Buddhist monk competing in Olympics

Wisdom Quarterly

"Usain - not every man wants to be the fastest in the world," Durex brags on billboard.

  
Ven. Kenki Sato is in London competing in the Olympics. The sport he is competing in is -- not the archery Siddhartha was so good at, which would currently have him being beat by a blind man -- equestrian. Sensei is a Mahayana Buddhist monastic who resides in Myoshoji Temple, Japan. 

  

"Oh, I get it! That's pretty funny."

The monastery is located in the mountains near Nagano. His father, Shodo, is the 25th master of the 460-year-old temple and adjacent horse-riding club. Sensei follows his younger brother Eiken, who not only trained as a monk but in addition rode at the Beijing Olympics. His 24-year-old sister, Tae, is a five-time national show-jumping champion.

With his horse -- not named "Kanthaka" like Siddhartha's boyhood pony -- "Boy Toy," the venerable monk is seen on the track. He has won two gold medals in individual and team jumping at the 16th Asian Games in 2010.

• PHOTOS: Olympic sports part of daily life for tribes worldwide

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World Peace Pilgrimage (Mt. Baldy)

WorldPeacePilgrimage.com; JKiser, Pacifica Radio; Wisdom Quarterly

Faiths are uniting for world peace high above on Los Angeles' "holy mountain."

  

For the past three years over 200 people from different faiths have come together on sacred Mount Baldy.

• Mt. Baldy Zen Center

Often snow capped high in the San Gabriel mountain range in eastern Los Angeles County towering over the city, the gathering sends out waves of love and light to the world from its communication center.

  

This annual event draws together pilgrims from all walks of life gathering together, hiking together, singing together, and "praying" together for the sake of co-creating world peace as a blessing to Mother Earth and all her inhabitants.

  

This is a FREE EVENT (other than the cost of the ski-lift). For pilgrimage logistics and to register, see... More

  

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A Buddhist Path to Recovery? (video)

Buddhist Recovery at Against the Stream, Los Angeles; Wisdom Quarterly (Part 1 of 3)

(SoberLiving.com, SLtscrc) This drug rehab program has succeeded for over 25 years in Newport Beach, California, specializing in separate treatment programs for women or men, including an eating disorder facility. After 30-90 days of sobriety, the Beachside Extended Care Program allows structured treatment in a monitored residence to reintegrate into society. Or get back into the classroom through T.E.A.C.H., which provides transportation and highly supportive academic counseling. Info: (866) 323-5609.
 

The Four Truths of Recovery

These four truths come from a Buddhist perspective that says:
  
“All beings have the power and potential to free themselves from suffering.”
  
We [at Dharma Punx/Against the Stream] feel confident in the Buddha’s teachings to relieve suffering of all kinds, including the suffering of addiction.

1. Addiction creates suffering.

We come to understand, acknowledge, admit, and accept all of the ways our addictions and addictive behaviors have caused suffering in our lives.

• ACTION: Write an in-depth and detailed inventory of the suffering you have experienced in association with your addictions.

2. Addiction is not all your fault.

We come to understand that all forms of addiction have their roots in the natural human tendency to crave for life to be more pleasurable and less painful than it actually is. The addict is not at fault for the root causes and conditions that lead to addiction, only for the habitual reactive patterns that perpetuate it.

• ACTION: Investigate, analyze, and share this inventory with your mentor or teacher and come to understand the nature of your addiction/suffering.

3. Recovery is possible.

Freedom from the suffering caused by addiction is attainable -- if we are ready and willing to take responsibility for our actions and follow the Eightfold Path.

• ACTION: Take refuge in the community, practice, and potential of your own recovery. Study and apply the principles of the path, and eventually you will become confident with a verified faith in the path of recovery/enlightenment through the actions you take on the path.

4. The Eightfold Path to recovery

After the ecstasy, the laundry: Recovery is work.

This is an abstinence-based path and philosophy. We believe that the recovery process begins when abstinence (from all substances and related behaviors) begins. The eight factors or folds of the path are meant to be developed, penetrated, and experienced for oneself. This is not a linear path; it is not taken in order. Rather, all of the factors are developed and applied simultaneously. This is a guide to having a life freed of addiction. The eight folds of recovery are maintained and brought to perfection throughout life.

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Trust Me, I'm Lying (media manipulation)

CoastToCoastAM.com (7-22-12), RyanHoliday.net (trustmeimlying.com); Wisdom Quarterly

   

Professional liar and business strategist Ryan Holiday was on C2C recently talking about how media manipulators control and distort the news. He declares, "Look, this is exactly what's happening, and I know that it's happening because I've personally done it."

  

He shared a media manipulation story as a marketer for the film I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell. He lacked money and media access, so he manufactured a "controversy" around the film. After buying cheap billboards for the movie, for example, he vandalized his ads and sent anonymous pictures of the handiwork to local news blogs. The story spread throughout the Internet and, "It created this nationwide backlash against the movie that generated millions and millions of advertising impressions," he brags.

• Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator

Holiday also decried the lack of oversight by the mainstream media when it comes to verifying the veracity of their sources. He cited a social network used by journalists to find "sources" to say what they need said for their stories. He then confessed that he spent the last six months on the site posing as an expert on topics he knew nothing about.

  

He was subsequently cited as a source by nearly two dozen media outlets, including ABC News, MSNBC, and even the New York Times. But Holiday is quick to note that he used his real name during his "experiment." Not one of the news organizations investigated his background, which would have quickly shown that he was an author on media manipulation and not the expert he claimed to be.

  

BOOK: Screwing Mother Nature for Profit

• More on the rare, elusive "Goatman" near Ogden
• 10 Places to Visit Before They Vanish (gallery)
• Dr. Michio Kaku chats about alien invasion (video)
• Brilliant scientists are open-minded about paranormal stuff, so why not you?
• Russian research project offers 'immortality' to billionaires - by transplanting their brains into robot bodies

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The Best Book about Buddhism (FREE)

Ven. Dr. Walpola Rahula, ELECTRONIC EDITION (BuddhaSociety.com, PBS) Grove Press, Inc., New York, proofread by F. Ruzsa; online version by V. Máthé as a gift of Dharma

The entire core contents are available online. An expanded edition is also available.    What the Buddha Taught Countless volumes have been written on Buddhism. Wisdom Quarterly has gone through many of them -- finding a few diamonds and a great deal of dross in the process. This work stands the test of time. It manages to quickly explain, rather than outline, almost every important Dharma topic. How it does this is hard to understand.     But that it does it is easy to see. If one had only one Buddhist book to read, it might be a "best of" collection of well translated sutras (like In the Buddha's Words). But if one prefers a book about Buddhism that explains what the historical Buddha actually taught, one would be hard pressed to find a better book.    This indispensable volume is a lucid and faithful account of the Buddha’s teachings. “For years,” says the Journal of the Buddhist Society, “the newcomer to Buddhism has lacked a simple and reliable introduction to the complexities of the subject. Dr. Rahula’s What the Buddha Taught fills the need as only could be done by one having a firm grasp of the vast material to be sifted. It is a model of what a book should be that is addressed first of all to ‘the educated and intelligent reader.’ Authoritative and clear, logical and sober, this study is as comprehensive as it is masterly.”     Table of Content Foreword Preface The Buddha The Buddhist Attitude of Mind The Four Noble Truths The First Noble Truth: Dukkha The Second Noble Truth: Samudaya The Third Noble Truth: Nirodha The Fourth Noble Truth: Magga The Doctrine of No Soul: Anatta Meditation or Mental Culture: Bhāvanā What the Buddha Taught and the World Today             Abbreviations

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