Tag: religion

The Ramayana

The 2010 assault in Kerala occurred on 4 July 2010 at Muvattupuzha near Nirmala College in the Ernakulam district of Kerala, India.[3] T. J. Joseph, a professor of Malayalam at Newman College, Thodupuzha, a Christian minority institution affiliated toMahatma Gandhi University[4] had his hand cut off at the wrist as punishment on allegation of blasphemy, by people belonging toPopular Front of India, a confederation of radical,[5][6] fanatic,[7] Muslim fundamentalist[8] and extremist[9][10][11][12][13] organisations in South India.

Some reports indicate the attack resulted from a ruling from a “Taliban-model” court.[14][15] The Minister of Home Affairs of Kerala,Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, made a statement that while government is aware that there is a local Dar-ul Khada set up by the Popular Front of India under the supervision of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, functioning to resolve civil disputes, there were no complaints received that it was passing “Taliban-model” orders.[16][17][18][19]

In 9 October, Delhi University’s Academic Council decided to drop A.K. Ramanujan’s essay 300 Ramayanas from the Delhi University B.A. syllabus, largely due to pressure from right-wing organisations. The Council, which deals primarily with administrative affairs, saw fit to intervene in this case and dismiss the essay, despite recommendation to the contrary by the expert committee. The essay has been the subject of controversy since 2008, when these groups first objected to some of the findings presented by Ramanujan.

Ramayana

The Ramayana belongs to a class of literature known in Sanskrit as kavya (poetry), though in the West it is considered to belong to the category of literature familiar to readers of Homer, namely the epic. It is one of two epics, the other being the Mahabharata, which have had a decisive influence in shaping the nature of Indian civilization. The Ramayana existed in the oral tradition perhaps as far back as 1,500 BCE, but the fourth century BCE is generally accepted as the date of its composition in Sanskrit by Valmiki. Though some right-wing ideologues in recent years, eager that the Ramayana should have the same kind of historicity attached to it as do the scriptures of Christianity and the Koran, have sought to date the Ramayana back to at least 6,000 years and even furnish an exact date for its composition, it by no means diminishes the importance of the text to suggest that the historicity of the Ramayana is the least interesting of the questions that can be raised about it and its characters. Whether in fact its hero Rama, who in Hindu mythology is an avatar of Vishnu but a principal deity in his own right, and who is also worshipped in parts of north India as a king, existed or not is scarcely of any importance. The other kind of excess is to view him merely as a trope — as a sign of patriarchy, for example, or as an insignia of valiant and militant kshatriyahood, which is what the present generation of Hindutvavadis have turned him into.

charnel ground

A charnel ground (Devanagari: श्मशान; Romanized Sanskrit: śmaśāna; Tibetan pronunciation: durtrö; Tibetan: དུར་ཁྲོད, Wylie: dur khrod),[1] in concrete terms, is an above-ground site for the putrefaction of bodies, generally human, where formerly living tissue is left to decompose uncovered. Although it may have demarcated locations within it functionally identified as burial grounds,cemeteries and crematoria, it is distinct from these as well as from crypts or burial vaults.

In a religious sense, it is also a very important location for sadhana and ritual activity for Indo-Tibetan traditions of Dharmaparticularly those traditions iterated by the Tantric view such as Kashmiri Shaivism, Kaula tradition, Esoteric Buddhism, Vajrayana,Mantrayana, Dzogchen, and the sadhana of Chöd, Phowa and Zhitro, etc. The charnel ground is also an archetypal liminality that figures prominently in the literature and liturgy and as an artistic motif in Dharmic Traditions and cultures iterated by the moreantinomian and esoteric aspects of traditional Indian culture.

法輪功真相

Li Hongzhi introduced the Teachings of Falun Gong to the public in Changchun, China in 1992. The teachings cover a wide range of topics ranging from spiritual, scientific andmoral to metaphysical. Since its inception, Falun Gong has been one of the fastest growing qigong (Pinyin: qìgōng) schools in Chinese history.[citation needed]

The teachings of Falun Gong are based on the principles of zhēn 眞, shàn 善 and rěn 忍 (which translate approximately as truthfulness, benevolence, and forbearance)[1]articulated in the two main books Falun Gong[2] and Zhuan Falun.[3] Falun Gong is an introductory book that discusses qigong, introduces the aforementioned principles, and provides illustrations and explanations of exercises for meditation. Zhuan Falun is considered the central and most comprehensive exposition on the teachings of Falun Gong.

According to the book Falun Gong, “Fǎlún” (Buddha Fǎ) is a great, high-level cultivation way of the Buddha School (different from Buddhism), in which assimilation to the supreme nature of the universe, Zhen-Shan-Ren, is the foundation of cultivation practice.”[4] In this concept, “cultivation” refers to upgrading one’s xīnxìng (mind-nature) through abandoning negative attachments and assimilating oneself to “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance”. “Practice” refers to the five meditative exercises that are said to purify and transform one’s body. Cultivation is considered essential, and the exercises are said to supplement the process of improving oneself.[5][6]

Some aspects of Falun Gong’s teachings are considered implausible and peculiar by observers, and Falun Gong’s conservative and moralistic views on subjects such as sexuality have attracted controversy.

Falun Gong or Falun Dafa (literally, “Dharma Wheel Practice” or “Law Wheel Practice”) is a Chinese spiritual practice that combines meditation and qigong exercises with a moral philosophy centered on the tenets of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance(Chinese: 真、善、忍). The practice emphasizes morality and the cultivation of virtue, and identifies as a qigong practice of the Buddhist school, though its teachings also incorporate elements drawn from Taoist traditions. Through moral rectitude and the practice of meditation, practitioners of Falun Gong aspire to better health and, ultimately, spiritual enlightenment.

Falun Gong was first taught publicly in Northeast China in 1992 by Li Hongzhi. It emerged toward the end of China’s “qigongboom”—a period which saw the proliferation of similar practices of meditation, slow-moving exercises and regulated breathing. It differs from other qigong schools in its absence of fees or formal membership, lack of daily rituals of worship, its greater emphasis on morality, and the theological nature of its teachings. Western academics have described Falun Gong as a qigong discipline, a “spiritual movement”, a “cultivation system” in the tradition of Chinese antiquity, or as a form of Chinese religion.

Although the practice initially enjoyed considerable support from Chinese officialdom, by the mid- to late-1990s, the Communist Partyand public security organizations increasingly viewed Falun Gong as a potential threat due to its size, independence from the state, and spiritual teachings. By 1999, government estimates placed the number of Falun Gong practitioners at 70 million.[1] Tensions culminated in April 1999, when over 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners gathered peacefully near the central government compound in Beijing to request legal recognition and freedom from state interference. This demonstration is widely seen as catalyzing the persecution that followed.

On 20 July 1999, the Communist Party leadership initiated a nationwide crackdown and multifaceted propaganda campaign intended to eradicate the practice. It blocked Internet access to websites that mention Falun Gong, and in October 1999 it declared Falun Gong a “heretical organization” that threatened social stability. Human rights groups report that Falun Gong practitioners in China are subject to a wide range of human rights abuses: hundreds of thousands are estimated to have been imprisoned extrajudicially, and practitioners in detention are subject to forced labor, psychiatric abuse, torture, and other coercive methods of thought reform at the hands of Chinese authorities.[2] As of 2009 at least 2,000 Falun Gong practitioners had died as a result of abuse in custody.[3]Some observers put the number much higher, and report that tens of thousands may have been killed to supply China’s organ transplant industry.[4][5] In the years since the persecution began, Falun Gong practitioners have become active in advocating for greater human rights in China.

Falun Gong founder Li Hongzhi has lived in the United States since 1996, and Falun Gong has a sizable global constituency. Inside China, some sources estimate that tens of millions continue to practice Falun Gong in spite of the persecution.[6][7] Hundreds of thousands are estimated to practice Falun Gong outside China in over 70 countries worldwide.[8][9]

Uploaded on May 22, 2011
1999年4月25日發生了震動世界的法輪功萬人北京上訪事件，事件真相被中共封鎖至­今已有15年，”4.25法輪功萬人上訪真相”仍作為被禁的關鍵­詞，被中共嚴密封鎖和抹黑。
那一天，一萬多名法輪大法修煉者從四面八方來到北京國務院信訪辦公室所在地和平請願。­從清晨到夜晚，歷時十多個小時，無暴力、無口號、無擾民、無垃圾、善意平靜，創造了在­中共幾十年極權統治下不曾有過的官民成功對話、圓滿解決問題的獨有範例，也為

Falun Dafa 60min exercise in video (1-4) from Punu Se on Vimeo.