The Emotional Challenges of Student Veterans on Campus by Ann Cheney, from The Conversation,11/09/2017

On Veterans Day, Americans honor the heroism and sacrifice of the men and women who have served in the U.S. military. Among them are student veterans. Though the GI Bill has facilitated access to higher education, it doesn't prepare student veterans for the emotional and psychological stress often experienced during the transition to student life. Here's a look at the unique challenges they face and how college campuses support them.

by Winona Weindling,11/07/2017

Millennials have many of the same perceptions of higher education as members of previous generations, but have some differing views as well. To gain a more personal perspective, HigherEdJobs spoke to individuals from three different generations -- a baby boomer, a member of Generation X, and a millennial. Here's a look at their perceptions on the value of higher education.

by Bruce Harshbarger,11/03/2017

Bruce Harshbarger has worked in Student Affairs for nearly 40 years. He first got into the field because of his passion for working with college students, but much to his disappointment, he has found that the higher he rises in rank, the less face time he gets with students. With some creativity, though, he has found a way to fulfill his duties while still being accessible to students. Here's how he's making a difference by simply sitting in a rocking chair.

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HigherEdJobs - Jobs in Higher Education

Guest Faculty Workshop #1:Potentials and Pitfalls on the Spiritual PathA 90-minute Audio Workshop with Ken Wilber

While many of us have some understanding of what a spiritual life entails, moving from an idea to a lived reality is a jump that many of us struggle to make. Ken Wilber, the worlds foremost authority on Integral and spiritual consciousness, will help us to better understand the obstacles that often prevent us from reaching the higher potentials were seeking to awaken.

In this virtual workshop, you will learn:

Ken Wilber is one of the most widely read and influential philosophers of our time, credited with creating a genuine world philosophy. Ken has a deep expertise with most of the worlds mystic traditions, and has explored academically and experientially the many states of consciousness that different spiritual practices produce. He is the author of 25 books, the founder of Integral Institute, Inc., the co-founder of Integral Life, Inc., and the Senior Fellow of Integral Life.

Meditation plays an indispensable role in our spiritual growth and evolution, but what happens when we get up off the meditation cushion and step into the world of action? From our intimate relationships to our workplaces, from making big decisions to navigating conflicts, the real fruits of our practice emerge in the day-to-day. How can we live an authentic spiritual life amidst the complexities and challenges of our increasingly chaotic modern world?

In this evocative workshop, Feminine Power founder Claire Zammit will illuminate how you can awaken to the evolutionary impulsethe powerful creative force that animates the universeand align with it so that your entire life is infused with deeper meaning and higher purpose. In practical yet inspiring terms, Claire will reveals how you can begin to access this vital energy and approach life through this empowering perspective. And shell offer specific practices that will allow you to begin cultivating an evolutionary relationship to life today.

In this LIVE workshop, youll discover

Claire Zammit Ph.D.(c) is a transformational teacher, leader, and mentor to women in more than 100 countries worldwide. She is the founder of the Feminine Power Global Community, which offers online trainings, advanced courses and coaching certifications that serve hundreds of thousands of women. Her mission is to empower women to fully express their gifts and talents by sharing the Feminine Power teachings that she created and which she credits as the source of her own fulfillment, success and impact. In 2014, Claire received Just Like My Child Foundations Womens Leadership Award in recognition of her contributions to funding The Girl Power Project thats now set to impact over 1 million girls with leadership and self-esteem trainings in the developing world. Claire is an active member of Jack Canfields prestigious Transformational Leadership Council and was the recipient of its achievement award. She is also a participant in Deepak Chopras Evolutionary Leaders Forum.

We have all been deeply conditioned to relate to the world from an assumption that something is wrong. In certain circumstances, this is useful because it helps us avoid problemsbut it too easily becomes pathological. It generates a fundamental neurosis that leaves us existentially uncertain in a world that feels inherently unsafe. During this LIVE workshop Jeff Carreira will share the meditation practice he calls The Practice of No Problem. You will be asked to just sit and not make a problem out of anything that happens. At first you will assume it will be easy, but soon you will realize that you have no idea how not to have a problem. You will see how your how your habits of control make life feel like a struggle and you will see how you bring these habits with you into meditation. As you learn to gradually give up control you will find yourself floating in a space of ease and simplicity that takes you far beyond fear, worry and self-concern.

Jeff Carreira is a contemporary mystic, a spiritual guide and a philosopher who teaches meditation and transformative philosophy throughout the world. As a spiritual guide, Jeff offers retreats and courses leading individuals in a form of meditation called The Practice of No Problem. Using this simple and effective orientation toward meditation Jeff has guided thousands of people on journeys beyond the confines of fear and self-concern into the expansive liberated awareness that is our true home. Jeff is the author of six books including The Miracle of Meditation, The Practice of No Problem, Radical Inclusivity and The Soul of a New Self.

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Practice of Direct Awakening - Meditation 2.0

Selling Power is pleased to announce the 2016 listing of the Top 20 Sales Training Companies. This year's application pool was one of the most competitive so far. Each company on the list submitted a comprehensive application and had at least four clients submit a brief survey on their experience working with the training provider and the results provided.

The four main criteria used when comparing applicants and selecting the companies to include on this year's list were:

Note: This list is organized in alphabetical order and no priority or ranking is implied.

The singular focus of The Sales Board (Action Selling) is improving the salesperson's ability to sell and the manager's ability to coach. While many industries are neck deep in big data, the sales training industry has not been until now. Since 1990, we have trained, tracked, and certified more than 400,000 salespeople from 3,500 companies using the Action Selling LearningLink system. With more than 78 million data points, The Sales Board has tangible proof of how Action Selling is the world's most effective sales training methodology.

Then you need AXIOM. We have completely redesigned how to improve the effectiveness of sales teams. We provide you with an integrated solution, including a proven behavior model, sales enablement technology, inline learning assets, and a dedicated sales success team. All are designed to work seamlessly together inside Salesforce.com. With Axiom, learning is continuous and so is improvement. Enlightened learning and inspired selling, that's AXIOM.

The Brooks Group's coaching methodology ties together live coaching by an SME, peer accountability, gamification, management participation, and on-the-job application of concepts to guarantee learners have the tools needed to apply concepts quickly and permanently to get stakeholders the results they're seeking.

Carew takes a holistic approach to sales and business development honing the skills, methods, processes, and attitudes needed to drive lasting sales performance improvement. Our hallmark is developing sales professionals who are able to cultivate productive, long-term customer relationships and elevate themselves to a business advisor role inside their customer organizations while creating value for their customers.

Our client list includes industry leaders such as American Airlines Cargo, American Express, BlackRock, BMO, Chobani, Direct Energy, EMC, General Electric, HSBC, Molson Coors, Nucor, Pfizer, PwC, SAS, Scotiabank, Telus, and many others.

Headquartered in the UK and with offices in the United States, Europe, and Asia Pacific Imparta delivers national and multinational programs with local knowledge and experience. Delivery to a global audience has positioned Imparta as a leading blended learning provider of sales and service training as well as a pioneer in the field of business simulations.

Integrity Solutions increases leadership's ability to align and engage their teams with a specific focus on their attitudes, values, motivations, and beliefs. We go beyond skills and process to boost self-belief and release achievement drive often-overlooked performance accelerators. Our core solutions are grounded in values and ethics and tie well to the importance of integrity and values in the corporate world. Integrity Solutions has more than 45 years of experience delivering innovative and sustained learning on a global scale across the business spectrum.

Janek's research-based sales training programs and skill sustainment solutions have allowed clients to consistently deliver this and more. There is a reason we refer to ourselves as a sales performance company. "Performance" is part of our identity and our entire team of experienced consultants, instructional designers, and facilitators is laser-focused on providing comprehensive solutions that produce long-lasting, positive results for our clients.

Mercuri International provides open courses in a number of countries, but the majority of the business is built on customized in-company sales development projects. Based on the global footprint, number of consultants, size of client base, and the results achieved by clients, Mercuri International is one of the global market leaders in sales development.

Miller Heiman Group, a TwentyEighty company, is one of the largest dedicated performance improvement companies in the world, bringing game-changing insight to sales performance, customer experience, and leadership and management. Backed by its Be Ready set of solutions, Miller Heiman Group helps companies build and sustain successful, customer-focused organizations that drive profitable revenue and predictable top-line growth on a global scale.

Richardson is a global sales training and performance improvement company. We collaborate with sales organizations to achieve greater levels of success by changing the behaviors of their salespeople and sales managers. Our approach is highly collaborative, with a focus on enabling the right sales activity and effective customer dialogues. To help you achieve your goals, we partner with you to develop customized training programs and a culture of continuous learning to help drive improved organization performance.

By partnering with us, some of our clients have been able to eliminate the classroom altogether. Our footprint spans six continents with support for over a dozen languages. Most of all, we never deliver a program off the shelf every project is a partnership defined by our client's unique business challenges and aimed at achieving their specific sales goals and objectives. Contact us and you'll feel the difference immediately!

A key enabler for our clients' success is our SPI-1 sales performance improvement platform. SPI-1 empowers sales leaders to drive continuous, data-driven sales improvement and offer sales managers greater insight and control over performance. Our extensive sales performance expertise, deep industry knowledge, global resources, and technology innovation uniquely position SPI as the go-to partner for organizations that need to rapidly transform sales in a disruptive and increasingly competitive world. SPI is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, with offices in Brussels, London, and Shanghai.

Leveraging our extensive curriculum library, our programs are custom tailored to each client's unique development needs and promote skills adoption and retention through a highly engaging, interactive program methodology and blended training delivery methods.

Sandler Training is a global training organization with more than three decades of experience and proven results. Sandler provides sales and management training and consulting services for small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) as well as corporate training for Fortune 1000 companies. Our proven methodologies and specialized tools develop top-performing sales, management, and executive teams that excel in a fluid, fast-paced, global business environment.

ValueSelling Associates guides sales managers and their teams in using the ValueSelling Framework, a proven formula for accelerating sales results. The ValueSelling Framework is the first and only methodology with a toolset integrated throughout the entire sales lifecycle. Since 1991, thousands of inside, outside, direct, and channel sales professionals have adopted the ValueSelling methodology to better qualify prospects, advance bigger contracts, and close deals faster. To drive overall adoption, ValueSelling Associates proven sales professionals and leaders themselves tailor the simple and practical ValueSelling Framework to be relevant to your business, engaging for your teams, and localized to your region. Our highly customized sales training, tools, and consulting services provide a proven formula for accelerating your sales results.

Vantage Point Performance is the sales management training partner of choice for leading companies such as 3M, FedEx, GE, HP, Roche, and Samsung. Based on the groundbreaking research in the best-selling book, Cracking the Sales Management Code, Vantage Point is redefining sales management by deploying simple but powerful frameworks that finally put sales managers in control of sales force performance. The company partners with global corporations to replace stale coaching models with a powerful sales management methodology. Vantage Point simplifies sales managers' lives and empowers them to lead by providing intuitive, straightforward insight into the levers that drive sales performance.

Our holistic approach combines proven sales development content, consulting expertise, and coaching with an array of learning services and an award-winning reinforcement and sustainment system. Our sales solutions align with clients' sales and business priorities to improve the impact of their sales teams and business performance. For example, our work with a sales team at a global chemical company increased revenue by 12.8 million and grew market share from 7 percent to 10 percent in one year.

Selling Energy is revolutionizing the sales training industry. Mark Jewell, our lead instructor, conducts live workshops throughout North America as well as online/on-demand courses that focus on reframing and expressing proposed solutions so they capture decision makers' attention and motivate action. Selling Energy's training artfully combines professional selling and sales management, advanced approaches to cost/benefit analysis, and segment-specific business acumen.

More here:
Selling Power | Top 20 Sales Training Companies in 2016

Buddhists believe in reincarnation meaning that they believe that people are reborn again after dying. They believe that people continually go through the cycle of birth, living, death and rebirth.

The three trainings or practices in Buddhism are sila, samadhi and prajna. Sila is the practice of virtue, morality and good conduct. Sila is the classic "golden rule" of Christianity, do unto others as you would wish them to do unto you. Samadhi is the mental development of the person and refers to concentration and meditation. Buddhists believe that developing one's mind is the best way to lead to personal freedom. Prajna is the discernment or enlightenment where wisdom emerges into a person's calm and pure mind.

The four noble truths of Buddhism explore human suffering. The first is Dukkha, which is that suffering exists. It states that suffering is universal and everyone will feel suffering. The second is Samudaya, which is that there is a cause for the suffering that everyone experiences. Buddhists believe that the desire to have and control things is what leads to suffering. The third is Nirodha, which is that there is an end to suffering. Buddhists believe that in achieving Nirvana then the mind is free to experience complete freedom and non-attachment. The fourth is Magga, which is that the eightfold path is the way to end suffering.

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What are the main beliefs of Buddhism? | Reference.com

Buddhism has changed and adapted to every culture it encountered after it began in the north of India. As such, Buddhism practices change depending upon the tradition and society. Tolerance is a key Buddhist virtue, whilst maintaining integrity to ones core beliefs. Some rituals are important if only to define ones motivation and give expression and definition to ones religion. There is even a growing western Buddhism, which can be said to encourage environmental acts, respect for human rights, and social equality. However, below we will outline some of the more well known Buddhism practices from traditionally Buddhist cultures.

Most Buddhist practices have the central aim of avoiding future karmic problems (by avoiding harming others), karmic benefit (through helping others), as well as various practices and ritualized activities that focus the mind, help to purify it and to assist in ones attainment of enlightenment and ridding of suffering for oneself and others.

Meditation

Perhaps the key Buddhist practice, it is central to most traditions, and the only means to enlightenment for some. An excellent introduction to Buddhist meditation practices is available at MeditationInstructions.com (coming soon). The benefits of meditation are many, including physical and mental health, relaxation, improved relaxation and mental ability, and happiness. It is primarily the ability to understand and control the mind and its use for practices that lead to enlightenment that is considered the most important.

Prayers

The position of prayer in Buddhism varies from tradition to tradition. A Buddhist solution to this may be to try each approach, and see which not only makes intellectual sense, but which leads to a better understanding of oneself and benefits to ones well being.

In Tibet particularly, prayer to various deities (influenced by the indigenous religion Bon, as well as various Indian practices) featured prominently, with prayer focusing the mind. With the merit of a prayer affecting ones future reality, and the number of times a prayer is said being important, Tibetans have developed machinery to magnify the quantity of prayers. Prayer wheels can contain a prayer written down many thousands of times turning a wheel thus has a magnified physical or mental effect. Similarly, prayer flags activate their written prayers with each flapping of the wind, sending their good wishes far and wide.

In contrast, Therevada emphasizes the fact that Buddhism does not posit the existence of a separate creator god, and that the Buddha himself discouraged his own worship. Indeed, Therevada believes the Buddha is outside of any call of prayer and it is wrong practice to pray to the Buddha (Tibetan Buddhism, by contrast, equates enlightenment with a heightened, intimate awareness of all beings). In both traditions, various rituals allows one to reflect on the qualities of the Buddha, and all of these practices are mutually reinforcing in internalizing true Buddhist beliefs.

Rituals have a cumulative affect of training ones mind and systematizing ones practice. The act of bowing and prostrating is a challenge to ones egoism itself and may be beneficial merely on that level.

Chanting

Chanting is a common sound in Buddhist communities from Zen monasteries in Japan, to communities in Laos, Thailand, and elsewhere in Southeast Asia. Originating in India, where writing was rare, chanting enabled important texts to be passed from person to person. Later, the ritual of chanting was found to be a useful way to focus the mind, and remember and internalize key Buddhist ideas. In some communities it may even be said to have a protective aspect, with Buddhists chanting during important life events, or during or before times of danger or otherwise personal importance.

As with all of these rituals, the benefit is seen as less the result of an external agent, and more in the personal effort and resulting benefits from focusing ones good intentions, motivations, and purifying the mind from wrong views and understandings.

Vegetarianism

Many Buddhists are vegetarian, however it must be said that the Buddha himself did not prohibit the eating of meat. Many monasteries still serve meat today, and in Tibet, a high protein and fat diet was important in such a cold, often snow-covered environment. Buddhism acknowledges that rigid rules are often counterproductive, individual medical situations mean that vegetarianism may not always be the best course of action for ones spiritual practice. However one is not immune from the karmic consequences of eating meat, particularly if it is killed for you. Some choose to eat only ethically raised and well treated animals, offer prayers and thanks to the deceased creature, or limit meat eating to a minimum. As always, Buddhas teachings leave ultimate responsibility with the individual, and so do not remove the obligation of finding ones own answer to the wisest course of action for a person to follow.

Coming soon, an outline of other Buddhist practices, including symbolic hand gestures or Mudras, the reciting of Mantras or sacred sounds, making offerings, lighting incense and candles, making pilgrimage, and other practices surrounding the Buddha and various teachers and deities. There is also set Buddhism Marriage and funeral practices, however these are later inventions, culturally dependent and not traceable back to the time of the Buddha.

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Tibetan Buddhism is a very complete form of Buddhism containing a subtle and advanced philosophy, clear step by step instructions for meditation, devotional exercises and physical meditations that work like Tai Chi, as well as much more.

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Read as many of the Dalai Lama's books as possible. The most essential are "Essential Teachings," "The World of Tibetan Buddhism," "Mind of Clear Light," "The Art of Happiness," "An Open Heart," "How to Practice," and "The Path To Enlightenment." The Dalai Lama is one of the most scholarly, most humble and best Buddhist practitioners in the world, at least among those that are widely known.

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Realize that higher teachings are worthless if you can't even practice the most basic teachings, such as ethics (avoiding the ten non-virtuous actions). So you should start with ethics and do your best to start with the most basic teachings first and master them, or at least get a good grounding with them, before moving on to higher teachings.

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Think of Tibetan Buddhism as being like a pyramid. It starts with the foundation of the Hinayana for a stable base, then it builds on the Hinayana with the altruistic motivation of the Mahayana and its practice of the Six Paramitas, then it builds on the base of the Hinayana and Mahayana with the Vajrayana which is the pinnacle of Tibetan Buddhism and the main daily practice of serious Tibetan Buddhist practitioners. The way this works is similar to how the realization of impermanence, suffering, and no-self (wisdom) in Hinayana Buddhism is dependent on achievement of concentration which is itself dependent upon the practice of morality (keeping of the precepts).

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Know that Tibetan Buddhism contains teachings for people of all different kinds of dispositions, it has advanced philosophical teachings for those of an intellectual bent, it has more mystical experiential meditative teachings for those of a more Zen-like orientation, and it has energy practices (in Vajrayana) for moving wind (prana, chi, ki) for health and mental clarity and spiritual realization, this is like Tai Chi and Hindu yoga (for those who want a Buddhist practice with emphasis on the health of the physical body). Tibetan Buddhism also deals with the subtle drops as well as prana in the practice of Vajrayana. This makes it similar in some respects to Hindu yoga which also deals with the drops (Bindu). No matter what kind of person you are, it is likely that there are teachings in Tibetan Buddhism that would be suited for your type of personality or mental/emotional/physical/spiritual orientation. Also, the different deities (Buddhas and Bodhisattvas) are for people with different types of spiritual inclinations or personalities. For those who are intellectual, the teachings of Manjushri are very appropriate; for those who aren't very intellectual but are very kind and compassionate, the practice of Avalokiteshvara would be very good; for women, practice of the deity Tara (a female deity) would be good; and for those interested in power, Vajrapani (who represents of the power of the buddhas) might be a good deity.

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Learn about the Lamrim and practice the basics first.

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Make a strong and sustained effort to learn about and generate Bodhicitta in your mind and heart, Bodhicitta is one of the most important aspects of Tibetan Buddhism, (although not a distinguishing aspects, as all Mahayana Buddhists are defined as such by possessing Bodhicitta). Tibetan Buddhism has a more clear definition of Bodhicitta than other forms of Mahayana, and Tibetan Buddhism also has more clearly defined and developed techniques for developing Bodhicitta than other forms of Mahayana.

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Practice the Tonglen everyday to develop compassion and create positive karma

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Find a Tibetan Lama or Rinpoche to teach you even further than you could by yourself, especially if you want certain empowerments. You should try to get a teaching from the Karmapa or the Dalai Lama.

How do I cultivate compassion and forgiveness?

wikiHow Contributor

Begin by showing compassion and forgiveness with yourself. Let yourself off the hook.

Can I practice Tibetan Buddhism without understanding it?

wikiHow Contributor

Practice comes from a desire to attain something. As you practice, you will refine your understanding. That refined understanding then refines your practice. That's good enough! But for your practice to become really effective, you should find a teacher. Not just any teacher, but a teacher that elevates you and speaks to your inner sense.

How would I practice the tantric aspects of Vajrayana?

wikiHow Contributor

You must have a teacher to practice the Vajrayana; it is the highest level of Buddhist teachings. There are many who claim that they are able to impart such knowledge, so be selective in who you choose to teach you.

I know that chants and mantras have to be recited in Tibetan, but what about prayers? Can they be recited in English only?

Mr_Norman

Yes. Mantras are generally from Sanskrit. Many have been "Tibetanized," but even those are similarly pronounced to their original Sanskrit. Watch someone you respect on video, like the Dalai Lama, or any teacher who touches you. Follow their lead. Chants are less rigorous, and English is fine. The trouble with English is that it's clunky compared to the elegance of Tibetan, so it doesn't chant well.

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Buddhism originated in India in the 6th century BC. It consists of the teachings of the Buddha, Gautama Siddhartha. Of the main branches of Buddhism, it is the Mahayana or "Greater Vehicle" Buddhism which found its way to Japan.

Buddhism was imported to Japan via China and Korea in the form of a present from the friendly Korean kingdom of Kudara (Paikche) in the 6th century. While Buddhism was welcomed by the ruling nobles as Japan's new state religion, it did not initially spread among the common people due to its complex theories.

There were also a few initial conflicts with Shinto, Japan's native religion. The two religions were soon able to co-exist and even complement each other.

During the Nara Period, the great Buddhist monasteries in the capital Nara, such as Todaiji, gained strong political influence and were one of the reasons for the government to move the capital to Nagaoka in 784 and then to Kyoto in 794. Nevertheless, the problem of politically ambitious and militant monasteries remained a main issue for the governments over many centuries of Japanese history.

During the early Heian Period, two new Buddhist sects were introduced from China: the Tendai sect in 805 by Saicho and the Shingon sect in 806 by Kukai. More sects later branched off the Tendai sect. Among these, the most important ones are mentioned below:

In 1175, the Jodo sect (Pure Land sect) was founded by Honen. It found followers among all different social classes since its theories were simple and based on the principle that everybody can achieve salvation by strongly believing in the Buddha Amida. In 1224, the Jodo-Shinshu (True Pure Land sect) was founded by Honen's successor Shinran. The Jodo sects continue to have millions of followers today.

In 1191, the Zen sect was introduced from China. Its complicated theories were popular particularly among the members of the military class. According to Zen teachings, one can achieve self enlightenment through meditation and discipline. At present, Zen seems to enjoy a greater popularity overseas than within Japan.

The Lotus Hokke or Nichiren sect, was founded by Nichiren in 1253. The sect was exceptional due to its intolerant stance towards other Buddhist sects. Nichiren Buddhism still has many millions of followers today, and several "new religions" are based on Nichiren's teachings.

Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi fought the militant Buddhist monasteries (especially the Jodo sects) at the end of the 16th century and practically extinguished Buddhist influence on the political sector.

Buddhist institutions were attacked again in the early years of the Meiji Period, when the new Meiji government favored Shinto as the state religion and tried to separate and emancipate it from Buddhism.

Nowadays about 90 million people consider themselves Buddhists in Japan. However, the religion does not directly affect the everyday life of the average Japanese very strongly. Funerals are usually carried out in a Buddhist way, and many households keep a small house altar in order to pay respect to their ancestors.

Read more:
Japanese Buddhism - Japan Guide

By Dr. Meredith Sprunger

This document contains a brief historicaloverview of Buddhism, the life of Siddhartha Gautama, a description ofHinayana and Mahayana Buddhism, a description of basic beliefs and anoutline of Buddhism in today's world.

Buddhism began in India in the sixth century B. C. as a reform movementin Hinduism. It was the first religion of the world to become internationaland today (1982) has a membership of 254,867,450. The founder of Buddhismwas Siddhartha Gautama, the son of a rich ruler of the Kshatriya caste.There are legends of his non-human conception, supernatural birth, andof his future greatness prophesied by a Hindu saint. Gautama married atthe age of nineteen and later had a son. He lived a luxurious and shelteredlife but while riding outside the royal compound he saw a decrepit oldman, a diseased man, a corpse, and an ascetic monk. He became obsessedwith the fact that all must face age, sickness, and death and he determinedto find an answer to this anxiety and suffering.

Leaving his wife, son, family, and inheritance Gautama clipped his hairand beard, exchanged clothes with a beggar and began his quest. For yearshe tried to solve the problem of suffering first through philosophy andthen by extreme asceticism but found no inner peace.

Finally, around the age of thirty-five he sat down under the shade ofa fig or bo tree to meditate; he determined to meditate until he receivedenlightenment. After seven weeks he received the Great Enlightenment; TheFour Noble Truths and the Eight-fold Path. Henceforth he became known asthe Buddha (enlightened one). This Middle Way is a psychological-philosophicalinsight into the cause and cure of suffering and evil.

The First Noble Truth points out that the human condition is steepedin suffering, that in some way life has become estranged from reality.The Second Noble Truth tells us the cause of life's dislocation. Anxietyand suffering are caused by indulging in inherently insatiable desires.All forms of selfishness tend to separate us from others, life, and reality.The Third Noble Truth states a logical conclusion: suffering will ceasewhen we suppress, overcome, and master these cravings and desires. We mustdevelop non attachment to the things of the world. The Fourth Noble Truthtells us how this cure is accomplished--by following the Noble Eight-foldPath.

Buddha's analysis of the problems of life in the Four Noble Truths isessentially that of a therapist; and the Eight-fold Path is the courseof treatment through training. First one needs to have right knowledgein order to have the facts, principles, and values to establish a wiselife plan. Second, right aspirations are required to give power to thisplan. The heart as well as the head must be dedicated to our goals. Third,right speech is needed to take hold of what is in our consciousness whichcontrols our thinking. We need to change our speech and thinking towardtruth and charity. Fourth, right behavior should be initiated to furtherchange and control our lives. We must follow the Five Precepts: do notkill, steal, lie, be unchaste, or drink intoxicants. Fifth, we should engagein a right livelihood. Spiritual progress is difficult if one's occupationpulls in the opposite direction. One should not take work which weakensor destroys life but serve in those occupations that promote life. Sixth,right effort is needed to keep us growing in spiritual attainment. Buddhalaid great stress on the importance of the will in determining our destiny.He had more confidence in the long steady pull than in quick spurts ofactivity. Seventh,, we need right mindfulness to sustain our growth. Fewteachers have equaled Buddha's emphasis on the mind as the shaper and determinerof the course of human life. The Damma-pada opens with the words, "Allwe are is the result of what we have thought." We should wisely controlour state of consciousness. Eighth, right contemplation and absorptionfinally brings the aspirant into a transmutation of consciousness whichtranscends the worldly preoccupation with things, desires, and suffering.Those who have followed the eight-fold path and arrived at the point ofachieving Nirvana are called arhat, or "saint."

Gautama Buddha taught a way of life devoid of authority, ritual, speculation,tradition, and the supernatural. He stressed intense self-effort. His lastwords before he died at the age of eighty were, "Work out your ownsalvation with diligence." Gautama accepted the law of karma and reincarnation.He saw Nirvana not as a state of extinction or annihilation but as "thehighest destiny of the human spirit." It is so totally different thatit is "incomprehensible, indescribably, inconceivable, unutterable...bliss."

Buddha did not believe in the existence of a personal God; nor did hebelieve that man had a soul. He tended to deny the existence of substanceof every kind and saw the transitoriness of all finite things and beings;he stressed impermanence. Man's life after achieving Nirvana is unfathomable- "reborn does not belong to him nor not-born, or any combinationof such terms." some scholars have pointed out that Buddhism in itsearliest form was not a religion but a system of psychological-ethicaldiscipline based on a pessimistic philosophy of life. Although there issome truth in this evaluation, there is much that is positive in Buddha'steaching.

The scripture of Buddhism is the Tripitaka (Three Baskets of Wisdom),made up of the Vinaya Pitaka (Discipline Basket), the Sutta Pitaka (TeachingBasket), and the Abhidhamma Pitaka (Higher Doctrine Basket). Parts of theTripitaka such as the Dhamma-pada and the Sutta-Nipata are among the mostexpressive religious books in the world. Some of Buddha's parables arevery similar to those used by Jesus.

Buddhism has been divided into two major branches which have in turnbeen subdivided into numerous sects. Today one may find in this one familyof religions nearly every form of religious belief and expression on theplanet.

Hinayana (Lesser Vehicle) or Theravada Buddhism concentrated in SoutheastAsia is conservative and more closely follows the original teachings ofBuddha. It sees man as entirely dependent on self-effort, teaches wisdomas the key virtue and regards religion as a full-time job, primarily formonks. They regard Buddha as a saint, eschew metaphysics and ritual, andlimit prayer to meditation. Their ideal is arhat (sainthood).

Mahayana (Greater Vehicle) Buddhism has spread throughout the worldand rests on the principle that Buddha taught many things in secret tothe elect who could properly interpret them. It sees man as involved withothers and saved by grace. It teaches compassion as the key virtue andbelieves its religion is relevant to life in the world; therefore, it isa religion for laymen as well as monks. The Mahayana branch sees Buddhaas a savior, welcomes metaphysics and ritual, and engages in petitionaryprayer. Their ideal is the Bodhisattva--a mortal who has achieved enlightenmentand after death postpones Nirvana attainment to serve in heaven answeringprayers and helping mortals who are in need. Mahayana Buddhism regardsBuddha as a divine savior--pre-existent, planfully incarnate, supernaturallyconceived, miraculously born, sinless, with a redemptive purpose, all knowing,and everlasting. Buddha has been made a member of the Buddhist Trinity.

Buddhism received its greatest impetus from the Indian emperor, Asoka,who was converted in 297 B. C. and became convinced that Buddhism was areligion for all of the peoples of the world. Accordingly, he sent missionariesthroughout the known world. Asoka also called the third council of Buddhismin 247 B. C. for the purpose of determining the true canon of Buddhistscriptures.

The main branches of Mahayana Buddhism are the Pure Land Sect, the IntuitiveSects, the Rationalist Sects, the Sociopolitical Sects, and the TibetanSect. The Pure Land Sect seeks to achieve salvation and life after deathin the "pure land of Western Paradise." They believe in DhyaniBuddhas who are lesser deities who help human beings. Their priests maymarry and their worship practices parallel the church and Sunday schoolservices of Christianity.

The Intuitive Sects such as Ch'an and Zen emphasize that the truthsof religion do not come through rational thought processes but througha sudden flash of insight. They believe the externals of religion are unnecessary.Reason is to be distrusted more than anything else; therefore riddles andvarious techniques of irrationality are used to confuse reason and triggeran intuitive flash. Zen is so concerned with the limitations of languageand reason that it makes their transcendence the central intent of itsmethod. Experience, not words are important. So they sit hour after hour,day after day, year after year seeking to develop their intuitive powers.

The Rationalist Sects believe that in addition to meditation one shouldutilize reason and a study of the scriptures in order to find the truth.All approaches to enlightenment may be useful at times but in reality thereis only one true Buddhist teaching and one must study the scriptures ofBuddhism in order to know this truth. The Chih-i sect in China and theTendai sect in Japan stress the importance of the rational approach.

The Sociopolitical Sects such as the Japanese Nichiren sect have hadgreat effect on the social and political dynamics of various nations. Thefounder of Nichiren thought that all of the sects of Buddhism were a perversionof the true teachings of Buddha and were leading peoples to hell. He cameto believe the only scripture one needed to study was the Lotus Sutra.Nichiren teaches a simplified form of Buddhism and uncompromising patriotism.

Tibetan Buddhism is representative of sects that emphasize the use ofmagic words or formulae to achieve various goals. Tibetan people traditionallyhave used incantations, spells, and magic to protect themselves from demons.Tibetan monks or lamas invented the prayer wheel to augment their defensesagainst evil. By the 14th century monastery leaders became more powerfulthan kings and for all practical purposes the country was ruled by Buddhistpriests. The lamas of Tibetan Buddhism have been divided into two orders,the Red Hats and the Yellow Hats. The leader of the larger Yellow Hat groupis known as the Dalai Lama who was virtually ruler of Tibet. China in 1950set up a puppet government in Tibet and when the Dalai Lama attempted tooverthrow Chinese rule in 1959 the rebellion was crushed. The Dalai Lamaand a few of his followers escaped to India.

During the twentieth century Buddhism is experiencing a revival. Thisnew awakening may have been augmented by Christian missionaries who translatedthe ancient Buddhist texts and made them available for all to study andby the rise of Asian nationalism. Buddhism today is once more a missionaryreligion.

If these topics are of interest to you, you may be very interested in The Urantia Book. What is The Urantia Book?

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Introduction to Buddhism - Expanding Spiritual Awareness

Buddhism teaches compassion toward all sentient beings. By contrast, Christianity and its secular offshoot, Western science, cling to a very un-Darwinian form of human exceptionalism. According to the Biblical Book of Genesis, God put animals on earth purely to serve Man, who exists to serve God.

Early in the 21st century, there are an estimated 300 million Buddhists in the world. Central to Buddhist teaching are the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eight-fold Path.

THE FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS:

Buddhist universalism is best represented by the Mahayana tradition, which embraces the well-being of all sentient life.

The meaning of the term nirvana, literally "the blowing out" of existence, is not entirely clear. Nirvana is not a place like heaven, but rather an eternal state of being. It is the state in which the law of karma and the rebirth cycle come to an end - though Buddhist conceptions of personal (non-)identity make these notions problematic. Nirvana is the end of suffering; a state where there are no desires, and individual consciousness comes to an end. Attaining nirvana is to relinquish clinging, hatred, and ignorance. Its achievement entails full acceptance of imperfection, impermanence, and interconnectedness. Sometimes "nirvana" is used to refer either to Buddhist heaven or complete nothingness, but most Buddhists would not understand the term in this way.

Ethical utilitarians share the Buddhist focus on suffering. But only "negative" utilitarians identify the minimisation of suffering as the sole ethical goal of life. "Positive" utilitarians regard the maximisation of happiness as ethically valuable no less than the minimisation of pain.

One radical form of utilitarianism is abolitionism. Abolitionists believe that biotechnology should be used to abolish suffering altogether - though not all abolitionists are utilitarians. Given the accelerating revolution in biotechnology, the abolitionist project is the logical implication of a utilitarian ethic. Even so, the creation of a truly cruelty-free world entails a disconcertingly ambitious technological solution. To achieve a world without suffering, it will be necessary to rewrite the vertebrate genome and redesign the global ecosystem. Any cross-species enterprise of this magnitude is beyond our current technological capabilities. Yet some kind of paradise-engineering is foreseeable in the coming era of quantum supercomputing allied to nanorobotics. Critically, too, genetically-engineered vatfood can potentially deliver global veganism more effectively than appeals to compassion alone.

These distinctions might seemacademic. Most people are not avowedly utilitarians in their code of ethical values. Moreover the term "utilitarian" itself is pedestrian. It conveys no sense of moral urgency. But a rough-and-ready utilitarian ethic is widespread in contemporary secular society. Even professed anti-utilitarians normally rely on (indirectly) utilitarian arguments by appealing to the bad consequences that would allegedly follow for our well-being from the [mis-]application of a utilitarian ethic.

Perhaps. But these differences of means are substantial. Most Buddhists would challenge the idea that technology offers an escape-route from the pain of earthly existence. Despite the cumulative success stories of scientific medicine, it would seem the advances of modern technology haven't left human beings any happier on average than our ancestors on the African savannah. Indeed the incidence of clinical depression, anxiety disorders, suicide, drug abuse, marital breakdown and other "objective" indices of distress is rising in Western consumer capitalist society as a whole. The track-record of technological science to date is not encouraging. Opponents of scientific utopianism envisage that its application will yield - at best - some type of "Brave New World".

Abolitionists respond that only enlightened biotechnology can ever deliver the world from suffering. Unless the biological substrates of unpleasantness are eradicated, then suffering is genetically preordained by the biochemistry of the human brain. All Darwinian humans periodically go through periods of distress ["dukkha"]. Its intensity and duration varies. But its spectre is never absent. Endowing their vehicles with a capacity to suffer enhanced the inclusive fitness of our genes in the ancestral environment. A heritable capacity to undergo all sorts of nasty states, conditionally activated, has been genetically adaptive. So even devout Buddhists undergo pain, sorrow and malaise in the course of their lives. A Buddhist lifestyle and meditational disciplines may offer palliative relief. Yet under the yoke of a Darwinian genome, no pursuit of a "Noble Eight-fold Path" can re-set our emotional thermostats, redesign our gene expression profiles, and dismantle the "hedonic treadmill" of Darwinian life. In evolutionary history, primate mothers who weren't anxiety-ridden, "attached" to their children, and desirous of their success left less copies of their genes than their malaise-ridden, un-Buddhist-like counterparts.

Moreover, with a traditional neural architecture, it's notable that desire-driven "hyper-dopaminergic" people, who have the greatest range and intensity of appetites, tend to be the least unhappy - though their lives can still be blighted by disappointment and loss. By contrast, the extinction of desire experienced by many contemporary humans is more akin to apathy and withdrawal than illumination - not enlightenment and consequent nirvana but instead a condition of melancholia or anhedonia: emptiness in the sense of an absence of meaning. This isn't the kind of extinction of desire Buddhists have in mind. Yet it's unclear if Buddhism offers a solution to, say, anhedonia - the incapacity to feel happiness or anticipate reward - characteristic of many depressives.

Looking to the future, the new technologies of post-genomic healthcare promise effectively unlimited joy, meaning and motivation - or serenity. If we so desire, a rich hyper-spirituality can be awakened, too, even in the otherwise spiritually barren. Intelligence can be pharmacologically and genetically amplified, as can lifespans, perhaps indefinitely; and also, more counter-intuitively, compassion. In future, genetic engineering will allow control over archaic emotions and eventually the creation of whole new categories of experience in state-spaces of consciousness hitherto unknown.

More prosaically, but more importantly from an ethical point of view, the reproductive revolution of "designer babies" will enable us to choose how much - or how little - suffering we bring into the world when we decide on the genetic-make-up of our children. Gradients of genetically pre-programmed well-being can be the destiny of our offspring from conception, depending on which dial-settings we favour. If we so choose, we can abolish the soul-polluting nastiness of Darwinian life altogether. Dukkha can be consigned to historical oblivion; and replaced by a post-Darwinian era of mental superhealth.

The era of mature genomic medicine is still decades away, perhaps longer. Buddhists are surely right to stress how desire and attachment as experienced today often lead to heartbreak. But when heartbreak becomes genetically impossible, it will be safe to follow one's heart's desire without limit. More generally, an absence of desire is a recipe for personal and social stagnation, whereas an abundance of desires is a precondition of intellectual dynamism and social progress.

Control over our emotions nonetheless strikes many bioconservatives as a frightening prospect, evoking images of enslavement rather than empowerment. So it's worth recalling how some early social commentators feared that the discovery of anaesthesia gave doctors too much power over their patient. The use of anaesthetics for painless surgery allegedly robbed the individual of his or her autonomy and the capacity to act as a rational agent, reducing the patient "to a corpse". In a contemporary context, investing a quasi-priestly caste of physicians with the sole lawful power to grant - or withhold - pleasure-giving, pain-relieving prescription drugs undoubtedly does magnify the scope for abuses of authority.

Whatever the risks of abuse, our technologies of pain-eradication are too valuable to renounce, even if this option were sociologically realistic. Right now, of course, the vision of life without suffering still strikes many non-Buddhists (and even Buddhists) as fanciful. Life-long happiness seems no more likely than the prospect of effective "pain killers" or pain-free surgery struck our early Victorian forebears. For the most part, we are possessed by the deep unspoken feeling that "what has always been was always meant to be". Status quo bias has deep cultural roots. Even classical utilitarians may find it difficult to believe that suffering could be eradicated in the foreseeable future in the same way as, say, smallpox. Yet it is hard to underestimate the ramifications of rewriting the vertebrate genome as the millennium unfolds. The abolition of the biological substrates of suffering promises to mark a major discontinuity in the development of life on Earth. Our genetically enriched descendants may regard existence without "dukkha" - the abolition of suffering - as the ethical foundation of any civilised society.

e-maildave@bltc.com

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The conquest of suffering : Buddhism versus utilitarianism

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

French philosopher and paleontologist

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, (born May 1, 1881, Sarcenat, Francedied April 10, 1955, New York City, New York, U.S.), French philosopher and paleontologist known for his theory that man is evolving, mentally and socially, toward a final spiritual unity. Blending science and Christianity, he declared that the human epic resembles nothing so much as a way of the Cross. Various theories of his brought reservations and objections from within the Roman Catholic Church and from the Jesuit order, of which he was a member. In 1962 the Holy Office issued a monitum, or simple warning, against uncritical acceptance of his ideas. His spiritual dedication, however, was not questioned.

Son of a gentleman farmer with an interest in geology, Teilhard devoted himself to that subject, as well as to his prescribed studies, at the Jesuit College of Mongr, where he began boarding at the age of 10. When he was 18, he joined the Jesuit novitiate at Aix-en-Provence. At 24 he began a three-year professorship at the Jesuit college in Cairo.

Although ordained a priest in 1911, Teilhard chose to be a stretcher bearer rather than a chaplain in World War I; his courage on the battle lines earned him a military medal and the Legion of Honour. In 1923, after teaching at the Catholic Institute of Paris, he made the first of his paleontological and geologic missions to China, where he was involved in the discovery (1929) of Peking mans skull. Further travels in the 1930s took him to the Gobi (desert), Sinkiang, Kashmir, Java, and Burma (Myanmar). Teilhard enlarged the field of knowledge on Asias sedimentary deposits and stratigraphic correlations and on the dates of its fossils. He spent the years 193945 at Beijing in a state of near-captivity on account of World War II.

Most of Teilhards writings were scientific, being especially concerned with mammalian paleontology. His philosophical books were the product of long meditation. Teilhard wrote his two major works in this area, Le Milieu divin (1957; The Divine Milieu) and Le Phnomne humain (1955; The Phenomenon of Man), in the 1920s and 30s, but their publication was forbidden by the Jesuit order during his lifetime. Among his other writings are collections of philosophical essays, such as LApparition de lhomme (1956; The Appearance of Man), La Vision du pass (1957; The Vision of the Past), and Science et Christ (1965; Science and Christ).

Teilhard returned to France in 1946. Frustrated in his desire to teach at the Collge de France and publish philosophy (all his major works were published posthumously), he moved to the United States, spending the last years of his life at the Wenner-Gren Foundation, New York City, for which he made two paleontological and archaeological expeditions to South Africa.

Teilhards attempts to combine Christian thought with modern science and traditional philosophy aroused widespread interest and controversy when his writings were published in the 1950s. Teilhard aimed at a metaphysic of evolution, holding that it was a process converging toward a final unity that he called the Omega point. He attempted to show that what is of permanent value in traditional philosophical thought can be maintained and even integrated with a modern scientific outlook if one accepts that the tendencies of material things are directed, either wholly or in part, beyond the things themselves toward the production of higher, more complex, more perfectly unified beings. Teilhard regarded basic trends in mattergravitation, inertia, electromagnetism, and so onas being ordered toward the production of progressively more complex types of aggregate. This process led to the increasingly complex entities of atoms, molecules, cells, and organisms, until finally the human body evolved, with a nervous system sufficiently sophisticated to permit rational reflection, self-awareness, and moral responsibility. While some evolutionists regard man simply as a prolongation of Pliocene fauna (the Pliocene Epoch occurred about 5.3 to 2.6 million years ago)an animal more successful than the rat or the elephantTeilhard argued that the appearance of man brought an added dimension into the world. This he defined as the birth of reflection: animals know, but man knows that he knows; he has knowledge to the square.

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Salem Witch Trials

Another great advance in Teilhards scheme of evolution is the socialization of mankind. This is not the triumph of herd instinct but a cultural convergence of humanity toward a single society. Evolution has gone about as far as it can to perfect human beings physically: its next step will be social. Teilhard saw such evolution already in progress; through technology, urbanization, and modern communications, more and more links are being established between different peoples politics, economics, and habits of thought in an apparently geometric progression.

Theologically, Teilhard saw the process of organic evolution as a sequence of progressive syntheses whose ultimate convergence point is that of God. When humanity and the material world have reached their final state of evolution and exhausted all potential for further development, a new convergence between them and the supernatural order would be initiated by the Parousia, or Second Coming of Christ. Teilhard asserted that the work of Christ is primarily to lead the material world to this cosmic redemption, while the conquest of evil is only secondary to his purpose. Evil is represented by Teilhard merely as growing pains within the cosmic process: the disorder that is implied by order in process of realization.

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Pierre Teilhard de Chardin | French philosopher and ...