Essay by Luke Foster
“Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.” Buddha
I am sort of a lapsed Catholic but at one stage I was thinking of converting to Buddhism but like the Dalai Lama have respect for all religions.
I think Buddhists are some of the nicest loving and peaceful people on the planet. My mums carers in her nursing home are mainly Buddhists from Nepal and they are so compassionate.
My favourite art form at the moment are Tibetan Buddhist mandalas which are complex geometric forms made of coloured sands.
Its amazing I have seen Buddhist monks from Tibet make them a few times in Australia and its always a calm day with no wind to blow them away in other words the gods are on their side.
Richard Gere is a Buddhist and gives a small fortune to the Tibetan people.
“Well I think on a simple ecological level that the diversity of this planet is important for our survival, that all of our different cultures, people are important to the health of the whole the same way that a species of animal should be saved and at a simple ecology level.” Richard Gere
Richard is a charming kind hearted genius.
“Calm mind brings inner strength and self-confidence, so that’s very important for good health.” Dalai Lama
I read the Tibetan Book of the Living and Dying thirty years ago and it made a deep impact on my psyche.
“We are fragmented into so many different aspects. We don´t know who we really are, or what aspects of ourselves we should identify with or believe in. So many contradictory voices, dictates, and feelings fight for control over our inner lives that we find ourselves scattered everywhere, in all directions, leaving nobody at home. Meditation, then, is bringing the mind home.”
When I was in South Korea many years ago I did temple stay at a Buddhist temple and rose at four in the morning to go to a temple where the monks bowed over one hundred times or bowed down fully from standing in front of huge Buddha sculptures and it was amazing as there was a huge intense electrical storm and loud thunder but the monks weren’t affected at all and were as zen as could be.
At the temple a few of us western English teacher visitors were met by a Buddhist monk who explain Buddhism over tea.
I also vividly remember the healthy vegetarian lunch and no wonder the monks look so healthy with their vegetarian diet, bowing exercise and deeply compassionate spiritual practise.
“We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.” Buddha
We are all the Dalai Lamas cats and like the prodigal son parable in the bible we were all stray cats and now his purring loved cats.
It would be a good idea if the Whitney, Guggenheim or MOMA in New York gave the Tibetans an art exhibition of their sculpture and sand mandalas as it would be a block buster exhibition in the next ten years. It would also help the Tibetans no end and that would make the world a better place.
