The Buddha Speaks the Ultimate Extinction of the Dharma Sutra

Thus I have heard. At one time the Buddha was in the state of Kushinagara. The Tathagata was to enter nirvana within three months and the bhikshus and Bodhisattvas as well as the great multitude of beings had come to pay homage to the Buddha and to bow in reverence. The World Honored One was tranquil and silent. He spoke not a word and his light did not appear. Worthy Ananda bowed and asked the Buddha,
”0 Bhagavan, heretofore whenever you spoke the Dharma, awesome light would naturally appear. Yet today among this great assembly there is no such radiance. There must be a good cause for this and we wish to hear the Bhagavan’s explanation.”
The Buddha remained silent and did not answer until the request had been repeated three times. He then told Ananda,
”After I enter nirvana, when the Dharma is about to perish, during the evil age of the five turbidities, the way of demons will flourish. Demonic beings will become shramanas; they will pervert and destroy my teachings. Monastics will wear the garb of laypersons and will prefer handsome clothes. Their precept sashes will be made of multi-colored cloth. They will use intoxicants, eat meat, kill other beings and they will indulge in their desire for flavorful food. They will lack compassion and they will bear hatred and exhibit jealousy even among themselves.
”Even then Bodhisattvas, Pratyekabuddhas, and Arhats will reverently and diligently cultivate immaculate virtue. They will be respected by all people and their teachings will be fair and egalitarian. These cultivators of the Way will take pity on the poor, they will be mindful of the aged, and they will save and give counsel to those people they find in difficult circumstances. They will at all times exhort others to worship and to protect sutras and images of the Buddha. They will do meritorious deeds, be resolute and kind, and never harm others. They will make physical sacrifices for others’ benefit. They will hold no great regard for themselves but will be patient, yielding, humane, and peaceful.
”As long as such people exist, the hordes of demonic bhikshus will be jealous of them. The demons will harass them, slander and defame them, expel them from their midst and degrade them. They will ostracize the good monks from the monastic community. Thereafter these demons derive no virtue from their practice. Their monastic buildings will be vacant and overgrown with weeds. For want of care and maintenance their Way-places will drift into ruin and oblivion. The demonic bhikshus will increase their greed for wealth and will amass great heaps of goods. They will refuse to distribute any of it or to use it to gain blessings and virtue.
”At this time, the evil monks will buy and sell slaves to till their fields and to slash and burn the mountain forests. They will do harm to living creatures and they will feel not the least bit of compassion. These slaves will themselves become bhikshus and maidservants will become bhikshunis. Totally lacking in Way-virtue, these people will run amok, indulging in licentious behavior. In their turbid confusion they will fail to separate the men from the women in the monastic communities. From this generation on, the Way will be weakened. Fugitives from the law will seek refuge in my Way, wishing to be shramanas but failing to observe the moral regulations. Monastics will continue to recite the precepts twice a month, but in name alone. Being lazy and lax, no one will want to listen any longer. These evil shramanas will be unwilling to recite the sutras in their entirety and they will make abbreviations at the beginning and at the end of the texts as they please. Soon the practice of reciting sutras will stop altogether. Even if there are people who recite texts, they will be unlettered, unqualified people who will insist, nonetheless, that they are correct. Bumptious, arrogant, and vain, these people will seek fame and glory. They will put on airs in the hope of attracting offerings from other people.
”When the lives of these demonic bhikshus come to an end their essential spirits will fall into the Avichi Hell. Having committed the five evil deeds, they will suffer successive rebirths as hungry ghosts and as animals. They will know all such states of woe as they pass on through eons as numerous as sands on the banks of the Ganges River. When their offenses are accounted for they will be reborn in a border land where the Triple Jewel is unknown.
”When the Dharma is about to disappear, women will become vigorous and will at all times do deeds of virtue. Men will grow lax and will no longer speak the Dharma. Those who are genuine shramanas will be looked upon as dung and no one will have faith in them. When the Dharma is about to perish, all the gods will begin to weep. Rivers will dry up and the five grains will not ripen.
Pestilences will frequently take millions of lives. The masses will toil and suffer while the local officials will plot and scheme. No one will adhere to principles. Instead, the human race will multiply, becoming like the sands of the ocean-bed. Good persons will be hard to find; at most there will be one or two. As the eon comes to a close, the revolutions of the sun and the moon will grow short and the lifespan of people will decrease. Their hair will turn white by the time they are forty. Because of excessive licentious behavior they will quickly exhaust their seminal fluids and will die at a young age, usually before sixty years. As the lifespan of males decreases, that of females will increase to seventy, eighty, ninety, or one hundred years.
“The mighty rivers will flood and lose harmony with their natural cycles, yet people will not take notice or feel concern. Extremes of climate will soon be taken for granted. Beings of all races will mix together at random, without regard for the noble and the mean. Their births and rebirths will cause them to sink and float, like feeding aquatic creatures.
”Even then Bodhisattvas, Pratyekabuddhas, and Arhats will gather together in an unprecedented assembly because they will all have been harried and pursued by the hordes of demons. They will no longer dwell in the assemblies but the Three Vehicles will retreat to the wilderness. In a tranquil place they will find shelter, happiness, and long life. Gods will protect them and the moon will shine down upon them. The Three Vehicles will have an opportunity to meet together and the Way will flourish. However, within fifty-two years the Shurangama Sutra and the Pratyutpanna [Standing Buddha] Samadhi, will be the first to change and then to disappear. The twelve divisions of the canon will gradually follow until they vanish completely, never to appear again. Its words and texts will be totally unknown ever after. The precept sashes of shramanas will turn white of themselves. When my Dharma disappears it will be just like an oil lamp that flares brightly for an instant just before it goes out. So too, will the Dharma flare and die. After this time it is difficult to speak with certainty of what will follow.
”A period of ten million years will follow before the time when Maitreya is about to appear in the world to become the next Buddha. At that time the planet will be entirely peaceful. Evil vapors will have dissipated, rain will be ample and regular, and crops will grow abundantly. Trees will grow to a great height and people will grow to be eighty feet tall. The average lifespan will extend to 84,000 years. It will be impossible to count all the beings who will be taken across to liberation.”
Worthy Ananda addressed the Buddha, “What should we call this Sutra and how shall we uphold it?”
The Buddha said, “Ananda, this sutra is called The Ultimate Extinction of the Dharma. Tell everyone to propagate it widely; the merit of your actions will be measureless, beyond reckoning.”
When the four-fold assembly of disciples heard this sutra they grieved and wept. Each of them resolved to attain the true path of the Supreme Sage. Then bowing to the Buddha, they withdrew.
End of The Buddha Speaks the Ultimate Extinction of the Dharma Sutra.
From the Seng You Records, translator anonymous.
Appended to the Song Annals.

Words of Truth

A Prayer Composed by:
His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso The Fourteenth Dalai Lama of Tibet


Honoring and Invoking the Great Compassion
of the Three Jewels; the Buddha, the Teachings,
and the Spiritual Community


O Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and disciples
of the past, present, and future:
Having remarkable qualities
Immeasurably vast as the ocean,
Who regard all helpless sentient beings
as your only child;
Please consider the truth of my anguished pleas.


Buddha's full teachings dispel the pain of worldly
existence and self-oriented peace;
May they flourish, spreading prosperity and happiness through-
out this spacious world.
O holders of the Dharma: scholars
and realized practitioners;
May your ten fold virtuous practice prevail.


Humble sentient beings, tormented
by sufferings without cease,
Completely suppressed by seemingly endless
and terribly intense, negative deeds,
May all their fears from unbearable war, famine,
and disease be pacified,
To freely breathe an ocean of happiness and well-being.
And particularly the pious people
of the Land of Snows who, through various means,
Are mercilessly destroyed by barbaric hordes
on the side of darkness,
Kindly let the power of your compassion arise,
To quickly stem the flow of blood and tears.


Those unrelentingly cruel ones, objects of compassion,
Maddened by delusion's evils,
wantonly destroy themselves and others;
May they achieve the eye of wisdom,
knowing what must be done and undone,
And abide in the glory of friendship and love.


May this heartfelt wish of total freedom for all Tibet,
Which has been awaited for a long time,
be spontaneously fulfilled;
Please grant soon the good fortune to enjoy
The happy celebration of spiritual with temporal rule.


O protector Chenrezig, compassionately care for
Those who have undergone myriad hardships,
Completely sacrificing their most cherished lives,
bodies, and wealth,
For the sake of the teachings, practitioners,
people, and nation.


Thus, the protector Chenrezig made vast prayers
Before the Buddhas and Bodhisativas
To fully embrace the Land of Snows;
May the good results of these prayers now quickly appear.
By the profound interdependence of emptiness
and relative forms,
Together with the force of great compassion
in the Three Jewels and their Words of Truth,
And through the power
of the infallible law of actions and their fruits,
May this truthful prayer be unhindered
and quickly fulfilled.

This prayer, Words of Truth, was composed by His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama of Tibet, on 29 September 1960 at his temporary headquarters in the Swarg Ashram at Dharamsala, Kangra District, Himachal State, India. This prayer for restoring peace, the Buddhist teachings, and the culture and self-determina-tion of the Tibetan people in their homeland was written after repeated requests by Tibetan government officials along with the unanimous consensus of the monastic and lay communities.

Quote for Today

"Although i speak from my own experience, i feel that no one has the right to impose his or her beliefs on another person." - His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Dharma Talk

As the new gompa at Kechara opens, Rinpoche gives a very good talk.


Click here to listen

Short Quotes Of Wisdom

Non-Buddhist Quotes on Wisdom from Buddha Forum

by Dharmakara on Fri Nov 26, 2010 9:28 pm

Below is a collection of wisdom quotes on par with what one finds in the Dhammapada. Coventional truths? Ultimate truths? Or maybe just universal ones? I'll let you decide.

Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise. 
-- Cato the Elder 

Silence is foolish if we are wise, but wise if we are foolish. 
-- Charles Caleb Colton 

The mistakes of the fool are known to the world, but not to himself. The mistakes of the wise man are known to himself, but not to the world. 
-- Charles Caleb Colton 

A fool despises good counsel, but a wise man takes it to heart. 
-- Confucius 

Who are a little wise the best fools be. 
-- John Donne 

It takes a wise man to handle a lie, a fool had better remain honest. 
-- Norman Douglas 

Love works a different way in different minds, the fool it enlightens and the wise it blinds. 
-- John Dryden 

It is the nature of the wise to resist pleasures, but the foolish to be a slave to them. 
-- Epictetus 

The heart of a fool is in his mouth, but the mouth of a wise man is in his heart. 
-- Benjamin Franklin 

Wise men don't need advice. Fools won't take it. 
-- Benjamin Franklin 

The fool wanders, a wise man travels. 
-- Thomas Fuller 

Sometimes one likes foolish people for their folly, better than wise people for their wisdom. 
-- Elizabeth Gaskell 

A wise man gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends. 
-- Balthasar Gracian 

Controversy equalizes fools and wise men -- and the fools know it. 
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. 

Even a fool may be wise after the event. 
-- Homer 

Logical consequences are the scarecrows of fools and the beacons of wise men. 
-- Thomas Huxley 

Education is a crutch with which the foolish attack the wise to prove that they are not idiots. 
-- Karl Kraus 

One fool can ask more questions in a minute than twelve wise men can answer in an hour. 
-- Nikolai Lenin 

Wise people are foolish if they cannot adapt to foolish people. 
-- Michel Eyquem de Montaigne 

The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet. 
-- J. Robert Oppenheimer 

Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools talk because they have to say something. 
-- Plato 

Learning makes the wise wiser and the fool more foolish. 
-- John Ray 

The fool thinks himself to be wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool. 
-- William Shakespeare 

A wise man can see more from the bottom of a well than a fool can from a mountain top. 
-- Unknown 

Only a fool knows everything. A wise man knows how little he knows. 
-- Unknown 

Fools give you reasons, wise men never try. 
-- Oscar Hammerstein II 

A fool flatters himself, a wise man flatters the fool. 
-- Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton 

A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees. 
-- William Blake 

Wise men learn by other men's mistakes, fools by their own. 
-- H. G. Bohn 

A wise person does at once, what a fool does at last. Both do the same thing; only at different times. 
-- John Dalberg Acton

A Plethora of Teachings

This site has what seems like an endless sources of teachings.  Enjoy!

Teachings

Shiny Tara

I like to play with images, and sometimes I like to share them if they seem decent.

Amulets

This is a nice source for amulets. You can print them out and wear them.

Click here for amulets

Green Tara Mantra

Frozen

If the heat of devotion and compassion melts the frozen mind, one will realize there is no difference between oneself and Buddha. Therefore, the single most important source of blessing is devotion. It's like a hundred rivers going under one bridge. 

-Garchen Rinpoche

The Difference between Sutrayana & Vajrayana

by Buddhist Center Miami Florida

Wednesday, November 24, 2010 at 10:10am

Via Facebook

The Sutrayana (the path of study and learning), which includes both the Hinayana and common Mahayana vehicles, is also known as the path of inference. What does this mean? In the Sutrayana we establish the true nature of all phenomena through inferential arguments. For example, the reasoning of "neither one nor many" goes as follows: no matter what we observe, there is nothing that cannot be broken down into parts, therefore no matter what we observe, there are no single wholes. Now, since there are no single things anywhere, there cannot be many things either since "many" is necessarily a collection of "single" items. Ergo, no matter what we observe, it is neither a single thing nor is it a collection of many things. It's nature is simply beyond words and concepts. In this way, we have just inferred the true nature of things via reasoning and argument. However, this is just a mere intellectual understanding. Just because we can infer the true nature of things in this way does not necessarily mean we haveexperienced that true nature. Thus, the Sutrayana is considered a slower path because it is only after 3 incalculable eons of lives spent on this path that our understanding eventually becomes experiential.  

The Vajrayana, however, is the path of direct experience. What does this mean? Unlike the Sutrayana path which takes 3 incalculable eons of familiarizing ourselves with inferential arguments, in the Vajrayana the guru points out the true nature directly and nakedly. Once one has found a true guru who holds the blessings of the lineage, and once one has developed devotion, the guru gives a special empowerment called "the pointing out instructions." If the conditions are right, through the guru's blessings, the fortunate student will experience a glimpse of his or her own true nature of mind. The student then takes this initial glimpse as the basis for the path. Slowly but surely, through becoming familiar with that experience again and again by meditating on the guru's pointing out instructions, the student attains a stability that eventually blossoms into full blown Buddhahood. This path is much more direct and faster because in this way, enlightenment can be attained in a single lifetime. This is the unique specialty of our tradition.

Re-posted From Ascent magazine:

hatha yoga and the practice of tonglen

moving the heart and mind:
by kimberly beyer-nelson

How do we work our minds when we have met our match? Rather than indulge or reject our experience, we can somehow let the energy of the emotion, the quality of what we’re feeling pierce us to the heart. This is easier said than done, but it is a noble way to live. It’s definitely the path of compassion—the path of cultivating human bravery and kindheartedness. —When Things Fall Apart, Pema Chodron

Breathe into the tension, the places where you are holding, and wait for the opening to come.” As a student, I can still remember these words and the early struggles of correctly breathing with an asana, impatient for the openings to come, forcing my breath and concentration to work together. As my early practice deepened, I began to understand that the instructions pointed to a dynamic method of inquiry into the reality of the body, mind and emotions. Hatha Yoga teachers and literature talked about using breathing and attention to clarify the experience of a posture hovering in the grey area between a good gentle stretch and discomfort.
Later, as a teacher, I exhorted my students to tune into the breath to deepen their understanding of a given asana. Yet there always seemed to be something missing to the bare technique I had learned and was passing on to my students. Maybe it was a simple lack of direction about how to effectively visualize the mind-breath-body interaction, or perhaps I was unconsciously searching for a way to move the practice off the mat and into the real world. In any case, one warm summer morning, I stumbled onto a wonderful method to expand my experience ofHatha Yoga. In my meditation practice, I had been working with a Tibetan maitri (lovingkindness) technique calledTonglen for about three years. On that summer day I noticed that quite unconsciously I had begun to use the breathwork of this meditation practice while working with uttanasana (the forward bend).

Tonglen practice yokes the openhearted experience of the present moment through the in-breath with a sending out of space, acceptance and lightness through the out-breath. A startling reversal of meditation practices that breathe in positive qualities and breathe out negative feelings or energy, Tonglen instead asks the practitioner to mentally and emotionally move into the pain, be it emotional or, in the case of a Hatha Yoga practice, physical. The out-breath then carries the messages of healing, openness and compassion into the discomfort. Thus, the practitioner both experiences tension or discomfort deeply, then actively seeks to touch that spot with an outbreath filled with the healing energy of the heart.

While in uttanasana, I breathed in the sensations of tension and holding, moving my heart and mind deeply into my body. On the exhale, I softly sent out light, comfort and ease into the stiffness. With my inhalation, I also touched the painful thoughts and emotions that surrounded the forward bend—hints of frustration, impatience and internal critics. With every exhalation, I directed gentleness, openness and compassion to my tight body and busy mind. That day, for the very first time, I moved easily, gently, compassionately into uttanasana. The posture was not textbook perfect in form, but my personal experience of the asana was transformed. I felt a glow of compassion for those places where my body is loath to open. A lighthearted playfulness surfaced within me as I continued my practice that day.

Shortly thereafter, I began to teach the technique to my students, many of whom were older women just beginning to mindfully acknowledge the presence and character of their own bodies. For these students, it is so easy to become frustrated with themselves, and denigrate the lovely efforts they make during their practice. Introducing Tonglen meditation has given my students the permission to love their tight spots, to embrace their imperfections with smiles and acceptance.

Today, at the gas station, the attendant was having a rough day. He’d spilled his cola, and while trying to mop it up with one hand, seized my proffered credit card with a glare. On most days I would have been emotionally stymied between pity for his situation and internal anger for being labeled non-verbally as part of his problem. But today, I took a deep breath, touching the situation with an open heart and a non-reactive mind, and breathed out feelings of compassion. I didn’t say a word; just softened and opened to his pain and mine. He turned, handed back card and credit slip, and his face seemed a little less hard. Lesson for the day? Compassion is not pity, and it is not some way to sugarcoat painful situations. It means moving into the pain, seeing with all of our being the reality of what one finds there, and then transforming it, in at least the confines of our own minds and hearts.

This, to me, is the very essence of Hatha Yoga: out of an awareness of limits, tension and form come openness, energetic transformation and space. OM

The Significance of the Lotus in Buddhism

The lotus (Sanskrit and Tibetan padma) is one of the Eight Auspicious Symbols and one of the most poignant representations of Buddhist teaching.

The roots of a lotus are in the mud, the stem grows up through the water, and the heavily scented flower lies pristinely above the water, basking in the sunlight. This pattern of growth signifies the progress of the soul from the primeval mud of materialism, through the waters of experience, and into the bright sunshine of enlightenment.

Though there are other water plants that bloom above the water, it is only the lotus which, owing to the strength of its stem, regularly rises eight to twelve inches above the surface.

According to the Lalitavistara, "the spirit of the best of men is spotless, like the lotus in the muddy water which does not adhere to it."

According to another scholar, "in esoteric Buddhism, the heart of the beings is like an unopened lotus: when the virtues of the Buddha develop therein, the lotus blossoms; that is why the Buddha sits on a lotus bloom."

The lotus is one of Buddhism's best recognized motifs and appears in all kinds of Buddhist art across all Buddhist cultures. Scrolling lotuses often embellish Buddhist textiles, ceramics and architecture.

Every important Buddhist deity is associated in some manner with the lotus, either being seated upon a lotus in full bloom or holding one in their hands. In some images of standing Buddhas, each foot rests on a separate lotus.

The lotus does not grow in Tibet and so Tibetan art has only stylized versions of it, yet it appears frequently with Tibetan deities and among the Eight Auspicious Symbols.

The color of the lotus has an important bearing on the symbology associated with it:

• White Lotus (Skt. pundarika; Tib. pad ma dkar po): This represents the state of spiritual perfection and total mental purity (bodhi). It is associated with the White Tara and proclaims her perfect nature, a quality which is reinforced by the color of her body.
• Pink Lotus (Skt. padma; Tib. pad ma dmar po): This the supreme lotus, generally reserved for the highest deity. Thus naturally it is associated with the Great Buddha himself.
• Red Lotus (Skt. kamala; Tib: pad ma chu skyes): This signifies the original nature and purity of the heart (hrdya). It is the lotus of love, compassion, passion and all other qualities of the heart. It is the flower of Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion.
• Blue Lotus (Skt. utpala; Tib. ut pa la): This is a symbol of the victory of the spirit over the senses, and signifies the wisdom of knowledge. Not surprisingly, it is the preferred flower of Manjushri, the bodhisattva of wisdom.

Buddha Sitting on Lotus

Source:  Based on an article by Nitin Kumar for Exotic India Arts. Reprinted by permission.  http://www.religionfacts.com/buddhism/symbols/lotus.htm

Positive Well-Being to Higher Telomerase: Psychological Changes from Meditation Training Linked to Cellular Health

ScienceDaily, Nov. 4, 2010

San Francisco, CA (USA) -- Positive psychological changes that occur during meditation training are associated with greater telomerase activity, according to researchers at the University of California, Davis, and the University of California, San Francisco. The study is the first to link positive well-being to higher telomerase, an enzyme important for the long-term health of cells in the body.

The effect appears to be attributable to psychological changes that increase a person's ability to cope with stress and maintain feelings of well-being.

"We have found that meditation promotes positive psychological changes, and that meditators showing the greatest improvement on various psychological measures had the highest levels of telomerase," said Clifford Saron, associate research scientist at the UC Davis Center for Mind and Brain.

"The take-home message from this work is not that meditation directly increases telomerase activity and therefore a person's health and longevity," Saron said. "Rather, meditation may improve a person's psychological well-being and in turn these changes are related to telomerase activity in immune cells, which has the potential to promote longevity in those cells. Activities that increase a person's sense of well-being may have a profound effect on the most fundamental aspects of their physiology."

The study, with UC Davis postdoctoral scholar Tonya Jacobs as lead author, was published online Oct. 29 in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology and will soon appear in print. It is a product of the UC Davis-based Shamatha Project, led by Saron, one of the first long-term, detailed, matched control-group studies of the effects of intensive meditation training on mind and body.

"This work is among the first to show a relation between positive psychological change and telomerase activity. Because the finding is new, it should serve to inspire future studies to replicate and extend what we found," Jacobs said.

Elizabeth Blackburn, professor of biology and physiology at UCSF, is a co-author of the paper. Blackburn shared the 2009 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine for discovering telomeres and telomerase. Other co-authors include UCSF colleagues Elissa Epel, associate professor of psychiatry; assistant research biochemist Jue Lin; and Owen Wolkowitz, professor of psychiatry.

Telomeres are sequences of DNA at the end of chromosomes that tend to get shorter every time a cell divides. When telomeres drop below a critical length, the cell can no longer divide properly and eventually dies.

Telomerase is an enzyme that can rebuild and lengthen telomeres. Other studies suggest that telomerase activity may be a link between psychological stress and physical health.

The research team measured telomerase activity in participants in the Shamatha Project at the end of a three-month intensive meditation retreat.

Telomerase activity was about one-third higher in the white blood cells of participants who had completed the retreat than in a matched group of controls.

The retreat participants also showed increases in such beneficial psychological qualities as perceived control (over one's life and surroundings), mindfulness (being able to observe one's experience in a nonreactive manner) and purpose in life (viewing one's life as meaningful, worthwhile and aligned with long-term goals and values). In addition, they experienced decreased neuroticism, or negative emotionality.

Using statistical modeling techniques, the researchers concluded that high telomerase activity was due to the beneficial effects of meditation on perceived control and neuroticism, which in turn were due to changes in mindfulness and sense of purpose.

The Shamatha Project is the most comprehensive longitudinal study of intensive meditation yet undertaken.

The intensive meditation retreat took place at the Shambhala Mountain Center in Red Feather Lakes, Colo. The study included 30 participants each in the retreat and control groups. Participants received ongoing instruction in meditation techniques from Buddhist scholar, author and teacher B. Alan Wallace of the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies. They attended group meditation sessions twice a day and engaged in individual practice for about six hours a day.

A control group of 30 people matched for age, sex, education, ethnicity and meditation experience was assessed at the same time and in the same place, but did not otherwise attend meditation training at that time.

The Shamatha Project has drawn the attention of scientists and Buddhist scholars alike, including the Dalai Lama, who has endorsed the project.

Saron and his colleagues are now analyzing and publishing other findings from the project. In a paper published this summer in Psychological Science, Katherine MacLean, a recent UC Davis Ph.D. graduate now at Johns Hopkins University, reported that meditators were better at making fine visual distinctions and sustaining attention over a long period.

The group's next research article, currently in press in the journal Emotion, will describe a meditation-related reduction in impulsive reactions, which was linked in turn to enhancement in positive psychological functioning. UC Davis postdoctoral researcher Baljinder Sahdra is the lead author on that paper.

Additional co-authors on the current paper are: UC Davis graduate students Stephen Aichele, Anthony Zanesco and Brandon King; Sahdra, Associate Professor Emilio Ferrer and Distinguished Professor Phillip Shaver from the UC Davis Department of Psychology; consulting scientist Erika Rosenberg from the UC Davis Center for Mind and Brain; and from UC Irvine, graduate student David Bridwell of the Department of Cognitive Science.

Major support for the Shamatha Project comes from the Fetzer Institute and the Hershey Family Foundation. Additional support comes from numerous private foundations including the Baumann Foundation; the Tan Teo Charitable Foundation; the Yoga Research and Education Foundation; and individual donors. Individual researchers also received fellowship and other support from the National Science Foundation; the Social Sciences, Humanities Research Council of Canada; and the Barney and Barbro Fund.

----------Science Daily Editor's Note: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by University of California - Davis.

http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=7,9692,0,0,1,0

Dalai Lama 'to retire' from government-in-exile role

by Adam Plowright – Tue Nov 23, 2010

NEW DELHI (AFP) – The Dalai Lama intends to retire as head of the Tibetan government in exile next year as he looks to reduce his ceremonial role and scale back his workload, his spokesman told AFP Tuesday.

The Tibetan movement in exile, based in the northern Indian hill station of Dharamshala since 1960, directly elected a political leader in 2001 for the first time.

"Since then, His Holiness has always said he has been in a semi-retired state," spokesman Tenzin Taklha said.

"In recent months, His Holiness has been considering approaching the Tibetan parliament in exile to discuss his eventual retirement."

Taklha stressed that his "retirement" would be from his ceremonial responsibilities as head of the government, such as signing resolutions, not his role as spiritual leader and figurehead for Tibetans.

"This does not mean that he will withdraw from leading the political struggle. He is the Dalai Lama, so he will always lead the Tibetan people," he said.

The 75-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner is the global face for the Tibetan struggle against Chinese rule in Tibet, as well as a leading promoter of human rights, dialogue between religions and Buddhist values.

In the past few months he has kept up his frenetic travel schedule, visiting Canada, the United States, Poland and Japan, among other countries.

Taklha said the Dalai Lama would raise the subject of his retirement at the next session of parliament in March and would then look to step back from his responsibilities in the following six months.

"It would depend on talking to the parliament and hearing their views on this. Nothing is for sure, but these are things that are being considered by him," he said.

The speaker of the parliament, Penpa Tsering, told AFP that "every Tibetan would like him to continue as long as his physical condition allows him to." "It is definitely going to be a political change. It is a big, big issue for us. I think we have to wait to look at how and the nature of his presentation (to parliament)," he added.

He stressed that it was important that, whatever the outcome of the discussions, the Dalai Lama should remain as the leading voice in talks between the government in exile and China.

"He has repeatedly mentioned that he will continue to take responsibility for dealing with the Chinese government and he should continue because that is the biggest issue that concerns us all," he said.

There are concerns inside and outside Tibet that his eventual death will deal a blow to the coherence of the Tibetan movement, which seeks independence or autonomy for the Buddhist region from Chinese rule.

The community in exile is braced for a huge struggle with Beijing about the future holder of the Dalai Lama role. China has already stated it intends to have the final say on any reincarnation.

As the highest ranking lama in Tibetan Buddhism, he is seen as the spiritual leader of the region after being chosen aged two as the reincarnation of the original Dalai Lama, who was born in 1391.

The current Dalai Lama, born Tenzin Gyatso, has suggested there are several ways of resolving the succession problem in addition to the traditional way in which a search party is sent out to find the reincarnation.

The successor could simply be named by senior religious figures in the way Catholics chose the Pope, or the office could be abolished all together, with another figure assuming responsibilities as spiritual leader.

The 26-year-old Karmapa, a young monk who like the Dalai Lama fled across the Himalayas from Tibet to seek sanctuary in India, has the highest profile among a cast of young lamas who could fill the void.

The Karmapa is formally recognised not only by the Dalai Lama but also by China which, prior to his escape, had been politically grooming him as the highest reincarnate lama under its control.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101123/ts_afp/indiachinatibetpolitics