2017 DHARMA WALK

“STRIVE ON WITH EVERY STEP”

Melaka
October 07-08, 2017

Group photo at final station in Melaka. YBAM President Sek Chin Yong participating in the fun-filled
event.

Event committee passing the torch in Melaka. Artist Jin performing with his guitar during the music concert.

Ven Ming Ji presenting awards to participants of the basketball YBAM President Sek Chin Yong presenting a souvenir to
competition. Khenchen Tsulnam Rinpoche.
ENLIGHTENED POLITICS
IN SAṂSĀRA
Just before Donald Trump took office as President of the United States, he expressed a
willingness to wage a “preventive” war in North Korea, a prospect that previous US Presidents
dismissed because it would risk an enormous loss of life. However, his increasingly bellicose
rhetoric of hate and fear aimed at North Korea of late has pushed the US and the communist
dictatorship to the brink of nuclear war. Should war breaks out in the Korean peninsula,
thousands will die, there will be economic ruin, and pain and suffering will affect millions of
people in Asia. The leadership in Washington and Pyongyang seem to have a lot of trouble
understanding this.

Closer to home, the politics of hate and fear has also become a daily phenomenon as the
date for the general election gets nearer. This is the season where politicians sow the seeds
of disunity, fear, and hate among the voters. They seek to advance themselves by destroying
their opponents’ reputations and careers. It becomes worse when religion is made use of by
politicians for their political goals. But politicians fail to understand that there is an inherent
problem in trying to intermingle religion with politics. The basis of all religions is morality,
purity, and faith, while that for politics is power. History has shown that religion is often abused
by politicians in power to justify their indiscriminate arrests and persecution of those in the
opposition. When religion is used to pander to political whims, it has to forego its high moral
ideals and become debased by worldly political demands based on greed, hatred, and ignorance.

As Buddhists, it is our duty to remind our politicians to practice positive politics of kindness,
inclusiveness, and openness if they expect us to vote for them. They have to practice what is
called enlightened politics. The notion of enlightened politics points to two facts of life. First,
every human being, irrespective of ethnicity or religion, wants peace, freedom and happiness.
Second, we live in a multi-racial and multi-religious community that bind our well-being to
the well-being of others. The Vietnamese Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh calls it “interbeing.” It
means that our action has repercussion – both positive and negative - on others. We should
also remind our political leaders of the old Zen saying: “There is no place in the world to spit.”
This means there is no place we can ignore, defile or persecute others because we ourselves are
everywhere.

So is enlightened politics even possible in saṃsāra? Yes it is if we truly believe and practice the
ideal of democracy, which emphasises honesty, inclusiveness, openness, and human dignity.
These are also the qualities and insights taught by the Buddha. Every Buddhist should have this
ideal in mind because a happy world starts with us. This is the message of peace and hope for
the future that as a Buddhist we should make known to all politicians who will receive our vote.

As John Lennon said in his famous song, “Imagine”,

Imagine all the people,
living life in peace.
You may say I’m a dreamer,
but I’m not the only one.
hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will live as one.
CONTENTS ISSUE NO.54
JANUARY 2018

04 15 18 21

04 LEAD ARTICLE 28 The Art Of Cultivating

How To Deal With Anger The Mind
By HH The 14th Dalai Lama By Venerable Cheng Yen

FEATURE 30 When A Buddhist Teacher

09 Buddhist Activists Appeal To Crosses The Line
Myanmar’s Leaders By Venerable Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche
By Richard Reoch
36 BUDDHIST PARENTING
12 Feeding Hungry Ghosts SERIES
On Halloween Bringing Dhamma Into
By Lilly Greenblatt Family Life
By Sumi Loundon Kim
15 TEACHINGS
It’s Not About Fatalism 42 FORUM
By Ven Bhikkhu Thanissaro Life After Life: Perspectives On
Karma And Rebirth
18 What Is Right View? By Venerable Āyasmā Aggacitta,
By Krishnan Venkatesh Venerable Ming Wei & Geshe Dadul
Namgyal
21 Benefits Of Generating
A Good Heart 48 PERSONAL REFLECTIONS
By Venerable Lama Zopa Rinpoche 5 Ways To Be Happier &
Less Depressed Through
25 Pure Land Buddhism: Buddhism
Merging Faith And Reason By Francesca Biller
By Raymond Lam
52 It Is Just A Traffic Jam
By Venerable Chang Zao
30 36

......................................................................
JANUARY 2018 ISSUE NO. 54 (Published 3 times a year)

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62 DHARMA AFTERMATH The opinions expressed in EASTERN HORIZON are

The Passing On of an Icon
by Rasika Quek
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4 EASTERN HORIZON | LEAD ARTICLE
HOW TO DEAL WITH ANGER
By HH The 14th Dalai Lama
His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama
(born on 6 July 1935) is the
spiritual leader of the Tibetan
people. His life is guided by
three major commitments: the
promotion of basic human values,
the fostering of inter-religious
harmony and the welfare of
the Tibetan people. A fervent
advocate of peace, freedom and
non-violence, His Holiness was
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
in 1989. His Holiness is also
an accomplished teacher and
author of Buddhism and is today
regarded the foremost authority
on Buddhist doctrines and
practices.
When reason ends, then anger contact, if we talk seriously, using
begins. Therefore, anger is a sign of reasons, there is no need to feel
weakness. anger. We can argue the points.
When we fail to prove with reason,
If subconscious anger had a parallel then anger comes. When reason
in Buddhist writings, it would have ends, then anger begins. Therefore,
to do with what is called mental anger is a sign of weakness.”
unhappiness or dissatisfaction.
This is regarded as the source of A Policy of Kindness
anger and hostility. We can see
subconscious anger in terms of a
lack of awareness, as well as an
active misconstruing of reality.
“If there are sound reasons or bases
for the points you demand, then
there is no need to use violence.
On the other hand, when there is
no sound reason that concessions
should be made to you but mainly
your own desire, then reason
cannot work and you have to rely
on force. Thus, using force is not a Some people feel that although it
sign of strength but rather a sign may be right to curb feelings of
of weakness. Even in daily human intense hatred which can cause
us to be violent and even to kill,
 LEAD ARTICLE | EASTERN HORIZON 5

we are in danger of losing our

independence when we restrain
our emotions and discipline the
mind. Actually, the opposite is
true. Like their counterparts of
love and compassion, anger and
the afflictive emotions can never
be used up. They have, rather, a
propensity to increase, like a river
flooding in summer when the
snow melts, so that far from being
free, our minds are enslaved and
rendered helpless by them. When
we indulge our negative thoughts
and feelings, inevitably we become
accustomed to them. As a result,
Ethics for the New Millennium Dalai Lama: Here I would like to tell
gradually we become more prone
a story. Once there was a Kadampa
to them and more controlled by
master called Gampowa who had
them. And we become habituated to
many responsibilities. One day he
exploding in the face of displeasing
complained to the Kadampa master
circumstances.
Dromtonpa that he had hardly any
time for his meditation or for his
Inner peace, which is the principal
Dharma practice. So Dromtonpa
characteristic of happiness, and
responded by agreeing with him,
anger cannot coexist without
“Yes, that’s right. I don’t have
undermining one another. Indeed,
any time either.” Then once an
negative thoughts and emotions
immediate affinity was established,
undermine the very causes of peace
Dromtonpa skillfully said, “But, you
and happiness. In fact, when we
know what I am doing is for the
think properly, it is totally illogical
Question: What should you say service of the Dharma. Therefore, I
to seek happiness if we do nothing
to a loved one who is talking feel satisfied.” Similarly, if you find
to restrain angry, spiteful, and
about a third person with hatred one of your beloved ones speaking
malicious thoughts and emotions.
or anger? On the one hand, you against someone out of anger or
Consider that when we become
want to show compassion for the hatred, maybe your initial reaction
angry, we often use harsh words.
feelings being experienced by the should be one of agreement and
Harsh words can destroy friendship.
loved one. On the other hand, you sympathy. Then once you have
Since happiness arises in the
don’t want to reinforce or lend gained the person’s confidence, you
context of our relationships with
approval to that hatred. What can say, “But....”
others, if we destroy friendships,
might one say?
we undermine one of the very
conditions of happiness itself.
6 EASTERN HORIZON | LEAD ARTICLE
Healing Anger: The Power of
Patience from a Buddhist Perspective
Anger cannot be overcome by
anger. If a person shows anger
to you, and you show anger in
return, the result is a disaster.
In contrast, if you control your
anger and show its opposite--
love, compassion, tolerance, and
patience--then not only will you
remain in peace, but the anger of
others also will gradually diminish.
No one can argue with the fact that
in the presence of anger, peace is
impossible. Only through kindness
and love can peace of mind be
achieved.
...human beings can judge
and reason; we understand
consequences and think in the long
term. It is also true that human
beings can develop infinite love....
However, when humans become
angry; all of this potential is lost. No
enemy armed with mere weapons
can undo these qualities, but anger
can. It is the destroyer.
If you look deeply into such things,
the blueprint for our actions can
be found within the mind. Self-
defeating attitudes arise not of their
own accord but out of ignorance.
Success, too, is found within
ourselves. Out of self-discipline, self-
awareness, and clear realization of
the defects of anger and the positive
effects of kindness will come peace.  a depressed state, it is very, very
How to Expand Love: Widening the
Circle of Loving Relationships
Can you discuss the problem of
self-hatred, and the Buddhist
means to alleviate it?
In fact, when I first heard the word
“self-hatred” and was first exposed
to the concept of self-hatred, I was
quite surprised and taken aback.
The reason why I found it quite
unbelievable is that, as practicing
Buddhists, we are working very
hard to overcome our self-centered
attitude, and selfish thoughts
and motives. So to think of the
possibility of someone hating
themselves, not cherishing oneself,
was quite unbelievable. From the
Buddhist point of view, self-hatred
is very dangerous because even to
be in a discouraged state of mind
or depressed is seen as a kind of
extreme. Because self-hatred is
far more extreme than being in
dangerous.
So the antidote is seen in our
natural Buddha-nature--the
acceptance or belief that every
sentient being, particularly a human
being, has Buddha-nature. There
is a potential to become a Buddha.
In fact, Shantideva emphasizes this
point a great deal in the Guide to the
Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, where he
states that even such weak sentient
beings as flies, bees, and insects
possess Buddha-nature, and if they
take the initiative and engage in
the path, they have the capacity to
become fully enlightened. If that is
the case, then why not I, who am a
human being and possess human
intelligence and all the faculties,
if I make the initiative, why can’t
I also become fully enlightened?
...no matter how poor or weak or
deprived one’s present situation
may be, a sentient being never loses
his or her Buddha-nature. The seed,
the potential for perfection and full
enlightenment, always remains.

Healing Anger: The Power of
Patience from a Buddhist Perspective
...there are generally two types of
harm caused by others. One type
is direct physical harm inflicted by
others and consciously experienced
by you. The other type is harm
done to your material possessions,
reputation, friendship, and so on.
Though not directed at your body,
these acts are also a type of harm.
Let us say that a person hits you
with a stick, and you feel pain
and become angry. You don’t feel
angry toward the stick, do you?
What exactly is the object of your
anger? If it would be appropriate
to feel angry toward the factor
that impelled the act of hitting,
then you should not be angry with
the person but with the negative
emotions that compelled that
person to act. Ordinarily, however,
we do not make such distinctions.
Instead, we consider the person--
the intermediary agent between the
negative emotions and the act--as
solely responsible, and we hold
a grudge against him or her, not
against the stick or the delusions.
We should also be aware that
since we possess a physical body
that is susceptible to pain when
hit by a stick, our own body partly
contributes to our experience of
pain. Because of our body and its
nature, we sometimes experience
physical pain even when no
external causes of pain are present.
It is clear then that the experience
of pain or suffering comes about as
a result of interaction between both
our own body and various external
factors.
The Compassionate Life
Let’s say that someone makes
you angry. Your natural response
to being hurt, your immediate
response, is to get angry.... You
might think about the event later,
even much later, and every time
you think about it you become
angry all over again. How would
you suggest dealing with that
kind of situation?
FEATURES | EASTERN HORIZON 7
If you look from a different angle,
then surely the person who caused
this anger in you will have a lot
of other positive aspects, positive
qualities.
But what about if you look for
the positive angles of a person or
event and can’t find any?
Here, I think, we would be dealing
with a situation where you might
need to make some effort. Spend
some time seriously searching
for a different perspective on the
situation. Not just in a superficial
way. But in a very pointed and
direct way. You need to use all your
powers of reasoning and look at the
situation as objectively as possible.
For instance, you might reflect
on the fact that when you are
really angry at someone you tend
to perceive them as having 100
percent negative qualities. Just as
when you are strongly attracted
to someone the tendency is to see
them as having 100 percent positive
qualities. But this perception
does not correspond with reality.
If your friend, who you view as
so wonderful, were to purposely
harm you in some way, suddenly
you would become acutely aware
that they aren’t composed of 100
percent good qualities.
8 EASTERN HORIZON | FEATURES

Similarly, if your enemy, the one
you hate, were to sincerely beg your
forgiveness and continue to show
you kindness, it’s unlikely that you
would continue to perceive them as
100 percent bad. So, even though
when you are angry at someone
you might feel that the person has
no positive qualities, the reality
is that nobody is 100 percent
bad. They must have some good
qualities if you search hard enough.
So, the tendency to see someone as
completely negative is due to your
own perception based on your own
mental projection, rather than the
true nature of that individual.
In the same way, a situation that
you initially perceive as 100 percent
negative may have some positive
aspects to it. But I think that even
if you have discovered a positive
angle to a bad situation, that alone simply destroying us, both in the
is often not enough. You still need to immediate term and in the long
reinforce that idea. So you may need term.  EH
to remind yourself of that positive
angle many times, until gradually The Art of Happiness: A Handbook
your feeling changes. for Living
Generally speaking, once you’re
already in a difficult situation, it isn’t
possible to change your attitude
simply by adopting a particular
thought once or twice. Rather it’s
through a process of learning,
training, and getting used to new
viewpoints that enables you to deal
with the difficulty.
...hatred is compared to an enemy.
This internal enemy, this inner
enemy, has no other function
than causing us harm. It is our
true enemy, our ultimate enemy.
It has no other function than

Are you searching for a spiritually challenging work?

Do you enjoy meeting fellow Dharma practitioners, Buddhist leaders, and Dharma
masters? Would you like to introduce the latest Buddhist book you read recently?
How about researching into the latest web-sites on Buddhist activities around the
world? And of course, what about telling us how you first came in contact with
the dharma and what the dharma means to you today. Well, if you find all of these
interesting, we can make it spiritually challenging for you too!

In every issue of EASTERN HORIZON, we publish special chat sessions with leading
Buddhist personalities, essays on all aspects of Buddhism, book reviews, and news
and activities that are of interest to the Buddhist community. We need someone
to help us in all these projects. If you are keen to be part of this exciting magazine,
please e-mail to the editor at Bennyliow@gmail.com, and we will put you in touch
with what’s challenging for the next issue!

Let us share the dharma for the benefit of all sentient beings!
 FEATURES | EASTERN HORIZON 9

BUDDHIST ACTIVISTS
APPEAL TO MYANMAR’S
LEADERS
By Richard Reoch

Born in Toronto, Canada, he was raised in a Buddhist family, eventually serving

as the President of Shambhala, one of the largest Buddhist organizations in the
world, from 2002 to 2015. He joined the International Secretariat of Amnesty
International (1971-1993), becoming its global media chief (1980 – 1993). He
then served as a trustee of The Rainforest Foundation (1996 – 2015).

He continued his work for human rights and peace, engaging with organizations
in Northern Ireland (1994 – 2009) and Sri Lanka (1995 – present). He is now a
global advocate of cross-cultural communication and inter-faith understanding,
speaking out on the rising tide of hatred and violence.

In parallel with his life in public advocacy, he studied the Chinese classical arts
of Tai chi Chuan and Zhan Zhuang Chi Kung for 30 years with  Master Lam Kam
Chuen, trained as a practitioner of the Shiatsu system of energetic healing, and
is the author of Dying Well: A Holistic Guide for the Dying and their Carers.

World Buddhist leaders are appealing for peace in Myanmar and Buddhist charities
are bringing aid to victims fleeing the violence.
Buddhist Global Relief, founded by one of the western world’s leading translators of
the Buddha’s teachings, and the Tzu Chi (literally “Compassionate Relief”) Foundation,
launched by a renowned Taiwanese Buddhist nun, are both dedicating relief
resources to what UN Secretary General Antonio Guiterres has called “a humanitarian
and human rights nightmare.”

This is the fastest exodus of human beings from a single country since the outbreak of
the Rwandan genocide.

The United Nations and major aid agencies now report that more than six hundred
thousand people — mainly women, children and the elderly — have fled over the
border between Myanmar (also known as Burma) and Bangladesh since late August.
Thousands more continue to flood in every day.
10 EASTERN HORIZON | FEATURES
A Rohingya refugee family lives on the side of the road without shelter
in Bangladesh. Photo © UNHCR/Adam Dean.
This is the fastest exodus of human beings from a single
country since the outbreak of the Rwandan genocide.
The vast majority are members of Myanmar’s Muslim
Rohingya, caught up in a violent conflagration that,
according to the country’s security forces includes
official “cleansing operations.” The military said 176
out of 471 villages had been emptied of people, and an
additional 34 villages “partially abandoned.”
“In these critical times, we have an obligation to aid
those immersed in the world who live on the brink of
destitution and despair,” said the Venerable Bhikkhu
Bodhi in an essay that inspired the creation of Buddhist
Global Relief in 2007. He is the former president of The
Buddhist Publication Society in Sri Lanka and author
of numerous Buddhist translations and commentaries.
“The special challenge facing Buddhism in our age is to
stand up as an advocate for justice in the world, a voice
of conscience for those victims of social, economic, and
political injustice who cannot stand up and speak for
themselves,” he wrote.
Under his leadership, Buddhist Global Relief now
sponsors projects in 14 countries that promote hunger
relief for poor communities, including the training
of women and girls in the struggle against poverty
and malnutrition. Though not an emergency relief
organization, Buddhist Global Relief recently supported
hurricane emergency relief in Houston and Puerto Rico,
as well as deciding to donate towards providing food aid
for the Rohingya refugees living in camps in Bangladesh.
The Buddhist Global Relief donation will go to the
refugees through the World Food Programme.
“A drop in the great lake of what is needed”
“This grant is just a drop in the great lake of what is
needed by the Rohingyas, and even more than food
and other material requisites, what they need is a
guarantee of physical safety, restoration of their homes,
and full acceptance as citizens in Myanmar, with all the
concomitant rights,” said Bhikkhu Bodhi, who was also
one of the initial signatories to an international appeal
published last month by Lion’s Roar.
Addressed to the ruling council of Buddhist monastics
in Myanmar, the appeal has now been signed by more
than 200 Buddhist leaders and teachers throughout the
world.
“We are greatly disturbed by what many in the world
see as slander and distortion of the Buddha’s teachings,”
the appeal states. “In the Dhamma [Buddhist teachings]
there is no justification for hatred and violence. Mean-
spirited words and direct provocation . . . stand in
stark contradiction to monastic precepts and Buddha’s
teachings on universal morality, peace, and tolerance.”
Those signing the appeal come from 16 countries so far:
Australia, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Ecuador, France,
Germany, India, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand,
Switzerland, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and the
United States.
They have urged the country’s Buddhist leaders to
take “a strong stand against hate speech and ethnic
cleansing” and have called on “the government and
military of Myanmar, including State Counsellor Aung
San Suu Kyi, to apply their full resources in support of
peace and for the protection of vulnerable communities
of all religions and ethnicities.”
Among the first to become signatories were Ani Pema
Chödrön, founding director of Gampo Abbey in Canada;
Jack Kornfield, co-founder of the Insight Meditation
Society and California’s Spirit Rock Center; Jamie
Cresswell, President of the European Buddhist Union;
Rev. angel Kyodo williams, guiding teacher of the new
Dharma Community; Dhammachari Lokamitra of
Triratna Bauddha Mahasangha, India; Phra Paisal Visalo,
Abbot of Wat Pasukato, Chaiyaphum, Thailand; as well
as Katie Loncke and Dawn Haney, Co-Directors of the

Buddhist Peace Fellowship. The full list is on Lion’s Roar.
“In the face of discrimination, oppression, and violence
there is no room for silence and acquiescence,” says
Hozan Alan Senauke, Vice-abbot of Berkeley Zen
Center and founder of the Clear View Project—working
to develop Buddhist-based resources for relief and
social change in Asia and the West—who spearheaded
the appeal. “The Buddha’s teachings of Wisdom and
Compassion are not gifts just for Buddhists as ‘chosen
people.’ They must be our offering to all beings of all
faiths and nationalities.”
“We cannot take ourselves out of this picture”
In a subsequent statement on behalf of the Buddhist
Churches of America, made public this month, Bishop
Kodo Umezu said, “we deeply deplore the killings,
torture, burning of villages and other actions against
humanity occurring in Myanmar. What we are
witnessing is not an isolated occurrence in our history.
Similar events have been happening throughout the
history of humankind. We cannot take ourselves out of
this picture.”
The other major Buddhist humanitarian organization
engaging with Myanmar is the Tzu Chi Foundation,
considered to be one of the “Four Great Mountains,”
or four major Buddhist organizations of Taiwanese
Buddhism. It was founded by Master Cheng Yen, a
Taiwanese Buddhist nun, or bhikkuni.
The foundation, which has over 10 million members
worldwide throughout 47 countries, engages in medical
aid, disaster relief, and environmental protection. Their
disaster relief teams, who have been active in more
than 80 countries worldwide, provide short-term aid
and take part in long-term projects to build new homes,
schools, hospitals, and places of worship (including
churches and mosques for non-Buddhists) for victims
following a disaster.
Also joining the voices of the Buddha’s family being
raised globally is the Shambhala organization, with an
appeal just delivered to Myanmar’s State Sangha Maha
Nayaka Committee (Ma Ha Na). “We have a special
sensitivity to the human tragedy now unfolding in
Myanmar because our own lineage holders, being of
Tibetan origin, have themselves been refugees and
FEATURES | EASTERN HORIZON 11
experienced the dreadful consequences of violence and
devastation,” the Shambhala appeal states.
“We appeal to you at this critical time, as the foremost
governing body of Buddhist monastics in Myanmar,
to endeavor as far as possible under the prevailing
circumstances to take every step possible to uphold and
spread the Buddha’s teachings on universal compassion
and loving kindness and ensure that these principles
are embodied in the treatment of all people within
Myanmar regardless of faith, ethnicity or any other
characteristics,” the appeal urges.
“Speak out against the preaching of prejudice”
It also asks the monastic leaders to “continue to speak
out against the preaching of prejudice and inter-
communal aggression in the name of Buddhism,
and take all measures to dissuade monastics and
members of the lay community from engaging in acts
of hatred and violence” and to “use your influence
with the civilian and military authorities to prevent
further killing and displacement of civilians,
to permit direct international humanitarian aid to the
victims, and cooperate fully with the United Nations
and its specialized agencies in working to resolve this
conflict.”
As people continue to flee Myanmar, international
agencies have launched a massive oral vaccination
program – the second largest in history – in an effort
to prevent a cholera epidemic among the refugees. The
aim is to deliver 900,000 doses of vaccine by the end of
November. This will include immunizing a quarter of a
million children, many of whom been separated from
their parents or been orphaned in the violence.
The crisis is far from over.  Reporters outside the
country have been in contact with half a dozen
journalists inside Myanmar who say they are facing
some form of harassment, even death threats, for not
following the government line on the Rohingya issue.
A courageous local report earlier this month said, “it
is vital that preventative measures be taken to end
the spread of hate speech and incitement to violence
against minorities.” EH
Source: Lion’s Roar, October 24, 2017
12 EASTERN HORIZON | FEATURES
FEEDING HUNGRY
GHOSTS ON
HALLOWEEN
By Lilly Greenblatt
Lilly Greenblatt is the assistant digital editor of LionsRoar.com. She is a graduate of Ryerson University’s School
of Journalism and lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Hungry ghosts try to enjoy a treat at Dharma Rain Zen Center’s Segaki
ceremony.
At Dharma Rain Zen Center’s Segaki ceremony,
celebrated each year around Halloween, “hungry
ghosts” enter the zendo to feast on sweet treats and
learn to behave in a Buddhist temple. Photo courtesy
Dharma Rain Zen Center.
At Dharma Rain Zen Center in Portland, Oregon,
Halloween and traditional Buddhist practice come
together in the annual Segaki festival, celebrated every
year in late October. For one weekend, ghosts, costumes,
and treats enter the zendo for a meaningful and joyous
ceremony enjoyed by both children and adults.
“Segaki,” which means “feeding the hungry ghosts,” is
one of the most important festivals on Dharma Rain’s
calendar. The celebration is used as a time to honor
deceased friends and family and to turn inward and let
go of the “hungry ghosts” — also referred to as gakis —
within ourselves.
Gakis enter the zendo.
“The coming of autumn seems to encourage turning
inward and confronting our own hungry ghosts, and
this kind of introspection is part of our practice during
Segaki retreat,” says Shin’yu Vitells, a monk at Dharma
Rain.
In Buddhist art, hungry ghosts are depicted with
malnourished, swollen bellies, and thin necks that
leave them incapable of swallowing anything. They are
considered to be a metaphor for the craving, greedy
state of mind humans many of us are familiar with. On
a spiritual level, hungry ghosts represent the state of a
person who “desperately wants to know the Truth, but
who cannot accept the teaching.”
As the late Kyogen Carlson, the former Abbot of Dharma
Rain, wrote in “On Segaki”, the festival is said to have
begun when a disciple of the Buddha, Moggallana,
deeply connected to his deceased mother, had dreams
of her suffering in a world where she couldn’t eat or

drink, a world known in the Buddhist wheel of life as
the realm of the hungry ghosts. The Buddha instructed
Moggallana to make an offering of food that his mother
could easily accept and digest in a ceremony dedicated
in her name, as a way to cleanse their connected karma.
In Chinese legend, Moggallana traveled to the hell
realms to personally rescue his mother, and when he
broke the lock on the gate to hell, all the hungry ghosts
escaped into the human realm. During the seventh lunar
month, the month of the dead in China, the hungry
ghosts are said to be released from hell, and a joyous
celebration is held to pay respect to all deceased beings
through offerings of food and entertainment. Through
the offerings, the hungry ghosts are said to be released
from suffering, and those who still have learning to do
are convinced to return where they belong. Years ago, a
visitor at Dharma Rain told of China’s Segaki practices,
and Dharma Rain adopted the practice to complement
American Halloween festivities.
The Segaki altar is prepared with offerings of food.
FEATURES | EASTERN HORIZON 13
This year at Dharma Rain, the Segaki retreat will be
held from October 27 to 29. While the retreat allows an
opportunity for spiritual renewal and karmic cleansing,
it culminates in a particularly joyful ceremony on the
final day. The inclusion of the 67 children enrolled
in Dharma Rain’s Dharma School, make the Segaki
ceremony extra special.
During the retreat, all images and statues of the Buddha
are covered to avoid scaring away the hungry ghosts.
On the last day of the Segaki retreat, the Dharma School
children enter the zendo for the main Segaki ceremony.
All are asked to bring their favorite treats to place upon
the altar — often candy, chips, and cookies. Always, says
Shin’yu Vitells, there are “over-the-top, fancy donuts.”
Hungry ghosts are invited to join the final celebration,
which in turn invites “all the unhappy, unresolved
karma in the universe to come to the altar to receive
Treats are shared with a gaki.
A gaki visits the Segaki altar.
14 EASTERN HORIZON | FEATURES
the Dharma in the form of food.” There is also incense
offered, and the names of those who have died in the
past year are read.
Next comes the real fun — live gakis, or hungry ghosts,
arrive to visit the Dharma School children. The gakis
are played by several of Dharma Rain’s high school
students dressed up with white sheets covering their
heads and wearing shoes — something quite shocking
for the children to see in a Buddhist temple. As the gakis
misbehave in the zendo, it’s up to the Dharma School
children to show them the rules.
“The gakis come into the zendo with their shoes on,
make a lot of noise, grab sweets off the altar, refuse to
bow and so on,” says Shin’yu Vitells.
“The younger children know better, of course… so they
ask the gakis to remove their shoes, show them how
to bow, and how to share the Segaki treats with their
friends. They know the gakis need to be shown loving-
kindness.”
Together, the children and the gakis eat the treats on the
altar, and retreat participants join in the feast.
After the hungry ghosts have learned their lessons,
Segaki at Dharma Rain culminates in the evening with
Segaki Toro, a closing ceremony in which a fire is lit.
On slips of paper, participants write the names of the
deceased, and any personal problems they’re  looking to
let go of, and release them into the fire. EH

IT’S NOT ABOUT FATALISM
By Ven Bhikkhu Thanissaro
Thanissaro Bhikkhu (Geoffrey
DeGraff or Acharn Geoff), is
an American-born Theravada
Buddhist monk. He was ordained
in Thailand in the forest tradition
in 1974. He is now abbot of Metta
Forest Monastery near San Diego,
California. He is author of The
Mind Like Fire Unbound, The
Buddhist Monastic Code, and The
Wings to Awakening. For more
information about his work,
visit www.accesstoinsight.org.
TEACHINGS | EASTERN HORIZON 15
Karma is one of those words we don’t translate. Its basic meaning is simple
enough -- action. But because of the weight the Buddha’s teachings give to
the role of action, the Sanskrit word “karma’’ is packed with many meanings
and the English word “action’’ can’t carry all its luggage. 
This is why we’ve simply airlifted the original word into our vocabulary.
But when we try unpacking the connotations the word carries, now that it
has arrived into everyday usage, we find that most of its luggage has gotten
mixed up in transit. 
In the eyes of most Westerners, for example, karma functions like fate -- bad
fate, at that: an inexplicable, unchangeable force coming out of our past, for
which we are somehow vaguely responsible and which we are powerless to
fight.
“I guess it’s just my karma,’’ I’ve heard people sigh when bad fortune strikes
with such force that they see no alternative to resigned acceptance. 
The fatalism implicit in this statement is one reason why so many people
are repelled by the concept of karma, for it sounds like the kind of callous
myth-making that can justify almost any kind of suffering or injustice in the
status quo: “If he’s poor, it’s because of his karma.’’ “If she’s been raped, it’s
because of her karma.’’ 
From this, it seems a short step to saying that he or she deserves to suffer,
and so doesn’t deserve our help. 
This misperception comes from the fact that the Buddhist concept of karma
came to the West at the same time as non-Buddhist concepts, and so ended
up with some of their luggage.
Although many Asian concepts of karma are fatalistic, the early Buddhist
concept was not fatalistic at all. In fact, if we look closely at early Buddhist
ideas of karma, we’ll find that they give even less importance to myths
about the past than most modern Americans do. 
For the early Buddhists, karma was non-linear. Other Indian schools
believed that karma operated in a straight line, with actions from the past
influencing the present, and present actions influencing the future. As a
result, they saw little room for free will.
16 EASTERN HORIZON | TEACHINGS

Established in 1990 in northern San Diego county in California. The main shrine at the monastery

Buddhists, however, saw that karma acts in feedback loops, with the present moment
being shaped both by past and by present actions; present actions shape not only the
future but also the present.
This constant opening for present input into the causal process makes free will
possible. 

This freedom is symbolised in the imagery the Buddhists used to explain the process:
flowing water. Sometimes the flow from the past is so strong that little can be done
except to stand fast, but there are also times when the flow is gentle enough to be
diverted in almost any direction. 

So, instead of promoting resigned powerlessness, the early Buddhist notion of karma
focused on the liberating potential of what the mind is doing with every moment. 

Who you are -- what you come from -- is not anywhere near as important as the
mind’s motives for what it is doing right now. Even though the past may account for
many of the inequalities we see in life, our measure as human beings is not the hand
we’ve been dealt, for that hand can change at any moment. 

We take our own measure by how well we play the hand we’ve got. If you’re suffering,
you try not to continue the unskilful mental habits that would keep that particular
karmic feedback going. 

If you see that other people are suffering, and you’re in a position to help, you focus
not on their karmic past but your karmic opportunity in the present: Some day
you may find yourself in the same predicament that they’re in now, so here’s your
opportunity to act in the way you’d like them to act toward you when that day comes. 

This belief that one’s dignity is measured, not by one’s past but by one’s present
actions, flew right in the face of the Indian traditions of caste-based hierarchies, and
explains why early Buddhists had such a field day poking fun at the pretensions and
mythology of the Brahmans. 
 TEACHINGS | EASTERN HORIZON 17

Monks on alms round in the morning

As the Buddha pointed out, a Brahman could be a superior person not because he
came out of a Brahman womb, but only if he acted with truly skilful intentions. 
We read the early Buddhist attacks on the caste system and, aside from their anti-
racist implications, they often strike us as quaint. 

What we fail to realise is that they strike right at the heart of our myths about our own
past: our obsession with defining who we are in terms of where we come from -- our
race, ethnic heritage, gender, socio-economic background, sexual preference -- our
modern tribes. We put inordinate amounts of energy into creating and maintaining
the mythology of our tribe so that we can take vicarious pride in our tribe’s good
name. Even when we become Buddhists, the tribe comes first. We demand a
Buddhism that honours our myths. 

From the standpoint of karma, though, where we come from is old karma, over which
we have no control. What we “are’’ is a nebulous concept at best -- and pernicious at
worst, when we use it to find excuses for acting on unskilful motives. 

The worth of a tribe lies only in the skilful actions of its individual members. Even
when those good people belong to our tribe, their good karma is theirs, not ours. And,
of course, every tribe has its bad members, which means that the mythology of the
tribe is a fragile thing. To hang onto anything fragile requires a large investment of
passion, aversion, and delusion, leading inevitably on to more unskilful actions in the
future. 
So the Buddhist teachings on karma, far from being a quaint relic from the past, are
a direct challenge to a basic thrust -- and basic flaw -- in our culture. Only when we
abandon our obsession with finding vicarious pride in our tribal past, and can take
actual pride in the motives that underlie our present actions, can we say that the word
karma, in its Buddhist sense, has recovered its luggage. 

And when we open the luggage, we’ll find that it’s brought us a gift: the gift we give
ourselves and one another when we drop our myths about who we are, and can
instead be honest about what we’re doing with each moment -- at the same time
making the effort to do it right. EH
18 EASTERN HORIZON | TEACHINGS

WHAT IS RIGHT VIEW?

By Krishnan Venkatesh

Krishnan Venkatesh has taught at St. John’s College in Santa Fe, New Mexico,
USA, for more than 20 years and helped shape its Eastern Classics graduate
program. From 2003 to 2008, he was the dean of graduate studies at the college,
and his recent works and studies explore the Pāli Canon of the Buddha, the
Japanese philosopher Dōgen, and the mathematical books of Johannes Kepler.
Born in Malaysia in 1960 to a South Indian Brahmin father and a Hakka
Chinese mother, Venkatesh studied English literature at Magdalene College,
Cambridge, where he obtained First Class honors. He researched Shakespeare
at the University of Muenster, Germany, and from 1986 to 1989 he taught
literature and philosophy at Shanxi University, China. The lifelong companions
on his bedside table include Montaigne, Chaucer, the poet Thomas Hardy,
Blake, Wordsworth, Zhuangzi, Chekhov, Tolstoy, Austen, Balzac, Laxness and
Shakespeare.This is part of a series on the eightfold path.

When the Buddha defined views as “wrong” or “right,” he was not presenting a
dogmatic or moralistic way of looking at the world, but rather pointing out that
certain views lead to the end of suffering.

What is right view, and why does
the Buddha place it first in the
Eight-fold Path?
At first glance, it seems obvious that
sound spiritual practice needs to be
rooted in sound understanding of
life. But how do we attain this kind
of wisdom?
On one level, the Buddha is asking
us to be more “philosophical” about
the opinions we hold, to become
aware of what we think, and then
to inquire more deeply into why we
think what we think. Only then can
we know if our thoughts are true,
false, or confused.
Greek and Indian philosophers
challenged us to do this work
two thousand years ago, but it
seems that few people today take
the trouble to submit their most
cherished assumptions to rigorous
questioning. Why, for example, do
we think love is good and war is
bad? Why are we so certain that
all human beings are equal? Why
do we think that we do or do not
have souls? What are our moral
principles really based on?
Our thoughts about these things
affect our daily decisions and
relationships deeply, and we would
make better decisions in all aspects
of our lives if we were clearer about
the foundations of our own thinking.
But this kind of clarity is hard to
arrive at without friends, teachers,
and sometimes enemies—it can
take a political crisis, for instance, to
make us articulate our real thoughts
about what society should be or
what true leadership is.
Related: How to Practice Right
Speech Anywhere, Anytime, and
with Anyone
The phrase “right view” is a
translation of the Pali samma ditthi.
Here, “right view” does not mean
that there is only one right way to
look at things. Samma is a rich word

that translates to something like
“completed, perfected, fulfilled”—
similar to summa in Latin, as in
the word “consummated.” Ditthi
encompasses one’s “view” or
“vision”—the perspective we take
on something, as well as the way we
perceive. As “perspective,” ditthi is
similar to the English word theory,
which comes from a Greek word,
theaw, meaning “behold.” The word
theater has the same root. Thus,
our “theory of life” is our ditthi,
the perspective from which we
make sense of things, the “view”
that guides our daily decisions and
judgments.
We all have ditthis, even though
most of us are not fully conscious
of the views we hold until
some situation prompts us to
express them. Often our views
are unexamined opinions or
assumptions that we have inherited
from other people or from our
culture. After we become aware
of these views we can choose to
hold them as true, modify, or reject
them. If the views we cling to are
confused or misguided, they will
TEACHINGS | EASTERN HORIZON 19
secure place in heaven, dissolution
into an eternal world-soul (or
Atman, according to the Vedanta
philosophy of Hinduism), and the
termination of suffering by suicide
would all be examples of “wrong
release,” which are all built upon
prior views. The opposite is true
of what the Buddha sees as right
views. Our ideas about life are like
seeds and are fed by practice. If they
are right, all the other elements of
our practice will nourish them into
wisdom: “Just as when a sugarcane
seed, a rice grain, or a grape seed
is placed in moist soil, whatever
surely undermine us in all aspects
nutriment it takes from the soil
of our practice. For example, if we
and the water, all conduces to its
believe strongly in the existence of
sweetness, tastiness, and unalloyed
eternal individual souls, how deeply
delectability.”
will we be able to understand
impermanence and see it in all
One of the most appealing aspects
aspects of our experience? Or if
of Buddhism for a contemporary
we hold convictions about our
person is that the Buddha never
own racial or ethnic superiority
asks us to have blind faith.
so fervent as to justify war to
Mindfulness requires disciplined
further the interests of our group,
mental effort and detailed empirical
how receptive will we truly be to
inquiry; we are always being asked
teachings about lovingkindness or
to understand. In the great sutta on
compassion to all sentient beings?
samma ditthi (Majjhima Nikaya 9),
the Buddha includes under “right
Related: The Buddha Talks to a
view” a condensed overview of
Brahmin Supremacist
the chain of cause and effect that
leads to suffering; at each point
The Buddha points out many times
in the chain he emphasizes that
that we need to reflect on what
the student has to “understand”
we think, because thoughts lead
or “discern.” It is not enough to be
to actions. For instance, in a sutta
told. We have to see for ourselves—
called “The Seed” in the Anguttara
through meditation and through
Nikaya (10.104), he reminds us
experience, which includes the act
that wrong views lead to wrong
of thinking—how exactly one thing
decisions, and wrong decisions lead
leads to another. For example, in
to wrong speech and action, and so
understanding karma, or the laws
on, until we reach “wrong release.”
of actions and their consequences,
By “wrong release” the Buddha is
we have to understand not only
referring to the ends put forth by
what karma is but also what the
other religions or philosophies: a
20 EASTERN HORIZON | TEACHINGS
wholesome and unwholesome types
are, as well as their roots. This is
long, hard work; it can take decades
to get clarity about some things, if
not lifetimes.
As we struggle to understand,
do we have to put everything in
our life on hold in fear that if we
act without clarity we have a 50-
50 chance of committing wrong
actions? Here it is useful to have a
framework of reasonable doctrines
from a teacher we trust—not from
blind faith, but from confidence in
a teacher who has previously given
us reason to trust them. It is like
following the advice of a doctor who
has succeeded in healing us before.
While we are following the doctor’s
instructions, we do not need to turn
off our critical intelligence—we
continue to test and investigate for
ourselves. In this case, the Buddha’s
doctrines function something
like guidelines. We consciously
hold and practice them, and as we
practice, we continually test them
and understand them more deeply.
The great value of this is that in
our thinking, and in the words
and actions that spring from it,
we are always aware of where we
are coming from, of our starting
principles. The novelist Terry
Pratchett puts it eloquently in the
novel I Shall Wear Midnight:
It is important that we know where
we come from, because if you do not
know where you come from, then
you don’t know where you are, and
if you don’t know where you are, you
don’t know where you’re going. And
if you don’t know where you’re going,
you’re probably going wrong.
In contrast, the tendency of most
people is to live adrift in an ocean
of unconsciously held opinions
and assumptions. In this respect,
we reach samma ditthi when we
become fully aware of what our
thinking—and therefore our speech,
decisions, and actions—rests upon
and grows from. This would result
in samma ditthi being translated
as something like “completed
understanding.” But there is
another aspect to the term ditthi,
and that is its meaning as “vision.”
In the terse and difficult
Kaccayanagotta Sutta (Samyutta
Nikaya 12.15), the Buddha
describes samma ditthi not as
a guiding theory, but as the
transformation of perception that
results from living the dharma.
Speaking to Kaccayana, a disciple
famed for his knowledge of sacred
texts who later became one of the
most astute teachers of the dharma,
the Buddha says:
By and large, Kaccayana, this world
is in bondage to attachments,
clingings [sustenances], and
biases. But one such as this does
not get involved with or cling
to these attachments, clingings,
fixations of awareness, biases, or
obsessions; nor is he resolved on
“my self.” He has no uncertainty or
doubt that, when there is arising,
only suffering is arising; and that
when there is passing away, only
suffering is passing away. In this,
one’s knowledge is independent
of others. It is to this extent,
Kaccayana, that there is right view.
In other words, the advanced
practitioner understands
attachment in such a way
that thoughts and feelings never
arise that might cause attachment.
The knowledge is no longer
theoretical, but perceptual. Our
practice transforms us into beings
who no longer see things in such
a way as to become attached and
cause suffering. In this sense,
Samma ditthi  is more than “right
view”; it is “perfected vision.” EH
Source: Tricycle, USA. https://
tricycle.org Nov 06, 2017
 TEACHINGS | EASTERN HORIZON 21

BENEFITS OF
GENERATING A
GOOD HEART
By Venerable Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is a Tibetan Buddhist scholar and meditator who for 30
years has overseen the spiritual activities of the extensive worldwide network
of centers, projects and services that form the Foundation for the Preservation of
the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT) which he founded with Lama Thubten Yeshe.

Rinpoche’s vision is vast and includes the proliferation of many charitable and
beneficial activities. Among many projects dear to Rinpoche’s heart are the
two Maitreya Projects, which include plans to build two large statues of the
future Buddha, Maitreya, in Bodhgaya and Kushinagar in India; The Sera
Je Food Fund, which offers three vegetarian meals a day to all 2,500 monks
studying at Sera Je Monastery in south India; Animal Liberation events around
Lama Zopa Rinpoche the world, at which creatures, big and small, are freed from immediate harm or
blessed every year– the total number of animals liberated to date (by Lama Zopa
Rinpoche or those inspired by him) is over 200,000,000 and counting! Rinpoche
is also utterly dedicated to fulfilling the wishes of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in
any way possible.

Because I had a stroke, I started to see
a physiotherapist in Nepal. One day my
physiotherapist asked some questions
while doing physiotherapy, then at the
very end he concluded, “Not so many
people in the world have a good heart.”
Here is my way of thinking regarding
that. Usually, it is regarded as less
important in the world to have a good
heart than to be very tough, uncaring and
cheat others, hurt others, tell lies and
cause loss to others in order to get your
happiness, your profits and so forth.
Even if the other person doesn’t practice
the good heart, you should still practice
the good heart because you want
happiness and you don’t want suffering.
Even if the other sentient being doesn’t
practice the good heart – or even tries to
harm you, causes you loss, kills you and
so forth – but from your own side, if you
practice only the good heart with your
body speech and mind only to benefit
others (or at the very least, not cause
harm to sentient beings) then you will
experience happiness.
22 EASTERN HORIZON | TEACHINGS
Lama Zopa Rinpoche (center), France, November 2011. Photo by Philippe Garric.
The result of one act of kindness benefiting
others with your body, speech and mind
is experiencing the resulting happiness
for thousands of lifetimes. From that one
kindness – benefiting someone with your
body, speech and mind, or at the least, not
harming them – the result is happiness. This
is the result, even if you are looking only for
your own happiness.
By generating the good heart and at least not
harming sentient beings purifies instantly
your negative karmas and defilements created
from beginningless rebirths and you collect
unbelievable merit.
It is mentioned in the Bodhicharyavatara by
the great holy being Bodhisattva Shantideva:
“Even thinking to heal the headaches of
sentient beings has benefit.” There’s no
question if one is actually working for the
happiness of all sentient beings. There’s no
need to mention the benefit from that – the
most unbelievable, unbelievable great benefit
that has.
By having a good heart (and at the very least,
not to harm others), it causes you happiness
and, by the way, causes happiness to all
sentient beings. If you harm someone, whether
an animal or human being, then you receive
harm from others for many hundreds and
thousands of lifetimes, and you can’t benefit
others for that length of time. When you can’t
benefit others, then the purpose of your life
becomes meaningless; the purpose of your life
is lost and you are totally lost, like being stuck
in a quagmire of mud or in the ocean.
By generating compassion, the good
heart and loving kindness for someone
– even one sentient being – it brings you
to full enlightenment. Not only does one
achieve liberation from samsara, but full
enlightenment – buddhahood, the complete
cessation of all the defilements and sufferings,
and all realizations, including omniscience.
The purpose of generating the good heart
is incredible: what you can gain is all the
realizations and whatever you want to
achieve. You will have no obstacles, no

Lama Zopa Rinpoche leading prayers the day of the earthquake, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, April 25, 2015.
Photo by Ven. Sangpo Sherpa.
blockages to benefiting ALL SENTIENT
BEINGS, to freeing them from all the
sufferings and the causes of suffering, to being
able to give them all the causes of temporal
happiness and ultimate happiness, liberation
from samsara and full enlightenment.
It is common knowledge that someone who
has a good heart not only makes himself
happy, but also his family and parents happy –
even someone who doesn’t know this person
can be made happy. Definitely that person can
bring peace in this world. Living life with a
good heart is the most important thing, even
animals become happy with you – the birds
and the dogs – everybody.
[It is the same for] caring for this tiny sentient
being, this ant, that has been my brother and
sister in the past. All these ants have been
human beings before, like us. Due to ignorance
and not knowing the “I” [correctly], and not
TEACHINGS | EASTERN HORIZON 23
knowing Dharma, they were born in the lower
realms, such as ants, because of anger and
attachment. They were born due to delusion
and karma as an ant and so forth. You can’t
imagine what it’s like when one falls in the
lower realms. To be born an ant after we die,
it’s hard to imagine. By not understanding
Dharma and not practicing Dharma, being
born as ant due to delusion and karma – can
you imagine?
We have been born like that numberless
times: from being a human to being reborn
in the lower realms, as an ant. This ant we
see, we have been exactly the same. Or as an
insect so tiny that you can only see through a
microscope, we have been exactly the same as
that tiny sentient being, or as a being with a
body huge like mountains.
We can’t imagine being born like this, as
an ant and so forth, we can’t imagine the
24 EASTERN HORIZON | TEACHINGS
Kopan Monastery, Nepal
suffering. We can’t even stand human
problems and suffering, so no way can
we stand the suffering of the animals, the
suffering of hell beings, the suffering of pretas
and so forth. This is why must understand
Dharma and practice the good heart now, it is
very important.
Buddha has taught 100 volumes – called
the Kangyur. Then the great scholars and
Indian pandits, the six ornaments, and the
two sublime disciples, Sharipu and Maglipu,
and so forth, gave commentaries on these and
that is the called the Tengyur. There are more
than 200 volumes in it. Then there are the
great scholars and holy beings in Tibet and all
their teachings.
Buddhism came from India, from Buddha,
and then went to Tibet and Nepal. Buddhism
was well established in Tibet, so many people
practiced and served. So many became
bodhisattvas and buddhas in Tibet. Tibet is
unbelievable; there are so many holy places,
also in Nepal. When Buddhism in India
degenerated, then in Tibet it became like
sunshine.
Buddhism is not made up by Tibetan lamas
or created without a lineage from ancient
times. In the early days Tibetan Buddhism
was referred to as Lamaism but that is totally
wrong to call it that.
With Buddhism the more you learn, the
deeper your knowledge; Buddhism goes
deeper and deeper. With other religions,
with just a little learning then you touch
the bottom. Buddhism is like the ocean, and
the real understanding is when you achieve
omniscient mind when you become a buddha.
Therefore, generating the good heart towards
anybody – towards insects, towards hungry
ghosts, hell beings, human beings, suras
and asuras – is the very essence of life. The
good heart is the real meaning of life and
the most important lesson; it is the root of
your happiness and happiness of all sentient
beings. EH
Scribed by Ven. Holly Ansett, Kopan Monastery,
June 2011. Edited for inclusion in Mandala,
October 2011.

PURE LAND BUDDHISM:
MERGING FAITH AND
REASON
By Raymond Lam
Raymond Lam is the Senior
Writer at Buddhistdoor Global,
based in Hong Kong. He has
a BA Studies in Religion, The
University of Queensland (2009),
MA Religions (Buddhist Studies),
School of Oriental and African
Studies, UK, (2011), and MRes
Christianity and Interreligious
Relations, Heythrop (2012).
“What does Athens have to do
with Jerusalem?” scoffed the early
church writer Tertullian, and in
so uttering drew the battle lines
between reason and faith for nearly
two millennia in the West. His
rhetorical question has become
synonymous with the struggle by
scholars and religious devotees
of many traditions to reconcile
two apparently contradictory
instincts: the urge to rationalize
and dispute versus the impulse to
surrender and adore. This tension
between rationalism and faith
has noticeable echoes in Pure
Land Buddhism, which has often
been misunderstood (even by
Buddhist masters) as being suitable
largely for emotional, unthinking
practitioners. But if the journey of
Thomas Hon Wing Polin is anything
to go by, it is perfectly possible for
rationalists to be persuaded of the
power of Amitabha Buddha’s 18th
or fundamental vow: that all beings
can be reborn in his Pure Land if
they invoke his name sincerely.
Tom has retired from his work as a
senior international journalist, but
keeps busy through his Buddhist
identity as Householder Jingtu. “I
was a complete rationalist at the
TEACHINGS | EASTERN HORIZON 25
height of my career as an editor for
Asiaweek and Yazhou Zhoukan. If
you invited me back then to explore
a faith-based spiritual tradition,
let alone Pure Land, I would have
laughed,” he tells me at his favorite
Hong Kong coffee emporium. “My
background is as rationalist and
secular as they come. I studied the
liberal arts at Columbia and Harvard.
But in the teachings of the original,
pristine Pure Land Buddhism, I
discovered a cohesive, well-argued
system of faith that resolved the
contradictions that had bothered
me. It’s far from being just about
emotions or some blind belief.”
Despite a successful career, at 40
Tom began to feel something was
missing in his life and commenced
a “rationalistic” exploration of
religions. After examining an
assortment of traditions such as
Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism,
as well as New Age, he encountered
Buddhism through reading Western
Buddhist classics like D. T. Suzuki
and Thich Nhat Hanh. By the late
1990s he was immersed in the
Buddhist tradition, and by 2003
had formally become a Buddhist.
Although he explored Theravada,
Chan, esoteric Buddhism, and other
26 EASTERN HORIZON | TEACHINGS
Householder Jingtu (Thomas Hon Wing Polin) with Ven.
Jingzong in Shenzhen, March 2014.
schools, for a long time he had
noticed that his wife seemed to be
growing in happiness and peace
through Pure Land practice.
“I will never forget the time when
I asked a prominent master
which school I should follow. He
told me that as a member of the
intelligentsia, I should go for Chan.
When I asked him about Pure Land,
he said it was mainly for emotive,
touchy-feely types. The incident
has stuck in my mind ever since,”
Householder Jingtu recalls.
“My first encounter with Pure
Land was through the ‘mixed’ form
of practice, which is considered
‘mainstream’ in Chinese Buddhism,”
he explains. “Mixed Pure Land is still
Pure Land, and there’s much value
in its teachings. It may be more
open in a sense since it includes
elements from other traditions
like Chan, Huayan, and Yogachara.
But perhaps as a result of this
complexity, it fails to cohere as a
school of thought and practice, and
Amitābha (center) and Bodhisattvas Avalokiteśvara (right)
and Mahāsthāmaprāpta (left)
in my opinion suffers from internal
contradictions.” For example, the
demands of ethics, meditation, and
visualization are given so much
importance in mixed practice that
Householder Jingtu discovered
many masters could not give him a
clear answer about the basic criteria
for rebirth in Amitabha’s Land of
Bliss, the ultimate goal of Pure Land
practice.
He undertook this mixed practice
for several years, but was becoming
trapped in such a vicious cycle
of doubt that he could no longer
even recite the name of Amitabha.
The philosophical contradictions
in mixed practice, on top of the
difficulties he had experienced
in his earlier spiritual forays,
flung him into a pit of spiritual
despair and confusion. “It got to
the point where I had almost given
up hope, both intellectually and
emotionally,” he recalls.
But the chance viewing of a video
changed everything. It featured the
original, pristine Pure Land teaching
from the lineage of Master Shandao,
founder of the Pure Land School
in the early Tang dynasty of China.
While open to other practices, this
“pure” tradition affirms the primacy
of invoking Amitabha’s name
through sincere faith in his 18th
vow, central among the 48 vows
listed in the “Infinite Life Sutra”, the
core text of Pure Land Buddhism.
The 18th vow guarantees rebirth
in the Pure Land for any being who
recites Amitabha’s name even ten
times sincerely, joyfully, and with
faith, if the person has only that
much time left. If people have more
time, they should recite until the
end of their lives. “Unlike mixed
practice, pristine Pure Land is
unambiguous about the criteria for
rebirth and explains them clearly
and coherently,” he says.
“While we respect and revere
the Indian master Nagarjuna and
the first patriarch of Pure Land,
Huiyuan, Shandao was the lineage
master who really systematized

Statue of Amitābha Buddha seated in
meditation. Borobudor, Java. Indonesia.
Pure Land teachings into a fully
fledged school of thought and
practice,” notes Householder Jingtu.
However, during Emperor Wuzong’s
anti-Buddhism campaigns in the
late Tang, Shandao’s authoritative
works on Pure Land were lost in
China—even as they found a safe
haven in Japan and became the
inspiration for Jodo Shu and Jodo
Shinshu, the dominant streams of
Japanese Pure Land Buddhism. “As
I delved deeper, I came to know
the hidden history of Pure Land. It
wasn’t until the twilight of the Qing
dynasty that the Buddhist scholar
Yang Renshan brought long-lost
texts of the Shandao lineage, in
their original form, back from Japan
to China. Before then, you had a
millennium of Pure Land syncretism
in the Song, Ming, and Qing eras,
leading to the prevalent mixed
practice we see today.” Pristine Pure
Land is now enjoying a revival in
China and Taiwan, thanks to the
efforts of the Chinese Pure Land
Association, led by Venerable
Huijing, who is based in Taipei, and
his disciple Venerable Jingzong,
Tibetan painting of Amitābha in Sukhāvatī
abbot of Hongyuan Monastery in
Xuancheng, Anhui Province.
“This pure, original lineage of Pure
Land answered all the questions
that had been holding me back
spiritually,” Householder Jingtu
explains. “Questions about the
criteria for rebirth, what’s primary
and what’s secondary—all flowed
from the essential practice of
chanting Amitabha’s name. By a
stroke of good karma, I discovered
that there was a small center
managed by two elderly monastics
right across from my home. I
devoured all the videos and books
of this lineage, which made so
much sense to me. I sought out
Ven. Huijing and Ven. Jingzong and
immersed myself in their Pure Land
teachings, which were based on
Master Shandao’s thought. By 2010,
I knew that this was the practice for
me.” In 2011, he flew to Taiwan to
take Refuge under Master Huijing.
Householder Jingtu’s mission now
is to translate into English, and to
edit, key texts from the pristine
TEACHINGS | EASTERN HORIZON 27
Pure Land tradition, including
the three Pure Land sutras, with
the aspiration that seekers in the
West will find them inspirational.
Many Western-born people
share a theistic background. The
rationale is that someone born
into Christianity, for example,
but searching for something else,
might be attracted to Pure Land
Buddhism because of its unique
appeal to both “faith” and “reason”.
“If Pure Land is to take hold in the
West, we need first to make the
texts available in straightforward
but eloquent English. The basic
information on Pure Land,
especially in its original form, is just
not available there at the moment,”
he says. “Without texts, you have
nothing to start from. Next, we
need teachers who are open,
charismatic, and comfortable with
Western people and cultures, to live
in the West and build small local
communities through teaching and
practice.” Looking further ahead,
Householder Jingtu believes that
for Pure Land to become popular in
the West, Western-born people will
need to become teachers too.
Householder Jingtu’s story is one of
a journey made whole, a spiritual
trek that has come full circle. It is
an inspiring irony that an editor
who moved effortlessly between
the intellectual circles of politics
and culture should find himself
immersed in a devotional tradition
like pristine Pure Land Buddhism.
Perhaps with assistance from Master
Shandao, Tertullian’s dichotomy of
faith versus reason is not so difficult
to resolve after all. EH
28 EASTERN HORIZON | TEACHINGS
Dharma Master Cheng Yen was
born in 1937 in Taiwan. In late
1962, at the age of 25, Dharma
Master Cheng Yen shaved her own
head to formally renounce the lay
life and start life as a Buddhist
monastic.  She is a disciple of
the late Venerable Master Yin
Shun (1906-2005) who gave her
the Dharma name “Cheng Yen”,
and advice her that as a Buddhist
monastic, she must always
remember to work for Buddhism
and for all living beings. In 1966,
at the age of 29, Dharma Master
Cheng Yen founded Tzu Chi. She
deeply believes that all people
are capable of the same great
compassion as the Buddha. True
compassion, however, is not just
having sympathy for another’s
suffering—it is to reach out
to relieve that suffering with
concrete actions. In founding
Tzu Chi, Dharma Master Cheng
Yen wished to give ordinary
citizens the chance to actualize
this compassion, which will bring
inner peace and happiness to the
individual, and pave the way for
world peace and harmony.
THE ART OF
CULTIVATING
THE MIND
By Venerable Cheng Yen
How can you tell how cultured
someone is? We can tell from
how a person deals with his
circumstances. If he loses his
temper when things do not go the
way he had wished for, it means
his cultivation is not sufficient. He
has to work harder on cultivating
a gentle and broad mind, so that
his actions and speech may be as
soothing as the spring breeze.  person is really nice, but this person
If a person’s mind is tainted by
greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance,
and doubt, this person cannot
stay pure and diligent on the
path of Buddhism. Cultivation is
the art of properly repenting and
cleansing the impurities in our
minds. Actually, habitual tendencies
and thoughts are intangible and
invisible, so how do they taint our
minds? If we can constantly remind
ourselves to not be greedy, to not
be angry, to not be egotistic, to not
be arrogant, then we can maintain
a heart of compassion and treat
everyone with gentle love. If a heart
is always filled with love so gentle
and kind, how could it be tainted?
The essential key is how we
cultivate this good habit, good
thinking. If everyone can be mindful
in each step-not overstepping
rules or making mistakes-we will
constantly learn to benefit the
people and be in harmony with the
others. Mutual love and respect is
the cultivation of a good habit. 
Being calculative and holding
grudges is also a habit; it’s a bad
habit that we have to eliminate
quickly. Some people say, this
just likes to hold grudges. This is
a very apparent habitual attitude.
We often hear about people like
this: he has a good heart but has
a bad temper or he gets impulsive
very easily. Holding grudges and
having a bad temper, what kind of
impression does that leave? When
you lose your temper, you ruin your
image.
Fury is like fire
When one loses his temper,
his thoughts are confused, his
expression is ugly, and his words
are violent. “Losing your temper is a
momentary insanity.” Many people
have a habit of losing their temper
easily. Whenever something does
not go according to their wishes
or when they misunderstand or
misconstrue others’ actions and
speech, they create conflict with
others.

Tzu Chi Philippines
Tzu Chi Nepal
Some will say, “it is inevitable that
humans lose their temper! As long
as we have a good heart, what is
wrong with an occasional temper
tantrum?” But if you have a good
heart, why should you tarnish your
own image?
In an ancient Chinese idiom, “Hair
of fury rises to heaven,” describes
how the hair of an angry person
is all pointed upwards. Like the
chickens fighting, their feathers
are sticking out upright. It is the
same way when a person loses his
temper. We can draw a sketch of
a person, whose hair is sticking
out, eyebrows are standing, eyes
are wide open and staring, and his
teeth baring. Is this a good look?
Why should we make ourselves
look so despicable? And when we
lose our temper, we lose control of
our actions and speech. It makes
everything worse.
How can we tell how well cultivated
a person is? We can tell from the
Tzu Chi Indonesia
Tzu Chi USA
way he deals with circumstances
and issues that arise. So if we lose
our temper when things go against
our will, it means we are not
cultivated enough, We must work
harder to cultivate a gentle and
broad heart, so that all of our speech
and actions are as refreshing and
soothing as the spring breeze.
A soft and modest heart allows
us to treat everyone with a gentle
voice and demeanor. There is one
way that we can check if our heart
is modest enough. When we made
a mistake in our speech or action,
can we readily say, “Sorry, that was
my fault!” It is just a few simple
words, but many find it hard to say
them because they are not willing
to confess their mistakes or they
know that they are at fault but find
it demeaning to apologize to other
people. These attitudes accumulate
and make us stubborn.  teaching on July 9, 1998, Excerpt
There is a saying: “a fury of
ignorance will burn a forest of
TEACHINGS | EASTERN HORIZON 29
Tzu Chi Malaysia
Tzu Chi Durban, South Africa
merits.” I wish that all of you will
mindfully cultivate a heart of
kindness, strengthen your patience,
and not let your work in cultivation
be wasted in a moment of fury. 
If you were keeping score or being
greedy, and cannot hold in your
temper, this complicate issues,
it means you have not properly
cared for your heart and mind.
Cultivation is constantly reflecting
and repenting immediately when
you err. If we do not confess
our mistakes, it is an even
bigger mistake. When this habit
accumulates, we will obstruct
ourselves. So the path of cultivation
is to mindfully care for your heart
and be vigilant in your actions. All
in all, everyone must be mindful in
every second of every day! EH
Source: Master Cheng Yen’s
from Master’s Journal 1998 Fall.
Translated by Hui Ying Chin /
Edited by Dennis Lee
30 EASTERN HORIZON | TEACHINGS
WHEN A BUDDHIST
TEACHER CROSSES
THE LINE
By Venerable Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche
The teacher-student relationship in
Vajrayana Buddhism is intense and
complex. It is easy to misunderstand
and can even be misused. The respected
Tibetan teacher Mingyur Rinpoche
explains Vajrayana ethics, how to find
a genuine teacher, and what to do if a
teacher crosses the line.
As a Buddhist teacher, I am often
Yongey Mingyur asked questions about meditation and
Rinpoche is a meditation profound Buddhist principles, like
interdependence and emptiness. I am
master in the Kagyu and
happy to share what I know on these
Nyingma lineages of
topics. But I have noticed that people
Tibetan Buddhism. He
rarely ask me about ethics and how to
is the guiding teacher of
live a virtuous life.
the Tergar Meditation
Community, a global It is true that meditation is important
network of meditation in the Buddhist tradition. There’s no
groups and centers. question about that. The same can be
said about studying Buddhist ideas and
philosophies. But in many ways, ethics
and virtue are the foundation of the
Buddhist path.
The one time people do
ask me about ethics is when
scandals or controversies
happen in Buddhist
communities.
The Buddha himself lived a life of
kindness, humility, and compassion. He
fully embodied the teachings he gave,
and the sangha that grew around him
followed his example. There were many
times when the students got off track
and acted inappropriately—sometimes
hilariously so—but these incidents
were used as opportunities to clarify
important values and to show the
community how to live a life of virtue.
From the early days of Buddhism, ethical
conduct was as central to the path as
meditation, study, and contemplation.
These days, the one time people
do ask me about ethics is when
scandals or controversies happen in
Buddhist communities. Despite the
clear importance of nonviolence and
compassion in the Buddhist tradition,
many students are not sure how to
deal with these situations. I can see
why they get confused. There are many
different Buddhist lineages and schools,
and it is hard to keep track of all their
different teachings, practices, and ethical
frameworks.
This is especially true in the Tibetan
tradition, where we have three different
approaches—which we call yanas or
“vehicles”—that are woven together into

Illustrations by Megumi Yoshida.
one path of Buddhist practice. These
are the Foundational vehicle of
individual liberation, the Mahayana
vehicle of great compassion, and the
Vajrayana vehicle of indestructible
wakefulness. This combination is
one of the unique and beautiful
aspects of Tibetan Buddhism, but it
doesn’t always make things simple.
Ethics in Tibetan Buddhism
In Tibetan Buddhism we practice
the three yanas together, and that
includes the practice of ethics. Let
me clarify.
The most basic ethical principle in
the yana of individual liberation is
nonviolence, the commitment to
avoid harming others at all costs.
Vajrayana practice
is rooted in the ideals
of nonviolence and great
compassion. There is no
Vajrayana without them.
When we add in the Mahayana, we
do not forget about nonviolence,
but take it one step further with
the practice of bodhichitta. This is
the commitment to help all beings
become fully enlightened.
Finally, Vajrayana brings in the
notion of pure perception. In
practicing the Vajrayana, we remain
firmly grounded in nonviolence
and the altruistic motivation of
bodhichitta, but take the fruitional
view. We treat everyone and
everything as the embodiment of
awakening. We commit ourselves
to seeing ourselves, others, and the
world around us as fundamentally
pure, complete, and perfect.
This ideal of pure perception
is embodied in the principle of
samaya, the formal commitments
that a Vajrayana practitioner
adheres to. There many details
about samaya, but simply put the
essence of samaya is to practice
TEACHINGS | EASTERN HORIZON 31
pure perception to the best of one’s
ability.
Many people misunderstand samaya
and think it refers only to seeing
the teacher as a buddha, a fully
awakened being. That is part of
samaya, but it misses the key point.
Samaya is about seeing everyone
and everything through the lens of
pure perception. The sole purpose of
viewing the teacher as a buddha is
so we can see these same awakened
qualities in ourselves, in others, and
in the world around us. It is a tool
that helps us to gain confidence in
the purity of our true nature.
Vajrayana practice is rooted in the
ideals of nonviolence and great
compassion. There is no Vajrayana
without them. So how do we use
these principles to guide us on
important issues like finding an
authentic teacher and working with
the inevitable challenges that arise
in the life of a community?
32 EASTERN HORIZON | TEACHINGS
The Point of Practice
The first point I’d like to make
is probably an obvious one. Our
practice should bring out the best
in us as human beings. It should
call forth our inner wisdom, our
basic sanity, and the moral compass
that we all have (whether we pay
attention to it or not).
The most basic way to measure our
practice, therefore, is the degree to
which we are moving closer to the
simple ideals of kindness, humility,
honesty, and wisdom. If—as
individuals or as communities—we
find ourselves moving in the other
direction, something is off track.
None of us will act perfectly in every
situation, but over time there should
be a clear movement toward these
basic and universal human values.
This is especially true of spiritual
teachers. Buddhist teachers are
role models and guides for the
communities they lead, and they
represent the Buddhist tradition
to the non-Buddhist world. If, as
students of the Buddha’s teachings,
we strive to be kind, humble, and
devoted to practice, then it only
makes sense that our guides should
embody these qualities. They should
inspire us with their kindness and
devotion. They should instill trust
by the care and concern they show
for others. Of course, we should not
expect perfection, but it should go
without saying that people who are
guiding others should practice what
they preach.
Finding a Genuine Teacher
When it comes to finding a genuine
teacher, there are four things that
are especially important.
The first is that the teacher should
be part of an authentic lineage.
Genuine teachers do not promote
themselves; they promote their
lineage. If a teacher brags about
their qualities and realization and
makes a show of their practice,
that is probably an indication that
something is not quite right. But if
a teacher has studied and practiced
under the guidance of other
respected teachers, and honors
their lineage by upholding its values
and traditions, that is a good sign.
Lineage alone does not make a
teacher genuine, but it is important.
A genuine teacher
should uphold their vows
and precepts.
The second quality to look for is
commitment to study and practice.
This one is pretty obvious. You
would not take piano lessons from
someone who’s not a good player
themselves, would you? Of course
not. The same is true here. If you
are trusting someone with your
spiritual well-being, you should
be sure that this person knows
the path first-hand. In order to
do this, they should have a clear
commitment to their own practice
and training.

The third essential quality is
compassion. As students, we need
to feel confident that our teacher
is on our side—that they have our
best interests at heart and deeply
care about us and our progress on
the path.
Trust is critical here. A genuine
teacher is trustworthy and puts the
needs of the student first. The sign
of a teacher who has this quality is
that students feel safe and protected
in their care. They know that no
matter what is going on in their life,
their teacher will always be there to
guide and support them.
The fourth and final quality is the
one that relates the most directly
to ethics. A genuine teacher should
uphold their vows and precepts. In
the Tibetan tradition, that means
they maintain whatever monastic
or lay vows they have taken, adhere
to the bodhisattva vows of the
Mahayana, and keep the samaya
vows of the Vajrayana.
This is no small feat, but it is very
important. There are lots of details
included in this one, and as students
we may not know exactly what
vows a person holds. But we can
ask around and check to see if there
are any questions about a teacher’s
behavior or conduct. That is a good
place to start.
In this day and age, it is not easy to
find a perfect teacher. The time of the
Buddha, when people seemed to get
enlightened just by showing up, is
long gone. We may not find a teacher
who perfectly embodies all four
of these qualities, but they should
have all of them to some degree. If a
teacher is completely lacking one or
more of these qualities, it is probably
best to move on.
Leaving a Teacher
These four qualities are a good
general guideline to follow when
looking for a teacher. But even when
we do our best to research a teacher
first, often we only really get to
know the teacher after becoming
their student. In the modern world,
most of us do not have a monastery
or Buddhist expert down the street.
We do not necessarily know all the
details about a teacher, or even have
someone we can ask. So what do we
do when we discover that a teacher
is not quite what we hoped?
TEACHINGS | EASTERN HORIZON 33
If someone is being
harmed, the safety of the
victim comes first. This is
not a Buddhist principle.
This is a basic human
value and should never
be violated.
Many students of Tibetan Buddhism
mistakenly think that they cannot,
or should not, leave a teacher once
they’ve made a commitment to them.
This is not the case. The whole point
of the teacher–student relationship
is that it should benefit the student.
It is not for the teacher’s gain or
profit. If you have tried your best
and have found that it is not a good
fit, you can look for another teacher.
This is not a problem or personal
failing. It is good judgment.
The best way to leave is to do so
without bad-mouthing the teacher
or creating difficulties for those
who may be benefiting from the
teacher and the community. Leave
on good terms, or at the very least,
do not leave on bad terms. Simply
move on with humility and do not
feel bad about the fact that it did
not work out.
34 EASTERN HORIZON | TEACHINGS
The one caveat I would add here
is that it is important to be honest
with yourself. Leaving a teacher or
community that does not seem to
be a good fit is understandable, but
if you find every teacher unworthy
of your time, then you may want to
look deeper into your own patterns
to see what is going on. It may
be difficult to make any progress
on the path if you are looking for
perfection.
Serious Ethical Violations
However, it is another matter
altogether when a teacher is
committing serious ethical
violations. Leaving a teacher on
good terms makes sense when the
issue is just a matter of fit between
teacher and student. When the issue
is people being hurt or laws being
broken, the situation is different.
In that case, the violation of ethical
norms needs to be addressed.
If physical or sexual abuse has
occurred, or there is financial
impropriety or other breaches of
ethics, it is in the best interest of
the students, the community, and
ultimately the teacher, to address
the issues. Above all, if someone
is being harmed, the safety of the
victim comes first. This is not a
Buddhist principle. This is a basic
human value and should never be
violated.
Physical, sexual, and
psychological abuse are
not teaching tools.
The appropriate response depends
on the situation. In some cases, if a
teacher has acted inappropriately
or harmfully but acknowledges
the wrongdoing and commits
to avoiding it in the future, then
dealing with the matter internally
may be adequate. But if there
is a long-standing pattern of
ethical violations, or if the abuse
is extreme, or if the teacher is
unwilling to take responsibility, it is
appropriate to bring the behavior
out into the open.
In these circumstances, it is not a
breach of samaya to bring painful
information to light. Naming
destructive behaviors is a necessary
step to protect those who are being
harmed or who are in danger of
being harmed in the future, and
to safeguard the health of the
community.
Crazy Wisdom
The Vajrayana tradition has a
history of eccentric yogis and
yoginis and teachers who used
extreme methods to guide their
students. The story of Marpa
asking Milarepa to build and then
dismantle a series of stone towers is
perhaps the most famous example
of this. This tradition of “crazy
wisdom” can be authentic, but
unfortunately it is often invoked
as a rationalization for unethical
behavior that has nothing to do with
wisdom or compassion.
The most important thing to know
about these unusual teaching styles
is that they are meant to benefit the
student. If they are not rooted in
compassion and wisdom, they are
not genuine. Actions that are rooted
in compassion and wisdom—even
when they appear odd, eccentric,
or even wrathful—do not instill
fear or anxiety. They bring about
a flowering of compassion and
wisdom in the student.

We must distinguish
teachers who are
eccentric or provocative—
but ultimately
compassionate and
skillful—from those who
are actually harming
students and causing
trauma.
In other words, the results of
genuine “crazy wisdom” are always
positive and visible. When a teacher
uses an extreme approach that is
rooted in compassion, the result
is spiritual growth, not trauma.
Trauma is a sure sign that the
“crazy wisdom” behavior was
missing the wisdom to see what
would truly benefit the student, the
compassion that puts the student’s
interest first, or both.
It is also worth noting that these
extreme teaching styles we see in
Vajrayana history took place in the
context of a very mature spiritual
bond between teacher and student.
They were not all that common.
Marpa didn’t make all of his
students build stone towers. In fact,
he treated his other students very
differently from how he treated
Milarepa. But he saw Milarepa’s
potential and the approach that
would benefit him most. The
rest is history. Milarepa became
enlightened and one of Tibet’s
greatest adepts.
Not only are these extreme teaching
methods used only with very
mature students and in the context
of a relationship of stable trust and
devotion, they are also a last resort.
There are said to be four kinds
of enlightened activity: peaceful,
magnetizing, enriching, and
wrathful. Wrathful activity is only
used for those who are not receptive
to more subtle approaches. So
again, this style is not a norm, but
something that is only employed in
certain circumstances.
Thus we must distinguish teachers
who are eccentric or provocative—
but ultimately compassionate
and skillful—from those who are
actually harming students and
causing trauma. These are two very
different things, and it is important
that we do not lump them together.
There are plenty of teachers who
push and provoke students to help
them learn about their minds, but
that is not abuse. Physical, sexual,
and psychological abuse are not
teaching tools.
Vajrayana in the Modern
World
Now that the world is so
interconnected, ethics are more
important than ever. In a sense,
we Buddhist practitioners are
all representing the Buddha’s
teachings to the world. Anyone
can learn about this teacher or
that sangha with a few mouse
clicks and a quick Google search.
This is a good thing, because it
makes the entire tradition more
transparent. Ethical behavior—and
ethical violations—are more visible
than they were in previous times.
It should go without saying that
when schools, businesses, and other
public institutions are expected to
TEACHINGS | EASTERN HORIZON 35
adhere to a code of conduct and
the laws of the land, then spiritual
organizations should be role models
of ethical behavior. And teachers
even more so. Throughout history,
one of the most important roles of
Buddhist teachers and the Buddhist
sangha was exactly this. They
modeled ethical behavior to the
communities that they served.
Vajrayana Buddhism is thought of as
a precious treasure by Tibetans. It
is our spiritual heritage and our gift
to the world. Now that the teachings
and practices of this tradition are
spreading across the globe, it is
important that we understand the
tradition and how to work with its
powerful teachings.
As I’ve said, the core of the Vajrayana
tradition is that we strive to embody
pure perception. We view our
thoughts and emotions—even the
difficult ones—as manifestations of
timeless awareness. We see every
person as a buddha, and we treat
them as such. We view the world
that we live in as a pure realm,
enlightened just as it is.
This tradition of treating everything
and everyone as though we are
meeting the Buddha face-to-face is
our main practice in the Vajrayana.
It is the life blood of our tradition
and the very highest ethical
standard we could aspire to. In this
day and age, with confusion and
conflict all around us, the world
needs this more than ever. EH
Source: Lion’s Roar www.lionsroar.
com, October 18, 2017
36 EASTERN HORIZON | TEACHINGS
BUDDHIST PARENTING SERIES
BRINGING DHAMMA INTO
FAMILY LIFE
By Sumi Loundon Kim
Rev. Sumi Loundon Kim is
the Buddhist chaplain at
Duke University and minister
for the Mindful Families of
Durham. She has published
two anthologies, Blue Jean
Buddha: Voices of Young
Buddhists and The Buddha’s
Apprentices: More Voices of Young
Buddhists. Following a master’s
degree in Buddhist studies and
Sanskrit from the Harvard
Divinity School, she was the
associate director for the Barre
Center for Buddhist Studies in
Barre, Massachusetts. She lives in
Durham, North Carolina, with her
husband and two children.
I once asked a university
psychologist which undergraduates
survived crisis better, be it the
onset of debilitating depression,
addiction, a car accident, or death
in the family: those who’d grown
up with a spiritual path, or those
who didn’t? Without hesitation he
said that students with a spiritually
grounded childhood, whether they
continued with that or not as young
adults, not only got through their
crisis but also personally grew from
it. He said that these students had
a language to articulate what they
were facing—a framework to create
meaning from their experience.
When I picture dropping my
children off at college some
years from now, I reflect on this
psychologist’s observation. No
longer in my direct care, my son
and daughter will need to navigate
choices and challenges on their
own. What can I do for them now
that increases the likelihood they
will not only survive but also thrive?
Perhaps one life skill, beyond
teaching them how to drive, look
after their health, or manage money,
is the gift of spiritual fluency.
Indeed, in groundbreaking research,
Columbia University professor Lisa
1 Lisa Miller, The Spiritual Child: The New Science on Parenting for Health and Lifelong
Thriving (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2015).
Miller confirms that a positive,
active relationship to spirituality
in childhood significantly reduces
depression, substance abuse, and
risky behavior in the teen years.
Moreover, childhood spiritual
development lays an essential
foundation for resilience, character,
identity formation, healthy
relationships, and flourishing in
adulthood. 1
Many of us intuit that our children
will get through life’s difficulties—
disappointment, illness, and loss—if
we ensure that they have certain
abilities. And we hope not only that
they’ll be resilient but also that
over the years they will develop
into mature, loving, and thoughtful
people who give back to the world.
However, these skills—such as
self-reflection, finding meaning and
purpose, clarifying values, and living
from wisdom and compassion—
aren’t necessarily taught in school.
Sometimes, in trying to instill these
in our children, we discover that
we ourselves could benefit from
spiritual development. Or, we find
that we no longer agree with our
childhood tradition, but we have
little with which to replace it.

This series of articles provides a
starting point for helping you and
your children develop what we
might broadly call a spiritual path
that is grounded in the Dhamma.
It brings together mindfulness,
meditation, and Buddhist
teachings to form a values-based
structure that emphasizes the
psychological, philosophical, and
relational dimensions of spiritual
development.
A Parent’s Path
Cultivating our children’s
spirituality begins with developing
our own. We may have lost
touch with this part of ourselves,
particularly in the whirlwind
that is our busy professional and
householder schedule. Nonetheless,
we are our children’s first and
primary teachers. How we are
ourselves shapes them. For this
reason, family dhamma should be as
much about a parent’s own spiritual
development as it is the children’s.
The aim of this parent development
is to:
• cultivate self-awareness,
insight, and understanding
• develop and maintain
emotional balance
• manage and reduce stress,
particularly as a parent
• help us become more attuned
and responsive to our children
and family members
• strengthen our skills as parents
• expand and deepen our own
spiritual path
• provide us with some language
and skills to help our children
develop their spiritual selves
That said, reading can point the
way, but it cannot necessarily
get you there. There are two
other important considerations
for meaningful spiritual growth.
The first is the importance of
discovering things for yourself. Our
personal insights into why things
are the way they are have much
more power for us when they are
related to the particulars of our
own life. We are significantly more
invested and engaged when an idea
TEACHINGS | EASTERN HORIZON 37
comes from within rather than
from what was said by another.
These moments of self-awareness,
in which we see something about
how we are in the world or
finally understand a piece of our
psychology, lead to finding new
strategies from our own earnest
desire to find what works for us.
For this reason, dhamma
development for parents should
have relatively little direct parenting
advice. Rather, because personal
insight is what leads to real growth,
one seeks to increase the frequency
and depth of insight by practicing
meditation. Thus, you should place
a strong emphasis on developing a
personal meditation practice. You
will find your own unique ways of
becoming a better parent as you
understand yourself and your family
dynamics more clearly.
The second consideration for
meaningful spiritual growth is that
of friendship and community. A
great deal of human learning occurs
38 EASTERN HORIZON | TEACHINGS
through observing the behaviors of
those around us. I remember, before
I had my own children, watching a
mother try to get her willful, tired
toddler into a car seat. I could easily
imagine an aggressive impulse to
shove the child’s hips into the seat,
overcoming her with adult strength.
The mother, however, pulled out
a simple object from her bag and
dangled it in front of the toddler.
As the child reached for it, she
became distracted and her body
relaxed right into the car seat. At
that point, the mother buckled her
in. The moment was a revelation for
me at several levels, particularly in
understanding that parenting could
be a skill that was learned. But more
important, it was something I saw
in real life from someone I knew.
We are social animals and, as a
result, much of our learning occurs
not through reading but through
relationships.
Therefore, as you undertake
family dhamma, consider joining
a community of caring, well-
intentioned, thoughtful families in
your area. Exploring questions and
issues will be far richer and deeper
if done with others.
A Child’s Path
Our children arrive into this world
with an innate spirituality. Yet,
without care and tending, childhood
spirituality can wither and even
become dormant until decades later.
Helping children learn meditation
and dhamma teachings provides
children with ways of finding:
• meaning and purpose in life
• self-knowledge
• freedom from consumerist
greed, ill will, hatred of the
other, ignorance, and delusion
• a life directed toward wisdom
and compassion
• authentic love for oneself and
others
• values and priorities that
lead to happiness, peace, and
contentment
Children’s dhamma programming
can be based on the idea that
children experience spirituality
through their senses. Connection,
mystery, awe, love, contentment,
inner peace—these arise through
hearing stories and singing together,
smells of incense, sharing food,
visuals in art and candlelight, and
in moving the body in ceremony
or dance. For children, all of these
aspects are magical and exciting.
Thus, children’s lesson plans should
center on activities that connect to
the senses in multiple ways.
With regards to teaching children
meditation, we should use
exercises that are engaging, putting
abstract teachings into tangible
activities. Certainly, a child can do
a few minutes of quiet breathing
meditation as adults do, but in the
experience of many teachers, long
meditation sessions get associated
with boredom or sleep. Besides, a
lot of children have their own way
of meditating informally, so we do
not need to be rigid about what

meditation is or is not. One of the
loveliest moments in the Buddha’s
story is when he asks himself, after
years of frustration chasing after
enlightenment through ascetic
practices, “When did I experience
peace?” He remembers a moment
from his childhood in which he was
resting under a rose apple tree and
experienced a level of contentment
and connection that no amount of
hardcore meditation had brought
before.
We should also bear in mind the
importance of peers in a child’s
spiritual development. The Buddha
taught that friendship is the whole
of the holy life. Strong, healthy,
and admirable companionship is
especially important for children
because more learning is happening
at a relational, emotional, and
psychological level than it is at an
intellectual level.
My Story
My personal history informs how I
approach bringing the dhamma to
families. Childhood: When I was
born in the 1970s, my parents lived
in a Zen meditation community in
rural New Hampshire. The intensive
schedule began at five o’clock in the
morning with an hour of meditation,
chanting, and bowing, followed
by forty-five minutes of tai chi.
The community children mostly
followed the schedule alongside
the adults. Every moment of the
day was considered practice and an
opportunity for awakening, from
sweeping the large dining room
to pulling weeds in the garden
to playing Zen basketball in the
parking lot. But what I remember,
far more than the long debates
about the nature of enlightenment
or of the self, speaks to how a child
experiences spirituality.
TEACHINGS | EASTERN HORIZON 39
Although I could get bored during
morning meditation, I nonetheless
loved this special time of quiet
and stillness. The smell of the
cedarwood incense, the glow of
the candles on the altar, the warm
smile of the Buddha, the rhythmic
chanting of the Heart Sutra, the
deep resonance of the bell, the
gracefulness of bowing—it all
created a feeling of sacredness that
gave expression to the magic and
wonder I felt from life. I believe that
children experience spirituality
through their senses and bodies,
and that movement, art, music,
scent, food, and stories, as well
as the experience of silence and
stillness, connects our children to
their spirituality. For this reason,
the children’s program used in my
curriculum is primarily a movement
and sense-based series of activities.
What I also remember most
clearly from these early years is
community. I had relationships
across generations. Sometimes I
took care of younger children; I
received guidance and modeling
from my parents’ peers; elders
were a source of warmth and
kindness. Many of the teachings on
generosity, kindness, consideration,
and serving others were reinforced
on a day-to-day basis through
living and practicing with others.
The Zen community also gave me
a feeling of belonging, of being
useful and needed, of shared
purpose, and of refuge. While
my parents also provided these
qualities, they were reinforced and
amplified by an entire community
of people. This speaks to me of the
importance of spiritual friendship.
40 EASTERN HORIZON | TEACHINGS
Our relationships, expressive of our
interconnection with each other
and all things, are the primary arena
for putting teachings into practice.
For this reason, a dhamma program
for children should emphasize
friendship and community as
integral to spiritual cultivation.
Young adult years: Despite the
gift of this unusual childhood of
meditation and training, my late
teen and early adult years were
marked by significant suffering.
Mental illness had been present in
my family throughout my childhood,
leading to instability, disruption,
neglect, and violence. Although
I found relief once I was on my
own at eighteen, I realized that,
although I myself did not have
mental illness, I had trauma and
deep emotional pain. Around then,
one of my brothers became suicidal,
narrowly surviving what became six
years of severe mental illness. I was
frequently involved in his care.
Motherhood: Shortly after
my daughter was born, I felt
overwhelmed by the constant
tending newborns demand.
Sustaining this level of attention
was difficult at first, but as the
weeks progressed, that early
anxious attention softened to
something more like an alert
mindfulness. I realized that
parenting itself had the potential
to be a continuation of spiritual
practice, in this way and in many
others.
Likewise, I found my earlier training
in mindfulness to be an invaluable
ally in developing as a parent. It is
Although I was tempted to turn
painful to admit this but, especially
to alcohol and other forms of
when my children were younger, I
self-medication, the training in
would frequently lose my temper
becoming aware of thoughts and
and yell at volumes I didn’t even
underlying motivations made it
know I had in me. I could be
clear that these pursuits were
quite harsh and demanding. I
ways to cope with and become
was ashamed to see this side of
numb to suffering. Meditation also
myself and worked hard to try to
gave me a structured method for
change my behaviors by applying
identifying and being present with
mindfulness. Nonetheless, despite
overwhelming emotions and states
best efforts, I saw very little change.
of mind. Moreover, the Buddhist
When my daughter was about five
teachings on suffering were
or six, I started meditating daily
enormously validating: suffering
for about twenty minutes. Through
happens to all of us. The Buddhist
quiet, seated meditation I began to
path also gave me a way to think
have some deeper understanding
about suffering as a place for
of the psychological origins of
awakening, and I could find meaning
my parenting. These insights,
and purpose in my experience.
in combination with kindness
Finally, I had a network of good
meditation, mostly for myself,
spiritual friends from my teen
brought about enough healing that
years, elders who acted as advisors
I began to change from the inside
and mentors when adult family
out, to become, more or less, a much
members could not. My childhood
better parent. For me, the path of
training and network of friends
parenting is also a path of healing
were an invaluable bridge in the
my childhood.
transition to adulthood.

Program director: Seeking
to create a community-based
setting for my children’s spiritual
formation as well as support for
my family as a whole, I started a
Sunday morning family program
here in Durham, North Carolina.
After several years of working with
parents and children, I observed
that many parents were restarting
their connection to spiritual
development after some time away
from it. In many ways, they were
as much beginners as were their
children. As such, parents needed
an introduction to the material just
as their children did. I also realized
that family life was incredibly fertile
ground for putting mindfulness and
teachings into practice, that a family
was a spiritual mini-community.
This aha moment led me to create
learning units that synchronized
the topics between the adult
and children’s programs. When
the adults were learning about
being mindful of their speech, for
example, the children had a similar,
developmentally appropriate
lesson. The weekly email newsletter
contained a report from the
children’s teacher so that parents
could follow up and integrate
material at home in the week that
followed.
Because I have had the privilege
of hearing parents candidly share
what’s happening at home, I’ve also
learned that no matter how good a
family looks on the outside, there’s
almost always pretty significant
stuff going on at home. For me
personally, it’s been a relief to
learn that there is no such thing
as a perfect parent. But more
important, the stories I’ve heard
have helped me see that a lot of
families are suffering and they
need compassionate relief, support,
and care. My work, in addition to
my marriage to a native of Korea,
has allowed me to connect with
Asian American families as well as
families in Asia. I’ve learned that the
challenges, anxieties, and needs of
parents are generally the same no
TEACHINGS | EASTERN HORIZON 41
matter what culture or place people
come from.
These four phases of my life, taken
together, inform the principles
and structure of my vision for
family dhamma programming. My
own children have gone through a
children’s dhamma program over
the course of seven or so years.
In thinking about their future,
although I hope the best for them,
I know that there are inevitable
difficulties that I cannot protect
them from when they go out on
their own. I see the work I’m
doing with them now as essential
preparation for their survival and
flourishing in adulthood. EH
Adapted from Sitting Together:
A Family-Centered Curriculum
on Mindfulness, Meditation, and
Buddhist Teachings by Sumi
Loundon Kim, ©2017 by Sumi
Loundon Kim. Reprinted by
permission of Wisdom Publications,
www.wisdompubs.org.
FORUM
42 EASTERN HORIZON | TEACHINGS
LIFE AFTER LIFE:
PERSPECTIVES ON KARMA
AND REBIRTH
Buddhism teaches that when a person dies he is reborn,
depending on his karma, and this process of death
and rebirth will continue until Nirvāṇa (nibbāna) is
attained. The teaching on karma and rebirth is one of
the core principles taught by the Buddha. Yet it has its
complexities.
As such, we have asked our three teachers from the
various Buddhist traditions – Venerable Aggacitta,
Venerable Ming Wei, and Venerable Geshe Dadul
Namgyal - to provide us an insight into some of the
most common questions about karma and rebirth.
Geshe Namgyal’s article is edited by Martha Leslie
Baker.
1. What scriptural evidence do we have that the
Buddha actually taught that we have past lives
and will be reborn after our death?
Aggacitta: There is an overwhelming number of
passages in the Pāli suttas that mention rebirth
after death. A digital search in the Pāli Canon of the
phrase kāyassa bhedā paraṃ maraṇā ... upapann* /
upapajj* (on the breakup of the body after death ... is
(are) / was (were) / will be reborn) shows hundreds
of occurrences. The ultimate goal of the Buddha’s
spiritual path is to be liberated from the cycle of birth
and death and a stock utterance of an arahant who
has achieved this is: ayamantimā jāti; natthi dāni
punabbhavo (this is [my] last birth; now there is no
renewal of being).   induced rebirth. The stages of gradual freedom from
Ming Wei: It is clear that the Jātakas have various
legendary biographies of the Buddha in both human
and animal forms. Buddha Śākyamuni spent many
lifetimes in the six realms of transmigration. His lives
as the monkey king, elephant king, deer king, and so on
are examples of lives spent in the realm of animals. The
Buddha had also been incarnated many times in the
realm of humans. One time, after Sundarī, the courtesan,
made a defamatory accusation against him, the Buddha
explained how actions from the previous life can affect
the shaping of events in one’s present life. As a result,
the Buddha is our greatest authority on rebirth. The
realm into which one is reborn and one’s conditions of
rebirth are determined by the past and present actions.
This is the law of karma at work.
Dadul Namgyal: There is much scriptural evidence
that Buddha taught thus. The well-known story
of his recollection of his past lives soon after his
enlightenment, stories that were made into the subject
matter of so many works of later masters such as
Āchārya Aśvaghoṣa’s poetic masterpiece, The Thirty-
Four Life Stories (of Buddha), and King Kṣemendra’s
Wish-Fulfilling Tree depicting over one hundred former
lives of Buddha Śākyamuni, are but a few examples of
Buddha having taught on the subject of rebirth. Besides,
the entire teachings on the twelve-links of dependent
origination found in both the Pāli and Sanskrit canons
are testimony to the doctrinal confirmation of our
continued rebirth into Saṃsāra and instructions on
how to attain freedom from the bondage of affliction-
the clutches of afflictions, from gross to subtle , the
whole teaching about the four stages of attainment, viz.

that of stream-enterer, once-returner, non-returner, and
arhatship are testimonies that Buddha taught rebirth
as the natural condition in Saṃsāra and how to gain
freedom from the afflictions.
2. The concept of rebirth or reincarnation
precedes the Buddha in India. How is the
teaching on rebirth taught by the Buddha
different from that of the other Indian teachers
of his time?
Aggacitta: The difference lies in their interpretation
of how rebirth can take place. Some said it is random,
some fated, some the creation of a Creator in a higher
realm of existence; but the Buddha taught that rebirth is
the result of interactive past life and present life kamma.
Ming Wei: The rebirth theories in different traditions
within Hinduism rely on their foundational assumption
that soul exists (atman), in contrast to Buddhist
assumption that there is no soul. Hindu traditions
consider soul to be the unchanging eternal essence
of a living being, and in many of its theistic and non-
theistic traditions the soul asserted to be identical
with Brahman, the ultimate reality. Thus, while both
Buddhism and Hinduism accept the karma and rebirth
doctrine, and both focus on ethics in this life as well as
liberation from rebirth and suffering as the ultimate
spiritual pursuit, they have a very different view on
whether a self or soul exists, which impacts the details
of their respective rebirth theories
Dadul Namgyal: The main difference is that in teaching
rebirth, he taught that while there is a self, it is not a
permanent, unitary, and independent entity. Like a
seed sown in the ground grows into a sprout, a plant,
a tree, etc. and back to seed and so on, maintaining its
continuum despite each instance of it being distinct
and different from each other; like a river flows along
a stretch of earth, undergoing changes over the course
of it, yet continuing its flow forward, maintaining its
continuity despite each stage of it being distinct and
different from all the rest, likewise a sentient being can
be reborn in a continuity despite each moment of it
being distinct and different.
TEACHINGS
FORUM | EASTERN HORIZON 43
3. If we have lived before how is it that most of
us do not recall any of our past lives? Did the
Buddha teach any techniques that allow us to
remember our previous existences?
Aggacitta: Modern research by Prof Ian Stevenson and
others on children who could spontaneously recall
their past lives concludes that one of the major factors
for such an ability lies in the proximity between the
locations where the previous personality lived and died,
and where the present one took rebirth and lived. It
seems that familiar objects tend to trigger spontaneous
past life memories. Other factors include a traumatic
death, a need to seek vengeance or to right a perceived
injustice suffered, and a strong attachment to family
members. So perhaps for most of us the above factors
do not apply. Nonetheless, past life regression therapists
claim that they can regress their clients through
hypnosis to access the past lives in which the root
causes of their current problems lie. 
The suttas mention non-Buddhist practitioners who
could recall a few past lives after attaining some sort
of samādhi. For Buddhist practitioners, the standard
technique is to develop the jhānas until the 4th one and
incline the mind to recall past lives. However, since no
details are given in the suttas on how to actually do so,
such details are provided by the commentaries, such as
the famous Visuddhi Magga (Path of Purity) compiled
by Ācariya Buddhaghosa. 
Ming Wei: Some people deny the existence of our
past lives simply because they cannot remember the
events of their past. Rebirth is a reality although one
may not be aware of it. Those who have developed
their minds through meditation have confirmed the
existence of past lives. Meditators who have attained
powers of concentration have been able to recall their
previous lives in great detail. The Buddha and His
prominent disciples, in many countries and at different
times, have been able to prove the existence of past
lives. The Buddha, on the night of His Enlightenment,
developed the ability to see His past lives. Thus, it was
from personal experience that the Buddha taught His
followers the truth of rebirth.
FORUM
44 EASTERN HORIZON | TEACHINGS
Dadul Namgyal: We sometimes have difficulty
remembering what we ate yesterday, let alone
remembering things we did or experienced a year
ago or even longer. So, it is natural for us to have
almost zero memory of any past life. Forgetting is not
evidence that something never happened. Even if we
were to recollect things in the past, through déjà vu,
or familiarity, or disposition, how are we to verify that
on our own? Even so, there are many cases of people
remembering and recognizing things in their previous
life that have been verified. One reason we ordinarily
have difficulty remembering past life or lives is that the
transition between a death of a past life and a rebirth
into a new life takes place on the basis of a very subtle
level of consciousness, after the grosser levels have
progressively dissolved nearer the time of actual death
along the process of dissolution. We live our entire life,
waking and sleep times included, in very gross levels of
consciousness. That is how no active memory remains
there, except for as latencies, which could ripen later in
life.
There are certain methods of cultivating memory of past
lives through meditative stabilizations and absorptions
explained in the scriptures. This comes under the
topic of six super knowledges or paranormal cognitive
powers that can boost one’s own progression along the
path as well as serve as great tools in aiding others on
their journey.
4. The law of karma states that our existence is a
result of either good or bad karma that we did
in previous existences, i.e. good actions result
in good rebirth, and vice versa. Is this principle
merely to be believed based on faith, or should
we as Buddhists verify the truth of it ourselves?
Aggacitta: The first factor of the Noble Eightfold Path
is Right View, which is initially belief in the law of cause
and effect in relation to  it is counteracted. It will not get lost of its own. To
• kamma and rebirth  a certain extent, the truth of these points can be
• material phenomena
• mind-body interaction.  to the inner world of subjective actions and their
With the proper practice of the other factors of the
Noble Eightfold Path, particularly Right Effort, Right
Mindfulness and Right Composure, one can verify all
three relationships to some extent. But it seems that the
success rate of the first one is very low compared to that
of the latter two. Thus for the majority of Buddhists, the
law of kamma and rebirth is just a belief based on faith,
not experiential verification.
Ming Wei: Actually, the ultimate objective in Mahāyāna
Buddhism for being Buddhist is not simply to acquire
good karma and benefit oneself, but to uplift and
work for others’ welfare. Nevertheless, karma is not
a solution to life’s problems. It must be sought in the
spiritual teachings which aim to bring the process to
an end through Enlightenment. Karma represents the
beginning stage of religious faith and stimulating the
search for solution.
Dadul Namgyal: Although the minute details
of a karma and its results may be beyond the
comprehension of an ordinary person like us, the
general outlines of karma are not that difficult to make
sense of. It is important to remember the four general
outlines of karma and its working:
1) Karma is definite in that happiness comes only
from constructive actions, and suffering only from
destructive ones. It never occurs the other way
around.
2) Karma is expandable in that a small action can bring
a large effect in the same way that a small seed can
produce a large tree.
3) We will not experience the effect of an action we
have not done. If we have not created the cause
to undergo a particular experience, we will not
experience it, even though others around us may, by
their own doing.
4) Karmic seeds do not get lost or magically vanish.
The effect of an action will be experienced unless
verified on the external world and can be applied

experiences. We may also come to a general
understanding of this by looking to see if there might
be questions we have to which the law of karma
might provide and answer.
5. Different Buddhist schools have various
interpretations regarding whether rebirth is
immediate or there is an interval between death
and the next birth. As a Dharma practitioner
how should we approach this contradiction,
i.e. is it important for us to know which is the
correct answer?
Aggacitta: Phenomena can be studied only through
the observation of all that have occurred after which
theories are formulated. Scientific theories are
constantly subjected to change as knowledge increases.
As such, doctrines and theories have their usefulness as
well as limitations. A doctrine may not be complete in
itself and there are probably elements of truth in all of
them. Doctrines are but mere attempts to understand
and explain reality within our limited means of
communication.
Bearing in mind that the Buddha says that what he
has taught is just like a handful of leaves compared to
what he has not taught, which is like all the leaves in
the forest, one should be open-minded and not belittle
others’ beliefs. Be humble enough to confess ignorance
rather than profess cognizance of things beyond our
ken.
Knowledge of what happens after death will influence
how we lead our lives, conduct ourselves when we find
ourselves out of the body, and also how we perform
bereavement services for our relatives or close friends.
Exposure to the various perspectives on the process
of dying and rebirth will enhance our appreciation of
them. This will in turn give us a better understanding—
no matter how limited—of the complexity of reality, and
help us charter the course of our lives and those of close
ones while we are still bound to saṃsāra.
TEACHINGS
FORUM | EASTERN HORIZON 45
Ming Wei: Buddhists differ in their beliefs about the
time between death and the next reincarnation. In
the Theravāda tradition, it is almost immediate but
Mahāyāna mourning rituals imply an interval of days
or even weeks. During this time, their family makes
offerings in order to earn good karma which is then
transferred to the deceased in order to facilitate their
next birth. However, rebirth isn’t seen as something
desirable. The goal of Buddhism is to break free of the
wheel of saṃsāra..
Dadul Namgyal: That is not so important for a
practitioner to know. The important thing is, as always,
to work to purify the mind, and to maintain and
improve upon that purity in all possible aspects. Only
those who are engaged in establishing the doctrine
and explaining the soundness of their philosophical
systems may be required to entertain such questions
and evaluate the validity of one position over the other.
Though, if one were to allow for the understanding of
this interval, which could open some venue for reaching
out to the deceased with prayers and good thoughts
so as to support their transition in the direction of a
fortunate rebirth. This possibility was alluded to in the
Sūtra Responding to a Query about What Happens after
Death, where Buddha answers several questions about
death, dying, karma and rebirth.
6. One of the difficulties in understanding rebirth
is that there is no “self” or “soul” that is reborn.
How best can we explain the Buddhist concept
of rebirth to someone new to Buddhism that
there is the process of rebirth but no self or soul
that is reborn after death?
Aggacitta: According to context, the Buddha freely uses
the word atta (self) to mean the conventional self or
personality which he accepted and the ‘ultimate’ self
which he refuted, e.g. in the concept of anatta (not-self).
The self that he negated is supposed to be permanent,
unchanging, in full control and forever happy. I don’t
think anyone would have this concept of oneself
because the opposite is so obvious: one is changing
FORUM
46 EASTERN HORIZON | TEACHINGS
all the time, never in full control and never forever
happy. The Buddha frequently reiterated that one is the
product of multiple causes and effects interacting in
complex ways. Just as one’s body and mind are changing
all the time due to such causality in this lifetime, the
same process continues in the afterlife. Thus while we
use conventional language to say one dies or is reborn,
there is actually no one there but a continuous process
of causes and effects that condition causes and effects
from one realm of existence to another. Yet there is
a specific permutation and continuity of causes and
effects for each person thus making every one uniquely
different from others.
Ming Wei: Buddhism strongly advocates that the
idea of self or soul is nonsensical and is a grasping for
permanence in an impermanent existence. In this light,
there is no such thing as rebirth or reincarnation as
the ‘self’ one supposes will be ‘reborn’ doesn’t exist in
the first place. However, the energies that make up an
individual’s sense of consciousness may indeed pass on
to another “existence” or “rebirth”. The ultimate reality
is that the mind simply arises and ceases at the last
moment of life and then a new mind arises at the first
moment of rebirth based on the last one, very similar
to as has been occurring throughout one’s life, except
this time there is no old physical phenomena for it to
be based on, so it is based solely on one’s final state of
mind in the last life.
Dadul Namgyal: Here we can speak of continuity or
continuum. It is important to understand that there
is no thing that actually moves from point one to
point two. At the same time, there is a continuity. The
previous moment of consciousness is not the same as
nor completely unrelated from the following moment of
consciousness. In his Essence of Dependent Origination,
Āchārya Nāgārjuna captures the eight examples
explained in the above sūtra in a single stanza:
(Like) recitation, lamp, mirror, seal,
Magnifying glass, seed, sourly taste, and echo
When a being enters conception
The wise understands that nothing is transferred.
Just as we see continuity in nature such as in trees,
water, air, etc. likewise there is the continuity of a
person, a mind and a consciousness without the
existence of any permanent, unitary, and independent
entity that one may call ‘soul’, ‘self’, ‘atma’, etc.
7. The goal of Buddhism is to “attain” Nirvāṇa
(nibbāna) where there is no more rebirth. Yet
Nirvāṇa is explained as not a physical location.
So it becomes extremely difficult to understand
what happens to us when we are finally no
longer gets reborn. Do we just disappear or
become nothing?
Aggacitta: Nibbāna is often described in the negative,
such as The Unborn, Deathless, Unconditoned,
Sorrowless, Extinquished, but also sometimes in the
positive: The Highest Happiness, Peace, Haven, Sublime.
I suppose trying to explain something that cannot be
apprehended by the five senses through the use of
vocabulary based on sense experience would be as
futile as trying to explain colors to one born color-
blind or sights to one blind at birth. Nibbāna is the
transcendence of existence and non-existence, whereas
only the latter two states can be conceived by the
unawakened mind bound by the limitations of sense
experience and the intellect. 
Perhaps it would be more useful to understand the
attainment of Nibbāna as the complete destruction of
greed, hate and delusion, a state of immutable, complete
purity and peace free from oppression by and slavery to
them. 
Ming Wei: Nirvāṇa can do nothing with disappearing
or becoming. Nirvāṇa simply means no longer stuck in
the cycle of rebirth. Therefore, Nirvāṇa is described as
the extinguishing of the fires that cause rebirths and
associated suffering. In the Mahāyāna context, Nirvāṇa
refers to the realization of non-self and emptiness,
where there is no essence or fundamental nature in
anything, and everything is empty, marking the end
of rebirth by stilling the fires that keep the process of
rebirth going. So, nirvana is not the place where we
 TEACHINGS
FORUM | EASTERN HORIZON 47

can go or enter it. Nirvāṇa is beyond space, time, and
definition, and so language is by definition inadequate
to discuss it. It can only be experienced.
Dadul Namgyal: There are references in certain sūtras
whereby an arhat (while still possessing the remainder
of his or her skandhas from past karma) upon death,
enters into Nirvāṇa without remainder. In this instance,
the continuum of the skandhas is severed for eternity
with no trace of anything whatsoever remaining,
including their consciousness skandha. However,
other schools of philosophical systems interpret these
references as provisional teachings. As such, there is
special resonance with the questioners or listeners for
long-term benefit from these teachings, but they do not
reflect the reality on the ground.
karmas accrued through them. Given the strength of
their meditation, wisdom, and altruistic attitudes such
as loving kindness, compassion, and bodhicitta, they do
not fall into mental sufferings either.
Venerable Āyasmā Aggacitta is
the founder of the Sāsanārakkha
Buddhist Sanctuary (SBS) in
Taiping, Perak, a Pāli scholar and a
meditation teacher.
Ven. Ming Wei is a teacher of e-learning at the
International Buddhist College (IBC) and an
independent translator of Buddhism.

So, attaining Nirvāṇa, thus becoming arhats, irrespective Geshe Dadul Namgyal is a Geshe
of with or without their saṃsāric skandhas, marks Lharampa and senior resident
accomplishing total freedom from the dictates of teacher at Drepung Loseling
afflictive emotions and actions induced by them, rather Monastery in Atlanta, Georgia, USA
than finding oneself in a separate location or becoming
extinct. So, one still continues to be in existence, and EH
may, by the force of mastery of meditative stabilization,
be born into the Pure Lands, if one chooses so as to
continue the journey to Buddhahood. Or one may
remain in the state of meditative bliss for as long as one
may wish, but no longer under the dictates of afflictions,
and thus no longer subject to their limiting influences,
either on the body or mind. In most such cases, they
remain in mental bodies, rather than in the same old
corporeal bodies generated from the afflictions and
polluted karmas.

In the case of arhat bodhisattvas or even arya

bodhisattvas, they typically choose to be born into
the realms of sufferings by the force of compassion
and prayer, or by the force of mastery in meditative
stabilization, or even take mental bodies produced
from the combination of unpolluted karma and the
subtle remnant-latencies of ignorance, but they no
longer find themselves subject to the physical sufferings
associated with bodies produced from afflictions and
48 EASTERN HORIZON | PERSONAL REFLECTIONS

5 WAYS TO BE HAPPIER
& LESS DEPRESSED
THROUGH BUDDHISM
By Francesca Biller

Francesca Biller is an award-winning investigative journalist and has reported for

print, radio and television for nearly twenty years. As a reporter, she has widely
covered the issues of politics, the economy, women’s issues, families, race, the
media, popular culture, children and a variety of other topical and timely issues.
Awards include The Edward R. Murrow award, two Golden Mike awards and four
Society of Professional Journalists First Place awards. Currently, she primarily
writes political satire, op eds and essays with a focus on women, children, politics
and pop culture for various blogs, websites and other media outlets.

As a young child, I did not realize how fortunate I was to have a Buddhist mother.

I simply assumed that all children grew up with the gifts of wisdom, sound solace and
a tangible sense of calm.

But after I flew the safe nest and breast of my mother, I learned that the rest of the
world was not so quiet, not so reflective, and not very serene at all. I learned much too
quickly that the world was often a bitter, ugly and angry place, and much too loud for
my sensitive ears. But it was just that sensitivity that I learned from Buddhism that
helped me through the pain and looming despair I would face.

Such painful periods included watching my infant daughter undergo open heart
surgery, enduring an abusive relationship for years, and suffering severe injuries in a
car accident.

There were also periods when I simply felt blue from the rigors that life can often
have on you. These include the day-to-day experiences of relationships, work, having
and raising children, trying to keep up or even find the Joneses, helping with aging
parents, and the first years of early childhood when one often feels so alone.

As I look back upon my life, and live each day with a brighter spirit as I have grown
older and hopefully wiser, the words of my Buddhist mother always whispers gentle
and soothing words straight into my spirit.

One core belief of Buddhism teaches that both
happiness and sadness is the responsibility of each
individual, which also means that we all have the
complete control to change our lives.
What a refreshing and enlightening concept!
I know that the life lessons I have learned through
Buddhism will continue to breathe life and breadth
with their true strength and power as I face new fears,
challenges and bouts of sadness that I now know are
just a part of the natural human experience.
I hope that the following five pieces of Buddhist wisdom
will find you well . . .
1. Meditation
Meditation is not easy, and if it was, it would not be able
to deliver to you the peace and well-being that it does
once you get the hang of it. Like all worthy endeavors,
it takes practice, patience and even some had work in
order to benefit from its invaluable gifts.
One of the oldest practices in history, meditation has
been used for centuries to heal the human spirit, calm
the mind and even cure and aid severe physical pain and
emotional suffering.
In our fast-paced and violent-charged world wherein
every segment of our population seems to be stressed
out, learning how to meditate is one way that can help
us heal and more importantly thrive and learn to be
peaceful, even in the eye of a life’s biggest storms.
Part of the process begins with simply learning how
to be still, quiet and truly relax. This can help anyone,
whether suffering from depression, or longing for
a more meaningful and well-intentioned life. The
purposeful act or rather non-act of meditating is also
a proven and highly effective way of helping people
to manage severe emotional and even physical pain.
This includes those who suffer from post-traumatic
stress disorder from the effects of war and emotional
turmoil which can include mental illness and clinical
depression.
PERSONAL REFLECTIONS | EASTERN HORIZON 49
There are countless ways to meditate, and no method
is the only correct method for everyone. Many people
fear meditation as they already make up their minds
that they will not be good at it. That’s the whole point
of meditation—to relax within yourself and put all
negativity aside. The important thing to remember is to
simply begin, and to try different techniques until you
find the one that works for you.
How to Start
Read a few books, talk to people who meditate, find a
class and learn about it.
Begin my practicing the simple act of sitting still for a
few minutes a day and closing your eyes. Turn off all
phones, your television, computer and even music so
that you can feel and even hear your own breath. Do not
give up if you feel nervous or anxious to begin with, there
is no right way or wrong way to meditate, it is not a race
or a contest. If you can only sit still for five minutes to
begin with, at least you know you are on your way to a
more authentic self, and hopefully a healthier you.
Above all, keep practicing. The changes you will see in
your life will be mind-altering and will alter your life.
2. Begin each day with a Positive Motivation
Rather than just hoping that you will have a peaceful
day and have positive experiences, make it happen.
In other words, before stepping out from a deep
slumber and going through the auto-pilot mechanics of
your hectic life, take five to 10 minutes to think about
some positive feelings and outlooks to set in motion.
This will make it more likely that you will be able to
experience peace for the coming day ahead, whatever
the day might bring.
My own motivations and affirmations include:
I will attempt to be peaceful in all of my interactions with
others.
I will be a conduit of calm, serenity and happiness in all
things that I do.
I will attempt to gain positive enlightenment from my day
and learn from others.
I will accept people as loving, peaceful and accepting as I
am and will not judge.
50 EASTERN HORIZON | PERSONAL REFLECTIONS
The aim is to be the maker and creator of your first
feelings of the day, which will undoubtedly effect the
remainder of your day. The first feelings of the day are
the most influential as to how the rest of your day will
be. If you make an effort to make these thoughts a part
of your conscious and subconscious awareness, you will
not only have a more peaceful day, but affect others in
the same manners as well.
3. Practice Mindfulness
The mind, the brain and our thoughts can be wonderful
and glorious gifts we can give ourselves, if we use them
right. But as we all know, our minds often lead us into
destructive patterns of thought, extreme negative
inner self-talk and self-deprecation that can lead us
into feeling pretty awful, if not downright isolated and
depressed.
Many depressed people claim to feel tired all of the time,
even those who have a relaxed schedule, as negative
emotions are truly toxic and exhausting to the spirit,
mind and the body.
Being mindful means that rather than simply going
through the motions and reliving pain, you will become
more aware of your feelings and thoughts, and therefore
improve them. By becoming more aware of your
feelings, you are more likely to think of actions and
solutions as they relate to negative and toxic thoughts.
How to practice Mindfulness
Begin by becoming more aware of your feelings when
you feel them, whether they are joy, pain, elation,
ambivalence, fear or anger. Allowing yourself to feel
your raw feelings when you feel them is truly the first
start in being able to manage your emotions and find
your way to peace.
Some of my spiritual epiphanies through mindfulness
include:
My past suffering does not have to hurt me any longer.
I feel the joys in my life much more strongly than any
pain.
I only have today and I can make it anything and any way
that I want it to be.
I truly love my children, and when they experience pain or
joy, I feel it too.
The pain I feel from childhood has made me the
empathetic person I am today.
The goal is to cultivate positive energy toward the good
feelings that we have as well as the bad. But we can only
discover what those are if we are mindful.
Begin . . . just begin.
4. Before you eat, Offer your food to Buddha
There is perhaps no other more automatic and mindless
action that humans have than the act of eating, and yet,
it is truly an act that can bring peace and serenity, while
also making us more physically healthy.
Of course you might ask yourself, “How do I offer food to
Buddha? What does that even mean?”
Start by imagining that all good food is made of a
blissful nectar that increases all of your wisdom. Next,
imagine that Buddha is lightness in your heart and that
when you eat, you offer the blissful nectar to Buddha,
as you are nourishing and filling up your own heart and
soul. Visualize this thought and eat mindfully, feeling
grateful for the act of eating and for the gift that it is
giving us. This will also ensure that you will eat slower
and help you to reflect about where your food came
from, how it came to your table, to your mouth, and to
your well being.
How I Offer my Food to Buddha
As I imagine Buddha within my body, I think of him or
her as a kind and gentle child that I only want to nourish
and keep happy.
When I prepare my food, I do it slowly, carefully and
with mindfulness, cutting fresh foods beautifully and
precisely and stirring cooked foods gently and patiently.
Whether it be a salad, fish or just a piece of fruit, I
imagine how much the Buddha within me will enjoy it
much more if I take my time to eat it and enjoy it.
This careful act of eating has not only made the ritual
of eating a positive one each every time, but it has also
inspired me to eat healthier food and therefore, become
a healthier being, inside and out.
 PERSONAL REFLECTIONS | EASTERN HORIZON 51

5. Looking Back on Our Day Questions to ask yourself:

This is similar to beginning the day with a positive
purpose and spirit of intent. When put into motion, it
will create a more peaceful and fulfilled day, all around.
But just as important as it is to have a positive start to
your day, it is of equal importance to end the day with
the same degree of mindfulness and reflection.
Rather than having thoughts ruminating in your head
such as: “I am so exhausted and just glad the day is
over,” or “Just another typical hard or boring day,” why
not instead look back on your day with some gentle
reflections?
Could you have been more patient, loving and kind in
your interactions with others?
Were you authentic and truthful to yourself in all of your
actions?
How might you be a more understanding and empathetic
person to both yourself and others tomorrow?
What was wonderful and joyous about your day?
What are you grateful about?

One reason why many people are not happy or
fulfilled in their lives is that they are either too hard on
themselves or not conscious and aware of their own
thoughts or actions. By being reflective about your day,
you can give yourself the gift of not repeating the same
mistakes or missteps, and by thinking carefully about
how your day went and how you want it to be different,
you can learn the art of getting to know your own mind
and how you act and react in different circumstances.
And once again, the most important thing is to be loving
and forgiving to yourself for your transgressions. Only
when you are willing to forgive yourself first, can you
forgive others.
The act of looking back upon your day will not only help
you learn about yourself and hopefully help you to be a
better person, a spiritual person, and a loving person to
yourself and others, but be a happier person as well. EH

You will also have more reflective, interesting and Source: the Elephant Journal, Jan 18, 2013
revealing dreams if your last thoughts before drifting off
were thoughtful, rather than random and purposeless.
While knowledge isn’t always power, it can lead you to
a more spiritual path that can make you happier, if you
learn how to reflect upon your thoughts and actions.

How to Look Back on your Day

Sit down in a quiet spot, on your bed, a chair or
anywhere you can be alone for at least 15 minutes.

Close your eyes and think about your day as if it were

a movie or a book; notice the different scenes that
you were a part of, the people you interacted with and
the feelings that you felt. And now, just sit with those
feelings and think about how you might wish to act
differently and feel differently if you were faced with the
same circumstances.
52 EASTERN HORIZON | PERSONAL REFLECTIONS
Venerable Chang Zao was
ordained as a Buddhist nun in
the Chinese Mahāyāna Buddhist
tradition, She is currently
Director of Dharma Drum
Mountain Buddhist Centre
Malaysia.
Venerable Chang Zao graduated
from the National University of
Malaysia, KL Campus and later
pursued her Buddhist studies at
Dharma Drum Sangha University,
Taiwan, in 2007. She was
ordained by and learned Chan
meditation under Master Sheng
Yen, a key figure in the revival of
modern Chinese Chan Buddhism.
Upon graduation from Dharma
Drum Sangha University, she
was appointed as a lecturer and
advisor for a number of faculties
at Public Education Center
of Dharma Drum Mountain
Taiwan. She had supervised
the development of dharma
syllabus and course planning.
She was also advisor for Dharma
Drum Mountain Singapore
and Dharma Drum Mountain
Thailand. Currently, she conducts
meditation classes, retreats,
religious services, dharma classes
and inter-varsity Buddhist camps
in Malaysia.
IT IS JUST A
TRAFFIC JAM
By Venerable Chang Zao
Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of
Malaysia, is known for its traffic
congestion.
For people who live and work in
this city, it is often the case that we
feel a sense of helplessness while
dealing with this unwelcome daily
problem. All we can do is to sigh and
say: “Here we go again!” It seems
that we don’t have any control over
the traffic. If we are lucky, our cars
move slowly like a turtle; but if we
are unlucky, we are forced to remain
idle in traffic in a very long period
of time as if we are parked in a huge
parking lot.
I learned about the traffic problem
the hard way when I was a student.
One day, I left home for school ten
minutes later than my usual time.
As a result, it took me two hours to
get to school instead of 15 minuets.
Once I was there, I told the teacher
my excuse with embarrassment and
fear thinking I might not be forgiven
for being late. To my surprise, as
soon as the teacher knew that I
came from Jalan Klang Lama, she
let me off the hook and said: “Oh,
the road is known for its infamous
traffic nightmare.”
Congestion on the roads is not
always the same. Recently, there has
been some changes.
Once, I heard a practitioner proudly
telling a crowd: “There used to
be two traffic jams a day; one in
the morning and the other in the
afternoon. Now, it is different. There
is only one traffic jam a day.”
The audience was envious and
asked him which part of the city he
lived for It had to be a safe haven
where he could avoid traffic jams.
He explained: “There is one traffic
jam daily because the traffic gets
jammed all day long.”
The truth was that he had nothing
for anyone to envy.
Indeed, there is no one to envy in
this world even though some are
genius and extremely fortunate.
If you are jealous or envious of
someone, disappointment and
sadness will await you.
Envy may present itself as a
yearning for closeness; however,
envy is just another form of
desperation. Being envious means
having expectations. In this case,
we expect a smooth ride to our
destination, a fast-paced lifestyle,
and a life within one’s prediction;
and of course, having control over
our lives.
Having expectations means that

one is not satisfied with his or
her current life and hoping for
perfection. Our minds become
easily anxious, angry, and negative
once there are challenges, delays
and unpredictability in our lives.
In fact, having expectations and
being envious bring us anxiety and
irritation.
Being well balanced may be a
difficult idea to grasp for us who
must deal with the traffic nightmare
in Kuala Lumpur day in and day out.
Having said that, many of us refuse
to be dominated by our negative
thoughts and emotions; as we all
wish to be free from them.
What would Buddha do?
Would Buddha resolve the problem
by chanting sutras and reciting
mantras?
Would Buddha meditate and use
the power of stillness to resolve the
problem?
Or, would Buddha take this as an
opportunity to teach and give birth
to the Traffic Jam Sutra?
It is impossible for us to come up
with any answer for this question
since we are not able to understand
the wisdom of the Buddha. We
are full of vexation because of our
unenlightened mind; thus, our
beliefs, values and thoughts are
biased and delusional.
What Buddhist sages would do, if
they came to this gridlocked city?
“Modern people are lucky since
they have cars to drive. They are
sheltered from bad weather and
have air conditioners in their cars. It
is amazing!”
“We had to walk for hours,
sometimes even days to meet.
Meeting face-to-face is very
convenient in the modern world.
Meetings can be arranged through
a phone call instantly, and possibly
happen almost immediately
afterwards. “
“In this modern world, people are
more self-resilient. People of all
ages and genders are independent
and self-determinate. They build an
extraordinary society through their
own efforts.”
This country is economically stable;
as a result, most citizens have
their basic needs met, and almost
everyone owns a car.
How come we have never
thought about these positive and
appreciative statements?
That is because of our never-ending
thirst for more. The more we enjoy
our convenient lives, the more we
want to improve it. In the end, this
desire brings us more stress and
anxiety. The more technologically
advanced we are, the less patient
and tolerance for unpredictability
we become. When our expectations
are not met, we become
disappointed, and our minds are full
of vexation.
Technology advancement is largely
meant to improve the quality of
our lives; however, it becomes the
source of stress, anxiety and many
PERSONAL REFLECTIONS | EASTERN HORIZON 53
other negative emotions to a large
degree. In other words, technology
advancement stops us from living
in the moment and having a simply
life. We lost touch with our inner
child who is curious, innocent,
and sensitive with a pure heart.
Instead, we are unappreciative and
unsatisfiable.
Because of being trapped in traffic
jams, our minds are filled with
blame and negative judgement. We
blame our misery on other road
users, the government, and the
society. We then internalize this
hostility and blame ourselves for
living in this city and having no
wings to fly. We complain endlessly.
What about pleasant rush hour
memories?
Of course, there are some; however,
we tend to forget them. When I
rode in a car as a child, I paid full
attention on the rapidly changing
streetscapes. I could have never
noticed the beauty of raindrops
dancing on the windshield without
being in a traffic jam whereby the
car remain stationary.
I thank the traffic congestion for
strengthening my friendships,
especially during my younger years.
Being stuck in the traffic, my friends
and I had many insightful and
intimate conversations.
After working full time, I
participated in many phone
conferences, and listened to many
dharma talks in traffic jams. These
dharma talks comforted me for they
are the chicken soup for my soul.
54 EASTERN HORIZON | NEWS

WHY
A traffic jam is not all ignorance. When we slow
down, our minds settle down. We can take the

BUDDHIST
opportunity to acknowledge similarities among
us as drivers and road users. Like everybody else,
we pursue happiness tirelessly even though our

‘FANGSHENG’
lives are full of ups and downs. Thus, we are all
inter-connected. Next time when your car can only
move forward slowly inch by inch during rush hour,
I invite you to see that as a blissful and enjoyable
moment. Each inch is a new beginning that is worth MERCY
RELEASE
our gratitude.

The ability to lift ourselves out of our never-ending

negative states and to cultivate peaceful minds
through fostering a sense of connectedness, and RITUALS CAN
BE MORE
gratitude is essential to a healthy life; however, that
ability can be easily lost when we are in a rush.

Almost everyone is negatively affected by the traffic

congestion; however, we have the choice to be CRUEL THAN
KIND
happy and appreciative. When we sit in the traffic,
take the opportunity to be self-aware so that we
can find the root cause of our painful emotions; to
be grateful so that we can see the beauty and rarity The Guardian, Sept 30, 2017
of the moment; to be open-minded so that we can
discover the bright side and value of everything.
Brighton, UK -- It was intended as a Buddhist act
Remember, it is just a traffic jam. Let’s accept the of mercy and compassion, but ended in a criminal
reality, settle in the environment, and enjoy the conviction and significant environmental risk. The
moment. Our bodies experience a traffic jam; release of hundreds of alien lobsters and crabs into the
meanwhile, we can free our minds from the impact sea off Brighton has highlighted the perils of a ritual
of our negative emotions. While encountering that takes kindness to animals too far.
rush hour traffic on our way to and from work,
Two London Buddhists, Zhixiong Li, 30, and Ni Li,
let’s practice the art of calming our minds by using
33, pleaded guilty last week at Brighton magistrates
positive thinking as a tool (not a destination state)
court to breaking the Wildlife and Countryside Act
to transform our state of mind from being negative
1981 by releasing non-native species into the wild,
to being calm and mindful. With this ability, we can
causing “untold damage” to marine life. The pair were
shape our life to be more efficient and resilient.
ordered to pay a total of more than £28,000 in fines and
compensation.
And of course, let’s send our most sincerest wish
to other drivers on the road wishing them serenity,
They, along with more than 100 other Buddhists,
health, and happiness.
were taking part in a rite known as fangsheng, or
We should all willingly endure hardships with
“life release”, as the highlight of a visit to the UK of
gratitude. EH
Taiwanese Buddhist master Hai Tao two years ago. The
group hired three boats from Brighton marina, emptied
◎ Venerable Chang Zao Translated by Bekki

The case of two London Buddhists fined for releasing crustaceans into
the sea has thrown the spotlight on a ritual that involves hundreds
of millions of wild animals – and a huge industry built around their
capture and supply
A Buddhist monk releases a lobster into the ocean.  were recovered, and there was
their load into the sea a mile off
the coast and returned to shore –
presumably full of good karma.
The ritual dates back to the third
century, but has seen a resurgence
in recent years. Hai Tao, a champion
of animal rights, advocates
fangsheng – saving the lives of
creatures destined for slaughter – as
a way for Buddhists to demonstrate
compassion, create good fortune
and earn merit.
According to Humane Society
International (HSI), hundreds of
millions of birds, fish, monkeys,
turtles and other animals are
involved in acts of fangsheng every
year. But these days, it says, “mercy
release has become an industry
built on the capture and supply
of wild animals, for whom there
NEWS | EASTERN HORIZON 55
invasive species that may threaten
the survival of the native species.”
A few days after the fangsheng
ritual off the south coast of the UK, a
Brighton fisherman was puzzled to
find non-native lobsters and crabs
among his catch. He alerted the
Marine Management Organisation
(MMO), which chartered boats
and offered local fishermen a
£20-a-head bounty for every alien
crustacean they captured. But only
323 out of a total of more than 700
evidence some lobsters had begun
breeding in their new home.
are devastating consequences of
injury, illness or death”. In Taiwan
Still, the Brighton incident is far
alone, 200 million wild animals are
from the worst case of fangsheng
used every year in release rituals,
gone wrong. In 2012, followers
according to HSI in 2012. Fangsheng
of Hai Tao released hundreds of
is also practiced in China, Hong
snakes in a mountainous area of
Kong, Singapore, Nepal, the United
Taiwan not native to them, leaving
States and the UK.
locals to deal with regular house
visits from the serpents. “Releasing
The organisation says many animals
captive animals is good practice,
are fatally injured in the ritual,
but releasing snakes into the wild
and those that survive release
hurts society and contravenes the
often die soon afterwards from
intention of mercy,” Hai Tao said at
exhaustion, injury or disease, or
the time.
else become prey to other species.
Some are re-captured after the
In comparison, dumping a few stray
ritual and re-sold. Release can also
crabs and lobsters really does seem
cause environmental harm, it adds.
merciful. EH
Animals “may be released outside
their natural habitats and in groups
Source: Buddhist Channel www.
large enough to establish breeding
buddhistchannel.tv
populations, often wreaking havoc
on local ecosystems. Some are
56 EASTERN HORIZON | NEWS

BUDDHIST MONKS
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam -- Situated
along Nhieu Loc Canal in HCM City’s
District 1, Van Tho (Longevity) Pagoda
has been a trusted place for free
traditional cures for sprains, fractures
OFFER FREE
TRADITIONAL
and muscle and bone injuries for more
than 30 years.

TREATMENTS
Highly skilled and experienced herbalist
monks treat nearly 200 patients every
day, most of them poor labourers and
old people. By San Ha, VietNamNet Bridge, Nov 19, 2017

The small clinic on one side of the

pagoda operates from 2pm to 5pm
every day except on Sundays and major
Buddhist festivals.

Lai Khac Chung, 37, a printing worker

from Tan Binh District, fell down a stair
and sprained an ankle, which swelled
up rapidly and very painfully.
“Now, after I visited the clinic two
times, I can walk normally and my leg
is not swollen or painful anymore,” he
said.

A monk applied some herb on the

sprained ankle and bandaged it and
asked him to return after three days to
get the herbs replaced.
“When I was young, my mother used to
take me there to treat twisted ankles.
This is the second time I went there to
treat a sprain,” he said.
Almost all his relatives go to this
pagoda if they have a sprain, fracture,
arthritis, or back pain, he said.
The monks use secret recipes made by
fermenting herbs in wine.
Patients who want to can donate money
to the pagoda’s charity fund.
Ven. Thich Dong Thien, one of herbalists at the Van Tho (Longevity) Pagoda in HCM City’s District
1, treats a patient.
and even attracts people from other
provinces.
The Most Venerable Monk Thich Thanh
Son, 88 years old, the head of the
pagoda, founded the clinic in 1980.
“At first people did not trust the clinic.
But within five or six years it had
become famous due to the efficacy of its
methods. Now it is too crowded.
He has handed down his knowledge
and experience to other monks in the
pagoda, enabling them to run the clinic.
The Most Virtuous Monk Thich Dong
Thien, one of the herbalists in charge,
started working at the clinic in 2006
following a six-year apprenticeship
after graduating in traditional medicine
from Pham Ngoc Thach University of
Medicine in HCM City.

“The biggest happiness of my life is to He and the Most Virtuous Monk Thich
The highly effective treatment despite see people recover from illness,” he said. Dong Thuan take turns to replace Son,
being free means the clinic is famous when he is absent.

Patients come from all walks of life,
but most of them are poor, Thuan
said.
Local residents and people from
neighbouring provinces know about
the reputation of the clinic through
word of mouth, he said.
Many people with arthritis and back
pain have switched to traditional
medicine after many years of trying
treatment at hospitals, he said.
Many patients come with back pain
and have herbs applied on their
back twice a week, Diu Bach, a
volunteer at the pagoda, said.
Besides the monks who are
in charge of examination and
treatment, there are five or six
Buddhist volunteers who perform
such tasks as handing out tokens,
preparing herbs and bandaging
injuries.
“We want to help disadvantaged
people with health problems,” Bach
said.
Nguyen Van Thuan, 72, of Tan Binh
District brought his wife Vo Bich
Ngoc, 68, who had had back pain for
many years, to the pagoda.
He said despite going to several
hospitals and taking lots of
medicines she did not feel any
better.
Their relatives had told them that
the clinic was reputed for treating
back pain, he added.
Source: Buddhist Channel (www.
buddhistchannel.tv)
BUDDHISM
REVEALED AS
FASTEST-GROWING
RELIGION IN
SCOTTISH JAILS
By Stephen Stewart, Daily Record, 9 OCT 2017
Cons are feeling karma as faith soars in popular across prisons in Scotland.
Edinburgh, Scotland (UK) -- Buddhism
is one of the fastest-growing religions in
Scottish jails, the Record can reveal.
Figures show there are more than 20
practicing Buddhists in our prisons.
A Freedom of Information request has
revealed 22 inmates registered their
¬religion as Buddhism in the past three
years.
Prison chiefs were unable to say where
these inmates were or how many
professed their Buddhist faith before
2014 – but the figure is believed to be a
significant increase on past years.
The news comes as Buddhism was
revealed as the fastest-growing religion
in England’s jails, with numbers rising
eightfold in 10 years. A source said:
“It was a surprise to see so many cons
professing their belief in a peaceful
religion about karma and love.
“In the past, inmates have said they
were Jewish or Muslim to get better
food but it’s hard to see what’s behind
the sudden surge in popularity of
Buddhism.”
NEWS | EASTERN HORIZON 57
Followers of the faith, whose leaders
include the Dalai Lama, believe in the
sanctity of life but almost all of the
Buddhist inmates in England were
serving time for serious crimes such as
violence and sex offences.
It is claimed most of the Buddhists in
jail converted after being convicted,
and chose it because its emphasis on
meditation helps them cope with being
locked up.
Previously, Lord Avebury, the patron
of Buddhist prison chaplaincy
organisation ¬Angulimala, said: “I think
it does enable people to come to terms
with their situation.
“Buddhism gets people away from
the idea of material ambitions, and if
people are in prison they can’t go for
those goals anyway.”
Killer gangster Robert “Birdman”
O’Hara has joined the ranks of converts.
More than 130 prisoners demand food
for religious reasons and prison chiefs
can’t challenge their beliefs. EH
Source: Buddhist Channel www.
buddhistchannel.tv
 BOOKS IN BRIEF | EASTERN HORIZON 59

BOOK REVIEW BY VIJAYA SAMARAWICKRAMA

Sumi Loundon, Sitting Together: A Family-centered Curriculum on Mindfulness

Meditation and Buddhist Teachings. 3 volumes: Adult Study guide, Children’s lesson
plans, Activity Book. Boston: Wisdom, USA. 2017. www.wisdompubs.org

For centuries in Asia the process of transmitting the Dharma-vinaya was largely
structured along traditional lines in neighborhood temples while what was
learned there was reinforced informally by parents and extended family members
through cultural immersion. Thus, children ‘grew into’ the framework of Buddhist
practice naturally. Over the last half century or so, however, Buddhism has spread
worldwide and societies have changed drastically with education becoming far
more formal with the task of providing a ‘Buddhist education’ being entrusted to
trained educationists or volunteers.

This has necessitated the introduction of syllabuses and curricula to conform

with the latest practices in education. “Sunday schools” require teachers to be
proficient in the trappings of modern pedagogy such as classroom management,
child psychology, curriculum planning, testing and so on. The task has proved to be
formidable and fraught with seemingly unsurmountable challenges – catering for
different age groups, providing instruction once a week, dependence on unpaid,
untrained volunteers, little follow-up at home etc.

Thankfully, Sumi Loundon Kim has come up with Sitting together: a family-centered
curriculum on mindfulness, meditation and Buddhist teachings which take these
challenges into account and provide a workable solution. This three volume
set provides a complete curriculum for adults and children to learn meditation
mindfulness together with facets of the Buddha’s teachings. It is designed to be
used by both adults and children in Buddhist centres as well as at home.

The author includes a very useful introduction which not only spells out the
challenges to modern Buddhist education but also provides extremely clear step-
by -step instructions which can easily be followed by anyone even without formal
training in pedagogy. Aimed at learners between the ages of 3-12, it covers five
units on meditation, kindness, ethics, character and service. It is worth noting
also that these instructions are not confined to any one particular Buddhist school
of thought as they intentionally cover only the foundational aspects of Buddhist
doctrine and practice which are common to all Buddhists. Teachers and parents will
find a wealth of new ideas to get children engaged in Buddhist practice through a
variety of activities aimed at creating mindfulness and practicing meditation using
modern techniques. EH
60 EASTERN HORIZON | BOOKS IN BRIEF
BOOKS IN BRIEF
Wisdom Publications.
199 Elm Street, Somerville,
MA 02144, USA
www.wisdompubs.org
The Sutta Nipāta. An Ancient
Collection of the Buddha’s Discourses
Together with its Commentaries.
Translated by Bhikkhu Bodhi, 2017. pp
1612. US$75.00
The Suttanipāta, or “Group of
Discourses” is a collection of
discourses ascribed to the Buddha
that includes some of the most
popular suttas of the Pāli Canon,
among them the Discourse on Loving-
Kindness Sutta. The suttas are
primarily in verse, though several
are in mixed prose and verse.
The Suttanipāta contains discourses
that extol the figure of the muni,
the illumined sage, who wanders
homeless completely detached
from the world. Other suttas, such
as the Discourse on Downfall and
the Discourse on Blessings, establish
the foundations of Buddhist lay
ethics. The last two chapters—the
Aṭṭhakavagga (Chapter of Octads)
and the Pārāyanavagga (The Way
to the Beyond)—are considered to
be among the most ancient parts of
the Pāli Canon. The Aṭṭhakavagga
advocates a critical attitude
toward views and doctrines. The
Pārāyanavagga is a beautiful poem in
which sixteen spiritual seekers travel
across India to meet the Buddha
and ask him profound questions
pertaining to the highest goal.
The commentary,
the Paramatthajotikā, relates the
background story to each sutta and
explains each verse in detail. The
volume includes numerous excerpts
from the Niddesa, an ancient
commentary already included in the
Pāli Canon, which offers detailed
expositions of each verse in the
Aṭṭhakavagga, the Pārāyanavagga,
and the Rhinoceros Horn Sutta.
Translator Bhikkhu Bodhi provides
an insightful, in-depth introduction,
a guide to the individual suttas,
extensive notes, a list of parallels to
the discourses of the Suttanipatā, and
a list of the numerical sets mentioned
in the commentaries. EH
Interconnected. Embracing Life in
our Global Society. by The Karmapa,
Ogyen Trinley Dorje, 2017. pp 248.
US$24.95
We have always been, and will always
be, interconnected—through family,
community, and shared humanity.
As our planet changes and our world
grows smaller, it is vital we not only
recognize our connections to one
another and to the earth but also
begin actively working together as
interdependent individuals to create a
truly global society.
The Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, is
uniquely positioned to guide us in this
process. Drawing on years of intensive
Buddhist training and a passionate
commitment to social issues, he
teaches how we can move from a
merely intellectual understanding to
a fully lived experience of connection.
By first seeing, then feeling, and
finally living these connections, we
can become more effective agents of
social and ethical change. 
The Karmapa shows us how gaining
emotional awareness of our
connectedness can fundamentally
reshape the human race. He then
guides us to action, showing step by
step how we can change the way we
use the earth’s resources and can
continue to better our society. In
clear language, the Karmapa draws
connections between such seemingly
far-flung issues as consumer culture,
loneliness, animal protection, and
self-reliance. In the process, he helps
us move beyond theory to practice
and positive social and ethical change.
EH

Shambhala Publications, Inc.
(including Snow Lion, an imprint of Shambhala Publications, Inc)
4720 Walnut Street,
Boulder, CO 80301-2670, USA
www.shambhala.com
Touching the Infinite. A New
Perspective on the Buddha’s Four
Foundations of Mindfulness.
by Rodney Smith, 2017. pp 269.
US$16.95
Awakening manifests through
the application of mindfulness to
four areas: body, feelings, mind,
and dharmas.  Buddhists of all the
traditions share this principle found
in the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta, which has
been expounded upon since the time
of the Buddha himself.  Rodney Smith
challenges us to hold this teaching
up against our own experience,
and in doing so to discover the
inherent interconnection of all Four
Foundations. They are revealed to
be a sequential path leading the
practitioner from the world of form to
the joyous perception of the formless.
The Four Foundations of Mindfulness
thus serve as a road map for any
genuine spiritual path. EH
The Just King. The Tibetan Buddhist
Classic on Leading an Ethical Life
by Jamgön Mipham. Translated by
José Ignacio Cabezón, 2017. pp 316.
US$24.95
Leadership. Power. Responsibility.
From Sun Tzu to Plato to Machiavelli,
sages east and west have advised
kings and rulers on how to lead. Their
motivations and techniques have
varied, but one thing they all have had
in common is that their advice has
been as relevant to the millions who
have read their works as it has been to
the few kings and princes they were,
on the surface, addressed to.
The nineteenth-century Buddhist
monk and luminary Jamgön Mipham’s
letter to the king of Dergé, whose
small kingdom straddled China and
Tibet during a particularly turbulent
period, is similar in the universality
of its message. This work, however, is
unique in that it stresses compassion,
impartiality, self-control, and
virtue as essential for long-lasting
success—whether as a leader or an
individual trying to live a meaningful
life. Mipham’s historic contribution
to ethics and governance, until now
little studied outside of Buddhist
circles, teaches us the importance
of protecting life, fair taxation,
BOOKS IN BRIEF | EASTERN HORIZON 61
BOOKS IN BRIEF
environmental sustainability, aiding
the poor, and freedom of religion.
Both present day leaders and those
they lead will find this classic work,
finally available in English, profoundly
illuminating on political, societal, and
personal levels. EH
An Ocean of Blessings. Heart
Teachings of Drubwang Penor
Rinpoche. Translated by Ani Jinba
Palmo. 2017. pp 149. US$24 .95
This inspiring work is the first
available collection of teachings
by one of the most well-known
Nyingmapa masters of the twentieth
century, His Holiness Penor Rinpoche.
Ani Jinba Palmo compiled and
translated this valuable collection
of Penor Rinpoche’s fundamental
instructions for practitioners on the
Vajrayana path. Coming straight
from the heart and realization of
this great master, these honest
and clear teachings emphasize
the indispensable foundations of
loving-kindness, mindfulness, and
simplicity needed to become a true
yogi. Profound yet accessible, this
work serves to remind Buddhist
practitioners of the heart of the
Tantric and Dzogchen traditions. EH
 The Passing On of an Icon
by Rasika Quek

Dharma Aftermath

The names Lady Sujata and Lady Visakha who lived during the time of the Buddha are
familiar names to most Buddhists. The former offered milk-porridge to the Bodhisatta
just before his Enlightnment whilst the latter, a daughter of a millionaire was a great
female supporter of the Buddha. The Lady Visakha was the epitome of a devout lay
Buddhist who played an important role in various activities amongst the Buddha and
his followers. At times, she was given the authority by the Buddha to settle disputes that
arose amongst the nuns (bhikkunis). Some Vinaya rules of discipline were also laid down
for the nuns when she was called in to settle their disputes.

We in the Buddhist community recently lost our own present day iconic “Lady” of the
Dhamma on October 28th. According to her family members she passed away peacefully
after breakfast. She was eating and talking normally before she gently closed her eyes.
At the eulogy given by Bhante Sri Saranankhara Nayaka Maha Thera, the Chief Monk of
Sri Lanka Buddhist Temple, Sentul, Kuala Lumpur, we were told that Aunty Tan (maiden
name, Chin Kim Lan) was given a lease of life for 20 years. Twenty years earlier, Aunty
Tan was quite ill and when Bhante visited her at the hospital and reminded her of her
numerous good deeds, she shed tears of joy. This probably spurred her on to live to
continue with her good work until her last breath a few days ago at the age of 92. Bhante
Sri Saranankhara quipped that Aunty Tan would have to wear hundreds of different
T-shirts to represent every organization she had helped before.

We will always remember seeing Aunty Tan and her band of zestful helpers dishing
out assam laksa, meehoon, kueh and other delicious food and drinks at the Brickfields
Maha Vihara and other temples every Sunday and at festive occasions to raise funds
for temple building and renovation, building wells and proper utilities, and aiding
poor communities, etc. She was a permanent fixture in our hearts when it came to
volunteerism and service. No one could compare with her heart of gold, to which she
rightly earned the nickname, “Queen of Dana.” In her heart, there was no differentiation
between Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana. She gave her all, regardless of who came
to her for help. Therefore, it came as no surprise that virtually every Buddhist group was
represented during the wakes. It would have been mayhem had every Buddhist group
clamoured to do the funeral chanting for her. Thanks to the resourcefulness of her family
members, suitable time-tables were prepared and organized to ensure that everyone had
their chance to pay their respects and that traffic was controlled to avoid inconvenience.
It was amazing to see such huge numbers of monks and nuns, besides the laity, turning
up night after night to pay their respects to her. Some groups such as the Selangor
Buddhist Vipassana Meditation Society and the Buddhist Wisdom Centre, Selangor
combined forces to do the chanting together to save the limited time available. Aunty
Tan was fortunate that on the day of her passing, Sayadaw Jnanapurnik and Guruma
Maechi Chini of Nepal happened to be around. They together with Venerables Nayako
and Gavesi paid their respects on the evening of the 28th. once her body was brought back
to the family home. The wakes felt more like a celebration rather than being a sorrowful
or mournful affair like most others. A Dato’ Seri was overheard saying that we were all
gathering to celebrate her life (and the good deeds she had done), which was fantastic.
Aunty Tan must have been sent by the Devas, he said.

The lady with a golden heart, the ever ready smile and willing pair of hands is how some
of us will remember her. No wonder, even people from Sri Lanka, India, Myanmar, etc.
know about her and many of them have benefitted from her fund-raising efforts. I was
told that a Rinpoche from Sikkim had called in and said his monastery would chant for
Aunty Tan for 49 days. Aunty Tan was truly a national and international inspiration. Soft-
spoken and unassuming, her secret weapon was the “ice-kacang” making machine (hand-
operated ice-shaver). Just imagine, thousands of people from various parts of Asia and
possibly elsewhere have benefitted from her selfless efforts using this simple machine
and her willingness to dish out delicious food for sale in the name of charity. We wonder
now whether the assam laksa in Tavatimsa Devaloka would taste better.

My wife will always remember how thoughtful Aunty Tan was when my son was
delivered almost two decades ago. Aunty had brought along suitable home-cooked food
for my wife to eat during a visit. She was treated like Aunty’s own daughter. I suppose
that’s how Aunty treats everyone who is much younger than her – like a daughter or son.

May Aunty Tan always be well and happy wherever she may be and may she attain the
bliss of Nibbana soon. Likewise, may all beings be well and happy and attain the bliss of
Nibbana as soon as possible.
Rasika Quek EH
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 HEARTBIZ FORUM –
BUILDING VIRTUOUS BUSINESS
FROM THE HEART
MTree Hotel, Puchong Jaya, Selangor
November 18, 2017

Dato Ang Choo Hong and YBAM President Sek Chin Yong have a Cheng Ping Keat, CEO of Khind Holdings Bhd & Khind Starfish
group photo with the speakers and hosts. Foundation giving a talk.

Participants listening attentively to the talk. One of the many enthusiastic participants asking questions.

Buddhist books on sale during the talk. Wang Chun Pin leading the final group discussion.
 Y
Young Buddhist Association of Malaysia

Unites more than 270 Buddhist organisations

B
representing both the Theravada and Mahayana traditions throughout Malaysia

Provides guidance to students to establish Buddhist societies

in schools, colleges and universities

A
Conducts regular training courses on Buddhist teachings,
missionary techniques and leadership building

Arranges lectures on Buddhism by both local

and visiting foreign Buddhist scholars and teachers
www.ybam.org.my

M
Assists in conducting the annual Malaysian Buddhist Examination

Organises various welfare, cultural and education activities

for the benefit of the Buddhist community at local, state and national levels

Publishes Eastern Horizon, Buddhist Digest, Berita YBAM and

other Buddhist books and pamphlets in English, Chinese and Bahasa Malaysia

Makes representation to the authorities on matters

related to the Buddhist Community

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