR: Well can you have the two together, a tourist attraction and a functioning temple?
PATRICK PENG: Oh yes, in fact, on the contrary. Nowadays
many religions, not only just Buddhism, Daoism, they’re all trying to
make themselves more relevant to the modern world, and really they’re
not exclusive, they’re not just men in the caves, you know.
So what they’re trying to do is to share the philosophies and the lifestyle, the healthy lifestyle, to the world.
ELIZABETH JACKSON: Patrick Peng, who represents the Abbott
of the Shaolin Temple in Australia, ending that report from John Taylor.
Uttar Pradesh to have world’s tallest Buddha statue
March 25th, 2008 - 3:37 pm ICT by admin
Lucknow, March 25 (IANS) Decks are being cleared for the
installation of the world’s tallest Buddha statue in Kushinagar town of
eastern Uttar Pradesh.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati was understood to have directed
officials to speed up the acquisition and transfer of 600 acres of land
required for the Rs.10 billion project to be funded and undertaken by
the global Maitryi group.
Proviuion of land is UP government’s share in the project.
The project involves installation of a 152-metre-tall bronze
statue of Lord Buddha along with a giant meditation centre, an
international university, a state-of-art world-class hospital and a
museum. The project also envisages an entertainment complex in the
neighbourhood that would include an amusement park and a five-star hotel.
UP Chief Secretary Prashant Kumar Misra presided over a high
level meeting of state officials, in which representatives from Maitryi
were present here Monday. A presentation on the project was made.
Significantly, the project was initiated during the previous
tenure of Chief Minister Mayawati in 2003, after which it was put on
the backburner during the Mulayam Singh Yadav regime.
“Since then, it had been hanging fire, so we decided to revive it after Maitryi officials approached us,” Misra told IANS.
He said: “Of the 600 acres required for the project, we need to acquire only about 300 acres while the rest is government land.
“The government had already started the acquisition process.
The whole project would not involve any major displacement of people
and not more than 70-80 farmers would be involved,” he said.
“We have worked out a handsome rehabilitation package for the farmers who would get displaced on account of the project.”
UP to have world’s tallest Buddha statue
Published: Wednesday, 26 March, 2008, 08:05 AM Doha Time
LUCKNOW: World’s tallest Buddha statue will be installed in Kushinagar town of eastern Uttar Pradesh. Chief
Minister Mayawati has asked officials to speed up acquisition and
transfer of 600 acres of land required for the Rs10bn project to be
funded and undertaken by the global Maitryi group. The state
government will give the land for the project which involves
installation of a 152m tall bronze statue of Lord Buddha along with a
giant meditation centre, an international university, a state-of-art
hospital and a museum. The project also envisages an entertainment
complex in the neighbourhood that would include an amusement park and a
five-star hotel. Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary Prashant Kumar Misra
presided over a high level meeting of state officials, in which
representatives from Maitryi were present here on Monday. A
presentation on the project was made. The project was initiated during the previous tenure of Mayawati in 2003, after which it was put on the backburner. “Since then, it had been hanging fire, so we decided to revive it after Maitryi officials approached us,” Misra said. “Of
the 600 acres required for the project, we need to acquire only about
300 acres while the rest is government land,” he said.- IANS
From correspondents in Uttar Pradesh, India, 03:33 PM IST
Decks are being cleared for the installation of the world’s tallest Buddha statue in Kushinagar town of eastern Uttar Pradesh.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati was understood to have
directed officials to speed up the acquisition and transfer of 600
acres of land required for the Rs.10 billion project to be funded and
undertaken by the global Maitryi group.
Proviuion of land is UP government’s share in the project.
The project involves installation of a 152-metre-tall bronze
statue of Lord Buddha along with a giant meditation centre, an
international university, a state-of-art world-class hospital and a
museum. The project also envisages an entertainment complex in the
neighbourhood that would include an amusement park and a five-star
hotel.
UP Chief Secretary Prashant Kumar Misra presided over a high
level meeting of state officials, in which representatives from Maitryi
were present here Monday. A presentation on the project was made.
Significantly, the project was initiated during the previous
tenure of Chief Minister Mayawati in 2003, after which it was put on
the backburner during the Mulayam Singh Yadav regime.
‘Since then, it had been hanging fire, so we decided to revive it after Maitryi officials approached us,’ Misra told IANS.
He said: ‘Of the 600 acres required for the project, we need to acquire only about 300 acres while the rest is government land.
‘The government had already started the acquisition process.
The whole project would not involve any major displacement of people
and not more than 70-80 farmers would be involved,’ he said.
‘We have worked out a handsome rehabilitation package for the farmers who would get displaced on account of the project.’
Population : 14,000 Distance : 55km from Gorakhpur
¤ Kushinagar - A Site of Buddhist Parinirvana
Situated
in Deoria district of eastern Uttar Pradesh, Kushinagara was a small
town in the days of the Buddha. But it became famous when the Buddha
died here, on his way from Rajgir to Sravasti. His last memorable words
were, “All composite things decay. Strive diligently!” This event is
known as the ‘Final Blowing-Out’ (Parinirvana) in Buddhist parlance.
Since then the place has become a celebrated pilgrim centre. It was the
capital of the kingdom of the Mallas, one of the 16 Janapadas (see
Sravasti).
¤ Places of Interest
Muktabandhana Stupa The
Muktabandhana Stupa was built by the Mallas just after the Buddha’s
death. It is built over the sacred relics of the Buddha himself. The
Stupa is also known as Ramabhar Stupa and is 50 ft tall. It is believed
that the Stupa was built on the spot where the Buddha was cremated.
Nirvana Stupa 1km west of the Muktabandhana Stupa is the
Nirvana Stupa that was built in the days of Ashoka. It was renovated in
1927 by the Burmese Buddhists. In front of the Stupa is the
Mahaparinirvana Temple in which is installed a colossal sandstone
statue of the Buddha in the reclining position. It was built by the
Mathura school of art and was brought to Kushinagar by a Buddhist monk
named Haribala during the reign of Kumaragupta (c. a.d.415-454).
Kushinagar
Kushinagar
Once in Kushinagar, it appears that time has
come to a complete halt. This sleepy town, with its serenity and
unassuming beauty, absorbs visitors into a contemplative mood. It is
this place that the Buddha had chosen to free himself from the cycles
of death and life and, therefore, it occupies a very special space in
the heart of every Buddhist. Location Kushinagar is situated in
the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, 51 km off Gorakhpur. The
place, which is famous for the Mahaparinirvana (death) of Lord Buddha,
has been included in the famous Buddhist trail encompassing Bihar,
Uttar Pradesh, and Nepal. Kushinagar is also known as Kasia or
Kusinara. The founder of Buddhism, Lord Buddha passed away at this
place near the Hiranyavati River and was cremated at the Ramabhar
stupa. It was once a celebrated center of the Malla kingdom. Many of
its stupas and viharas date back to 230 BC-AD 413. when its prosperity
was at the peak. The Mauryan emperor Ashoka added grandeur to this
place by getting the magnificent statue of Buddha carved on a single
piece of red sandstone. Fa Hien, Huen Tsang, and I-tsing, the three
famous Chinese scholar travelers to India, all visited Kushinagar.
With the decline of Buddhism, however, Kushinagar lost its
importance and suffered much neglect. It was only in the last century
that Lord Alexander Cunningham excavated many important remnants of the
main site such as the Matha Kua and Ramabhar stupa. Today, people from
all over the world visit Kushinagar. Many national and international
societies and groups have established their centers here.
Climate Like other places in the Gangetic plain, the
climate of Kushinagar is hot and humid in the summers
(mid-April-mid-September) with Maximum Temperature touching 40-45°C.
Winters are mild and Minimum Temperature in December can go down
to around 5°C. Monsoon reaches this region in June and remains here
till September
Population Around 22,35,505 people live here
Language Hindi and Bhojpuri
Places of Interest
Mahaparinirvana Temple The
Mahaparinirvana temple (also known as the Nirvana temple) is the main
attraction of Kushinagar. It is a single room structure, which is
raised on a platform and is topped by a superstructure, which conforms
to the traditional Buddhist style of architecture. The Mahaparinirvana
temple houses the world famous 6m (19.68 ft) long statue of the
reclining Buddha.
This statue was discovered during the excavation of 1876 by
British archaeologists. The statue has been carved out from sandstone
and represents the dying Buddha. The figures carved on the four sides
of the small stone railing surrounding the statue, show them mourning
the death of Lord Buddha. According to an inscription found in
Kushinagar, the statue dates back to the 5th century AD. It is
generally believed that Haribala, a Buddhist monk brought the statue of
the reclining Buddha to Kushinagar, from Mathura during 5th century,
during the period of the Gupta Empire.
Nirvana Stupa The Nirvana stupa is located behind the
Mahaparinirvana temple. British archaeologists discovered this brick
structure during the excavation carried out in 1876. Subsequent
excavations carried out by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI)
unearthed a copper vessel, which contained the remains of Lord Buddha
apart from precious stones, cowries and a gold coin belonging to the
Gupta Empire. The copper vessel bore the inscription that the ashes of
Lord Buddha had been interred here.
Mathakuar Shrine The Mathakuar Shrine is an interesting
place to visit in Kushinagar. It is located near the Nirvana stupa. A
statue of Buddha made out of black stone was found here. The statue
shows Buddha in the Bhumi Sparsha mudra (pose in which Buddha is
touching the earth with his fingers). It is believed that Lord Buddha
preached his last sermon here before his death.
Ramabhar Stupa The Ramabhar Stupa (also known as the
Mukutabandhana stupa) is a 14.9 m (49 ft) tall brick stupa, which is
located at a distance of 1 km from the Mahaparinirvana temple. This
stupa is built on the spot where Lord Buddha was cremated in 483 BC.
Ancient Buddhist scriptures refer this stupa as the Mukutabandhana
stupa. It is said that the Malla rulers, who ruled Kushinagar during
the death of Buddha built the Ramabhar stupa.
Modern Stupas Kushinagar has a number of modern stupas
and monasteries, which have been built, by different Buddhist
countries. The important shrines worth visiting are the Chinese stupa
and the IndoJapan-Sri Lankan Buddhist Centre.
Kushinagar Museum The Kushinagar Museum (Archaeological
Museum) is located near the IndoJapan-Sri Lankan Buddhist Centre. The
museum has a collection of artefacts like statues, carved panels etc
excavated from various stupas and monasteries in Kushinagar and places
around it.
Excursion
Gorakhpur Fifty-one kilometers
off Kushinagar is Gorakhpur, an important city of eastern Uttar
Pradesh. At Gorakhpur is the Rahul Sanskrityayan Museum, which has an
excellent collection of Thanka paintings and relics of the Buddha. The
water sports complex at Ramgarh Tal Planetarium and the Gorakhnath
Temple in the city are also worth a visit.
Kapilavastu (Piprahwa) Situated 148 km from Kushinagar
and is an important Buddhist pilgrimage. Kapilavastu was the ancient
capital of the Sakya clan ruled by Gautama Buddha’s father.
Lumbini Situated in Nepal at a distance of 122 km from
Gorakhpur, Lumbini is the birthplace of Lord Buddha. There are regular
buses to the Nepalese border, from where the remaining 26 km has to be
covered by private vehicles
How to get there
Airport The nearest airhead is located at Varanasi from where one can take flights to Delhi, Calcutta, Lucknow, and Patna.
Rail Kushinagar does not have a railway station. The
nearest railway station is at Gorakhpur (51 km), which is the
headquarters of Northeastern Railways and linked to important
destinations. Some important trains to Gorakhpur are
Bombay-Gorakhpur-Bandra Express, New Delhi-Barauni-Vaishali Express,
Cochin-Gorakhpur Express, Shaheed Express, Amarnath Express, and
Kathgodam Express.
Road Kushinagar is well connected to other parts of the
state of Uttar Pradesh by bus. The distances from places around are :
Gorakhpur (51 km), Lumbini (173 km), Kapilavastu (148 km), Sravasti
(254 km), and Sarnath (266 km), and Agra (680 km).
BUDDHIST HEARTLAND
Enlightening Odyssey
It
was a prediction that set it off. Terrified that his son might one day
renounce the world to become a great seer, King Suddhodhana of the
Shakyas, a small kingdom in the Terai region of Nepal, shielded the
young Prince Siddhartha from the evil of the world by keeping him
within the confines of his palace, in the embrace of material comforts
and loving care. From his very birth in 623 BC, in a garden at Lumbini
close to the Shakya capital of Kapilavastu, portent’s revealed that the
young man’s fate was sealed for higher things than dealing with the
earthly concerns and the business of a king.
It was chance too that rolled the dice in
favour of the spiritual world, and Prince Siddhartha was a willing pawn
when he rejected his regal life. It was an amazing journey that would
transform the deeply troubled prince into the great Buddha, the
Enlightened One, culminating in his release from the endless cycle of
rebirths, at Bodhgaya in Bihar. His great quest would become the core
of an important religious movement.
Buddhism - Charismatic Formula
For kings and commoners, criminals and
courtesans, Buddhism had the power and strength to transform their
lives forever. This is beautifully illustrated in the legendary
commitment to Buddhism of King Ashoka, after the bloody battle of
Kalinga in Orissa. The great king was enthusiastic in spreading the
Buddha’s message of peace and enlightenment across the length and
breadth of his vast empire, reaching from present day Afghanistan,
Pakistan, India and Bangladesh.
Buddhism was to travel from its home in India’s eastern
Gangetic region of Bihar, Bengal and Orissa to encompass Sri Lanka and
the countries of South East Asia, then onto the Himalayan countries of
Bhutan, Nepal and Tibet, even far-flung Central Asia, China and Japan,
under the umbrella of royal patronage and the dedication of its vast
community of monks, teachers and artists.
The essence of Buddhism is embodied in the concept of the 4
noble truths and the 3 jewels (Buddha, Dharma, Sangha) via the 8-fold
path to salvation and peace Anticipating his death in his 80th year
Buddha urged his followers, especially his chosen disciples, to
continue his work after his imminent Mahaparnirvana the attaining of
nirvana (enlightenment). As a reminder of his difficult journey and its
ultimate goal, he prevailed upon them to visit the four important
places that were the cornerstones of his great journey - Lumbini,
Bodhgaya, Sarnath, and Kushinagar.
The spread of Buddhism down the centuries was to leave in
its wake a wealth of symbolic structures, including sculpted caves,
stupas (relic shrines), chaityas (prayer halls) viharas (monasteries),
mahaviharas (universities) and numerous art forms and religious
literature. The arrival of Guru Padamasambhava, in the 8th century, was
a major impetus in the spread of Buddhism in the Himalayan region.
Today, both pilgrims and tourists can enjoy the special
appeal of these myriad experiences, in the Buddhist Heartland of
Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, and Nepal. From the moment of his birth, his
teachings, spiritual struggle, attainment of enlightenment, great
meditations, and message of peace and non-violence, are as relevant to
our life and times as it was in his day.
Buddhism - Jewels of the Lotus
Almost a hundred years later there emerged
various schools of Buddhist thought evolving somewhat from the Buddha’s
original precepts. The most prominent amongst these were the Mahayana
School, the Theravada School (based on the old Hinayana School) which
flourished in Sri Lanka and established itself quite quickly in many
South East Asian countries, and the Vajrayana School with its Tantric
features, which spread to the Himalayan regions of Bhutan, Nepal and
Tibet.
Lumbini, Sarnath, Bodhgaya and Kushinagar
are the primary pilgrimage places associated with the life and
teachings of the Lord Buddha. There are numerous other sites where the
Buddha and the saints that followed travelled during his life after his
transformation, which are held in deep veneration. Visitors can travel
through this Buddhist Heartland today, to savour the splendid beauty
and great appeal of Buddhism.
FOOTSTEPS OF LORD BUDDHA
The greatest impetus to Buddha’s teachings
came from the Indian King Ashoka who went on a great pilgrimage
visiting the important sites that are directly associated with his
life, in the Footsteps of Lord Buddha. Primary amongst these holy
places are Lumbini in Nepal, and Bodhgaya, Sarnath and Kushinagar in
India. The international Buddhist community has been active in
supporting these important religious centres. There are other places of
lesser significance on the Footsteps of Lord Buddha visitor circuit
associated closely with Buddha’s life. Amongst these are Buddha’s
monsoon retreats of Vaishali, Rajgir and Sravastii in India, and his
early home at Tilaurakot in Kapilavastu Nepal.
Primary Patronage
Lumbini. Lumbini in southern Nepal is where
Queen Mayadevi gave birth to Prince Siddhartha. It is just a short
distance from the Shakya capital of Kapilavastu. Pilgrimages focus on
the sacred garden which contains the site of the birth, the Mayadevi
temple, the Pashkarni pond and the Ashoka pillar. Designed by Japanese
architect Kenzo Tange, the sacred garden of Lumbini is a World Heritage
Site with monasteries from many Buddhist nations. It is recognised as a
supreme pilgrimage site and symbol of world peace.
Bodhgaya. It was in Bodhgaya in Bihar, India
that Prince Siddhartha found Enlightenment (nirvana) under the bodhi
tree after meditating for 49 days. No longer a bodhisattva (mentor), he
became Lord Buddha, the Enlightened One.
Primary points of homage are the Mahabodhi
Temple, the Vajrasan throne donated by King Ashoka, the holy Bodhi
Tree, the Animeshlochana chaitya, the Ratnachankramana, the
Ratnagaraha, the Ajapala Nigrodha Tree, the Muchhalinda Lake and the
Rajyatna Tree. The spiritual home of all Buddhists, devotees from many
Buddhist countries have built temples around the complex in their
characteristic architectural styles. Bodhgaya today is a vibrant and
inspiring tourist attraction.
Sarnath. Buddha gave his first sermon at
Sarnath after achieving enlightenment, about 10 km from the ancient
holy city of Varanasi. The sermon, setting in motion the wheel of the
teaching (dharamchakrapravartna) revealed to his followers the 4 noble
truths, the concept of the 3 jewels of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha via
the 8 fold path, for inner peace and enlightenment. It was here that
the Buddha established his first disciples (sangha) to promote his new
doctrine. The splendid Dhamekha Stupa at Sarnath was originally erected
by King Ashoka, as was the famous lion capital pillar, now the proud
symbol of India.
Kushinagar. At Kushinagar close to Gorakhpur
in eastern Uttar Pradesh, India en route to Kapilavastu, Lord Buddha
fell ill and left this world in 543 BC. His mortal remains were
preserved in eight commemorative chortens, and then further distributed
by King Ashoka into 84,000 stupas across his kingdom and beyond.
Important places to see here are the Mukatanabandhana stupa and the
Gupta period reclining Buddha statue in red sandstone.
Mobilising Mantras & Sutras
The Buddha preached his last sermon before
his death at Vaishali in Bihar, 60 km away from its capital Patna. It
was here that he told his disciple Ananda about his imminent demise.
The Second Buddhist Council was held in Vaishala about 110 years later.
About 70 km from Bodhgaya, Rajgir was
Buddha’s monsoon retreat for 12 years whilst he spread his doctrine. It
was at the holy Griddhikuta Hill that he expounded the precepts of his
Lotus Sutra and the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra. The Saptaparni Caves
set on Vaibhar Hill were the venue of the First Buddhist Council, held
to compile the teachings of the Buddha in its authentic form, after his
death. The world-renowned university of Nalanda is another important
landmark site.
About 150 km from the city of Lucknow in
Uttar Pradesh, Shravasti was Buddha’s favourite rainy season retreat
where he Buddha performed his first miracle.
The Ties That Bind
Around Lumbini in Nepal are seven other
pilgrimage sites. The first thirty years of Buddha’s life were spent at
Tilaurakot in Kapilavastu in his father’s home, 27 km west of Lumbini
in Nepal. The well-preserved city foundations are evocative of former
times, and the casket recovered from the original stupa is preserved in
the nearby museum. About 34 km northeast of Lumbini is Devdaha whose
Koliya people are considered to be the maternal tribesmen of the
Buddha. The forest of Sagarhawa lies northwest of Niglihawa. Another
important site is the stupa at Kudan, 5 km from Tilaurakot, where
Buddha’s father King Suddhodhana met him after his enlightenment.
LIVING BUDDHISM
The trans-Himalayan regions of Bhutan,
India, and Nepal are strongly rooted in the Buddhist faith. In
Dharamsala, in the Kangra Valley, lives his Holiness the 14th Dalai
Lama, spiritual leader of all Tibetan Buddhists. Visitors can enjoy
Living Buddhism experiences throughout the region, whether as a student
of Buddhism, meditation and yoga, or as a layperson attracted by the
vibrant culture, people and festivals.
Eastern Himalayas-The Lotus Blooms Still
Kathmandu Valley is an important Buddhist
pilgrimage circuit with 15 major sites. It is a living center of
Buddhist learning with many new monasteries and schools that attract
funding and visitors from all over the world. The most important Living
Buddhism sites are Swayambhunath and Bodhnath stupas, both with strong
links to Tibet. Protected as World Heritage Sites, they are the most
revered spiritual sites in the country, attracting thousands of
pilgrims. Many of the indigenous Newar people of Kathmandu practice a
unique form of Buddhism, unrelated to Tibet.
In the northern regions of Nepal, Tibetan
Mahayana Buddhism continues to flourish and there are many monasteries
and sacred sites. Many of these are in Mustang and Dolpa districts. The
important monasteries Thyangboche, Thame, Chiwong and Thupten Choeling
are in the Everest region of Solu Khumbu.
In the Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan, HM the
King is considered equal in status to the religious leader, the
Jekhenpo. The depth and vibrancy of the Buddhist faith is reflected in
everyday life. Devotees revere Guru Padmasambhava as the second Buddha.
Bhutan’s monastery fortresses (dzongs) are an integral feature of
governance, and the repository of precious treasures of ancient
literature, scriptures and art. The great dzongs of Thimphu, Paro,
Punakha and Wangdi Phodrang, amongst many others, offer a fabulous
journey for both pilgrim and tourist to explore Bhutan’s colourful
history and spiritual splendour. An added temptation for the visitor is
the fabulous repertoire of cultural activities associated with the
Kingdom’s renowned festivals (tsechus).
A short distance from Paro is the renovated
Taktsang monastery, the venerated location of Guru Rimpoche’s
(Padmasambhava) deep meditation before subduing evil demons. Kyichu
Lakhang in Paro and Jambay Lakhang in Bhumtang are amongst Bhutan’s
most important and oldest Buddhist sites. The famous tsechu festivities
are marked by prayers and religious dances, colourful costumes,
morality tales, and invocations of protection against evil forces.
Dungtse Lakhang is reputed for its fabulous collection of religious
paintings .The spectacular Punakha dzong is the winter seat of the
monkhood, and houses numerous sacred artifacts and important temples.
Living Buddhism flourishes in northern
India, home of the Dalai Lama. Set amongst the splendid heights of the
Eastern Himalayas in Arunachal Pradesh is the remote Tawang Monastery.
Amongst the native inhabitants, the Monpas and the Sherdupkens people
keep alive the Buddhist faith from ancient times. This 17th century
monastery is the largest of its kind in India and the second largest in
Asia. The hill town of Bomdila offers local handicrafts and religious
artifacts, and ancient monasteries
Other North East states also have Buddhist
attractions. In the shadow of Mt Khangchendzonga, Buddhism flourishes
in the sacred landscape of Sikkim which is dotted with 107 monasteries
and many sacred stupas. Amongst the most important are Rumtek, the home
of the Kagyupa sect, Pemayangtse, Tashding and Enchey. The monastery at
Chungtang marks the footprint of Guru Padamasambhava when he rested en
route to Tibet. Recently, the world’s tallest statue of Guru Rinpoche
has been erected at Namchi. The people celebrate their faith during the
chaam (masked) dances at the great festivals.
Surviving Buddhist Enclaves
Bangladesh is now largely Muslim, but the
country has important pockets of Buddhist communities that date back to
the 7th century, especially in the region of Chittagong, the Chittagong
Hill Tracts, Cox’s Bazaar, Noakhali and Barisal. There are at least 50
Buddhist settlements surviving from the 8-12th century in the
Mainamati-Lalmai range at Tipera, Laksham and Comilla
ART AND ARCHAEOLOGY
The great journey of Buddhism throughout its
2,500-year history has manifested itself in a profusion of creative
energy in its art, archaeology and architecture. These include
beautifully painted holy caves, statues and sculpted heads, bas
reliefs, mandalas, thangkas (religious paintings) and frescos, stupas
and chortens, fine chaityas, viharas, mahaviharas and temples that
offer the traveller cross-border cultural pickings that are as
enriching as they are moving.
The earliest form of Buddhism had no
iconoclastic roots. Buddha himself was regarded as a teacher not a God.
When Buddha attained nirvana he was represented only in the form of
symbols such as the lotus, the bo (peepul) tree, and the wheel.
Buddha as an icon emerged through the
influence of the Mahayana School of Buddhism, and the mystical and
highly symbolic Tantric form of the Vajrayana School. Vajrayana culture
flourished at Bodhgaya, Nalanda and Vikramshila around the 8-9 BC.
Buddhist Nalanda enjoyed the patronage of several dynasties of kings
but was annihilated by the Turks in the 12th century. Tantric ritual
and mysticism relied heavily on sutras and tantras - secret practices
linked with the mandala (magical diagram). It saw the inclusion of
occult concepts woven intricately into the rapidly expanding pantheon
of Buddha images of gods and goddesses.
The Dharma and the Kings of old Bengal
Bangladesh enjoyed the fruits of early
Buddhist thought and art. Buddhism received enormous support during the
Pala, Chandra and Deva rulers, devout Buddhists, who were responsible
for erecting a cavalcade of commemorative monuments. Amongst them was
the important university of Paharpur, now archaeological remains about
300 km from Dhaka. Along with Nalanda University in Bihar, India it was
an important centre of Buddhist teaching. Other important archeological
sites in Bangladesh are at Mahastangar, Comila, Mainamati, and Ramu.
Pillars, Sculpted Caves and the Pledge of a King
The earliest form of Buddhist architecture
is visible in the sculpted caves, monastic retreats that were in effect
temples of great spirituality. The caves at Udaygiri, Ratnagiri and
Lalitagiri in Orissa and the Barabar caves in Bihar are an excellent
example of how the art form developed. At Dhauli, the site of the great
battle of Kalinga fought by King Ashoka, 8 km from Bhubaneswar, stands
Ashoka’s rock edict revealing his pledge to become a Buddhist.
Stupas, Chortens, Chaityas, Viharas and Dzongs
The splendour of the stupas at Sarnath,
Bodhgaya, Bodhnath, Nalanda and other important Buddhist sites are an
evocative message of Buddha’s teachings. The Dhamekha stupa at Sarnath
is a cylindrical structure dating to the golden age of the Guptas (320
AD). It features the typical floral design on stone of Gupta
workmanship. Nepal’s Swayambhunath features traditional Nepalese
architectural design with its tall steeple mounting the dome,
representing the 13 Buddhist heavens.
Chortens and viharas, stupas in miniature,
were originally meant to preserve the relics of the Buddha or great
Buddhist teachers. Excellent examples of the early viharas were those
at Vaishali, Rajgir and Shravasti. Some of the most powerful
mahaviharas were Nalanda and Vikramshila in Bihar, India and Paharpur
in Bangladesh.
In Bhutan the great dzongs were ideal for
keeping precious Buddhist treasures and also as monastic retreats
thanks to their isolation and invincibility. These imposing structures
with their tapering walls, courtyards and galleries have been created
with traditional designs handed down verbally from generation to
generation, No nails mar their creation.
Buddhist Centres of Learning
With the advent of the Mahayana school, the
world-renowned university of Nalanda became an important centre for
Buddhist learning, along with Pahapur, attracting scholars from around
the known world. Nalanda enjoyed the patronage of several dynasties of
kings but was annihilated by the Turks in the 12th century. It’s an
amazing experience walking across the vast grounds of the ruins with
its great stupa and other monastic structures.
Sculptures & Paintings - Messengers of the Buddha
The first images of Buddha were formed at
Gandhara and show decidedly Hellinistic features (defined by drapery
and hairstyle) due to the trade and cultural links with Mediterranean
Europe at the time. With the emergence of the Mathura school, close to
Agra, the features of the Buddha became more indigenous, inspired by
the traditional yakshis and yakshas sculptural forms. In Bhutan, and
Nepal the elements of the highly symbolic Vajrayana Buddhist style of
iconography, so popular in the 10th-11th century, were however
discontinued around the 14th century in exchange for a less complex
range of artistic vision but which still retained its vibrancy and
colourful splendour.
The massive Mahasthangarh archeological
remains (240 km from Dhaka) throw light on the development of Buddhist
art and architectural leanings in Bangladesh. This fortified city of
the 3rd century BC, extending over an 8 km radius, is the earliest
documented urban civilization of Bangladesh. Within easy reach are the
Buddhist ruins of Govind Bhita, Gokul Medh Stupa and the Vasu Vihara
monastery. The greatest collection of early Pala sculptures have been
found in the Paharpur monastic complex at the central temple of the
renowned Somapura Mahavihara.
At the tomb of Saint Shah Sultan Mahi Swar
Balkhi, were discovered 40 bronze statues representing Buddhist
deities, and terracotta plaques with scenes from the Ramayana. The
Mainamati Museum houses an extensive range of finds from these Buddhist
sites. The Salban Vihara in the Mainamati-Lalmai hills has a complex of
115 cells around a central courtyard with its cruciform temple facing
the gateway complex, resembles the Paharpur monastery. Kotila Mura
houses three stupas representing the holy Trinity of Buddhism - the
Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. From Rupban Mura was recovered an early
standing Buddha in abhaya mudra.
The yellow-bronze statuary of Bhutan
reflects influences in bronze-casting from the craftsman who settled
here from the eastern Tibetan province of Kham, in the 16th century.
Bhutanese painters are still sought after to decorate religious
buildings all over the region.
The splendid innovation in the use of colour
and expressive elements of Buddhist art down the ages is amply recorded
in the fabulous thangkas or religious paintings of Bhutan, Nepal, Tibet
and the trans-Himalayan regions of India. Objects of veneration and an
aid to meditation, thangkas are traditional scroll paintings on cotton
cloth with vegetable and precious mineral dyes. Buddhas, Boddhisatvas,
Taras and numerous estoteric subjects reflect the artist’s vision of
his Buddhist world. Embellishments with the lotus motif and themes from
the Jataka Tales (lives of the Buddha) are a recurring form of imagery
and inspiration for paintings.
The fantastic range of Buddhist art and
archaeology in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal, carries the visitor
on a splendid journey that marks some of the most evocative and dynamic
aspects of the Buddhist faith. Time and tide have worked upon the
measures of the emerging artistic trends, but at the core of it remain
the Buddha’s basic tenets - of self-discipline and balance as a means
to the ultimate goal of the human being - the release from the endless
cycle of rebirth-pain and suffering and finding the great peace.
Giant Face-lift of World’s Tallest Buddha Statue
2001.04.18 16:25:03
CHENGDU, April 17 (Xinhuanet) – Looking through the cobweb-shaped
platforms wrapped around the head and chest of a 71 meter-tall
seated Buddha statue, the backs of repair experts’ are seen while
they are busy painting dark-red clay, which will be the new
lipstick on the Buddha’s huge mouth. Like a slow motion, another expert with a safety rope is sent
down in mid-air from the base of the 8 meter-long middle finger of
the statue’s left hand to the statue’s 8.5 meter-high flat instep
of the left foot, where 100 people could sit. This is just one scene of an ongoing facelift project on the 1,
280 year-old Buddha statue in Leshan, a city in southwest China’s
Sichuan Province. Carving of the Buddha started in 713 A.D. and was completed in
803 A.D., in the prosperous period of the Tang Dynasty (618-907). The statue was included in the World Cultural Heritage List
under the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO) in 1996. The Buddha statue, which sits on a cliff overlooking the
merging of the three rivers: Minjiang, Qingyijiang and Daduhe. The
statue is 71 meters from top to bottom and 28 meters from left to
right. It is 18 meters higher than the standing Buddha statue at
Bamian Valley, Afghanistan, once thought to be the highest of its
kind in the world. Over the past 1,000 years, erosion has become a major threat to
the statue. Owning to damage by natural environment changes and
human activities, six major repairs on the giant Buddha statue
have been carried out since ancient times. Before the largest repair project, which was initiated early
this month, Xinhua reporters visited the famous sitting Maitreya,
which looked in need of immediate repair and attention. ”Some coiled bobs on the head of the statue fell down, weed
coated on its surface rocks, and the face was darkened,” the
reporters recalled. But the reporters visited it again this week and it looks very shiny and new after two weeks of repair. The 1,000 color-faded bobs on the Buddha’s head have been
painted black, the drainage system has been dredged and the big
crack going from the right eye to the back of its head has been
fixed. ”The crack use to cause the Buddha to burst into tears on rainy
days,” said Zeng Zhiliang, an engineer of ancient architecture,
who climbed up onto the 10-story-high statue everyday to conduct
repair work. When the reporters followed Zeng to have a closer look and
touch the Buddha’s cheek, they could feel the smoothness and
brightness of the repaired surface of its’ face. The black spots on the face of the Buddha, caused by erosion have disappeared after a thorough cleaning,” Zeng said. At the Buddha’s neck, which 60 meters high from the base of the
statue, an expert is using a small hammer to carefully knock
mantlerocks, rocks which have become loose on the statue due to
erosion, away from the statue surface. With a safety rope, the
expert is crouching in the narrow space of the platform
constructed around the statue. After knocking it free, he has to use a brush and water to wash
the spot and piece it up with repair material. To achieve the
perfect result, this procedure has to be repeated three or four times. According to Zeng, the experts also take photos on the
mantlerocks in order to set up archives on the statue’s original
form and the repair work done. The most difficult parts in the face-lift are the giant facial
features, Zeng said, for example, the Buddha’s nose is the
combined size of several persons. ”If there is no accurate technique and skills, harmonious proportionment can be hardly realized,” he told the reporters. Tourists to the statue are also interested in asking questions about the repair work. ”How do you mix the face color of the Buddha,” asked Ney Johnn, a German tourist. Zeng’s answer is that the statue was carved out of red gritstone and covered by skin-color clay. ”Why don’t you use chemical paint as my country did on some historical relics?” Johnn said. Natural repair material, in the same color of the statue, is
being used, Zeng said, adding that it is a mixture of rocks,
charcoal, hemp and lime. This is in accordance with China’s law on cultural relics that chemical materials or cement are banned for repairing relics. Chinese leaders have paid close attention to the repair work.
The repair plan was made by the State Administration of Cultural
Heritage and seven universities and related cultural relics
protection research institutes across China. The face-lift project has aroused great attention at home and
overseas. The UNESCO has sent experts to the repair site, the
World Bank has provided considerable loans and foreign media
coverage with Time magazine and New York Times being contacted to
cover the event. A massive petition signing has been staged here to call for
efforts to be made to protect the statue. So far, more than 10,000
tourists signed their names on a scroll of silk 71 meters long. The Buddha statue management center said the drive has received
a donation of over 300,000 yuan (about 36,000 US dollars) from
people from all walks of life. The first phase of the repair work will be completed by the end
of April. An additional investment of 250 million yuan (about 30
million US dollars) will be used for the further repair on the
statue as well as a number of projects to build roads and highways
and control pollution in the area. Experts suggested that the statue should be inspected and
repaired every five years after this project is completed. Enditem
^ A prerendering of the Maitreya Buddha statue and temple, showing its massive size.
Prakash
Karat, General Secretary of the CPI(M) met Ms. Mayawati, President of
the Bahujan Samaj Party and Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh on July 13,
2008.
Prakash Karat appreciated the stand taken by Ms
Mayawati on the nuclear deal. He stressed that since the deal is
against the country’s interests, both parties should cooperate to fight
against the nuclear deal with America.
Ms. Mayawati
reiterated her opposition to the deal. It was decided that there should
be cooperation to stop the deal and the fight against the UPA
government in this regard.
end
Left approaches BSP
The realignment of political forces over the India-US nuclear deal
continued Sunday with Marxist leader Prakash Karat calling for
‘cooperation’ with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) after meeting its
chief Mayawati.
A day prior to the start of a nationwide campaign by the Left
against the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government,
Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) general secretary Karat called
on Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati here and said that both
parties would vote against the nuclear deal in parliament.
Karat’s
surprise meeting with Mayawati, who took power in Uttar Pradesh in May
last year, marks a formal end to decades of ties the CPI-M has had with
BSP’s sworn enemy, the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh. As the
Samajwadi Party came to the rescue of the Congress over the nuclear
deal, Mayawati denounced it.
In a statement issued after the
meeting, the CPI-M said: ‘Karat appreciated the stand taken by Mayawati
on the nuclear deal. He stressed that since the deal is against the
country’s interests, both parties should cooperate to fight against the
nuclear deal with America.
‘Mayawati reiterated her opposition to
the deal. It was decided that there should be cooperation to stop the
deal and the fight against the UPA government in this regard.’
BSP sources said their party was yet to take a decision whether or
not to participate in the Left’s campaign against the UPA government on
the nuclear deal.
‘However, it is clear there is basic
understanding between the Left and BSP on this issue,’ a senior BSP
leader told IANS in Lucknow. ‘The understanding is only on the nuclear
deal. But it could extend to other issues.’
BSP sources said that
Sunday’s meeting was an attempt by the BSP to ensure that it doesn’t
remain isolated on the national political scene, particularly at a time
when the Samajwadi Party has begun to back Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh’s UPA government.
BJP, Cong targeting BSP: Maya
Sunday 13 Jul, 2008 11:53 AM
New Delhi The ones rooting to
bring down the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government on the
issue of Indo-US civilian nuclear deal are banking heavily on Bahujan
Samaj Party (BSP) president and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati’s
political acumen to split the Samajwadi Party (SP).
Sources in the BSP
said that “Telugu Desam Party and Telangana Rashtra Samiti leaders have
spoken to her over the phone and discussed the issue.”
While addressing the media here on Saturday, she restricted her
comments to the recent CBI affidavit against her in the
disproportionate assets case.
She alleged that both the BJP and the Congress were targeting her
party because with their political base shrinking, they fear the growth
of the BSP. Describing the cases as totally false and unconstitutional,
she said that now with the CBI director due to retire and the
SP-Congress tie-up taking place, the CBI is working at the behest of
the SP.
She said, “I am told that the officers go every morning to report
at the door of a certain SP leader before they begin the day’s work at
their respective offices.” She, however, said that she would not be
cowed down by such threats.
Meanwhile, sources in the party claimed that there are at least six
SP MPs who may cross over and vote with the BSP against the government.
BSP insiders were hoping that by the time the day of reckoning arrives,
many more from the SP may break ranks from their parent party and vote
according to the BSP’s directions.
Indian Media: Incompetent, Impotent & bag of shit heads!
How stupid
Indian Media and Journalists are, here is an hilariously concocted news
that caught up fire in the lunatic and casteistic Indian media.
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Stupid!, Mail Today carried the story on the masthead, but here are the contents of a mail - no, not libellous!
Penpricks, a blog run by an anonymous journalist, supposedly from Goa
has taken major newspapers in the country for a ride. Though the blog penpricks.blogspot.com has been promising to break the story soon, a Reuters blog has snatched its scoop!
This blogger by name “Pen Pricks?“
writes about how the Indian Media salivated to publish news about
recent avoidable and inhuman murders in India by publishing without any
consiousness, standards, truths or ethics. Oh what are these
things……..!, oh well, for Indian media truth and ethical standards
are alien and do not even worry to think along this line…..!.
Here
is the Pen Pricks frank news and how did it catch a wild fire among
Indian shit head journalists and the news papers. Read it yourself and
judge?
As
journalists, we are ashamed at the way the Indian media reported the
two most sensational murders in recent times. These tragedies virtually
grabbed the attention of Western and Northern regions of India. Its the
murders of Scarlett Keeling at Anjuna, Goa and Arushi Talwar in NOIDA,
near Delhi we are talking about.
While initially, the media did
play a role in bringing police incompetency to the fore in these two
cases, they completely went hell-for-leather subsequently.
The
media behaved like this stallion, which ran for almost two weeks till
it collapsed dead… Why? Cause it had overheard that the stud farm owner
tell the stable boy, “the moment those nuts bounce back into the barn,
snip em off.”
Sure no one wants to be a gelding… But is being called an ass, any better?
Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on
Saturday hit out at the Centre for “targeting” her at the behest of
arch rival Samajwadi Party.
The Uttar
Pradesh chief minister also accused the Congress-led coalition of
treating SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav with kidgloves despite a similar
case pending against him and his family, and wondered, “What is the
political pressure behind this?”
Addressing a
press conference in the backdrop of the fresh move by the CBI against
her, sounded persuasive, and
alleged that she was a victim of a “media trial”।
“The
Congress-led United Progressive Alliance should not be under any
illusion that we will be intimidated and come under their pressure.
Singling
out the CBI director for attack, she said that filing the affidavit
soon after her party’s withdrawal of support to the Centre and before
the trust vote, brings the action of the premier investigative agency
under the “needle of suspicion”.
— On Sat, 7/12/08, Obama for America wrote:
From: Obama for America Subject: Welcome To: “Jagatheesan Chandrasekharan” Date: Saturday, July 12, 2008, 10:41 PM
Dear Jagatheesan,
As we get ready for the general election, we want to make sure everyone
knows about all the opportunities to get involved in your community and
online.
Check out the resources below — learn how you can connect
with fellow supporters, organize in your neighborhood, build our
national grassroots organization, and stay in touch with the very
latest campaign news.
Explore these resources yourself and forward this message to anyone you know who wants to get involved.
MAKE A DIFFERENCE NOW
Vote for Change
Right now, there are thousands of qualified voters in every state who
are not registered to vote — and they need someone to help make their
voices heard. Attend a Vote for Change event in your area, meet fellow
Obama supporters, and start registering and mobilizing voters right away.
Invite Your Friends
From day one, millions of Americans have built this movement by
spreading the word about Barack Obama to their friends and neighbors.
You can help grow the movement for change right now by inviting your friends to join our campaign.
Share Your Feedback
This is a pivotal moment in the election. Even if you just joined our
movement, your feedback will inform the planning for the next phase of
this campaign. Take a brief survey now.
THE BASICS Here are a few ways you can learn more, get the latest news, and share information with friends:
MEET BARACK Watch
a brief video and learn about Barack’s early years, his education, his
work as a community organizer and civil rights attorney, and his years
in the Illinois and U.S. Senate. This is a great introduction to share
with your friends: http://my.barackobama.com/meetBarack
OFFICIAL CAMPAIGN BLOG Catch up on the latest news, photos, and videos from the campaign trail and share your thoughts on our official campaign blog: http://my.barackobama.com/blog
ISSUES
Learn more about Barack’s positions on a variety of issues, from his
opposition to the war in Iraq to his plan for universal health care: http://my.barackobama.com/issues
OBAMA MOBILE
Our movement is ready to go wherever you are. Text HOPE to 62262
(OBAMA) to receive text updates on your mobile phone and advance notice
about local Obama events: http://my.barackobama.com/mobile
ORGANIZING Barack
Obama got his start as a community organizer on the South Side of
Chicago, and since he declared his candidacy in 2007, a nationwide
network of supporters has taken this campaign into its own hands,
organizing online and in local communities. Here are some ways to get
involved:
LOCAL GROUPS AND EVENTS My.BarackObama
is an organizing tool that empowers you to take this campaign into your
own hands. Connect with other supporters in your area and find out
about local events, or create your own organizing group and schedule
your own events: http://my.barackobama.com
SPREAD THE WORD
Introduce your friends, family, neighbors, or coworkers to Barack
Obama. Let them know why you support Barack and encourage them to join
our movement for change: http://my.barackobama.com/invite
BLOGS
There are more than 60,000 supporter-created blogs on My.BarackObama,
where people chronicle their campaign experience and interact with
other supporters. Find one for your community or launch your own today:
ONLINE PHONEBANKING
Use our online phonebanking tool to thank your fellow supporters for
their involvement in this campaign and ask them to participate in Vote
for Change to register new voters: http://my.barackobama.com/call
POSTERS, FLYERS, AND ORGANIZING RESOURCES
Print your own posters, flyers, fact sheets, supporter cards, and
dozens of other resources from our online resource library: http://my.barackobama.com/resources
COMMUNITIES
Women for Obama and People of Faith for Obama are just two of the many
communities large and small supporting Barack Obama. Explore a few of
them here: http://www.barackobama.com/people
FUNDRAISING Barack
Obama does not accept donations from Washington lobbyists or special
interest groups. Instead, we depend on a network of grassroots
supporters giving whatever they can afford.
PERSONAL FUNDRAISING PAGE
Take the fundraising process into your own hands. Help support the
campaign by reaching out to people you know and asking them to give
through your personal fundraising page: http://my.barackobama.com/outreach
MATCH SOMEONE’S DONATION
This campaign has always been about reaching as many people as possible
and bringing them into the political process. When you make a matching
donation, you’ll learn the name and hometown of the person whose gift
you match, and even exchange a note with them through our unique system: https://donate.barackobama.com/match
STORE
Let everyone in your community know that you support Barack. All
purchases through our online store go to support our campaign and are
considered political donations. Show your support in style: http://store.barackobama.com
As we prepare for the general election, a strong grassroots network will be crucial to our success.
International Early Birds Brotherhood Multipurpose Cooperative Society
(IEBBMCS)
For
The Welfare and Ultimate Bliss of Entire Mighty Great Minds
The Blessed,
Noble,Awakened Mighty Great Mind once said, ‘When the ruler of a
country is just and good, the ministers become just and good; when the
ministers are just and good, the higher officials become just and good;
when the higher officials are just and good, the rank and file become
just and good; when the rank and file become just and good, the people
become just and good.
He said
that immorality and crime, such as theft, falsehood, violence, hatred,
cruelty, could arise from poverty. Kings and governments may try to
suppress crime through punishment, but it is futile to eradicate crimes
through force..
He suggested
economic development instead of force to reduce crime. The government
should use the country’s resources to improve the economic conditions
of the country. It could embark on agricultural and rural development,
provide financial support to entrepreneurs and business, provide
adequate wages for workers to maintain a decent life with human dignity.
He had
given to rules for Good Government, known as ‘Dasa Raja Dharma’. These
ten rules can be applied even today by any government which wishes to
rule the country peacefully. The rules are as follows:
1) be liberal and avoid selfishness, 2) maintain a high moral character, 3) be prepared to sacrifice one’s own pleasure for the well-being of the subjects, 4) be honest and maintain absolute integrity, 5) be kind and gentle, 6) lead a simple life for the subjects to emulate, 7) be free from hatred of any kind, 8) exercise non-violence, 9) practise patience, and 10) respect public opinion to promote peace and harmony.
Regarding the behavior of rulers, He further advised:
-
A good ruler should act impartially and should not be biased and
discriminate between one particular group of subjects against another. - A good ruler should not harbor any form of hatred against any of his subjects. - A good ruler should show no fear whatsoever in the enforcement of the law, if it is justifiable. -
A good ruler must possess a clear understanding of the law to be
enforced. It should not be enforced just because the ruler has the
authority to enforce the law. It must be done in a reasonable manner
and with common sense. —
’If
a man, who is unfit, incompetent, immoral, improper, unable and
unworthy of kingship, has enthroned himself a king or a ruler with
great authority, he is subject to be tortured‚ to be subject to a
variety of punishment by the people, because, being unfit and unworthy,
he has placed himself unrighteously in the seat of sovereignty. The
ruler, like others who violate and transgress moral codes and basic
rules of all social laws of mankind, is equally subject to punishment;
and moreover, to be censured is the ruler who conducts himself as a
robber of the public.’
It is mentioned that a ruler who punishes innocent people and does not punish the culprit is not suitable to rule a country.
The
king always improves himself and carefully examines his own conduct in
deeds, words and thoughts, trying to discover and listen to public
opinion as to whether or not he had been guilty of any faults and
mistakes in ruling the kingdom. If it is found that he rules
unrighteously, the public will complain that they are ruined by the
wicked ruler with unjust treatment, punishment, taxation, or other
oppressions including corruption of any kind, and they will react
against him in one way or another. On the contrary, if he rules
righteously they will bless him: ‘Long live His Majesty.
His
emphasis on the moral duty of a ruler to use public power to improve
the welfare of the people had inspired Emperor Asoka in the Third
Century B.C. to do likewise. Emperor Asoka, a sparkling example of this
principle, resolved to live according to and preach the Dhamma and to
serve his subjects and all humanity. He declared his non-aggressive
intentions to his neighbors, assuring them of his goodwill and sending
envoys to distant kings bearing his message of peace and
non-aggression. He promoted the energetic practice of the socio-moral
virtues of honesty, truthfulness, compassion, benevolence,
non-violence, considerate behavior towards all, non-extravagance,
non-acquisitiveness , and non-injury to animals. He encouraged
religious freedom and mutual respect for each other’s creed. He went on
periodic tours preaching the Dhamma to the rural people. He undertook
works of public utility, such as founding of hospitals for men and
animals, supplying of medicine, planting of roadside trees and groves,
digging of wells, and construction of watering sheds and rest houses.
He expressly forbade cruelty to animals.
Aims & Objects
To
enrol membership for IEBBMCS for the welfare and happiness of all the
members in accordance with the Constitution of India through their
empowerment by grabbing the master key for distributing the nations
wealth to benefit all sections of the society.
Distribution of fertile land to all poor farmers with healthy seeds.
Loan
to each and every person who is interested in starting his own business
with proper training on latest and most modern successful Trade
Practices
To train Government servants to serve the society in a most efficient manner without corruption.
To train members to become leaders for excellent governance.
To train all members on “The Art of Giving” for a happy longevity, beauty, prosperity and Authority.
To
create a database of all members with their photos, address, age, and
all other necessary information that will serve as Citizens Identity
Cards.
To help all members to be in the voters list in order to acquire the Master Key. To strive hard to convert the existing three member Chief Election Commission
as
Chief Election Committee, just like any other Parliamentary Committee
representing all sections of the society to ensure that all eligible
voters in the Country are included in the Voters list with their photo
identity for free and fair elections.
To help all members to get genuine Caste Certificates.
To train all members to become media to propagate peace within oneself and harmony with others.
To
train all members on the latest trade practices to make them to earn
more money for the wholesome desire of propagating the Practicing and
the Noble Right path shown by the Blessed, Noble and the Awakened One.
To train and cultivate the habit of early birds
To practice and train on the essential movements of the body, including walking, cycling and swimming for fitness
To practice and train to buy essential qualitative and most economic household articles and commodities
To train to cultivate the best food habits
To train to cultivate the ten disciplines for happy and peaceful life
Through the practice of Noble Eightfold Path
To
train to practice meditation such as Pabajja, Vipassana and Zen
practice for peace and happiness within oneself and harmony with others
to enable to become Great Minds in order to attain the Ultimate Bliss
To enroll minimum two members per street for cultivation of the practice by way of training
Membership Minimum Rs.200 ($100) up to 25% and above of one’s net profit.
A 21st Century Military for America-Plan to Strengthen the
Economy-Uttar Pradesh to check rampant commercialisation of
education-Uttar Pradesh to make colonies greener-At a time when the
Congress and Mayawati’s arch rival, Mulayam Singh Yadav, have arrived
at an understanding on the India-US nuclear deal, the affidavit is
bound to raise questions about the use of the CBI by the government of
the day to fix its political rivals
A 21st Century Military for America
“Our
country’s greatest military asset is the men and women who wear the
uniform of the United States. When we do send our men and women into
harm’s way, we must also clearly define the mission, prescribe concrete
political and military objectives, seek out advice of our military
commanders, evaluate the intelligence, plan accordingly, and ensure
that our troops have the resources, support, and equipment they need to
protect themselves and fulfill their mission.”
— Barack Obama, Chicago Foreign Affairs Council, April 23, 2007
A 20th Century Structure for 21st Century Problems:
We have inherited a national security structure that was developed and
organized in the late 1940s to win the Cold War. It remains a rigid
bureaucracy of government agencies, relying upon a restrictive and
disconnected set of legal authorities.
New Leadership and Vision is Needed:
America simply cannot afford more of the old approach to our national
defense. Instead, it needs a Commander-in-Chief with the right
combination of judgment, vision, and leadership for the 21st century.
A Military Under Strain:
Currently, our soldiers, seamen, airmen and Marines are deployed around
the globe, working valiantly to defend our nation. Yet, these heroes
are under-resourced and asked to do too much by a policy that has too
often taken their sacrifice for granted. Due to their incredible
courage and ingenuity, they persevere, but at incredible cost to
themselves and their families.
Recruitment and Retention Problems:
A country of 300 million strong should not struggle to find enough
qualified citizens to serve. Recruiting and retention problems have
been swept under the rug by an administration that does not understand
the value of service to our nation.
A System Not Serving our Troops as Well as They Serve Us:
As the shameful events at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the
recent reports on growing numbers of homeless and unemployed veterans
show, we simply are not taking proper care of our wounded warriors and
veterans.
Barack Obama’s Plan
Invest in a 21st Century Military
Rebuild the Military for 21st Century Tasks:
As we rebuild our armed forces, we must not simply recreate the
military of the Cold War era. Obama believes that we must build up our
special operations forces, civil affairs, information operations, and
other units and capabilities that remain in chronic short supply;
invest in foreign language training, cultural awareness, and human
intelligence and other needed counterinsurgency and stabilization skill
sets; and create a more robust capacity to train, equip, and advise
foreign security forces, so that local allies are better prepared to
confront mutual threats.
Expand to Meet Military Needs on the Ground:
Barack Obama supports plans to increase the size of the Army by 65,000
soldiers and the Marines by 27,000 troops. Increasing our end strength
will help units retrain and re-equip properly between deployments and
decrease the strain on military families.
Leadership from the Top:
Barack Obama will restore the ethic of public service to the agenda of
today’s youth, whether it be serving their local communities in such
roles as teachers or first responders, or serving in the military to
keep our nation free and safe.
Lighten the Burdens on Our Brave Troops and Their Families:
An Obama administration will create a Military Families Advisory Board
to provide a conduit for military families’ concerns to be brought to
the attention of senior policymakers and the public. Obama will end the
Bush administration’s stop-loss policy and establish predictability in
deployments so that active duty and reserves know what they can and
must expect.
Build Defense Capabilities for the 21st Century
Fully Equip Our Troops for the Missions They Face:
Barack Obama believes we must get vitally needed equipment to our
soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines before lives are lost. We cannot
repeat such failures as the delays in deployment of armored vehicles,
body armor and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles that save lives on the
frontlines.
Review Weapons Programs:
We must rebalance our capabilities to ensure that our forces have the
agility and lethality to succeed in both conventional wars and in
stabilization and counter-insurgency operations. Obama has committed to
a review of each major defense program in light of current needs, gaps
in the field, and likely future threat scenarios in the post-9/11 world.
Preserve Global Reach in the Air:
We must preserve our unparalleled airpower capabilities to deter and
defeat any conventional competitors, swiftly respond to crises across
the globe, and support our ground forces. We need greater investment in
advanced technology ranging from the revolutionary, like Unmanned
Aerial Vehicles and electronic warfare capabilities, to essential
systems like the C-17 cargo and KC-X air refueling aircraft, which
provide the backbone of our ability to extend global power.
Maintain Power Projection at Sea:
We must recapitalize our naval forces, replacing aging ships and
modernizing existing platforms, while adapting them to the 21st
century. Obama will add to the Maritime Pre-Positioning Force Squadrons
to support operations ashore and invest in smaller, more capable ships,
providing the agility to operate close to shore and the reach to
rapidly deploy Marines to global crises.
National Missile Defense:
An Obama administration will support missile defense, but ensure that
it is developed in a way that is pragmatic and cost-effective; and,
most importantly, does not divert resources from other national
security priorities until we are positive the technology will protect
the American public.
Ensure Freedom of Space:
An Obama administration will restore American leadership on space
issues, seeking a worldwide ban on weapons that interfere with military
and commercial satellites. He will thoroughly assess possible threats
to U.S. space assets and the best options, military and diplomatic, for
countering them, establishing contingency plans to ensure that U.S.
forces can maintain or duplicate access to information from space
assets and accelerating programs to harden U.S. satellites against
attack.
Protect the U.S in Cyberspace:
An Obama administration will work in cooperation with our allies and
the private sector to identify and protect against emerging
cyber-threats.
Restore the Readiness of the National Guard and Reserves
Barack
Obama will provide the National Guard with the equipment it needs for
foreign and domestic emergencies and time to restore and refit before
deploying. He will make the head of the National Guard a member of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff to ensure concerns of our citizen soldiers reach
the level they mandate. He will ensure that reservists and Guard
members are treated fairly when it comes to employment, health, and
education benefits.
Develop Whole of Government Initiatives to Promote Global Stability
Integrate Military and Civilian Efforts:
An Obama administration will build up the capacity of each non-Pentagon
agency to deploy personnel and area experts where they are needed, to
help move soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines out of civilian roles.
Create a Civilian Assistance Corps (CAC):
An Obama administration will set a goal of creating a national CAC of
25,000 personnel. This corps of civilian volunteers with special skill,
sets (doctors, lawyers, engineers, city planners, agriculture
specialists, police, etc.) would be organized to provide each federal
agency with a pool of volunteer experts willing to deploy in times of
need at home and abroad.
Restore Our Alliances
Engage Our Allies in Meeting Our Common Security Challenges:
America’s traditional alliances, such as NATO, must be transformed and
strengthened, including on common security concerns like Afghanistan,
homeland security, and counterterrorism. Obama will renew alliances and
ensure our allies contribute their fair share to our mutual security.
Organize to Help Our Partners and Allies in Need:
An Obama administration will expand humanitarian activities that build
friends and allies at the regional and local level (such as during the
response to the tsunami in South and Southeast Asia), and win hearts
and minds in the process.
Reform Contracting
Create Transparency for Military Contractors:
Barack Obama will require the Pentagon and State Department to develop
a strategy for determining when contracting makes sense, rather than
continually handing off governmental jobs to well-connected companies.
An Obama administration will create the transparency and accountability
needed for good governance. Finally, it will establish the legal status
of contractor personnel, making possible prosecution of any abuses
committed by private military contractors.
Restore Honesty, Openness, and Commonsense to Contracting and Procurement:
An Obama administration will realize savings by reducing the corruption
and cost overruns that have become all too routine in defense
contracting. This includes launching a program of acquisition reform
and management, which would end the common practice of no-bid
contracting. He will end the abuse of supplemental budgets by creating
a system of oversight for war funds as stringent as in the regular
budget. He will restore the government’s ability to manage contracts by
rebuilding our contract officer corps. He will order the Justice
Department to prioritize prosecutions that will punish and deter fraud,
waste and abuse.
Plan to Strengthen the Economy
“I
believe that America’s free market has been the engine of America’s
great progress. It’s created a prosperity that is the envy of the
world. It’s led to a standard of living unmatched in history. And it
has provided great rewards to the innovators and risk-takers who have
made America a beacon for science, and technology, and discovery…We are
all in this together. From CEOs to shareholders, from financiers to
factory workers, we all have a stake in each other’s success because
the more Americans prosper, the more America prospers.”
Wages are Stagnant as Prices Rise:
While wages remain flat, the costs of basic necessities are increasing.
The cost of in-state college tuition has grown 35 percent over the past
five years. Health care costs have risen four times faster than wages
over the past six years. And the personal savings rate is now the
lowest it’s been since the Great Depression.
Tax Cuts for Wealthy Instead of Middle Class:
The Bush tax cuts give those who earn over $1 million dollars a tax cut
nearly 160 times greater than that received by middle-income Americans.
At the same time, this administration has refused to tackle health
care, education and housing in a manner that benefits the middle class.
Barack Obama’s Plan
Jumpstart the Economy
Provide Additional Tax Rebates to American Workers:
The economy has continued to weaken significantly, despite
congressional action to provide immediate tax rebates to American
consumers. Stimulus: $20 billion.
Establish a $10 billion Foreclosure Prevention Fund:
Given the downturn in the economy, Obama is calling for immediate
creation of his Foreclosure Prevention Fund that will dramatically
increase emergency pre-foreclosure counseling, and will help families
facing foreclosure to responsibly refinance their mortgages or sell
their homes. Obama’s plan will not help speculators, people buying
vacation homes or people that falsely represented their incomes. It is
meant to help responsible homeowners through this difficult period. Stimulus: $10 billion.
Provide
$10 billion in Relief for State and Local Governments Hardest-Hit by
the Housing Crisis to Prevent Cuts in Vital Services: Because
of the housing crisis and the weakening economy, many state and local
governments are facing significant revenue shortfalls. Barack Obama
believes that in the areas hardest-hit by the housing crisis we should
provide immediate, temporary funding to state and local governments so
that the decline in property values does not cause them to slash
critical public services and cut vital infrastructure spending. Stimulus: $10 billion.
Extend and Expand Unemployment Insurance:
Barack Obama believes we must extend and strengthen the Unemployment
Insurance (UI) program to address the needs of the long-term
unemployed, who currently make up nearly one-fifth of the unemployed
and are often older workers who have lost their jobs in manufacturing
or other industries and have a difficult time finding new employment.
Expanding UI is one of the most effective ways to combat economic
turmoil; every dollar invested in UI benefits results in $1.73 in
economic output. Obama is calling for a temporary expansion of the UI
program for those who have exhausted their current eligibility. Stimulus: $10 billion.
Provide Middle Class Americans Tax Relief
Obama will cut income taxes by $1,000 for working families to offset the payroll tax they pay.
Provide a Tax Cut for Working Families:
Obama will restore fairness to the tax code and provide 150 million
workers the tax relief they need. Obama will create a new “Making Work
Pay” tax credit of up to $500 per person, or $1,000 per working family.
The “Making Work Pay” tax credit will completely eliminate income taxes
for 10 million Americans.
Eliminate Income Taxes for Seniors Making Less than $50,000:
Barack Obama will eliminate all income taxation of seniors making less
than $50,000 per year. This proposal will eliminate income taxes for 7
million seniors and provide these seniors with an average savings of
$1,400 each year. Under the Obama plan, 27 million American seniors
will also not need to file an income tax return.
Simplify Tax Filings for Middle Class Americans:
Obama will dramatically simplify tax filings so that millions of
Americans will be able to do their taxes in less than five minutes.
Obama will ensure that the IRS uses the information it already gets
from banks and employers to give taxpayers the option of pre-filled tax
forms to verify, sign and return. Experts estimate that the Obama
proposal will save Americans up to 200 million total hours of work and
aggravation and up to $2 billion in tax preparer fees.
Trade
Obama
believes that trade with foreign nations should strengthen the American
economy and create more American jobs. He will stand firm against
agreements that undermine our economic security.
Fight for Fair Trade:
Obama will fight for a trade policy that opens up foreign markets to
support good American jobs. He will use trade agreements to spread good
labor and environmental standards around the world and stand firm
against agreements like the Central American Free Trade Agreement that
fail to live up to those important benchmarks. Obama will also pressure
the World Trade Organization to enforce trade agreements and stop
countries from continuing unfair government subsidies to foreign
exporters and nontariff barriers on U.S. exports.
Amend the North American Free Trade Agreement:
Obama believes that NAFTA and its potential were oversold to the
American people. Obama will work with the leaders of Canada and Mexico
to fix NAFTA so that it works for American workers.
Improve Transition Assistance:
To help all workers adapt to a rapidly changing economy, Obama would
update the existing system of Trade Adjustment Assistance by extending
it to service industries, creating flexible education accounts to help
workers retrain, and providing retraining assistance for workers in
sectors of the economy vulnerable to dislocation before they lose their
jobs.
Invest in the Manufacturing Sector and Create 5 Million New Green Jobs
Invest in our Next Generation Innovators and Job Creators:
Obama will create an Advanced Manufacturing Fund to identify and invest
in the most compelling advanced manufacturing strategies. The Fund will
have a peer-review selection and award process based on the Michigan
21st Century Jobs Fund, a state-level initiative that has awarded over
$125 million to Michigan businesses with the most innovative proposals
to create new products and new jobs in the state.
Double Funding for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership:
The Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) works with manufacturers
across the country to improve efficiency, implement new technology and
strengthen company growth. This highly-successful program has engaged
in more than 350,000 projects across the country and in 2006 alone,
helped create and protect over 50,000 jobs. But despite this success,
funding for MEP has been slashed by the Bush administration. Barack
Obama will double funding for the MEP so its training centers can
continue to bolster the competitiveness of U.S. manufacturers.
Invest In A Clean Energy Economy And Create 5 Million New Green Jobs:
Obama will invest $150 billion over 10 years to advance the next
generation of biofuels and fuel infrastructure, accelerate the
commercialization of plug-in hybrids, promote development of commercial
scale renewable energy, invest in low emissions coal plants, and begin
transition to a new digital electricity grid. The plan will also invest
in America’s highly-skilled manufacturing workforce and manufacturing
centers to ensure that American workers have the skills and tools they
need to pioneer the first wave of green technologies that will be in
high demand throughout the world.
Create New Job Training Programs for Clean Technologies:
The Obama plan will increase funding for federal workforce training
programs and direct these programs to incorporate green technologies
training, such as advanced manufacturing and weatherization training,
into their efforts to help Americans find and retain stable,
high-paying jobs. Obama will also create an energy-focused youth jobs
program to invest in disconnected and disadvantaged youth.
Boost the Renewable Energy Sector and Create New Jobs:
The Obama plan will create new federal policies, and expand existing
ones, that have been proven to create new American jobs. Obama will
create a federal Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) that will require
25 percent of American electricity be derived from renewable sources by
2025, which has the potential to create hundreds of thousands of new
jobs on its own. Obama will also extend the Production Tax Credit, a
credit used successfully by American farmers and investors to increase
renewable energy production and create new local jobs.
New Jobs Through National Infrastructure Investment
Barack
Obama believes that it is critically important for the United States to
rebuild its national transportation infrastructure – its highways,
bridges, roads, ports, air, and train systems – to strengthen user
safety, bolster our long-term competitiveness and ensure our economy
continues to grow.
Create a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank:
Barack Obama will address the infrastructure challenge by creating a
National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank to expand and enhance, not
supplant, existing federal transportation investments. This independent
entity will be directed to invest in our nation’s most challenging
transportation infrastructure needs. The Bank will receive an infusion
of federal money, $60 billion over 10 years, to provide financing to
transportation infrastructure projects across the nation. These
projects will create up to two million new direct and indirect jobs per
year and stimulate approximately $35 billion per year in new economic
activity.
Technology, Innovation and Creating Jobs
Barack
Obama will increase federal support for research, technology and
innovation for companies and universities so that American families can
lead the world in creating new advanced jobs and products.
Invest in the Sciences:
Barack Obama supports doubling federal funding for basic research and
changing the posture of our federal government from being one of the
most anti-science administrations in American history to one that
embraces science and technology. This will foster home-grown
innovation, help ensure the competitiveness of US technology-based
businesses, and ensure that 21st century jobs can and will grow in
America.
Make the Research and Development Tax Credit Permanent:
Barack Obama wants investments in a skilled research and development
workforce and technology infrastructure to be supported here in America
so that American workers and communities will benefit. Obama wants to
make the Research and Development tax credit permanent so that firms
can rely on it when making decisions to invest in domestic R&D over
multi-year timeframes.
Deploy Next-Generation Broadband:
Barack Obama believes we can get broadband to every community in
America through a combination of reform of the Universal Service Fund,
better use of the nation’s wireless spectrum, promotion of
next-generation facilities, technologies and applications, and new tax
and loan incentives.
Support Small Business
Provide Tax Relief for Small Businesses and Start Up Companies:
Barack Obama will eliminate all capital gains taxes on start-up and
small businesses to encourage innovation and job creation. Obama will
also support small business owners by providing a $500 “Making Work
Pay” tax credit to almost every worker in America. Self-employed small
business owners pay both the employee and the employer side of the
payroll tax, and this measure will reduce the burdens of this double
taxation.
Create a National Network of Public-Private Business Incubators:
Barack Obama will support entrepreneurship and spur job growth by
creating a national network of public-private business incubators.
Business incubators facilitate the critical work of entrepreneurs in
creating start-up companies. Obama will invest $250 million per year to
increase the number and size of incubators in disadvantaged communities
throughout the country.
Labor
Obama
will strengthen the ability of workers to organize unions. He will
fight for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. Obama will ensure
that his labor appointees support workers’ rights and will work to ban
the permanent replacement of striking workers. Obama will also increase
the minimum wage and index it to inflation to ensure it rises every
year.
Ensure Freedom to Unionize:
Obama believes that workers should have the freedom to choose whether
to join a union without harassment or intimidation from their
employers. Obama cosponsored and is strong advocate for the Employee
Free Choice Act, a bipartisan effort to assure that workers can
exercise their right to organize. He will continue to fight for EFCA’s
passage and sign it into law.
Fight Attacks on Workers’ Right to Organize:
Obama has fought the Bush National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) efforts
to strip workers of their right to organize. He is a cosponsor of
legislation to overturn the NLRB’s “Kentucky River” decisions
classifying hundreds of thousands of nurses, construction, and
professional workers as “supervisors” who are not protected by federal
labor laws.
Protect Striking Workers:
Obama supports the right of workers to bargain collectively and strike
if necessary. He will work to ban the permanent replacement of striking
workers, so workers can stand up for themselves without worrying about
losing their livelihoods.
Raise the Minimum Wage:
Barack Obama will raise the minimum wage, index it to inflation and
increase the Earned Income Tax Credit to make sure that full-time
workers earn a living wage that allows them to raise their families and
pay for basic needs.
Protect Homeownership and Crack Down on Mortgage Fraud
Obama
will crack down on fraudulent brokers and lenders. He will also make
sure homebuyers have honest and complete information about their
mortgage options, and he will give a tax credit to all middle-class
homeowners.
Create a New FHA Housing Security Program:
Barack Obama strongly supports the efforts of Senate Banking Committee
Chair Chris Dodd (D–CT) to create a new Federal Housing Administration
(FHA) program that will provide meaningful incentives for lenders to
buy or refinance existing mortgages and convert them into stable
30-year fixed mortgages. This plan provides an important federal
backstop – not a bailout – to this growing national problem. Neither
lenders nor homeowners would receive a windfall from this plan.
Create a Universal Mortgage Credit:
Obama will create a 10 percent universal mortgage credit to provide
homeowners who do not itemize tax relief. This credit will provide an
average of $500 to 10 million homeowners, the majority of whom earn
less than $50,000 per year.
Ensure More Accountability in the Subprime Mortgage Industry:
Obama has been closely monitoring the subprime mortgage situation for
years, and introduced comprehensive legislation over a year ago to
fight mortgage fraud and protect consumers against abusive lending
practices. Obama’s STOP FRAUD Act provides the first federal definition
of mortgage fraud, increases funding for federal and state law
enforcement programs, creates new criminal penalties for mortgage
professionals found guilty of fraud, and requires industry insiders to
report suspicious activity.
Mandate Accurate Loan Disclosure:
Obama will create a Homeowner Obligation Made Explicit (HOME) score,
which will provide potential borrowers with a simplified, standardized
borrower metric (similar to APR) for home mortgages. The HOME score
will allow individuals to easily compare various mortgage products and
understand the full cost of the loan.
Create Fund to Help Homeowners Avoid Foreclosures:
Obama will create a fund to help people refinance their mortgages and
provide comprehensive supports to innocent homeowners. The fund will be
partially paid for by Obama’s increased penalties on lenders who act
irresponsibly and commit fraud.
Close Bankruptcy Loophole for Mortgage Companies:
Obama will work to eliminate the provision that prevents bankruptcy
courts from modifying an individual’s mortgage payments. Obama believes
that the subprime mortgage industry, which has engaged in dangerous and
sometimes unscrupulous business practices, should not be shielded by
outdated federal law.
Address Predatory Credit Card Practices
Obama
will establish a five-star rating system so that every consumer knows
the risk involved in every credit card. He also will establish a Credit
Card Bill of Rights to stop credit card companies from exploiting
consumers with unfair practices.
Create a Credit Card Rating System to Improve Disclosure:
Obama will create a credit card rating system, modeled on five-star
systems used for other consumer products, to provide consumers an
easily identifiable ranking of credit cards, based on the card’s
features. Credit card companies will be required to display the rating
on all application and contract materials, enabling consumers to
quickly understand all of the major provisions of a credit card without
having to rely exclusively on fine print in lengthy documents.
Establish a Credit Card Bill of Rights to Protect Consumers: Obama will create a Credit Card Bill of Rights to protect consumers. The Obama plan will:
Ban Unilateral Changes
Apply Interest Rate Increases Only to Future Debt
Prohibit Interest on Fees
Prohibit “Universal Defaults”
Require Prompt and Fair Crediting of Cardholder Payments
Reform Bankruptcy Laws
Obama
will reform our bankruptcy laws to protect working people, ban
executive bonuses for bankrupt companies, and require disclosure of all
pension investments.
Cap Outlandish Interest Rates on Payday Loans and Improve Disclosure:
Obama supports extending a 36 percent interest cap to all Americans.
Obama will require lenders to provide clear and simplified information
about loan fees, payments and penalties, which is why he’ll require
lenders to provide this information during the application process.
Encourage Responsible Lending Institutions to Make Small Consumer Loans:
Obama will encourage banks, credit unions and Community Development
Financial Institutions to provide affordable short-term and
small-dollar loans and to drive unscrupulous lenders out of business.
Reform Bankruptcy Laws to Protect Families Facing a Medical Crisis:
Obama will create an exemption in bankruptcy law for individuals who
can prove they filed for bankruptcy because of medical expenses. This
exemption will create a process that forgives the debt and lets the
individuals get back on their feet.
Work/Family Balance
Obama
will double funding for after-school programs, expand the Family
Medical Leave Act, provide low-income families with a refundable tax
credit to help with their child-care expenses, and encourage flexible
work schedules.
Expand the Family and Medical Leave Act:
The FMLA covers only certain employees of employers with 50 or more
employees. Obama will expand it to cover businesses with 25 or more
employees. He will expand the FMLA to cover more purposes as well,
including allowing workers to take leave for elder care needs; allowing
parents up to 24 hours of leave each year to participate in their
children’s academic activities; and expanding FMLA to cover leave for
employees to address domestic violence.
Encourage States to Adopt Paid Leave:
As president, Obama will initiate a strategy to encourage all 50 states
to adopt paid-leave systems. Obama will provide a $1.5 billion fund to
assist states with start-up costs and to help states offset the costs
for employees and employers.
Expand High-Quality Afterschool Opportunities:
Obama will double funding for the main federal support for afterschool
programs, the 21st Century Learning Centers program, to serve a million
more children. Obama will include measures to maximize performance and
effectiveness across grantees nationwide.
Expand the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit:
The Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit provides too little relief to
families that struggle to afford child care expenses. Obama will reform
the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit by making it refundable and
allowing low-income families to receive up to a 50 percent credit for
their child care expenses.
Protect Against Caregiver Discrimination:
Workers with family obligations often are discriminated against in the
workplace. Obama will enforce the recently-enacted Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission guidelines on caregiver discrimination.
Expand Flexible Work Arrangements:
Obama will create a program to inform businesses about the benefits of
flexible work schedules; help businesses create flexible work
opportunities; and increase federal incentives for telecommuting. Obama
will also make the federal government a model employer in terms of
adopting flexible work schedules and permitting employees to request
flexible arrangements.
Barack Obama’s Record
Housing:
In the U.S. Senate, Obama introduced the STOP FRAUD Act to increase
penalties for mortgage fraud and provide more protections for
low-income homebuyers, well before the current subprime crisis began.
Predatory Lending:
In the Illinois State Senate, Obama called attention to predatory
lending issues. Obama sponsored legislation to combat predatory payday
loans, and he also was credited with lobbying the state to more closely
regulate some of the most egregious predatory lending practices.
American Jobs:
Barack Obama introduced the Patriot Employer Act of 2007 to provide a
tax credit to companies that maintain or increase the number of
full-time workers in America relative to those outside the US; maintain
their corporate headquarters in America; pay decent wages; prepare
workers for retirement; provide health insurance; and support employees
who serve in the military.
Uttar Pradesh to check rampant commercialisation of education
Lucknow, July 10 (IANS) The Uttar Pradesh legislative council has
constituted a committee to keep a check on educational institutions
that charge excess fees from students, an official said Thursday. “The
move intends to check the rampant commercialisation of education,” Om
Prakash Sharma, leader of the teachers group in the council, told IANS.
The committee will keep a tab on all types of educational institutions, ranging from primary schools to degree colleges offering courses on medical sciences, engineering, business, management studies and others, he added.
The first meeting of the newly constituted committee will take place
July 16, during which the functioning of the committee members will be
decided, officials said.
Complaints by guardians and students pertaining to excess fees being
charged by educational institutions have been pouring in from different
districts of Uttar Pradesh.
Uttar Pradesh to make colonies greener
Lucknow, July 10 (IANS) The Uttar Pradesh government has decided to
undertake a sapling plantation drive in residential colonies in various
districts to develop the colonies as eco-friendly areas, an official
said Thursday. State Urban Development Minister Naseemudin Siddiqui has
given instructions to district development authorities to carry out the
plantation drive.
Confirming the report, Lucknow Development Authority secretary M.P.
Mishra said, “We have been instructed to initiate the plantation drive
on a massive scale in our housing colonies.”
At the Democratic National Convention
next month, we’re going to kick off the general election with an event
that opens up the political process the same way we’ve opened it up
throughout this campaign.
Barack has made it clear that this is your convention, not his.
On Thursday, August 28th,
he’s scheduled to formally accept the Democratic nomination in a speech
at the convention hall in front of the assembled delegates.
Instead, Barack will leave the convention hall and join more
than 75,000 people for a huge, free, open-air event where he will
deliver his acceptance speech to the American people.
It’s going to be an amazing event, and Barack would like you
to join him. Free tickets will become available as the date approaches,
but we’ve reserved a special place for a few of the people who brought
us this far and who continue to drive this campaign.
If you make a donation of $5 or more between now and midnight on July 31st,
you could be one of 10 supporters chosen to fly to Denver and spend two
days and nights at the convention, meet Barack backstage, and watch his
acceptance speech in person. Each of the ten supporters
who are selected will be able to bring one guest to join them.
Make a donation now and you could have a front row seat to history:
We’ll follow up with more details on this and other convention
activities as we get closer, but please take a moment and pass this
note to someone you know who might like to be there.
It will be an event you’ll never forget.
Thank you,
David
David Plouffe
Campaign Manager
Obama for America
FEMINISMAND Teachings and Practice of the Exalted,
Blessed, Noble Awakened One with full Awareness
Teachings and Practice of
the Exalted, Blessed, Noble Awakened One with full Awarenessis compatible with
feminism. This new movement break new ground in teaching and practicingin a way that was as relevant to women as
it was to men.
The extent of
feminism, and Teachings and Practice of the
Exalted, Blessed, Noble Awakened One with full Awareness, enables women to
change both themselves and the world, to overcome a limited view of what they
are capable of, and to be effective in the world so that they can realize their
full potential.
There seem
to be almost as many versions of feminism as there are women (or men) who call
themselves feminists. The best general description come up with is that
feminism is both an ideology and a reform movement based on the belief that
women have been, and are, discriminated against because of their sex.
It may be more helpful to begin by looking at the why’ of feminism
rather than the what’.This involves examining our recent history.
The position of women in society was plain: they were
a subspecies of humanity. It is time to restore women to their lost dignity and
to make them … part of the human species,’
There remain
no legal slaves anywhere except for the woman in every man’s home.’
Until the
end of the nineteenth century women had no civil rights, could not own
property, vote, make wills, testify in court, or serve on juries. They could
not obtain divorces, and their children belonged, according to the law, exclusively
to the father. If married, a woman was the property of her husband; if
unmarried, the property of her father. Until 1885, scarcely more than a hundred
years ago, a man could still sell his wife or daughter for the purposes of
prostitution.(The law passed in 1885 made it illegal to sell or kidnap a
girl for the purposes of prostitution until she was 16 years old.) In 1889 a
test case prompted the passing of a further law which forbade men to keep their
wives imprisoned under lock and key.
But it was
not until 1918, more than a century after Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the
Rights of Women was published, that the first organized women’s political
movement, commonly known as the Suffragettes, brought about women’s suffrage,
the right of women to vote. The following year saw the Sex Disqualification
(Removal) Act which allowed women to enter the professions.
Twentieth-century
women owe a great deal to these early feminists. Without their efforts women
might still be regarded as the property of father or husband without the
freedom to choose our way of life. These women thought the unthinkable and
dared to express it. Whatever we may think of their methods, we do stand on
their shoulders.
Changes in
law, however crucial, do not immediately or necessarily create changes in
behaviour and consciousness. The whole weight of women’s cultural and gender
conditioning, as well as the entrenched attitudes of society, were stacked
against them in their efforts towards individual emancipation. The next wave of
feminism sought to explore gender conditioning: to what extent were women and
men formed by their biology and to what extent by their cultural conditioning?
It also sought to propound an ideology of a dialectic of sex. Taking Karl
Marx’s perspective one step further, sex war replaced class war as the truth’
of history In this war man has the role of the oppressor, woman the role of the
oppressed. This ideology led to visions of a future in which women would be
completely freed from their reproductive function, thus striking at the root of
their oppression. Other branches of feminism imagined a utopia in which,
conversely, women’s biology was celebrated, in which female’ values of nurture
and creativity would be supreme - a naive vision of a matriarchy free from war
and aggression.
Feminists
continued to protest, demonstrate, agitate. They protested against the sex
discrimination that persisted in many places of work and education; against the
presence of nuclear weapons in Britain; against the way women were depicted in
the media; against pornography They agitated for better provision of child care
so that more women could participate in the wider world. All over Britain women’s
centres sprang up, women’s bookshops, women’s refuges, women’s health centres
and self-help groups. The late sixties and seventies was a time of
unprecedented activity and enthusiasm among thousands of women of diverse age,
race, sexual orientation, and class background. The slogan Sisterhood is
Powerful’ resounded throughout the country.
It is in
describing this period that the terms feminism and feminist cease to have
coherent meaning. What has been retrospectively referred to as feminism was at
the time called the women’s movement’ or the women’s liberation movement’, a
description which gave a better idea of the diverse range of views, lifestyles,
and interests of the many women who were involved. It is, however, possible to
discern two broad theoretical trends in the response to discrimination against
women. The first of these is liberal feminism’. This approach sees woman as no
better or worse than man, intellectually or morally, but as simply human. As
such she is entitled to equal opportunities in work and self-development.
Liberal feminists are generally concerned with campaigning for changes in
legislation to redress inequalities, especially in the area of work and
financial independence, focusing on such things as equal pay removal of
discrimination in employment, provision of child care for working women,
maternity leave, and so on.
The second
approach is that of radical feminism’. Radical feminists see the inequalities
of a woman’s situation as the result of patriarchy, a deliberate attempt by men
to conserve power in their own hands and thereby to oppress women by depriving
them of this power. They place a high value on women’s concerns and
achievements and view women as both sexually pure and mystically nurturing,
whereas men are seen as aggressive and violent. Radical feminists are generally
more concerned with issues to do with sex and violence; for example, demonstrating
and campaigning against rape and pornography and initiating the Reclaim the
Night’ marches of the seventies.
In
describing these two trends within feminism it is emphasized that they are
broad generalizations and cannot do justice to the activities and experiences
of many individual women who call themselves feminists. But making this
distinction does give a starting point for a more in-depth discussion as to the
relative merits for women’s development of feminism and Teachings and Practice of the Exalted, Blessed, Noble Awakened One with
full Awareness.
What is
Teachings and Practice of the Exalted, Blessed, Noble Awakened One with full
Awareness?
The Teachings and Practice of the Exalted, Blessed, Noble Awakened One with
full Awareness was of a human being who by diligent effort and practice
attained the state of consciousness that has since been called Awakenment. He
then communicated this experience through words and images to his followers to help
them also to become Awakened. This Teachings and
Practice of the Exalted, Blessed, Noble Awakened One with full Awareness is the Path shown
by Teachings and Practice of the Exalted,
Blessed, Noble Awakened One with full Awareness. It is both the
truth itself and any teaching which helps us to realize this truth for
ourselves. This Teachings and Practice of
the Exalted, Blessed, Noble Awakened One with full Awareness is essentially a
path of development by which we can grow beyond our particular conditioning and
realize our full human potential.
We can now
begin to see the link between Teachings and Practice
of the Exalted, Blessed, Noble Awakened One with full Awareness and feminism.
Both are concerned with emancipation, with overcoming the limitations of our
conditioning and restricted self-view. Both recognize that to achieve this
there have to be changes in consciousness, and not merely changes in the
external world; and by this recognition both go beyond the sphere of political
activity in which external change is of paramount importance.
In this
respect it is worth mentioning two phenomena which arose out of the women’s
movement of the sixties and seventies: the consciousness-raising group and the
idea that the personal is political. Both were means for focusing on the
importance of inner change and of putting one’s ideals into practice on an
everyday level. The experience of being in a consciousness-raising group was
crucial to the development. It is hard to believe now that it was a radical
thing then for women simply to meet together to discuss issues concerning
women. Looking at conditioning as women: the effect that upbringing and society
at large had had in shaping them - mostly encouraging the development of
receptive, nurturing qualities and discouraging more robust, outgoing
qualities. These explorations were a revelation. They help to make a shift from
This is how things are’ to Why should things be this way?’ This shift raised
the possibility of change.
But change
in what way or in what direction? In order to be beneficial change needs to be
progressive, not just a swinging between action and reaction. Changing fixed
patterns of behaviour and methods of relating through feminism was definitely
beneficial. But the changes and consciousness-raising brought about by the Teachings and Practice of the Exalted, Blessed, Noble Awakened One with
full Awareness were far more radical and far-reaching. The Teachings and Practice of the Exalted, Blessed, Noble Awakened One
with full Awareness is concerned with spiritual development, the development of
skilful mental states and the eradication of unskillful mental states. Unskillful
mental states are those consisting of or associated with craving, hatred, and
delusion, the three poisons which are the causes of suffering in the world.
Skilful mental states are those consisting of or associated with the absence of
these three poisons - states associated with peace of mind, friendliness, and
wisdom.
This opens
up an ethical dimension which is absent in both liberal and radical feminism.
This is not to say that feminists do not express strong views about what is
right (morally and politically speaking) and what is wrong. But there is no
consensus among feminists about the criteria that distinguish ethical from
unethical actions. According to Teachings and Practice
of the Exalted, Blessed, Noble Awakened One with full Awareness, the practice of
ethics is the necessary basis upon which higher states of consciousness can
arise. These states, combined with reflection on the Path, can lead in turn to
insight into reality an understanding of human life that goes far beyond the
intellectual and brings about a fundamental change in our being and our
relationship with others. Feminism does bring about change, but it is change on
a psychological and social level. Though this level of change can help us to
overcome some of our restrictive conditioning as women it does not begin to
give us access to our full potential as human beings. Indeed, some aspects of
feminism are inimical to this process.
In an
interview in Dakini, a magazine for women True Followers of the path shown by the Teachings and Practice of the Exalted, Blessed, Noble Awakened One
with full Awareness , Sangharakshita talks about the aspects of feminism he
considers to be a hindrance to spiritual development. He makes a distinction
between feminism and Feminism which largely corresponds to the one between
liberal and radical feminism. The first, he says, is the attitude that a woman,
no less than a man, should be free to develop whatever capacities and interests
she has’. The experience of feminism in this sense causes to think that it has had much to offer women
who wish to grow and develop. It helps to look at conditioning as women and
therefore to see that women can change. It widens our horizons and shows that
women have options other than to be a wife, mother, or single woman’. It
creates a culture that values the communication of women’s experience. It
encourages the development of skills and abilities that allow to create things
in the world and to participate in public life. Without these skills women are
confined to the domestic sphere or dwell in the inner world of the psyche.
Every human being needs a degree of autonomy both material and emotional, in
order to become an individual. Feminism has, I think, been a strong force in
creating the conditions for women’s autonomy.
Of Feminism
(with a capital F) Sangharakshita says that it covers many other attitudes. One
of these is the tendency to see woman as victim.’ To identify oneself as a
victim is not helpful to one’s development. It undermines one’s capacity to
take the initiative and act creatively however difficult the situation. In this
shift from feminism to Feminism the idea that women have been discriminated
against becomes the basis for an ideology a dogma that does not allow for the
individuality either of the woman who upholds it or of the man she casts in the
role of oppressor. Such an ideology, as Sangharakshita points out, also
encourages hatred, and hatred is utterly incompatible with the Path.It creates
oppression within its own sphere: certain views become taboo and politically
incorrect and are not allowed expression. A group mentality prevails. Bonding
with other women against the enemy’ is not the same as true friendship. One of
the fundamental practices of Teachings and Practice
of the Exalted, Blessed, Noble Awakened One with full Awareness is the development
of loving-kindness or metta; and metta does not distinguish between male and
female. Within this ideology there is also the confusion of power with freedom.
Feminists demand the transference of power from the oppressor to themselves,
the oppressed - but there is no guarantee at all that women would use that
power, once gained, in a better way. Men and women are equally afflicted by
greed, hatred, and delusion.
From True
Followers of the path shown by the Teachings and
Practice of the Exalted, Blessed, Noble Awakened One with full Awareness perspective
feminism is clearly not enough. It is only a possible starting point in our
efforts to develop true individuality For while feminism asks us to look at our
gender conditioning, the Teachings and
Practice of the Exalted, Blessed, Noble Awakened One with full Awareness asks us to look
at our conditioning as human beings, at how the poisons of greed, hatred, and
delusion underpin everything we do and limit us to habitual reactive patterns.
While feminism investigates the dichotomy between men and women, male and
female, the Teachings and Practice of the Exalted,
Blessed, Noble Awakened One with full Awareness urges us to
strive to overcome the dichotomy of self and other, the view of ourselves as
the centre of the universe, a fixed self separate from other beings. In
overcoming this dichotomy we eventually transcend identification with being
either male or female.
No branch of
the women’s movement, whether feminist or Feminist, addresses the fundamental
facts of the human condition. The investigations do not go deep enough, the
goal is too limited, the scope does not take in the full range of human
experience. The Teachings and Practice of the
Exalted, Blessed, Noble Awakened One with full Awareness offers us a far
greater challenge; it demands much more of us - and has much more of value to
give in return. It was the gradual understanding of this bigger picture that
causes ask for ordination into the True Followers of the path shown by the Teachings and Practice of the Exalted, Blessed, Noble Awakened One
with full Awareness, to come off the fence and commit myself to the task of
realizing my potential both as a woman and as a human being.
When the Exalted, Blessed, Noble Awakened One with full Awareness ’s attendant
Ananda asked him whether women were capable of gaining Enlightenment, the
Buddha was unequivocal in his response. He said that they were. So saying, he
admitted women into his community of spiritual renunciants. They left behind
their homes, families, and possessions, begged for almsfood, and lived a life
of meditation and contemplation in the forests of India.
For women to
take this step in the society of his time was revolutionary By agreeing to it, the Exalted, Blessed, Noble Awakened One with full Awareness could in fact be
regarded as one of the earliest feminists, in that he made his decision not on
the basis of women’s traditional role and society’s norms but on the basis of
their potential for development. The Therigatha (Psalms of the Sisters’), which
documents the experiences of these first women renunciants, attests to their
achievements. Many became Awakend.. Some were renowned as teachers and had many
disciples.
Returning to
the original spirit of the Exalted, Blessed,
Noble Awakened One with full Awareness ’s teaching, Sangharakshita has established
an order which is neither lay nor monastic and in which women and men receive
equal ordination. Both are free to take up any position of responsibility
within the movement. As well as giving this equality of opportunity, the structure
of the movement enables both women and men to develop on a broader basis and
gain access to both masculine’ and feminine’ aspects of themselves. Beyond
introductory level and outside public centres, most activities are organized on
the basis of same gender, so that the movement has a women’s wing and a men’s
wing. The women’s wing runs its own retreats, has its own retreat centres, and
conducts an ordination process for women. Many women live together in
residential communities and run a variety of businesses.
Today the
outlook is very different and the fruits of practicing within a same-gender
environment are apparent, many of them involved in teaching public classes, giving
talks, and leading Path study A further fifty women involved with this one
centre alone have asked for ordination. This is just a small proportion of the
women around the world who are increasingly discovering that the practice of the Teachings and Practice of the Exalted, Blessed, Noble Awakened One
with full Awareness can provide a context and a method for change and growth, a
context which can take them beyond the limitations caused by the conditioning
of gender, race, and class. I remain grateful to feminism for providing me with
the doorway through which I have been able to enter the realm of the True Path shown by the Exalted, Blessed, Noble,and Awakened One with full Awareness.
New Delhi (PTI): Implementing their
threat to pull the rug over the Indo-US nuclear deal, the Left parties
today announced they would meet the President tomorrow to withdraw
support to the UPA government.
They said Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh’s statements on moving the IAEA soon had rendered any further
talks on the issue meaningless.
The four parties — CPI (M), CPI,
Forward Bloc and RSP — have sought an appointment with President
Pratibha Patil for tomorrow morning to submit their letter of
withdrawal of support and to demand that the government proves its
majority on the floor of the House.
“We will also urge the President to ask
the government to prove its majority on the floor of the House,” a top
Left leader said after the hour-long meeting of the four parties which
decided to pull the rug to end their four-and-a-half year relationship
with the UPA.
Responding to External Affairs Minister
Pranab Mukherjee’s suggestion for another meeting of the UPA-Left
Committee on the issue, the General Secretaries of the parties said the
meeting, proposed on July 10, had been rendered “meaningless” since the
Prime Minister had announced that the government would go to the IAEA
Board of Governors very soon.
“As you are aware, the Left parties had
decided that if the government goes to the IAEA Board of Governors,
they will withdraw support. In view of the Prime Minister’s
announcement, that time has come,” CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash
Karat told reporters. U.P. unveils new scheme for energising farmers’ tube-wells, C.M. inaugurates the scheme
Lucknow: July 04, 2008
The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Ms. Mayawati announced a new scheme
for energising the farmers’ tube-wells of the state. She also announced
to increase the assistance amount payable for energising private
tube-wells from Rs. 55,000 to Rs. 68,000 under this scheme. Thus, the
assistance amount under this scheme has been increased by Rs. 13,000.
Under this scheme, the farmers would not be required to spend any
additional amount except the connection charges and the line would be
provided upto 300 meters free of cost. As many as 20,000 farmers would
be benefited by this scheme during the current financial year and an
amount of Rs. 136 crore has been sanctioned for the purpose. The Chief
Minister was addressing a press conference at her 5-Kalidas Marg
official residence here today. She said that the condition of two
farmers for obtaining a connection under this scheme has been done away
with and now a single farmer can avail the facility for his private
use. She said that this scheme had solved a major problem of the
farmers. Ms. Mayawati said that because of the continuous negligence of
the agriculture sector by the previous governments, its growth rate had
dwindled. The State Government had set a target of achieving more than
5.7 per cent growth rate under the 11th Five Year Plan, she pointed
out. For achieving this target proper arrangement of irrigation
facility to farmers was necessary. She said that with the availability
of irrigation facility in un-irrigated areas, production and farmers’
income would increase. Keeping it in view the government had sanctioned
a new package for farmers today. The Chief Minister said that this
scheme was being run in the State through Power Corporation. In the
year of 2004-05 only Rs. 43,000 as financial assistance per farmer was
being provided which had been increased to Rs. 55,000 in 2007-08. Ms.
Mayawati said that irrigation work was being done through more than 35
lakh private pumpsets at present, out of which only 8 lakh pumpsets
were running on electricity. Due to the continuous increasing prices of
petroleum products, it had become necessary to run the diesel pump sets
through electricity, so that besides the enough facility of irrigation
the production cost of crops could be reduced. She said that keeping in
view the large number of small and marginal farmers in the State, the
Government had taken the decision for running the diesel pump sets from
electricity. ********
Lucknow
: July 02, 2008 The religious clerics of Muslim Community today met the
U.P. Chief Minister Ms. Mayawati at her residence and thanked for her
bold and plain statement in newspapers for Muslim Community. The
religious clerics of Shia and Sunni Community jointly said that they
were with the Chief Minister and requested her that by using her
influence she should prevent the anti-national atomic deal with
America. On this occasion, Maulana Dr. Kalbe Sadiq, Maulana Hamidul
Hasan, Maulana Khalid Rashid Firangimahali Nayab Imam Idgah, Maulana
Fazlurrehman, Imam Tile wali Masjid, Maulana Naimurrehman, Maulana
Aleem Faruqui, Sayyed Aijaz Ahmed, Siraj Mehdi, Wasim Rizvi, Sayyed
Zaheerul Hasan, Amirul Hasan and others. In this connection, Maulana
Kalbe Jawad also thanked the Chief Minister during his talks on
telephone. *********
Online edition of India’s National NewspaperThursday, Jul 03, 2008
Mayawati gets support of Muslims Atiq Khan
CM told to use her influence to prevent deal
Chief Minister Mayawati with Muslim clerics in Lucknow on Wednesday.
LUCKNOW: Chief Minister Mayawati’s
efforts to make a dent in the Muslim support base of the Samajwadi
Party (and the Congress) and to further consolidate her party’s hold on
the minority community were intensified on Wednesday with the Bahujan
Samaj Party leader meeting a delegation of leading Muslim clerics at
her official residence here.
The Muslim leaders had come to thank Ms. Mayawati for her stand on the proposed nuclear deal with the United States.
The delegation comprised the
Vice-Chairman of All India Muslim Personal Law Board and leading Shia
cleric, Maulana Kalbe Sadiq, the Naib Imam of Lucknow’s Aishbagh Idgah
and AIMPLB member, Maulana Khalid Rasheed Firangi Mahali, Muslim
Personal Law Board member Maulana Hamidul Hasan, the Imam of Lucknow’s
historic Tilewali Masjid, Maulana Fazlur Rahman Waizi Nadwi, Maulana
Aleem Farooqui and Maulana Naeemur Rahman. Another important cleric,
Maulana Kalbe Jawwad, who is in Iran, had a telephonic conversation
with the Chief Minister.
Only on Tuesday the UP Chief Minister had
stated that the UPA Government’s decision to go ahead with the nuke
deal had angered the Muslims. She accused the Samajwadi Party and the
Congress of launching a tirade against her Government as these parties
were wary of the possibility of the Muslims shifting to the BSP.
An official press release issued by the
State Information and Public Relations Department said the religious
leaders urged the Chief Minister to use her influence to prevent the
“anti-national” deal.
The Muslim clerics who met the Chief
Minister on Wednesday had supported the Samajwadi Party when Mulayam
Singh was in power in the State. Wednesday’s meeting with Ms. Mayawati
was reportedly “arranged” by the BSP Government’s Muslim face, the
Irrigation and PWD Minister Naseemuddin Siddiqui.
Mayawati plays Muslim card on N-deal
Anant Zanane
Wednesday, July 2, 2008 (Lucknow)
If the Congress and the Samajwadi Party are
joining hands to build a united force, in Uttar Pradesh Mayawati is
making sure they won’t have an easy ride.
After declaring the
nuclear deal to be anti-Muslim, Mayawati on Wednesday met Shia and
Sunni clerics who applauded her stand against America.
Also a
Samajwadi MP from Muzaffarnagar has now warned Mulayam of defying the
party whip if it decides to join hands with the congress.
‘’This
deal is being done at the cost of forgoing cheap fuel from Iran.
Muslims are strongly opposed to the deal,'’ said Mayawati, Chief
Minister, Uttar Pradesh.
Barely 24 hours after the statement,
Mayawati chose to drive the message home by greeting Muslim leaders at
her residence. The gathering seemed to be all praises for her stand
against the nuclear deal.
‘’UP is the largest state of India and
it has the maximum number of Muslims. We welcome the government’s
criticism of the nuclear deal,'’ said Maulana Khalid Rashid, Sunni
cleric.
It was CPM Leader M K Pandhe who first said Samajwadi
leader Mulayam Singh Yadav risks losing his clout with Muslim voters.
He later backtracked but now that criticism comes from one of Mulayam’s
own party MPs.
If Mulayam goes with the UPA on the nuclear deal, then he will be deceiving the Muslims,'’ Munnavar Hasan, MP, Samajwadi Party.
Jagatheesan —
Last weekend, tens of thousands of people attended Unite for Change meetings in all 50 states.
These
meetings connected Obama supporters, Democrats who supported other
candidates in the primary, Independents, and even some Republicans.
They
came together to talk about the change this country desperately needs
and form the fundamental building blocks of change in their
communities.
Check out this video we put together from events all over the country and share it with your friends:
Unite
for Change was an incredible display of the strength of our grassroots
movement and the power of Americans to unite around our common desire
for change.
No one of us can change this country alone.
That’s
why it’s so important to bring Democrats, Independents, and Republicans
who are tired of the politics of the past together to plan how to
organize their neighborhoods.
Here are some stories we heard from people who participated in Unite for Change events this weekend:
“Obama attracts really great folks. Our small apartment had
18 of us all chatting about Obama and the good to come nationally and
even locally. During the DVD, my 2 year old kept saying ‘that’s Obama’
whenever we saw our candidate. For those of us here in the reddest
state it is very affirming to see others supporting a good cause and
speaking freely and about the change this country needs. I really feel
like we did some good for Obama and for ourselves today. His community
organizer roots were showing because we had a room full of the young
and young at heart being involved politically for the first time.” – Amylouise in Coeur d’Alene, ID
“About
thirty-five Obama supporters, former Clinton supporters, Republicans,
and Independents gathered in Key West, the southernmost point in the
United States. A number admitted that they have not been active in
politics for forty years, and the two youngest got extremely choked up
as they described friends in Iraq. People left with a commitment to
register voters, hold future house parties, get out the vote, and do
whatever they can to elect Democrats all the way down the ticket.” – Beverly in Key West, FL
“I
had over 50 show, with others wanting to come!! A wonderful gathering
of friends, community members, neighbors (even my son’s first grade
teacher) and lots of new faces in my house, coming together to see how
they could become part of the process of change they are feeling with
Barack Obama. I am so grateful for the opportunity to show my two
children, ages 5 and 7, that this is how America works. Thank you for
the opportunity to help. I look forward to more in the future.” – Walker in Sherman Oaks, CA
“We
met neighbors that we had never met. We all shared one common goal –
black, white, old, young, all united for change. Wow! It was magical to
see our young college students and graduates so involved and it was
rewarding to see our seniors revitalized and charged with enthusiasm
and hope. We can’t wait until the next event on Independence Day.” – Barbara in Birmingham, AL
Watch the video of Unite for Change events like these and see how exciting it can be to get involved in your community:
Speak your mind and help set the policies that will guide this campaign and change the country.
The Problem
Pay Inequity Continues: For every $1.00 earned by a man, the average woman receives only 77 cents, while African American women only get 67 cents and Latinas receive only 57 cents.
Hate Crimes on the Rise: The number of hate crimes increased nearly 8 percent to 7,700 incidents in 2006.
Efforts Continue to Suppress the Vote: A recent study discovered numerous organized efforts to intimidate, mislead and suppress minority voters.
Disparities Continue to Plague Criminal Justice System: African Americans and Hispanics are more than twice as likely as whites to be searched, arrested, or subdued with force when stopped by police. Disparities in drug sentencing laws, like the differential treatment of crack as opposed to powder cocaine, are unfair.
Barack Obama’s Plan
Strengthen Civil Rights Enforcement
Obama will reverse the politicization that has occurred in the Bush Administration’ s Department of Justice. He will put an end to the ideological litmus tests used to fill positions within the Civil Rights Division.
Combat Employment Discrimination
Obama will work to overturn the Supreme Court’s recent ruling that curtails racial minorities’ and women’s ability to challenge pay discrimination. Obama will also pass the Fair Pay Act to ensure that women receive equal pay for equal work and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity or expression.
Expand Hate Crimes Statutes
Obama will strengthen federal hate crimes legislation, expand hate crimes protection by passing the Matthew Shepherd Act, and reinvigorate enforcement at the Department of Justice’s Criminal Section.
End Deceptive Voting Practices
Obama will sign into law his legislation that establishes harsh penalties for those who have engaged in voter fraud and provides voters who have been misinformed with accurate and full information so they can vote.
End Racial Profiling
Obama will ban racial profiling by federal law enforcement agencies and provide federal incentives to state and local police departments to prohibit the practice.
Reduce Crime Recidivism by Providing Ex-Offender Support
Obama will provide job training, substance abuse and mental health counseling to ex-offenders, so that they are successfully re-integrated into society. Obama will also create a prison-to-work incentive program to improve ex-offender employment and job retention rates.
Eliminate Sentencing Disparities
Obama believes the disparity between sentencing crack and powder-based cocaine is wrong and should be completely eliminated.
Expand Use of Drug Courts
Obama will give first-time, non-violent offenders a chance to serve their sentence, where appropriate, in the type of drug rehabilitation programs that have proven to work better than a prison term in changing bad behavior.
Barack Obama’s Record
Record of Advocacy: Obama has worked to promote civil rights and fairness in the criminal justice system throughout his career. As a community organizer, Obama helped 150,000 African Americans register to vote. As a civil rights lawyer, Obama litigated employment discrimination, housing discrimination, and voting rights cases. As a State Senator, Obama passed one of the country’s first racial profiling laws and helped reform a broken death penalty system. And in the U.S. Senate, Obama has been a leading advocate for protecting the right to vote, helping to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act and leading the opposition against discriminatory barriers to voting.
philosophy based on the practice of the noble path shown by the exhualted, Blessed, Noble and the Awakened One and holding that a state of awakenment can be attained by suppressing worldly desires
A Fourth Turning of the Wheel?
To my way of thinking, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar (1891-1956) is the most articulate and perhaps radical spokesman for a new turning of the wheel. Ambedkar, I think, really went to the heart of this problem, and left us all with a provocative vision of Buddhism for the modern world.
Dr. B.R. Ambedkar
He was born among the so-called “untouchables” in < ?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas- microsoft- com:office: smarttags” /> India , but through his remarkable genius he became one of the most prominent personalities of his time. After India achieved independence in 1947, Ambedkar became the first law minister in independent India (what we might call the Attorney General). As such, he was the principal architect of India ’s Constitution. It’s the world’s longest democratic constitution, and includes many articles against the practice of un-touch-ability. It also provides for what we call affirmative action; people from all backgrounds should have access to education, scholarships and government jobs, but the preferences would be given to the lowest people in society. Ambedkar was responsible for all that.
In the last five years of his life he made good on a promise he made in 1935, “I was born a Hindu, but I’m determined not to die a Hindu. I’m going to figure out which of the religions offers me and my community the most dignity and humanity.” Many who knew him and study him think Ambedkar had Buddhism in mind all along, because he was deeply moved by a book on the life of the Buddha given him upon graduation from high school. But if he had declared himself a Buddhist in the 1930s he would have lost a lot of his clout as a negotiator with the British and with other Hindus like Gandhi in the drama of emerging independence. So he held off until 1951 when he retired from the government, and spent the last five years of his life preparing for a huge conversion ceremony on October 14th, 1956, which is the traditional date of Ashoka’s conversion to Buddhism.
The year 1956 saw the worldwide celebration of the twenty-five hundredth year of the birth of Buddha Shakyamuni. So the date and the place, Nagpur in central India, a city which was associated with the preservation of Buddhist teachings by the Nagas, the serpent people, was highly symbolic of the rebirth of Buddhism in a land which had seen no Buddhism for virtually a thousand years. Nearly a half-million untouchables took refuge at Ambedkar’s conversion ceremony; and then six weeks later, he died of a long-standing illness.
In the years since his great conversion, Ambedkar had become a symbol of hope for low-caste people throughout India but his Buddhist movement since then has had to struggle along with support from outsiders like Sangharakshita and his British Buddhist followers, though it also attracted some talented leaders within India and the untouchable community. Where it’s going, and whether it’s growing and flourishing, is anybody’s guess. But we have Ambedkar’s own thoughts and writings to consider for our purposes today.
Choice and Adaptation
I’d like to mention two proposals that he made in his effort to adapt Buddhism to modern circumstances - not just for the untouchables, but really for the modern world. The first is that one must choose what religion one will follow, and the second is that one must adapt it to fit one’s needs.
One premise of Ambedkar’s religious sensibility was that as modern (or even postmodern) people we are forced to choose our belief system. It’s not only possible for people to become heretics, but we have what Peter Berger called the “heretical imperative.” (The word heresy, by the way, comes from the Greek root, which means simply “to choose”; it means to choose a belief and a lifestyle.) We really are forced by the world today to choose who we will be and what we will believe, because the grip of tradition on our minds has now been loosened by modern education, by science, by travel and by global communication. We are now faced with so many options for belief and practice that we have to sit down quietly with ourselves and say, “What do I believe? What shall I do with my life? Who will be my friends and allies? Where should I put my extracurricular energies?” These are things that all people in the world are now facing. (There are certainly repressive countries where those options are limited, but I think most in the world today recognize the goal of being able to make yourself, remake yourself, and point yourself in some direction.)
Following his dramatic announcement in 1935 C.E. that he would adopt a new religion, Ambedkar considered Christianity, Islam, Sikhism, Jainism and Buddhism as possible options for him in India . They were all active religions, except for Buddhism, which, although originating in India had vanished by the twelfth century. Ambedkar asked, “Which of these traditions offers my community the most dignity, the most inspiration, the most empowerment to move ahead and to realize a good life or a good future or a good symbolic universe, a universe that makes me feel that life is worth living and there’s a future for the world?”
Buddhism seemed to offer the most for Ambedkar and his followers because it was an indigenous religion; it wasn’t, like Christianity or Islam - something imported. It also offered something unique, a kind of reticence to lock onto fixed beliefs or practices. There was this notion within Buddhism that you must experiment within the laboratory of your own life to see what works and what makes sense.
This helped with Ambedkar’s second principle: the notion that once I’ve chosen a major tradition or body of thought, I must adjust it so that it works in the circumstances that I face or that my community faces. Ambedkar echoed the discourse in the Kalama Sutta in which the Buddha said, “Don’t blindly trust teachings and writings, but test them in your own life.” This idea of testing for yourself and questioning authority has become a hallmark of Western or modern Buddhism.
The heart of Buddhism was an attitude, or, perhaps, Buddhism was an attitude of heart. The Buddha, of course, was a human being representing a potential that all human beings have. So all of that went into Ambedkar’s search for a tradition that could be adaptable to a culture in which pluralism was present, but in which a significant proportion of people felt dis-empowered and dehumanized. Buddhism, for Ambedkar, emerged as a model for becoming a full human being. Yet it was a model still in need of some changes.
The Limitations of Buddhism
In his final work, The Buddha and His Dhamma, Ambedkar pointed to four problems he saw with the Buddhist tradition as received from the past, four issues that conflict with our modern sensibility. We should not forget that Ambedkar was trained in the West; he was a follower of John Dewey, the eminent American pragmatist philosopher.
1) The first thing that Ambedkar questioned was the legend of the Buddha’s isolation, as a prince, from normal human experiences. How could a twenty-nine year-old man suddenly discover illness, suffering, and death, and then abandon his family in a fit of existential angst? Wasn’t that a little late for someone to discover these things? So there’s something about the Buddha’s story that’s a little odd to our way of thinking, because we know that young people today confront these realities of life during their adolescent years and we encourage them to wrestle with these things and resolve them in certain ways.
2) The second issue has to do with the causes of suffering. The second noble truth says that suffering is a result of craving and ignorance; therefore if someone is suffering we have to say, “Change your attitude. Practice meditation. Practice morality and your life will improve.” But might there be circumstances in which there are innocent victims? There are children or whole communities who are marginalized and oppressed by social, political and economic forces that are essentially beyond their control, unless they somehow collectively organize a resistance to oppression. Can Buddhism encompass the notion of social change, which has both victims and oppressors?
3) The third problem was the question of karma and rebirth. Do we really believe in rebirth? Do we really believe that karma is a kind of ongoing accumulation of energy that will dictate not only the quality of our life but cause us to be reborn again and again? Must we conclude, for example, that a handicapped person is serving a sentence for past indiscretions or crimes? Ambedkar had difficulty with the place of traditional teachings of rebirth in our modern world view, not only in terms of what we now know about psychology and physics, but in light of the social issues surrounding the life of untouchables in India .
4) The final contradiction or problem Dr. Ambedkar saw in Buddhism was the role of the monk or the ordained person. What is the true role of the ideal practitioner of Buddhism? Should it be one who is renouncing and retreating from the life of family responsibilities, work, and society, living essentially apart, except for the ritualized contacts of the begging rounds or teaching? Or should those ideal practitioners of the Buddha’s teaching be seen not as sitting but as walking; that is, walking out into the community and trying to help people improve their material circumstances as well as their spiritual condition? Shouldn’t the monks be trained as social workers? This was one of Ambedkar’s core questions. And his model was the Jesuits, the Benedictines and Protestant missionaries who founded clinics and literacy programs and helped people to dig wells, build roads, and otherwise improve their situation through engaged activity.
Modifications
In looking at these issues and other basic notions of Buddhism, Ambedkar modified the tradition quite freely.. One of the most important changes he made was a rather radical re-interpretation of what was meant by nirvana. According to Ambedkar, nirvana is not a metaphysical or psychological state or attainment, but a society founded in peace and justice. He brought a transcendent view of nirvana down to earth.
This is an important feature of engaged Buddhism as manifested in many parts of Asia today. A common feature of this movement is to disregard notions of another world, whether it’s a psychological world or a metaphysical world, and to translate that into a society based on equality and the free exchange of ideas and goods. This is a kind of socialism, and Ambedkar himself, though not a socialist per se, was significantly influenced by socialist thinkers.
With this different understanding, the discussion of nirvana becomes analogous to the discussion in Christianity about the kingdom of God or heaven. Is it an afterlife, or is it an ideal community on this planet? Ambedkar and his followers would vote for the latter concept. We need to create communities that unlock human potential and dignity - that’s nirvana.
If you look at the Satipatthána Sutta or the Visuddhimagga you find texts setting forth a complex set of meditation skills and ethical practices, which the tradition offers us as the path to awakening. That is largely de-emphasized in Ambedkar’s writings and in his thought. For him the pursuit of education at all levels was a form of meditation and mental cultivation. This in turn supplemented the institutions of a free society - representative government, due process, and an impartial judiciary when an untouchable can go to a court and have a judge actually award the verdict to him or her. This is nirvana. All this has nothing to do with the traditional wealth of meditation practices available.
It is important to keep in mind that Ambedkar’s primary teachers were books. In this sense he shares something with Western “Buddhists” who have been brought to Buddhism by reading Alan Watts, D.T. Suzuki, Shunryu Suzuki, or Trungpa Rinpoche, rather than being trained in Buddhism by a personal teacher who is devoting his or her life to practice and teaching meditation. There are many people in America who call themselves Buddhists because they’ve read books about it - the “bookstore Buddhist” or the “nightstand Buddhist,” as Tom Tweed calls them. Ambedkar had thirty thousand books, including a huge collection on Buddhism; these have marks all over the margins and underlines and crossings out, agreeing and disagreeing with elements of the tradition and deciding how Buddhism would work for him. These books were his teachers.
As a personality, Ambedkar was certainly volcanic; he didn’t have the calm demeanor of Thich Nhat Hanh. It wasn’t breath and smile for Dr. Ambedkar. Ambedkar was deeply scarred by being an untouchable in his society all his life, and he brings the passion of that experience to his understanding of Buddhism. Educate, Agitate, and Organize - this was Ambedkar’s slogan during his years as a civil rights leaders in India . Today it is still used by his followers as Buddhists, which really irritates other Buddhists who say that agitation has no role to play in Buddhism. Well, does it? Should Buddhists be, in a certain sense, agitators for a better society, for reconciliation, or are these irreconcilable concepts?
Ambedkar’s Challenge
Given the way Buddhism is evolving in the West, with its strong emphasis upon meditation and psychology, Ambedkar’s perspective is very provocative. Many of us are drawn to Buddhism because it offers peace - inner peace and world peace. We would like to be more un-perturb-able, loving, compassionate and joyful, rather than the crusading radicals some of us were in the sixties. If Buddhism has to do with stilling the fires of passion, then mettá bhávaná [the cultivation of loving kindness] is probably the best and highest practice for engaged Buddhism in the traditional mold - achieving peace and then projecting that peace to others.. If this attainment of peace has some ripples in the world, great; but the world is really not the primary concern of a traditional Buddhist. It is rather training the monkey mind to settle down.
But it may be worth looking closely at Ambedkar’s idea that Buddhism is something we receive and then have to work with. Buddhist teachings invite us to take responsibility for ourselves, and this is being interpreted in engaged Buddhist circles as taking responsibility for the entire Sangha, the larger community, and ultimately, our eco-system on this planet Earth. Ambedkar’s approach tells us that if we spend too much time in personal meditation practice, and in retreat from the world of social relationship, we will be irresponsible to our community. So we need to get off the cushion, get out of the house, get out there and start to educate, agitate and organize. This is a collectivist notion of Sangha as people working together for a society of justice, wherein our Buddhist practice becomes the engaged activity of social change.
The Meaning of Buddhism
The teaching founded by the Buddha is known, in English, as Buddhism. It may be asked, who is the Buddha? A Buddha is one who has attained Bodhi; and by Bodhi is meant wisdom, an ideal state of intellectual and ethical perfection which can be achieved by man through purely human means. The term Buddha literally means enlightened one, a knower. Buddhists believe that a Buddha is born in each aeon of time, and our Buddha—the sage Gotama who attained enlightenment under the bo tree at Buddh Gaya in India —was the seventh in the succession. Gotama was born the son of an Indian king on the border of modern Nepal 623 years before Christ. The wise men of the kingdom foresaw that he would become either an emperor or a Buddha, and his father, wanting him to be an emperor, kept him utterly secluded from all unpleasant things, so that he might not become wise by seeing life. But the gods knew that Gotama must become the Buddha, and so they visited earth in various forms to let him see them. On three successive days, while on his way to the royal park, Gotama saw an old man, a sick man, and a corpse, and thus he learned that men—all men—must suffer and die. On the fourth day he saw a monk; from this he understood that to learn the way of overcoming man’s universal sorrow lie must give up worldly pleasures. Accordingly, in his twenty-ninth year, he renounced his kingdom and became an ascetic.
Gotama wandered about the countryside, a seeker after truth and peace. He approached many a distinguished teacher of his day, but none could give him what he sought. He strenuously practiced all the severe austerities of monkish life, hoping to attain Nirvana. Eventually his delicate body was reduced almost to a skeleton. But the more he tormented his body the further away he was from his goal. Realizing the futility of self-mortification, he finally decided to follow a different course, avoiding the extremes of pain and indulgence.
The new path which he discovered was the Middle Way , the Eightfold Path, which subsequently became part of his teaching. By following this path his wisdom grew into its fullest power, and he became the Buddha.
As a man Prince Gotama, by his own will, love, and wisdom, attained Buddhahood—the highest possible state of perfection—and he taught his followers to believe that they might do the same. Any man, within himself, possesses the power to make himself good, wise, and happy.
All the teachings of the Buddha can be summed up in one word: Dhamma. It means truth, that which really is. It also means law, the law which exists in a man’s own heart and mind. It is the principle of righteousness. Therefore the Buddha appeals to man to be noble, pure, and charitable not in order to please any Supreme Deity, but in order to be true to the highest in himself.
Dhamma, this law of righteousness, exists not only in a man’s heart and mind, it exists in the universe also. All the universe is an embodiment and revelation of Dhamma. When the moon rises and sets, the rains come, the crops grow, the seasons change, it, is because of Dhamma, for Dhamma is the law of the universe which makes matter act in the ways revealed by our studies of natural science.
If a man will live by Dhamma, he will escape misery and come to Nirvana, the final release from all suffering. It is not by any kind of prayer, nor by any ceremonies, nor by any appeal to a God, that a man will discover the Dhamma which will lead him to his goal. He will discover it in only one way—by developing his own character. This development comes only through control of the mind and purification of the emotions. Until a man stills the storm in his heart, until he extends his loving-kindness to all beings, he will not be able to take even the first step toward his goal.
Thus Buddhism is not a religion at all, in the sense in which the word is commonly understood. It is not a system of faith or worship. In Buddhism, there is no such thing as belief in a body of dogma which must be taken on faith, such as belief in a Supreme Being, a creator of the universe, the reality of an immortal soul, a personal savior, or archangels who are supposed to carry out the will of the Supreme Deity. Buddhism begins as a search for truth. The Buddha taught that we should believe only that which is true in the light of our own experience, that which conforms to reason and is conducive to the highest good and welfare of all beings. Men must rely on themselves. Even though he may “take refuge in Buddha,'’ the expression used when a man pledges himself to live a righteous life, he must not fall victim to a blind faith that the Buddha can save him. The Buddha can point out the path, but he cannot walk it for us.
The truth which the Buddhist sees when he looks around him is the truth of cause and effect. Every action, no matter how insignificant, produces an effect; every effect in its turn becomes a, cause and produces still further effects. It is meaningless to inquire for a First Cause. A First Cause is inconceivable; rather, cause and effect are cyclical, and this universe when it dies and falls apart will give rise to another universe, just as this one was formed from the dispersed matter of a previous universe. The origin of the universe, like that of every individual person or thing in it, is dependent on the chain of previous causes, which goes on and on in an endless cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. This is the principle of dependent origination.
What of the soul? The Buddha taught that there is no soul or self, and he used the metaphor of the cart. If you take away the wheels and axles, the floorboards and sides, the shafts, and all the other parts of the cart, what remains? Nothing but the conception of a cart, which will be the same when a new cart is built. So the uninterrupted process of psychophysical phenomena moves from life to life. Each life passes instantaneously in death to a new life, and the new life is the effect of the causes in the old life. A candle flame at this instant is different from the flame that burned an instant ago, yet the flame is continuous.
Thus in the chain of interdependent causation all phenomenal existence is constantly changing. The elements combine and recombine with no underlying substance, or soul, to give them permanence. This is the Wheel of Life. The main cause of the restlessness, the suffering, which is the lot of beings turning on the Wheel of Life, is craving or selfish desire for existence, and it is this desire which sets the life force in motion. Desire is manifested in action. This action is in reality volition or will power, which is responsible for the creation of being. It is called karma in Sanskrit, but in the Pali language, which the Buddha spoke and in which all the Buddhist scriptures were written, it is softened to kamma.
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In this universe in which nothing is permanent all change is governed by kamma or the kammic force. Kamma means action. In its general sense, kamma means all good and bad actions. Kamma refers to all kinds of intentional actions whether mental, verbal, or physical, that is, all thoughts, words, and deeds. In its ultimate sense kamma means all moral and immoral volition.
Kamma, though it activates the chain of cause and effect, is not determinism, nor is it an excuse for fatalism. The past influences the present, but does not dominate it. The past is the background against which life goes on from moment to moment; the past and the present influence the future. Only the present moment exists, and the responsibility for using the present moment for good or ill lies with each individual.
Every action produces an effect; it is cause first and effect afterward. We therefore speak of kamma as “the law of cause and effect.” If you throw a stone into a pond, the ripples spread out to the shore, but that is not all, for the ripples return inward until they touch the stone again. The effects of our actions come back to us, and as long as our actions are done with evil intent, the waves of effect will come back to us as evil. But if we are kind and keep ourselves peaceful, the returning waves of trouble will grow weaker until they die down and our good kamma will come back to us in blessing.
In the world around us there are many inequalities in the lot of man—some are rich, others are poor, some live full lives, others die young, etc. According to Buddhism, the inequalities which exist are due, to some extent, to environment—which is itself shaped by cause and effect—and to a greater extent to causes, that is kamma, which are in the present, the immediate past, and the remote past. Man himself is responsible for his own happiness and misery. Thus kamma is not fate nor destiny nor blind determinism. Man has a certain amount of free will; he can modify his actions and affect his future. Each act, whether mental or physical, tends to produce its like. If a man does a good deed or thinks a good thought, the effect upon him is to increase the tendencies to goodness in him.
The understanding of kamma gives us power. The more we make the doctrine of kamma a part of our lives, the more power we gain, not only to direct our future, but also to help our fellow beings more effectively. The practice of good kamma, when fully developed, will enable us to overcome evil and even to overcome kamma itself, thus bringing us to our goal, Nirvana.
The principle of dependent origination and the law of kamma provide the background for understanding the nature of rebirth. According to Buddhism, death is “the temporary end of a temporary phenomenon.” It is not the complete annihilation of the being, for although the organic life has ceased, the kammic force which hitherto actuated it is not destroyed. Our physical forms are only the outward manifestations of the invisible kammic force. When the present form perishes, another form takes its place according to a good or bad volitional impulse—the kamma that was the most powerful—at the moment before death.
At death the kammic force remains entirely undisturbed by the disintegration of the physical body, and the passing away of the present consciousness creates the conditions for the coming into being of a fresh body in another birth. The stream of consciousness flows on like a river which is built up by its tributaries and dispenses its water to the countryside through which it passes. The continuity of flux at death is unbroken in point of time; there is no breach in the stream of consciousness, and therefore there is no room whatever for an intermediate stage between this life and the next. Rebirth takes place immediately.
The present being, present existence, is conditioned by the way one faced circumstances in the last and in all past existences. One’s present character and circumstances are the result of all that one has been up to the present, but what one will be in the future depends on what one does now in the present. The true Buddhist regards death as a momentary incident between one life and its successor and views its approach with calmness. His only concern is that his future should be such that the condition of that life may provide him with better opportunities for perfecting himself.
Buddhism teaches that with the practice of meditation and concentration the memory can be trained. By meditation and mind culture one can acquire the power to see one’s rebirth as a link, or a succession of links, in a chain of births; one can also acquire the power of looking back into one’s previous lives. Not only this, but Buddhism also teaches that with the attainment of Nirvana in this life itself, through enlightenment and true wisdom, one can reach the end of this chain of rebirths.
Nirvana, the state to which all Buddhists aspire, is the cessation of desire and hence the end of suffering. Nirvana in Sanskrit means “the blowing out.” It is understood as the extinguishment of the flame of personal desire, the quenching of the fire of life. Among Westerners Nirvana is often thought of as a negative state, a kind of “nothingness. ” But in the Buddhist scriptures it is always described in positive terms; the highest refuge, safety, emancipation, peace, and the like. Nirvana is freedom, but not freedom from circumstance; it is freedom from the bonds with which we have bound ourselves to circumstance. That man is free who is strong enough to say, “Whatever comes I accept as best.”
Nirvana is the dying of the kammic force. The Buddhist ascends to Nirvana through many stages of the Middle Way , the path of wisdom, morality, and control. There is not space enough here even to mention these phases or the various aspects of the regimen recommended by the Buddha in his vast scriptures; but it may be taken for granted that the life of the conscientious Buddhist is full and rich. Through the cycle of rebirths he ascends, he perfects himself, he conquers his cravings through wisdom and love. Slowly the kammic force ebbs away, the flame dies down.
At the root of man’s trouble is his primal state of ignorance. From ignorance comes desire, which sets the kammic force in motion. Hence the way to Nirvana lies through knowledge, and we come again full circle to Dhamma, the Buddha’s teachings. For in Dhamma, as truth, lies release from ignorance and desire and perpetual change, and the Buddha has shown us the way to truth.
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What, then, is the meaning of Buddhism? Ultimately Buddhism, although not strictly speaking a religion, is a systematic exercise in spirituality, certainly one of the greatest ever conceived. It offers the individual a means by which he may fulfill himself through understanding, reaching eventually the plane of the supraperson on which both the self and self-knowledge are no longer useful. Meister Eckhart, the great Christian mystic, said: “The kingdom of God is for none but the thoroughly dead.” The Buddhist would agree, though he would probably prefer a less grim way of saying it. Nirvana in life, the peace which “passeth all understanding, ” is the conquest of life, the discovery of the permanent in its flux of psychophysical accidents and circumstances. The Buddhist believes that through meditation and good hard thought he can follow the Buddha through the successive stages of enlightenment and achieve at last the perfect wisdom which surmounts all need.
But by no means all Buddhists are monks or adepts. What does Buddhism mean for the ordinary person going about his work in the world? All through the Buddha’s teaching, repeated stress is laid on self-reliance and resolution. Buddhism makes man stand on his own feet, it arouses his self-confidence and energy. The Buddha again and again reminded his followers that there is no one, either in heaven or on earth, who can help them or free them from the results of their past evil deeds. The Buddhist knows that the powers of his own mind and spirit are enough to guide him in the present and shape his future and bring him eventually to the truth. He knows that he possesses a strength which is ultimately unsurpassable.
Moreover, Buddhism points unequivocally to the moral aspect of everyday life. Though Nirvana is amoral, in the sense that final peace transcends the conflict of good and evil, the path to wisdom is definitely a moral path. This follows logically from the doctrine of kamma. Every action must produce an effect, and one’s own actions produce an effect in one’s own life. Thus the kammic force which carries us inevitably onward can only be a force for good, that is, for our ultimate wisdom, if each action is a good action.
This doctrine finds its highest expression in metta, the Buddhist goal of universal and all-embracing love. Metta means much more than brotherly feeling or kindheartedness, though these are part of it. It is active benevolence, a love which is expressed and fulfilled in active ministry for the uplifting of fellow beings. Metta goes hand in hand with helpfulness and a willingness to forego self-interest in order to promote the welfare and happiness of mankind. It is metta which in Buddhism is the basis for social progress. Metta is, finally, the broadest and intensest conceivable degree of sympathy, expressed in the throes of suffering and change. The true Buddhist does his best to exercise metta toward every living being and identifies himself with all, making no distinctions whatsoever with regard to caste, color, class, or sex.
In addition, of course, the teachings of the Buddha are a prime cultural force in Oriental life, just as the Bible is the ultimate source of much Western art and thought. The Buddhist scriptures are larger and more detailed than the Christian Bible, however, and in translation would fill a dozen volumes. In Pali, the language of the scriptures, the Buddha’s teachings are called Tripitaka, which means “The Three Baskets.”
Vinaya Pitaka, “The Basket of Discipline,” consists of five books which expound the rules of monastic life. Sutta Pitaka, “The Basket of Discourses,” is a collection of discussions, stories, poems, and proverbs, written in simple language, imparting all the precepts of practical Buddhism. The third basket, Abhidhamma Pitaka, or “Basket of Ultimate Things,” deals with epistemological, metaphysical, and psychological matters and is of interest mainly to trained philosophers.
Thus the Tripitaka offers cohesive guidance at every level of intellectual, ethical, and spiritual activity. The Buddha’s word is light, a lamp for Burma —and for everyone.
Not moving towards BJP: Mayawati
Atiq Khan
LUCKNOW: Amid reports of a possible Congress-Samajwadi Party tie-up on the India-nuclear deal and beyond, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Tuesday scotched rumours of the Bahujan Samaj Party moving towards the Bharatiya Janata Party. She emphasised that the “BSP has had no pre-poll alliance with the saffron party and will have none in the future.”
Following BJP leader L.K. Advani’s utterances on Uttar Pradesh at a June 27 public meeting in Kanpur, the Congress and the SP have charged Ms. Mayawati with entering into an understanding with the saffron party.
Accusing the Congress and the SP of launching a malicious propaganda against her party to harm its political interests, Ms. Mayawati said both were worried at the prospect of Muslims shifting to her party on the controversial nuclear deal issue.
Ms. Mayawati claimed that Muslims were opposed to the nuclear deal.
Centre’s apathy responsible for floods affecting U.P. every year : CM
Lucknow : July 01, 2008 The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Ms. Mayawati has said that the State Government was making all possible efforts to deal with the situation of floods. She said that paucity of funds would not be allowed to hamper rescue and relief works. She said that the Union Government’s apathy was responsible for the destruction caused by floods every year. She said that decision has been taken to plant 10 crore saplings during the rainy season for the permanent solution of drought problem of Bundelkhand region. The Chief Minister was addressing a press conference organised at her 5-Kalidas Marg official residence here today. She said that every year some districts of the state, especially those situated in the terai and eastern U.P. were badly affected by floods causing huge damage of people, property and thousands of acres of crops. Ms. Mayawati said that the State Chief Secretary had already reviewed the preparations undertaken to deal with the floods in the first week of June itself and necessary directives had also been issued in this regard. Besides, the State Irrigation Minister had also been directed to make all possible efforts to deal with the situation. The Chief Minister said that one of the main causes of the serious condition of floods in the state was that some of the major rivers flowing through the state like — Sharda, Ghaghra, Rapti and Gandak, originated from our neighbouring country Nepal and some times owing to heavy rains and also because of excessive release of water from the dams, the districts situated on the banks of these rivers face vicious situation of floods. Ms. Mayawati said that keeping all the above factors in mind, the Chief Secretary had reviewed the flood security arrangements and situation of relief and rescue works by visiting Gorakhpur, Kushinagar and Maharajganj districts on June 21 last. Besides, the State Irrigation Minister also visited the Purvanchal and Gorakhpur regions, which were affected by floods on June 27 last and suspended some officers for showing laxity in their duties and works. Departmental action was also initiated against some others. The Chief Minister said that the State Government had already taken necessary steps to provide quick relief to the people affected by the flood. The Flood Company of the PAC had been provided motorboats and other necessary equipment to deal with any challenge of floods. Besides, the army had also been alerted and the officers of the State Government had been in constant touch with their counterparts in the army. Holding the insensitivity of the Union Government responsible for the situation of floods, Ms. Mayawati said that the problem of flood caused by Sharda, Ghaghara, Rapti and Gandak could have been dealt with had the Union Government been sensitive towards it. She said that the Government of India had been requested last year that to ensure permanent solution of the flood situation arising because of the overflow of rivers originating from Nepal, it was necessary to take an early decision regarding the irrigation and flood control projects pending between Nepal and India. She regretted that the Union Government, like other several requests made by the State Government earlier, had not taken any concrete step in this regard so far and because of that the flood situation remains same as earlier.. The Chief Minister, on this occasion, said that the ‘Van Mahotsav Week’ had commenced in the State and a decision to plant 10 crore saplings in the Bundelkhand region during the rainy season had been taken by the Government so that the problem of drought could be solved permanently. The other purpose of this decision is to promote horticulture. This plantation drive would include plants, especially of lemon and other suitable fruit varieties. It would improve the economic condition of the area. She said that with a view to ensuring environment conservation, saplings of neem, imli, bel and other species would also be planted. She said that after it such trees would also be planted in other areas of the state. She hoped that efforts of her Government would ensure improvement in the economic condition of the people in the coming years. *******
Home guard will get Rs. 126 daily duty allowance
Lucknow: June 30, 2008 The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Ms. Mayawati has increased the daily duty allowance of Home Guard volunteers. Now, each home guard would get the payment of Rs. 126 per day on duty anywhere in the state. It may be recalled that home guards volunteers were being paid Rs. 100 per day for duty in district and Rs. 105 per day for duty in other districts. The Chief Minister has increased the allowance keeping in view the demand of home guard volunteers for a long time. Home guards work more than the skilled labourers and equal to police constables. They were getting the duty allowance less than skilled labour so far. Taking a serious note of it, the Chief Minister has taken the decision of increasing the duty allowance of home guard volunteers. ********
Maya puts ‘tainted’ BSP minister in jail
Bahujan samaj party MLA Guddu Pandit was today (June 29) arrested for allegedly “abducting” a woman television reporter three days back.
Pandit, who was shown as having been taken into custody from Sector 24 of Noida, has been charged under various sections of Indian Penal Code by the Uttar Pradesh, officials sources said.
An MLA from Dibai assembly constituency in Uttar Pradesh, he was summoned by Chief Minister Mayawati at her residence in New Delhi after the reporter lodged a complaint with her of his misbehaviour.
The reporter told the Chief Minister that Pandit had allegedly forced him to travel with him from one place to another.
Pandit was handed over a notice from investigation officer of Gijod Police station for appearing before him.
Noida (city) Superintendent of Police Ashok Tripathi said Pandit was summoned and placed under arrest.
Incidentally, Guddu Pandit once worked as a driver with disgraced UP MLA Amarmani Tripathi. Tripathi was implicated in the murder of poetess Madhumita Shukla and is serving time in prison.
A case under section 147 (rioting), 366 (deceitful means to compel a person to travel places), 363 (whoever kidnaps or abducts a women and compels her to marry or have a sexual relation), 497 (adultery) and 420 (cheating).
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Plan to Strengthen Civil Rights
“The teenagers and college students who left their homes to march in the streets of Birmingham and Montgomery; the mothers who walked instead of taking the bus after a long day of doing somebody else’s laundry and cleaning somebody else’s kitchen — they didn’t brave fire hoses and Billy clubs so that their grandchildren and their great-grandchildren would still wonder at the beginning of the 21st century whether their vote would be counted; whether their civil rights would be protected by their government; whether justice would be equal and opportunity would be theirs. . . . We have more work to do.”
— Barack Obama, Speech at Howard University, September 28, 2007
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