Ancient Buddha Statues and Relief pictures

Buddha Shakyamuni, India, Bihar. Pala period, late 9th–early 10th century. Schist. Asia Society, New York: Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection, 1979.37. © Asia Society, New York

Pilgrimage and Buddhist Art is the first major exhibition of its kind devoted to the impact of Buddhist pilgrimage on Asia’s artistic production. It highlights approximately 120 objects of importance and extraordinary quality, including sculptures, paintings, prints, ritual implements, photographs, and maps.

The objects, dating from the first to the twentieth century, will be on loan from museums and private collections in North America, and a number of the pieces have never been displayed publicly before. Pilgrims and pilgrimage inspired centuries of artistic production and its patronage influenced the development of visual culture in Asia.

Buddhist pilgrimage began in South Asia in the first century with journeys to sites of the major events in the Buddha’s life: the places of his birth, his enlightenment, his first teaching, and his death are all pilgrimage destinations and testify to the importance of his life story.

Using exceptional and visually stunning examples, Pilgrimage and Buddhist Art explores the ways in which the act of pilgrimage influenced artistic production across Asia, considering both the necessity of art objects for particular spiritual journeys and the rise of commissions to create sacred objects, such as painted mandalas, scrolls, screens, sculptures, reliquaries, prayer wheels, traveling shrines, textiles, and maps. Examples of these objects introduce the concepts of pilgrimage motivation, ritual preparation, and movement and worship at the sacred destination, as well as highlight the regional variety of Buddhist pilgrimage practices and art production due to the influences of preexisting or coexisting religious practice.

Pilgrimage and Buddhist Art is organized by Asia Society Museum and presented in conjunction with The Buddha, a film by David Grubin for PBS. New York Premiere at the Asia Society, March 23, 2010; the film airs on PBS April 7, 2010.

The historical Buddha, often called Shakyamuni (“Sage of the Shakyas”) in later times, was born into an elite family of the Shakya clan, whose territory lay on what is now the border between northeastern India and Nepal. Traditionally, the date of his birth was believed to be 563 BCE, but he may have been born as much as a century later. After renouncing his princely life for spiritual pursuits, he began a long physical and spiritual journey that ultimately led to his enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree in Bodh Gaya. After his enlightenment, he went on to teach the Four Noble Truths. According to this doctrine, suffering exists in all life; suffering is caused by desire or attachment; to end suffering, one must transcend desire or attachment; and to transcend desire and attachment, one must follow a path of righteous living, known as the Noble Eightfold Path.

Prior to his death, the Buddha instructed his disciple Ananda that followers could continue to seek and venerate him in places that resonated with important events in his life: the sites of his birth at Lumbini, his enlightenment at Bodh Gaya, his first sermon at Sarnath, and his death at Kushinagara. Many representations of the Buddha produced across Asia reference these and other sacred sites associated with him. For example, the tenth-century stone sculpture of Shakyamuni on view in the center of this room has several elements that identify the enlightenment site at Bodh Gaya. These include the Bodhi Tree, carved here as a leafy branch, and the Buddha’s hand gesture, which signifies calling the earth to witness his right to enlightenment. Similar sculptural examples from Myanmar/Burma and Tibet attest to the wide dissemination of this imagery. Buddhists from all over the world continue to make pilgrimages to these powerful sacred sites.

A glance at the large Japanese Buddhist world map in this room shows the spread of Buddhist sites across Asia. Many of these are places where relics or purported relics of the Buddha were buried. Relics imbue sites with sacred power, and the proliferation of Buddhist relics across Asia is closely associated with the spread of pilgrimage practice. Eventually relics of other Buddhist figures, such as major teachers or those associated with important Buddhist actions or miraculous events, were also interred. These burial places either became new pilgrimage destinations or contributed to the spiritual power of existing pilgrimage sites.

March 16 – June 20, 2010

Buddha in the Gesture of Preaching. India, Gupta period, 6th century. Copper alloy with copper and silver inlay. Asia Society, New York: Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection, 1979.7. © Asia Society, New York

Buddha Shakyamuni with Kneeling Worshippers. Myanmar/Burma, 14th - 15th century. Gilt copper alloy. Asia Society, New York: Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection, 1979.91a–c. © Asia Society, New York

Buddha Shakyamuni, Tibet, 11th century, Copper alloy with copper overlay and inlays of silver. Asia Society, New York: Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection, 1979.89 © Asia Society, New York

Narrative Panels with Scenes from the Buddha's Life, Pakistan (ancient Gandhara), 2nd century. Gray schist. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland, Gift of John and Berthe Ford, 25.259. © The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland

Buddha's First Sermon at Sarnath, Pakistan (ancient Gandhara), Kushan period, ca. 2nd century. Gray schist. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Daniel Slott, 1980, 1980.527.4. © The Metropolitan Museum of Art

False Dormer Stele with Scene of Life of the Buddha, Pakistan (ancient Gandhara), Kushan period, 100–300. Schist. Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, The Avery Brundage Collection, B60S255. © Asian Art Museum Foundation, San Francisco. Used by permission

Portion of a Disassembled Stupa, India, Bihar, Bodh Gaya region, 9th century. Basalt. Philadelphia Museum of Art: Purchased with the George W. B. Taylor Fund, 1921, 1921-36-1. © Graydon Wood, courtesy Philadelphia Museum of Art

Goddess Palden Lhamo, Central Tibet, Densatil Monastery, 15th century. Gilt copper alloy, color, and semiprecious stones. Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.: Purchase Friends of Asian Arts in honor of the 10th Anniversary of the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, S1997.27. © Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

Reliquary in the Shape of a Stupa (Relic Mound), Pakistan (ancient Gandhara), Kushan period, ca. 4th–5th century. Bronze. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Donald J. Bruckmann, 1985, 1985.387a,b. © The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Stupa Reliquary, Sri Lanka, Anuradhapura period, ca. 200. Crystal and gold. The James W. and Marilynn Alsdorf Collection. © Michael Tropea

Miniature Stupa with Illustrations of Jataka Tales, China, Five Dynasties period, 955. Bronze. Harvard Art Museum, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Nasli M. Heeramaneck, 1930.105. © Imaging Department © President and Fellows of Harvard College

Covered Stupa-Form Buddhist Reliquary with Knob in the Shape of a Stupa Finial , Korea, Unified Silla period, 8th–9th century, Bronze. Harvard Art Museum, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Anonymous Gift, 1944.57.29.A–C. © Imaging Department © President and Fellows of Harvard College

Reliquary, Korea, Unified Silla period, late 9th–early 10th century. Bronze and copper alloy. Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Dr. Herman Herzog Levy Bequest Fund, 992.124.1 © With permission of the Royal Ontario Museum © ROM. Photo: Brian Boyle

Model of a Stupa, Thailand or Cambodia, 12th–14th century. Copper alloy. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Gift of Anna Bing Arnold, M.87.243 © 2009 Museum Associates/ Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Source: http://alaintruong.canalblog.com/tag/Korea

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Speaking of the Faults of Others

"I vow not to talk about the faults of others." In the Zen tradition, this is one of the bodhisattva vows. For fully ordained monastics the same principle is expressed in the payattika vow to abandon slander. It is also contained in the Buddha's recommendation to all of us to avoid the ten destructive actions, the fifth of which is using our speech to create disharmony.

The Motivation

What an undertaking! I can't speak for you, the reader, but I find this very difficult. I have an old habit of talking about the faults of others. In fact, it's so habitual that sometimes I don't realize I've done it until afterwards.

What lies behind this tendency to put others down? One of my teachers, Geshe Ngawang Dhargye, used to say, "You get together with a friend and talk about the faults of this person and the misdeeds of that one. Then you go on to discuss others' mistakes and negative qualities. In the end, the two of you feel good because you've agreed you're the two best people in the world."

When I look inside, I have to acknowledge he's right. Fueled by insecurity, I mistakenly think that if others are wrong, bad, or fault-ridden, then in comparison I must be right, good, and capable. Does the strategy of putting others down to build up my own self-esteem work? Hardly.

Another situation in which we speak about others' faults is when we're angry with them. Here we may talk about their faults for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it's to win other people over to our side. "If I tell these other people about the argument Bob and I had and convince them that he is wrong and I'm right before Bob can tell them about the argument, then they'll side with me." Underlying that is the thought, "If others think I'm right, then I must be." It's a weak attempt to convince ourselves we're okay when we haven't spent the time honestly evaluating our own motivations and actions.

At other times, we may talk about others' faults because we're jealous of them. We want to be respected and appreciated as much as they are. In the back of our minds, there's the thought, "If others see the bad qualities of the people I think are better than me, then instead of honoring and helping them, they'll praise and assist me." Or we think, "If the boss thinks that person is unqualified, she'll promote me instead." Does this strategy win others' respect and appreciation? Hardly.

Some people "psychoanalyze" others, using their half-baked knowledge of pop-psychology to put someone down. Comments such as "he's borderline" or "she's paranoid" make it sound as if we have authoritative insight into someone's internal workings, when in reality we disdain their faults because our ego was affronted. Casually psychoanalyzing others can be especially harmful, for it may unfairly cause a third party to be biased or suspicious.

The Results

What are the results of speaking of others' faults? First, we become known as a busybody. Others won't want to confide in us because they're afraid we'll tell others, adding our own judgments to make them look bad. I am cautious of people who chronically complain about others. I figure that if they speak that way about one person, they will probably speak that way about me, given the right conditions. In other words, I don't trust people who continuously criticize others.

Second, we have to deal with the person whose mistakes we publicized when they find out what we said, which, by the time they hear it, has been amplified in intensity. That person may tell others our faults in order to retaliate, not an exceptionally mature action, but one in keeping with our own actions.

Third, some people get stirred up when they hear about others' faults. For example, if one person at an office or factory talks behind the back of another, everyone in the work place may get angry and gang up on the person who has been criticized. This can set off backbiting throughout the workplace and cause factions to form. Is this conducive for a harmonious work environment? Hardly.

Fourth, are we happy when our mind picks faults in others? Hardly. When we focus on negativities or mistakes, our own mind isn't very happy. Thoughts such as, "Sue has a hot temper. Joe bungled the job. Liz is incompetent. Sam is unreliable," aren't conducive for our own mental happiness.

Fifth, by speaking badly of others, we create the cause for others to speak badly of us. This may occur in this life if the person we have criticized puts us down, or it may happen in future lives when we find ourselves unjustly blamed or scapegoated. When we are the recipients of others' harsh speech, we need to recall that this is a result of our own actions: we created the cause; now the result comes. We put negativity in the universe and in our own mindstream; now it is coming back to us. There's no sense being angry and blaming anyone else if we were the ones who created the principal cause of our problem.

Close Resemblances

There are a few situations in which seemingly speaking of others' faults may be appropriate or necessary. Although these instances closely resemble criticizing others, they are not actually the same. What differentiates them? Our motivation. Speaking of others' faults has an element of maliciousness in it and is always motivated by self-concern. Our ego wants to get something out of this; it wants to look good by making others look bad. On the other hand, appropriate discussion of others' faults is done with concern and/or compassion; we want to clarify a situation, prevent harm, or offer help.

Let's look at a few examples. When we are asked to write a reference for someone who is not qualified, we have to be truthful, speaking of the person's talents as well as his weaknesses so that the prospective employer or landlord can determine if this person is able to do what is expected. Similarly, we may have to warn someone of another's tendencies in order to avert a potential problem. In both these cases, our motivation is not to criticize the other, nor do we embellish her inadequacies. Rather, we try to give an unbiased description of what we see.

Sometimes we suspect that our negative view of a person is limited and biased, and we talk to a friend who does not know the other person but who can help us see other angles. This gives us a fresh, more constructive perspective and ideas about how to get along with the person. Our friend might also point out our buttons - our defenses and sensitive areas - that are exaggerating the other's defects, so that we can work on them.

At other times, we may be confused by someone's actions and consult a mutual friend in order to learn more about that person's background, how she might be looking at the situation, or what we could reasonably expect from her. Or, we may be dealing with a person whom we suspect has some problems, and we consult an expert in the field to learn how to work with such a person. In both these instances, our motivation is to help the other and to resolve the difficulty.

In another case, a friend may unknowingly be involved in a harmful behavior or act in a way that puts others off. In order to protect him from the results of his own blindness, we may say something. Here we do so without a critical tone of voice or a judgmental attitude, but with compassion, in order to point out his fault or mistake so he can remedy it. However, in doing so, we must let go of our agenda that wants the other person to change. People must often learn from their own experience; we cannot control them. We can only be there for them.

The Underlying Attitude

In order to stop pointing out others' faults, we have to work on our underlying mental habit of judging others. Even if we don't say anything to or about them, as long as we are mentally tearing someone down, it's likely we'll communicate that through giving someone a condescending look, ignoring him in a social situation, or rolling our eyes when his name is brought up in conversation.

The opposite of judging and criticizing others is regarding their good qualities and kindness. This is a matter of training our minds to look at what is positive in others rather than what doesn't meet our approval. Such training makes the difference between our being happy, open, and loving or depressed, disconnected, and bitter.

We need to try to cultivate the habit of noticing what is beautiful, endearing, vulnerable, brave, struggling, hopeful, kind, and inspiring in others. If we pay attention to that, we won't be focusing on their faults. Our joyful attitude and tolerant speech that result from this will enrich those around us and will nourish contentment, happiness and love within ourselves. The quality of our own lives thus depends on whether we find fault with our experience or see what is beautiful in it.

Seeing the faults of others is about missing opportunities to love. It's also about not having the skills to properly nourish ourselves with heart-warming interpretations as opposed to feeding ourselves a mental diet of poison. When we are habituated with mentally picking out the faults of others, we tend to do this with ourselves as well. This can lead us to devalue our entire lives. What a tragedy it is when we overlook the preciousness and opportunity of our lives and our Buddha potential.

Thus we must lighten up, cut ourselves some slack, and accept ourselves as we are in this moment while we simultaneously try to become better human beings in the future. This doesn't mean we ignore our mistakes, but that we are not so pejorative about them. We appreciate our own humanness; we have confidence in our potential and in the heart-warming qualities we have developed so far.

What are these qualities? Let's keep things simple: they are our ability to listen, to smile, to forgive, to help out in small ways. Nowadays we have lost sight of what is really valuable on a personal level and instead tend to look to what publicly brings acclaim. We need to come back to appreciating ordinary beauty and stop our infatuation with the high-achieving, the polished, and the famous.

Everyone wants to be loved - to have his or her positive aspects noticed and acknowledged, to be cared for and treated with respect. Almost everyone is afraid of being judged, criticized, and rejected as unworthy. Cultivating the mental habit that sees our own and others' beauty brings happiness to ourselves and others; it enables us to feel and to extend love. Leaving aside the mental habit that finds faults prevents suffering for ourselves and others. This should be the heart of our spiritual practice. For this reason, His Holiness the Dalai Lama said, "My religion is kindness."

We may still see our own and others' imperfections, but our mind is gentler, more accepting and spacious. People don't care so much if we see their faults, when they are confident that we care for them and appreciate what is admirable in them.

Speaking with Understanding and Compassion

The opposite of speaking of the faults of others is speaking with understanding and compassion. For those engaged in spiritual practice and for those who want to live harmoniously with others, this is essential. When we look at other's good qualities, we feel happy that they exist. Acknowledging people's good qualities to them and to others makes our own mind happy; it promotes harmony in the environment; and it gives people useful feedback.

Praising others should be part of our daily life and part of our Dharma practice. Imagine what our life would be like if we trained our minds to dwell on others' talents and good attributes. We would feel much happier and so would they! We would get along better with others, and our families, work environments, and living situations would be much more harmonious. We place the seeds from such positive actions on our mindstream, creating the cause for harmonious relationships and success in our spiritual and temporal aims.

An interesting experiment is to try to say something nice to or about someone every day for a month. Try it. It makes us much more aware of what we say and why. It encourages us to change our perspective so that we notice others' good qualities. Doing so also improves our relationships tremendously.

A few years ago, I gave this as a homework assignment at a Dharma class, encouraging people to try to praise even someone they didn't like very much. The next week I asked the students how they did. One man said that the first day he had to make something up in order to speak positively to a fellow colleague. But after that, the man was so much nicer to him that it was easy to see his good qualities and speak about them!

Writen by Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron

Source:  www.thubtenchodron.org

 

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Life and Death

Death is something no one can escape from. It follows life as surely as night follows day, winter follows autumn or old age follows youth. People make preparations so that they won't suffer when winter comes. They prepare so they won't have to suffer in their old age. Yet how few people prepare for the even greater certainty of death!

Modern society has turned its gaze away from this most fundamental issue. For most people, death is something to be feared, to be dreaded, or it is seen as just the absence of life--blankness and void. Death has even come to be considered somehow "unnatural."

What is death? What becomes of us after we die? We can try to ignore these questions. Many people do. But if we ignore death, I believe that we are condemned to live a shallow existence, to live "hand to mouth" spiritually. We may assure ourselves that we will somehow deal with death "when the time comes." Some people keep busily engaged in a constant stream of tasks in order to avoid thinking about the fundamental issues of life and death. But in such a state of mind, the joys we feel will ultimately be fragile, shadowed by the inescapable presence of death. It is my firm belief that facing the issue of death can help bring real stability, peace and depth to our lives.

What, then, is death? Is it just extinction, a lapse into nothingness? Or is it the doorway to new life, a transformation rather than an ending? Is life nothing more than a fleeting phase of activity preceded and followed by stillness and nonexistence? Or does it have a deeper continuity, persisting beyond death in some form or other?

Buddhism views the idea that our lives end with death as a serious delusion. It sees everything in the universe, everything that happens, as part of a vast living web of interconnection. The vibrant energy we call life which flows throughout the universe has no beginning and no end. Life is a continuous, dynamic process of change. Why then should human life be the one exception? Why should our existence be an arbitrary, one-shot deal, disconnected from the universal rhythms of life?

We now know that stars and galaxies are born, live out their natural span, and die. What applies to the vast realities of the universe applies equally to the miniature realms of our bodies. From a purely physical perspective, our bodies are composed of the same materials and chemical compounds as the distant galaxies. In this sense we are quite literally children of the stars.

The human body consists of some 60 trillion individual cells, and life is the vital force that harmonizes the infinitely complex functioning of this mind-boggling number of individual cells. Each moment, untold numbers of cells are dying and being replaced by the birth of new cells. At this level, daily we experience the cycles of birth and death.

On a very practical level, death is necessary. If people lived forever, they would eventually start to long for death. Without death, we would face a whole new array of problems--from overpopulation to people having to live forever in aged bodies. Death makes room for renewal and regeneration.

Death should therefore be appreciated, like life, as a blessing. Buddhism views death as a period of rest, like sleep, by which life regains energy and prepares for new cycles of living. Thus there is no reason to fear death, to hate or seek to banish it from our minds.

Death does not discriminate; it strips of us everything. Fame, wealth and power are all useless in the unadorned reality of the final moments of life. When the time comes, we will have only ourselves to rely on. This is a solemn confrontation that we must face armed only with our raw humanity, the actual record of what we have done, how we have chosen to live our lives, asking, "Have I lived true to myself? What have I contributed to the world? What are my satisfactions or regrets?"

To die well, one must have lived well. For those who have lived true to their convictions, who have worked to bring happiness to others, death can come as a comforting rest, like the well-earned sleep that follows a day of enjoyable exertion.

I was impressed a few years ago to learn of the attitude of a friend of mine, David Norton, professor of philosophy at the University of Delaware, toward his own approaching death.

When he was only seventeen, the young David had become a "smoke jumper," a volunteer fire fighter who parachuted into inaccessible areas to cut trees and dig trenches to keep fires from spreading. He did this, he said, in order to learn to face his own fear.

When, in his mid sixties, he was diagnosed with advanced cancer, he faced death head-on and found that the pain did not defeat him. Nor did he find dying a lonely or solitary experience, according to his wife, Mary. She later told me that he felt he was surrounded by all his friends and said that her husband had faced death without fear, regarding it as "another adventure; the same kind of test as facing a forest fire."

"I guess the first thing about such an adventure," Mary said, "is that it's an opportunity to challenge yourself. It's getting yourself out of situations that are comfortable, where you know what goes, and where you don't have to worry. It's an opportunity to grow. It's a chance to become what you need to be. But it's one that you must face without fear."

An awareness of death enables us to live each day--each moment--filled with appreciation for the unique opportunity we have to create something of our time on Earth. I believe that in order to enjoy true happiness, we should live each moment as if it were our last. Today will never return. We may speak of the past or of the future, but the only reality we have is that of this present instant. And confronting the reality of death actually enables us to bring unlimited creativity, courage and joy into each instant of our lives. 

From an essay series by Daisaku Ikeda first published in the Philippine magazine Mirror, in 1998

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Heart Opening

“Your shoulders, arms, neck and ribs can either be a restrictive cage for your heart or an undulating, comforting protector.”

The summer before my marriage broke up, I cried a lot in yoga class.  It didn’t happen until we lay down for final relaxation. Then tears would pour out of the sides of my eyes. It was almost as though I wasn’t crying, but leaking, and it happened every day for the whole summer.

Somehow the release of toxins in my muscles and organs during the class also released emotions in my heart and mind.  Motion led to emotion. Before the class I had been stuck and yoga unstuck me. It took me on a journey back to myself, and as I embodied my sadness more and more, it began to travel through me and by the end of the summer, I felt clean, balanced and brave enough to make the necessary changes in my life.

Even though it was painful, my summer of being heartbroken was better than having no heart at all. To experience the movement of our heart, even if it involves sadness or fear or anger, is how we know we are alive. It is when we don’t experience the circulation of emotions that we get depressed and then get stuck there.

The first way to work with this is on the physical level. People know this intuitively, which is why, of all the workshops I conduct around the world, the Heart Opener workshops tend to fill up quickest. I find that so moving, because I feel sure that the people who sign up for those workshops are already open-hearted.  However, their supporting anatomy may be tight or weak, making it difficult to feel the physical movement that enables the emotional journey to deepen.

Try this: Sit up tall and take a deep breath in and out. Then slouch—tuck your tailbone under and curve your shoulders forward.  Now try to breathe deeply. No matter how hard you try, it’s impossible, and the effort is soon disheartening. As your spine droops, your head drops, and your spirit sinks. You can’t see the sky or meet the world head-on.

Moreover, the anatomical function of the heart is compromised. It cannot easily receive deoxygenated blood from the veins nor easily pump blood into the lungs, where it gets oxygenated. Why not? Because the functions of the heart and lungs are intimately related and we simply cannot inhale enough air when the cardiovascular department is compressed. This inability to take in oxygen is a subtle form of suffocation and leads to weak “life prana,” or life force, which, according to Ayurvedic medicine, resides in our heart.

The Sanskrit word for heart is hridayam, meaning “that which receives, gives and circulates.” We can increase this process of giving, receiving and circulating by strengthening the supportive and protective anatomy around our heart and extending the range of motion in those areas. That includes our arms, ribcage, shoulders, neck, upper back and chest.

Let’s try the following vinyasa, or flowing sequence of movements. It will deepen your awareness of these areas and allow your life prana to flow without obstruction. Work gently, mindfully, and rhythmically. I have included breathing guidelines, but it’s fine if you wish to stay in each position for longer than one breath.

1. Begin by standing with your feet about hip distance apart. Clasp your hands together behind your back. (If you can’t reach, you can hold on to a belt or towel.) Try to lift the front of your armpits so your shoulders are not rounding forward. Draw your shoulder blades toward each other and feel broad across the collarbones. Inhale.

2. Exhale and fold your upper body over your legs. Your arms will go over your head, but try to stay open across the chest. Let your head be heavy and your neck long. If you feel any strain on the back of the legs or your back, bend your knees. Over time your muscles will lengthen and you will be able to straighten your legs easily, but in the meantime, work mindfully and don’t even consider pushing your body.

3. From here, release your arms and place your fingertips on the floor, directly below your shoulders. On an inhale, lift your chest so your spine is parallel to the floor. Feel how the inhalation lifts your heart to this position. Again, bend your knees if that is more comfortable.

4. As you exhale, twist to the right and reach your right arm up to the ceiling. Look up at your hand. If it is in the correct position, it will look as if it’s over your mouth. Feel the right side of your belly spinning up to the sky. Feel a broad line of energy connecting your two hands.

5. Inhale, and return to the flat back position. As you exhale, twist to the other side. Look up and feel the opening in the front of your left armpit/chest area. Inhale and return to flat back.

6. Exhale, and fold over your legs. Hold onto your elbows and let your head drop. Feel your upper body cascading like a waterfall out of your strong legs which are rooted to the earth. Stay here for a few breaths, or as long as you like.

7. When you are ready, on an inhale, begin to round up through your spine. Continue to hold onto your elbows, so that when you are all the way up, your arms will be framing your face. See if you can stand with your arms in this position without letting your front ribs stick out. Relax the whole front of your body and feel it relating to the back of your body. Visualize your warm exhalation moving in a circle around the entire ring of your neck.

8. On your next inhalation, lengthen your arms overhead, and as you exhale, bend to the right. Feel your breath moving into the left side of your rib cage as it fans open like an accordion.

9. Inhale back up to standing and exhale over to the left. Now fill the right side of your ribcage with nourishing breath. Try to keep both arms straight. Press the soles of your feet into the earth. Let your in-breath lift you back up to standing.

Repeat this sequence at least four times. Stay connected to the movement of the breath as much as possible by following the path of the breath with your mind. Start to notice where it goes and where it doesn’t. Notice what’s available to you today and how it’s different in each position.

On your third and fourth sets, see if you can deepen your breathing slightly, without straining or pushing. Maybe you can and maybe you can’t—it doesn’t matter. Just see what you can learn about yourself. Then practice it again tomorrow and see how it’s different.  The main thing is to stay present with the exercise and not get hard in your mind, body or breath.

Your body, your shoulders, arms, neck and ribs, can be either a restrictive cage for your heart or an undulating, comforting protector. Well-known yoga teacher Rodney Yee once asked a class, “If you could hold your heart in your hands, how would you hold it?” Ask yourself how you are holding your heart right now: Tightly, tenderly, firmly, gently, carefully, attentively, fearfully, tentatively, easily, joyously?

Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche said, “The way to rule the universe is to expose your heart.” When the ebb and flow of our heart diminishes, we feel separate from the vast world around us, a world in which everything breathes, pulsates, expands and contracts. Yoga, Buddhism and all spiritual paths are a map showing the journey back to the heart of the universe: Big Mind, Great Spirit, the Source of all that is. And the heart of the universe is, of course, always within our own hearts, if only we can be brave enough to feel its movement.

Cyndi Lee is founder of the OM Yoga Center in New York and co-creator of Yoga in a Box, available at www.omyoga.com.

Written by  Cyndi Lee

Source: Shambhala Sun, September 2000.

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Enjoy Sharing. Good Luck!

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Free Kaspersky Internet Security CBE 10 for 3 months and Lifetime

Kaspersky Security Suite CBE is a security protection software for Windows system that incorporates anti-virus, anti-spyware, firewall and anti-spam email blocker functionalities into one. Kaspersky Security Suite CBE has all the major features of the commercial version of Kaspersky Internet Security Suite 10, where KSS CBE has the version of 9.0.0.736. In addition, at the request of Computer Bild, developer has further optimized Kaspersky Security Suite CBE. It is in German. However, there is no Problem, I will show you how to change its appearence from German to English.

How to Get Kaspersky Security Suite CBE 10 :


1. Go to this page, fill up the form to create an account at Computerbild.de.

2. Check your email. You should get an email from  Computer Bild with a link to active your Computerbild.de account. Click that link.

3. Now visit this page, enter your user-name, password and click on “login” button.

4. After login you redirecting to a new page which looks like the image given bellow. Check the 2nd box  (means - Request for the Kaspersky Security Suite CBE 10 license key) and click the “Lizenzschlüssel anfordern” button.

5. Again check your email , you get your Kaspersky Security Suite CBE 10 key (they always send same key to all)

6. Download Kaspersky Security Suite CBE 10 and install it but all the installation process is in German and there is no solution to install it in English.

7. After install Kaspersky Security Suite CBE 10 successfully run it and click on Einstellungen button which open Kaspersky Security Suite CBE 10's setting window.

8.  Now Click Einstellungen button then uncheck Selbstschutz aktiveren. Click OK to close this window.

9. To transform the language from German to English, follow the steps:

1. Open the loc folder in the folder of Kaspersky Security Suite CBE 10 which you have installed on your computer, the directory usually like this: C:\Program Files\Kaspersky Lab\Kaspersky Security Suite CBE 10\Skin\loc  (it depends on your hard-dish name)
2. In Loc Folder, you will see two folder: de and en. Change the name of en folder to de, and de folder to en (tip: you should change en to de-1 or so, change de to en, and then change de-1 to de. This is to avoid create the same folder-name).

10. Now restart your PC and Run Kaspersky Internet Security 2010/Kaspersky Security Suite CBE 10. You see that it convert to english.

When your KIS 2010 license's expiry date come just follow Steps 3&4 to renewal your key for next 91 days. Now you can use KIS 2010 free for lifetime.

To have a completely Same look as KIS 2010 :

1. Download the zip file Official Skin.zip from http://www.mediafire.com/?x554tzzmwz2 .
2. Choose Extract Here to extract the folder Official Skin. Remember don’t select extract to Official Skin folder.
3. Open the main interface by right Clicking on the tray icon

4. Now Click on Settings as shown in the picture. It will open the Settings window.
5. Now select the Appearence menu under Options in the Left Panel.

6. Now as shown select Use alternative skin under Skins in the Right Panel as shown in the picture and use the Browse button to locate the extracted Official Skin folder. Click on Ok to confirm the changes.
7. Now look at the interface.

8. Also see the tray icon is changed to the original one.
9. That’s it, now you have the registered version of Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 for protecting your computer from Cyber Threats.
Cheers… Any problems, you can contact me: vnminhnguyen@yahoo.com Good luck!

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Alcohol 120%, Free & Full Version

Click here to Download Alcohol 120%

Alcohol brings new meaning to the word multimedia! It is without a doubt a leader in its class, bringing the ability to emulate and record CDs and DVDs together into one amazingly easy to use software program. Now includes Alcohol Xtra. A unique Pre-Mastering function.
 

Using the latest technology the program is constantly being developed and improved to add new features, allowing it to maintain it's position as a leading software package.

Imagine being able to store your most used CDs as images on your computer and just call them up at the click of a button! And then run them at 200x the speed of some CD drives and without requiring the CD itself! How about being able to make a backup of that CD onto another CD either using the CD itself or just using the image you have created? This is what Alcohol allows you to do and much more.

Alcohol 120% enables you to make a duplicate back-up to recordable media of nearly all your expensive Game/Software/DVD titles, and/or an image that can be mounted and run from any one of Alcohol's virtual drives.

No other software available enables you to create up to a staggering 31 virtual drives, allowing you to run your game images at over 200x faster than from a conventional CD-ROM. Alcohol 120% is a powerful utility that uses a unique combination of options to ensure a perfect back-up every time.

All you need is a PC combined with a CD or a DVD burner. No more replacing your expensive original discs due to loss, theft, scratches, or other media imperfections. Your duplicate works just like the original; your entire collection can be archived and your investment protected.

In the home: Have you had experiences with the common conditions of CDs/DVDs? They can easily get scratched, damaged, broken, lost or even stolen. Alcohol provides you with peace of mind and protects your investment.

Your original games/program discs can be safely stored away. Alcohol-created images mean that you always have your expensive media stored safely on your hard drive for instant retrieval at the click of a button. No more searching for the correct game disc or software application install disc, everything is at your fingertips.

You can now, for instance, simultaneously play your favourite game and bring up your route planner without having to eject and reload any physical discs, The 31 virtual drive ability of Alcohol means you can have the equivalent of a staggering 31 CD-ROM drives in your Home PC, all instantly accessible. You can simply and quickly run your Disc image at around 200 times faster than that of a conventional CD-ROM drive. If you need a program or CD it is immediately there - always ready to use!

At the office: Program discs and many other applications generally require the original disc to be in the computer's CD-ROM drive. This restricts the amount of people in your office who can have access to the same software at the same time without the cost of additional discs. Alcohol's virtual drives resolve that problem for you. No more hunting around the offices for that elusive disc you need to run your application, everything you require is just a click away.

With Alcohol you can store your CD images on your office server, your colleagues and employees at their respective networked workstations will never need to come asking for a CD again, they will not even require an expensive CD-ROM drive installed in their workstation PC! A simple click is all that is required for them to have full access to any disc image they require for their day to day work. Your valuable CDs can be safely kept under lock and key.

Does your company have a promotional CD for it's customers? Original pressed discs are expensive, using the Alcohol 120% writing engine you can copy the original to inexpensive blank discs for distribution to your customers and keep your overheads down.

Alcohol software offers unrivalled usage to people from all walks of life regardless of if you are a hardened game player, busy school teacher, salesman, IT manager, student etc. Alcohol has a niche in all your everyday computer needs. Let Alcohol help you to help yourselves and give you the peace of mind you deserve when it comes to expensive PC media.

Do not have a CD/DVD writer? No problem, Alcohol 52%* is the answer, with all the power and technological advantages of Alcohol 120%. Alcohol 52% is ideally suited for Laptop use (no need to take your expensive discs along to a meeting where they can become misplaced). Ideal for school/office environments where access to an image file by workstation users would be an advantage.

Do not just take our word for it! Download our free 15 day trial version of Alcohol 120% or Alcohol 52% and see for yourself. (There are no restrictions in the software other than you will only be able to create 6 virtual drives. Alcohol Xtra function is limited to 100mb file creation, and the ability to write to only two drives at the same time as apposed to 31 virtual drives in both Alcohol 52% and 8 or more writers in Alcohol 120%) our policy is try before you buy.

Click here to Download Alcohol 120%

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The Jewel You Carry with You

Even beyond diamonds and rubies, the most valuable gem is the compassionate, loving nature of your own being. Sakyong Mipham on uncovering this treasure.

One of my favorite texts is an ancient instruction given by a high lama to the prince of Dege, a kingdom in eastern Tibet. The lama told the prince, who was about to become ruler of the huge kingdom, “In order to become successful in this world, you need three qualities: wisdom, compassion, and courage. These three will lead to a successful, happy, and fulfilled life.”

The first quality, wisdom, means knowing what brings true happiness. Most of us go through life being fooled. The Tibetan word for “fool” means someone who keeps doing the same thing again and again, expecting a different result each time. Because fools don’t know how happiness really comes about, they’re always chasing after happiness thinking that it depends on other people or things like food and clothing. A wise individual, in contrast, knows how to move forward instead of in circles, because he or she knows the true source of happiness: the mind.

In one of the most beautiful Buddhist poems, the great Indian teacher Shantideva compares the true nature of our mind to an incredibly large jewel lying in a heap of garbage we walk past every day. This is the jewel of bodhichitta— the compassionate and loving nature of our own being. It is called the wish-fulfilling jewel because it leads to happiness and success. Garbage is a metaphor for our discursive mind, which lacks trust and confidence in the source of true happiness, loving-kindness and compassion.

When we first get a glimpse of the wish-fulfilling jewel, we might not believe that it is with us all along, so we embark on a spiritual journey in search of it. Some people feel that they can find the wish-fulfilling jewel only by going into some kind of deep meditation retreat; others think they can find it by going to India or Tibet. But when they get there—in addition to getting a stomach ache, jetlag, and everything else—they wake up to the fact that they could have just as easily found the jewel back home.

It isn’t necessary to travel to exotic places in order to find our true heart. Wherever we are and whatever we are doing—walking down the street or washing dishes—our precious jewel of a mind is there to be discovered. When we know our own compassion, we can rely on it to accomplish our wishes. We have the wisdom to remember the source of true happiness and live our lives accordingly.

Compassion is the best way to lead life fully, not just in terms of the spiritual, but also the mundane. Yet some of us seem to think that we can’t practice compassion between Monday and Friday, or that acting compassionately just doesn’t accord with reality. Maybe we have thoughts of compassion, but we’re not able to live up to them. So another necessary element is courage.

To have courage is to remember that we can gradually change our mind with quite a simple technique. If we can stop thinking constantly about ourselves, we’ll be free to ask, “What about others? What do they need?”

With courage, we think about what we are willing to give before looking at how much we are going to get.

What we can always give is compassion. I’ve noticed that when I am worried about something, I can flip my attitude by generating a mind of compassion, thinking about others instead of giving in to my own frustration. In doing this, I am offering myself compassion as well. Flipping our thoughts toward people in need relaxes the mind, which allows delight to arise. The mind becomes light, because it is no longer burdened by the concept of “me.” That’s why we have a nimble feeling when we do something nice for someone else, like fixing dinner for a friend. Likewise, if someone does something nice for us, we remember it all day. We recognize the courage of compassion when we see it.

When I think about the lightness that comes from acting with compassion, I often recall my teachers. As they grow older, they become more and more cheerful. If you ask them, “How do you manage to have that level of happiness?” they reply that it comes from turning the mind toward others. The sense of delight is a reflection of the power of compassion. What’s astonishing is that we never quite believe that happiness is so available. We want to think some more about ourselves, and others maybe later.

Turning the mind toward others might sound like a lot of work, but it requires much more effort and energy to think about ourselves. That’s truly high maintenance. When we think only about ourselves, we get serious, uptight, and heavy. Fewer things make us happy, and we become very territorial about the ones that do.

Suffering and pain arise because we separate ourselves from other beings. When we meditate on compassion, we begin to realize that we aren’t separated from others at all: they are having the same experiences that we are, because all beings want happiness and we wish for them to have it. It is a very simple practice, but it is also a transforming practice, because as we continue, the conceptual boundary between “us” and “them” begins to melt. That gives us more energy to think about the needs of others, develop kind thoughts and intentions, and lead our life based on those principles.

The thought of helping others is compassion, knowing how to do it is wisdom, and doing something about it is courage. No matter who we are—practitioners of meditation or not—we all want a level of happiness and contentment. What is the cause of happiness and contentment? A compassionate mind. The mind of compassion is the source of lasting joy.

When I was talking with His Holiness the Dalai Lama about compassion as the basis of a meaningful life, we both wondered why so many people mistakenly think that aggression is the way to make things work out well in a conventional sense. Why do we continuously try to solve our problems with anger, jealousy, and other unfriendly reactions? Everything is interdependent. Because aggression is unstable, it perpetuates instability. It’s a short-range solution that’s difficult to handle and painful for the aggressor and everyone else. When we try to accomplish something with aggression, we literally get in our own way.

Many people assume that living compassionately is a spiritual matter, but living compassionately is actually the most effective way to succeed at anything. Practicing compassion may take more time than engaging in aggression, but the results of compassion are much more stable and lasting. Compassion is a long-range solution that has a positive influence on our society and our economy. It stabilizes our lives and the lives of others. When we have the courage to cultivate wisdom and compassion, the weeds of anger, jealousy, and self-involvement have less room to grow.

Bringing the wish-fulfilling jewel into experience is how we activate the true source of happiness, which uplifts our minds and increases our life-force energy.

by Sakyong Mipham

Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche is the spiritual leader of Shambhala, an international network of Buddhist meditation and retreat centers. He is the author of Turning the Mind into an Ally and Ruling Your World.

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'Born into Brothels', Understanding and Sympathy

Born into brothels is a movie about seven children who have ages ranged from 9 to 15 years and live in brothels at the red light district in Calcutta, India.

Zana Briski, a western woman who first went to India in 1995, and three years later she began living with prostitutes in order to photograph them because as she thought that she could not do it as a visitor, she had have to stay with them, live with them and understand their lives. Living in that community Miss Briski was gradually approaching children and she became captivated by the children she met there and ended up getting personally involved in their lives.

Broadly speaking, the documentary proceeds two main tracks related to Miss Briski. One track is about Miss Briski’s decision to give the children cameras (and instruction on how to use them) so that they can take pictures of the world around them. The other track is about her attempts to place the children in boarding schools so they might eventually escape their inevitable destinies - girls are forced into prostitution at ages as young as fourteen and boys are led into lives of crime.

The film showed scenes of a third-world community in which people live in chaos; they behave meanly and unkindly towards others. According Gour (one of the children in the movie): “Nobody lives as filthily as we do in our city”. That is a community in which there are vulgar women and useless, lay-about men, the area is inhabited by lots of kids, the generally fatherless sprigs of little-educated women who fully expect their daughters to join (or replace) them "onto the line" in their early teens.

Through the movie emphasizes Briski’s endeavours in helping children to get a better life. She was facing many problems from the children’s parents and guardians as well as from dealing with India's monumental bureaucracy which has many chaotic government agencies. With all her efforts, she helped the children to go to boarding schools. But eventually, there were only a few of them still studying, the rest were returned to their old lives.

Discussion

My first impression from watching film “born into brothels” was the poor situation of the children. They are very pitiable. Unfortunately, they were born into families in which their parents are uneducated people and don’t have right livelihood. Thus, they don’t take care of and nurture their children reasonably. The community in which the children were living is benighted and squalid. This is an issue needs to be concerned about. People in that community usually use bad words and speak mean things in their communication. They behave towards others not well, in general. This is a factor more or less influenced children’s personality.

Although the children were born into such disadvantaged setting, their childish characteristics were not lost. They still had plain favorites such as flying kite, painting, etc. And a common among them was that they all wanted to go to school. They want to learn and want to find a better life. This is clearly demonstrated when they were come to Zana’s class, they were very excited and very happy at her class.

Another issue from the film which made me so sympathetic with the children is that they had to work from very young age. They were forced to do works when they are not strong to do them such as washing dishes, carrying water, and so on. In spite of being small children, they had deep thoughts such as they want to photograph in order to picture lives around them, to express their interests as well as their hopes, their thoughts. And especially, they want to have a happy life, no matter poor or rich.

Western woman, Miss Zana Briski, in the movie is really a respectable person. She left her convenient life in a developed country in order to come and live at such uncomfortable community and try to help children and women behind closed doors. She has done in any way she can to help them. She taught the children, brought happiness to them, and helped them to go to school, helped them to get rid of their benighted area. She was not discouraged while facing many problems from the children’s families and from issues related to procedures of application for school, for passport, etc. With all her efforts, she brought six of eight children to boarding schools. Unfortunately, at the end of the movie there were only three of them still studying, the rest came back their old lives.

Besides, this documentary movie brought to us many scenes which present disorder and dusty houses as well as unwholesome activities behind closed doors of the brothels. These things indicated that beside modern places, beside very bright and beautiful houses and luxurious villas, there are many houses in bad conditions in which there are many wretched people living. This is a dark side of Indian society and other developing countries as well. It needs more effort of authority people as well as society to help them out of that pitiable situation.

The movie also refers to personal and collective responsibility in community, particularly responsibility to compelling issues. Each person as well as collective has to be aware of their responsibility to their own activities, social issues and to others. We should not live only for ourselves. We must be aware of one important thing that we can not live without the others, we can not live isolated far from society. One is a cell of entire body of society. Hence, one must care about the community in which one is living. In the movie, the film maker highlighted irresponsibility of collective to issues of the children. Miss Briski tried to bring the children to schools in order that the children can be educated and can change their destiny, but she was facing not few problems from the children’s families and from outside, especially in administrative procedures. There are many inconvenient things in administrative system in Indian society. For a foreign person, this problem is more difficult. For example, they required many unnecessary papers and procedures and took too long time than usual in other countries.

Moreover, this movie presented the transformative power of art. Through art activities Miss. Briski approached children and people in brothels; through art activities she helped them to understand real society, brought them to zoo and sea beach in order to open their eyes, to give them new thoughts and new aspects of reality from which they can be more positive to live, their ambitions and hopes can be emerged and have more possibility to become real. And also from art she helped the children to express their abilities, their thoughts as well as their viewpoints to their surroundings. From this we can recognize that art have special potential in communication as well as in rehabilitation, especially to psychological issues.

One more things, according to me, the movie highlighted is the discrimination and right of education in Red light district in particular and in Indian society in general. Discrimination on gender, class and race are big and long historical issues in Indian society. Until modern time these issues are still existing in this nation. These issues result in many unfair problems such as large number of uneducated people and too many poor people in society. Although Indian people have carried out many solutions, these problems have not changed much. To solve these problems, one of effective and primary solutions is originated from education. We can utilize education as a means to change inherent thoughts of discriminations. Through education, educated people can have more opportunities to change their destiny, to have good lives as well.

Last but not least, I want to mention about the prostitutes. Do they all have bad personality? Are they blamable people and should we keep far away from them, behave unkindly towards them? As what the film displayed, most of the sex-workers are forced to become a prostitute. They were become sex-workers by force from their family, from their guardians. Some of them became sex-workers because in that situation they don’t have any opportunities to choose other works for their livelihood. There are only few people became prostitutes by their own desires. If girl children in those brothels grow up without education they would be forced to become sex-workers, even they are force to do so at very young ages. For instance, there is a woman’s statement with a small girl in the movie that: “she will be onto the line soon”. They hence are more pitiable than blamable. We should sympathize with them and help them out of their unacceptable works. In fact many of them wanted to get out of their bad situations, but external society did not give them any opportunities to do so. This was illustrated clearly in one statement of a principal of a school when Miss Briski came and discussed with her on education for the children in the film that: “No one will take them”. What a merciless statement it is! Perhaps this is not her personal thinking; it is a common thought in Indian society. That is why those brothels existing and developing in this nation. It is the time for Indian authorities and international organizations carry out strong solutions for these issues to help unfortunate people out of their bad situations.

Conclusion

This film has given a crucial lesson for researcher in research methods, particularly in qualitative research, that researcher have to be involved the situation in which their topic is relevant to. This is a valuable lesson from Miss Zana experience, she stated that: “I knew I couldn’t do it as a visitor. I wanted to live with them, stay with them and understand their lives”. Thus, qualitative researchers want to study any issue they have to understand the settings of the issue, understand situation from which issue emerged and think of them with both subjective and objective aspects, not only subjective. In other words, qualitative researchers want to study an issue, they have to be involved in the situation of the issue, without this they can not have a correct analysis of their collected data and can not have right interpretations.

Art has special power in transformation and rehabilitation of psychological issues so that as psychologists we need to learn how to utilize possibility of art in our works in order to improve productiveness in therapy programs as well as in social works.

The film appealed to our responsibility for our society. There are many compelling issues existing in our community, around us, which need our concern, we can not live irresponsibly. Especially, educator and authorities need to take care of these. Education is a productive means to help unfortunate people get out of their poor situations, so that right of education needs to be given to everyone in society.

Finally, we should sympathize with unfortunate people, particularly prostitutes in this movie, and should not blame them, should not view them as depraved people and keep away from them. They are also victims of unjustified society, victims of discriminations. And they are suffering so much in their life. We should not put more burdens on their shoulders. Likewise, we should open our mind to accept sex-workers’ children into schools so that they can be educated and whereby they can get out of their bad conditions.

This movie is Available Here

- Minh Nguyen -

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