Today’s quote is yet another from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, whom I first quoted and wrote a short biography for in this post. It’s a teaching entitled “My Religion”:
This is my simple religion:
There is no need for temples,
there is no need for complicated philosophy.
Our own brain, our own heart is the temple;
the philosophy is loving kindness and compassion.
Our pal Justin Whitaker at American Buddhist Perspective brings exciting news for those of us using the Apple iPhone: Appmagination has produced a brand new application for Access to Insight that launched this week. Here’s the description from iTunes:
The best “eBook” about Buddhism on the app store!
This application contains the entire offline version of Access to Insight (www.accesstoinsight.org), a compilation of material about Theravada Buddhism, the predominant form of Buddhism in Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka. Much of the material is also applicable to all forms of Buddhism.
Herein are contained over 1,000 translations of suttas (sutras), the canonical texts of Theravada and other forms of Buddhism. Many essays from famous monks and scholars on Buddhist philiosophy, meditation, and practice are also included.
This is high quality material that is suitable reading for personal interest or academic study. Much of the material is also available in printed form. Many of the sutta translations also link to iPhone accessible online audio readings on suttareadings.net.
Double tap on the screen to hide or show the toolbar and status bar. Landscape and portrait modes are supported, as are bookmarks which save the current scroll position of the current page.
Except for the search and audio features, network access is not required as the full text is stored locally on your iPhone OS device.
Feedback and bug reports are always appreciated! Please send them to support@appmagination.com.
The app is free and can be downloaded from iTunes now.
Read the full report online here.
This from MahaSangha News:
Sylvia Boorstein is one of the world’s most esteemed teachers of Buddhist wisdom and practice. In an exclusive online retreat with Spiritualityandpractice.com, she offers a summation of her years as a preeminent teacher of lovingkindness.
Lovingkindness is called metta in Pali, the original language of the Buddha. Metta is a derivative of the word for “friend.”
“Although metta has often be translated into English as ‘lovingkindness,’ ” Sylvia says, “I like thinking of it as a friendliness practice, the cultivation of a mind that is so saturated with good will that it responds uniformly to all situations with benevolence.”
This online retreat, the first ever offered by Sylvia, begins Monday, March 15. For more information or to register, visit: http://www.bit.ly/Lovingkindness
Photo by Amy Sancetta for the Associated Press.
According to the Washington Post, yes. The paper writes:
[J.D. Salinger] was a sort of saint to his upscale readers, a foe of the cruel and the vulgar, a practitioner of Zen Buddhism, it was said, a man who in his writing found his masculinity in sensitivity and self-deprecation.
