OOOPS!

From New Straits Times

A Buddhist monk who opened the emergency exit of an airplane just before take off because he wanted some fresh air forced the plane to delay its flight for almost seven hours at Kolkata airport yesterday morning.

As result of his action, the airport authorities evacuated all the passengers onboard and grounded the plane for nearly seven hours until all the safety drills were completed.

The Hindu newspaper reported that the bizarre incident happened on Air India’s flight IC-727 that was heading to Yangon with 135 passengers on board.

The monk from Myanmar, a 45-year-old Waza Thunga, believed to be a second time flier, was feeling claustrophobic inside the plane, which was still on the runway, and decided to open the emergency exit next to his seat after browsing the plane’s safety manual.

“As soon as he pulled the safety clutch, the emergency window opened and the emergency bells rang.

“The occurrence of such a situation is rare but what can you do to prevent such a thing. How can we control it if a passenger sets off an alarm by mistake,” the airline’s spokesman Pulok Mukherjee told the newspaper.

It is not known whether the airline took any action against the monk, who spoke very little English.

Received an e-mail from Tendor at Students For A Free Tibet and they have a position they are trying to fill. If you are interested, and have the experience, they are looking for a development coordinator in NYC. CLICK HERE to see the full job listing

“Complete Idiot’s Guide To Buddhism, Third Edition”
by Gary Gach
Published by Alpha

I’ve searched around a bit in my years of following the Buddhist path for a book that explains a little about alot. Meaning, The Complete Idiot’s Guide To Buddhism is a vast wealth of knowledge, from Zen to Tibetan Buddhism, Pureland to Nichiren there’s something for everyone.

While it may not be the most literary book written, it’s written in a way any of us “idiot’s” can understand. This being the third edition of “Complete Idiot’s Guide To Buddhism”, it obviously has had some revisions. Not only did it have a different author, but Gary Gach revisited and edited nearly a third of the book updating quite a bit of it.

I really appreciate the way Gary has laid everything out. The first half of the book breaks down the various traditions, the story of the historical Buddha and his teachings such as the 4 noble truths and the eightfold path. The second half of the book is more of a meditation manual, but breaks down various techniques that even beginners such as myself can comprehend and put into action.

As Buddhism continues to gain popularity in the West something as simple as the Complete Idiot’s Guide To Buddhism can become a valuable tool. Don’t let the title fool you, I believe there is something each one of us can learn from this book.

I’d recommend this to any practitioner, from beginner to advanced. If you think you can’t learn something from a book like The Complete Idiot’s Guide To Buddhism you’re wrong and you should take some time to tear through this book.

One of the guys from the band Dosa Jhana, a Buddhist metal band, commented on the mention I gave them a while back. He said they were some videos from the recent performance with Cynic, one of the masters of metal! Anyway… I figured I’d share one of the videos here while I work on all the other posts I need to catch up on… enjoy!!

…and what an amazing time it was. I am working on an article outlining the whole trip, hopefully will be up in a day or two.

Seems there was quite a bit of action with the “article swap”. Has everyone received their topics yet? If so, have any articles been posted yet?

I did receive my guest writers article and it’s great, can’t wait to post it. Still waiting for my topic though, hint hint. I was kind of hoping that everyone would have the articles done by the end of November, probably should have specified something like that. Anyway… let’s gauge where we’re all at so we can move this along and see what comes of this little experiment… glad you are all involved!!!

Pairing is done….

Alrighty, thanks to Marnie’s stroke of genius, I was able to get everyone paired up so we can get this rolling. The idea now is to check out the blog of the person we will be writing for, just get a general idea how they write, what they write about, etc. Check out who will be writing for you, come up with something based on what you think they could write about and assign a topic. The post doesn’t have to be huge or some sort of thesis, maybe a minimum of 4-5 paragraphs so there is at least some content in the post.

I hope everyone has fun with this and I look forward to writing my article. If everyone can leave an e-mail address in this post it might make it easier for us all to contact one another for sending the articles to be posted. Thank so much everyone for wanting to give this a whirl, if it’s a success we’ll have to try it again!

Nate @ Precious Metal writing for Justin @ American Buddhist

Adam @ Dharma Brewing writing for Marnie @ Enlightenment Ward

Jon @ Be Compassion writing for ? @ C4Chaos

Danny @ Rev. Danny Fisher writing for Richard @ My Buddha Is Pink

Justin @ American Buddhist writing for Danny @ Rev. Danny Fisher

Marcus @ Marcus Journal writing for Jack @ Zen Dirt Zen Dust

Dwan @ Budding Buddhist writing for Genju @ 108 Zen Books

Genju @ 108 Zen Books writing for Nate @ Precious Metal

Marnie @ Enlightenment Ward writing for Dwan @ Budding Buddhist

Jack @ Zen Dirt Zen Dust writing for Rohan @ 21 Awake

? @ C4Chaos writing for Linda-Sama @ Linda’s Yoga

Rohan @ 21 Awake writing for Adam @ Dharma Brewing

Linda-Sama @ Linda’s Yoga writing for Shane @ Zenfant

Shane @ Zenfant writing for Marcus @ Marcus Journal

Richard @ My Buddha Is Pink writing for Jon @ Be Compassion

update…

ATTENTION

Hey everyone… seems most people have gotten in touch with one another, if not please get in contact with your pair, whether it be your guest or the person you are to write for.

From the get go I didn’t want to express any “rules” but people have been asking for a “deadline”. I think it’d be fair to have the article to your pair by December 1st latest. If everyone has their articles by then, we could all post them on that date. I know my guest has already sent theirs and it’s great, I also hate to sit on it for that long but it’d be awesome to have these all drop on the same day.

Once they’ve all been posted, e-mail me the links natedemontigny@gmail.com and I will post a “master” links post here, which maybe we could all in turn post as well.

Sorry I haven’t responded earlier, got back from vacation at 9pm on Tuesday and went immediately to work the next day and haven’t had much time since. Anyway… really looking forward to the next step here and that’s posting all these articles up. If for some reason you don’t know how to contact the person you are paired with, I would visit their blog and e-mail them from that, most have contact pages on their blogs.

As of 7am tomorrow I will be on vacation in the Bahamas. Not sure if I’ll have internet access, if I do I will gladly make a post or two from there. If not, I will talk to you all when I get back. Have a great week and be well!

Dhamma Dana
Low Pressure Films/ Theodore Martland

Dhamma Dana is an extraordinary look into a culture that is hidden under a governmental shroud. Rarely are we giving a glimpse into such a serene lifestyle.

Theravada Buddhism, which is on of the two main branches of Buddhism, is considered the “Doctrine of the Elders” drawing it’s teachings straight from the Tipitaka which is believed to be one of the oldest teachings of the Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama. Burma, or as it’s know now Myanmar, is traditionally a Theravada practicing country. Nearly 90% of the country practices Theravada Buddhism, including (believe it or not) the tyrannical ruling junta of the country.

Theodore is able to bring us not only a glimpse into this world, but give us such insight I felt like some of the misconceptions I had were made clear. For one, I couldn’t comprehend how the monks of the country could continue on under such tyranny. But through their practice, they create and embody a level of compassion toward the leaders of Burma that I could only dream of having.

Dhamma Dana also breaks down the importance of the practice of dana in Burmese monasticism. It is believed that the act of dana, gift giving to monastics, helps purify the mind and karma of the dana giver. Each day, throughout Burma, lines of monks can be seen making their dana rounds, receiving mainly small amounts of food to sustain them but also receiving other gifts which help them continue their studies and the ability to pass on what they learn to the lay people of the country.

From the pagoda’s to the open landscapes, Theodore truly mesmerizes the viewer with amazing scenery. Dr Molini, a Buddhist nun, provides a good amount of the commentary and explains what Buddhism truly means to people in Burma, in her own words “Holy mind is most important.”

With only 26 days to film this documentary, Theodore has accomplished quite a bit with this 30 minute film. I am grateful to have been given the opportunity to not only watch the film but to have truly taken away so much more.

Dhamma Dana has been accepted, and will be featured, at the Queens International Film Festival in New York. For those that can, I recommend going to view this important film.

Ed. Note: Found this while stumbling around the net. The author is unknown, I enjoyed it though and thought you might.

1. You Will Receive A Body
You may like it or hate it, but it will be yours for the entire period this time around.

2. You Will Learn Lessons
You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called Life. Each day in this school, you will have the opportunity to learn lessons – you may like the lesson or think them irrelevant and stupid.

3. There Are No Mistakes, Only Lessons
There is a process of trial and error; experimentation. The ‘failed’ experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiment that ultimately ‘works’.

4. A Lesson Is Repeated Until It Is Learned
A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can go on to the next lesson.

5. Learning Lessons Does Not End.
There is no part of Life that does not contain its lessons. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned.

6. ‘There’ Is No Better Than ‘here’.
When your ‘there’ has become a ‘here’, you will simply obtain another ‘there’ that will again look better than ‘here’.

7. Others Are Merely Mirrors Of You.
You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects something you love or hate about yourself.

8. What You Make Of Your Life Is Up To You.
You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours.

9. Your Answers Lie Inside You.
The answers to Life’s questions lie inside you. All you need do is look, listen and trust.

10. You Will Forget All This.

11. You Can Remember It Whenever You Want

Want to find more comfort in your belief system? Get rid of the karma in it.

All religions have karma but they call it different things. Maybe it’s the realm your spirit moves on to, perhaps it’s the life you’ll live after being reincarnated, maybe it’s the things that will happen to you next week based on what you do this week.

The moment you stop to think about how your decision will impact your karma you have stopped living. When you worry about how your actions affect your karma you are trying to decide if you want the reward or the punshiment. That isn’t karma, that’s desire. Stop worrying about your karma and just live your life.

This isn’t to say you should abandon responsibility. You wouldn’t fire a gun into a crowd and not worry about the results.  You wouldn’t get drunk and try to drive around town. Common sense is your friend.

The rain doesn’t worry about where it will land. It just falls.
The wind doesn’t worry about what is moves. It just blows.
You shouldn’t worry about your karma. Just live.