setthanada - the lion's supreme roar: January 2013

Thursday, January 31, 2013

IN THE NEWS: Myanmar Police Used Phosphorus on Protesters, Lawyers Say

THE NEW YORK TIMES WRITES: BANGKOK — A group of lawyers investigating a violent crackdown in Myanmar in November that left Buddhist monks and villagers with serious burns contends that the police used white phosphorus, a munition normally reserved for warfare, to disperse protesters.

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

10 Cures for TechnoStress

JULIE CARLSON WRITES: It's true: several of us (make that all of us) at Remodelista live on our laptops. And when we're not blogging, we're texting, and when we're not texting, we're catching up with our reading on the iPad. Is it time for us to reassess our technology habits? Yes. (Oh, you too?) We asked our SF writer/mindfulness practitioner guru Jackie Ashton to weigh in on the subject and give us ideas for managing our technology consumption.

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

IN THE NEWS: Yoga May Help Mental Illness

YOGA JOURNAL WRITES: A new study that examined a body of research on yoga and mental health found that yoga is a promising treatment for depression, schizophrenia, ADHD, and sleep issues. The study, which was published in Frontiers in Psychiatry last week looked at more than 100 studies, focusing on 16 high-quality controlled studies.

Monday, January 28, 2013

Implications of the Interplay Between Light and Darkness

CARA DIXON, CLINICAL PSYCHOTHERAPIST, WRITES: Many years ago I had the privilege of studying art in Italy. In perfecting the strokes of my pencil to create just the right contour, I can remember my teacher gently instructing me on the importance of a relationship between darks and lights. He explained that the dark and light use each other to create a picture that looks real. Contrast is very important, and the artist has to learn how to work with both.

IN THE NEWS: International Holocaust Remembrance Day 2013: Victims Mourned At Auschwitz And Beyond

THE HUFFINGTON POST WRITES: Warsaw, Poland -- Holocaust survivors, politicians, religious leaders and others marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Sunday with solemn prayers and the now oft-repeated warnings to never let such horrors happen again.

Friday, January 25, 2013

Improve job satisfaction with mindfulness

FOX NEWS WRITES: If you find yourself emotionally spent at the end of your work week, you may want to consider practicing an old Buddhist tradition called mindfulness.

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Is Universal Metta Possible?

VENERABLE S. DHAMMIKA WRITES: Singapore: Now that the year-end holidays have passed, so have the barrage of entreaties to nurture a sense of “good will to all mankind,” to extend our love and care to others beyond our usual circle of friends and family. Certainly, this is a message we are meant to take to heart not just in December but all year long. It is a central ideal of several religious and ethical systems.

IN THE NEWS: Another Dies in Self Immolation Protest against China's rule

THE TIBET POST WRITES: Dharamshala: - A Tibetan man reportedly died after setting himself on fire in Tibet, sources in the region and living in exile said the latest in a series of protests against China's hardline and repressive policies on Tibet.

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Mindfulness at work: what are the benefits?

GUARDIAN CAREERS WRITES: Everyone from Google to the NHS is practising mindfulness. So, how can it help you and how do you practise it?

ARTICLE FROM THE EDITOR: The Four Noble Truths

Shortly after attaining Enlightenment, the Buddha travelled to the Deer Park in Isipatana near Varanasi and delivered his first sermon, the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta: The Discourse on Setting the Wheel of Dhamma in Motion. During the discourse the Buddha gave an exposition of the Four Noble Truths (Pali: cattāri ariyasaccāni), the first of many during his forty-five year ministry. The Four Noble Truths are the foundation of the Buddha’s Teaching and are central to all schools of Buddhism.

Saturday, January 19, 2013

UK Parliament Debates Mindfulness

VISHVAPANI WRITES: On 4th December, 2012, Chris Ruane, the MP for the Vale of Clwyd in North Wales initiated a debate in the UK House of Commons on mindfulness, especially focusing on how it can help the unemployed.

Friday, January 18, 2013

Trying out yoga

MARK EPSTEIN WRITES: Yoga came to me as if out of a commercial, or maybe a series of commercials. Advertising companies know that a person has to hear about a new product from something like five different directions before desire for that product is kindled. It was like that for me with yoga. All of a sudden, a number of years ago, I began to hear about it wherever I turned, and, although I resisted (thinking that meditation was enough for me), after a while I could ignore it no longer.

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

IN THE NEWS: 'One million children' join Buddhist meditation event

BBC NEWS WRITES: Every year, a project called V-Star Change the World brings schoolchildren to a Buddhist temple in Thailand for a day of meditation.

Organisers claim that one million children attended the most recent event at the Phra Dhammakaya temple near Bangkok.

Even Beginners Can Curb Pain With Meditation

ADAM COLE WRITES: Meditation has long been touted as a holistic approach to pain relief. And studies show that long-time meditators can tolerate quite a bit of pain.Now researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center have found you don't have to be a lifelong Buddhist monk to pull it off. Novices were able to tame pain after just a few training sessions.

Monday, January 14, 2013

Headspace: meditation for the modern age

TIME OUT LONDON WRITES: In the daily hustle and bustle of London, it’s tough to find the time to stop, kick back and actually relax. It’s become almost impossible to put down our smartphones, tablets or any snazzy device which demands attention at all hours of the day. If we can’t escape our frenetic lifestyles, then ways to relax must come to us. Thankfully for our poor overloaded brains, the meditation gurus at Headspace have cannily acknowledged this gap in the market.

Saturday, January 12, 2013

ARTICLE FROM THE EDITOR: Refraining from the Consumption of Alcohol and Drugs

Image by Daniel Farrell

The webpage BBC – Health: Alcohol Addiction states, “Alcohol is thought to be responsible for 34,000 deaths in the UK each year because of the damage it does to the body, plus many more deaths due to the indirect effects of alcohol on others.” So, drawing on wisdom, old and new, this article will examine why refraining from the consumption of psychoactive drugs, including alcohol, may be advantageous, or even crucial, for the practicing Lay Buddhist walking in the footsteps of the Buddha.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

IN THE NEWS: His Holiness the Dalai Lama Inaugurates int'l Buddhist conference

THE TIBET POST WRITES: Patna, Bihar: - The spiritual leader of Tibet, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama inaugurated the three-day international Buddhist convention at Buddha Smriti Park in the heart of Patna on Saturday. Hundreds of delegates, mostly scholars of Buddhism and monks from across the world, were participated in the conference.

The Power of Concentration

THE NEW YORK TIMES WRITES: Meditation and mindfulness: the words conjure images of yoga retreats and Buddhist monks. But perhaps they should evoke a very different picture: a man in a deerstalker, puffing away at a curved pipe, Mr. Sherlock Holmes himself. The world’s greatest fictional detective is someone who knows the value of concentration, of “throwing his brain out of action,” as Dr. Watson puts it.

Tuesday, January 08, 2013

IN THE NEWS: Services planned for Buddhist monks killed in A68 car crash

HERALDSCOTLAND WRITES: Preparations are being made for services that will span four countries after the death of three Buddhist monks in a car crash. The names released by police for the three victims were Aberdeen-based Phramaha Pranom Thongphaiboon, 43; Phramaha Kriangkrai Khamsamrong, 35, who spent six months at the Dhammapadipa Temple in Edinburgh before returning to the Sanghapadipa Temple in Cardiff; and Phramaha Chai Boonma, 36 – a resident missionary monk at London's Buddhapadipa Temple.

ARTICLE FROM THE EDITOR: Twelve Principles of Buddhism

In 1945 Christmas Humphreys developed the Twelve Principles of Buddhism on behalf of the Buddhist Society, London, who felt the need for a brief summary of Buddhism which could be disseminated at its meetings. Established in 1924; the Society remains one of the oldest Buddhist organisations in Europe, who's aim is to publish and make known the principles of Buddhism and encourage the study and practice of those principles. The Twelve Principles were approved by a convention of seventeen of the principle Buddhist sects of Japan, by a specially convened Council of the Siamese Sangha and the Supreme Patriarch of Siam and by leading Buddhists in China, Burma, Ceylon and by representatives of Buddhists in Tibet. The Twelve Principles of Buddhism represented the first significant step towards the formulation of a 'World Buddhism' and has not been superceded since.