Buddha and Buddhism

The founder of Buddhism in this world was Buddha Shakyamuni who lived and taught in India some two and a half thousand years ago. Since then millions of people around the world have followed the pure spiritual path he revealed. Buddha explained that all our problems and suffering arise from confused and negative states of mind, and all our happiness and good fortune arise from peaceful and positive states of mind.

He taught methods for gradually overcoming minds such as anger, jealousy and ignorance, and developing positive minds such as love, compassion and wisdom, and in this way. Through this we will come to experience lasting peace and happiness. These methods work for anyone, in any country, in any age. Once we have gained experience of them for ourselves we can pass them on to others so they, too, can enjoy the same benefits. The Buddhist way of life peace, loving kindness and wisdom is just as relevant today as it was when Buddha appeared in ancient India.

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Retirement is the point where a person stops employment completely.[1][2] A person may also semi-retire by reducing work hours.

An increasing number of individuals are choosing to put off this point of total retirement, by selecting to exist in the emerging state of Pre-tirement.[3]

Many people choose to retire when they are eligible for private or public pension benefits, although some are forced to retire when physical conditions no longer allow the person to work any longer (by illness or accident) or as a result of legislation concerning their position.[4] In most countries, the idea of retirement is of recent origin, being introduced during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Previously, low life expectancy and the absence of pension arrangements meant that most workers continued to work until death. Germany was the first country to introduce retirement, in 1889.[5]

Nowadays most developed countries have systems to provide pensions on retirement in old age, which may be sponsored by employers and/or the state. In many poorer countries, support for the old is still mainly provided through the family. Today, retirement with a pension is considered a right of the worker in many societies, and hard ideological, social, cultural and political battles have been fought over whether this is a right. In many western countries this right is mentioned in national constitutions.

A person may retire at whatever age they please. However, a country's tax laws and/or state old-age pension rules usually mean that in a given country a certain age is thought of as the "standard" retirement age.

The "standard" retirement age varies from country to country but it is generally between 50 and 70 (according to latest statistics, 2011). In some countries this age is different for males and females, although this has recently been challenged in some countries (e.g., Austria), and in some countries the ages are being brought into line.[6] The table below shows the variation in eligibility ages for public old-age benefits in the United States and many European countries, according to the OECD.

Notes: Parentheses indicate eligibility age for women when different. Sources: Cols. 12: OECD Pensions at a Glance (2005), Cols. 36: Tabulations from HRS, ELSA and SHARE. Square brackets indicate early retirement for some public employees.

* In France, the retirement age has been extended to 62 and 67 respectively, over the next eight years.[8]

** In Spain, the retirement age will be extended to 63 and 67 respectively, this increase will be progressively done from 2013 to 2027 at a rate of 1 month during the first 6 years and 2 months during the other 9.[9]

In the United States, while the normal retirement age for Social Security, or Old Age Survivors Insurance (OASI), historically has been age 65 to receive unreduced benefits, it is gradually increasing to age 67. For those turning 65 in 2008, full benefits will be payable beginning at age 66.[10] Public servants are often not covered by Social Security but have their own pension programs. Police officers in the United States are typically allowed to retire at half pay after only 20 years of service or three-quarter pay after 30 years, allowing people to retire in their early forties or fifties.[11] Military members of the US Armed Forces may elect to retire after 20 years of active duty. Their retirement pay (not a pension since they can be involuntarily called back to active duty at any time) is calculated on total number of years on active duty, their final pay grade and the retirement system in place when they entered service. Allowances such as housing and subsistence are not used to calculate a member's retired pay. Members awarded the Medal of Honor qualify for a separate stipend, regardless of the years of service. Military members in the reserve and US National Guard have their retirement based on a point system.[citation needed]

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Overall If you are thinking about the best places toretire in Virginia this website is your best source of information and data on Virginia retirement communities. Active adult communities for adults over 50 in Old Dominion are being built at a very fast rate. Virginia's lower cost of living, adjacency to major eastern cities, and great variety of places to live make it very attractive. There are 6 regions in the state going from the Tidewater to the Blue Ridge Mountains. It also has plenty of history going back to America's earliest days. The population was just over 8 million in 2012. The Wikipedia entry for Virginia has more facts.

Virginia Climate The Virginia climate is called humid-sub-tropical. Summers are hot and humid and winters are not as cold as in the northeast.The climate is a bit milder in the western and more mountainous part of the state.

Economy & Housing Prices At almost $61,000, Virginia's household income is $9000 above the national average (although that figure is probably distorted by people who live near Washington D.C). Richmond's median home price was about $129,500 in early 2012 (Zillow). In smaller towns and many active adult communities real estate prices can be relative bargains. Prices of homes in more rural areas can be quite a bit less. The statewide median was $208,200 in early 2012 according to Zillow. Cost of living in Richmond was indexed at 99, similar to the national average of 100, whereas Washington was 140.

Virginia Taxes

Tax Burden:At 9.8% the total tax burden inVirginiafor 2009 is above average for the nation (ranks 18th).

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Rajneesh Chandra Mohan Jain (Hindi: ) (11 December 1931 19 January 1990), also known as Acharya Rajneesh from the 1960s onwards, calling himself Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh during the 1970s and 1980s and taking the name Osho in 1989, was an Indian mystic and spiritual teacher.

A professor of philosophy, he travelled throughout India in the 1960s as a public speaker, raising controversy by speaking against socialism, Mahatma Gandhi, and institutionalised religion. He advocated a more open attitude towards sexuality, a stance that earned him the sobriquet sex guru in the Indian and later the international press. In 1970, he settled for a while in Mumbai. He began initiating disciples (known as neo-sannyasins) and took on the role of a spiritual teacher. In his discourses, he reinterpreted writings of religious traditions, mystics and philosophers from around the world. Moving to Pune in 1974, he established an ashram that attracted increasing numbers of Westerners. The ashram offered therapies derived from the Human Potential Movement to its Western audience and made news in India and abroad, chiefly because of its permissive climate and Oshos provocative lectures. By the end of the 1970s, there were mounting tensions with the Indian government and the surrounding society.

In 1981, Osho relocated to the United States, and his followers established an intentional community, later known as Rajneeshpuram, in the state of Oregon.

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The True Buddha School (Chinese: ; pinyin: Zhn F Zng; Peh-e-j: Chin-hut-chong) is a modern Vajrayana Buddhist sect based in Taiwan and parts of East Asia with influence from Sutrayana and Taoism.

Founded in the late 1980s, the founder of this sect is Lu Sheng-yen (), often referred to by his followers as a tulku, a Tibetan term for a reincarnated teacher or deity. He is called the Root Guru by his disciples. Lu claims to be a fully enlightened buddha, known by his disciples as "Living Buddha Lian-sheng" (). He is a writer who has written approximately 232 books to date.[citation needed] As of Feb of 2013, the organization claims over 5,000,000 became Buddhists through Lu.

Members of the True Buddha School emphasize the necessity to cultivate diligently for the benefit of spiritual advancement, as is practiced in general Vajrayana Buddhism. This is done through empowerment directly from the Root Guru, who himself proclaims to be an emanated being from the Pure Lands shed directly from Vairocana Buddha, then later achieving enlightenment in the human realm through his own rigorous practice and after being given several empowerments from other buddhas and bodhisattvas. A Tantric Buddhist practitioner cannot rely solely on listening or reading spiritual doctrines, or simply worshiping and paying respect to buddhas and bodhisattvas as the method to achieve the goal of spiritual liberation. All students are expected to follow the fourteen Root Tantric Vows (known as Vajrayana samaya) along with the Five Precepts that all Buddhists should follow, and to respect the Root Guru.

There is a structured curriculum to guide the student's practice, and at each level, a specific yoga is practiced. To advance to the next level, the student must achieve yogic response from the yoga being practiced in the current level and receive empowerment for the yoga of the next level.

As a beginner, there are specific yogas that are practiced to establish a strong foundation. The yoga practiced in the first stage is Vajrasattva yoga, a great repentance yoga to purify bad karma. The next level is Guru Yoga, followed by Personal Deity yoga and then the inner body practices of energy yoga.

True Buddha School has chapters across North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and Latin America, though the size of each local chapter varies. The main temple is located in Redmond, Washington, it also served as the main residence where Lu resided while he was living in United States. He lived in Tahiti with his wife Lian Hsiang in solitude for six years before re-emerging in the US in 2006, returning to his home in Redmond.

The majority of the followers of the True Buddha School are located in Asia, and many devotees are from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan. Across North America, Australia, and Europe, the majority of the students are immigrants of Asian descent.

True Buddha School's funding relies heavily on donations. This is supplemented with the income from the publication of Lu's books and videos of his sermons. The money is used to publish its teaching materials and for charity work such as the South Asian Tsunami relief effort. True Buddha School disseminates Buddhist teachings through Lu's sermons, books and articles. These materials are supplemented with sermons and articles by other acharyas (other gurus) certified by the grand master. Lu's books are mainly published in Chinese, with a limited number currently being translated into English. However, more translations are slowly being made to reach a wider audience. Many of the major True Buddha School sadhanas (liturgies) and practices are available in English.

Venerable Hsuan Hua warned his disciples about Lu Sheng-yen's claims, lamenting that many modern people lack wisdom, and dismissing Lu by saying, "I don't know what this person is. I call him a demon runt."[1] Lu was criticized for eating meat, drinking alcohol, and "playing around with women."[2]

Despite being the largest Vajrayana sect in Taiwan, the True Buddha School has been criticized by six Buddhist organizations in Malaysia.[3] Although the founder has attained various Tibetan lineages, questions remained.[clarification needed][4][5]

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True Buddha School - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh(1931-1990) was born Rajneesh Chandra Mohan in Kuchwara, a town in central India. Various sources state that "Bhagwan" means either "The Blessed One" or "God" and that "Shree" means "Master". At the end of his life, he changed his name to Osho.

His parents' religion was Jainism. However, Osho never subscribed to any religious faith during his lifetime. He received "samadhi" (enlightenment in which his soul became one with the universe) on 1953-MAR-21 at the age of 21. Rajneesh obtained a masters degree in philosophy from the University of Saugar. He taught philosophy at the University of Jabalpur for nine years and concurrently worked as a religious leader. In 1966, he left his teaching post and gave his full attention to teaching his sannyasins (disciples) while pursuing a speaking career. He had an apartment in Bombay where he often met individuals and small groups, where acting as spiritual teacher, guide and friend. Most of his Sannyasins came from Europe and India in the early years.

In 1974, Osho moved from Bombay southward to Pune, India. Some anti-cult groups have claimed that this decision was made because of local opposition from the public in Bombay. In reality, it was to establish an ashram (place of teaching) which would provide larger and more comfortable facilities for his disciples. The ashram consisted of two adjoining properties covering six acres in an affluent suburb of Pune called Koregaon Park. Some estimate as many as 50,000 Westerners spent time seeking enlightenment there with the guru. In 1979, he saw his movement as the route to the preservation of the human race. He said:

He taught a syncretistic spiritual path that combined elements from Hinduism, Jainism, Zen Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity, ancient Greek philosophy, many other religious and philosophic traditions, humanistic psychology, new forms of therapy and meditation, etc.

In 1980, he was the victim of a knife attack by a Hindu fundamentalist during his morning discourse. Because of police incompetence, the charges against the terrorist were dropped.

In 1981 he left India reluctantly because of health problems. He went to the United States in order to obtain advanced treatment. There have been rumors of income tax evasion, and insurance fraud; it is not known whether these have any validity. The group settled on the 65,000 acre "Big Muddy Ranch" near Antelope, Oregon, which his sannyasins had bought for six million dollars. The ranch was renamed Rajneeshpuram ("City of Rajneesh"). This "small, desolate valley twelve miles from Antelope, Oregon was transformed into a thriving town of 3,000 residents, with a 4,500 foot paved airstrip, a 44 acre reservoir, an 88,000 square foot meeting hall..."8 Many of the local folks were intolerant of the new group in their midst, because of religious and cultural differences. One manifestation of this intolerance was the town's denial of building permits to the followers of Rajneesh. Some buildings were erected on the ranch without planning board approval. When officials attempted to stop the construction, their office was firebombed by unknown person(s). When the local city council repeatedly refused to issue permits for their businesses, some sannyasins elected themselves to the city council. The town of Antelope was renamed City of Rajneesh.

Top aides of Osho were charged with a number of crimes, including the attempted murder of Osho's personal physician. There were stories of a hit list. Some fled the country for Switzerland where they had control over the group's bank accounts. Two were eventually convicted of conspiracy to murder local lawyer Charles Turner in an attempt to prevent closure of the ranch.

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(Above) NBC News states: Dr Morse has done more to prove the existence of life after death than any other scientist

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LEARNING FROM THE NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE

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What is a Near Death Experience

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MELVIN L MORSE MD FAAP Onemissionis to promote an understanding that we all have a"God Spot"in our brain which permits communication with a source of wisdom and knowledge that exists outside our physical bodies.Our organizationwants to explore and promote the practical applications of understanding thisnew paradigm of consciousness.

Idon't "believe in" near death experiences. It is my opinion that the scientific research validates that near death experiences are real. The science of 2014 indicates that we all have a "god spot" or (as per Mario Beauregard MD) a "god brain" that connects us with the divine, the all knowledge timeless space-less domain.

Children who have experienced thisall knowledge domaindescribe it as a "light that had a lot of good things in it" (age 5), or "I saw the sun and it had a happy face for me" (a 3 y/o),"you'll see, Dr. Morse, heaven is fun"(age 7), most intriguingly, "I went into a huge noodle when I died, well it must have been a tunnel because I don't think noodles have rainbows in them.(age 5).

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Vipassan (Pli) or vipayan (, Sanskrit; Chn. gun; Tib. , lhaktong; Wyl. lhag mthong) in the Buddhist tradition means insight into the true nature of reality,[1][2] namely as the Three marks of existence: impermanence, suffering or unsatisfactoriness, and the realisation of non-self.

Vipassan meditation is an ancient practice taught by Buddhas, reintroduced by Ledi Sayadaw and Mogok Sayadaw and popularized by Mahasi Sayadaw,S. N. Goenka, and the Vipassana movement, in which mindfulness of breathing and of thoughts, feelings and actions are being used to gain insight in the true nature of reality. Due to the popularity of Vipassan-meditation, the mindfulness of breathing has gained further popularity in the west as mindfulness.

Vipassan is a Pali word from the Sanskrit prefix "vi-" and verbal root pa. It is often translated as "insight" or "clear-seeing," though, the "in-" prefix may be misleading; "vi" in Indo-Aryan languages is equivalent to the Latin "dis." The "vi" in vipassan may then mean to see into, see through or to see 'in a special way.'[2] Alternatively, the "vi" can function as an intensive, and thus vipassan may mean "seeing deeply."[citation needed]

A synonym for "Vipassan" is paccakkha (Pli; Sanskrit: pratyaka), "before the eyes," which refers to direct experiential perception. Thus, the type of seeing denoted by "vipassan" is that of direct perception, as opposed to knowledge derived from reasoning or argument.[citation needed]

In Tibetan, vipashyana is lhagthong (wylie: lhag mthong). The term "lhag" means "higher", "superior", "greater"; the term "thong" is "view" or "to see". So together, lhagthong may be rendered into English as "superior seeing", "great vision" or "supreme wisdom." This may be interpreted as a "superior manner of seeing", and also as "seeing that which is the essential nature." Its nature is a luciditya clarity of mind.[7]

Henepola Gunaratana defined Vipassan as:

Looking into something with clarity and precision, seeing each component as distinct and separate, and piercing all the way through so as to perceive the most fundamental reality of that thing" [2]

In the sutta pitaka the term "vipassan" is hardly mentioned:

If you look directly at the Pali discourses the earliest extant sources for our knowledge of the Buddha's teachings you'll find that although they do use the word samatha to mean tranquillity, and vipassan to mean clear-seeing, they otherwise confirm none of the received wisdom about these terms. Only rarely do they make use of the word vipassan a sharp contrast to their frequent use of the word jhana. When they depict the Buddha telling his disciples to go meditate, they never quote him as saying "go do vipassan," but always "go do jhana." And they never equate the word vipassan with any mindfulness techniques.

The suttas contain traces of ancient debates between Mahayana and Theravada schools in the interpretation of the teachings and the development of insight. Out of these debates developed the idea that bare insight suffices to reach liberation, by discerning the Three marks (qualities) of (human) existence (tilakkhana), namely dukkha (suffering), anatta (non-self) and anicca (impermanence). This is a summation on the knowledge and insight on the Four Noble Truths which can only be reached by practising the Noble Eightfold Path. According to Theravada tradition enlightenment or Nibbana can only be attained by discerning all Vipassana insight levels when the Eightfold Noble Path is followed ardently. This is a developmental process where various Vipassana insights are discerned and the final enlightenment may come suddenly as proposed by other schools.

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Meditations on First Philosophy[1] (subtitled In which the existence of God and the immortality of the soul are demonstrated) is a philosophical treatise by Ren Descartes first published in 1641 (in Latin). The French translation (by the Duke of Luynes with Descartes' supervision) was published in 1647 as Mditations Metaphysiques. The original Latin title is Meditationes de prima philosophia, in qua Dei existentia et anim immortalitas demonstratur. The title may contain a misreading by the printer, mistaking animae immortalitas for animae immaterialitas, as suspected already by A. Baillet. [2]

The book is made up of six meditations, in which Descartes first discards all belief in things that are not absolutely certain, and then tries to establish what can be known for sure. He wrote the meditations as if he had meditated for six days: each meditation refers to the last one as "yesterday" (In fact, Descartes began work on the Meditations in 1639.[3]) One of the most influential philosophical texts ever written, it is widely read to this day.[4]

The Meditations consist of the presentation of Descartes' metaphysical system in its most detailed level and in the expanding of Descartes' philosophical system, which he first introduced in the fourth part of his Discourse on Method (1637). Descartes' metaphysical thought is also found in the Principles of Philosophy (1644), which the author intended to be a philosophy guidebook.

Letter of dedication

To the most wise and illustrious the Dean and Doctors of the Sacred Faculty of Theology in Paris

Descartes says that he is asking the protection of the Faculty for his work, and to this end he writes the present dedication.

His first consideration is that the existence of God has to be demonstrated philosophically, besides the theological reasons for belief, particularly if we consider to make a demonstration for the non-believers. Moreover, the believers could be accused of making a circular reasoning, when saying that we must believe in God because of the Scriptures, and in the authority of the Scriptures because they have been inspired by God. He further indicates how the very Scriptures say that the mind of man is sufficient to discover God.

His aim is to apply a method to demonstrate these two truths, in a so clear and evident manner that result to be evident. This method he has developed for the Sciences.[5]

Preface to the reader

Descartes explains how he made a mention of the two questions, the existence of God, and the soul, in his Discourse on Method. Following this, he received objections, and two of them he considers are of importance. The first is how he concludes that the essence of the soul is a thing that thinks, excluding all other nature. To this he says that he has a clear perception that he is a thinking thing, and has no other clear perception, and from this he concludes that there is nothing else in the essence of the self.

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