Gift from a kind reader ... The Way of the Buddha!

I recently received in the mail a beautiful little art book called The Way of the Buddha: The Illustrated Dhammapada - illustrated by images from the Rubin Museum of Art, a museum dedicated to the art of the Himalayas. Some aspects of the book are very like Christianity:

"He abused me, he beat me, he defeated me, he robbed me" - in those who harbor such thoughts hatred will never cease.

"He abused me, he beat me, he defeated me, he robbed me" - in those who do not harbor such thoughts hatred will cease.

For hatred does not cease by hatred at any time: hatred ceases by love - this is an old rule.

The world does not know that we must all come to an end here; but those who know it, their quarrels cease at once.

That's a great idea, and I am familiar with this expression of it:

But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5:44-48, NIV)

The main reason for not harboring hatred is that we then fill our own minds with hatred. That is an additional evil for which we are accountable. And it does nothing to counter the evil that was done to us. I am delighted with the book and greatly admire the art, though I think I had better remain a Catholic!

See also:

Real Buddhism scholar to "neural Buddhists": The Buddha does not infinitely morph and would never drop two g's for "meditation gear"

Materialists start to come to grips with global failure but materialism dies hard"

"Neural Buddhists, Christians, and the Mud that failed"

"Neural Buddhism: Do neurons get reincarnated?" (No, actually, they get recycled.)

Monks lead protest for civil rights in Tibet

I've written before about the beating Buddhist monks have taken while opposing oppression in Myanmar - and now they are opposing oppression in Tibet.

They hope to draw attention to the problem due to the fact that the Olympics were awarded to China this year.

Here's Canada's John Fraser's harrowing but instructive take on why the Chinese government has such a problem with civil rights.

Each of the condemned men also had an armed PSB officer beside them, holding on to them either by the shoulder or at the neck. The prisoners' hands were tied behind their backs and they clearly had been beaten up. For the passengers on the right side of the bus, there was only a window glass and less than a foot distance between them and the condemned men. Never before and never again, probably, would they have such a close encounter with the Chinese justice system. One of the condemned looked up, almost disinterestedly. One eye was so bloodied it was completely shut, but with the other eye he and I made contact for a couple of seconds. As I write this on Good Friday, I can see his face so clearly that it unshrouds him and makes my soul shiver.

"They are about to be executed, aren't they?" a passenger asked after the truck finally made it past us and we were rolling again.

[ ... ]

The rest of the trip to Beijing was very quiet, but less than 24 hours later they were all back to shopping their brains out.

I excerpt this just so you know what you are going to read.

I sometimes run into Western Christians who think we invented taking a stand against tyranny, but there are many brave people in the world, including these monks.

And China is a materialist tyranny. Fraser writes,

When you have a gruesome gauleiter like Zhang Qingli, first secretary of the Communist party in the "Autonomous Region of Tibet," telling the Tibetan people that the Communist party is "like a parent" to them and that "it is always considerate about what the children need," and then segues into a studiously inflammatory claim that the "Central Party Committee is the real Buddha for Tibetans," you get a wee glimpse into the sick spiritual territory the party has always staked out for itself along with all its dubious claims of its "inalienable rights" to guide the masses.

By the way, Maclean's, which published John Fraser, is our century-old Canadian magazine that is standing up to the tyranny of Canada s misnamed "human rights" commissions, under which it has been recently charged.