Gautama Buddha

Mindfulness foster compassion Quoting Buddha “Our sorrows and wounds are healed only when we touch them with compassion.” Mindfulness is different, it focuses on awareness, it fosters compassion towards our own self. Well, one may ask what does compassion has to do with physiological issue? Well, let me explain. Let’s say there are two kind of people. First, the ones who often keep doubting himself, being hard on whatever he does, potentially doubting every action and emotions. Where else, there…

It is quite possible that this rush to be with the writer is the outcome of his fame as an author which was not available to him earlier when he was just a teacher and used to undertake this journey on foot with few of his students. Foreign travellers have remarked that there is no d ivorce between religion and daily life in India and it is quite easy to see the divine in everything. Mythology’s hold on popular imagination in India too is very st rong because it is a way of teaching illiterate…

Arthur C. Clarke couldn’t have chosen a better title for this brilliant science fiction short story. I’m a sucker for a story with a good title. “The Nine Billion Names of God" revolves around Tibetan Buddhist monks who plan to put together a list that consists of all the names of God. The story opens with Dr. Wagner-- he is asked to work on an automatic sequence computer (Mark V.) that can carry out letters by the lama. They need a computer with letters, so they can write the names of God.…

Why do we worship 'Peepal Tree'? ‘Peepal tree’ which means Banyan tree, is considered to be one of the sacred trees that are being worshiped widely in India. It is also known as the ‘Bodhi tree’ or ‘Ashwattha tree’. It is usually huge in size. It comprises of a light grey bark that is smooth and peels in patches. Its heart-shaped leaves have long, tapering tips that makes it stands out from the rest of the leaves of the trees. The fruit is purple when ripe. In the Hindu religion, Peepal tree…

1 ANURAN DASGUPTA Filtering the Gaze – The Jala Motif in the decorations of Apsara Bracket Figures in the Cennakesava temple of Belur After the decline of the late Chalukyans, the northern region of their territory (present southern Karnataka) saw the rise of a dynasty named Hoysala. At their peak their kingdom spread from the Tungabhadra River in the north (Chalukyan territory) to the Kaveri river in the south (Chola territory). Originated in the hilly regions of western boundary of the Hassan…

for the Tibetans and, he has religious status of the very high kind because religion and politics were in integrated in traditional Tibetan society which made him the head of the Tibetan state. Moreover Tibetan believe that Dalai lama is living Buddha and he brings…

CHAPTER FOUR Raja Yoga R aja Yoga or Royal Yoga, is based on the history and philosophy of true yoga. That is, the yoga which rests on the thousands of years of Veda Knowledge, the Upanisads, and the Patanjali Sutras. Raja Yoga refers to training the mind so that we can experience direct contact with the inner self. Ashtanga Yoga is derived from the Patanjali system called Raja Yoga. Having studied some yoga history, the principles of Hatha, Ashtanga and Iyengar, I started thinking about how…

Siddhartha and his father, but Siddhartha rejects it leaving his father to follow the Samanas. Love in this juvenile stage limits Siddhartha’s capability to understand divine wisdom and he abandons it. Siddhartha finds love in the form of compassion in Buddha but he rejects this love again because he realizes it as a part of teachings only that do not guide him to enlightenment. He learns the physical aspects of love through the proximity with Kamala; he understands the weight of love itself too…

“It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell.” (Buddha). A serious life choice I had to make was whether to continue living or not. I have suffered with depression almost my entire life. At age eight, was when I first started experiencing symptoms of depression. All through elementary to tenth grade I was bullied, it caused my depression to worsen. At age fifteen, I began to…

“Zen Confidential” is the final reading for this course. It follows the author, Shozan Jack Haubner on his journey from being raised in a conservative Catholic family to becoming a Zen monk. Buddhism differs from Christianity and Islam in that instead of praying to a God, Buddhists reach enlightenment by participating in meditation. They center themselves and work from within. Buddhist monks have a common goal to reach enlightenment and to come to terms with the world. Haubner states that in…