My new Twitter handle is now live - check me out at @jackiewgibson!
CNN has posted a history of bias against Sikhs - more reason for people to learn about religions before they attack anyone:...
Sikh temple shooting unfolding, learn about Sikhism here: http://t.co/A0ltLLIm
Sikh temple shooting unfolding, learn about Sikhism here: http://t.co/l3KrAJZf
Hackers group Anonymous takes down Vatican website: http://t.co/B6lbGAVp
WGN-TV calls doomsday prophecies "an illusion": http://t.co/mv8Gzyw7
RT @graceishuman: Really,? Asking people JUST LEAVING the service how they felt about it? Tacky, tacky, inappropriate
Whitney Houston's funeral service really took the world to church. Love Pastor Winans' honesty, very moving.
#teacher ? Here are appropriate responses to situations with your Jehovah's Witness student: http://t.co/A6UfqcgH
#Teachers: Want to know why your Jehovah's Witness student won't say the pledge and how to respond? http://t.co/EIdlgDwW
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Buddhism
Sunday marked the beginning of the 15-day Chinese New Year celebration, and Monday ushered in the Chinese Year of the Ox.
Based on the Chinese calendar, animals rotate and reappear every 12 years (i.e., the last year of the ox was 12 years ago). The coming of this new year marks the completion of 2008, the Year of the Rat.
The New Year’s celebration is noted by the entire Chinese culture, though it’s celebrated in different ways by different religions including Buddhism and Confucianism.
So what does the ox symbolize for 2009?
One Buddhist temple told Independent Online that the ox symbolizes hard work and reliability. This comes at a great time, considering much of the world is looking forward to hunkering down and fixing grave economic situations.
For Zen Buddhists, the ox may call to mind the Herding of the Ox parable. Here is Zen Buddhist D.T. Suzuki’s version:
Here we see that the ox’s “great will and power” are inexhaustible and that he is capable of a “terrific struggle.” When we discover that we are the only source of his energy the “struggle” will be over. Although he is always with you, you can’t turn around fast enough to see him. Now you’ve caught him, he can no longer hide. Still, he seems insubordinate, used to his old ways, searching for new satisfactions while remaining always unsatisfied. You think you can whip him into obedience, yet another illusion!
For Confucianism, the ox symbolizes righteousness.
Reliable, righteous, hard-working – this lunar year should be quite upstanding.
Copyright 2009 Religion Transcends.
Six Buddhist monks, a nun, and two acolytes were found dead Saturday in a Buddhist temple west of Phoenix.
The county sheriff told Arizona’s NBC-12 that it was clear they were shot execution style. The bodies were side by side when they were found. He said it’s one of the largest mass murders ever experienced in Arizona.
The nun was the 71-year-old grandmother of the youngest monk who was slain – a 16-year-old from a nearby high school.
No motive has been found and police have no leads as of yet.
A temple board member mourning the losses said the murdered monks had been open to teaching meditation to anyone and everyone, Buddhist or non-Buddhist.
About 200,000 people attended a rally in downtown Seoul, South Korea, yesterday — right in front of its City Hall.
They were protesting the religious bias they accuse the government of holding against Buddhists. Read my original article about the Jogye Order, the denomination leading the protest.
Among the 200,000 people, police estimated 60,000 of them were Buddhists (including 7,000 monks).
They issued a resolution asking the president (Lee Myung-bak) to take notice of religious bias, to stop religious discrimination, and to unify the nation.
Read more about the South Korean Buddhist protest on BuddhistChannel.tv.
On Monday, we reported that religious authorities in Nepal are searching for the next Kumari.
Today, we bring you an update from Afp.google.com:
A Nepali tradition of locking a young virgin girl in a palace and worshipping her as a “living Goddess” has been dealt a blow with the country’s Supreme Court ruling she has the right to go to school. The court said there was no justification for the specially chosen pre-pubescent girl, known as the Kumari, to be subjected to a practice that dates back centuries.
The ruling comes barely three months after Nepali lawmakers abolished the country’s 240-year-old Hindu monarchy, who received annual blessings from the Kumari in a ceremony designed to underpin the legitimacy of the royals. The court’s verdict was prompted by a complaint from local lawyers that keeping a young girl cooped up in an ornate but decrepit palace in Kathmandu’s medieval quarter was a violation of her rights.
But it was not immediately clear whether the court’s decision would herald the end of the tradition, given that the Kumari’s aura is to a large part dependent on her total separation from the outside world.
“This is not good news. In any case, she is a Goddess so how can court rulings apply?” asserted Rajan Maharajan, the vice president of the committee that looks after the Kumari and her palace. He also said the girl’s rights were not being violated because “her teacher comes to the Kumari Palace every day, and she has three hours a day when she can meet people.” “We do not keep her prisoner,” he said of the current Kumari. “We will ask the Goddess if she wants to go outside more, and if she wants, she can go, but I don’t think she feels comfortable leaving the palace.”