Why is Buddhism becoming so popular?
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I was reminded by sumone's post here not long ago.
Continue to practise Buddhism because of what it is, not how great its.
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Our ultimate goal should be to practise Buddhism to attain Buddhahood!Originally posted by laurence82:I was reminded by sumone's post here not long ago.
Continue to practise Buddhism because of what it is, not how great its. 
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because people are sick of the conflicts caused in the name of religion. the general perception of buddhism is of peace and co-existence, and it can very well integrate into other school of thoughts, or even the role of an atheist.
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Yes you are also right about the Peace part. In fact even more than 2000 years ago, the King of India was converted to Buddhism because of being sick of wars. You heard of King Ashoka?Originally posted by Ito_^:because people are sick of the conflicts caused in the name of religion. the general perception of buddhism is of peace and co-existence, and it can very well integrate into other school of thoughts, or even the role of an atheist.
Buddhism has a quality that most other religions somehow don't have. We don't mind the existence of other religions and thoughts.. we are encompassing. But generally religions tend to reject the other religions existence. -
Dear all,
Regarding the website of Asian Buddist Union, my idea is to establish a union acting as a co-ordinator between different countries and monasteries. This union should be non-profitable, and its main objective is to provide a mean to the public to reach out to any monastery, or any monastery to seek help from other parts of Asia. If help is needed in any parts of Asia to promote Buddhism, other monasteries can combine their strengths (in terms of finance and talent) to provide the help. It may also be able to act as a coordinator to reach out to all the monasteries, so as to put in a combine effort to raise funds for natural disasters, to build schools and hospitals in poorer and less developed countries (irregardless whether it is a Buddhist community) so as to reach out to the needy. It may also act as a centre of exchange for information, books, ideas etc. In short, it aims to unite Buddhists in Asia, to provide humanitarian help to Buddhist and non-Buddhist alike.
Below is my rough idea of how the website may work, please feel free to comment on it, so that we can improve on the idea and make it more feasible.
In the 1st part of this message I will try to describe the feature I hope to see in this website. At the 2nd part I will discuss the possibility of carry it out in Singapore first because it is not an easy task.
(1) On the home page there are:
(1a) the vision of the union and its plans on how to promote Buddhism in Asia so that it may reach out to promote social harmony, religious tolerance and social advancement in every country.
(1b) brief introduction of Buddhism and its different schools of teaching,
(1c) important messages of whether any disasters is happening in any country or any situation in need of humanitarian needs. The message is to draw attention or awareness to those disastrous areas, anyone who click the link will go to a webpage describing the disaster and how the visitor may offer help
(1d) a link to donate funds online (for providing humanitarian help)
(1e) a link to important essays or reports
(1f) information of the representative office of the Union, the number to contact, mails etc (I am thinking of suggesting this idea to Fo Guang Shan, so that they may approach the other organisations and elect a main representative office in Singapore and get the ball rolling when the plan is more practical)
(1f) buttons representing the countries that have joined the union, along with brief descriptions of the characteristics of the school of Buddhism practised in that particular country
(2) If a visitor click the button representing a certain country, he will be brought to a web page of that particular country. Let us take China for an example. The visitor will be brought to the homepage of the Buddhist union in China, on its homepage there are
(2a) information of the latest development of Buddhism in China, including the number of Buddhists, whether it is Mahayana or Theravada, the number of monasteries, schools, future visions etc
(2b) important events
(2c) main attraction in China. We may add an introductory list of the famous monasteries and schools (along with a brief description of it characteristics, eg where we can pay respect to Master HuiNeng etc) so as to give a few tips or guides for any visitor who might want to visit the monastery
(2d) important messages of any disasters. Anyone who click the link will go to a webpage describing the disaster, this could be linked to the homepage
(2e) a link to donate funds online (too complex, need guidance on how to do it, maybe still link to the one in the home page)
(2f) information of the local representative office of the Union, maybe this can be done by electing a local monastery to be the representative office, may differ depends on situation in individual country
(2g) a link to a page consisting individual websites not related to any monasteries or schools, and describing the charateristics
(2h) a link to a page consisting forums of individual websites
(2i) buttons representing the different provinces in China
(3) If a visitor click the button representing a certain province, he will be brought to a page web page of that province. For example FuJian, there will be a homepage representing that province with similar features of what mentioned in 2, with a slight difference in the last item
(3i) instead of buttons representing different districts of Fujian, it might be replaced by a button which link to a web page with detailed information of all the monasteries registered with the union. The information might include the exact address, the person in-charge, how to contact, how a visitor may visit the monastery, a link to the website of the monastery etc
As there are tens of thousands of monasteries and Buddhist associations in Asia perhaps even more), this task is not going to be an easy one. However I don't think it is impossible. We live in the information age when advancements in technology has made communication much easier.
For a start, I suggest inviting the person in charge of all the monasteries in Singapore, and set up the union. This is not easy.
An alternative is to get a group of volunteers to set up the union and design the webpage, and then we invite the individual monasteries and associations to register with the union. If that particular organisation does not have a webpage, we just conduct an interview and include the details of that organisation on a shared webpage with other organisations. If that organisation does have a website, it will still appear on that shared webpage, but a link will be added to it. It may be easier this way, and the Singapore Buddhists Union may be set up within a much shorter time. We can also write emails to all the individual Buddhist websites in Singapore, so that the websites are linked. To arouse awareness of this website, we can print namecard size calenders or car stickers, distribute to the organisations registered with the union and encourage them to either print more of it, or to include the website address of the Union in their brochures and flyers.
As to how we may extend this union to other countries, I suggest 2 approaches: reaching out to other potential union members and creating awareness so that they approach us to be registered. We can write emails to websites of other countries that we can find on the internet and invite them to register with the union. We may also collect information of monasteries in other countries and invite them to register with the union. We write emails to the local government departments in charge of religion and try to get their assistance by asking for the list of monasteries and schools. This may make the work more feasible and minimise the cost.
Most probably it is not possible for the union in Singapore to reach out to all the monasteries in Asia, however if most monasteris are aware of such a Asian Buddhist Union, smaller monasteries may approach us to be registered and a stronger union between the different monasteries can be formed.
I hope this will help to unite all Buddhists, and bring a new age to Buddhism.
Please comment on my idea so that we can work on it, and make it come true.
Amitabha,
Jon -
Hello, it sounds like this is a very good idea and rather well planned and hopefully it will work. Pls update us on any progressOriginally posted by catch a falling:Dear all,
Regarding the website of Asian Buddist Union, my idea is to establish a union acting as a co-ordinator between different countries and monasteries. This union should be non-profitable, and its main objective is to provide a mean to the public to reach out to any monastery, or any monastery to seek help from other parts of Asia. If help is needed in any parts of Asia to promote Buddhism, other monasteries can combine their strengths (in terms of finance and talent) to provide the help. It may also be able to act as a coordinator to reach out to all the monasteries, so as to put in a combine effort to raise funds for natural disasters, to build schools and hospitals in poorer and less developed countries (irregardless whether it is a Buddhist community) so as to reach out to the needy. It may also act as a centre of exchange for information, books, ideas etc. In short, it aims to unite Buddhists in Asia, to provide humanitarian help to Buddhist and non-Buddhist alike.
Below is my rough idea of how the website may work, please feel free to comment on it, so that we can improve on the idea and make it more feasible.
In the 1st part of this message I will try to describe the feature I hope to see in this website. At the 2nd part I will discuss the possibility of carry it out in Singapore first because it is not an easy task.
(1) On the home page there are:
(1a) the vision of the union and its plans on how to promote Buddhism in Asia so that it may reach out to promote social harmony, religious tolerance and social advancement in every country.
(1b) brief introduction of Buddhism and its different schools of teaching,
(1c) important messages of whether any disasters is happening in any country or any situation in need of humanitarian needs. The message is to draw attention or awareness to those disastrous areas, anyone who click the link will go to a webpage describing the disaster and how the visitor may offer help
(1d) a link to donate funds online (for providing humanitarian help)
(1e) a link to important essays or reports
(1f) information of the representative office of the Union, the number to contact, mails etc (I am thinking of suggesting this idea to Fo Guang Shan, so that they may approach the other organisations and elect a main representative office in Singapore and get the ball rolling when the plan is more practical)
(1f) buttons representing the countries that have joined the union, along with brief descriptions of the characteristics of the school of Buddhism practised in that particular country
(2) If a visitor click the button representing a certain country, he will be brought to a web page of that particular country. Let us take China for an example. The visitor will be brought to the homepage of the Buddhist union in China, on its homepage there are
(2a) information of the latest development of Buddhism in China, including the number of Buddhists, whether it is Mahayana or Theravada, the number of monasteries, schools, future visions etc
(2b) important events
(2c) main attraction in China. We may add an introductory list of the famous monasteries and schools (along with a brief description of it characteristics, eg where we can pay respect to Master HuiNeng etc) so as to give a few tips or guides for any visitor who might want to visit the monastery
(2d) important messages of any disasters. Anyone who click the link will go to a webpage describing the disaster, this could be linked to the homepage
(2e) a link to donate funds online (too complex, need guidance on how to do it, maybe still link to the one in the home page)
(2f) information of the local representative office of the Union, maybe this can be done by electing a local monastery to be the representative office, may differ depends on situation in individual country
(2g) a link to a page consisting individual websites not related to any monasteries or schools, and describing the charateristics
(2h) a link to a page consisting forums of individual websites
(2i) buttons representing the different provinces in China
(3) If a visitor click the button representing a certain province, he will be brought to a page web page of that province. For example FuJian, there will be a homepage representing that province with similar features of what mentioned in 2, with a slight difference in the last item
(3i) instead of buttons representing different districts of Fujian, it might be replaced by a button which link to a web page with detailed information of all the monasteries registered with the union. The information might include the exact address, the person in-charge, how to contact, how a visitor may visit the monastery, a link to the website of the monastery etc
As there are tens of thousands of monasteries and Buddhist associations in Asia perhaps even more), this task is not going to be an easy one. However I don't think it is impossible. We live in the information age when advancements in technology has made communication much easier.
For a start, I suggest inviting the person in charge of all the monasteries in Singapore, and set up the union. This is not easy.
An alternative is to get a group of volunteers to set up the union and design the webpage, and then we invite the individual monasteries and associations to register with the union. If that particular organisation does not have a webpage, we just conduct an interview and include the details of that organisation on a shared webpage with other organisations. If that organisation does have a website, it will still appear on that shared webpage, but a link will be added to it. It may be easier this way, and the Singapore Buddhists Union may be set up within a much shorter time. We can also write emails to all the individual Buddhist websites in Singapore, so that the websites are linked. To arouse awareness of this website, we can print namecard size calenders or car stickers, distribute to the organisations registered with the union and encourage them to either print more of it, or to include the website address of the Union in their brochures and flyers.
As to how we may extend this union to other countries, I suggest 2 approaches: reaching out to other potential union members and creating awareness so that they approach us to be registered. We can write emails to websites of other countries that we can find on the internet and invite them to register with the union. We may also collect information of monasteries in other countries and invite them to register with the union. We write emails to the local government departments in charge of religion and try to get their assistance by asking for the list of monasteries and schools. This may make the work more feasible and minimise the cost.
Most probably it is not possible for the union in Singapore to reach out to all the monasteries in Asia, however if most monasteris are aware of such a Asian Buddhist Union, smaller monasteries may approach us to be registered and a stronger union between the different monasteries can be formed.
I hope this will help to unite all Buddhists, and bring a new age to Buddhism.
Please comment on my idea so that we can work on it, and make it come true.
Amitabha,
Jon
As for donating online, it is quite easy these adays with e.g Paypal. -
It brings peace and harmony into your life. Relieves stress through peaceful meditations.