4/25/15 Nepal Earthquake - Hindu and Buddhist Take

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Royal
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4/25/15 Nepal Earthquake - Hindu and Buddhist Take

Post by Royal » Mon Apr 27, 2015 5:19 am

But unlike Abrahamic traditions, in which a single God is thought to be omniscient and all-powerful -- and thus, in theory, responsible for allowing natural disasters -- Buddhists and Hindus have another way of looking at tragic events, Lewis explained.

Some place the blame at the feet of karma -- human actions that result in future consequences. But many others just see earthquakes and tsunamis as amoral events, neither caused by angry deities nor visited on deserving sinners.

"Buddhist and Hindu texts make it clear that there are all kinds of causal contingencies that just happen," with no cosmic rhyme or reason, Lewis said. In one famous Buddhist book, "The Questions of King Milinda," the Buddha teaches that the majority of things that happen to people, good or bad, are not related to karma at all. To put it very simply: Stuff happens.

Still, Buddhists and Hindus are not fatalists, sitting idly by while the world spins toward an apocalyptic end. Many members of both faiths have sprung into action as news of the earthquake has spread.

On Facebook, for example, a number of followers of Tibetan Buddhism are sending aid and prayers to several monasteries from that tradition in Nepal. One phrase comes up again and again: Om mane padme hum, which can be translated several ways, most commonly as "jewel in the lotus."

Known as the "heart mantra," the phrase invokes Avalokiteshvara, the Buddhist bodhisattva of compassion. (Bodhisattvas are enlightened beings who forgo nirvana in order to help others.) When the mantra is chanted, Buddhists, particularly in Nepal, believe Avalokiteshvara appears and helps people in need, Lewis explained. The earthquake struck as Nepal was holding a centuries-old ceremony dedicated to Avalokiteshvara, the scholar said.

Now, instead of wheeling around the bodhisattva's chariot, Nepalese victims are building funeral pyres to burn their dead. The practice may seem strange, even gruesome to Westerners, who dress their dead in fine clothing and bury them in boxes.

But in Nepal, a country with no graveyards, Lewis said funeral pyres are seen as the most compassionate way to treat the dead, for both Hindus and Buddhists believe in reincarnation, that we cycle through not one life but many. When we die, our corpses may lie lifeless but our spirit -- Hindus call it a soul; Buddhists call it consciousness -- lives on, and looks for another body to inhabit.

If the corpse is not destroyed quickly after death, the soul lingers and get trapped between realms, forced to wander Earth as an agitated ghost. When the skull bursts open on the funeral pyre, that means the soul has left the body, Lewis said. The ashes are then tossed in the Bagmati River, holy to Hindus and Buddhists, and born downstream.

"The body is gone," Tiwari said, "but the soul will be alive."

http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/26/world/nep ... index.html


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Pigeon
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Re: 4/25/15 Nepal Earthquake - Hindu and Buddhist Take

Post by Pigeon » Wed Apr 29, 2015 9:13 pm

When does the world start blaming it's woes on buried people? I imagine the cemetery plot lobby would shut that down quickly.

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