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The Sound the Hare Heard (Duddubha Jataka Tale No. 322) One morning while some bhikkhus were on their alms round in Savatthi, they passed some ascetics of different sects practicing austerities. Some of them were naked and lying on thorns. Others sat around a blazing fire under the burning sun. Later, while the monks were discussing the ascetics, they asked the Buddha, "Lord, is there any virtue in those harsh ascetic practices?" The Buddha answered, "No, monks, there is neither virtue nor any special merit in them. When they are examined and tested, they are like a path over a dunghill, or like the noise the hare heard." Puzzled, the monks said, "Lord, we do not know about that noise. Please tell us what it was." At their request the Buddha told them this story of the distant past. Long, long ago, when Brahmadatta was reigning in Baranasi, the Bodhisatta was born as a lion in a forest near the Western Ocean. In one part of that forest there was a grove of palms mixed with belli trees[1]. A hare lived in that grove beneath a palm sapling at the foot of a belli tree. One day the hare lay under the young palm tree, idly  thinking, "If this earth were destroyed, what would become of me?" At that very instant a ripe belli fruit happened to fall and hit a palm leaf making a loud "THUD!" Startled by this sound, the hare leapt to his feet and cried, "The earth is collapsing!" He immediately fled, without even glancing back. Another hare, seeing him race past as if for his very life, asked, "What's wrong?" and started running, too. "Don't ask!" panted the first. This frightened the second hare even more, and he sprinted to keep up. "What's wrong?" he shouted again. Pausing for just a moment, the first hare cried, "The earth is breaking up!" At this, the two of them bolted off together. Their fear was infectious, and other hares joined them until all the hares in that forest were fleeing together. When other animals saw the commotion and asked what was wrong, they were breathlessly told, "The earth is breaking up!" and they too began running for their lives. In this way, the hares were soon joined by herds of deer, boars, elk, buffaloes, wild oxen, and rhinoceroses, a family of tigers, and some elephants. When the lion saw this head-long stampede of animals and heard the cause of their flight, he thought, "The earth is certainly not coming to an end. There must have been some sound which they misunderstood. If I don't act quickly they will be killed. I must save them!" Then, as fast as only he could run, he got in front of them, and roared three times. At the sound of his mighty voice, all the animals stopped in their tracks. Panting, they huddled together in fear. The lion approached and asked why they were running away. "The earth is collapsing," they all answered. "Who saw it collapsing?" he asked. "The elephants know all about it," some animals replied. When he asked the elephants, they said, "We don't know. The tigers know." The tigers said, "The rhinoceroses know." The rhinoceroses said, "The wild oxen know." The wild oxen said, "The buffaloes know." The buffaloes said, "The elk know." The elk said, "The boars know." The boars said, "The deer know." The deer said, "We don't know. The hares know." When he asked the hares, they pointed to one particular hare and said, "This one told us." The lion asked him, "Is it true, sir, that the earth is breaking up?" "Yes, sir, I saw it," said the hare. "Where were you when you saw it?" "In the forest in a palm grove mixed with belli trees. I was lying there under a palm at the foot of a belli tree, thinking, 'If this earth were destroyed, what would become of me?' At that very moment I heard the sound of the earth breaking up and I fled." From this explanation, the lion realized exactly what had really happened, but he wanted to verify his conclusions and demonstrate the truth to the other animals. He gently calmed the animals and said, "I will take the hare and go to find out whether or not the earth is coming to an end where he says it is. Until we return, stay here." Placing the hare on his tawny back, he raced with great speed back to that grove. Then he put the hare down and said, "Come, show me the place you meant." "I don't dare, my lord," said the hare. "Don't be afraid," said the lion. The hare, shivering in fear, would not risk going near the belli tree. He could only point and say, "Over there, sir, is the place of dreadful sound." The lion went to the place the hare indicated. He could make out where the hare had been lying in the grass, and he saw the ripe belli fruit that had fallen on the palm leaf. Having carefully ascertained that the earth was not breaking up, he placed the hare on his back again and returned to the waiting animals. He told them what he had found and said, "Don't be afraid." Reassured, all the animals returned to their usual places and resumed their routines. Those animals had placed themselves in great danger because they listened to rumours and unfounded fears rather than trying to find out the truth themselves. Truly, if it had not been for the lion, those beasts would have rushed into the sea and perished. It was only because of the Bodhisatta's wisdom and compassion that they escaped death. At the conclusion of the story, the Buddha identified the Birth: "At that time, I myself was the lion."  (Note: [1] The belli (beluva or vilva) is the Bengal quince.)

Searching for Answers in the Holy Book Do not become slaves to any holy book... There was once a man who formed a religious cult and people regarded him as a very learned person. He had a few followers who recorded his instructions in a book. Over the years the book became voluminous with all sorts of instructions recorded therein. The followers were advised not to do anything without first consulting the holy book. Whenever the followers went and whatever they did, they would consult the book which served as the manual in guiding their lives. One day when the leader was crossing a timber bridge, he fell into the river. The followers were with him but none of them knew what to do under the circumstances. So they consulted the holy book. "Help! Help!" the Master shouted, "I can't swim." "Please wait a while Master. Please don't drown," they pleaded. "We are still seaching in our holy book. There must be an instruction on what to do if you fell off from a wooden bridge into a river." While they were thus turning over the pages of the holy book in order to find out the appropriate instruction, the teacher disappeared in the water and drowned. The important message of the story is that we should take the Enligtened approach and not slavishly follow outdated conservative ideas, nor resort to any holy book without using our common sense. On the face of changing circumstances, new discoveries and knowledge, we must learn to adapt ourselves accordingly, and respond to them by using them for the benefit of everybody.  (Ven. K. Sri Dhammananda)

The Mind and the Nature of Mind... The still revolutionary insight of Buddhism is that life and death are in the mind, and nowhere else. Mind is revealed as the universal basis of experience - the creator of happiness and the creator of suffering, the creator of what we call life and what we call death. There are many aspects to the mind, but two stand out. The first is the ordinary mind, called by the Tibetans sem. One master defines it: "That which possesses discriminating awareness, that which possesses a sense of duality - which grasps or rejects something external - that is mind. Fundamentally it is that which can associate with an 'other' - with any 'something,' that is perceived as different from the perceiver." (2) Sem is the discursive, dualistic, thinking mind, which can only function in relation to a projected and falsely perceived external reference point. So sem is the mind that thinks, plots, desires, manipulates, that flares up in anger, that creates and indulges in waves of negative emotion and thoughts, that has to go on and on asserting, validating, and confirming its "existence" by fragmenting, conceptualizing, and solidifying experience. The ordinary mind is the ceaselessly shifting and shiftless prey of external influences, habitual tendencies, and conditioning: The masters liken sem to a candle flame in an open doorway, vulnerable to all the winds of circumstance. Seen from one angle, sem is flickering, unstable, grasping, and endlessly minding others' business; its energy consumed by projecting outwards. I think of it sometimes as a Mexican jumping bean, or as a monkey hopping restlessly from branch to branch on a tree. Yet, seen in another way, the ordinary mind has a false, dull stability, a smug and self-protective inertia, a stone-like calm of ingrained habits. Sem is as cunning as a crooked politician, skeptical, distrustful, expert at trickery and guile, "ingenious," Jamyang Khyentse wrote, " in the games of deception." It is within the experience of this chaotic, confused, undisciplined, and repetitive sem, this ordinary mind, that, again and again, we undergo change and death. Then there is the very nature of mind, its innermost essence, which is absolutely and always untouched by change or death. At present it is hidden within our own mind, our sem, enveloped and obscured by the mental scurry of our thoughts and emotions. Just as clouds can be shifted by a strong gust of wind to reveal the shining sun and wide-open sky, so, under certain special circumstances, some inspiration may uncover for us glimpses of this nature of mind. These glimpses have many depths and degrees, but each of them will bring some light of understanding, meaning, and freedom. This is because the nature of mind is the very root itself of understanding. In Tibetan we call it Rigpa, a primordial, pure, pristine awareness that is at once intelligent, cognizant, radiant, and always awake. It could be said to be the knowledge of knowledge itself. Do not make the mistake of imagining that the nature of mind is exclusive to our mind only. It is in fact the nature of everything. It can never be said too often that to realize the nature of mind is to realize the nature of all things. Saints and mystics throughout history have adorned their realizations with different names and given them different faces and interpretations, but what they are all fundamentally experiencing is the essential nature of the mind. Christians and Jews call it "God;" Hindus call it "the Self," "Shiva," "Brahman," and "Vishnu;" Sufi mystics call it "the Hidden Essence;" and Buddhists call it "Buddha nature." At the heart of all religions is the certainty that there is a fundamental truth, and that this life is a sacred opportunity to evolve and realize it. When we say Buddha, we naturally think of the Indian prince Gautama Siddhartha, who reached Enlightenment in the sixth century B.C., and who taught the spiritual path followed by millions all over Asia, known today as Buddhism. Buddha, however, has a much deeper meaning. It means a person, any person, who has completely awakened from ignorance and opened his or her vast potential of wisdom. A Buddha is one who has brought a final end to suffering and frustration, and discovered a lasting and deathless happiness and peace. But for many of us in this skeptical age, this state may seem like a fantasy or a dream, or an achievement far beyond our reach. It is important to remember always that Buddha was a human being, like you or me. He never claimed divinity, he merely knew he had the Buddha-nature, the seed of Enlightenment, and that everyone else did too. The Buddha-nature is simply the birthright of every sentient being, and I always say, "Our Buddha-nature is as good as any Buddha's Buddha nature." This is the good news that the Buddha brought us from his Enlightenment in Bodhgaya, and which many people find so inspiring. His message - that Enlightenment is within the reach of all - holds out tremendous hope. Through practice, we too can all become awakened. If this were not true, countless individuals down to the present day would not have become Enlightened. It is said that when Buddha attained Enlightenment, all he wanted to do was to show the rest of us the nature of mind and share completely what he had realized. But he also saw, with the sorrow of infinite compassion, how difficult it would be for us to understand. For even though we have the same inner nature as Buddha, we have not recognized it because it is so enclosed and wrapped up in our individual ordinary minds. Imagine an empty vase. The space inside is exactly the same as the space outside. Only the fragile walls of the vase separate one from the other. Our Buddha-mind is enclosed within the walls of our ordinary mind. But when we become Enlightened, it is as if that vase shatters into pieces. The space "inside" merges instantly into the space "outside." They become one: There and then we realize they were never separate or different; they were always the same. WE ARE ALL POTENTIAL BUDDHAS!

BUDDHIST REVIVAL IN BURYATIA: RECENT PERSPECTIVES (PRESENTED AT THE "CONTEMPORARY MONGOL GROUPS" PANEL AT THE MONGOLIA SOCIETY AND AAS ANNUAL MEETING - WASHINGTON DC, 4-9 APRIL 2002) The Republic of Buryatia, the capital of which is Ulan-Ude, occupies a mountainous area east of Lake Baikal in South Siberia, Russia. The Buryats, numbering approximately 350,000, are the largest ethnic minority group in Siberia. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the most important process in Buryatia, like in many other regions in Russia, has been a miraculous rebirth of a Buryat identity. Having been largely assimilated into Russian culture, and not being able to claim political, linguistic, or economic independence after the collapse of the USSR, Buryats' quest for their own identity relies mostly on revival of their traditional faith. Once brutally persecuted under the Soviet regime, Buddhism is enjoying a tremendous revival in this region. In this article, I will explain how this revival is manifested, introduce some of the practices of contemporary Buryat Buddhism and address the multiple problems facing it. Let us take a brief look at the history of Buddhism in Buryatia. From the 13th to the 17th century, the area now known as the Buryat Autonomous Republic was part of the Mongolian empire. The Buryats were originally nomadic herders practicing shamanism, also widespread among the other peoples of Siberia. Buryats believed in the three worlds (the lower, middle, and upper), power of the ancestors' spirits, and variety of nature spirits who could be benevolent or hostile to human beings according to how they were treated. In the early 17th century, Tibetan Buddhism spread north from Mongolia to Buryat communities of the Baikal region. Trying to weaken the influence of Mongols and Manchurs in the region, in 1741, Empress Elizabeth established 11 monasteries in Buryatia and issued a decree that recognized Buddhism in Buryatya as independent from Mongolian Buddhism. This is considered the date of the official recognition of Buddhism in Russia. In 1915, for the development of Russia's diplomatic ties with the Dalai Lama's government of Tibet, a Buddhist temple was built in St. Petersburg, the capital of the Russian Empire. This temple became the first Buddhist monastery in a European capital. The tragedy started in 1929, when Stalin issued his new anti-religious law and embarked on the repressions and purges, which claimed the lives of as many as thirty to forty million people. Buddhism and other religions were viewed as "tools of oppression." By the late 1930s, most of the Buryat monasteries (along with monasteries in other Buddhist regions, Tuva and Kalmykia) were burnt to ashes and lamas repressed. With minor changes, this situation continued until Perestroika and the fall of the Soviet Union, when the late 1980s witnessed a revival of Buddhism; monasteries were re-opened and the publication of spiritual literature resumed. Now, there are about twenty active monasteries in Buryatia from a low point of only two. Buddhist temples are being built virtually from scratch, young lamas are being rapidly trained, contacts with Buddhist communities abroad, especially with Tibetan Buddhists in India and the 14th Dalai Lama have been established. Actually, it is thanks to these international connections that I found myself in Buryatia this summer. I was in India doing fieldwork with Tibetan Buddhists in Dharamsala, when I happened to meet one of these Buryat monks, who was one of the first Buryats to be sent to study in Tibetan monasteries in India. From him, I found out about the huge revival of Buddhism in Buryatia. At first, I took it rather skeptically. According to official surveys, by the 1970s Buddhism had few adherents among the Buryats, most of whom professed acceptance of the materialist world-view of the Communist Party. Now, as he said, people are returning to the monasteries in droves. My fear on going to Buryatia was that what he calls a "Buddhist revival" might turn out to be just a fashion for Buddhism, like the one we see in the West these days. However, what I saw in Buryatia overcame all my expectations. As I traveled from one village to the other, I always found myself surrounded by hundreds of devout Buddhists, avidly attending endless ceremonies and rituals. New monasteries are being built with a surprising speed and often fill up and start functioning while buildings are still under construction. Buddhism in Buryatia and Mongolia belongs to the Tibetan Gelugpa tradition, which came to dominate Tibetan religious and political life. While Gelugpa, founded by the Tibetan master Tsonkapa, makes an emphasis on scholastic study of Buddhism, outside of monastery life, so-called folk Buddhism prevails in Buryatia, just like in Tibet or in Mongolia. What made Buryat Buddhism really special was its interaction with Buryat shamanism and incorporation of the most important shamanic deities and rituals into Buddhist practice. Not only people, but also all local spirits have been ''tamed" and converted to Buddhism. Main religious activities in the summer in Buryatia are various outdoor rituals performed at sacred sites. Though performed by the Buddhist lamas, many of them contain clearly shamanistic motifs, such as offerings to the water spirits or offerings on oboos - the ubiquitous mountain cairns, which were the main sites of worship in the shamanistic religion of Buryatia and Mongolia. Upon entering Buryatia [1], Buddhism adopted all the sacred oboos as its own. Oboo is considered to be the dwelling of the strongest spirit of a certain geographical area (here I have to say that 'spirit' is an English translation, Buryats refer to them as 'savdaks' or 'masters of the land/terrain' - in Russian, hozyaeva mestnosti. Rituals usually include chanting prayers, food and incense offerings and circumambulations of the sites. The lamas will tell you full accounts why and when such and such landscape spirit or local deity was converted to Buddhism, usually by taking refuge in the three jewels: Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. Here is how a savdak embarks on a Buddhist path, explained by a lama: "If a person makes offerings to a savdak, he, in return, starts helping this person. Gradually, the savdak's fame and the number of its devotees grows and is brought to the attention of a local Buddhist lama. The lama comes to preach the Dharma to the savdak, who eventually takes refuge, stops harming people and starts helping everyone. The savdaks have one important difference from people: having taken vows, they never violate them." While not being able to compete with spirits on non-violating vows, people are also actively converting to Buddhism these days. I witnessed multiple initiations and taking refuges. "Refuge" is the formal ceremony of becoming a Buddhist and one of the oldest and most important acts that any practitioner of any Buddhist tradition can perform. One has to take some basic vows on becoming a Buddhist, such as not to kill, steal, commit adultery, or most difficult of all for Buryats, drink alcohol. For that reason, many people who took refuge when I was there were about 70-80 years old. They told me they didn't take refuge before because it would be impossible to keep all these vows when they were younger. The culmination of the summer religious celebrations was Maidari Hura - the ceremony honoring the Buddha of the future, a Buddha-yet-to come. As I observed these and many other colorful celebrations, and listened to people praying to the local spirits and Buddhist deities, I was beginning to wonder if I haven't stepped into another century and if the 70 years of severe suppression of religion here had actually happened. However, unfortunately, after some time I started realizing that the picture there is really far from idyllic. As the monasteries were filling up with monks and laypeople and after initial joy was over, countless problems  started to surface. During the years of suppression of religion, a generation grew up and aged. The succession of spiritual values between generations has been irrevocably lost and restoring this link is not easy. One of the problems is a dire shortage of educated lamas. While there are thousands craving for spiritual guidance, most of the great Buryat teachers and philosophers died during the purges. Unfortunately, some of those who survived did not get any chance to get proper a Buddhist education. Some  of them were purely showcase lamas, while others were true believers but had to compromise to maintain traditions in difficult times. Now, unfortunately N.L.Zhukovskaya says, "On a wave of Buddhist revival, for some reason flaws are being revived more quickly than

everything else." So when the Buddhist revival started to pick up, an emerging kind of a spiritual leader was a strange mix of lama/former-party-boss, some of whom possessed amazingly low levels of religious education. Many of them definitely don't live up to Buddhist lofty ideals. There are signs of corruption with lamas becoming increasingly involved in regional politics and power struggles, resulting in scandals, such as for example, the story with the two rival Khambo lamas who existed at the same time for a while. The story with the Khambo lama - the chief Buddhist priest of Buryatia - is beyond the scope of this paper, but in brief, the Khambo lama Damba Aiusheev was deposed by another leader, later supported by the President of Buryatia. This was because the President had a grudge against Aiusheev for the protest around the American tour of the Atlas of Tibetan Medicine. Local officials and tourist guides like to mention that Buryatia's tradition of religious tolerance, where Orthodox Christians, Old Believers, Buddhists, and Shamanists worship peacefully alongside each other, has contributed to the political stability in the region. However, this might change, as Buryat Buddhist clergy is getting increasingly involved in political infighting. Lamas interested not in doctrinal problems, but rather in secular affairs are a big problem for the religion. Another problem is that most of the Buryat lamas are married. A great hope is placed on young boys sent to study in India to become lamas. These boys are the first ones to have taken the vow of celibacy. In Gelugpa Buddhist monastic education, it takes 14 years to get a degree of geshe (an equivalent of the PhD), which enables one to teach Buddhist philosophy. But 14 years is a long time to wait. Fortunately, the Buddhist revival in Buryatia was made possible with the help and involvement of the Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama has been on several enormously successful visits to Buryatia and has sent several teachers from his inner circle on mission there. One of the most important of these teachers in Buryatia at the moment is Yeshe Lodoi Rinpoche who came in 1993 with his disciple Tenzin to live and teach in Buryatia. The Rinpoche had a special connection with Buryatia because his own teacher was an eminent Buryat lama who managed to leave Buryatia for Tibet before the purges. He and his disciple - himself a prominent lama - are the main characters of my film about Buddhism in Buryatia. I spent the whole summer filming and traveling with Rinpoche and got to know him as an extraordinary human being, a perfect Buddhist Master and philosopher. Rinpoche is a legendary figure in Buryatia. Treated with great reverence as a reflection of the Dalai Lama himself, everywhere he goes, Rinpoche is greeted by huge crowds, some traveling great distances to see him, all dressed in their best clothes, prostrating themselves by his feet, and many of them crying, overwhelmed with emotion. People's faith in him goes to the extremes - people try to catch a glimpse of him, touch his sleeve, get him to bless their possessions. But even with such veneration, Rinpoche did not manage to escape some intrigues. Or more precisely, he did escape them, but this cost him his residence at the Ivolga monastery. He also dropped out of the Traditional Buddhist Sangha. For several years now, he lives in a simple apartment block in Ulan-Ude. In the meantime, he is building his own monastery complex, tentatively named "Tibetan Cultural and Educational Center," where he will establish a Buddhist institute, which, many hope will become an important Buddhist center in Russia and maybe even internationally. The Dalai Lama is already invited for the Centre's consecration and many dream that he will come to attend the ceremony. However, the chances of the Dalai Lama coming to Buryatia soon are getting slim in the light of recent politics. As Russia and China have been building what they call a "strategic partnership," Moscow in recent months has desired to maintain good relations with China, whose authorities are extremely sensitive to issues relating to Tibetan and Uigur nationalism. In July, the Chinese President Jiang Zemin visited Russia during which the two countries signed a treaty of friendship, the first of its kind in 50 years. A disturbing incident happened a couple of weeks before this visit in the end of June last year, during the visit of the Chinese Buddhist delegation to Ulan-Ude. The delegation included high ranking lamas from Tibet and officials from the Chinese Ministry of Culture. In recent years, the Chinese Ministry of Culture took it upon itself to show the world that religion is not suppressed in China or in Tibet; that the Dalai Lama is hiding behind his religion; that he is actually a splitist, a traitor out to split the "motherland apart." A couple of days before the visit, the rumors started to spread that all the portraits of the Dalai Lama in the Buddhist temples in Ulan-Ude would be removed. Anyone vaguely familiar with Tibetan Buddhism, especially its Gelugpa school, knows what significance, respect and love Dalai Lama enjoys there. His portraits are considered one of the most valuable possessions and are kept at home altars side by side with statuettes of the Buddha. That is why, on hearing that the His Holiness's portraits would be taken down during the Chinese delegation's visit, most people refused to believe it entrusting the local abbots to take care of this. However, a local Buddhist religious association 'Ari'abala' consisting of Buryat lay disciples of Rinpoche mobilized and staged a protest against taking down the Dalai Lama's portraits. Local authorities sent riot police to ensure the security of the delegation, while Buddhists from the association were not allowed to the monastery grounds during the visit, resulting in a fight between abbots, monks and lay Buddhists. The large portrait of the Dalai Lama was taken off the throne, which was filmed and repeatedly shown by local television. The fears of Buryat Buddhists of not being able to see the Dalai Lama anytime soon are being confirmed. The Dalai Lama was expected to visit Buryatia, Kalmykia, and Tuva in August; however, in early September his visit was cancelled. In mid-September 2001, the Dalai Lama was scheduled to visit Mongolia; so many Buryats started to prepare for a pilgrimage to Ulan-Bator. But the Russian authorities refused to grant him a transit visa, and the Dalai Lama had to cancel his visit to Mongolia. The leader of Mongolian Buddhists, Bogdo-Gegen, is not particularly welcome in Buryatia either. When the Khambo-lama recently refused to receive him, he gave the following "historical" briefing: "Bogdo-Gegen is called Khalkh-Rinpoche, which means, he is the head of Khalkh Mongols. Therefore, he has nothing to do with us, Buryats." But when he changed the language of services in the monasteries from Tibetan to Mongolian, he actively invoked Buryats' Mongolian roots. Thus the tendency of Buryat clergy to distance themselves from the Tibetan tradition and claim full independence and self-sufficiency is evident. To cut or even minimize ties with Tibetan Buddhists in the situation of dire shortage of qualified Buddhist teachers strikes me (and many Buryats) as very inappropriate, since Tibetan diaspora is the main bridge for the aspiring Buryat students to the living Buddhist wisdom. All of this, of course, presents problems to the development of Buddhism in Buryatia. However, it is now clear that Buddhism is not just a fleeting fashion but has come back to stay. There are more and more people whose interest in Buddhism is not only spiritual, but also philosophical. People have opportunities to explore Buddhist philosophy in ways their ancestors never had. As long as teachers are coming from Tibet and India, and new people are training to become lamas, the prospects are good. While remaining the dominant school in Buryatia, Gelugpa is not the only one. Other Tibetan schools are represented in Buryatia these days and also schools from Sri Lanka, Thailand, Korea etc. Thanks to its Buddhist population - Buryats, Kalmyks, and Tuvans - Russia was one of the first sources of scholastic knowledge about Buddhism. My hope is that this tradition will be revived and Buddhism and Buddhology will flourish there once again. [1] It is often said that "canonic" Buddhism did not recognize the presence of such spirits, which resulted in syncretism of Buddhism and shamanism in Buryatia. However, if "canonic" refers to the Pali Canon, we have to notice that Buddhism that spread from Tibet through Mongolia to Buryatia was already "syncretic" from centuries of interaction with the Tibetan Bon religion and, before that, with Hinduism. Moreover, according to the scholar of Buddhism Gethin, assumptions that early Buddhism was somehow more rational and less full of supernatural beings, such as spirits, are based "in part on a failure to appreciate the nature of the relationship between this kind of practice and the cultivation of the Buddhist path; in part on an image of Buddhism artificially constructed from a selective reading of early Buddhist texts." (By and ourtesy of Anya Bernstein - www.cinetrance.com) Disclaimer: All articles and/or images retain the original copyright of their orignal owners.

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November 18, 2006