August 24, 2007 at 4:08 pm (Buddhism, Gaia, belief, civilisation, climate change, conservation, earth, earthquake, environment, general, global warming, global warming fears, love, nature, philosophy, religion, science, spirituality, thoughts)
In Buddha teaching, human body are made of mind and matter. The matter are make up of four elements, ie soil, water, fire and air. Our Earth, is also make up of this four elements.
Thus, soil is our Earth’s skin, the water on earth is just like our bloodstream, and air our breath. The fire is our sun, evaporating water and regulating the weather.
Our earth regulates its own temperature, oxygen levels, CO2 level, etc, much like our own human body controls temperature and rebuilds its parts constantly. If our body regulation is inbalance, we will have fever. Similary if the earth temperature was not properly regulated, our earth will have fever. Human body are operate exactly like our earth. When human die, our physical body will return to our mother earth as soil, water, fire and earth. So, we are part of the earth. Human species are the only special with moral intelligence, therefore our mind, human being mind are the mind of Gaia (The Greek earth Godness). So, without love, morality and ethics from the individual person, it is difficult to devise a sustainable environmental.
Accordingly, if we take the notion that “The world is our body”, then Gaia is our mind and conscience. Without our love of our body – planet, How can we maintain our health ?
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August 18, 2007 at 9:51 am (Buddhism, Lord of Miracle, Mahayana, Sri Langka tsunami, Tzu Chi, TzuChi, belief, climate change, earth, earthquake, environment, general, global warming, global warming fears, inspiration, love, love other, nature, philosophy, religion, science, spirituality, thoughts, tsunami, 慈济)
After writing about the Lord of Miracle of Christ that happen in Peru 350 years ago, I recalled those email that I received about the miracles that happen in 2004 Dec 26 Tsunami in Sri Langka. It is true that many Buddha statues was escaped from the destruction by the wave of Tsunami. The point I wish to bring up is not about the Miracle of Buddha. The interesting story begin with this…
When the Tsunami hit Sri Lanka, there was a statue of the Buddha in the town of Galle, which didn’t topple when the waves rushed over it near the bus terminal. A Buddhist monk considered it as a sign. He said, ‘The people are not living according to religious virtues. Nature has given them some punishment because they’re not following the path of the Lord Buddha. The people have to learn their lesson.’
And a Roman Catholic priest cast the blame even wider. ‘This is a punishment from God, because everybody’s leading a wretched life’, he said. ‘All of us are to be blamed for the tsunami, there’s no sense of modesty or religiosity any more. People have gone so far away from God, it’s the message to say “.
A fishman from the fishing village said, ‘The mother has butchered her own children’, ’Either there is no God, or God must be cruel to do this.’
Many of the victims are asking, “Why us? Why me? Why my childrens ? Why my parents ? Other interesting features was the Christians and Hindus in India started co-operating with each other when a year ago they were fighting each other. And when Buddhists and Tamils in Sri Lanka started doing the same.
Is it true that altruism only trumps selfishness when we have to face a common adversity and drastic tragedy like this ?
Is it true that ’Pain and suffering are ‘God’s megaphone to rouse a deaf world.’ a quote from C.S.Lewis. Can’t we human work on the same goal on our climate change issues rather than fighting each others concept and argue about data ? Do we need a God’s Megaphone ?
Ref :
1. http://in.news.yahoo.com/050110/137/2ix3h.html
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August 14, 2007 at 2:33 pm (Buddhism, Mahayana, Tzu Chi, TzuChi, belief, earth, environment, ghost month, global warming, religion, science, spirituality, supertitious, thoughts, 慈济)
In Buddhism, the seventh lunar month is a month of joy, delight and auspicious. This is because the fifteen day of the seventh month is the Buddha’s joyful day and the day of rejoice for monks.
When the Buddha was alive at India 2500 years ago, the seventh month is the rainy season like what is happening in India now too. Buddha ask his disciples not to go out for alms instead stay in the monastery for meditation and Dhamma discussion. Upon completion of the three months retreat, on the fifteen day of the seventh month, the number of monks who attained enlightenment and improved in Dhamma was high, the Buddha was very joyful. Thus this is the month of joy, delight and auspicious.
At the same day, one of the Buddha chief disciple, Mahāmaudgalyāyana. (Chinese. 目連, Mulian, Pāli Mahāmoggallāna) eased his mother’s suffering from the hell through offering of foods to the Sangha. Through the merits created, Mahāmaudgalyāyana’s mother gained a human birth.
Due to Chinese cultural influence, the offering of foods became directed towards ancestors rather than the Sangha but now the ancestor worship has now transform to burning of paper money, paper houses, paper TV, paper DVD, paper handphone, paper camera and etc to their ancestors who they believed still reside in hell.
Those who are educated, please stop this kind of supertitious belief and practise to your next generation. Do explain the origin of the story to your parents about this supertitious belief . Burning paper money openly will only increase damages to our environment and increase global warming and burning your real money. Non of our ancestor will received your money and relief from the hell.
Ref. http://tzuchig42.multiply.com/journal/item/5
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August 11, 2007 at 4:48 pm (Buddhism, civilisation, climate change, conservation, earth, environment, global warming, global warming fears, science, spirituality, thoughts, vegetarian, water scarcity)
Many know that the other most important non-CO2 greenhouse gas is methane, and the number one source of methane worldwide is animal agriculture.
Methane is responsible for nearly as much global warming as all other non-CO2 greenhouse gases put together. Methane is 21 times more powerful a greenhouse gas than CO2. While atmospheric concentrations of CO2 have risen by about 31% since pre-industrial times, methane concentrations have more than doubled.
The number one source of methane worldwide is animal agriculture. Animal agriculture produces more than 100 million tons of methane a year.
The root of farming livestock is the demand of human desire. This addiction from the mouth is poisoning and depleting our potable water, land, and clean air. Forests are being bulldozed for factory farms and feed crops to feed farmed animals. Farmed animals consume 70 percent of the corn, wheat, and other grains that we grow.
The conclusion is simple: one of the best way to reduce global warming in our lifetimes is to reduce or eliminate our consumption of animal products. Simply by going vegetarian (or stop eating beef, pork and chicken). Just a simple determination from the heart, and everyone can do it, why not we all start immediately ?
Ref . 1. saveearth.org
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August 2, 2007 at 3:45 pm (Buddhism, Tzu Chi, TzuChi, civilisation, climate change, conservation, earth, environment, general, global warming, inspiration, nature, philosophy, science, thoughts, water scarcity, 慈济)
Restrain and conserve might not good for the economy, but it makes good economic sense. We always heard about “A dollar saved is a dollar earned”, the same concept apply. “A kilowatt-hour saved is a kilowatt-hour earned.”, “A kilo-liter water saved is a kilo-liter water earned.”
Whenever I was tempted to spend, I will think about the above phrase : Restrain ourself, restrain ourself and this definitely help us to reduce spending, reduce usage, reduce pollution hence reduce CO2.
This is what everyone of us can do to reduce CO2 and also prevent being trap into the debt slavery in this debt based monetory system society.
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July 25, 2007 at 2:21 pm (Buddhism, climate change, earth, environment, general, global warming, ipcc, nature, science, water scarcity)
In western England, the worst flood hit 60 years high hit counties of Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Oxfordshire. The flood has affected power stations and water treatment plants. The authorities said that in Gloucestershire, the western English county worst hit by the deluge, up to 350,000 people could be without running water for the next two weeks.
While in central and southeast Europe, people are struggling with the other extreme. Up to 500 Hungarians are estimated to have died last week as temperatures soared to nearly 42 degrees Celsius (108 Fahrenheit).
Do we still need to prove or argue about global warming or climate change ? Do we have enough time to argue or prove it and stay ignorance about the issues while it is coming.
Well. Global warming is not coming, it arrived !
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April 10, 2007 at 7:58 am (Buddhism, climate change, environment, general, global warming, ipcc)
Some facts that I acquired through the net on the severity of global warming affecting Australia :-
1. One farmer takes his life every four days, according to the national mental health body Beyond Blue.
2. With the drought now in its sixth year, Australia’s big dry is the worst in over a century. Farmers have been hardest hit, forced to make a living sometimes in dustbowl conditions, raising emaciated cattle. With no prospect of significant rainfall before the New Year, the situation has reached crisis point and hope is as scarce as rainfall.
3. Many farmers are being forced to sell up, leaving land which often their families have worked on for generations.
4. It also estimates that more than 300,000 rural Australians experience depression each year, but only a small number seek help.
5. In New South Wales alone, 92 per cent of the state is officially in drought, and farmers have begun offloading stock before the hot, dry summer sets in, forcing them to buy feed and water. Sheep sales in the state are 70 per cent higher than last year, and at one saleyard last week, a record 67,000 sheep were sold in one day.
6. Agricultural economists, meanwhile, have slashed their winter crop forecasts by more than a third, and wheat exports have been suspended to meet domestic demand.
7. With the vegetation tinder-dry after one of the driest winters on record, hundreds of fires were burning across four states, fanned by high temperatures and strong winds. Much of the south-east was on an extreme fire danger alert. In Tasmania, scores of homes were threatened by fires advancing on the suburbs of Hobart, the state capital, this week.
8. Scientists warned the bushfire threat would increase over coming decades, as climate change brought more frequent hot weather, accompanied by less rainfall.
They point to the increased frequency and severity of drought-causing El Niño weather patterns, attributed to global warming, and to Australia’s leading role in poisoning the Earth’s atmosphere with greenhouse gases. Australians are among the world’s biggest energy consumers, and the country is one of the top per capita producers of carbon dioxide emissions. Nonetheless, it is one of only two industrialised nations, along with the United States, that has refused to sign the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, arguing that it would harm the economy.
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March 5, 2007 at 9:32 am (Buddhism, Mahayana, Tzu Chi, TzuChi, philosophy, spirituality, thoughts, 慈济)
Tzu Chi people refer to the candles made by the resident nuns of the Abode of Still Thoughts as “candles without tears.”Master Cheng Yen first thought of this kind of candle when she first began her spiritual cultivation. When she saw traditional candles running and dripping wax on the table, she felt that it was wasteful and messy. So she tried to think of a way to make the wax burn up completely. In 1981, she got a clever idea: she used a small plastic fruit juice container as a mold and incense for the wick, which she fastened with a little washer cut from corrugated sheet metal. When the wax had cooled and set, she removed the plastic mold and wrapped the candle with a piece of clear plastic.
This was the first “candle without tears.” The nuns in the early days at the Abode of Still Thoughts made these candles as gifts for visitors. Master Cheng Yen encourages Tzu Chi people to follow the spirit of the “candle without tears” by facing life courageously. The love in people’s hearts should also be like the candlewick, which must be lit in order to fulfill its function. The candle also a symbolise of a Budhisattva spirit of sacrifying our life for helping others. Without tears means fully utilizing the candle and contribute with joys and happiness.
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February 7, 2007 at 9:26 am (Buddhism, Mahayana, Resource Recycling, Tzu Chi, TzuChi, climate change, environment, general, global warming, inspiration, ipcc, philosophy, spirituality, thoughts, 慈济)
Don’t think that saving a tree will not save the world, we are all interrelated. Just like a looking at the origination of a piece of paper, a paper come from a tree. A tree needed water, sunshine and air to growth. Trees needed sunshine, human cannot growth without sunshine too. Therefore the loggers cannot survive without sunshine. In the eyes of a Bodhisattva, we should not only see a piece of papers as paper. We should see deeper into it, without the loggers, we cannot use this piece of paper. Without the bread or foods for the logger, the logger cannot survive. So, we should feel gratitude on the bread or the food. Without the wheat, the bread cannot be make. So, we should feel gratitude to the wheat. Without the farmers, the wheat will not be able to be make to bread. So, we should feel gratitude to the farmers. The cycle going on until even a spoon or a folk, the person who make the spoon or folk, we should feel gratitude to them as everyone use them. Everyone in this society is interrelated and we should feel gratitude to them. So, in a piece of paper, we should see the whole living being inside. So, saving a piece of papers through resource recycling could save the world !
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February 5, 2007 at 10:45 am (Buddhism, Mahayana, Resource Recycling, Tzu Chi, TzuChi, climate change, environment, general, global warming, ipcc, spirituality, 慈济)
ha
Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the concentrations of many of the greenhouse gases have increased. The concentration of CO2 has increased by about 100 ppm (i.e., from 280 ppm to 380 ppm in 2007). The first 50 ppm increase took place in about 200 years, from the start of the Industrial Revolution to around 1973; the next 50 ppm increase took place in about 33 years, from 1973 to 2006. This figure show an alarming rate of increase of 50 ppm CO2 from 200 years to 33 years.
1) A GHG (Green House Gases) level of 650 ppm would “likely” warm the global climate by around 3.6° C, 750 ppm would lead to 4.3° C, 1000 ppm would lead to 5.5° C.
2) A climate change report predicts that sea levels will increase between 7 and 23 inches by 2100 if the ice sheets continue to melt as temperature rises. Rising seas would erode more beaches and threaten coastal areas.
We know that carbon dioxide raises Earth’s temperature. We know that the temperature has already risen. We know that tomorrow we will emit more carbon dioxide than we did today. The ice is melting, the seas are rising, the temperature is increasing, and the storms are wreaking more and more havoc are coming.
But do we know that it’s time for us to wake up and take action to reduce carbon dioxide around us. Save the trees, you could save the forest. Save the forest, you could save the mountain. Save the mountain, you could save the sea. Save the sea, you could Save the World !
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