Monday, July 30, 2012
Beyond Conceptual Thought: We never give up on anyone! by Haeja Sunim
Beyond Conceptual Thought: We never give up on anyone! by Haeja Sunim: Have you ever made a mistake, known it was mistake, and vowed never to repeat it, only to make the same mistake yet again? I know that I...
Opinions vary widely on Tibet’s self-immolation protests
Originally posted by Buddhadharma
Two Opinions, what do they really mean to yours?
The New York Times Belief Blog recently ran two opinion pieces on Tibet’s self-immolation phenomenon by Stephen Prothero, a Boston University religion scholar and writer, and Tenzin Dorjee, Executive Director of Students for a Free Tibet. The two writers, both supporters of the Tibetan cause, show us just how strong and divergent opinions on this sensitive issue are. Please follow the links below:
Stephen Prothero, My Take: Dalai Lama should condemn Tibetan self-immolations
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Survey on Asian-Americans and Religion, and an Old Controversy
Originally posted by Abount Buddhism.com.
How to convert and become a Muslim with Live Help?
The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life has come out with a new survey, this time focusing on Asian-Americans and religion. I haven't had time to look through it carefully, but one thing jumped out at me right away.
"While Asian Americans make up a majority of U.S. Buddhists, roughly a third of American Buddhists are non-Asian; the Pew Forum estimates that 67%-69% of Buddhists in the U.S. are Asian," it says. That's not a startling statistic, but it is very much at odds with a Pew survey released in 2008, which said that only 32 percent of Buddhists in the U.S. are ethnic Asians. Big difference.
Arun of Angry Asian Buddhist has written several posts about this, demonstrating that the older numbers just don't crunch. See, for example, "Stop Using the Pew Study" from September 2010. Arun's "back-of-the-envelope" rough calculation found that the percentage of U.S. Buddhists who are ethnic Asians had to be closer to 62 percent than 32 percent. Turns out Arun was right.
I see, however, that the older survey -- still online -- has not been corrected.
The 32 percent figure from 2008 has been picked up by journalists and sociologists ever since it was published. From this number many conclusions have been drawn about Buddhism in the U.S. that are, obviously, invalid. Arun has argued that the older Pew survey numbers have the effect of marginalizing Asian Americans.
Other than that -- and again, I've only looked through the new survey quickly -- the next most interesting thing was comparing Buddhists in the 2008 survey and the new survey in areas of social issues. From this I take it that ethnic Asian Buddhists tend to be more conservative than the Buddhists sampled in 2008.
The 2008 crew tended to lean heavily toward being liberal in political and social outlook, whereas the new survey shows Asian American Buddhists tend to be closer to the U.S. general public in political and social outlook. That's hardly startling, but it suggests that the 2008 survey did not present an accurate picture of U.S. Buddhists.
NOTE FROM THIS EDITOR:(How to convert and become a Muslim with Live Help?) I am very sorry to say that it doesn`t happy this way. You may
How to convert and become a Muslim with Live Help?
"While Asian Americans make up a majority of U.S. Buddhists, roughly a third of American Buddhists are non-Asian; the Pew Forum estimates that 67%-69% of Buddhists in the U.S. are Asian," it says. That's not a startling statistic, but it is very much at odds with a Pew survey released in 2008, which said that only 32 percent of Buddhists in the U.S. are ethnic Asians. Big difference.
Arun of Angry Asian Buddhist has written several posts about this, demonstrating that the older numbers just don't crunch. See, for example, "Stop Using the Pew Study" from September 2010. Arun's "back-of-the-envelope" rough calculation found that the percentage of U.S. Buddhists who are ethnic Asians had to be closer to 62 percent than 32 percent. Turns out Arun was right.
I see, however, that the older survey -- still online -- has not been corrected.
The 32 percent figure from 2008 has been picked up by journalists and sociologists ever since it was published. From this number many conclusions have been drawn about Buddhism in the U.S. that are, obviously, invalid. Arun has argued that the older Pew survey numbers have the effect of marginalizing Asian Americans.
Other than that -- and again, I've only looked through the new survey quickly -- the next most interesting thing was comparing Buddhists in the 2008 survey and the new survey in areas of social issues. From this I take it that ethnic Asian Buddhists tend to be more conservative than the Buddhists sampled in 2008.
The 2008 crew tended to lean heavily toward being liberal in political and social outlook, whereas the new survey shows Asian American Buddhists tend to be closer to the U.S. general public in political and social outlook. That's hardly startling, but it suggests that the 2008 survey did not present an accurate picture of U.S. Buddhists.
NOTE FROM THIS EDITOR:(How to convert and become a Muslim with Live Help?) I am very sorry to say that it doesn`t happy this way. You may
Monday, July 23, 2012
World Fellowship of Buddhists promotes ethical treatment of animals
Originally posted by Shambhala Sun.
A resolution at the conference calling for an animal welfare subcommittee of the WFB Standing Committee for Humanitarian Services.
The World Fellowship of Buddhists, established in 1950 to foster cooperation between Buddhists of different sects all over the world, called on humanity to extend compassion and loving-kindness to all living beings in its final Declaration at its 26th General Conference held in South Korea last month. This stemmed from Ven. Senaka Weeraratna of the German Dharmaduta Society, who handed in a draft resolution at the conference calling for an animal welfare subcommittee of the WFB Standing Committee for Humanitarian Services.
You can read the full text of the draft resolution at lankaweb.com, available here.
A resolution at the conference calling for an animal welfare subcommittee of the WFB Standing Committee for Humanitarian Services.
The World Fellowship of Buddhists, established in 1950 to foster cooperation between Buddhists of different sects all over the world, called on humanity to extend compassion and loving-kindness to all living beings in its final Declaration at its 26th General Conference held in South Korea last month. This stemmed from Ven. Senaka Weeraratna of the German Dharmaduta Society, who handed in a draft resolution at the conference calling for an animal welfare subcommittee of the WFB Standing Committee for Humanitarian Services.
You can read the full text of the draft resolution at lankaweb.com, available here.
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
From the July 2012 magazine: “Politically Aware”
Originally posted by Shambhala Sun
In a mindful nation, we’d begin to see.......
Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan is a vocal advocate for incorporating mindfulness into all aspects of American society. In this Q&A from the July 2012 Shambhala Sun magazine — now online in its entirety — Ryan talks about his own meditation practice and his vision for more mindful country, which he outlined in his book A Mindful Nation.
In a mindful nation, we’d begin to see.......
Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan is a vocal advocate for incorporating mindfulness into all aspects of American society. In this Q&A from the July 2012 Shambhala Sun magazine — now online in its entirety — Ryan talks about his own meditation practice and his vision for more mindful country, which he outlined in his book A Mindful Nation.
“We’d all slow down and reprioritize our values. Today, consumerism seems to be front and center and caring about one another is on the back burner. In a mindful nation, we’d begin to see and appreciate that we are all connected—we are all part of the 100 percent. It would lead to an education system that’s more mindful in teaching social and emotional skills. It would lead to a health care system that focuses on prevention. Our neighborhoods would start to look different. There would be more urban farms and parks and bike trails—things that connect us. In a mindful nation, the pressure would go down. There’d be more time off with your family, like it was for my grandparents.”Read the rest of Andrea Miller’s interview with Ryan here. And click here to browse the entire July 2012 magazine online.
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Japanese Buddhists’ Increasing Involvement in Anti-Nuclear Activism
Originally Posted by Buddhist Channel.
Japanese standards, protest against the restart of the Oi nuclear reactors
Yokohama, Japan -- The massive, by Japanese standards, protest against the restart of the Oi nuclear reactors which took place Friday night (June 29) in downtown Tokyo in front of the parliament building and the official residence of the prime minister felt different, historic even, and perhaps a watershed in Japan’s now two decade struggle to find a new post-industrial social paradigm.
Rev. Kobo Inoue leads the call "Against the Start Up"!
What was different that stood out was: A marked increase in diversity of the participants
Most of the demonstrations I have attended since April of 2011, shortly after the Fukushima incident happened, have been dominated by long time social activists over the age of 50, often representing labor groups but also including the wide variety of citizens groups that have arisen over the last 15 years in Japan.
Demonstrations that have been held in the western parts of Tokyo near trendy centers of youth such as Shibuya, Harajuku and Shinjuku have often been well attended by the increasing numbers of furita/freeter. These are young Japanese in their 20s and 30s who have dropped out of mainstream employment in companies and are developing various types of alternative lifestyles. Their numbers are estimated somewhere between 4 and 8 million people. However, within minutes of arriving at the protest site last Friday, I noticed a greater diversity, especially young working professionals who have generally kept quite a distance from previous demonstrations.
Although
less conspicuous, I also noticed for the first time at an anti-nuclear
demonstration a university students group which was acting as a
coalition of groups from different universities. While many university
students did become involved in volunteer relief work in the tsunami
affected areas, they have generally shown no interest in becoming
involved in the nuclear issue. They have appeared not only fearful of
endangering their job prospects by getting involved in civil
disobedience but also completely out of touch and apathetic with social
issues that go beyond their own interests in personal advancement.
Real spontaneity and civil disobedience
For foreigners, especially Europeans accustomed to taking the streets about social issues, participating in a demonstration in Japan feels like a shocking mockery of the very concept of public protest and civil disobedience. Almost all demonstrations in Japan are planned in advance with the consent of the police. While providing assistance and tacit protection against small groups of right-wing fanatics, they also ensure that the demonstrations follow their prescribed routes and do not inconvenience the normal flow of traffic or public life in the streets. The demonstration on June 29 was my first experience counter to this.
As the numbers continued to swell from 5:30 to 7:00 pm, the protest could not be contained on the sidewalks or even one lane into the street. By 7:00 there was a dual push by the now massive crowd, probably in the neighborhood of 40,000 though estimates vary from 17,000 to 150,000. One group at the top of the hill surged into the road in front of the prime minister’s residence forcing the police to move armored buses across it to block them. Meanwhile a second surge occurred at the bottom of the hill in front of the parliament building. And suddenly the entire street of some 400 meters in length had been taken over by the crowd, cutting off all traffic and leaving the police relatively helpless to re-establish order.
While the protest did end in a timely manner at 8:00 with the typical civility of both police and protesters, there was some anger amongst the demonstrators themselves towards the organizers who cooperated with the police and used their loudspeakers to tell everyone to go home. Their reasoning was so that future protests would not be forbidden. However, many felt with the restart of the Oi reactors only 48 hours away that the future was right now and voiced their displeasure to these organizers.
A coordinated Buddhist presence
From this writer’s own personal interest, this demonstration was the first at which a coordinated group of Buddhists participated beyond the regular activism of the small Nipponzan Myohoji order. A small but not insignificant group of 8 Buddhist priests and at least 5 lay followers representing AYUS (a Japanese Buddhist development NGO increasingly involved in the nuclear issue) and the Japan Network of Engaged Buddhists (JNEB) gathered amidst the crowd and, holding high the Buddhist flag, maintained a presence throughout the demonstration.
From the moment I arrived at the site at 5:30, I quickly found a small group of Nipponzan Myohoji priests and lay followers through the sound of their drums. As a way of orienting myself to the situation, I followed them through the streets as we chanted the daimoku, refuge to the Lotus Sutra. After connecting up with our other Buddhist friends, we camped out for an hour on the corner of Roppongi Avenue, the entrance to the street on which the parliament building and the prime minister’s residence is located. Spontaneously connecting with a group of furita, we engaged, as did the entire crowd, in chants of “Against the Start Up”, with one of our members Rev. Kobo Inoue, a Jodo Pure Land priest, grabbing a bullhorn and leading the crowd. By 7:00 we began to move up the hill and take part in the push to take over the entire street in front of the parliament building. Along the way, we met up with Rev. Hidehito Okochi, a Jodo Pure Land priest and longtime anti-nuclear activist and NGO leader, carrying his banner expressing the incompatibility of the Pure Land and nuclear weapons and energy. As we moved up the hill to the demonstration’s peaked conclusion in front of the armored buses at the entrance to the Prime Minister’s residence, I kept running into followers of the Nipponzan Myohoji and their endless chanting and drumming of refuge in the Lotus Sutra.
While our numbers may have seemed insignificant, our coordinated presence was symbolic of the Japanese Buddhist world’s increased interest and activism in the nuclear issue. It took over 6 months for any Buddhist denomination to make a public declaration on the Fukushima incident and nuclear power in Japan. Subsequently, the Japan Buddhist Federation, representing all the traditional sects, made an official anti-nuclear statement on December 6, 2011.
Since then, the monastic congresses of numerous Buddhist denominations (such as Soto Zen and Jodo Shin Otani Pure Land) made critical declarations in February of this year on the future use of nuclear power in Japan and also adopted platforms and specific regulations on the use of alternative energies within their own denominations. Jodo Shin Otani, one of the three largest traditional Buddhist denominations in Japan, also made a public appeal to Prime Minister Noda on June 12th to not allow the restart of the Oi reactors. Rev. Taitsu Kono—the present Chief Priest of the Myoshin-ji sect of the Rinzai Zen denomination and recently retired President of the Japan Buddhist Federation—has also become an increasingly popular figure in the media for his connecting the complicity of Japanese Buddhists in World War II to their complicity with nuclear power.
All these actions are very much in the wake of the leadership shown by the small Inter Faith Forum for the Review of National Nuclear Policy, of which the aforementioned Rev. Okochi is a leader. The Forum has brought together Buddhist, Shinto, and Christian priests to grapple with the nuclear issue since 1993. In mid-April, they held a major three day symposium in Fukushima bringing together citizens, local activists, and Buddhist priests all working to cope with the ongoing crisis there. They also responded to the increased effort of the Noda administration to restart the Oi reactors by creating an ecumenical rally of 100 religious leaders at the Fukui prefectural offices on May 30 to petition the local government to reject Tokyo’s push for the restart. This event was well covered by the mass media, which has a tendency to ignore the social efforts of religious groups.
Conclusions
Whether the protest of June 29 becomes a watershed or not is still not easy to discern as the conservative center of Japanese society continues to appear unmoveable. However, now more than a year after the events of 3/11, the nuclear issue has not faded away. Despite an inconsistent civil protest movement since that time, there appears to be a continually growing sentiment against nuclear power, as seen in two-thirds of Japanese polled as against the restart of the Oi reactors. This sentiment is very symbolic of a much larger trend in Japan—a kind of social awakening, perhaps not seen since the mass disillusionment with the government at the end of the World War II.
A young housewife and mother at the June 29th demonstration was quoted as saying, “Japanese have not spoken out against the national government. Now, we have to speak out, or the government will endanger us all.” (New York Times, June 29) For some four decades, Japanese have thought nuclear power was safe, because the government and the big companies - standards of this nation and its people - were operating it. This long held sentiment that the government and the big companies were looking out for the best interest of the people has been deteriorating over the last decade of economic failure and structural readjustment. Since the Fukushima incident, the public exposure of the nuclear village - the collusive alliance of government, big business, scientists and academics, and media - has seen this sentiment hit a new low. With or without its government, the people of Japan seem to be ready, and perhaps even eager, to move forward into a new future that not only ensures environmental integrity but also the lifestyle integrity and psycho-spiritual integrity that have been sacrificed over the last half century drive for industrial modernism.
A final image of this nascent new age was the live U-stream feed last night (Sunday July 1) from in front of the Oi nuclear complex as it began its restart. Hundreds of anti-nuclear protesters drummed, danced, and shouted, “Against the Start Up”! Who were these people? Yes, some appeared to be those old leftist activists, but for the most part they were furita. Not worried about being at work at 9:00 the next morning, they danced and drummed and shouted well beyond midnight. Will this growing number of “drop-outs” be given the space to help build the new Japan or will they just grab it instead?
Japanese standards, protest against the restart of the Oi nuclear reactors
Yokohama, Japan -- The massive, by Japanese standards, protest against the restart of the Oi nuclear reactors which took place Friday night (June 29) in downtown Tokyo in front of the parliament building and the official residence of the prime minister felt different, historic even, and perhaps a watershed in Japan’s now two decade struggle to find a new post-industrial social paradigm.
Rev. Kobo Inoue leads the call "Against the Start Up"!
What was different that stood out was: A marked increase in diversity of the participants
Most of the demonstrations I have attended since April of 2011, shortly after the Fukushima incident happened, have been dominated by long time social activists over the age of 50, often representing labor groups but also including the wide variety of citizens groups that have arisen over the last 15 years in Japan.
Demonstrations that have been held in the western parts of Tokyo near trendy centers of youth such as Shibuya, Harajuku and Shinjuku have often been well attended by the increasing numbers of furita/freeter. These are young Japanese in their 20s and 30s who have dropped out of mainstream employment in companies and are developing various types of alternative lifestyles. Their numbers are estimated somewhere between 4 and 8 million people. However, within minutes of arriving at the protest site last Friday, I noticed a greater diversity, especially young working professionals who have generally kept quite a distance from previous demonstrations.
Real spontaneity and civil disobedience
For foreigners, especially Europeans accustomed to taking the streets about social issues, participating in a demonstration in Japan feels like a shocking mockery of the very concept of public protest and civil disobedience. Almost all demonstrations in Japan are planned in advance with the consent of the police. While providing assistance and tacit protection against small groups of right-wing fanatics, they also ensure that the demonstrations follow their prescribed routes and do not inconvenience the normal flow of traffic or public life in the streets. The demonstration on June 29 was my first experience counter to this.
As the numbers continued to swell from 5:30 to 7:00 pm, the protest could not be contained on the sidewalks or even one lane into the street. By 7:00 there was a dual push by the now massive crowd, probably in the neighborhood of 40,000 though estimates vary from 17,000 to 150,000. One group at the top of the hill surged into the road in front of the prime minister’s residence forcing the police to move armored buses across it to block them. Meanwhile a second surge occurred at the bottom of the hill in front of the parliament building. And suddenly the entire street of some 400 meters in length had been taken over by the crowd, cutting off all traffic and leaving the police relatively helpless to re-establish order.
While the protest did end in a timely manner at 8:00 with the typical civility of both police and protesters, there was some anger amongst the demonstrators themselves towards the organizers who cooperated with the police and used their loudspeakers to tell everyone to go home. Their reasoning was so that future protests would not be forbidden. However, many felt with the restart of the Oi reactors only 48 hours away that the future was right now and voiced their displeasure to these organizers.
A coordinated Buddhist presence
From this writer’s own personal interest, this demonstration was the first at which a coordinated group of Buddhists participated beyond the regular activism of the small Nipponzan Myohoji order. A small but not insignificant group of 8 Buddhist priests and at least 5 lay followers representing AYUS (a Japanese Buddhist development NGO increasingly involved in the nuclear issue) and the Japan Network of Engaged Buddhists (JNEB) gathered amidst the crowd and, holding high the Buddhist flag, maintained a presence throughout the demonstration.
From the moment I arrived at the site at 5:30, I quickly found a small group of Nipponzan Myohoji priests and lay followers through the sound of their drums. As a way of orienting myself to the situation, I followed them through the streets as we chanted the daimoku, refuge to the Lotus Sutra. After connecting up with our other Buddhist friends, we camped out for an hour on the corner of Roppongi Avenue, the entrance to the street on which the parliament building and the prime minister’s residence is located. Spontaneously connecting with a group of furita, we engaged, as did the entire crowd, in chants of “Against the Start Up”, with one of our members Rev. Kobo Inoue, a Jodo Pure Land priest, grabbing a bullhorn and leading the crowd. By 7:00 we began to move up the hill and take part in the push to take over the entire street in front of the parliament building. Along the way, we met up with Rev. Hidehito Okochi, a Jodo Pure Land priest and longtime anti-nuclear activist and NGO leader, carrying his banner expressing the incompatibility of the Pure Land and nuclear weapons and energy. As we moved up the hill to the demonstration’s peaked conclusion in front of the armored buses at the entrance to the Prime Minister’s residence, I kept running into followers of the Nipponzan Myohoji and their endless chanting and drumming of refuge in the Lotus Sutra.
While our numbers may have seemed insignificant, our coordinated presence was symbolic of the Japanese Buddhist world’s increased interest and activism in the nuclear issue. It took over 6 months for any Buddhist denomination to make a public declaration on the Fukushima incident and nuclear power in Japan. Subsequently, the Japan Buddhist Federation, representing all the traditional sects, made an official anti-nuclear statement on December 6, 2011.
Since then, the monastic congresses of numerous Buddhist denominations (such as Soto Zen and Jodo Shin Otani Pure Land) made critical declarations in February of this year on the future use of nuclear power in Japan and also adopted platforms and specific regulations on the use of alternative energies within their own denominations. Jodo Shin Otani, one of the three largest traditional Buddhist denominations in Japan, also made a public appeal to Prime Minister Noda on June 12th to not allow the restart of the Oi reactors. Rev. Taitsu Kono—the present Chief Priest of the Myoshin-ji sect of the Rinzai Zen denomination and recently retired President of the Japan Buddhist Federation—has also become an increasingly popular figure in the media for his connecting the complicity of Japanese Buddhists in World War II to their complicity with nuclear power.
All these actions are very much in the wake of the leadership shown by the small Inter Faith Forum for the Review of National Nuclear Policy, of which the aforementioned Rev. Okochi is a leader. The Forum has brought together Buddhist, Shinto, and Christian priests to grapple with the nuclear issue since 1993. In mid-April, they held a major three day symposium in Fukushima bringing together citizens, local activists, and Buddhist priests all working to cope with the ongoing crisis there. They also responded to the increased effort of the Noda administration to restart the Oi reactors by creating an ecumenical rally of 100 religious leaders at the Fukui prefectural offices on May 30 to petition the local government to reject Tokyo’s push for the restart. This event was well covered by the mass media, which has a tendency to ignore the social efforts of religious groups.
Conclusions
Whether the protest of June 29 becomes a watershed or not is still not easy to discern as the conservative center of Japanese society continues to appear unmoveable. However, now more than a year after the events of 3/11, the nuclear issue has not faded away. Despite an inconsistent civil protest movement since that time, there appears to be a continually growing sentiment against nuclear power, as seen in two-thirds of Japanese polled as against the restart of the Oi reactors. This sentiment is very symbolic of a much larger trend in Japan—a kind of social awakening, perhaps not seen since the mass disillusionment with the government at the end of the World War II.
A young housewife and mother at the June 29th demonstration was quoted as saying, “Japanese have not spoken out against the national government. Now, we have to speak out, or the government will endanger us all.” (New York Times, June 29) For some four decades, Japanese have thought nuclear power was safe, because the government and the big companies - standards of this nation and its people - were operating it. This long held sentiment that the government and the big companies were looking out for the best interest of the people has been deteriorating over the last decade of economic failure and structural readjustment. Since the Fukushima incident, the public exposure of the nuclear village - the collusive alliance of government, big business, scientists and academics, and media - has seen this sentiment hit a new low. With or without its government, the people of Japan seem to be ready, and perhaps even eager, to move forward into a new future that not only ensures environmental integrity but also the lifestyle integrity and psycho-spiritual integrity that have been sacrificed over the last half century drive for industrial modernism.
A final image of this nascent new age was the live U-stream feed last night (Sunday July 1) from in front of the Oi nuclear complex as it began its restart. Hundreds of anti-nuclear protesters drummed, danced, and shouted, “Against the Start Up”! Who were these people? Yes, some appeared to be those old leftist activists, but for the most part they were furita. Not worried about being at work at 9:00 the next morning, they danced and drummed and shouted well beyond midnight. Will this growing number of “drop-outs” be given the space to help build the new Japan or will they just grab it instead?
Dalai Lama Taps Nicholas Vreeland, American Buddhist, To Bridge East And West At Rato Monastery In Southern India
Originally posted by Huffington Post.
The Dalai Lama has given Nicholas Vreeland, director of The Tibet Center in New York, a daunting new assignment. READ THIS!!, WOW!!!!
The Dalai Lama has given Nicholas Vreeland (pictured here), director of The Tibet Center in New York, a daunting new assignment. On July 6, Vreeland will be enthroned as the new abbot of Rato Monastery in southern India, one of the most important monasteries in Tibetan Buddhism. He will be the first Westerner to hold such a position. RNS photo courtesy Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly
NEW YORK (RNS) The Dalai Lama has given Nicholas Vreeland, director of The Tibet Center in New York, a daunting new assignment. On July 6, Vreeland will be enthroned as the new abbot of Rato Monastery in southern India, one of the most important monasteries in Tibetan Buddhism. He will be the first Westerner to hold such a position.In making the appointment, the Dalai Lama told Vreeland, "Your special duty (is) to bridge Tibetan tradition and (the) Western world."
"His Holiness wishes to bring Western ideas into the Tibetan Buddhist monastic system, and that comes from his recognition that it is essential ... that there be new air brought into these institutions," Vreeland told the PBS program "Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly."
For many observers, the choice of an American for the role may be a surprising one, and perhaps even more surprising given the background of this particular American.
Vreeland had a privileged upbringing -- the son of a U.S. diplomat and the grandson of Diana Vreeland, the legendary editor of Vogue magazine during the 1960s. When he first encountered Tibetan Buddhism in his 20s, he was working as a photographer in some of the industry's top studios.
"What is it about Tibetan Buddhism that interested me? I think that it's this very linear, very carefully organized, path to enlightenment that I liked," Vreeland said.
Vreeland sees a linear progression in his own path into Buddhism. He was born in Switzerland and also lived in Germany and Morocco before his family returned to New York. They were Episcopalians and sent 13-year-old Nicky to a boys' boarding school in Massachusetts. He was miserable there, until he discovered photography.
"I don't know what it was about it that caught me. I really don't know, but it caught me," he said.
Vreeland had a good relationship with his famous grandmother. "I went to NYU to study film, and at that time initially lived with her and became very close. She was a wonderful, enthusiastic friend," he said.She opened the door for him to work with prominent photographers Irving Penn and Richard Avedon. In 1977, Avedon's son John introduced Vreeland to Khyongla Rato Rinpoche, founder of The Tibet Center. Under Rinpoche's supervision, Vreeland began learning about Tibetan Buddhism.
In 1979, he went to work on a photography assignment in India. Because of his growing interest in Tibetan Buddhism, he included a stop in Dharamsala, the headquarters-in-exile of the Dalai Lama. Vreeland received permission to photograph the Tibetan leader, and the two men chatted as Vreeland packed up his equipment.
"I had been so moved by the way in which the Tibetan people had helped me ... during my time in Dharamsala, and I asked His Holiness what I could do in return. And he said, "Study," Vreeland recalled.
Vreeland took that advice to heart, and with the help of his teacher, explored the Tibetan Buddhist concept that logic can lead to developing compassion and attaining enlightenment.
In 1985, Vreeland decided to become a Buddhist monk. His grandmother was not happy about it.
"She was not a big proponent of following a spiritual life," he said, adding that she eventually came to accept his decision.
Vreeland pursued his monastic studies at Rato monastery, the monastery he will now lead. Rato was established in Tibet in the late 14th century to preserve Buddhist teachings on logic and debate. After the Dalai Lama fled China in 1959, Rato was re-established in India.
When Vreeland arrived in 1985, there were 27 monks. Today, there are about 100 between the ages of 6 and 90. The monastery undertook a massive construction project, which was largely funded through the sale of Vreeland's photographs. He raised $400,000 with a special series of photos documenting life in and around the monastery.
As abbot of Rato, Vreeland will have administrative and spiritual responsibility for the monastery and its monks. He'll also interact with abbots of the other Tibetan monasteries -- and that's where the Dalai Lama has instructed him to help incorporate more Western ideas.
"These institutions, if they aren't contemporary, won't have any relevance. Now, of course one has to be very careful. If you go too far, you dilute what they do possess and you've lost everything," Vreeland said.
Vreeland will divide his time between India and New York, where he'll continue as director of The Tibet Center, which helps promote Tibetan Buddhism in the West.
He admits he is not yet sure how he will be that bridge between East and West: "I am a human being, I'm a Buddhist monk, I am a Westerner, and how I will bring what I believe in? I think it's by just living my life."
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Japanese Buddhists’ Increasing Involvement in Anti-Nuclear Activism
Originally posted by Buddhist Channel.
What was different that stood out was.............
Yokohama, Japan -- The massive, by Japanese standards, protest against the restart of the Oi nuclear reactors which took place Friday night (June 29) in downtown Tokyo in front of the parliament building and the official residence of the prime minister felt different, historic even, and perhaps a watershed in Japan’s now two decade struggle to find a new post-industrial social paradigm.
Rev. Kobo Inoue leads the call "Against the Start Up"!
What was different that stood out was: A marked increase in diversity of the participants
Most of the demonstrations I have attended since April of 2011, shortly after the Fukushima incident happened, have been dominated by long time social activists over the age of 50, often representing labor groups but also including the wide variety of citizens groups that have arisen over the last 15 years in Japan.
Demonstrations that have been held in the western parts of Tokyo near trendy centers of youth such as Shibuya, Harajuku and Shinjuku have often been well attended by the increasing numbers of furita/freeter. These are young Japanese in their 20s and 30s who have dropped out of mainstream employment in companies and are developing various types of alternative lifestyles. Their numbers are estimated somewhere between 4 and 8 million people. However, within minutes of arriving at the protest site last Friday, I noticed a greater diversity, especially young working professionals who have generally kept quite a distance from previous demonstrations.
Although
less conspicuous, I also noticed for the first time at an anti-nuclear
demonstration a university students group which was acting as a
coalition of groups from different universities. While many university
students did become involved in volunteer relief work in the tsunami
affected areas, they have generally shown no interest in becoming
involved in the nuclear issue. They have appeared not only fearful of
endangering their job prospects by getting involved in civil
disobedience but also completely out of touch and apathetic with social
issues that go beyond their own interests in personal advancement.
Real spontaneity and civil disobedience
For foreigners, especially Europeans accustomed to taking the streets about social issues, participating in a demonstration in Japan feels like a shocking mockery of the very concept of public protest and civil disobedience. Almost all demonstrations in Japan are planned in advance with the consent of the police. While providing assistance and tacit protection against small groups of right-wing fanatics, they also ensure that the demonstrations follow their prescribed routes and do not inconvenience the normal flow of traffic or public life in the streets. The demonstration on June 29 was my first experience counter to this.
As the numbers continued to swell from 5:30 to 7:00 pm, the protest could not be contained on the sidewalks or even one lane into the street. By 7:00 there was a dual push by the now massive crowd, probably in the neighborhood of 40,000 though estimates vary from 17,000 to 150,000. One group at the top of the hill surged into the road in front of the prime minister’s residence forcing the police to move armored buses across it to block them. Meanwhile a second surge occurred at the bottom of the hill in front of the parliament building. And suddenly the entire street of some 400 meters in length had been taken over by the crowd, cutting off all traffic and leaving the police relatively helpless to re-establish order.
While the protest did end in a timely manner at 8:00 with the typical civility of both police and protesters, there was some anger amongst the demonstrators themselves towards the organizers who cooperated with the police and used their loudspeakers to tell everyone to go home. Their reasoning was so that future protests would not be forbidden. However, many felt with the restart of the Oi reactors only 48 hours away that the future was right now and voiced their displeasure to these organizers.
A coordinated Buddhist presence
From this writer’s own personal interest, this demonstration was the first at which a coordinated group of Buddhists participated beyond the regular activism of the small Nipponzan Myohoji order. A small but not insignificant group of 8 Buddhist priests and at least 5 lay followers representing AYUS (a Japanese Buddhist development NGO increasingly involved in the nuclear issue) and the Japan Network of Engaged Buddhists (JNEB) gathered amidst the crowd and, holding high the Buddhist flag, maintained a presence throughout the demonstration.
From the moment I arrived at the site at 5:30, I quickly found a small group of Nipponzan Myohoji priests and lay followers through the sound of their drums. As a way of orienting myself to the situation, I followed them through the streets as we chanted the daimoku, refuge to the Lotus Sutra. After connecting up with our other Buddhist friends, we camped out for an hour on the corner of Roppongi Avenue, the entrance to the street on which the parliament building and the prime minister’s residence is located. Spontaneously connecting with a group of furita, we engaged, as did the entire crowd, in chants of “Against the Start Up”, with one of our members Rev. Kobo Inoue, a Jodo Pure Land priest, grabbing a bullhorn and leading the crowd. By 7:00 we began to move up the hill and take part in the push to take over the entire street in front of the parliament building. Along the way, we met up with Rev. Hidehito Okochi, a Jodo Pure Land priest and longtime anti-nuclear activist and NGO leader, carrying his banner expressing the incompatibility of the Pure Land and nuclear weapons and energy. As we moved up the hill to the demonstration’s peaked conclusion in front of the armored buses at the entrance to the Prime Minister’s residence, I kept running into followers of the Nipponzan Myohoji and their endless chanting and drumming of refuge in the Lotus Sutra.
While our numbers may have seemed insignificant, our coordinated presence was symbolic of the Japanese Buddhist world’s increased interest and activism in the nuclear issue. It took over 6 months for any Buddhist denomination to make a public declaration on the Fukushima incident and nuclear power in Japan. Subsequently, the Japan Buddhist Federation, representing all the traditional sects, made an official anti-nuclear statement on December 6, 2011.
Since then, the monastic congresses of numerous Buddhist denominations (such as Soto Zen and Jodo Shin Otani Pure Land) made critical declarations in February of this year on the future use of nuclear power in Japan and also adopted platforms and specific regulations on the use of alternative energies within their own denominations. Jodo Shin Otani, one of the three largest traditional Buddhist denominations in Japan, also made a public appeal to Prime Minister Noda on June 12th to not allow the restart of the Oi reactors. Rev. Taitsu Kono—the present Chief Priest of the Myoshin-ji sect of the Rinzai Zen denomination and recently retired President of the Japan Buddhist Federation—has also become an increasingly popular figure in the media for his connecting the complicity of Japanese Buddhists in World War II to their complicity with nuclear power.
All these actions are very much in the wake of the leadership shown by the small Inter Faith Forum for the Review of National Nuclear Policy, of which the aforementioned Rev. Okochi is a leader. The Forum has brought together Buddhist, Shinto, and Christian priests to grapple with the nuclear issue since 1993. In mid-April, they held a major three day symposium in Fukushima bringing together citizens, local activists, and Buddhist priests all working to cope with the ongoing crisis there. They also responded to the increased effort of the Noda administration to restart the Oi reactors by creating an ecumenical rally of 100 religious leaders at the Fukui prefectural offices on May 30 to petition the local government to reject Tokyo’s push for the restart. This event was well covered by the mass media, which has a tendency to ignore the social efforts of religious groups.
Conclusions
Whether the protest of June 29 becomes a watershed or not is still not easy to discern as the conservative center of Japanese society continues to appear unmoveable. However, now more than a year after the events of 3/11, the nuclear issue has not faded away. Despite an inconsistent civil protest movement since that time, there appears to be a continually growing sentiment against nuclear power, as seen in two-thirds of Japanese polled as against the restart of the Oi reactors. This sentiment is very symbolic of a much larger trend in Japan—a kind of social awakening, perhaps not seen since the mass disillusionment with the government at the end of the World War II.
A young housewife and mother at the June 29th demonstration was quoted as saying, “Japanese have not spoken out against the national government. Now, we have to speak out, or the government will endanger us all.” (New York Times, June 29) For some four decades, Japanese have thought nuclear power was safe, because the government and the big companies - standards of this nation and its people - were operating it. This long held sentiment that the government and the big companies were looking out for the best interest of the people has been deteriorating over the last decade of economic failure and structural readjustment. Since the Fukushima incident, the public exposure of the nuclear village - the collusive alliance of government, big business, scientists and academics, and media - has seen this sentiment hit a new low. With or without its government, the people of Japan seem to be ready, and perhaps even eager, to move forward into a new future that not only ensures environmental integrity but also the lifestyle integrity and psycho-spiritual integrity that have been sacrificed over the last half century drive for industrial modernism.
A final image of this nascent new age was the live U-stream feed last night (Sunday July 1) from in front of the Oi nuclear complex as it began its restart. Hundreds of anti-nuclear protesters drummed, danced, and shouted, “Against the Start Up”! Who were these people? Yes, some appeared to be those old leftist activists, but for the most part they were furita. Not worried about being at work at 9:00 the next morning, they danced and drummed and shouted well beyond midnight. Will this growing number of “drop-outs” be given the space to help build the new Japan or will they just grab it instead?
Visit JNEB: http://jneb.jp/english/japan/nihonzan
What was different that stood out was.............
Yokohama, Japan -- The massive, by Japanese standards, protest against the restart of the Oi nuclear reactors which took place Friday night (June 29) in downtown Tokyo in front of the parliament building and the official residence of the prime minister felt different, historic even, and perhaps a watershed in Japan’s now two decade struggle to find a new post-industrial social paradigm.
Rev. Kobo Inoue leads the call "Against the Start Up"!What was different that stood out was: A marked increase in diversity of the participants
Most of the demonstrations I have attended since April of 2011, shortly after the Fukushima incident happened, have been dominated by long time social activists over the age of 50, often representing labor groups but also including the wide variety of citizens groups that have arisen over the last 15 years in Japan.
Demonstrations that have been held in the western parts of Tokyo near trendy centers of youth such as Shibuya, Harajuku and Shinjuku have often been well attended by the increasing numbers of furita/freeter. These are young Japanese in their 20s and 30s who have dropped out of mainstream employment in companies and are developing various types of alternative lifestyles. Their numbers are estimated somewhere between 4 and 8 million people. However, within minutes of arriving at the protest site last Friday, I noticed a greater diversity, especially young working professionals who have generally kept quite a distance from previous demonstrations.
Real spontaneity and civil disobedience
For foreigners, especially Europeans accustomed to taking the streets about social issues, participating in a demonstration in Japan feels like a shocking mockery of the very concept of public protest and civil disobedience. Almost all demonstrations in Japan are planned in advance with the consent of the police. While providing assistance and tacit protection against small groups of right-wing fanatics, they also ensure that the demonstrations follow their prescribed routes and do not inconvenience the normal flow of traffic or public life in the streets. The demonstration on June 29 was my first experience counter to this.
As the numbers continued to swell from 5:30 to 7:00 pm, the protest could not be contained on the sidewalks or even one lane into the street. By 7:00 there was a dual push by the now massive crowd, probably in the neighborhood of 40,000 though estimates vary from 17,000 to 150,000. One group at the top of the hill surged into the road in front of the prime minister’s residence forcing the police to move armored buses across it to block them. Meanwhile a second surge occurred at the bottom of the hill in front of the parliament building. And suddenly the entire street of some 400 meters in length had been taken over by the crowd, cutting off all traffic and leaving the police relatively helpless to re-establish order.
While the protest did end in a timely manner at 8:00 with the typical civility of both police and protesters, there was some anger amongst the demonstrators themselves towards the organizers who cooperated with the police and used their loudspeakers to tell everyone to go home. Their reasoning was so that future protests would not be forbidden. However, many felt with the restart of the Oi reactors only 48 hours away that the future was right now and voiced their displeasure to these organizers.
A coordinated Buddhist presence
From this writer’s own personal interest, this demonstration was the first at which a coordinated group of Buddhists participated beyond the regular activism of the small Nipponzan Myohoji order. A small but not insignificant group of 8 Buddhist priests and at least 5 lay followers representing AYUS (a Japanese Buddhist development NGO increasingly involved in the nuclear issue) and the Japan Network of Engaged Buddhists (JNEB) gathered amidst the crowd and, holding high the Buddhist flag, maintained a presence throughout the demonstration.
From the moment I arrived at the site at 5:30, I quickly found a small group of Nipponzan Myohoji priests and lay followers through the sound of their drums. As a way of orienting myself to the situation, I followed them through the streets as we chanted the daimoku, refuge to the Lotus Sutra. After connecting up with our other Buddhist friends, we camped out for an hour on the corner of Roppongi Avenue, the entrance to the street on which the parliament building and the prime minister’s residence is located. Spontaneously connecting with a group of furita, we engaged, as did the entire crowd, in chants of “Against the Start Up”, with one of our members Rev. Kobo Inoue, a Jodo Pure Land priest, grabbing a bullhorn and leading the crowd. By 7:00 we began to move up the hill and take part in the push to take over the entire street in front of the parliament building. Along the way, we met up with Rev. Hidehito Okochi, a Jodo Pure Land priest and longtime anti-nuclear activist and NGO leader, carrying his banner expressing the incompatibility of the Pure Land and nuclear weapons and energy. As we moved up the hill to the demonstration’s peaked conclusion in front of the armored buses at the entrance to the Prime Minister’s residence, I kept running into followers of the Nipponzan Myohoji and their endless chanting and drumming of refuge in the Lotus Sutra.
While our numbers may have seemed insignificant, our coordinated presence was symbolic of the Japanese Buddhist world’s increased interest and activism in the nuclear issue. It took over 6 months for any Buddhist denomination to make a public declaration on the Fukushima incident and nuclear power in Japan. Subsequently, the Japan Buddhist Federation, representing all the traditional sects, made an official anti-nuclear statement on December 6, 2011.
Since then, the monastic congresses of numerous Buddhist denominations (such as Soto Zen and Jodo Shin Otani Pure Land) made critical declarations in February of this year on the future use of nuclear power in Japan and also adopted platforms and specific regulations on the use of alternative energies within their own denominations. Jodo Shin Otani, one of the three largest traditional Buddhist denominations in Japan, also made a public appeal to Prime Minister Noda on June 12th to not allow the restart of the Oi reactors. Rev. Taitsu Kono—the present Chief Priest of the Myoshin-ji sect of the Rinzai Zen denomination and recently retired President of the Japan Buddhist Federation—has also become an increasingly popular figure in the media for his connecting the complicity of Japanese Buddhists in World War II to their complicity with nuclear power.
All these actions are very much in the wake of the leadership shown by the small Inter Faith Forum for the Review of National Nuclear Policy, of which the aforementioned Rev. Okochi is a leader. The Forum has brought together Buddhist, Shinto, and Christian priests to grapple with the nuclear issue since 1993. In mid-April, they held a major three day symposium in Fukushima bringing together citizens, local activists, and Buddhist priests all working to cope with the ongoing crisis there. They also responded to the increased effort of the Noda administration to restart the Oi reactors by creating an ecumenical rally of 100 religious leaders at the Fukui prefectural offices on May 30 to petition the local government to reject Tokyo’s push for the restart. This event was well covered by the mass media, which has a tendency to ignore the social efforts of religious groups.
Conclusions
Whether the protest of June 29 becomes a watershed or not is still not easy to discern as the conservative center of Japanese society continues to appear unmoveable. However, now more than a year after the events of 3/11, the nuclear issue has not faded away. Despite an inconsistent civil protest movement since that time, there appears to be a continually growing sentiment against nuclear power, as seen in two-thirds of Japanese polled as against the restart of the Oi reactors. This sentiment is very symbolic of a much larger trend in Japan—a kind of social awakening, perhaps not seen since the mass disillusionment with the government at the end of the World War II.
A young housewife and mother at the June 29th demonstration was quoted as saying, “Japanese have not spoken out against the national government. Now, we have to speak out, or the government will endanger us all.” (New York Times, June 29) For some four decades, Japanese have thought nuclear power was safe, because the government and the big companies - standards of this nation and its people - were operating it. This long held sentiment that the government and the big companies were looking out for the best interest of the people has been deteriorating over the last decade of economic failure and structural readjustment. Since the Fukushima incident, the public exposure of the nuclear village - the collusive alliance of government, big business, scientists and academics, and media - has seen this sentiment hit a new low. With or without its government, the people of Japan seem to be ready, and perhaps even eager, to move forward into a new future that not only ensures environmental integrity but also the lifestyle integrity and psycho-spiritual integrity that have been sacrificed over the last half century drive for industrial modernism.
A final image of this nascent new age was the live U-stream feed last night (Sunday July 1) from in front of the Oi nuclear complex as it began its restart. Hundreds of anti-nuclear protesters drummed, danced, and shouted, “Against the Start Up”! Who were these people? Yes, some appeared to be those old leftist activists, but for the most part they were furita. Not worried about being at work at 9:00 the next morning, they danced and drummed and shouted well beyond midnight. Will this growing number of “drop-outs” be given the space to help build the new Japan or will they just grab it instead?
Visit JNEB: http://jneb.jp/english/japan/nihonzan
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Please Check Out My Article in the Special “Buddhist Chaplaincy” Issue of The Middle Way: Journal of the Buddhist Society from February 2012
Originally posted by Danny Fisher
“Buddhist Chaplaincy,” and.....
This has been quite a busy year for me so far, lemme tell ya. So it’s little wonder then that I hadn’t even noticed until today that an article I wrote for The Middle Way: Journal of the Buddhist Society was published back in February. It’s a special issue devoted to “Buddhist Chaplaincy,” and my contribution is a revised and expanded version of a paper I delivered to the Buddhist Critical-Constructive Reflection Group at the American Academy of Religion’s Annual Meeting in Chicago in 2008. It’s entitled “‘More Like This, Please’: On the Importance of Written Work about Buddhism and Chaplaincy,” and appears on pages 381-89 of volume 86, number 4 (the February 2012 issue).
I was honored and touched to be asked to submit this piece by Dr. Desmond Biddulph, President of the The Buddhist Society, during his visit to University of the West (my home institution) some months back. Founded by Christmas Humphreys, the Buddhist Society is one of the oldest Buddhist groups in Europe, with an impressive history and track record of works. You can find out more about them (and the journal) here.
Thank you for this opportunity, Buddhist Society! I hope the article is helpful to you and to readers.
Friday, July 6, 2012
Japan must thoroughly re-examine nuclear energy policy
Originally posted by Buddhist Channel
The myth about the safety of nuclear energy did not collapse with the Fukushima accident. It had already collapsed when nuclear plants were forced on isolated villages in various parts of Japan because..........
Tokyo, Japan -- When I was a student, I was only interested in literature and the arts. Then in 1963, a friend took me to a peace march against nuclear weapons.
Officials in protective gear check for signs of radiation on children who are from the evacuation area near the Fukushima Daini nuclear plant in Koriyama, March 13, 2011.
There I met a hibakusha (name given to surviving victims of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki) who had been exposed to radiation after the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. He had returned to Hiroshima from the war front and he told me about a poem he created in which he spoke about leaving for war prepared to die, only to return and be stricken by radiation sickness. He wrote in the poem that he had to hide his condition because of concerns about discrimination and prejudice toward those with illnesses caused by radiation.
I was deeply moved by the internal conflict that he felt and became involved in the peace movement.
The dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki came at the end of a war that was carried out as national policy.
Last year, the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant came at the end of promoting nuclear energy that was also considered national policy.
To me, those two occurrences overlap. Neither happened overnight. There is a need for a sense of history that allows us to reflect on why these two phenomena occurred.
If a hasty resumption of operations at the Oi nuclear power plant is allowed, that could lead to a "second Fukushima" accident.
Only after that happens will the people in the nuclear energy village finally give up on their policy of promoting nuclear energy.
Many people have still not reached a point of making a clear decision to move away from nuclear energy.
<< Rev. Tetsuen Nakajima: One part of the ethics that is taught in Buddhism is to learn about the pain and suffering of others and accept that as one's own. In that sense, people should not pursue their own happiness by having others make sacrifices
However, it would be too late if everyone were to repent only after a second Fukushima accident took place.
The myth about the safety of nuclear energy did not collapse with the Fukushima accident. It had already collapsed when nuclear plants were forced on isolated villages in various parts of Japan because there was the understanding that those plants were dangerous facilities that could not be built close to major urban centers.
Local governments that did accept the nuclear plants had their sense of ethics toward future generations paralyzed by the money that flowed in and had an effect like drugs. In that sense, those governments were victims who were trampled on by the gigantic nuclear energy promotion system.
On the other hand, governors in the greater Kansai region at one time were opposed to resuming operations at the Oi plant on the grounds that damage could extend to their prefectures if an accident happened. However, they quickly changed their attitude to one of virtual approval of resumption.
Their arguments do not carry any weight because there was a failure to comprehensively reconsider the history of nuclear energy that has extended for half a century.
In urban areas that consume huge amounts of electricity, there is a lack of the sense that they are stepping on the toes of those communities that host nuclear plants.
One part of the ethics that is taught in Buddhism is to learn about the pain and suffering of others and accept that as one's own. In that sense, people should not pursue their own happiness by having others make sacrifices.
I believe true discussions on moving away from a dependence on nuclear energy can only begin after there is a comprehensive and fundamental reflection of the entire framework covering energy policy and the social system of mass production and mass consumption.
'Serve humanity', urges Dalai Lama
Originally posted byBuddhist Channel
London, UK -- The Dalai Lama has urged religious people to work for the good of humanity and care for the environment in an address at Westminster Abbey.
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The Tibetan spiritual leader said it was important that religious faith was not confined to holy books or buildings but that it had an impact upon lives.
"I think millions of people have a genuine sense of spirituality, we must work together to serve humanity," he said.
"I think millions of people have a genuine sense of spirituality, we must work together to serve humanity," he said.
"We now also have responsibility for the care of the planet. "I am quite sure that religions still have an important role to make a better humanity," he added.
The 76-year-old was addressing representatives from different religious groups and denominations including Anglican, Roman Catholic, Jewish, Sikh, and Hindu leaders at the event described as a service of prayer and reflection.
The Dalai Lama, who shook hands with a row of schoolboys as he entered the abbey, was welcomed at the start of the service by the Dean of Westminster The Very Rev Dr John Hall.
The service heard a reading from the Venerable Bogoda Seelawimala, head priest of the London Buddhist Vihara, and prayers read by Lord Singh of Wimbledon, representing the Sikh community and Anil Bhanot, of the Hindu faith.
The service was part of an eight-day UK tour by the Dalai Lama to promote his message of non-violence, dialogue and universal responsibility.
The address comes after the Dalai Lama's official website said he met Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi privately on Tuesday. According to his website, he told her: "I have real admiration for your courage. I am very happy we've been able to meet."
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