Monks dying in lotus

[GeneChing]

I thought there was a thread for this here but I can figure out how to search it. Maybe it's on some other forum I read. If anyone finds it, post here and I'll merge.


Mummified monk is ‘not dead’ and in rare meditative state, says expert (http://siberiantimes.com/other/others/news/n0105-mummified-monk-is-not-dead-and-in-rare-meditative-state-says-expert/)
By Kate Baklitskaya
02 February 2015

As police say lama found in lotus positon was destined for sale on black market, there are claims it was one step away from becoming a Buddha.

http://siberiantimes.com/upload/information_system_52/1/9/7/item_1977/information_items_1977.jpg
The mummified remains, covered in cattle skin, were found on January 27 in the Songinokhairkhan province. Picture: Morning Newspaper

A mummified monk found in the lotus position in Mongolia is 'not dead' and is instead one stage away from becoming a real-life Buddha, it has been claimed.

Forensic examinations are under way on the amazing remains, which are believed to be around 200 years old, having been preserved in animal skin. But one expert has insisted the human relic is actually in 'very deep meditation' and in a rare and very special spiritual state known as 'tukdam'.

Over the last 50 years there are said to have been 40 such cases in India involving meditating Tibetan monks.

Dr Barry Kerzin, a famous Buddhist monk and a physician to the Dalai Lama, said: 'I had the privilege to take care of some meditators who were in a tukdam state.

'If the person is able to remain in this state for more than three weeks - which rarely happens - his body gradually shrinks, and in the end all that remains from the person is his hair, nails, and clothes. Usually in this case, people who live next to the monk see a rainbow that glows in the sky for several days. This means that he has found a 'rainbow body'. This is the highest state close to the state of Buddha'.

He added: 'If the meditator can continue to stay in this meditative state, he can become a Buddha. Reaching such a high spiritual level the meditator will also help others, and all the people around will feel a deep sense of joy'.

Initial speculation is that the mummy could be a teacher of Lama Dashi-Dorzho Itigilov.

Born in 1852, Dashi-Dorzho Itigilov was a Buryat Buddhist Lama of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, best known for the lifelike state of his body.

http://siberiantimes.com/PICTURES/OTHERS/Meditating-mummy/inside%20mummy.jpg
http://siberiantimes.com/PICTURES/OTHERS/Meditating-mummy/inside%20house.jpg
Mummified monk is ‘not dead’ and in rare meditative state, says expert

The 'meditating monk' and the house in Mongolia where it was hidden. Pictures: Morning Newspaper

Ganhugiyn Purevbata, who is the founder and professor of the Mongolian Institute of Buddhist Art at Ulaanbaatar Buddhist University, said: 'Lama is sitting in the lotus position vajra, the left hand is opened, and the right hand symbolizes of the preaching Sutra.

'This is a sign that the Lama is not dead, but is in a very deep meditation according to the ancient tradition of Buddhist lamas'.

The mummified remains, which were covered in cattle skin, were found on January 27 in the Songinokhairkhan province of Mongolia.

However, there is more to the story and now police have revealed that the monk had been stolen from another part of the country and was about to be sold off.

An unnamed official said that it was taken from a cave in the Kobdsk region by a man who then hid it in his own home in Ulaanbaatar.

He had then been planning to sell it on the black market at a 'very high price', with local media claiming he wanted to take it over the Mongolian border. Police uncovered the plot and quickly arrested a 45-year-old, named only as Enhtor.

According to Article 18 of the Criminal Code of Mongolia smuggling items of cultural heritage are punishable with either a fine of up to 3million roubles ($43,000) or between five and 12 years in prison. The monk is now being guarded at the National Centre of Forensic Expertise at Ulaanbaatar.

[curenado]

Well if he's only meditating, they should've dipped him in a little oil or something along the way because if he did come to, looks like it'd hurt.

[David Jamieson]

Black market mummies?
Why the western world hasn't seen that in at least 2 or 3 days! lol

[GeneChing]

Mummified remains of monk found inside 1,000-year-old Buddha statue (http://en.rocketnews24.com/2015/02/24/mummified-remains-of-monk-found-inside-1000-year-old-buddha-statue/)
Audrey Akcasu 21 hours ago

https://sociorocketnewsen.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/ct.jpg?w=580&h=382

When you think of mummies your mind probably goes straight to Egypt and Halloween. But not all mummies are pyramid-dwelling, bandaged pharaohs. Asia has had its fair share of mummies over the millennia as well, but instead of pharaohs they were Taoist and Buddhist monks, and instead of being mummified post-mortem, they mummified themselves before dying.

Recently, researchers in the Netherlands have discovered the mummified remains of a Buddhist monk who is thought to be Liuquan, a master of the Chinese Meditation School, within a bronze Buddha statue! Keep in mind, this guy lived around 1100 AD!

https://sociorocketnewsen.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/buddha-mummie.jpg?w=580&h=316

The Buddha statue has been on display at the Drents Museum in Assen, Netherlands. Experts had a hunch that the statue may contain a mummified corpse, so they took it the Meander Medical Center and performed a CT scan and endoscopy to see what was really inside.

▼ At least he doesn’t feel that camera going up his butt!
https://sociorocketnewsen.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/buddah-iii_zpsggpoqbck.jpg?w=580&h=386

Their hunch was correct, however, they discovered something even more bizarre than a preserved corpse along the way. While the skeleton was intact, they found that the internal organs had been removed and replaced with sheets of paper covered in ancient Chinese writing. There’s no word yet about what the text says, but chances are they are Buddhist scripture.

▼Buddha meets 21st century science.
https://sociorocketnewsen.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/ct21.jpg?w=580&h=331

As exciting as this is in the scientific and historical worlds, this isn’t actually the first Buddhist mummy that’s been excavated, but it is the first that’s been accessible for Western researchers to study in such depth.

Self-mummification was apparently kind of the thing to do back thousands of years ago, although only the extremely ascetic Buddhists went through with it and not all of them did it successfully. It’s a grueling process, but it was thought to be the path to immortality. Some sects of Buddhism saw it as transcendence rather than death, and others believed that those who went through the process did not die by slipped into a death-like trance, waiting to be called upon to help mankind.

▼ He even looks like he’s holding back a secret.
https://sociorocketnewsen.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/mummies-1_zps74my1gon1.jpg?w=580&h=435

While this recently discovered mummy was from China, Japan actually has a pretty long history with self-mummifying Buddhists as well, specifically in Yamagata Prefecture. In that area they practiced in the issei gyonin sect of Shingon Buddhism, which combined Buddhist and Daoist practices with local beliefs.

The monks who performed this “final spiritual act,” are known as sokushinbutsu, translated to “Monks who practice austerity to the point of death or mummification.” And austere they had to be, because mummifying yourself is no easy process. A monk seeking immortality through mummification had to prepare their body for a grueling 3,000 days (about eight years)!

Aside from the strict religious regimen, the monk had to change his diet and exercise a lot to decrease his body fat to nearly zero. The diet change required cutting out cereals: so no Cheerios, wheat, soybeans, millet or even rice. In place of these foods, he would stick to the “tree diet” (read: an extreme form of the current fad, The Paleo Diet): nuts, berries, pine needles, tree bark and resin. The diet would get stricter and smaller as the monk’s days became numbered.

▼ Yum! Bark and resin for dinner!
https://sociorocketnewsen.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/tree_bark_and_resin.jpg?w=580&h=385

Some of the foods had a mummifying effect on the body, including toxic cycad nuts and a “tea” made from the Toxicodendron vernicifluum tree sap, from which lacquer is made. As you can imagine, lacquer does wonders for the mummifying process, making the body toxic to even decay-causing bacteria and flesh-eating insects. Gross.

So, once the monk has dieted and nearly embalmed himself alive, he sits in a stone chamber and gets completely buried inside, save for an air hole. He sits in the chamber, meditating, chanting and occasionally ringing a bell to let his buddies outside know he’s still living. Once the bell stops ringing, the air hole is closed and the monk remains there for three years. Upon excavation, if the body is successfully preserved, the monk is elevated to the status of Buddha, suitably clothed, placed in a shrine and worshiped as sokushinbutsu.

▼ How many more mummies do you think are hiding in Buddha statues around the world?
https://sociorocketnewsen.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/kamakura-buddha-7.jpg?w=580&h=606

Not all monks are so lucky though; sometimes the bodies show signs of decay. These monks, although honored for their endurance and asceticism, are thought to not have reached their spiritual goal, so they are not given the title of Buddha.

Apparently, the Chinese master Liuquan prepared well and successfully mummified himself. At some point, it seems, someone decided to cover him in bronze and stuff his insides with paper, however, we’re not yet sure why or when this happened.

If you’re in Europe and fancy seeing the statue (with the skeleton still inside), it/he is on loan to the Natural History Museum of Hungary until May of this year.

Disclaimer: RocketNews24 does not recommend trying the “tree diet” or self-mummification, even if you do quite like the idea of being encased in bronze after you’ve bitten the dust.

Sources: Plginrt Project, io9 (1, 2), Living Buddhas: The Self-Mummified Monks of Yamagata, Japan, Toronto Sun
Images: Plginrt Project, Wikimedia Commons (Dietmar Down Under)



mmmmmmmmmm. resin.

[boxerbilly]

For all your information. China has plenty of pyramids. I read they seldom let outsiders go to them and they seldom allow pictures to be taken of them.

[curenado]

From the sound of the contents, they can have them.

[David Jamieson]

might wanna revoke any sort of "expert" label on the dude that thinks that corpse is alive.

It is honorific to be buried within a statue of Buddha though I would imagine.

[GeneChing]

Most of the museum treasures outside of China were stolen. That's a major issue for the Chinese nowadays. But most of those items were stolen back when the Qing fell over a century ago. 1995 is much more recent.


Mummified monk on display in Hungary suspected to have been stolen from China in 1995 (http://shanghaiist.com/2015/03/23/mummified-monk-stolen-china-1995.php)

http://shanghaiist.com/upload/2015/02/buddha-mummy.jpg

Chinese relic experts believe that the "living Buddha" statue which had recently been on display at a history museum in Budapest was stolen from China in 1995.

The Fujian Cultural Relic Bureau announced on March 22 that based on research, photos, historical records and media reports, experts were able to confirm that the statue on exhibition at the Hungarian Natural History Museum was a relic stolen from Yangchun Village of Fujian 20 years ago.

The Buddha was believed to be Zhanggong Zushi, a cowherd. When he grew older, he won fame for helping treat people's diseases for free. He became a monk and self-mummified sometime around China's Song Dynasty (960-1279). The statue had been worshipped at the village temple until it allegedly went missing in 1995.

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/shang_shanghaiist/buddha-1.jpg

The village provided three points to support its claim, China Daily relays:

First, according to the villagers, the statue on exhibition in Europe is very similar in appearance to the photo of the village's statue of Master Zhanggong Liuquan (or Zhanggong Zushi) that was stolen in 1995.

Second, the scan by the Netherlands' scientists show the Buddhist's remains dating to the 11th or 12th century, which matches the periods of Zhanggong Liuquan's self-mummification of occurred during the Song Dynasty (960-1279).

The statue was bought and sold again to a Dutch private collector in 1996, one year after the village's mummified statue went missing. The timing of the two instances might be more than coincidence.

A local bureau spokesman said they will continue the investigation in the village and search for more information to eventually trace the stolen relic in compliance with normal procedures.

By Lucy Liu

[Image via Xinhua // China Daily]

[Video via BTV ]

[curenado]

Now they be a curse and must send that fellow home. Mummies talk after all.

[GeneChing]

A modern gold mummy.


LOOK: Revered Buddhist monk gets mummified in gold (http://shanghaiist.com/2016/04/29/golden_buddhist_mummy.php)

http://shanghaiist.com/upload/2016/04/goldmonk2.jpg

Last year it was reported that a medical team in the Netherlands discovered the mummified remains of an ancient Buddhist monk entombed within a golden statue of the Buddha. Scholars believe that the monk, Liu Quan, passed away sometime around the year 1100, and was mummified in a bid to become a “living Buddha.”
Fast forward 900 years later to the present day, and there is now a website for that! Still, it would seem that the more traditional practice of preserving revered monks is alive and well. Earlier this week, the body of a revered monk from the Fujian city of Quanzhou finished the final stage of a three-year mummification process.
According to the Quanzhou Evening News, the monk, Fu Hou, passed away back in 2012, at the age of 94. At the behest of head abbot Li Ren, he was preserved and placed inside a porcelain statue in lotus position. Fu was a devout follower of Buddhism and veteran monk, who joined the order when he was just 17.

http://shanghaiist.com/upload/2016/04/goldmonk1.jpg

Now, after three years of rest, the corpse has finally seen the light of day yet again. It looks to be in pristine condition (save for some very dry skin). The body was washed, covered in gauze and lacquer, before finally being coated in a gold leaf.

http://shanghaiist.com/upload/2016/04/goldmonk3.jpg

Fu Hou will eventually be robed, interred inside a glass case (protected with an anti-theft device) and then placed upon a mountaintop to be worshiped by pilgrims. ****, the best we can hope for is being turned into somebody's earring.
But out with the old and in with the new! As the world observes the ascension of Fu Hou to godhood, a new generation of monks is coming to the forefront to help bring Buddhist teachings to the masses, spearhead by Xian'er, the adorable robo-monk at Dragon Spring Temple in Beijing.

Pondering questions regarding the meaning of life, the universe and everything? Xian’er can be reached by WeChat at the handle, “賢二機器僧.”
While some worshipers have expressed skepticism at the idea of a future in which temples are populated by adorable automatons, the behavior of some monks in recent years has certainly compelled us to wonder if this current generation of flesh-and-blood monks will be able to inspire piety and reverence for the Buddha. Recent wrongdoings range from petty squabbles to serious corruption scandals at the famed Shaolin Temple.

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/alexlinder/cuddly_monk2.jpg

Xian'er would never do any of those things.
By Stanley Yu
[Images via Quanzhou Evening News]

By Shanghaiist in News on Apr 29, 2016 9:15 PM

[GeneChing]

The golden mummy: Incredible pictures show the perfectly preserved gilded body of 1,000-year-old Buddhist Master Ci Xian (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4693208/The-incredible-1-000-year-old-golden-mummy-Master-Ci-Xian.html)

A CT scan reveals the mummified monk still has healthy bones and a brain
The remains of Master Ci Xian is worshipped at the Dinghui Temple, China
Ci Xian travelled from Indian to China 1,000 years ago to promote Buddhism

By Tracy You For Mailonline
PUBLISHED: 11:17 EDT, 13 July 2017 | UPDATED: 03:25 EDT, 14 July 2017

The mummified body of a Buddhist Master from 1,000 years ago still has healthy bones and a complete brain, a CT scan has revealed.

The discovery was made last week after the gilded remains of Master Ci Xian was given a medical check at the Dinghui Temple in Wu'an, northern China's Hebei Province.

Master Ci Xian was said to be a respected monk who had travelled from ancient India to ancient China to promote Buddhism.


http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/07/13/13/424AD3AB00000578-0-image-a-23_1499950906666.jpg
The preserved body of Buddhist Master Ci Xian underwent a CT scan last week in China

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/07/13/15/424A7F6E00000578-4693208-image-a-12_1499957395863.jpg
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/07/13/15/424A8BC100000578-4693208-image-a-11_1499957395469.jpg
The mummified monk is kept at the Dinghui Temple in Wu'an. The temple's monks had the Ci Xian's remains gilded last year. Above, the pictures show the body before and after

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/07/13/15/424A7F6600000578-4693208-image-a-13_1499957434083.jpg
Master Ci Xian's remains were found in a cave in the 1970s. It has been kept at the Dinghui Temple since 2011. The temple decided to add a golden layer to the remains to show its respect

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/07/13/15/424A7F6A00000578-4693208-image-a-15_1499957493785.jpg
The respected monk's remains were varnished before being gilded at the Dinghui Temple


HOW WAS CI XIAN'S BODY PRESERVED?

According to Master Du at the Dinghui Temple, ancient Chinese monks preserve their master's body using natural means.

Master Du said usually a Buddhist master could feel it when he is about to pass away.

He would then tell his disciples if he would like his body to be cremated or preserved.

After the master passes away, the disciples would put his remains inside a large ceramic jar filled with natural anti-corrosive substances.

After three years, the disciples would remove the body from the jar.

If the master had reached a certain spiritual level, then his body would not rot.

The disciples would then cover the body with a special paste made with stick rice to produce a so-called 'meat body Buddha'.

The CT scan took place on July 8 and was witnessed by monks, media and prayers.

People were shocked when doctors said Master Ci Xian still had a full skeleton, and a complete brain.

Dr Wu Yongqing told Pear Video after the scan: 'We can see his bones are as healthy as a normal person's.

'The upper jaw, the upper teeth, the ribs, the spine and all the joints are all complete.

'It's incredible to see this.'

According to historic records, Master Ci Xian was originally from India.

He travelled to the Kingdom of Khitan (916-1125) in north-east part of modern China near the Korean Peninsula to spread Buddhist philosophy.

He is said to have translated 10 major Sutras into Chinese characters. Later, he was named the national Buddhist Master of Khitan by the king.

Some of his translations were engraved into stone tablets and can be seen today.

After Master Ci Xian passed away, his disciples had his body preserved but it later went lost over the years.

His remains were re-discovered in 1970s inside a cave.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/07/13/15/424A882C00000578-4693208-image-a-14_1499957475806.jpg
The temple's management arranged a CT scan for master Ci Xian's body on July 8

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/07/13/15/424A884300000578-4693208-image-a-16_1499957505815.jpg
Monks were shocked when doctors said Master Ci Xian still has healthy bones and a brain

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/07/13/15/424A883600000578-4693208-image-a-17_1499957518542.jpg
An X-ray provided by Ding Hui Temple shows the skull of Master Ci Xian, from 1,000 years ago

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/07/13/15/424A882400000578-4693208-image-a-18_1499957521762.jpg
His upper jaw, the upper teeth, the ribs, the spine (pictured) and all the joints are all complete

Master Du from the Dinghui Temple said Buddhist Master Ci Xian's preserved body had been worshipped at the Dinghui Temple since 2011.
The temple decided to have the remains gilded last year.
Master Ci Xian is expected to be moved from the Dinghui Temple to the Shendu Temple on Xiangtang Mountain, which is being constructed.
Master Du said the public could still worship Master Ci Xian at the Dinghui Temple from now to the end of 2017.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/07/13/15/424A7F5900000578-4693208-image-a-19_1499957527645.jpg
Monks and the public worship Master Ci Xian's preserved body at the Dinghui Temple



Not sure 'healthy' is the right term for dead bones and brain, but I do like the term 'meat body Buddha'.

[mickey]

Greetings,

I see that the Bodies exhibit isn't the only way to get rid of political dissidents. How macabre!


mickey

[GeneChing]

More on this mummy here (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?68423-Monks-dying-in-lotus&p=1281072#post1281072) & here (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?68423-Monks-dying-in-lotus&p=1282045#post1282045)


Chinese villagers head to court to recover a 1,000-year-old mummified monk inside a Buddha statue (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/07/15/chinese-villagers-head-court-recover-1000-year-old-mummified/)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2017/07/15/TELEMMGLPICT000134625774-large_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqpVlberWd9EgFPZtcLiMQfyf2A9 a6I9YchsjMeADBa08.jpeg

The monk's remains are said to be encased inside a Buddha statue CREDIT: ATTILA VOLGYI/XINHUA/ALAMY LIVE NEWS
Neil Connor, beijing
15 JULY 2017 • 2:18PM

Chinese villagers have taken their campaign to retrieve a “stolen” 1,000-year-old mummified monk to a Dutch court, as China ramps up efforts to reclaim precious artefacts scattered across the globe – including in the UK.

The latest legal battle involves residents of Yangchun in south-eastern China seeking to force a Dutch art collector to return a Buddha sculpture which they claim went missing from their village in 1995.

The villagers say the 1.2 metre-tall golden sitting Buddha, which is called Zhanggong Zushi, contains the skeletal remains of one of their ancestors, a monk who lived and was worshipped in Yangchun since the Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD).

The sculpture sat in a temple in the village for a thousand years, the villagers claim, before being stolen 22 years ago.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2017/07/15/TELEMMGLPICT000134625768-xlarge_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqcYjAvPcAMF8ijbM-36KH1jpw2zkXVb5bJj9AzPtB2_k.jpeg
The statue is one of many artefacts China hopes to recover from abroad CREDIT: ATTILA VOLGYI/XINHUA/ALAMY LIVE NEWS

One of the locals recognised the sculpture after it was displayed at an exhibition in Hungary in 2015 and the village has banded together to try to recover it with the help of the Chinese government.

"I am very confident we will win the case,” said lawyer Liu Yang, ahead of the first day of the Amsterdam trial on Friday.

“The statue belongs to the villagers, and I think the Dutch owner should act in a graceful way to take himself out of a predicament," he told The Telegraph.

Mr Liu has previously fought a series of cases to retrieve allegedly stolen Chinese artefacts from abroad.

Beijing has made the return of such relics a priority as it flexes its growing international muscle and tries to build public support at home.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2017/07/15/TELEMMGLPICT000134625767-large_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqqVzuuqpFlyLIwiB6NTmJweNtxj 9PZ-PQqqpH_qJ95Uw.jpeg
Chinese state media say more than 10 million Chinese cultural relics have yet to be returned. CREDIT: ATTILA VOLGYI/XINHUA/ALAMY LIVE NEWS

Chinese state media say more than 10 million Chinese cultural relics have yet to be returned.

In 2013 French billionaire Francois-Henri Pinault returned two bronze fountainheads from Beijing's Old Summer Palace.

The site was ransacked by British and French troops in 1860 during the Second Opium War, an event seen in China as a national humiliation.

Many in China also believe artefacts which are now at the British Museum were originally pillaged from that monument, and later, at the destruction of the Forbidden City during the Boxer Rebellion.

The British Museum previously said the “overwhelming majority” of its Chinese collection, which numbers around 23,000 items, were “peacefully traded or collected”.

However, Mr Liu said Chinese artefacts exhibited in Britain were a “big issue” in China, and that the legal team involved in the court battle for the Buddha would use that experience to devise a strategy against “museums in other countries”.

Asked directly if China was considering retrieving artefacts at the British Museum, he said: “Once China knows how to do it through the courts, China will do it."

Additional reporting by Christine Wei

[GeneChing]

'Our spiritual leader': Chinese villagers appeal for return of 1,000-year-old monk (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/01/our-spiritual-leader-chinese-villagers-appeal-for-return-of-1000-year-old-monk)
Residents of Yangchun tell Dutch court of importance of Buddha statue which contains mummified remains
Agence France-Presse
Wed 31 Oct 2018 20.12 EDT Last modified on Thu 1 Nov 2018 20.45 EDT

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/0b5633749ed00be4ea5eac040354c340572077c9/15_12_879_528/master/879.png?width=620&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&
A Buddha statue next to an X-ray showing the remains of a monk inside. Villagers from Yangchun, eastern China, are appealing for the return of the statue, known as the Zhanggong patriarch. Photograph: Drents Museum

A group of Chinese villagers have travelled to the Netherlands to make a passionate plea for the return of the remains of a 1,000-year-old monk as the legal fight over its ownership wrapped up in a Dutch court.

The small eastern Chinese village of Yangchun has accused Dutch collector Oscar van Overeem of buying the stolen Buddha statue containing the mummified remains of the monk in Hong Kong in 1996.

“We grew up with the statue. He was there day and night. He is our spiritual leader,” Yangchun village spokesman Lin Wen Qing said shortly after lawyers closed their arguments at Amsterdam district court on Wednesday.

“For us, it is the most important thing to have him back,” said Lin, speaking through an interpreter. He was one of six villagers who travelled from Yangchun to attend the hearing.

The village is asking Dutch judges to rule that the human-sized Buddha statue be returned to the temple from where it was stolen in late 1995, after being worshipped there for centuries.

Missing for two decades the statue, called the Zhanggong patriarch, resurfaced in 2015 when villagers recognised it as part of a display at the Mummy World Exhibition at Budapest’s natural history museum.

A scan of the statue revealed a skeleton inside – said to be that of a Chinese monk who lived nearly a millennium ago during China’s Song dynasty. The statue was subsequently withdrawn from the exhibition.

The case is being closely watched because it could mark one of the first successful retrievals of Chinese relics in court.

The villagers said they were convinced that the statue which Van Overeem bought was their missing idol. “There is a very special bond between the villagers and the statue,” their lawyer Jan Holthuis told the judges.

Van Overeem reiterated in court that he did not have the statue, which he said he exchanged in a swap with a Chinese collector in 2015. “I swapped the statue in a transaction. I was happy to hear that it would go back to China,” van Overeem told the court, adding he did not know the identity of the collector with whom he did the swap.

He rejected Holthuis’s claims that he was in fact a dealer in Chinese art, and bought the statue in Hong Kong in 1996 – a known destination for stolen artefacts. “I’m an architect and a passionate collector. But I’m not a dealer,” van Overeem said. He said he did not know where the statue was.

Judges are due to hand down a ruling on 12 December.

Previous retrievals of Chinese artefacts have been done through diplomatic channels.

Beijing in recent years has vehemently protested against the sale of artefacts that it said were stolen, particularly in the 19th century when European powers began encroaching on Chinese territory.

More to come on Zhanggong on Dec 12.

[GeneChing]

He's not dead yet. And who knows if he'll attempt the lotus passing. Nevertheless, this is a fascinating read:


The Monk Who Taught the World Mindfulness Awaits the End of This Life (http://time.com/5511729/monk-mindfulness-art-of-dying/?xid=tcoshare)

https://imagesvc.timeincapp.com/v3/mm/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftimedotcom.files.wordpress .com%2F2019%2F01%2Fthich-nhat-hanh-art-of-dying-well-nation-2.jpeg&w=800&c=sc&poi=face&q=85
Thich Nhat Hanh, shown in an undated photo at his Plum Village monastery in France, introduced ways to meditate that anyone could master Plum Village Community of Engaged Buddhism
By LIAM FITZPATRICK / HUE, VIETNAM
January 24, 2019

At a Buddhist temple outside Hue, Vietnam’s onetime capital, 92-year-old Thich Nhat Hanh has come to quietly “transition,” as his disciples put it. The ailing celebrity monk—quoted by Presidents and hailed by Oprah Winfrey as “one of the most influential spiritual leaders of our times”—is refusing medication prescribed after a stroke in 2014. He lies in a villa in the grounds of the 19th century Tu Hieu Pagoda, awaiting liberation from the cyclical nature of existence.

At the gate, devotees take photos. Some have flown from Europe for a glimpse of Thay, as they call him, using the Vietnamese word for teacher. Since arriving on Oct. 28, he has made several appearances in a wheelchair, greeted by hundreds of pilgrims, though the rains and his frailty have mostly put a stop to these. On a wet afternoon in December, the blinds were drawn back so TIME could observe the monk being paid a visit by a couple of U.S. diplomats. The Zen master, unable to speak, looked as though he could breathe his last at any moment. His room is devoid of all but basic furnishings. Born Nguyen Xuan Bao, he was banished in the 1960s, when the South Vietnamese government deemed as traitorous his refusal to condone the war on communism. He is now back in the temple where he took his vows at 16, after 40 years of exile. Framed above the bed are the words tro ve—”returning”—in his own brushstroke.


In the West, Nhat Hanh is sometimes called the father of mindfulness. He famously taught that we could all be bodhisattvas by finding happiness in the simple things—in mindfully peeling an orange or sipping tea. “A Buddha is someone who is enlightened, capable of loving and forgiving,” he wrote in Your True Home, one of more than 70 books he has authored. “You know that at times you’re like that. So enjoy being a Buddha.”

His influence has spread globally. Christiana Figueres, the former executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, said in 2016 that she could not have pulled off the Paris Agreement “if I had not been accompanied by the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh.” World Bank president Jim Yong Kim called Nhat Hanh’s Miracle of Mindfulness his favorite book.

The monk’s return to Vietnam to end his life can thus be seen as a message to his disciples. “Thay’s intention is to teach [the idea of] roots and for his students to learn they have roots in Vietnam,” says Thich Chan Phap An, the head of Nhat Hanh’s European Institute of Applied Buddhism. “Spiritually, it’s a very important decision.”

But practically, it risks reopening old wounds. Other Vietnamese exiles were infuriated by highly publicized visits Nhat Hanh made in 2005 and 2007, when he toured the country and held well-attended services that made international headlines. To his critics, these tours gave legitimacy to the ruling Communist Party by creating the impression that there was freedom of worship in Vietnam, when in fact it is subject to strict state controls.

Other spiritual leaders have suffered under the regime; Thich Quang Do, patriarch of the outlawed Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV), has spent many years in jail or under house arrest. In November, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), the government panel that monitors freedom of religion globally, issued a statement condemning his treatment by Hanoi. In this context, Vo Van Ai, a Paris-based spokesman for the UBCV, said Nhat Hanh’s prior visits to Vietnam “played into the government’s hands.”

The meaning of his return, therefore, carries great freight here in Vietnam. “[It] symbolizes that both he and the type of Buddhism he represents are fundamentally Vietnamese,” says Paul Marshall, professor of religious freedom at Baylor University in Texas. “For the government, this is both a challenge and an opportunity. If he lives out his life in peace, they can claim credit.”

Flourishing in Exile

Nhat Hanh has always gone his own way. He became a novice against his parents’ wishes, then left a Buddhist academy because it refused to teach modern subjects. He studied science at Saigon University, edited a humanist magazine and established a commune.

After teaching Buddhism at Columbia and Princeton universities from 1961 to 1963, he returned to Vietnam to become an antiwar activist, risking his life with other volunteers to bring aid to war-torn communities. He refused to take sides, making enemies of both North and South Vietnam. His commune was attacked by South Vietnamese troops, and an attempt was made on his life.

In 1966, as the war escalated, he left Vietnam to tour 19 countries to call for peace. He addressed the British, Canadian and Swedish parliaments and met Pope Paul VI. This proved too much for the regime in Saigon, which viewed pacifism as tantamount to collaboration with the communists and prevented him from returning. The next time Nhat Hanh saw Vietnam was during a visit in 2005.

continued next post

[GeneChing]

His reputation grew in exile. Hippies set his antiwar poetry to music. In 1967, he was nominated by Martin Luther King Jr. for the Nobel Peace Prize, and in 1969 he headed a Buddhist delegation to the peace talks in Paris. He eventually based himself in southwest France, where he turned the Plum Village Buddhist monastery into Europe’s largest, and established eight others from Mississippi to Thailand. He oversaw the translation of his books into more than 30 languages. When Western interest in Buddhism went through a revival at the turn of the century, Nhat Hanh became one of its most influential practitioners.

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In 1967, Martin Luther King Jr. urged the Nobel Prize committee to honor “this gentle monk from Vietnam” Edward Kitch—AP

Nhat Hanh taught that you don’t have to spend years on a mountaintop to benefit from Buddhist wisdom. Instead, he says, just become aware of your breath, and through that come into the present moment, where everyday activities can take on a joyful, miraculous quality. If you are mindful, or fully present in the here and now, anxiety disappears and a sense of timelessness takes hold, allowing your highest qualities, such as kindness and compassion, to emerge.

This was highly appealing to Westerners seeking spirituality but not the trappings of religion. Burned-out executives and recovering alcoholics flocked to retreats in the French countryside to listen to Nhat Hanh. An entire mindfulness movement sprang up in the wake of this dharma superstar. Among his students was the American doctor Jon Kabat-Zinn, founder of the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction course that is now offered at hospitals and medical centers worldwide. Today, the mindfulness that Nhat Hanh did so much to propagate is a $1.1 billion industry in the U.S., with revenues flowing from 2,450 meditation centers and thousands of books, apps and online courses. One survey found that 35% of employers have incorporated mindfulness into the workplace.

Nhat Hanh’s approach has been commercially successful partly because it makes few demands, at least of beginners—unlike the more rigorous meditation advocated by that other great exponent of Buddhism in the West, the Dalai Lama. “Thich Nhat Hanh provides a simple version of Buddhism, but I would not say it is oversimplified,” explains Janet Gyatso, Hershey Professor of Buddhist Studies at Harvard University’s Divinity School. The “basic philosophy is the same” as that of the Dalai Lama, she says. “Mindfulness and compassion.”

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Nhat Hanh, center, led a silent peace walk in Los Angeles in 2005, as the Iraq War escalated Paul Davis—Touching Peace Photography

Courting Controversy

In an unpublished interview he gave to TIME in 2013, Nhat Hanh declined to say if he wanted to return home for good. Instead he praised Vietnam’s youthful dissidents. “If the country is going to change, it will be thanks to this kind of courage,” he said. “We are fighting for freedom of expression.”

In fact, the situation for all rights in Vietnam is critical. During Nhat Hanh’s exile, hundreds of thousands of people were sent to re-education camps or killed by a Communist Party that, today, has absolute control. Activists are beaten, tortured and jailed. Rights of association are restricted, as is the press and judiciary. Religious freedom is heavily curtailed, and the official Buddhist Church of Vietnam is controlled by the state.

To his critics, the monk should have made greater use of his position to draw attention to these abuses. Ai, the UBCV spokesman, says Nhat Hanh was “world-famous abroad but longed to be famous in his homeland” and accuses him of cooperating with the regime in order to be given permission for his 2005 tour. Hanoi granted Nhat Hanh permission to visit that year as it sought Vietnam’s removal from the USCIRF list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC), where it kept company with North Korea, Iran and Saudi Arabia. The official communist daily Nhan Dan quoted Nhat Hanh as saying, “The Vietnamese want to be liberated from what the Americans call liberation for the Vietnamese,” without explaining that he had said these words decades earlier, in the entirely different context of the Vietnam War.

Washington obliged Hanoi by removing Vietnam as a CPC in 2006, to the fury of nonconformists forced into exile. “Many [who] had looked on Thich Nhat Hanh as a living Buddha, with total respect and admiration, were deeply disappointed to see him pandering to the communist authorities,” says Ai. Bill Hayton, associate fellow of the Asia program at London’s Royal Institute of International Affairs, explains that many in the Vietnamese diaspora will not tolerate any compromise with Hanoi. “In their eyes, Thich Nhat Hanh is a sellout because he is prepared to work within the limits imposed by the Communist Party.”

But Nhat Hanh was not totally silent. During his 2007 visit to Vietnam, he asked then President Nguyen Minh Triet to abolish the Religious Affairs Committee, which monitors religious groups. The Plum Village annual journal of 2008 went further and called on Vietnam to abandon communism. His followers paid a heavy price. In September 2009, police and a hired mob violently evicted hundreds of monks and nuns from a monastery that Nhat Hanh had been allowed to build at Bat Nha in southeast Vietnam, which had been attracting thousands of devotees.

Yet if Nhat Hanh courted controversy by engaging with the party, he also won the ability to gain access to the Vietnamese people—and that might have been the goal all along. The official Vietnamese Buddhist Church, says Hayton, “has no leader to compare with Thich Nhat Hanh or his ideas of mindfulness.” During Nhat Hanh’s tours, he was able to champion a concise, modernized form of Buddhism very different from the religion sometimes perceived as old-fashioned and arcane. The impact is still felt by young Vietnamese today. In November, Linh Nhi, 27, traveled from Saigon to keep vigil at Tu Hieu. “If I can meet him, that’s good,” she told local media. “If not, I’m still happy because I can feel his presence.”

Buddhism teaches that Nhat Hanh needs to offer his presence, and in doing so, he is embracing the roots of his suffering in the Vietnam War. He is surely aware that Hanoi will make political capital out of his homecoming. But then the Zen master is evidently playing the long game—the longest game of all, in fact, which is eternity.

—With reporting by Supriya Batra/Hong Kong and Bryan Walsh/New York

No, I never met him but was inspired by some of his writings.

[GeneChing]

I suppose this could be separated into its own indie thread...unless TNH manages to pass in lotus. After a stroke, who knows?


Thich Nhat Hanh, the Buddhist monk who introduced mindfulness to the West, prepares to die (http://theconversation.com/thich-nhat-hanh-the-buddhist-monk-who-introduced-mindfulness-to-the-west-prepares-to-die-111142)
March 18, 2019 6.46am EDT

Brooke Schedneck
Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Rhodes College

Disclosure statement
Brooke Schedneck does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh. AP Photo/Richard Vogel

Thich Nhat Hanh, the monk who popularized mindfulness in the West, has returned home to Vietnam to enjoy the rest of his life. Devotees from many parts of the world are visiting the ailing 92-year-old, who has retired to a Buddhist temple outside Hue.

This thoughtful and accepting approach to his own failing health seems fitting for the popular Buddhist teacher, whose followers include a thousand Buddhist communities around the world and millions more who have read his books. For everyone, his teachings encourage being present in the moment.

As a scholar of the contemporary practices of Buddhist meditation, I have studied his simple yet profound teachings, which combine mindfulness along with social change.

Peace activist

In the 1960s, Thich Nhat Hanh played an active role promoting peace during the years of war in Vietnam. Hanh was in his mid-20s when he became active in efforts to revitalize Vietnamese Buddhism for peace efforts.

Over the next few years, Thich Nhat Hanh set up a number of organizations based on Buddhist principles of nonviolence and compassion. His School of Youth and Social Service, a grassroots relief organization, consisted of 10,000 volunteers and social workers offering aid to war-torn villages, rebuilding schools and establishing medical centers.

He also established the Order of Interbeing, a community of monastics and lay Buddhists who made a commitment to compassionate action and supported war victims. In addition, he founded a Buddhist university, a publishing house, and a peace activist magazine as a way to spread the message of compassion.

In 1966, Thich Nhat Hanh traveled to the United States and Europe to appeal for peace in Vietnam.

In lectures delivered across many cities, he compellingly described the war’s devastation, spoke of the Vietnamese people’s wish for peace and appealed to the U.S. to cease its air offensive against Vietnam.

During his years in the U.S., he met Martin Luther King Jr., who nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967.

However, because of his peace work and refusal to choose sides in his country’s civil war, both the communist and noncommunist governments banned him, forcing Thich Nhat Hanh to live in exile for over 40 years.

During these years, the emphasis of his message shifted from the immediacy of the Vietnam War to being present in the moment – an idea that has come to be called “mindfulness.”

Being aware of the moment

Thich Nhat Hanh first started teaching mindfulness in the mid-1970s. The main vehicle for his early teachings was his books. In “The Miracle of Mindfulness,” for example, Thich Nhat Hanh gave simple instructions on how to apply mindfulness to daily life. This book was translated into English for a global audience.

In his book, “You Are Here,” he urged people to pay attention to what they were experiencing in their body and mind at any given moment, and not dwell in the past or think of the future. His emphasis was on the awareness of the breath. As you follow the breath, he taught his readers to say internally, “I’m breathing in; this is an in-breath. I’m breathing out: this is an out-breath.”

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Thich Nhat Hanh emphasized that mindfulness could be practiced anywhere. Antonio Guillem/Shutterstock.com

People interested in practicing meditation didn’t need to spend days at a meditation retreat or find a teacher. His teachings emphasized that mindfulness could be practiced anytime, even when doing routine chores.

Even when doing the dishes, people could simply focus on the activity and be fully present. Peace, happiness, joy and true love, he said, could be found only in the moment.

Mindfulness in America

Hanh’s mindfulness practices don’t advocate disengagement with the world. Rather, in his view, the practice of mindfulness could lead one toward “compassionate action,” like practicing openness to other’s viewpoints and sharing material resources with those in need.

Jeff Wilson, a scholar of American Buddhism, argues in his book, “Mindful America,” that it was Hanh’s combination of daily mindfulness practices with action in the world that contributed to the earliest strands of the mindfulness movement. This movement eventually became what Time Magazine in 2014 called the “mindful revolution.” The article argues that the power of mindfulness lies in its universality, as the practice has entered into corporate headquarters, political offices, parenting guides and diet plans.

For Thich Nhat Hanh, however, mindfulness is not a means to a more productive day but a way of understanding “interbeing,” the connection and codependence of everyone and everything. In a documentary “Walk With Me,” he illustrates interbeing in the following way:

A young girl asks him how to deal with the grief of her recently deceased dog. He instructs her to look into the sky and watch a cloud disappear. The cloud has not died but has become the rain and the tea in the teacup. Just as the cloud is alive in a new form, so is the dog. Being aware and mindful of the tea offers a reflection on the nature of reality.

He believes this understanding could lead to more peace in the world.

In 2014, Thich Nhat Hanh suffered a stroke. Since then, he has been unable to speak or continue his teaching. In October of 2018 he expressed his wish, using gestures, to return to the temple in Vietnam where he was ordained as a young monk.

[GeneChing]

The Japanese Monks Who Mummified Themselves While Still Alive (https://allthatsinteresting.com/sokushinbutsu)
By Krissy Howard
Published October 25, 2016
Updated August 20, 2019
Sokushinbutsu may be self-discipline at its most extreme.
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Barry Silver/Flickr

Between 1081 and 1903, around 20 living Shingon monks successfully mummified themselves in an attempt at sokushinbutsu, or becoming “a Buddha in this body.”

Through a strict diet foraged from the nearby Mountains of Dewa, Japan, the monks worked to dehydrate the body from the inside out, ridding the self of fat, muscle, and moisture before being buried in a pine box to meditate through their last days on Earth.

Mummification Around The World
While this event may seem particular to Japanese monks, many cultures have practiced mummification. This is because, as Ken Jeremiah writes in the book Living Buddhas: the Self-Mummified Monks of Yamagata, Japan, many religions around the world recognize an imperishable corpse as a mark of exceptional ability to connect with a force which transcends the physical realm.

While not the only religious sect to practice mummification, the Japanese Shingon monks of Yamagata are among the most famous to practice the ritual, as several of their practitioners successfully mummified themselves while still alive.

Seeking redemption for the salvation of mankind, monks on a path toward sokushinbutsu believed this sacrificial act — done in emulation of a ninth-century monk named Kükai — would grant them access to Tusita Heaven, where they would live for 1.6 million years and be blessed with the ability to protect humans on Earth.

Needing their physical bodies to accompany their spiritual selves in Tusita, they embarked on a journey as devoted as it was painful, mummifying themselves from the inside-out to prevent decomposition after death. The process took at least three years, its method perfected over centuries and adapted to the humid climate usually unsuitable for mummifying a body.

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Wikimedia Commons

How To Turn Yourself Into A Mummy
In order to begin the self-mummification process, the monks would adopt a diet known as mokujikigyō, or “tree-eating.” Foraging through nearby forests, practitioners existed only on tree roots, nuts and berries, tree bark, and pine needles. One source also reports finding river rocks in the bellies of mummies.

This extreme diet served two purposes. First, it began the body’s biological preparation for mummification, as it eliminated any fat and muscle from the frame. It also prevented future decomposition by depriving the body’s naturally-occurring bacteria of vital nutrients and moisture. On a more spiritual level, the extended, isolated quests for food would have a “hardening” effect on the monk’s morale, disciplining him and encouraging contemplation.

This diet would typically last for 1,000 days, though some monks would repeat the course two or three times to best prepare themselves for the next phase of sokushinbutsu. To begin the embalming process, monks may have added a tea brewed of urushi, the sap of the Chinese lacquer tree, as it would render their bodies toxic to insect invaders after death.

At this point not drinking anything more than a small amount of salinized water, the monks would continue with their meditation practice. As death approached, the devotees would rest in a small, tightly cramped pine box, which fellow votaries would lower into the ground, about ten feet below the Earth’s surface.

Equipped with a bamboo rod as an airway for breathing, monks covered the coffin with charcoal, leaving the buried monk a small bell which he would ring to notify others that he was still alive. For days the buried monk would meditate in total darkness, and ring the bell.

When the ringing stopped, above-ground monks assumed the underground monk had died. They would proceed to seal the tomb, where they would leave the corpse to lie for 1,000 days.

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Shingon Culture/Flickr

After unearthing the coffin, followers would inspect the body for signs of decay. If the bodies had stayed intact, monks believed that the deceased had reached sokushinbutsu, and would thus dress the bodies in robes and place them in a temple for worship. Monks gave those showing decay a modest burial.

Sokushinbutsu: A Dying Practice
The first attempt at sokushinbutsu took place in 1081 and ended in failure. Since then, a hundred more monks have attempted to reach salvation by self-mummification, with only around two dozen succeeding in their mission.

These days, no one practices the act of sokushinbutsu as the Meiji government criminalized it in 1877, viewing the practice as anachronistic and depraved.

The last monk to die of sokushinbutsu did so illegally, passing years later in 1903.

His name was Bukkai, and in 1961 researchers at Tohoku University would exhume his remains, which now rest in Kanzeonji, a seventh-century Buddhist temple in southwest Japan. Of the 16 existing sokushinbutsu in Japan, the majority lie in the Mt. Yudono region of the Yamagata prefecture.

For more global perspectives on death, check out these unusual funeral rituals from around the world. Then, have a look at bizarre human mating rituals that will challenge your notions of romance.

An old gf sent me this for Halloween (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?17340-Happy-Halloween!). Thought I'd share it here...