Vale of Tempe
In Penang, Malaysia, there is a famous, also infamous, road called the Vale of Tempe. The road was built many years ago to provide access to a reservoir. The 1.7km road cuts across a hill joining two suburbs. The reservoir entrance is situated somewhere at the middle of the narrow and winding road.
Many mystery accidents happened along that road. More often than not, the victims fell down the cliff with or without they vehicle. Several fatal accidents had also been reported but most of the time, the victims escaped with slight injuries.
Many Penangites, including myself, are afraid of using that road at night. It is supposed to be haunted and many seem to advise against using that road at night. There are many stories behind this infamous road.
A recent search for such stories ended up with me getting several variations. One of the stories says that an innocent girl was once killed by a policeman along that road. None of my sources remember exactly what's the story behind the girl's death. It may have happened as an accident but the girl seemed to have blamed it on the policeman. To make things worse, she has since blamed her death on every policeman! Therefore it is claimed that most policemen dare not take that road at night, as very few policemen would come out of the road safely. Apparently, the ghost would cause an accident to befall on any policeman using that road. I could not verify this and I am not sure if the ghost would do the same on a policewoman.
Another story explains the reasons behind all of those mystery accidents where cars are found to have swayed off the road and ended up down the cliff. According to the locals, there was a fatal accident along that road long time ago. A young lady died instantly in that accident. Since then, the girl was reported to be haunting the road.
She would often appear out of no where in front of any unlucky driver late at night. As the road is very winding and narrow with the cliff on one side, many victims have swayed off the road and went down the cliff as they were trying to avoid her. She appears to be like a real person and very few can provide details of her. What most people can offer is just that she has long hair and always wear a white gown.
The scariest version is somehow related to the story above. It happened only several years ago to two men. Let's call them Adrian and Leo.
It was about 1am when they got to the road. There were no other vehicles along the road at that time. Adrian was driving with Leo sitting beside him on the passenger's side. According to my friend, they were on their way back from a Church meeting.
Adrian was driving at a comfortable speed while taking the sharp curves along the winding road. Both of them had been quite tired by then. As they approach the entrance to the reservoir, they saw a lady in white standing on the middle of the road. Her back was facing them and they could only see her long hair.
Adrian slowed down upon seeing her. He told Leo to look up and was slightly relief when Leo also saw that lady. Adrian, refusing to believe it was a ghost, felt strange that there would be a lady walking along that dark, secluded road at such hours. Even in broad daylight, there would be hardly anybody walking along that road as it was too narrow and dangerous for pedestrian. Furthermore, what would someone do in the middle of the hilly area?
Adrian turned and looked at Leo, who was obviously frightened by now. As they got nearer, the lady slowly turned around and then faced towards them. To their horror, they saw her face rotten with blood dripping down from it. Both of them were speechless for a moment. Adrian was convinced now that the lady could not possibly be human. He stepped on the accelerator hoping to run through her and get away as fast as possible.
Both of them did not know what happened when they ran through the ghost. However, after a while, Leo turned around to check and see if the ghost is still there. To his greatest horror, he saw the lady ghost's head inside the car. Separated from its body, the head got stuck between the rear window and the back seat, where the speakers and third brake lights usually are. Leo was so scared he did not know what to do or what to say. Adrian looked at the rear-view mirror and found the lady, now headless, chasing after them. Apparently, she was trying to get her head back!
Adrian tried to drive away as fast as he could. The winding and narrow road made it even more difficult for Adrian but he just had to do whatever he could to get away. Both of them kept saying prayers hoping the worse would be over soon. Once they drove out of the winding road, Adrian took another peep at the rear-view mirror and he found the ghost was no longer behind them. He told Leo to turn to the back and take another look just to make sure. Leo, in a tone of great relief, told Adrian the head had also disappeared from the car.
Adapted from http://www.angelfire.com/poetry/speckofdust/asiagspart2.htm
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Buddha's teaching
"Although the Dharma (teaching) is deep andwill be difficult for most people to understand, there aresome who only have a little craving. Such people may be ableto accept the Dharma. They are like the lotuses that extendtheir stalks from the bottom of the pond up in the air, toreceive sunshine. So I should not keep this radiant trutha secret. I should make it known everywhere, so that all peoplecan benefit from it."
The Buddha taught them the Four Noble Truths. The first NobleTruth was about the fact that suffering exists. The secondwas about the cause of suffering; the third was that it ispossible to end suffering; and the fourth explained the pathto be followed if you want to end suffering. During this firstteaching, Kondanna understood everything and attained thefirst stage of enlightenment. Then he asked the Buddha toordain him as a monk. Soon the other four also joined theBuddha's order. All five monks practiced diligently and withthe help of the Buddha they soon became fully enlightenedones, or arahants.
One morning, when Buddha on his way from Veluvana to beg for his daily almsfood, the Buddha came across a young man named Sigala. Theman was bowing to the east, south, west and north. Then hesaluted the sky above and the earth below. He finished byscattering seeds in these six directions. The Buddha askedhim why he did such things. Sigala replied that his father,before he died, asked him to do this ritual daily, to protecthimself from any evil that might happen to him. TheBuddha then explained to Sigala what his father had reallymeant. By asking him to bow in the six directions, his fatherreally wanted him to remember, respect and be kind to allliving beings in all directions. By doing this he would creategood karma and he would be protected. Finally, the Buddhainstructed Sigala not to kill, steal, be unfaithful to hiswife, lie or take intoxicants. These are the training rulesknown as the Five Precepts.
The Buddha taught them the Four Noble Truths. The first NobleTruth was about the fact that suffering exists. The secondwas about the cause of suffering; the third was that it ispossible to end suffering; and the fourth explained the pathto be followed if you want to end suffering. During this firstteaching, Kondanna understood everything and attained thefirst stage of enlightenment. Then he asked the Buddha toordain him as a monk. Soon the other four also joined theBuddha's order. All five monks practiced diligently and withthe help of the Buddha they soon became fully enlightenedones, or arahants.
One morning, when Buddha on his way from Veluvana to beg for his daily almsfood, the Buddha came across a young man named Sigala. Theman was bowing to the east, south, west and north. Then hesaluted the sky above and the earth below. He finished byscattering seeds in these six directions. The Buddha askedhim why he did such things. Sigala replied that his father,before he died, asked him to do this ritual daily, to protecthimself from any evil that might happen to him. TheBuddha then explained to Sigala what his father had reallymeant. By asking him to bow in the six directions, his fatherreally wanted him to remember, respect and be kind to allliving beings in all directions. By doing this he would creategood karma and he would be protected. Finally, the Buddhainstructed Sigala not to kill, steal, be unfaithful to hiswife, lie or take intoxicants. These are the training rulesknown as the Five Precepts.
History of Buddhism
Siddartha Gautama: c.430 BC
At the age of twenty-nine Siddhartha Gautama, prince of a ruling house in Nepal, abandons the luxuries of home, and the affections of a wife and a young son, to become a wandering ascetic. He is following a pattern not uncommon in India at this time, when the rigidities of a priest-dominated Hinduism are causing many to seek a more personal religion. Only a few years previously, in a nearby district, a young man by the name of Vardhamana has done exactly the same - with lasting results in the form of Jainism. (The conventional dates for both men, revised by modern scholarship, have been a century earlier.)
Gautama differs from Vardhamana in one crucial respect. He discovers that asceticism is almost as unsatisfactory as luxury.
According to the traditional account (first written down in the 3rd century BC) Gautama follows an ascetic life for six years before deciding that a middle path between mortification and indulgence of the body will provide the best hope of achieving enlightenment.
He resolves to meditate, in moderate comfort, until he sees the light of truth. One evening he sits under a pipal tree at Buddh Gaya, a village in Bihar. By dawn he is literally buddha, an 'enlightened one'. Like any other religious leader he begins to gather disciples. He becomes known to his followers as the Buddha.
The Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path: c.424 BC
Gautama preaches his first sermon at Sarnath, about 5 miles (8km) north of the sacred Hindu city of Varanasi. In this sermon, still a definitive text for all Buddhists, he proposes a path to enlightenment very different from the elaborate ceremonies and colourful myth attached to the Hindu deities.
Gautama's message is plain to the point of bluntness, at any rate when reduced to a simple list - as it usually is in primers on Buddhism. He states that enlightenment can be achieved by understanding Four Noble Truths; and that the pain of life, with which the Noble Truths are concerned, can be avoided by following an Eightfold Path.
The four Noble Truths are that pain is inextricably part of mankind's everyday life; that our cravings of all kinds are the cause of this pain; that the way off this treadmill is to free oneself of these cravings; and that this can be achieved by following the Eightfold Path.
The Path enjoins the Buddhist to a virtuous life by urging on him the 'right' course of action in eight contexts. Many of these are moral evils to be avoided (as in the Jewish Commandments). But the eighth step, 'Right Concentration', goes to the heart of the Buddhist ideal.
Right Concentration is described in Buddhist scripture as concentrating on a single object, so as to induce a special state of consciousness through deep meditation. In this way the Buddhist hopes to achieve complete purity of thought, leading ideally to nirvana.
Nirvana means 'blowing out', as of a flame. It is common to Hinduism and Jainism as well as Buddhism. But in the two older religions it leads to moksha, release from the cycle of rebirth, total extinction. In Buddhism it is a blissful transcendent state which can be achieved either in life or after death - and which is achieved by anyone who becomes Buddha.
The spread of Buddhism: c.380-250 BC
By the time of his death, at about the age of eighty, the Buddha's followers are established as communities of monks in northern India. Wandering through villages and towns with their begging bowls, eager to describe the path to the truth, they are familiar figures. But so are many other such groups, including the Jains.
The advance of the Buddhists beyond the others is largely due to the enthusiastic support of a king of the 3rd century BC. Asoka rules over much of the Indian subcontinent. His inscriptions, carved on pillars and rocks throughout his realm, bear witness both to the spread of Buddhism and to his own benevolent support of the Buddha's principles.
During Asoka's reign, and with his encouragement, Buddhism spreads to south India and into Sri Lanka. The latter has remained to this day a stronghold of the earliest form of Buddhism, known as Theravada (meaning the 'school of elders').
By the time of Asoka there is already a rival tendency within Buddhism, involving an elaboration of the Buddha's essentially simple message of personal salvation. The difference is similar to that between Protestants and Catholics at the time of the Reformation in Christianity. Compared to the puritan standards of Theravada Buddhism, the other sect - which later becomes known as Mahayana - introduces a catholic profusion of Buddhist saints.
Mahayana and Theravada
Mahayana means the Great Vehicle. Its adherents argue that this form of Buddhism can carry a greater number of people towards the truth than Theravada Buddhism, which they dismiss as Hinayana - the little vehicle.
The main distinction is that in Theravada the Buddha is a historical figure who by his example shows the way towards nirvana; the cult is essentially a human system of self-discipline, with no trace of a god. In the younger but larger sect there is still no god, but there are a great many supernatural beings.
In Mahayana the historical Buddha, Gautama, becomes the latest in a long line of past Buddhas. They exist in some place beyond this world, from which they can offer support. Also in that place are the Bodhisattvas, who have yet to begin the final human life in which they will attain enlightenment as Buddha. They too can help mortals who show them devotion.
In Theravada the nearest approach to worship is the veneration of relics of the historical Buddha, whose hair or tooth is made the central feature of a temple. In Mahayana, with its many semi-divine figures, there is opportunity for more varied, more popular and more superstitious forms of worship. It is well suited to become what it claims to be - the greater vehicle.
A religion for east Asia: from the 1st century AD
Buddhism is the first of the world religions to expand from its place of origin. It does so by two distinct routes.
Theravada Buddhism is carried eastwards into southeast Asia, in an upsurge of Indian trade from the 1st century AD. The merchants and sailors are either Buddhist or Hindu, and missionaries take advantage of the new opportunities for travel. As a result the kingdoms of southeast Asia, much influenced by the more advanced civilization of India, variously adopt Buddhist and Hindu religious practices. Which of the two prevails is often the result of the preference of a ruling dynasty. The areas which eventually choose Buddhism are Burma, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos.
Mahayana Buddhism travels by a land route. In the 2nd century AD northern India and Afghanistan are ruled by the Kushan dynasty, one of whose kings, Kanishka, is a devotee of this form of Buddhism. His encouragement of it has special significance, since his kingdom occupies a central position on the Silk Road - at one of its busiest times, when its caravans effectively link China with Rome.
The western influence on the Kushan region (also known as Gandhara) is seen in the famous style of sculpture which portrays Buddhist figures with the realism of Greece and Rome. Eastwards from Gandhara the trade route is soon dignified with spectacular Buddhist centres, such as Yün-kang.
Buddhism is well established in China by the 2nd century AD and coexists there, with varying fortunes, alongside China's indigenous religions - Daoism and Confucianism. By the 6th century its influence has spread through Korea to Japan. Here too it coexists, in a shifting pattern, with the earlier Japanese religion, Shinto.
The region which develops the most distinctive form of Buddhism lies between India and China, and receives its first Buddhist influences from both directions in the 7th century. This is Tibet. It will evolve an element of Buddhism unique to itself - that of a succession of reincarnating lamas, with the Dalai Lama as the senior line.
In India Buddhism flourishes alongside Hinduism for many years, but from about the 8th century it declines (though Theravada Buddhism finds a lasting home in Sri Lanka). The Mahayana version of the faith becomes gradually submerged by the older and more vigorous Hinduism. It has perhaps been too willing to accomodate new themes, influenced by India's bustling inclination to worship everything.
A weakened Buddhism proves no match for the arrival in northern India in the 10th century of rulers professing another vigorous faith, Islam. Buddhism becomes no more than a faint devotional presence at a few classic shrines. It is the only world religion to have withered in its birthplace.
Buddhist murals: 5th - 8th century AD
Monks and pilgrims play an important part in the practice of Buddhism. Both are attracted to caves in remote places. And the profusion of popular stories in Mahayana Buddhism (on topics such as the adventures of Buddha in his previous lives on earth) provides a rich source of material for narrative paintings on the walls of the caves.
Two places suggest more vividly than any others the vitality of Buddhist cave painting from about the 5th century AD. One is Ajanta, a site in India long forgotten until discovered in 1817. The other is Dunhuang, one of the great oasis staging posts on the Silk Road.
At Ajanta there are about thirty architectural spaces cut into a steep cliff flanking a ravine. Some are viharas, or monasteries, with cells for the monks around a central hall. Others are chaityas, or meeting places, with a small central stupa as an object for worship and contemplation.
The paintings range from calm devotional images of the Buddha to lively and crowded scenes, often featuring the seductively full-breasted and narrow-waisted women more familiar in Indian sculpture than in painting. The latest images are from the 8th century, after which the decline of Buddhism in India causes these remote and beautiful places to become gradually abandoned and then entirely forgotten.
Dunhuang, on one of the world's greatest trade routes, is an altogether busier place than Ajanta. Rather than thirty caves, Dunhuang has nearly 500 - known collectively as the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas. The murals span three centuries, from the 5th to the 8th AD. The images in the earlier caves (hollowed from the soft rock, as at Ajanta) show the influence of central Asia and even India - the regions from which Buddhism travels on its way to China - but the later paintings are fully Chinese in style.
Dunhuang, unlike Ajanta, is never lost. But one particular cave is sealed against intruders. Rediscovered in 1899, this cave is found to contain fine examples of Chinese painting on silk and the world's first known printed book.
Printed Buddhist texts in Korea and Japan: AD 750-768
The invention of printing is a striking achievement of Buddhists in east Asia. Korea takes the lead. The world's earliest known printed document is a sutra printed on a single sheet of paper in Korea in AD 750.
This is closely followed in Japan by a bold experiment in mass circulation (precisely the area in which printed material has the advantage over manuscript). In AD 768, in devoutly Buddhist Nara, the empress commissions a huge edition of a lucky charm or prayer. It is said that the project takes six years to complete and that the number of copies printed, for distribution to pilgrims, is a million. Many have survived.
The first printed book: AD 868
The earliest known printed book is Chinese, from the end of the T'ang dynasty. Discovered in a cave at Dunhuang in 1899, it is a precisely dated document which brings the circumstances of its creation vividly to life.
It is a scroll, 16 feet long and a foot high, formed of sheets of paper glued together at their edges. The text is that of the Diamond Sutra, and the first sheet in the scroll has an added distinction. It is the world's first printed illustration, depicting an enthroned Buddha surrounded by holy attendants. In a tradition later familiar in religious art of the west, a small figure kneels and prays in the foreground. He is presumably the donor who has paid for this holy book.
The name of the donor, Wang Chieh, is revealed in another device which later becomes traditional in early printed books in the west. The details of publication are given in a colophon (Greek for 'finishing stroke') at the end of the text. This reveals that the scroll is a work of Buddhist piety, combined with the filial obligations of good Confucian ideals: 'Printed on 11 May 868 by Wang Chieh, for free general distribution, in order in deep reverence to perpetuate the memory of his parents.'
The printing of Wang Chieh's scroll is of a high standard, so it must have had many predecessors. But the lucky accident of the cave at Dunhuang has given his parents a memorial more lasting than he could have imagined possible.
Buddhist banners and scrolls on silk: from the 9th c. AD
The cave discovered in 1899 at Dunhuang contains many Buddhist paintings on silk. The larger ones (mostly showing Buddha seated in paradise with attendant figures) are designed for hanging out on poles on special occasions. Some are almost two yards in height and more than a yard wide.
Narrower vertical images of dramatically painted figures from Buddhist mythology are intended as banners, to be carried in procession with silk streamers attached. Painting on silk remains a central theme of Chinese art. But this flamboyant public use of images, characteristic of Buddhism, subsequently gives way to the more discreet and private art of the Confucians.
New sects of Buddhism in Japan: 12th - 13th century
One of Japan's most famous monuments is a vast bronze sculpture at Kamakura. Known as Daibutsu, and cast in 1252, it depicts Buddha. But this figure seated in peaceful meditation is not the historical Gautama Buddha. He is Amitabha Buddha, known and revered in Japan as Amida.
The cult of Amida, also called 'Pure Land' Buddhism, is one of several new sects in Japan, mostly arriving from China, which become naturalized during the Kamakura shogunate. It is based on a sutra in which Amida, who has achieved enlightenment as Buddha, assures all those who adore him that they can live with him for ever in a pure land - a Promise made in the Sukhavativyuha Sutra.
Another foreign sect of Buddhism, which the Japanese make very much their own, is known in China as Chan and in Japan as Zen (both derive from a Sanskrit word meaning 'meditation'). Zen, reaching Japan from China in the 12th century, lays great emphasis on intuition, or finding the truth within oneself, but it also stresses the importance of discipline.
It appeals to the new samurai class (several Zen masters teach sword fighting), and at periods during the shogunate it becomes almost the state religion. Zen masters encourage some of the most distinctive cultural aspects of Japanese life, including the Tea Ceremony (closely linked with the tradition of Japanese ceramics).
The most aggressive of the Buddhist sects is the only one to have its roots entirely in Japan. It follows the teaching of Nichiren, a fiery prophet who spends much of his life in exile for his criticism of the shoguns in Kamakura. They favour the rivals on whom he pours scorn, the devotees of Pure Land and Zen Buddhism.
Like Old Testament prophets, Nichiren foresees disaster befalling his misguided compatriots. The Mongol invasion of 1274 is seen by many as the fulfilment of his prophecies. His passion inspires a sect which still has a considerable following in 20th-century Japan.
Buddhism today
Buddhism in its various forms remains the most widespread of the ancient religions in east Asia, where it numbers some 300 million adherents. The greatest concentration is in the historic lands of Theravada Buddhism - Sri Lanka and the three countries, adjacent to each other, of Burma, Thailand and Cambodia. Buddhists still practising in Mahayana regions (China, Tibet, Mongolia) have suffered greatly from the atheist creed of Communism. In Japan a majority still adheres to various forms of Buddhism.
During the 20th century the faith has also begun to spread to entirely new regions. There is now a significant minority of Buddhists in the United States and in Europe.
Read more: http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ab77#ixzz0x1USvNYG
At the age of twenty-nine Siddhartha Gautama, prince of a ruling house in Nepal, abandons the luxuries of home, and the affections of a wife and a young son, to become a wandering ascetic. He is following a pattern not uncommon in India at this time, when the rigidities of a priest-dominated Hinduism are causing many to seek a more personal religion. Only a few years previously, in a nearby district, a young man by the name of Vardhamana has done exactly the same - with lasting results in the form of Jainism. (The conventional dates for both men, revised by modern scholarship, have been a century earlier.)
Gautama differs from Vardhamana in one crucial respect. He discovers that asceticism is almost as unsatisfactory as luxury.
According to the traditional account (first written down in the 3rd century BC) Gautama follows an ascetic life for six years before deciding that a middle path between mortification and indulgence of the body will provide the best hope of achieving enlightenment.
He resolves to meditate, in moderate comfort, until he sees the light of truth. One evening he sits under a pipal tree at Buddh Gaya, a village in Bihar. By dawn he is literally buddha, an 'enlightened one'. Like any other religious leader he begins to gather disciples. He becomes known to his followers as the Buddha.
The Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path: c.424 BC
Gautama preaches his first sermon at Sarnath, about 5 miles (8km) north of the sacred Hindu city of Varanasi. In this sermon, still a definitive text for all Buddhists, he proposes a path to enlightenment very different from the elaborate ceremonies and colourful myth attached to the Hindu deities.
Gautama's message is plain to the point of bluntness, at any rate when reduced to a simple list - as it usually is in primers on Buddhism. He states that enlightenment can be achieved by understanding Four Noble Truths; and that the pain of life, with which the Noble Truths are concerned, can be avoided by following an Eightfold Path.
The four Noble Truths are that pain is inextricably part of mankind's everyday life; that our cravings of all kinds are the cause of this pain; that the way off this treadmill is to free oneself of these cravings; and that this can be achieved by following the Eightfold Path.
The Path enjoins the Buddhist to a virtuous life by urging on him the 'right' course of action in eight contexts. Many of these are moral evils to be avoided (as in the Jewish Commandments). But the eighth step, 'Right Concentration', goes to the heart of the Buddhist ideal.
Right Concentration is described in Buddhist scripture as concentrating on a single object, so as to induce a special state of consciousness through deep meditation. In this way the Buddhist hopes to achieve complete purity of thought, leading ideally to nirvana.
Nirvana means 'blowing out', as of a flame. It is common to Hinduism and Jainism as well as Buddhism. But in the two older religions it leads to moksha, release from the cycle of rebirth, total extinction. In Buddhism it is a blissful transcendent state which can be achieved either in life or after death - and which is achieved by anyone who becomes Buddha.
The spread of Buddhism: c.380-250 BC
By the time of his death, at about the age of eighty, the Buddha's followers are established as communities of monks in northern India. Wandering through villages and towns with their begging bowls, eager to describe the path to the truth, they are familiar figures. But so are many other such groups, including the Jains.
The advance of the Buddhists beyond the others is largely due to the enthusiastic support of a king of the 3rd century BC. Asoka rules over much of the Indian subcontinent. His inscriptions, carved on pillars and rocks throughout his realm, bear witness both to the spread of Buddhism and to his own benevolent support of the Buddha's principles.
During Asoka's reign, and with his encouragement, Buddhism spreads to south India and into Sri Lanka. The latter has remained to this day a stronghold of the earliest form of Buddhism, known as Theravada (meaning the 'school of elders').
By the time of Asoka there is already a rival tendency within Buddhism, involving an elaboration of the Buddha's essentially simple message of personal salvation. The difference is similar to that between Protestants and Catholics at the time of the Reformation in Christianity. Compared to the puritan standards of Theravada Buddhism, the other sect - which later becomes known as Mahayana - introduces a catholic profusion of Buddhist saints.
Mahayana and Theravada
Mahayana means the Great Vehicle. Its adherents argue that this form of Buddhism can carry a greater number of people towards the truth than Theravada Buddhism, which they dismiss as Hinayana - the little vehicle.
The main distinction is that in Theravada the Buddha is a historical figure who by his example shows the way towards nirvana; the cult is essentially a human system of self-discipline, with no trace of a god. In the younger but larger sect there is still no god, but there are a great many supernatural beings.
In Mahayana the historical Buddha, Gautama, becomes the latest in a long line of past Buddhas. They exist in some place beyond this world, from which they can offer support. Also in that place are the Bodhisattvas, who have yet to begin the final human life in which they will attain enlightenment as Buddha. They too can help mortals who show them devotion.
In Theravada the nearest approach to worship is the veneration of relics of the historical Buddha, whose hair or tooth is made the central feature of a temple. In Mahayana, with its many semi-divine figures, there is opportunity for more varied, more popular and more superstitious forms of worship. It is well suited to become what it claims to be - the greater vehicle.
A religion for east Asia: from the 1st century AD
Buddhism is the first of the world religions to expand from its place of origin. It does so by two distinct routes.
Theravada Buddhism is carried eastwards into southeast Asia, in an upsurge of Indian trade from the 1st century AD. The merchants and sailors are either Buddhist or Hindu, and missionaries take advantage of the new opportunities for travel. As a result the kingdoms of southeast Asia, much influenced by the more advanced civilization of India, variously adopt Buddhist and Hindu religious practices. Which of the two prevails is often the result of the preference of a ruling dynasty. The areas which eventually choose Buddhism are Burma, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos.
Mahayana Buddhism travels by a land route. In the 2nd century AD northern India and Afghanistan are ruled by the Kushan dynasty, one of whose kings, Kanishka, is a devotee of this form of Buddhism. His encouragement of it has special significance, since his kingdom occupies a central position on the Silk Road - at one of its busiest times, when its caravans effectively link China with Rome.
The western influence on the Kushan region (also known as Gandhara) is seen in the famous style of sculpture which portrays Buddhist figures with the realism of Greece and Rome. Eastwards from Gandhara the trade route is soon dignified with spectacular Buddhist centres, such as Yün-kang.
Buddhism is well established in China by the 2nd century AD and coexists there, with varying fortunes, alongside China's indigenous religions - Daoism and Confucianism. By the 6th century its influence has spread through Korea to Japan. Here too it coexists, in a shifting pattern, with the earlier Japanese religion, Shinto.
The region which develops the most distinctive form of Buddhism lies between India and China, and receives its first Buddhist influences from both directions in the 7th century. This is Tibet. It will evolve an element of Buddhism unique to itself - that of a succession of reincarnating lamas, with the Dalai Lama as the senior line.
In India Buddhism flourishes alongside Hinduism for many years, but from about the 8th century it declines (though Theravada Buddhism finds a lasting home in Sri Lanka). The Mahayana version of the faith becomes gradually submerged by the older and more vigorous Hinduism. It has perhaps been too willing to accomodate new themes, influenced by India's bustling inclination to worship everything.
A weakened Buddhism proves no match for the arrival in northern India in the 10th century of rulers professing another vigorous faith, Islam. Buddhism becomes no more than a faint devotional presence at a few classic shrines. It is the only world religion to have withered in its birthplace.
Buddhist murals: 5th - 8th century AD
Monks and pilgrims play an important part in the practice of Buddhism. Both are attracted to caves in remote places. And the profusion of popular stories in Mahayana Buddhism (on topics such as the adventures of Buddha in his previous lives on earth) provides a rich source of material for narrative paintings on the walls of the caves.
Two places suggest more vividly than any others the vitality of Buddhist cave painting from about the 5th century AD. One is Ajanta, a site in India long forgotten until discovered in 1817. The other is Dunhuang, one of the great oasis staging posts on the Silk Road.
At Ajanta there are about thirty architectural spaces cut into a steep cliff flanking a ravine. Some are viharas, or monasteries, with cells for the monks around a central hall. Others are chaityas, or meeting places, with a small central stupa as an object for worship and contemplation.
The paintings range from calm devotional images of the Buddha to lively and crowded scenes, often featuring the seductively full-breasted and narrow-waisted women more familiar in Indian sculpture than in painting. The latest images are from the 8th century, after which the decline of Buddhism in India causes these remote and beautiful places to become gradually abandoned and then entirely forgotten.
Dunhuang, on one of the world's greatest trade routes, is an altogether busier place than Ajanta. Rather than thirty caves, Dunhuang has nearly 500 - known collectively as the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas. The murals span three centuries, from the 5th to the 8th AD. The images in the earlier caves (hollowed from the soft rock, as at Ajanta) show the influence of central Asia and even India - the regions from which Buddhism travels on its way to China - but the later paintings are fully Chinese in style.
Dunhuang, unlike Ajanta, is never lost. But one particular cave is sealed against intruders. Rediscovered in 1899, this cave is found to contain fine examples of Chinese painting on silk and the world's first known printed book.
Printed Buddhist texts in Korea and Japan: AD 750-768
The invention of printing is a striking achievement of Buddhists in east Asia. Korea takes the lead. The world's earliest known printed document is a sutra printed on a single sheet of paper in Korea in AD 750.
This is closely followed in Japan by a bold experiment in mass circulation (precisely the area in which printed material has the advantage over manuscript). In AD 768, in devoutly Buddhist Nara, the empress commissions a huge edition of a lucky charm or prayer. It is said that the project takes six years to complete and that the number of copies printed, for distribution to pilgrims, is a million. Many have survived.
The first printed book: AD 868
The earliest known printed book is Chinese, from the end of the T'ang dynasty. Discovered in a cave at Dunhuang in 1899, it is a precisely dated document which brings the circumstances of its creation vividly to life.
It is a scroll, 16 feet long and a foot high, formed of sheets of paper glued together at their edges. The text is that of the Diamond Sutra, and the first sheet in the scroll has an added distinction. It is the world's first printed illustration, depicting an enthroned Buddha surrounded by holy attendants. In a tradition later familiar in religious art of the west, a small figure kneels and prays in the foreground. He is presumably the donor who has paid for this holy book.
The name of the donor, Wang Chieh, is revealed in another device which later becomes traditional in early printed books in the west. The details of publication are given in a colophon (Greek for 'finishing stroke') at the end of the text. This reveals that the scroll is a work of Buddhist piety, combined with the filial obligations of good Confucian ideals: 'Printed on 11 May 868 by Wang Chieh, for free general distribution, in order in deep reverence to perpetuate the memory of his parents.'
The printing of Wang Chieh's scroll is of a high standard, so it must have had many predecessors. But the lucky accident of the cave at Dunhuang has given his parents a memorial more lasting than he could have imagined possible.
Buddhist banners and scrolls on silk: from the 9th c. AD
The cave discovered in 1899 at Dunhuang contains many Buddhist paintings on silk. The larger ones (mostly showing Buddha seated in paradise with attendant figures) are designed for hanging out on poles on special occasions. Some are almost two yards in height and more than a yard wide.
Narrower vertical images of dramatically painted figures from Buddhist mythology are intended as banners, to be carried in procession with silk streamers attached. Painting on silk remains a central theme of Chinese art. But this flamboyant public use of images, characteristic of Buddhism, subsequently gives way to the more discreet and private art of the Confucians.
New sects of Buddhism in Japan: 12th - 13th century
One of Japan's most famous monuments is a vast bronze sculpture at Kamakura. Known as Daibutsu, and cast in 1252, it depicts Buddha. But this figure seated in peaceful meditation is not the historical Gautama Buddha. He is Amitabha Buddha, known and revered in Japan as Amida.
The cult of Amida, also called 'Pure Land' Buddhism, is one of several new sects in Japan, mostly arriving from China, which become naturalized during the Kamakura shogunate. It is based on a sutra in which Amida, who has achieved enlightenment as Buddha, assures all those who adore him that they can live with him for ever in a pure land - a Promise made in the Sukhavativyuha Sutra.
Another foreign sect of Buddhism, which the Japanese make very much their own, is known in China as Chan and in Japan as Zen (both derive from a Sanskrit word meaning 'meditation'). Zen, reaching Japan from China in the 12th century, lays great emphasis on intuition, or finding the truth within oneself, but it also stresses the importance of discipline.
It appeals to the new samurai class (several Zen masters teach sword fighting), and at periods during the shogunate it becomes almost the state religion. Zen masters encourage some of the most distinctive cultural aspects of Japanese life, including the Tea Ceremony (closely linked with the tradition of Japanese ceramics).
The most aggressive of the Buddhist sects is the only one to have its roots entirely in Japan. It follows the teaching of Nichiren, a fiery prophet who spends much of his life in exile for his criticism of the shoguns in Kamakura. They favour the rivals on whom he pours scorn, the devotees of Pure Land and Zen Buddhism.
Like Old Testament prophets, Nichiren foresees disaster befalling his misguided compatriots. The Mongol invasion of 1274 is seen by many as the fulfilment of his prophecies. His passion inspires a sect which still has a considerable following in 20th-century Japan.
Buddhism today
Buddhism in its various forms remains the most widespread of the ancient religions in east Asia, where it numbers some 300 million adherents. The greatest concentration is in the historic lands of Theravada Buddhism - Sri Lanka and the three countries, adjacent to each other, of Burma, Thailand and Cambodia. Buddhists still practising in Mahayana regions (China, Tibet, Mongolia) have suffered greatly from the atheist creed of Communism. In Japan a majority still adheres to various forms of Buddhism.
During the 20th century the faith has also begun to spread to entirely new regions. There is now a significant minority of Buddhists in the United States and in Europe.
Read more: http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ab77#ixzz0x1USvNYG
Peace of mind
*Once Buddha was travelling with a few of his followers. While they werepassing a lake, Buddha told one of his disciples, "I am thirsty. Do get mesome water from the lake."*
*The disciple walked up to the lake. At that moment, a bullock cart startedcrossing through the lake. As a result, the water became very muddy andturbid. The disciple thought, "How can I give this muddy water to Buddha todrink?"*
*So he came back and told Buddha, "The water in there is very muddy. I don'tthink it is fit to drink."*
*After about half an hour, again Buddha asked the same disciple to go backto the lake. *
*The disciple went back, and found that the water was still muddy. Hereturned and informed Buddha about the same.*
*After sometime, again Buddha asked the same disciple to go back.*
*This time, the disciple found the mud had settled down, and the water wasclean and clear. So he collected some water in a pot and brought it toBuddha.*
*Buddha looked at the water, and then he looked up at the disciple andsaid," See what you did to make the water clean. You let it be, and the mudsettled down on its own ── and you have clear water.*
*Your mind is like that too ! When it is disturbed, just let it be. Give ita little time. It will settle down on its own. You don't have to put in anyeffort to calm it down. It will happen. It is effortless."*
*Having 'Peace of Mind' is not a strenuous job; it is an effortless process!
*The disciple walked up to the lake. At that moment, a bullock cart startedcrossing through the lake. As a result, the water became very muddy andturbid. The disciple thought, "How can I give this muddy water to Buddha todrink?"*
*So he came back and told Buddha, "The water in there is very muddy. I don'tthink it is fit to drink."*
*After about half an hour, again Buddha asked the same disciple to go backto the lake. *
*The disciple went back, and found that the water was still muddy. Hereturned and informed Buddha about the same.*
*After sometime, again Buddha asked the same disciple to go back.*
*This time, the disciple found the mud had settled down, and the water wasclean and clear. So he collected some water in a pot and brought it toBuddha.*
*Buddha looked at the water, and then he looked up at the disciple andsaid," See what you did to make the water clean. You let it be, and the mudsettled down on its own ── and you have clear water.*
*Your mind is like that too ! When it is disturbed, just let it be. Give ita little time. It will settle down on its own. You don't have to put in anyeffort to calm it down. It will happen. It is effortless."*
*Having 'Peace of Mind' is not a strenuous job; it is an effortless process!
Monday, August 2, 2010
Just [[Us]]
This photo is specially made on 2nd August 2010 for my dear dear...
Dear, I Love you... and Just [Us]
Dear, I Love you... and Just [Us]
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Let me be in your life...
You are the one for me...
You are the only one that I love
You are the one that I will spend the rest of my life with...
Neither person in this world can replace you in my heart...
Just remember that you are the only one I care for
I wanna be with you...
I wanna be part of your life
I wanna be with you...
I wanna be there for you
Why cant you let me be in your life??
Why cant you whisper your secret thru my ears??
Why cant you let me feel what you are feeling??
I dun understand...
All I wanna say is...
I love you...
I love you...
I love you...
Just gimme a chance to love you
just gimme a chance to be there for you...
Just gimme a chance to care for you
Nothing I am asking for you but to let me be part of your life...
I know you are sad
I know you are angry
I know you are lonely
I know you are miserable
I know I know I know...
Just let me be in your life...
that is all I wish for...
Sob~
You are the only one that I love
You are the one that I will spend the rest of my life with...
Neither person in this world can replace you in my heart...
Just remember that you are the only one I care for
I wanna be with you...
I wanna be part of your life
I wanna be with you...
I wanna be there for you
Why cant you let me be in your life??
Why cant you whisper your secret thru my ears??
Why cant you let me feel what you are feeling??
I dun understand...
All I wanna say is...
I love you...
I love you...
I love you...
Just gimme a chance to love you
just gimme a chance to be there for you...
Just gimme a chance to care for you
Nothing I am asking for you but to let me be part of your life...
I know you are sad
I know you are angry
I know you are lonely
I know you are miserable
I know I know I know...
Just let me be in your life...
that is all I wish for...
Sob~
Sunday, July 18, 2010
::W::A::I::T::I::N::G:: ~I love you...
For the past one week, problem which has not been solved, a new one pops up. It happens for a reason, I tried to tell myself, overcome it and you will be alrite. But yet, after one another, I really feel like giving up. I feel so miserable. I dun have anyone to talk to... No one in my life except you. I seriously dunno what really happen between us. Because of my parents, because of ur 1st ex, because of me...
I have been really stressed,
I wanna be with you so badly.
So many times I wanna say that lets have cool off period, and at least we can really sort things out.
But I cant, I love you so much,
I hate the feeling that I am gonna loose you somehow.
Things arent goin to be same anymore, i belong to you...
I have promised you that I will love you forever, and I gotta hang on to that no matter how difficult it will be, and it gonna be.
Maybe one day you have realised that I am no longer the one for you,
perhaps you wanna be back to your 1st ex since she is the 1st one you love before me,
perhaps, things between us wont work out as what we have planned it to be,
perhaps, you have no longer want me to be in your life anymore,
perhaps, you wanna leave me and go, in order to pursue your future, the things you wanna achieve,
perhaps, I will be your burden somehow in one day...
I do not mind letting you go, free you away...
at least in my heart, I know you have been freed from all miseries, sadness and perhaps you will be more happy.
But, I no longer will move on,
Altho i have let you go... but with you is my heart... It has been there now... it wil be there until the day you and I left this world.
Yes, I will wait for you, I am willingly wait for you, I will keep on waiting...
It doesnt matter if you cant wait for me,
it doesnt matter if you wanna leave me,
it doesnt matter how hurt my heart will be,
it doesnt matter if you dun love me anymore,
it doesnt matter if you dun wanna come back to me,
it doesnt matter how hard it is going to be...
it is all doesnt matter.
As long as I know you will be happy with your life you gonna have,
you are satisfied with anything you have pursued,
even you have moved on with you life without me but with someone else
That is my life is keep on waiting... waiting for you, to be a success person, that once you have loved me. It all my fault that I loose you and i know there is no chance of turning back anymore. Just waiting and keep on waiting..
You will be saying, it is not worth it...
No matter what you have said, whatever I have decided, I have decided and i will carry on waiting...
Things cant work out between us, i will wait for the chance again
You wanna leave me, I will wait for you to come back to me
You dun love me anymore, I will wait you to fall for me again,
You wanna pursue your future, I will wait for you to be a success person
No matter what, my love towards you will never change, and that is that...
You are the only one I love, I will continue loving you, i will keep on loving you,
No matter how hard, how misery, how sad, how difficult... I will still hang on
I will hang on...
i will keep hanging on...
I will wait for the day you come to me and say "my dear, its time for me to be with you and i want you to be my wife and we walk the future rocky road together without any separation."
I love you... I always will and I will keep loving you...
Sob~~~
I have been really stressed,
I wanna be with you so badly.
So many times I wanna say that lets have cool off period, and at least we can really sort things out.
But I cant, I love you so much,
I hate the feeling that I am gonna loose you somehow.
Things arent goin to be same anymore, i belong to you...
I have promised you that I will love you forever, and I gotta hang on to that no matter how difficult it will be, and it gonna be.
Maybe one day you have realised that I am no longer the one for you,
perhaps you wanna be back to your 1st ex since she is the 1st one you love before me,
perhaps, things between us wont work out as what we have planned it to be,
perhaps, you have no longer want me to be in your life anymore,
perhaps, you wanna leave me and go, in order to pursue your future, the things you wanna achieve,
perhaps, I will be your burden somehow in one day...
I do not mind letting you go, free you away...
at least in my heart, I know you have been freed from all miseries, sadness and perhaps you will be more happy.
But, I no longer will move on,
Altho i have let you go... but with you is my heart... It has been there now... it wil be there until the day you and I left this world.
Yes, I will wait for you, I am willingly wait for you, I will keep on waiting...
It doesnt matter if you cant wait for me,
it doesnt matter if you wanna leave me,
it doesnt matter how hurt my heart will be,
it doesnt matter if you dun love me anymore,
it doesnt matter if you dun wanna come back to me,
it doesnt matter how hard it is going to be...
it is all doesnt matter.
As long as I know you will be happy with your life you gonna have,
you are satisfied with anything you have pursued,
even you have moved on with you life without me but with someone else
That is my life is keep on waiting... waiting for you, to be a success person, that once you have loved me. It all my fault that I loose you and i know there is no chance of turning back anymore. Just waiting and keep on waiting..
You will be saying, it is not worth it...
No matter what you have said, whatever I have decided, I have decided and i will carry on waiting...
Things cant work out between us, i will wait for the chance again
You wanna leave me, I will wait for you to come back to me
You dun love me anymore, I will wait you to fall for me again,
You wanna pursue your future, I will wait for you to be a success person
No matter what, my love towards you will never change, and that is that...
You are the only one I love, I will continue loving you, i will keep on loving you,
No matter how hard, how misery, how sad, how difficult... I will still hang on
I will hang on...
i will keep hanging on...
I will wait for the day you come to me and say "my dear, its time for me to be with you and i want you to be my wife and we walk the future rocky road together without any separation."
I love you... I always will and I will keep loving you...
Sob~~~
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