Buddhist Information and FAQs
Official Website of His Holiness Dalai Lama
http://www.dalailama.com/
Check for regular updates of teaching schedule, online teachings, Tibetan news and all His Holiness's compassionate humanitarian activity.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama gives teachings throughout the year at various times and in different places. His Holiness also gives public talks. In India, teachings and public talks are usually free and open to the public. However, to attend teachings and public talks outside of India one usually is required to purchase a ticket. The proceeds from the ticket sales are used to cover the costs of the venue and other expenses related to His Holiness's visit.
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Manjushri Buddhist Learning Center, Inc’s mission is to provide the monk students of the Manjushri Di-Chen Buddhist Learning Center in Nepal with the schooling they need for brighter futures. The children come from poor, remote regions of Nepal, Tibet and the Himalayas, where the access to education is limited or nonexistent. At Manjushri they receive a well-rounded education, free of cost.
Snow Lion Artefacts is setting up a fund to support the students of Manjushri Di Chen Buddhist Learning Centre in Nepal.
Further information will follow once we have finalised the details. In the meantime, please visit the MDBLC website to see more about the school, projects, fund raising etc.
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What is a Buddha?
Buddha is a Sanskrit word that means "awakened one." A Buddha is someone who has realized the enlightenment that ends the cycle of birth and death
and which brings liberation from suffering. Buddhism is often referred to as a science of the Mind.
It is also practiced as a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs, and practices largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, who is commonly known as the Buddha (meaning "the awakened one" in Sanskrit and Pali). The Buddha lived and taught in the eastern part of Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE. He is recognized by Buddhists as an awakened or enlightened teacher who shared his insights to help sentient beings end ignorance (avidya) of dependent origination and sunyata (emptiness).
The cultivation and attainment of wisdom is part of the goal and practice of Buddhism. In order to attain wisdom one must understand the nature of things (the dharma) and part of the practice of Buddhism is the investigation of the nature of how things truly are. This means to adopt an objective, scientific approach to understanding the causal relationships between various phenomena. The Buddha himself has been called a great or even a super-scientist because his teachings on the way out of suffering use analyses of the causal relationships between the different factors which constitute mind and body.
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Buddhist Prayer Flags
A prayer flag is a colorful panel of rectangular cloth, often found strung along mountain ridges and peaks high in the Himalayas. They are used to bless the surrounding countryside and for other purposes. Prayer flags are believed to have originated with Bon, which predated Buddhism in Tibet.
The Indian Buddhist Sutras, written on cloth in India, were transmitted to other regions of the world.
These sutras, written on banners, were the origin of prayer flags.
Read more at: http://www.saraswatibhawan.org/sbpubsarticlesprayer.html
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Mudras: Symbolic Hand Gestures
http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/history/mudras.htm
