Zero Limits

An email from Ling:

Dear friends,

Wish all of us have a great leap on the path to Buddhahood in the new year of Rabbit, 2011.

I'd like to share the book of "Zero Limits" (零極限) attached for your convenience. Please do not re-forward the attached copy to others due to unclear copyright but can refer your friends to go visit the following website to download if so desired:
1. http://www.konghi.org/
2. click 图书
3. click 深入零极限

Honestly speaking, reading the translated copy in Chinese is not as clear as its original book in English. Nevertheless it is still worth reading from my personal view. At least, I get to see a living Arhat (Dr. Hew Len) in my lifetime. Dr. Hew Len emphasizes "Clean" which has been translated into "歸零".

To me,
"歸零" = "銷歸自性" (就是「朝朝暮暮在逢春」) in Buddhist term, also
"歸零" = "此是普賢行, 此是普賢境" in 華嚴 term ,
實屬知易行難之事. But Dr Hew Len has been practicing it, which is so amazing to me!!!!

If interested, you can watch "Interview of Dr Hew Len" on youtube. Be patient to view thru the clips in the hope you may find something inspired:
Dr Hew Len, ho'oponopono (1/9 - 9/9)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL972JihAmg&playnext=1&list=PL9D9F3A6E131A2249

Best of Wishes,
Ling

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A New Year’s message from Swami Satyanand

A New Year’s message to my fellow Brothers and Sisters

My new year’s message to all of you is “Love all and keep total faith in God”. This has done wonders for me when this beautiful Ashram was created; why it cannot do for you?

The blessings of the Lord will transform our lives, but remember that the plant of love will not survive without the water of patience. Just as by lifting one flower of a garland, the whole garland is uplifted, so by lifting the flower of love the whole garland of virtues will come to us. Such blessings are the product of surrender.

See everyone as the manifestation of God and an extension of yourself. Then you will understand that each person is a fellow soul rather than a body or a mind. If we cannot love the person whom we see how can we love God, whom we cannot see? Love and surrender is only found in the heart. Usually someone is considered to be dead if he has stopped breathing. But if someone has no love in his heart, even if he is still breathing he is one of the living dead.

Love is a divine quality that pervades everything. Remember that if you spend your time judging other people, you will have no time to love them. Only love can take us to God. Devotion to God is a cure for, and a release from, the disease of samsara. Only when body and mind are purified we will come to know His presence.

God is All, and everything exists in God. But just as ghee is hidden in milk, so also is God hidden in the universe. Similarly, just as the microbes in our body cannot see us, so it is that we who are wrapped in the cosmic body of God cannot see Him. He will remain a mystery until we search Him out in a spirit of devotion and surrender. Even the highest stage of Samadhi is attained through devotion to God.

Ghee is obtained by transforming milk into yogurt, churning it, taking out butter and finally heating the butter to obtain the ghee. Similarly, we can come to know God and experience the Divine presence through the transformation and purification through the disciplines of Yoga.

The Existence of God is authenticated by the ancient Sages, who were
scientists as well as Yogis. An authentic scripture known as the Yoga
Sutras was written in ages past by Sage Patanjali. He describes God in
this way: “God is a special kind of Being, untouched by ignorance and afflictions, and not subject to Karmas, Samskaras (subtle desires) or the Karmic results of actions.”

According to Vedanta Philosophy, God is the supreme ruler of the universe: He is the Creator, Sustainer and Dissolver. He is Brahman. God, the underlying and ultimate Reality, is immortal, immutable, omniscient, and omnipresent. God is both within and without, infinitely present and instantly everywhere. He dwells in the atom and yet He is the abode of all creation. He is the seed of whole universe and the store-house of all knowledge. He is the source of all knowledge and is without beginning or end. God within creation is the individual Soul known as Atman or Purusha. God is the True Self that exists within us all.

Then how should we pray such God? The singular representation of God is the sound OM. It is the backbone of the practice of Yog and the Symbol of cosmic energy. Words and ideas are inseparable. You cannot have the idea of God without the word which expresses God. In the Rig Veda it is said: “In the beginning was Brahman, with whom was the word; and the Word was truly the supreme Brahman.” Similarly, it is said in the Gospel of John the Apostle: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

Here it may be understood that all believers,regardless of religion, are worshiping the same God, the same Divine Source, whether He be called Supreme Being, Ishvara, Allah, Ultimate Reality, Supreme Truth, or give it any other name.

Albert Einstein said: “Everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science, becomes convinced that a Spirit is manifest in the laws of the universe- a Spirit vastly superior to that of man and One in the face of which we, with our modest powers, must feel humble.”

The modern mystic Pierre Teilhard de Chardin said: “Neither in its impetus nor in its achievements can science go to its limits without becoming tinged with mysticism and charged with faith.”

My Guru Swami Rajarshi Muni has seen God and conversed with God. He described this sublime event in this way:

“I experience an extraordinary thrill in my body, mind and heart every time I recall these Divine events. Whenever I have the desire to cast some light upon them I find myself unable to describe them appropriately. Proper expression fails me; I am unable to find the right words, and whatever I am able to express remains comparatively unclear.

“Under the sheer force of emotion neither my thoughts nor my expression can create an adequate representation of these experiences. It may just be that they were different from normal worldly events. It is not impossible, but it is certainly very difficult, to completely and satisfactorily describe divine events.

“All I have to say here is this: my eyes have seen, and intently beheld, both the gross and the subtle luminous forms of Lord Lakulish. I have heard his loving words and my heart was drowned in a vast ocean of feeling. I have seen his smile and was thrilled with joy. I have peered into his compassionate eyes and seen vast tides and waves of love.

“I have no recollection now whether my heart ceased to beat at all, or if it beat with a new and unknown quickness in those exciting moments. But, yes, on both occasions, when bowing at his holy feet to pay my respects with faith and devotion, I experienced the touch of his hand upon my head. His divine touch has blessed my life. With that touch, the purpose of my life has been served. I have experienced his divine power, unfathomable peace, and divine inspiration through these two events, and new life has been poured into my sadhana.”

With authentications such as these, never be in doubt about the existence of God. I have not seen God but I do feel the presence of God here in this Ashram.

Never forget to love Him; see Him in every being and serve Him by serving others.

Never waste time in making judgments because life is short and time of death is uncertain. Learn to love every human being, for we are all manifestations of the Divine and the very children of God.

Our life is a boundary-mark whence one may take an upward or downward path. Our present time is the most precious time, wherein each of us must make our decision for lasting good or lasting ill.

Let us forget the past, and start afresh in this remarkable new year with a commitment that will bring us closer to God and remind us of our oneness with
the community of man. Let us together make this vow: “I will think thrice before hurting anyone.”

God bless you, love to all,

Jai Bhagwan

Satyanand

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Youtube: It Takes Two to Tango: The Human Future and the Future of Buddhism

Dear friends:

This talk is very good for the general public...

"It Takes Two to Tango: The Human Future and the Future of Buddhism"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVKC5FuGjsI

It provides a similar idea to " Time to end war against the earth - by Dr. Vandana Shiva (November 4, 2010. Sidney)" , but at a different angle.

As a Buddhist, we all know very well that Buddhism is the way to salvation. The question is: "How? and How much are we willing to do?"

We need more people to spread this kind of messages around.

Thanks Mahinda for forwarding the youtube.
Thanks Tony for Dr. Shiva's article.

Regards
Lung Zhi

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A must listen talk by Bhikku Bodhi (former US Professor of Philosophy) who later ordained as a Buddhist Monk and served the Buddhist Publication Society of Kandy,Sri Lanka as its Editor and Editor cum President for over adecade. The venerable monk now resides in New York and serves the people globally.

With Metta,

Mahinda Gunasekera

----- Original Message -----

Sent: Monday, November 29, 2010 11:07 PM

Subject: FW: Bhikkhu Bodhi at google hq

Dear Special People,

Bhikku Bodhi is of course one of our most erudite Buddhist speakers and was the editor of the Buddhist Publication Society for many years. He is always worth listening to. This talk is one hour long.

"It Takes Two to Tango: The Human Future and the Future of Buddhism"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVKC5FuGjsI

with metta,

Olande Ananda Thera
Pagoda Meditation Centre
49/2, 1st Cross Street
Pagoda Road
NUGEGODA
Sri Lanka - 10250

Tel: +94-11-2812397

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Time to end war against the earth - by Dr. Vandana Shiva (November 4, 2010. Sidney)

When we think of wars in our times, our minds turn to Iraq and Afghanistan. But the bigger war is the war against the planet. This war has its roots in an economy that fails to respect ecological and ethical limits - limits to inequality, limits to injustice, limits to greed and economic concentration.

A handful of corporations and of powerful countries seeks to control the earth's resources and transform the planet into a supermarket in which everything is for sale. They want to sell our water, genes, cells, organs, knowledge, cultures and future.

The continuing wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and onwards are not only about "blood for oil". As they unfold, we will see that they are about blood for food, blood for genes and biodiversity and blood for water.

The war mentality underlying military-industrial agriculture is evident from the names of Monsanto's herbicides - ''Round-Up'', ''Machete'', ''Lasso''. American Home Products, which has merged with Monsanto, gives its herbicides similarly aggressive names, including ''Pentagon'' and ''Squadron''.This is the language of war. Sustainability is based on peace with the earth.

The war against the earth begins in the mind. Violent thoughts shape violent actions. Violent categories construct violent tools. And nowhere is this more vivid than in the metaphors and methods on which industrial, agricultural and food production is based. Factories that produced poisons and explosives to kill people during wars were transformed into factories producing agri-chemicals after the wars.

The year 1984 woke me up to the fact that something was terribly wrong with the way food was produced. With the violence in Punjab and the disaster in Bhopal, agriculture looked like war. That is when I wrote The Violence of the Green Revolution and why I started Navdanya as a movement for an agriculture free of poisons and toxics.

Pesticides, which started as war chemicals, have failed to control pests. Genetic engineering was supposed to provide an alternative to toxic chemicals. Instead, it has led to increased use of pesticides and herbicides and unleashed a war against farmers.

The high-cost feeds and high-cost chemicals are trapping farmers in debt - and the debt trap is pushing farmers to suicide. According to official data, more than 200,000 Indian farmers have committed suicide in India since 1997.

Making peace with the earth was always an ethical and ecological imperative. It has now become a survival imperative for our species.

Violence to the soil, to biodiversity, to water, to atmosphere, to farms and farmers produces a warlike food system that is unable to feed people. One billion people are hungry. Two billion suffer food-related diseases - obesity, diabetes, hypertension and cancers.

There are three levels of violence involved in non-sustainable development. The first is the violence against the earth, which is expressed as the ecological crisis. The second is the violence against people, which is expressed as poverty, destitution and displacement. The third is the violence of war and conflict, as the powerful reach for the resources that lie in other communities and countries for their limitless appetites.

When every aspect of life is commercialised, living becomes more costly, and people are poor, even if they earn more than a dollar a day. On the other hand, people can be affluent in material terms, even without the money economy, if they have access to land, their soils are fertile, their rivers flow clean, their cultures are rich and carry traditions of producing beautiful homes and clothing and delicious food, and there is social cohesion, solidarity and spirit of community.

The elevation of the domain of the market, and money as man-made capital, to the position of the highest organising principle for societies and the only measure of our well-being has led to the undermining of the processes that maintain and sustain life in nature and society.

The richer we get, the poorer we become ecologically and culturally. The growth of affluence, measured in money, is leading to a growth in poverty at the material, cultural, ecological and spiritual levels.

The real currency of life is life itself and this view raises questions: how do we look at ourselves in this world? What are humans for? And are we merely a money-making and resource-guzzling machine? Or do we have a higher purpose, a higher end?

I believe that ''earth democracy'' enables us to envision and create living democracies based on the intrinsic worth of all species, all peoples, all cultures - a just and equal sharing of this earth's vital resources, and sharing the decisions about the use of the earth's resources.

Earth democracy protects the ecological processes that maintain life and the fundamental human rights that are the basis of the right to life, including the right to water, food, health, education, jobs and livelihoods.

We have to make a choice. Will we obey the market laws of corporate greed or Gaia's laws for maintenance of the earth's ecosystems and the diversity of its beings?

People's need for food and water can be met only if nature's capacity to provide food and water is protected. Dead soils and dead rivers cannot give food and water.

Defending the rights of Mother Earth is therefore the most important human rights and social justice struggle. It is the broadest peace movement of our times.

Dr Vandana Shiva is an Indian physicist, environmentalist and recipient of the 2010 Sydney Peace Prize. This is an edited version of her speech at the Sydney Opera House last night.

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Passport to Prana

Sharing the following information with you from Woman.ca website:

Try out yoga at a fraction of the cost with Passport to Prana.

Passport to Prana was founded in 2005 as a way to let everyone enjoy the benefits of yoga without digging deep into their wallet. Each passport is priced between $20 to $30 and is a fraction of the cost of a regular drop-in yoga class.

So how does it work? Passport to Prana entitles you to attend one yoga class in each studio within the city that you buy your passport in. For example, for $30 Torontonians can attend 70 different yoga classes (one at each of the participating yoga studios in the GTA). If yoga is not your thing, you can also donate a $30 or $20 card to a women’s shelter or to a single parent support group. This way you can pass on the benefits of yoga to a person who is need of some spiritual healing.

Sadly there is a limit of one passport per person per city per promotional year, but that doesn't mean that you can’t buy a bunch of passports for your friends and family! Passport to Prana is available in Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton, Victoria and Winnipeg.

For more information and to purchase a passport, please go to www.passporttoprana.com

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From U of T: call for proposals for RPS Graduate Fellows Workshop

Sharing the following information with you:

We are pleased to announce this call for proposals for RPS Graduate Fellows Workshop. Please note the call for proposals has been updates as of October 25th.

Graduate Fellows Workshop - Religion and Human Security

March 2011

Call for Proposals – Updated October 25th Deadline: December 17, 2010

The University of Toronto Religion in the Public Sphere Initiative, housed at the Centre for the Study of Religion, invites proposals for the 2011 University of Toronto Graduate Fellows Workshop on the theme of Religion and Human Security.

Current debates on religion's role in the public sphere have framed religion’s relationship to human security as confrontational. This Fellows Workshop, in response, seeks to encourage critical reflection on the themes of religion and human security in a post-9/11 world by examining the contention that religion is not simply a threat to which security forces, government policies and public debate should react or respond. Rather, religion is deeply bound to the practice and construction of security, to the very idea of what it means to be secure, immune from threat, sound, holy or saved. The Workshop seeks contributions from across the social science and humanities disciplines which might problematize in a new way the intersection of religion and security thus broadly understood.

Applications are welcome from advanced graduate students from all faculties, centres, and institutes within the University of Toronto. Students should be working on dissertation research related to religion and security, very broadly conceived, and have a minimum of one chapter completed.

Fellows will meet twice in the winter term of 2011: once in a preparatory workshop, and once at a one-day workshop in March, 2011, where each Fellow will present a research paper and have the chance to invite a scholar to respond to his or her work. The Graduate Fellows will also attend the Religion in the Public Sphere Public Forum on the topic of Food and Religion.

For more information about RPS see www.rps.chass.utoronto.ca, or contact Prof. Frances Garrett at religion.publicsphere@utoronto.ca.

Religion in the Public Sphere:
More Details: www.rps.chass.utoronto.ca

From U of T: call for proposals for RPS Graduate Fellows Workshop

We are pleased to announce this call for proposals for RPS Graduate Fellows Workshop

Eligibility: Applications are welcome from advanced graduate students from all facilities, centres, and institutes within the University of Toronto. Students should be working on dissertation research related to the role of religion in public life, broadly conceived, and have a minimum of one chapter completed.

Submissions: Due by December 17, 2010

About: Fellows will meet twice in the winter term of 2011: once in a preparatory workshop, and once at a one-day workshop in March, 2011, where each Fellow will present a research paper and have the chance to invite a scholar to respond to his or her work. The Graduate Fellows will also attend the Religion in the Public Sphere Public Forum on the topic of Food and Religion, featuring Parama Roy Associate Professor of English at the University of California at Davis, Nigel Savage, founder of Hazon, and Yasir Syeed, co-founder of Green Zabiya.

More Details: www.rps.chass.utoronto.ca

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Invitation for Spiritual Week with LIFE Mission

Dear Fellow Brothers & Sisters:

World is one family and so I hereby invite all my family members to your Ashram for spiritual week - 18th to 25th of July.

Though God is everywhere, we will violate his power of omnipresence by installing a Murty (statue) of Radha-Krishna in the Temple, as we cannot connect with God without form.
In order to connect with Him, love Him and serve Him, we are installing the Murty. The service will be in the form of practice, which God has instructed through spiritual lineage.

You will have spiritual discourses with Tapasvis, Bhagvat Katha, Bhajan and Sugam Sangheet with Chicago area's well-known artists, Padmini Rao and Hitesh Master, and Yoga everyday, creating a dynamic spiritual atmosphere.

You will feel the presence of God.

Come and enjoy the holistic, nutritious food and nature walk at beautiful Resort in 13 acres of Garden of God.

Do not miss this rare opportunity.

Yours,
Satyanand

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LIFE MISSION USA
8136 NC Hwy 119 South
Mebane, NC 27302
Tel: 336-421-0690
E-mail: lifemissionusa@gmail.com
Web: http://www.lifemissionusa.org
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