JIEGU, China — The Buddhist monks stood atop the jagged remains of a vocational school, struggling to move concrete slabs with pickax shovels and bare hands. Suddenly a cry went out: An arm, clearly lifeless, was poking through the debris.
Emergency Earthquake Appeal
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The planet Earth has sentient consciousness.
I think some of these earth changes are inevitable. At the expense of sounding ridiculous, i am also aware of the agenda of a group of alien beings regarding their plan related to the coming changes.
The future may be more wierd than what one could imagine now... Also, during a dream many years ago, I was also reminded that we must 'upgrade' our body at this juncture in the Earth's history. There also appear to be another important juncture roughly 1800 years into the future. The second one, i am not too sure about the timeline.
Anyway, all these messages that were recieved were all quite symbolic.. can't be too sure about their accuracy.
Oop... divert too far from the topic liao... sorry..
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Originally posted by longchen:
The planet Earth has sentient consciousness.
I think some of these earth changes are inevitable. At the expense of sounding ridiculous, i am also aware of the agenda of a group of alien beings regarding their plan related to the coming changes.
The future may be more wierd than what one could imagine now... Also, during a dream many years ago, I was also reminded that we must 'upgrade' our body at this juncture in the Earth's history. There also appear to be another important juncture roughly 1800 years into the future. The second one, i am not too sure about the timeline.
Anyway, all these messages that were recieved were all quite symbolic.. can't be too sure about their accuracy.
Oop... divert too far from the topic liao... sorry..
Hi Longchen,
It's interesting that you chose to share this. I always thought such stuff have been dismissed as "New Age" stuff in this forum? :)
Just to share with forumers:
What Longchen said above is true, but I need to share that the timeline for the 'lightbody upgrade' is much much much nearer than the 1800 years into the future... at least for those who are ready. :)
The future that we'll be seeing in this lifetime is going to be very strange, very different and very uncomfortable for many people used to the current way of life, unless we give ourselves a chance to understand more... But most importantly, don't lose your heart for others (people, animals, environment, etc) and don't just focus on self needs in times of crisis, and all will be well. In any case, the world will not end in our lifetime. :)
For the time being, I just need to highlight that all of us need to control air pollution in our world today, to avoid bigger problems ahead... Things that have no need to be burnt should not be burnt. Following burning rituals or procedures, passed down through history, for reasons believed by people in the past, but actually serve no real purpose, should be refrained, as far as possible.
Rainbow Jigsaw of Life
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the future is a mirage. you should be concerned about the present, here and now. how do u know if u r going to live tommorrow?
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Originally posted by Rooney9:
the future is a mirage. you should be concerned about the present, here and now. how do u know if u r going to live tommorrow?
You have a point, ie. people should start taking actions today, and do their part for the environment now, to avoid even bigger problems later. As for the future, it's everyone's choice how they plan to approach it, but fear is not encouraged, as it doesn't help anything. As I've said earlier, and I've to highlight this: as long as we open our hearts for others (people, animals, environment, etc), all will be well, one way or another.As for whether we'll live tomorrow, those who are meant to know will know. Once a person has reached a certain level of spirituality, he/she will know when is his/her time to leave this physical world, so that he/she can do it with preparedness, not fear. :)
Rainbow Jigsaw of Life
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End of the world is coming?? Earthquakes and Volcanoes eruption.. this is getting scarier..
How I wish if end of the world comes, it just comes like instantly... dont play with human lives by having natural disasters and things like this...
If end of the world is coming... just let the world explode... no human sufferings too..
-
Originally posted by MaNyZeR:
End of the world is coming?? Earthquakes and Volcanoes eruption.. this is getting scarier..
How I wish if end of the world comes, it just comes like instantly... dont play with human lives by having natural disasters and things like this...
If end of the world is coming... just let the world explode... no human sufferings too..
http://www.jenchen.org.sg/vol8no2a.htm
Volume 8 Issue No. 2
When will it be the "End of the World"?by Venerable Shen-KaiThe question is often asked, "Will the world end someday; and if so, when?" Perhaps, we can get a better perspective by looking at what scientists have discovered. Out there in the vast universe, changes take place continuously, many of which science has only recently come to learn about. For example, in 1967, scientists detected unusual signals of violent bursts of gamma-ray radiation caused by titanic explosions at the far edges of the universe. This was the beginning of our knowledge on the birth of the very first stars. Einstein's Theory of Relativity led to the discovery of black holes or extremely high energy regions in space which are created when stars die. The current exploration of the planet Mars has found ample evidence that water - the source of life - was once flowing on the planet (New York Times, June 8, 2004). Yet, today Mars is a dead planet.
According to a Nobel laureate, religious beliefs were stand-ins for the mysteries that science is still unable to explain. But, by the time the world ends, who will be here to unravel the mysteries? The wisdom of Buddhism is different; it addresses the end from the beginning. When will it be the "End of the World"? Venerable Shen-Kai explains…
The expression "End of the World" originated from Christianity or religious groups which agree with the notion that an almighty god created the world. But when asked when the world will end, no one can give a clear answer! They would only say that the morals of people have deteriorated and disasters are occurring everywhere, so the world will be destroyed soon and we will then see the end of the world. It is commendable that efforts have been made to use the potential suffering of the "Three Normal Calamities" to guide people and persuade them to be upright.
Another unorthodox version emphasizes the coming of the "Three Periods of the End Kalpa" and claims that the "End" is already here. This group further persuades that if one is quick enough to embrace their teachings, one can be saved; drawing an analogy of "having your name struck off from the Roll of Hell and instead submit an early registration for a place in Heaven." Such an argument is superficially attractive, but is in fact also baseless and false. In addition to using fear as a means to urge people to believe in them, the doctrine also contradicts the factual concept of the evolution of the world, viz. "Formation, Existence, Destruction and Void". Therefore, we should not be erroneous in our belief.
Instead of equating the planet Earth with the "world", in Buddhism, the term "world" goes beyond the Earth.
When will we witness the "End of the World"? Let us now discuss this topic, which is worthy of examination and deliberation.
What do we understand by the term "World"? (In the Chinese language, it comprises 2 characters -(
).
"
" is the
concept of time. With neither beginning nor ending, time is an
eternal
cycle through the Three Periods of past, present and future. "
"
is a spatial term, with directional segregations of north,
south, east
and west, upward and downward. The word "World" ()
is also known as "
"
where "
"
means separation. This is similar to the separation between one
galaxy
and another. In the same manner, the world in which human beings
live
in is called the "
"
or "
"
(the human world).The Earth is not the only world. It is only one of the innumerable planets in the vast universe. It is analogous to a grain of sand in the riverbed of the Ganges River and is called the Earth. The "Jambudvipa" mentioned in the Buddhist scriptures refer to the Earth in which we live. Our earth is one of the many planets of the "normal chilocosm". To understand the extent of the vastness of the whole world as described by the Buddha, it is necessary to explain the term "Three Thousand Great Chilocosm".
Using "Xumi" or Sumeru (our outer space) as the absolute point of reference, within this outer space, there is a sun. Above the sun, there are higher celestial levels such as the Four Heavens of the Four Deva Kings (Caturmaharajakayika), higher up is the Heaven of the 33 Devas (Trayastrimsa). In the four directions of the Xumi (our outer space), there are four big planets, namely:-
- Jambudvipa (
),
The Earth in which we live, situated south, and not south
- Purvavideha (
),
which is situated east, and not east
- Aparagodaniya (
),
which is situated west, and not west
- Uttarakuru (
),
which is situated north, and not north The conditions on these four big planets are complete and hence favourable for human existence. There are many other planets within this world which are incomplete or lacking the essential elements necessary to sustain life. Existing beneath these four big planets, are many hells, the lowest of which is the Hell of Ceaseless Suffering. These are collectively termed a "Normal World".
The various numbers of worlds are classified as follows:-
1,000 Normal Worlds = 1 Normal Chilocosm
1,000 Normal Chilocosm = 1 Medium Chilocosm
1,000 Medium Chilocosm = 1 Great ChilocosmA Great Chilocosm comprises Normal Chilocosm, Medium Chilocosm and Great Chilocosm, and is termed a "Three Thousand Great Chilocosm".
A Great Chilocosm comprises 1,000,000,000 "normal worlds". When the other space systems have also been taken into account, then the sum of planetary worlds of the Three Thousand Great Chilocosm becomes innumerable. All of the above constitute a Buddha's sphere for teaching and guidance. The Buddhist scriptures state that within the Ten Directions (The ten directions of space, i.e. the eight points of the compass and the nadir and zenith), there are numerous Buddhas who are "presently speaking the Dharma". In one Buddha's sphere for teaching and guidance there are 1,000,000,000 suns. When there are innumerable worlds, there are countless suns, and consequently, even more moons and planets. In the entire universe, the magnitude of planets is even more incalculable; hence, the Buddha's analogy of the sands of the Ganges River. The sand deposits in India's Ganges River is greater than all other rivers in the world; hence, Buddha always used this example whenever he needed to illustrate a large number. In our current space age, astronomers use the most powerful telescopes to observe space. But the distance reachable by these means is limited to a few larger planets. As for the stellar systems lying beyond the scope of view, they use the terms "galaxies" and "Milky Way". In the future when more of the stellar systems are discovered, they will have to use terms such as "galactic ocean" to describe them more appropriately.
Buddha's sphere of teaching and guidance covers one Three Thousand Great Chilocosm; hence, the Buddhist scripture: "When a Buddha is born, the whole world system of Three Thousand Great Chilocosm will tremble". A question is often asked, "Why should it be that after the nirvana of Sakyamuni Buddha, 5,670,000,000 earth years must pass before the appearance of the next Buddha (Maitreya Buddha)? Will there be no Buddha during this time? This is not the case:
(i) In Tusita Heaven, the life-span is 4,000 celestial years, which is equivalent to 5,670,000,000 earth years. During this span of time, Sakyamuni Buddha is not only our teacher on Earth, but also the teacher of the Three Thousand Great Chilocosm.
(ii) One should not consider from a worldly point of view that Sakyamuni Buddha has died. In fact, Buddha has been liberated from birth and death, being non-arising and non-ceasing. When the causality for his manifestation on earth for reaching out to sentient beings has come to completion, he needs to move on to inhabited planets elsewhere in the Three Thousand Great Chilocosm to reach out to other sentient beings there. He needs to await the birth of Maitreya Bodhisattva, so Maitreya may succeed him as Buddha.
From the above, we know how many worlds it takes to make up a Three Thousand Great Chilocosm. In the Three Thousand Great Chilocosm, the 4 evolving stages of "Formation, Existence, Destruction and Void" will run concurrently, as each world undergoes the same number of kalpa stages. (Kalpa : 1 normal kalpa = 16.8 million years, 20 normal kalpas = 1 medium kalpa = 336 million years, 80 normal kalpas = 4 medium kalpas = 1 great kalpa = 1.344 billion years) Before the world enters the Destruction Kalpa, it is in the Existence Kalpa, which comprises twenty normal kalpas. Approaching the end of the life-span shortening period in the cycle of each normal kalpa, i.e. when the average life-expectancy of human beings is reduced to 10 years, the extremely evil nature of people's minds will bring about "Three Normal Calamities". These normal calamities are:
(i) Calamity of war: The people of this time are lawless, irresponsible, poisonously hateful and instinctively murderous. At an instant, the people can pick up a leaf and use it as a knife. They can utilise any item at will as a deadly weapon for killing. Between human beings, there are not only strife and fighting, but also cruel injuring and killing. Human life is worth less than that of ants and insects. At the end of the life-span shortening period of the kalpa's cycle, such calamities take place frequently. Occurrences are intermittent, each lasting a period of 7 days.
(ii) Calamity of plague: As a result of the evil nature of people's minds, pestilence, plagues and epidemic diseases are commonplace. People suffer from a myriad of incurable illnesses. Because people's minds are poisoned with evil, their internal organs also become intoxicated. Moreover, their exhalations are so venomous that people die immediately upon contact. These disasters occur frequently at the end of the life-span shortening period of the kalpa's cycle, approximately lasting 7 months and 7 days.
(iii) Calamity of famine: When people's minds are exceedingly vicious and evil, unfavourable seasonal changes result. Lengthy droughts occur, destroying the harvests. People suffer from hunger. Even feeding on roots and bark will not sustain life. There is no livestock remaining. People resort to cannibalism. The duration of such calamity is longer, persisting for 7 years, 7 months and 7 days. During this period, there is almost 100% human mortality by starvation.
Nowadays the average life-span of humankind does not exceed 60 to 70 years. The public morals of the present society are degenerating. The minds of people are no longer as pure as before. People tend toward wickedness, and ridiculing the virtuous. The virtuous are harmed, while the villainous are revered. If, the average life-span of humans shortens by one year in each century, by the time the life span drops to 10 years, the above-mentioned Three Normal Calamities will take place. In recent years, natural disasters have become commonplace on earth. These are the effects from the human mind turning toward evil. On reaching the end of the life-span shortening period of the kalpa's cycle, one can well imagine the retributive sufferings that humanity has to face. Other religions may consider this period to be the "End of the World". But in fact, it is not so. On the contrary, it can only be said to be the final phase of a normal kalpa. At the end of this normal kalpa, people will have encountered the extreme of all suffering. Meanwhile, the minority of people who have been cultivating and performing virtuous deeds for aeons of lifetimes are repulsed by the immoral state of society. They withdraw and live in solitude in the mountains. They only just manage to escape the calamities and survive. In time, when people have suffered enough and are seeking deliverance, these survivors will emerge and return to society. They will advise and encourage whomever they encounter, so that these people may learn to lead wholesome lives and perform virtuous deeds. As a result, people are inspired to develop their virtuous minds, conduct and karma, which in turn allows their societies to once again thrive and prosper. The life-span of human beings will then begin to increase, lengthening a year per century, until the average person's life-span reaches 84,000 years. At this point, the cycle repeats such that the human life expectancy decreases again. This marks the beginning of the shortening life-span phase of the 10th normal kalpa of the Existence Kalpa. At this time, the next Buddha, Maitreya Buddha will come down to be born into this world.
After the birth of Maitreya Buddha, 995 Buddhas will be born into this world in the span of time between the 11th and 20th normal kalpas of the Existence Kalpa, to guide and enlighten sentient beings.
After the Existence Kalpa, the Destruction Kalpa begins. Within this Destruction Kalpa, there are also 20 normal kalpas. During the 19th normal kalpa, sentient beings in every world, including the earth world, of the Three Thousand Great Chilocosm will be the first to be destroyed. Then, through aeons of kalpas, as a result of the efforts of many Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the Ten Directions in the Three Periods (past, present and future) to enlighten sentient beings, all sentient beings learn to change their wicked ways and lead virtuous lives instead. When many sentient beings transmigrate from the six realms of existence into the human realm and successfully received the guidance, and when hell has emptied so that there isn't a single sentient being left there, then the 20th normal kalpa of the Destruction Kalpa starts. Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva (
)
vowed: "As long as hell is not empty, I shall not become
Buddha.
Only when all sentient beings are guided and saved, will I
attain
supreme enlightenment." One can thus see that the great
vow of Ksitigarbha
Bodhisattva can be accomplished. All sentient beings can
be guided
and saved, and he will then attain Buddhahood.
Before the 19th normal kalpa, all the sentient beings that are above the 1st Jhana [1] , and in all the worlds from the 1st Jhana down to the Hell of Ceaseless Suffering, will transmigrate, each according to his own good karmic seeds of the past. Some will transmigrate above the 2nd Jhana; some will surpass Three Fields of Existence (World of Desires, World of Forms, and World of Formless); and others will arrive at Pure Lands of Buddhas elsewhere. At this time, the world of sentient beings will be totally ruined. Only then, at the end of the final phase of the last normal kalpa, will the "Three Great Calamities" occur, destroying all the material worlds. These three calamities of fire, water and wind will not occur simultaneously, but each will take its turn. At that time, balance in space will be lost, planets of all the worlds will leave their orbits, and looking from the earth, one will see seven suns appear in the sky at the same time. The suns' fiery heat will burn up all the worlds. The destruction will reach the farthest depths of the Hell of Ceaseless Suffering, including all the worlds of the Three Thousand Great Chilocosm World of Desires, and even the 1st Jhana of the World of Forms.
After the passing of the "Great Fire Calamity" comes the "Great Water Calamity". The worlds from the 2nd Jhana Plane in the World of Form down through the Hell of Ceaseless Suffering will be engulfed by floodwaters.
Next, the Great Wind Calamity follows. All the worlds below the 3rd Jhana down to the Hell of Ceaseless Suffering will be blown away like dust. All the materials will be dispersed into oblivion.
When the above-described Three Great Calamities destroy the world, each calamity will not be over in the passing of a single event. Each event will recur one after another. First, there will be seven Great Fire Calamities followed by one Great Water Calamity. This sequence of seven Fire and one Water Calamities will recur seven times, after which the Great Wind Calamity will finally occur. So altogether, there will be 56 Great Fire Calamities, seven Great Water Calamities, and one Great Wind Calamity, making a total of 64 calamities. When all the worlds go through the course of these Great Calamities and enter the Void Kalpa, then it is truly "End of the World".
Notes: [1] According to Buddhism, the various celestial levels of existence, in ascending order, are divided into Three Fields of Existence, namely:
(i) World of Desires
(ii) World of Forms
(iii) World of Formless(i) World of Desires:
Within the World of Desires, there are:- Heaven of Four Heavenly Kings (Catummaharajika)
- Thirty-three Heavens (Tavatimsa) - (there are 33 devas in this heaven comprising 8 devas in each direction of East, West, North and South together with the centre being that of Sakka. Sakyamuni Buddha was once the deva-king of this heaven.)
- Heaven of Devas Yama
- Tusita Heaven
- Nirmanarati Heaven
- Paranirmitavasavartin Heaven
(ii) World of Forms:
Above the World of Desires is the World of Forms where beings delight in Jhanic bliss achieved by renouncing sense-desires. This field consists of 4 Jhana Heavens - the Heaven of 1st Jhana, the Heaven of 2nd Jhana, the Heaven of 3rd Jhana and the Heaven of 4th Jhana.- In the Heaven of the 1st Jhana, there are:
- The Heaven of Brahma's Retinue
- The Heaven of Brahma's Ministers
- The Heaven of Maha Brahma (Sakyamuni Buddha was once the heavenly king of this heaven)
- In
the Heaven of the 2nd Jhana, there are:
- The Heaven of Minor Lustre
- The Heaven of Infinite Lustre
- The Heaven of Light-sound or Radiant Lustre
- In
the Heaven of the 3rd Jhana, there are:
- The Heaven of Minor Purity
- The Heaven of Infinite Purity
- The Heaven of Extensive Purity
- In
the Heaven of the 4th Jhana, there are:
- The Heaven of blessing-arising
- The Heaven of blessing-attached
- The Heaven of vast-reward
- The Heaven of no thought
- The Heaven of no vexation
- The Heaven of no heat
- The Heaven of virtue-view
- The Heaven of virtue-appear
- The Heaven of form ultimate
(iii) World of Formless:
There are 4 other heavens within this World of Formless. The heavens are totally devoid of matter or bodies. These are:- The Sphere of infinite space
- The Sphere of boundless consciousness
- The Sphere of nothingness and
- The
Spshere of no thought, no no-thought
From the above Worlds, there are altogether 28 levels of heavens
© Copyright 2002.Jen Chen Buddhism Centre
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Longchen, your info about aliens is not unheard of. In Tibetan history, Guru Rinpoche went off in his light body to the realm of rakshasas to subdue them before they could overrun the human realm. He is still there now.
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- removed -
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Originally posted by MaNyZeR:
End of the world is coming?? Earthquakes and Volcanoes eruption.. this is getting scarier..
How I wish if end of the world comes, it just comes like instantly... dont play with human lives by having natural disasters and things like this...
If end of the world is coming... just let the world explode... no human sufferings too..
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just looking at the current rate of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, as well as the cold spell experienced at the northern hemisphere earlier this year, we all need to stop and pay attention to what Mother Earth is telling us.
if ever the greenhouse effect crosses a tipping point and all glaciers melt we're done for. sea level rising will flood singapore which is heavily tunnelled for its size. desalination may cause an cooling effect similar to that of the cold ages (read this somewhere forgotten source).
here's a good series called Earth 2100 which tries to visualize what might happen to earth by 2100. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHNSLxDmMCM
anyway in actuality i dun think what's gonna happen is as simple as the series try and depict. it's probably gonna be something sudden which may span only weeks at most and the extent of rebalancing might bring everything close to null.
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Hi Geis,
very chilling... the documentary... thanks... i'm definitely going to push harder on my own green drive. Switch off lights, use shopping bags, stop wasting everything!!
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Originally posted by wisdomeye:
Longchen, your info about aliens is not unheard of. In Tibetan history, Guru Rinpoche went off in his light body to the realm of rakshasas to subdue them before they could overrun the human realm. He is still there now.
Wow... interesting. Thanks for the info.
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Human beings go against nature, that is why nature is going against us now. This is not a big law, it is nature's law.
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Donate to a Relief Fund for the Earthquake Victims in Yushu
The death toll has climbed to 1,706 due to a devastating earthquake in northwest China's Qinghai Province, with another 332 still missing, since the disaster on 14 April 2010, Wednesday at 7.49am.
The 7.1-magnitude quake, which struck the Yushu County in China has left 12,128 injured, of whom 1,424 are in critical condition. Hundreds of thousands have been also left homeless in the freezing weather.
More than 200 lamas from Gongya Monastery, led by Paljin Rinpoche and Pema Rinpoche, rushed from Nangchen to Yushu County on the day of the disaster, trying their very best to aid the victims and families of the deceased. They have been working tirelessly round the clock, at sub-zero temperature, in order to help as many as they could. Food supplies are extremely short at this moment.Since the Qinghai earthquake, out of great compassion, Paljin Rinpoche has ordered food supplies from Nangchen and Xining to be delivered to the affected areas immediately. He will continue to order these necessities for the survivors to the best of his efforts.
We appeal for your kind donation to aid the victims together with Gongya Monastery. Pls kindly let me know by 30th April if you wish to contribute - 93258710.　"I am holding the survivors of this tragedy in my thoughts as well, and I hope that aid quickly reaches them. By bearing witness to the harshness of cyclic existence and allowing this to broaden our hearts and minds, may we all be able to extend our effort in meaningful ways, for the sake of both the living and the dead. I offer my deeply heartfelt aspiration that all affected by this calamity will see the swift easing of the pain of separation from those they love." — The Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje (Source: http://www.kagyuoffice.org/#earthquake)æƒ…ç³»çŽ‰æ ‘åœ°éœ‡ç�¾æ°‘ 伸出æ�´æ‰‹çˆ±å¿ƒæ��款4月14æ—¥ä¸å›½é�’æµ·çŽ‰æ ‘æ´²çŽ‰æ ‘åŽ¿æ—©ä¸Šå�‘生7.1级地震，截至4月17日上å�ˆ10æ—¶,çŽ‰æ ‘åœ°éœ‡é�‡éš¾äººæ•°ä¸º1706人,失踪332人,å�—伤12128人,å…¶ä¸é‡�伤1424人。é�’æµ·çŽ‰æ ‘æ´²å›Šè°¦åŽ¿å…¬é›…å¯ºçš„å·´é‡‘ä»�波切与白玛ä»�波切ç‰äºŒç™¾å¤šä½�åƒ§ä¼—äºŽåœ°éœ‡å½“æ—¥èµ¶åˆ°çŽ‰æ ‘åŽ¿ï¼Œå°½å…¶æ‰€èƒ½åœ°æ•‘åŠ©åœ°éœ‡ç�¾æ°‘。目å‰�çŽ‰æ ‘åŽ¿é£Ÿå“�ä»�å��分çŸç¼ºï¼Œå…¬é›…寺已从囊谦ã€�西å®�采è´å¤§é‡�食å“�ç‰å°½å¿«è¿�å¾€çŽ‰æ ‘åŽ¿ã€‚å�„ä½�ä½›å�‹æ‚¨è‹¥æ¬²ä»¥æ��款方å¼�为é�’æµ·ç�¾åŒºå�Œèƒžä¼¸å‡ºæ�´æ‰‹ï¼Œå�Œå…¬é›…寺僧众一起为ç�¾æ°‘献一份爱心，您å�¯åœ¨4月30æ—¥å‰�让我知é�“-93258710，嗡嘛呢呗咪å�½“è°¨æ¤çœŸå¿ƒæŒšè¯šçš„祈愿，生还与往生的诸ä½�有情，能尽快远离厄è¿�与痛苦，得到å�‰ç¥¥å¹³å®‰ã€‚”--摘自《大å®�法王噶玛巴致é�’海地震å�—难者慰问函》Paljin Rinpoche 巴金ä»�波切Pema Rinpoche 白玛ä»�波切 -
H.E. GARCHEN RINPOCHE'S FORMAL LETTER TO REQUEST AID TO QINGHAI EARTHQUAKE VICTIMS
H.E. Garchen Rinpoche has issued a formal letter to all his centres around the world to request friends and students to help with rescue effort and recovery for that region, which is his home land. Please find the letter attached and please help to disseminate this message to all friends and students.In Rinpoche's Formal Letter, Gar Monastery in Yushu will provide financial aid to directly help in rebuilding of the homes of the people in Yushu who lost their homes. H.E. Garchen Rinpoche has appointed Dri Thubten Dargye Ling to assist in this project in Singapore.
Avenues of Donation:
1) In Cash
A Donation Box for this cause will be available at the centre.
2) Fund Transfer
Please sms to 9785 8596 if you will like to contribute through fund transfer. Pls do not directly fund transfer to centre's bank account.
Do act fast. Any amount will make a difference to their lives! -
I think better direct your donations to people doing the work directly(From NY Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/18/world/asia/18quake.html?hp)After Quake, Tibetans Distrust China’s Help
Alfred Jin/ReutersTibetan monks ferried bodies to a dusty rise near Jiegu before setting cremation pyres ablaze.
Multimedia
Du Bin for The New York Times
As the pyres burned for much of the day, hundreds of mourners gathered on a hillside. The police and public officials were absent. More Photos »
But before the monks could finish their task, a group of Chinese soldiers who had been relaxing on the school grounds sprang to action. They put on their army caps, waved the monks away, and with a video camera for their unit rolling, quickly extricated the body of a young girl.
The monks stifled their rage and stood below, mumbling a Tibetan prayer for the dead.
“You won’t see the cameras while we are working,” said one of the monks, Ga Tsai, who with 200 others, had driven from their lamasery in Sichuan Province as soon as they heard about the quake.
“We want to save lives. They see this tragedy as an opportunity to make propaganda.”
Since a deadly earthquake nearly flattened this predominantly Tibetan city early Wednesday, killing at least 1,400 people, China’s leadership has treated the quake as a dual emergency — a humanitarian crisis almost three miles above sea level in remote Qinghai Province, and a fresh test of the Communist Party’s ability to keep a lid on dissent among restive Tibetans.
President Hu Jintao cut short a state visit to Brazil to fly home and supervise relief efforts, while Prime Minister Wen Jiabao postponed his own planned visit to Indonesia and came to the quake site promising that China’s Han majority would do whatever it could to aid the Tibetans.
The official state media prominently featured stories of grateful Tibetans receiving food and tents, and search and rescue specialists toiling to reach survivors even as they cope with altitude sickness.
The relief effort has indeed been impressive. With thousands of soldiers and truckloads of food clogging Jiegu’s streets on Saturday, earth-moving equipment started clearing away toppled buildings from the downtown. More than 600 of the seriously injured have been taken to hospitals in the provincial capital 500 miles away. In recent days, blue tents bearing the Civil Affairs Ministry logo have popped up across the city.
But despite outward signs of government largess and ethnic unity, the earthquake has exposed stubborn tensions between Beijing and Tibetans, many of whom have long struggled to maintain their autonomy and cultural identity amid a Han-dominated country. Widespread Tibetan rioting against Han rule severely disrupted Beijing’s planning to host the Summer Olympics in 2008, and China has kept Tibet and predominantly ethnically Tibetan regions of China under tight police and military control since then.
The Dalai Lama, the Tibetan leader who has not set foot in China since 1959, has issued a formal request to visit the disaster zone. It will most surely be denied.
Since the quake hit early Wednesday morning, thousands of monks have come to the city, some making a two-day drive from distant corners of a largely Tibetan region that spreads across three adjoining provinces.
It was the burgundy-robed monks who were among the first to pull people from collapsed buildings. On Saturday at dusk, long after the rescue experts had called it quits, they could be still be seen working the rubble.
“They are everything to us,” said Oh Zhu Tsai Jia, 57, opening the trunk of his car so a group of young monks could pray over the body of his wife.
On Saturday morning, the monks ferried 1,400 bodies from the city’s main monastery to a dusty rise overlooking the city.
There, in two long trenches filled with salvaged wood, they dumped the dead and set cremation pyres ablaze.
As the fires burned for much of the day, hundreds of mourners sat mutely on a hillside next to the monks, who chanted aloud or quietly counted prayer beads of red coral and turquoise.
The police and Han officials were conspicuously absent.
The monastery’s leaders said no one from the local government had included their dead in the official tally although they were careful not to voice any criticism. Many of the younger monks, however, were not as reticent.
At the No. 3 Primary School, the monks said they had pulled 50 students from collapsed classrooms but when an official came by to ask how many had died, the police offered half that number. “I think they’re afraid to let the world know how bad this earthquake is,” said Gen Ga Ja Ba, a 23-year-old monk.
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One of the most persistent complaints, however, was that many of the official rescue efforts have focused on the city’s larger structures and ignored the mud-brick homes that, with few exceptions, collapsed by the hundreds. Others spoke of skirmishes with the police over bodies, although such accounts could not be verified.
Multimedia
The other more incendiary criticism heard wherever monks gathered was that soldiers had prevented them from helping in rescue efforts during the first few days after the earthquake.
Tsairen, a monk, spoke about how he and scores of other monks tussled with soldiers at a collapsed hotel that first night. “We asked why they wouldn’t let us help, and they just ignored us,” said Tsairen, who like some Tibetans, uses only one name.
Later, he and more than 100 others headed to the vocational school, where the voices of trapped girls could still be heard in the rubble of a collapsed dormitory.
They said the soldiers blocked them from the pile and later, the chief of their monastery, Ga Tsai, scuffled with a man they described as the county chief.
“He grabbed me by my robe and dragged me out to the street,” Ga Tsai said.
In the evening after the soldiers had left the scene, they went to work, eventually pulling out more than a dozen bodies.
Even if exaggerated, such stories can only work against the government’s efforts to win over Tibetans.
In recent days, the government has vowed to rebuild Jiegu, which is also known by its Chinese name Yushu, promising to spare no expense. But while many Tibetans expressed gratitude for the relief efforts and the official outpouring of concern, others were less appreciative.
As an excavator and a bulldozer sifted through the remains of the vocational school dormitory on Saturday, Gong Jin Ba Ji, a 16-year-old student, stood watching.
A day earlier, she said, the machinery inadvertently tore apart the body of a classmate. She was still waiting for them to recover the body of her older sister.
“I wish they would work more carefully,” she said numbly. “Maybe they don’t care so much because we are only Tibetans.”
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Originally posted by wisdomeye:I think better direct your donations to people doing the work directly(From NY Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/18/world/asia/18quake.html?hp)After Quake, Tibetans Distrust China’s Help
Alfred Jin/Reuters
Tibetan monks ferried bodies to a dusty rise near Jiegu before setting cremation pyres ablaze.
JIEGU, China — The Buddhist monks stood atop the jagged remains of a vocational school, struggling to move concrete slabs with pickax shovels and bare hands. Suddenly a cry went out: An arm, clearly lifeless, was poking through the debris.
<!--h-->Multimedia
Du Bin for The New York Times
As the pyres burned for much of the day, hundreds of mourners gathered on a hillside. The police and public officials were absent. More Photos »
But before the monks could finish their task, a group of Chinese soldiers who had been relaxing on the school grounds sprang to action. They put on their army caps, waved the monks away, and with a video camera for their unit rolling, quickly extricated the body of a young girl.
The monks stifled their rage and stood below, mumbling a Tibetan prayer for the dead.
“You won’t see the cameras while we are working,” said one of the monks, Ga Tsai, who with 200 others, had driven from their lamasery in Sichuan Province as soon as they heard about the quake.
“We want to save lives. They see this tragedy as an opportunity to make propaganda.”
Since a deadly earthquake nearly flattened this predominantly Tibetan city early Wednesday, killing at least 1,400 people, China’s leadership has treated the quake as a dual emergency — a humanitarian crisis almost three miles above sea level in remote Qinghai Province, and a fresh test of the Communist Party’s ability to keep a lid on dissent among restive Tibetans.
President Hu Jintao cut short a state visit to Brazil to fly home and supervise relief efforts, while Prime Minister Wen Jiabao postponed his own planned visit to Indonesia and came to the quake site promising that China’s Han majority would do whatever it could to aid the Tibetans.
The official state media prominently featured stories of grateful Tibetans receiving food and tents, and search and rescue specialists toiling to reach survivors even as they cope with altitude sickness.
The relief effort has indeed been impressive. With thousands of soldiers and truckloads of food clogging Jiegu’s streets on Saturday, earth-moving equipment started clearing away toppled buildings from the downtown. More than 600 of the seriously injured have been taken to hospitals in the provincial capital 500 miles away. In recent days, blue tents bearing the Civil Affairs Ministry logo have popped up across the city.
But despite outward signs of government largess and ethnic unity, the earthquake has exposed stubborn tensions between Beijing and Tibetans, many of whom have long struggled to maintain their autonomy and cultural identity amid a Han-dominated country. Widespread Tibetan rioting against Han rule severely disrupted Beijing’s planning to host the Summer Olympics in 2008, and China has kept Tibet and predominantly ethnically Tibetan regions of China under tight police and military control since then.
The Dalai Lama, the Tibetan leader who has not set foot in China since 1959, has issued a formal request to visit the disaster zone. It will most surely be denied.
Since the quake hit early Wednesday morning, thousands of monks have come to the city, some making a two-day drive from distant corners of a largely Tibetan region that spreads across three adjoining provinces.
It was the burgundy-robed monks who were among the first to pull people from collapsed buildings. On Saturday at dusk, long after the rescue experts had called it quits, they could be still be seen working the rubble.
“They are everything to us,” said Oh Zhu Tsai Jia, 57, opening the trunk of his car so a group of young monks could pray over the body of his wife.
On Saturday morning, the monks ferried 1,400 bodies from the city’s main monastery to a dusty rise overlooking the city.
There, in two long trenches filled with salvaged wood, they dumped the dead and set cremation pyres ablaze.
As the fires burned for much of the day, hundreds of mourners sat mutely on a hillside next to the monks, who chanted aloud or quietly counted prayer beads of red coral and turquoise.
The police and Han officials were conspicuously absent.
The monastery’s leaders said no one from the local government had included their dead in the official tally although they were careful not to voice any criticism. Many of the younger monks, however, were not as reticent.
At the No. 3 Primary School, the monks said they had pulled 50 students from collapsed classrooms but when an official came by to ask how many had died, the police offered half that number. “I think they’re afraid to let the world know how bad this earthquake is,” said Gen Ga Ja Ba, a 23-year-old monk.
(Page 2 of 2)
One of the most persistent complaints, however, was that many of the official rescue efforts have focused on the city’s larger structures and ignored the mud-brick homes that, with few exceptions, collapsed by the hundreds. Others spoke of skirmishes with the police over bodies, although such accounts could not be verified.
<!--h-->Multimedia
The other more incendiary criticism heard wherever monks gathered was that soldiers had prevented them from helping in rescue efforts during the first few days after the earthquake.
Tsairen, a monk, spoke about how he and scores of other monks tussled with soldiers at a collapsed hotel that first night. “We asked why they wouldn’t let us help, and they just ignored us,” said Tsairen, who like some Tibetans, uses only one name.
Later, he and more than 100 others headed to the vocational school, where the voices of trapped girls could still be heard in the rubble of a collapsed dormitory.
They said the soldiers blocked them from the pile and later, the chief of their monastery, Ga Tsai, scuffled with a man they described as the county chief.
“He grabbed me by my robe and dragged me out to the street,” Ga Tsai said.
In the evening after the soldiers had left the scene, they went to work, eventually pulling out more than a dozen bodies.
Even if exaggerated, such stories can only work against the government’s efforts to win over Tibetans.
In recent days, the government has vowed to rebuild Jiegu, which is also known by its Chinese name Yushu, promising to spare no expense. But while many Tibetans expressed gratitude for the relief efforts and the official outpouring of concern, others were less appreciative.
As an excavator and a bulldozer sifted through the remains of the vocational school dormitory on Saturday, Gong Jin Ba Ji, a 16-year-old student, stood watching.
A day earlier, she said, the machinery inadvertently tore apart the body of a classmate. She was still waiting for them to recover the body of her older sister.
“I wish they would work more carefully,” she said numbly. “Maybe they don’t care so much because we are only Tibetans.”
oh dear :(
hopefully rescue efforts can smoothen out and more lives can be saved
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(NY Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/17/world/asia/17quake.html?pagewanted=1&fta=y)
Chinese Premier Visits Tibetan Quake Survivors
Alexander F. Yuan/Associated PressMonks loaded the bodies of earthquake victims onto a truck for a Tibetan burial near the Jiegu Monastery in Jiegu, China, on Friday.
By ANDREW JACOBS
Published: April 16, 2010
JIEGU, China — Prime Minister Wen Jiabao spent Friday in the Tibetan high country, comforting survivors of this week’s devastating earthquake in a prominent display of concern by the country’s Han leadership for one of China’s most troubled ethnic minorities.
“No matter whether you are Tibetans or Hans, you are all in one family,” Mr. Wen said during a visit to an orphanage in Yushu Prefecture, a remote area of western China to which he had raced on Thursday after canceling a trip to Indonesia, state news media reported. President Hu Jintao also changed his plans after the quake, cutting short a trip to Brazil.
The government’s efforts will be closely watched. Although the scope of destruction does not compare with the 2008 earthquake in Sichuan Province, which killed about 87,000 people, the disaster in Qinghai Province presents a delicate political challenge.
The government raised the official death toll of this week’s quake to 1,144, from 791 earlier in the day, with many thousands more injured and suffering in the freezing cold at 13,000 feet. Most of those affected are ethnic Tibetans, whose relations with the Chinese government have never been easy.
In 2008, those tensions flared in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, during deadly rioting that pitted local residents against ethnic Han migrants. Since then, sporadic unrest and crackdowns have occurred across Tibetan areas of the country, Qinghai included, although Jiegu has been relatively quiet.
At a news conference on Friday in Beijing, government experts seemed at pains to stress that the distribution of relief supplies had been unaffected by ethnic considerations, and that supplies had been handed out solely on the basis of need.
But there were obvious tensions in the earthquake zone. Many monks said that the army and the police had prevented them from searching for survivors in the first few days after the quake and that the emergency teams that came from other parts of the country worked with a lack of urgency. “We have been digging with our bare hands to save lives,” said Tsewang, a 21-year-old monk who, like some Tibetans, uses only one name. “We are very disappointed in them.”
For now, people here seem most concerned with survival or recovering loved ones lost beneath the ruins that dot the city. After a day of rescue efforts led by shovel-wielding monks, hundreds of rescuers with heavy machinery began arriving Thursday. They clambered over the remnants of schools, hotels and mud-brick homes looking for signs that some of the hundreds of people still missing might be alive.
But with time passing and nightfall bringing freezing temperatures, the chances of survival seemed to be dimming, and bodies, wrapped in colorful shrouds, piled up in the city.
Ger Lai Tan Zeng, a 20-year-old Buddhist monk, was the recorder of the dead, his graceful Tibetan script filling an old datebook. By Friday morning, he estimated that there were 900 bodies spread across the brightly painted pavilion that normally functioned as a seating area for the monks at his monastery. “We’ve been too busy tending the living to count the dead,” he said.
In one piece of good news, two people, including a 13-year-old girl, were pulled from a toppled three-story hotel here on Friday, witnesses said.
Relief efforts picked up the pace, with caravans of bottled water and instant noodles arriving, much of it transported from the provincial capital 12 hours away. With desperation mounting among the survivors, the provisions seemed to arrive just in time.
Still, there were some strained moments. Outside the toppled gate of the municipal government headquarters, several hundred hungry people tried to push their way through a cordon of riot police officers, who tried to assure them that there were tents and food for all. As the crowd’s anger reached a boiling point, the police gave up and allowed them to stream past.
Conditions remain dire. There is no running water or electricity. Thousands of people are living outdoors; few buildings escaped damage, and the wood-and-mud structures that housed many of the city’s nearly 100,000 residents were particularly vulnerable.
Several school buildings in town pancaked during the earthquake, once again raising questions about substandard construction. No one seemed to know how many schoolchildren might have died, but there were suggestions that the numbers could reach into the hundreds.
At the Yushu Ethnic Minority Vocational School, where a section of the girls’ dormitory turned into rubble, teachers said more than 200 students might have been lost. Cheng Guangming, the assistant principal, said he and others pulled out five students, but two later died. “We could only save three,” he said, his voice weary after spending three days watching workers poke at the remains of the three-story building.
(Page 2 of 2)
He said the dorm, built 15 years ago, was structurally deficient, but he was reluctant to assign blame. “At the time, everything was built from mud, so we thought it was modern construction,” he said.
Most of the students came from far-flung corners of the county, a wild region thinly populated by nomads and farmers who scrimp to send their children to school in the city.
The girls had just finished their morning calisthenics and were washing up or eating breakfast when the quake struck at 7:49 a.m. “A few minutes earlier, and they still would have been outside and alive,” said Luo Na, a teacher.
All across the city, there were tales of lives saved and lost. He Jie, 23, said a friend and his wife kept calling him from their hair salon in what had been the ground floor of a hotel. On Thursday, however, a fire erupted inside the rubble, probably a crushed gas canister, he said, and by the time rescuers found the couple, they were dead, their charred bodies in an embrace.
But in another section of the same ruined building, there were signs of life. Just after daybreak on Friday, a man said he heard the voices of friends from deep inside the debris. A crowd gathered to watch while rescue workers with listening devices, sniffer dogs and chain saws picked at the pile. By evening, their work was still not done.
Halfway up the dusky mountain that overlooks the city, the monks of Jyegu monastery were busy praying for the dead, including eight of their own. The bodies arrived in the trunks of cars, or in one case by the dozens on two flatbed trucks. With 500 monks, the monastery is one of the most cherished in the region, and many residents dropped off bodies so prayers could be said for the required three days of mourning.
Under normal circumstances, many of the dead would be given sky burials, the traditional Tibetan ritual in which vultures consume the bodies. But Pu Be, the monastery’s chief lama, said the sheer number of corpses made such a ceremony impossible. Instead, he said, there would be a mass cremation on Saturday.
“This is the unfortunate reality of our situation,” he said.
A few mourners, however, were determined to give their relatives traditional burials. Qi Min pulled up on a motorcycle to claim the body of his older brother. A group of robed monks gently lashed the body, bent at the waist, to the back of the motorcycle. Then, Mr. Qi drove off.
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my group of 51 photog enthauists were caught in the midst of the Padang Earthquake, escaped unharmed and we are grateful and treasure our lives and loved ones even more...
however, one of my good friend (who was a local at Padang) passed away (Malaria) 3 months later.. Bless his soul..and RIP.
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Originally posted by LOTUSfairy:
my group of 51 photog enthauists were caught in the midst of the Padang Earthquake, escaped unharmed and we are grateful and treasure our lives and loved ones even more...
however, one of my good friend (who was a local at Padang) passed away (Malaria) 3 months later.. Bless his soul..and RIP.
my condolences, dear Lotusfairy... may he go to good place!! -
Originally posted by wisdomeye:
my condolences, dear Lotusfairy... may he go to good place!!he was a very kind soul who took very good care of u, especially during the 3 days when we were stranded there ...he kept our sides and make sure we were safe....
he will be blessed..and forever in our heart..
thanks
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a video about monks hit by earthquake...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZfCMgH_n8w&feature=player_embedded
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(http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63F0LO20100416)
Quake sees Tibetan Buddhist monks assert roles
The Chinese government, which is run by the Communist Party, has responded to Wednesday's disaster with a heavily-publicized rescue effort. Beijing is eager to show that its growing wealth and strength give it the means to surmount natural disasters that would paralyze other developing nations.
The thousands of soldiers and rescue workers in orange jump suits carrying out the government rescue and relief effort are joined by hundreds, if not thousands, of Tibetan Buddhist monks in crimson cloaks and jackets. Many
"We're organizing ourselves. We don't need the government to take care of everything," said Cairang Putso, a 28-year-old local monk who was helping to look for survivors in the mud-and-brick homes that crumpled in the earthquake.
"It's easier for us to help Tibetan people."
The monks are part of an unofficial relief effort that has underscored the ethnic and religious politics of this mainly Tibetan area, where many locals resent the central Chinese government and Han Chinese presence.
"We monks were the first ones on the scene to help people after the earthquake, not the officials and soldiers," said Duojia, a 25-year-old monk from the Gyegu monastery in Yushu.
"We've done more than the government, because we know our people so well."
He and hundreds of other monks from the monastery were helping locals identify kin among hundreds of corpses that the monks had helped assemble on a covered platform, while monks seated in front recited Buddhist prayers for the dead.
Other Tibetans have flocked online, posting mournful poems, calls for solidarity, and images of traditional Tibetan butter lamps on Tibetan-language websites in China. One China portal oriented to Tibetans is publishing only in black and white, to mourn the dead.
ENDURING POWER OF LAMAS
Yushu is in a part of Qinghai province, bordering the Tibet Autonomous Region, historically known to Tibetans as Amdo. Many of its inhabitants say they are loyal to the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader who Beijing reviles as a "separatist" for demanding autonomy for his homeland.
In March 2008, Tibetan areas of Qinghai were among the swathe of western China struck by protests and riots, sometimes involving monks, angry at religious controls and economic policies that they believe are skewed against Tibetan people.
Many Tibetans are devoted Buddhists, while traditional regional rivalries have given way to a shared sense of culture among younger Tibetans, especially after 2008.
Some monks have journeyed hundreds of kilometers in buses or crammed on the back of trucks, to help search for bodies, cook food and tend to the dead in Yushu county's ruined main town, Gyegu.
Some came with shovels and wooden stakes, which were of little help in searching the ruins of larger concrete buildings.
The volunteer monks avoided any forthrightly political comment, but many said they wanted to show Tibetans and the Chinese government the enduring power of the Tibetan Buddhism and its "lamas," or clergy.
"This shows that we lamas are not, as the rumors say we are, rioters and troublemakers," Jiumi Jiangcuo, head abbot at the main monastery above town, told Reuters.
"It's our duty to help people and we must set aside all our own concerns," he told an assembly of monks, many of them in tears.
(Editing by Lucy Hornby and Sanjeev Miglani)
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Following is a video on 2010 Yushu, Tibet EarthQuake
