"Future Tibetan: a Distrbuted Digital Learning System"

http://elib.ddbc.edu.tw/~magee/

Golok Holy Mountain Tour

"Golok Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture is located in southeastern Qinghai province, in the Amdo region of Tibet. Over 90% of the 125,000 people who live in Golok are Tibetan. Most of the people in Golok are nomadic with many of them living in traditional style Tibetan tents. Most of Golok is well above 4000m / 13,120 feet so summers are short and winters are long and cold. Golok is famous across the Tibetan Plateau as being the home of Amnye Machen, one of the 4 main holy mountains of Tibet. Each year, thousands of pilgrims make their way to Amnye Machen (pictured above) to make a pilgrimage around the mountain. The trek around the mountain takes about 5 or 6 days. Amnye Machen rises 6282m / 20,605 feet and is the highest mountain in Amdo."

http://kekexili.typepad.com/life_on_the_tibetan_plate/2008/05/golok-holy-moun.html

Tibetan Chan II: the teachings of Heshang Moheyan

"When you are engaged in contemplation itself, look at your own mind. Then, the lack of any mental activity at all is non-thought. If there is movement of the conceptual mind, be aware of it. “How should one be aware?” Do not analyse the mind which is moving in terms of any kind of quality at all: do not analyse it as moving or not moving; do not analyse it as existing or not exising; do not analyse it as virtuous or non-virtuous; and do not analyse it as defiled or pure. If you are aware of mind in this way, it is natureless. This is the practice of the dharma path."

http://earlytibet.com/2008/05/15/tibetan-chan-ii-the-teachings-of-heshang-moheyan/

Things as they are

Since we human beings are continually arranging the bits and pieces of what we experience in order to fashion ‘a whole universe’, we must take care to look upon this welter of living beings and physical objects as ‘sometime’ things. Things do not go about hindering each other’s existence any more than moments of time get in each other’s way.

- Dogen

http://the-urban-monk.livejournal.com/563312.html

"When we wake up, there is no "over there" and no "over here." No attachment to concepts or stories, and no one to attach to them. Only the perfection of the entire universe, with nothing separate or excluded."

Spring Snow on the Northern Plateau

"Spring snow on the northern Tibetan Plateau is very common. Much of the northern plateau is over 4000m / 13,120 feet, with many areas over 4500m / 14,760 feet, so snow in late spring and even early summer happens. Most of the Tibetan Plateau remains closed at this time to foreign travelers, but the regions in Qinghai and Yunnan are open. Once you leave the area around Xining, the population of Qinghai is predominantly Tibetan. That is especially true of the prefectures of Yushu (southern Qinghai) and Golog (southeastern Qinghai). These 2 prefectures have a total population of around 400,000 and Tibetans make up over 93% of the population. I spent the first 2 weeks of May traveling through these two prefectures. We ran into a severe snow storm about 3 hours south of Xining which caused us to stop and stay the night at a hotel. The snow provided opportunities for some great pictures. The top picture is taken about 75kms / 47 miles north of Mado at a small monastery."

http://kekexili.typepad.com/life_on_the_tibetan_plate/2008/05/spring-snow-on.html

Words for Buddhist Livin’

"Three quotations from Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, from Ocean of Dharma: 365 Teachings on Living Life with Courage and Compassion.

The Lion’s Roar

The lion’s roar is the fearless proclamation that any state of mind, including the emotions, is a workable situation, a reminder in the practice of meditation. We realize that chaotic situations must not be rejected. Nor should we regard them as regressive, as a return to confusion. We must respect whatever happens in our state of mind. Chaos should be regarded as extremely good news."

http://tricycleblog.wordpress.com/2008/05/13/words-for-buddhist-livin/

Childish superstition: Einstein's letter makes view of religion relatively clear

"It is clear for example that he had respect for the religious values enshrined within Judaic and Christian traditions ... but what he understood by religion was something far more subtle than what is usually meant by the word in popular discussion."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/may/12/peopleinscience.religion

Ngakpas - An Historic Description of Awareness Holders of the Great Secret Mantra who are Resplendent in White Clothes and Long Hair

"Ever since the time of the meeting of the three masters, Khenpo Shatarakshita, Lopon Padmasambhava and the Dharma King, Trison Detsen in 8th century Tibet, there were two divisions of sangha, known as the sangha of monastics with shaven-heads and the saffron robes (rab byung ngur smig gi sde) and the sangha of ngakpas with white clothes and long, plaited hair (gos dkar lcang lo’I sde)."

http://www.saraswatibhawan.org/sbpubsarticlesnagkpa.html

Ling Gésar

"Gésar Training is an integrated system of Horseriding, Warriorship, Tactile Responsiveness, and Training in the nature of Mind. The primary emphasis of the training is on cultivating bravery and kindness. Bravery enables us to move beyond our perceived personal limits, and creates the space in which real kindness may manifest. In order to be brave, we must be careful – because without care, bravery becomes bravado and recklessness. Care is grounded in awareness, but must also be informed by knowledge of situations and systems. We develop care by cultivating skill, and the primary impediment to this cultivation is confusion concerning the relationship between Mind and Body. Gésar Training therefore provides a complete system for understanding and deepening understanding of how Mind and Body function together – mediated by Vivacity, the communicative vigor which joins them."

http://www.ling-gesar.com/

Samajivina Sutta- Living in Tune

Husband & wife, both of them
having conviction,
being responsive,
being restrained,
living by the Dhamma,
addressing each other
with loving words:
they benefit in manifold ways.
To them comes bliss.
Their enemies are dejected
when both are in tune in virtue.
Having followed the Dhamma here in this world,
both in tune in precepts & practices,
they delight in the world of the devas,
enjoying the pleasures they desire.

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an04/an04.055.than.html

Life Before Death

"This sombre series of portraits taken of people before and after they had died is a challenging and poignant study. The work by German photographer Walter Schels and his partner Beate Lakotta, who recorded interviews with the subjects in their final days, reveals much about dying - and living. Life Before Death is at the Wellcome Collection from April 9-May 18"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/gallery/2008/mar/31/lifebeforedeath?picture=333325401


"Most importantly, the couple feel they know the importance of making the time they have left count."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/apr/01/society.photography

Stroke induced nirvana

"Buddhist teachings encourage us to 'let go' of the chattering and thinking mind and to relax into mindfulnes of the present moment so that we can experience the 'way things are'. The thinking mind is to be seen as basically unreliable and through practise, those undertaking Buddhist meditation can learn to trust and to abide in intuitive awareness (the unconditioned). The stroke experienced by Jill would appear to have damaged and abruptly silenced her thinking mind, allowing intuitive awareness to became dominant in a powerful way and for her to experience the unconditioned."

http://triplegem.terapad.com/index.cfm?fa=contentNews.newsDetails&newsID=55605&from=list

Mandala Galery, Johannes Frischknecht

"Mandalas stehen im Mittelpunkt des Lebens von Johannes Frischknecht. Seit vier Jahrzehnten – soweit er sich zurückerinnern kann – malt er seine Kreise, die ihn »führen und binden zurück zum Ursprung«. Sie sind der rote Faden in einem bewegten Leben, das die unendliche, verwirrende Vielfalt der Kulturen auf unserem Planeten zu verstehen, zu begreifen, zu vermitteln sucht. Frischknechts Mandalas sind nicht Kopien oder Adaptationen östlicher Vorbilder. Sie drücken sein eigenes Bedürfnis nach Einheit auf ganz ungewöhnliche, kraftvolle Weise aus."

Buddhist Phenomenology

"Analytical philosophers have criticized some phenomenological texts from buddhism, existentialism and mysticism, because of the presence of logical contradictions. Being interested in those phenomenological texts, people with a different philosophical inclination sometimes make the following claims. ``There are two ways of viewing the world: the rational and the irrational. The first view gives rise to science (with all of its drawbacks), the second one to the `higher' truths of mysticism."

In his book Exploring mysticism (Penguin, 1975), F. Staal disagrees with such claims. He put forward the following views.
1. Mysticism consists of experience and is as such neither rational nor irrational.
2. As phenomenon mysticism can be studied in a rational way.
3. In order to do this, it is advisable to practice meditation in order to have first hand experience."

http://www.cs.ru.nl/~henk/BP/bp1.html

Sambhogakaya existence

"Sambhogakaya existence is similar in some ways to the mode of existence of numbers.

Numbers are neither physically real, nor fictional. They have no location, no substance, no mass. Yet their meaning is undeniable. The sambhogakaya is like that.

Numbers are neither a human creation, nor separately existent. Numbers cannot be invented or manufactured. Yet without humans to know them, they would not appear. The sambhogakaya is like that."

http://approachingaro.org/sambhogakaya-existence