Archive for the ‘culture’ tag
Sacred Spaces: Inside a Buddhist Rite Fire Ceremony
From CNN
For the last several years Shinnyo-en Buddhists have conducted the Saisho Homa fire rite ceremony in Taiwan, Paris and Berlin. This year, for the first time, the rite was brought to Shinnyo-en’s head temple in Redwood City, California.
A homa ceremony is Buddhist prayer ceremony. Saisho is a reference to the wisdom and compassion of the Buddha.
“The Saisho Homa ceremony is really a prayer for world peace,” said Nichelle Blanco, an ordained Shinnyo-en priest. “It is a rite that includes various elements such as fire and water.”
Shinso Ito, who leads Shinnyo-en, traveled from Japan to perform the rite. “The water is the symbol of being able to use what we have for other people and to remind people that everyone is so valuable,” she said.
Shinso is only one of a handful of women who are Buddhist priests.
Shinnyo-en Buddhism was founded by Shinjo Ito in Japan in 1936. Shinjo was an aircraft engineer but developed a desire to study Buddhism.
Conservation Joins Religion To Save Ganges Dolphin
From Reuters
As the sun sets over a serene stretch of the mighty Ganges, a pair of smooth, grey dolphins arch gracefully out of the water, bringing hope that wildlife can again call India’s great river home.
Millions of Indians along the banks of the 2,500 km (1,550 mile)-long Ganges depend on the river, but unchecked levels of agricultural, industrial and domestic waste have poured in over the past decades, threatening the wildlife.
Five kilometres upstream from Narora, a five-hour drive west of New Delhi, the 350 megawatt nuclear power station that put this sleepy town on the map looms as a reminder of India’s unrelenting drive for industrialisation.
In Karnabas, a small village just upstream from Narora, a local drama troupe performs for more than 150 villagers.
“Humans are polluting our river!” an actor playing a Hindu god declared, a WWF banner celebrating World Dolphin Day hanging over the makeshift stage.
“The life of our Mother Ganga is endangered! Please do something!”
Distinguishable from its ocean-going cousin by a long, pointed snout, the Ganges dolphin is one of only four freshwater species in the world. The total population across India, Nepal and Bangladesh is estimated at 2,000, down from 4,500 in 1982.
But along a northern stretch of the holy river, a Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) project is leveraging the religious importance of the Ganges for Hindus to teach villagers the virtues of conservation and protection of its sacred water. The upper stretch of the Ganges, from Rishikesh in the foothills of the Himalayas to Ram Ghat in the central state of Madhya Pradesh, holds great religious significance for Hindus.
Locations along the river figure heavily in the Hindu holy text, the Ramayana. A bathe in the river is a rite of passage.
“The religious sensibilities of the people are interlinked with the conservation of the river,” said WWF-India project leader Sandeep Behera as he stood on the river bank in the shadow of a Hindu temple, while young boys chanted hymns on a nearby pier.
Pope Says Science Can Unite Humans With God
From Huffington Post/RNS
By Francis X. Rocca
Religion News Service
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI told scientists that their research can lead to knowledge of God by revealing the natural order of the universe.
The pope made his remarks on Thursday (Oct. 28) before a plenary session of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences at the Vatican.
The evident logic governing the universe “leads us to admit the existence of an all-powerful Reason, which is other than that of man, and which sustains the world,” Benedict said.
“This is the meeting point between the natural sciences and religion,” the pope said. “As a result, science becomes a place of dialogue, a meeting between man and nature and, potentially, even between man and his Creator.”
Faith In Film
From By Stephen Whitty
Religion News Service
(RNS) The New Testament warns about trying to serve two masters. But lately Hollywood’s ordered up a rewrite.
Moviemakers would prefer to have it both ways. And so multiplexes have been crowded with films that wrestle with spiritual questions even while battling for box-office attention.
These aren’t tiny indies, like the evangelical films that sprang up after “The Passion of the Christ” in 2004. Nor are these holy terrors like “The Last Exorcism” and “Paranormal Activity 2,” a subgenre that’s replaced Freddy and Jason with demons from hell.
These are the mainstream pictures — Woody Allen character studies like “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger,” audience-friendly dramas like “Secretariat,” and big star-driven pictures like “Stone” and “Hereafter,” that explore subjects like spiritual awakenings and the possibility of an afterlife.
Faith-based film fans used to be seen as a niche audience. Now, in Hollywood, they’re just seen as the audience.
“I think audiences are often smarter than they’re given credit for,” said actor Edward Norton, who co-stars in “Stone.” “And I think they’re often drawn to films that raise genuine questions about our lives that demand a real ponder.”
Dalai Lama Writes on the Power of Laughter
From The Daily Beast
I Am a Professional Laugher
I have been confronted with many difficulties throughout the course of my life, and my country is going through a critical period. But I laugh often, and my laughter is contagious. When people ask me how I find the strength to laugh now, I reply that I am a professional laugher. Laughing is a characteristic of the Tibetans, who are different in this from the Japanese or the Indians. They are very cheerful, like the Italians, rather than a little reserved, like the Germans or the English.
My cheerfulness also comes from my family. I come from a small village, not a big city, and our way of life is more jovial. We are always amusing ourselves, teasing each other, joking. It’s our habit.
To that is added, as I often say, the responsibility of being realistic. Of course problems are there. But thinking only of the negative aspect doesn’t help to find solutions and it destroys peace of mind. Everything, though, is relative. You can see the positive side of even the worst tragedies if you adopt a holistic perspective. If you take the negative as absolute and definitive, however, you increase your worries and anxiety, whereas by broadening the way you look at a problem you understand what is bad about it, but you accept it. This attitude comes to me, from my practice and from Buddhist philosophy, which help me enormously.
Take the loss of our country, for example. We are a stateless people, and we must confront adversity along with many painful circumstances in Tibet itself. Nevertheless, such experiences also bring many benefits.
As for me, I’ve been homeless for half a century. But I have found a large number of new homes throughout the vast world. If I had remained at the Potala, I don’t think I would have had the chance to meet so many personalities, so many heads of state in Asia, Taiwan, the United States, and Europe, popes as well as many famous scientists and economists.
The life of exile is an unfortunate life, but I have always tried to cultivate a happy state of mind, appreciating the opportunities this existence without a settled home, far from all protocol, has offered me. This way I have been able to preserve my inner peace.
U.N. Proclaims World Interfaith Week
From Reuters
The United Nations General Assembly passes a stack of resolutions every year and many of them go all but unnoticed. One such document just approved in New York established a new World Interfaith Harmony Week. High-minded resolutions put most news junkies to sleep, so it’s probably no surprise this one got such scant media coverage (see here and here). But there’s more to this one than meets the glazed-over eye.
The resolution, accepted by consensus on Wednesday, urged all member states to designate the first week of February every year as the World Interfaith Harmony Week. It asked them to “support, on a voluntary basis, the spread of the message of interfaith harmony and goodwill in the world’s churches, mosques, synagogues, temples and other places of worship during that week based on Love of God and Love of the Neighbour, or based on Love of the Good and Love of the Neighbour, each according to their own religious traditions or convictions.”
Amid the standard legal wording of U.N. resolutions, that phrase “Love of God and Love of the Neighbour” stands out both as a rare example of religious belief in an official document like this and an unmistakable hint at the authorship of this text. Readers of this blog will recognise it as a trademark phrase of the Common Word group, the Muslim scholars who have been pursuing better interfaith understanding through dialogue with Christian churches. They’ve held a number of conferences with different churches and two of the manifesto’s signatories last week became the first Muslims to address a Vatican synod of bishops. Now the group is pursuing its mission on the diplomatic stage with an appeal to governments to help foster interfaith contacts.
Before the vote on Wednesday, Jordan’s Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad bin Talal presented the resolution to the General Assembly. In his speech (full text here), Ghazi, who is coordinator of the Common Word group, provided details on the thinking behind this initiative. “Our world is rife with religious tension and, sadly, mistrust, dislike and hatred,” he said. “The misuse or abuse of religions can thus be a cause of world strife, whereas religions should be a great foundation for facilitating world peace.”
The Life of a Female Priest
From CNN
It’s a busy Sunday morning in August for Gabriella Velardi Ward in her modest home in the New York City borough of Staten Island.
Velardi Ward lights candles, gingerly lays out prayer sheets and looks at herself in the mirror, mindfully putting on her white robe and vestments.
A short woman with a behemoth sense of spiritual self, Velardi Ward also attends to earthly matters.
While she makes sure the table is full of healthy vegetarian dips and finger foods, umbrella-carrying worshipers trickle through the door before the heavens unload. She hugs new arrivals who take seats in a rough circle in the humble but welcoming suburban living room.
To any stranger, this would be a scene to behold: a demonstration of belief, perhaps similar in passion to 1960s war protests whose organizers loved their country but felt deep pain over some of its most troublesome acts.
Velardi Ward leads this sing-a-long and prayer-filled sit-in of devotion and rebellion on behalf of God, his creatures great and small and her half of humankind.
She says this is a Catholic Mass.
She says she is the priest.
“I was five when I told my sister that I wanted to be a priest and she laughed at me and said, ‘You can’t, you’re a girl.”‘
30 Cities Meditate for Peace
From Tikkun
The international nongovernmental organization The Art of Living — founded in 1981 by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar — held a massive mediation ceremony last Sunday under the motto: “America Meditates — Because Peace Is Contagious.” Joining in for a synchronized meditation session were over thirty cities throughout the American continent, from Buenos Aires to New York City. Last year, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s event gathered over 20,000 people:
The aim was to soothe the suffering of people post a period which has seen economic challenges, political turmoil and natural disasters. Comfort, a sense of belonging and responsibility toward the community, and a positive approach were the natural outcomes when thousands of people united in an atmosphere of peace and calm. Some of the experiences of people: “Thank you for coming to my city and share this wonderful experience with us,” and “We need this kind of events in my country. Please keep doing them.”
Peruvian Faithful Pay Homage to Lord of Miracles
From Reuters
Thousands of worshippers dressed in purple robes paraded a revered icon through Peru’s capital this week in a tradition dating from 1687 when a mural depicting the same image of Christ escaped unscathed in a powerful earthquake.
The procession of the Senor de los Milagros (Lord of Miracles), a mural picturing a dark-skinned Christ that is said to have been painted in a shrine by an Angolan slave, has drawn crowds of Roman Catholic devotees for centuries.
The icon is a copy of the mural, which is revered for its powers to cure the sick and protect against tremors in the Andean country.
“I had kidney cancer, but thanks to the Senor de los Milagros, I’m here today,” said Gladys Revolledo, as she took part in one of four processions to be staged during October.
Originally worshipped by Afro-Peruvians, the Senor de los Milagros has become Peru’s best-known icon and has inspired worshipers around the world.
Founder of Arab American Institute Works to Dispel Myths
From The Washington Post
In the early days after 9/11, employees of the Arab American Institute huddled in their modest K Street offices, afraid to leave the building. Police downstairs guarded the entrance, serving as protection from those who might deliver on the death threats sent to the nonprofit’s founder and president, James Zogby. Raghead, they had said. I’ll slit your throat.
This is not the story that Zogby likes to tell. He prefers the one that happened next, the one where, in the middle of the threats and the police and the fact that the world had suddenly gone pear-shaped, he heard a timid knock.
“I looked through the door, and I saw the woman from the office next door,” he says. He didn’t know her name. They had never spoken. “She was holding a platter of brownies. And she said, ‘I know you are frightened. I wanted to bring you this.’ ” He shakes his head at the memory, which honors his belief that violent actions prompt kind reactions and that progress progresses.
He saw the brownies and, he recalls, “I wept.”
Zogby, who is of Lebanese descent, is Catholic but is often assumed to be Muslim because of what he does, and responds to e-mailed bile by offering to pray for the senders. He is the brother of the more famous John, the pollster behind Zogby International, with whom he has collaborated on a new book. He is, at a time of “Islamic cultural centers” or “Ground Zero mosques” — depending on how you feel about the proposed New York construction — a man relentlessly tapped to explain what Arabs are thinking, why they are thinking it and how the United States can make better decisions.
