What is your concept of eternity?

Ah, my favorite type of articles. The News & Observer features "Voices of Faith", in which Rev. R.L. Baynham, pastor of Metropolitan Baptist Church, and Lama Chuck Stanford of the Rime Buddhist Center & Monastery provide insight from their respective faiths. In this article, they discuss "What is your concept of eternity?"

Rev. R.L. Baynham: Eternity is an attribute of God, and he alone fathoms its depths. We are challenged to live within the divine purpose of God's will as ascribed in the Bible. When we live in harmony with our purpose, we experience life as it is supposed to be. We understand the purpose is to live a full, meaningful life.

Lama Chuck Stanford: Unlike the monotheistic faiths, Buddhism has no concept of eternity after death. In fact, from the Buddhist perspective, death is viewed as a very temporary state between a nearly infinite number of rebirths.

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The Passing of Ven. Geshe Tsultim Gyeltsen

Venerable Geshe Tsultim Gyeltsen
Founder and Spritual Director of Thubten Dhargye Ling

"Dear Friends,

We have very sad news. Our great and dear teacher Ven. Geshe Gyeltsen passed from our world today, Friday February 13th at around 12:20 p.m. Ven. Geshela died peacefully, surrounded by monks from Gaden Shartse Monastery and family members.

All prayers and necessary rituals were performed by the monks. His Holiness the Dalai Lama and other lamas called and spoke to Ven. Geshela earlier this week.

Please pray for Geshela's swift return to continue his teachings for the benefit of all sentient beings.

Students are encouraged to include the King of Prayers into their daily practice, wishing Geshela to return quickly to continue to teach us.

Thubten Dhargye Ling / Center for the Study of Buddhism and Tibetan Culture"

Learn more about Venerable Geshe Tsultim Gyeltsten.

Photo from UrbanDharma

Corporate/Poltical leader now, Asura tomorrow

The six realms of Buddhism are rebirth as a deva, an asura, a human being, an animal, a hungry ghost, or a being in Naraka (hell). Can we make any metaphorical connections from these realms to our life here as a human?

O'Brien writes about how being reborn as an asura may very much be like being a corporate or political leader.

"I believe these days most of us (including, I understand, His Holiness the Dalai Lama) do not believe in the Six Realms as actual locations. Instead, they are more often understood as metaphors for our psychological projections. As such, it seems to me the Six Realms teachings shed light on our ongoing financial crisis."

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Photo from The Buddhist Channel.

Master Sheng Yen dies at age 80

Tuesday, Feb. 3, Venerable Dharma Master Sheng Yen died of renal disease at National Taiwan University Hospital at the age of 80.

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Photo from The Buddhist Channel

According to The Buddhist Channel, he wrote this poem before he passed away:

無事忙中老，
空裡有哭笑，
本來沒有我，
生死皆可拋。

Busy with nothing, growing old.
Within emptiness, weeping, laughing.
Intrinsically, there is no "I."
Life and death, thus cast aside.

Chinese delegation investigate monk murder case

"A Chinese delegation arrived in Taiwan late on Sunday to help deal with an incident in which two visiting monks from China’s Linggu Temple died at a Hsinchu hotel last week. The delegation was headed by Li Huaining (李淮寧), a Nanjing City Government department chief in charge of ethnic and religious affairs.

Li said after his arrival at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport that his group expected to get first-hand information about the incident.

He was referring to a suspected homicide-suicide case last Wednesday in which Dharma Master Jing Ran (淨然), abbot of Linggu Temple, was believed to have been killed by Dharma Master Chun Ru (純如), supervisor at the same temple, who later committed suicide."

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Understanding Death through Buddhism

The Closer-to-Reality Conference 2008 was held at Thean Hou Temple from 12/27-12/29. Sasanarakkha Buddhist Sanctuary organized it to “connect real life experiences with Buddhist scriptural understanding”. The conference was titled "Understanding Death and Beyond" and discussed issues such as...

• When does death actually occur?
• If I’m an organ donor, what will happen if I’m not really dead yet but my organs are being harvested?
• Is there really an intermediate state between death in one existence and rebirth in another?
• In a heart transplant, does the ‘spirit’ of the donor share the same body with the recipient who is experiencing a transfer of personality traits?

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Photo from The Buddhist Channel.