Buddhism – Though some of us don’t really value it, these Celebrities do, with Great Interest and Respect

I am really proud to be a Buddhist and I guess even you, reading this are so. Although we are gifted with the opportunity to follow this greatest religion in the entire universe, only a few of us really practice Buddhism and follow it properly. However, we see people belonging to other religions that are in the list after Buddhism (no offence, but I being a Buddhist consider Buddhism as the only Religion which is True and Correct 100%) follow their religion with Great interest, but we having the Greatest and most pure religion don’t do so at times.

So it is time to devote ourselves even more towards Buddhism and direct others also towards it – the correct path to end suffering.

I took my time to find some well known celebrities in the West who have embraced Buddhism with great interest and it has helped them reach great heights.

Tiger Woods (No 1 Golfer)

Tiger Woods is an American professional golfer whose achievements to date rank him among the most successful golfers of all time. Formerly the World No. 1, he is the highest-paid professional athlete in the world, having earned an estimated $90.5 million from winnings and endorsements in 2010.

Tiger Woods said “Buddhism has been a major role in my life. It has given me an inner peace and calmness that I think I wouldn’t have achieved at such an early age.”
He is the world’s most famous celebrity Buddhist.

Orlando Bloom (star of The Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean)

The dashing star of The Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean turned to Buddhist practice because “The philosophies behind it are very current today and are a way of finding some sort of peace,” but also because it helped keep him from the self-destructive path he was always in danger of carving out for himself.

Bloom stresses that his practice is very practical: “The philosophy that I’ve embraced isn’t about sitting under a tree and studying my navel, it’s about studying what is going on in my daily life and using that as fuel to go and live a bigger life.”

Richard Gere

For many he’ll be the first celeb Buddhist to spring to mind. The Pretty Woman and Chicago heart-throb Richard Gere is a good friend of the Dalai Lama.

Gere is a passionate advocate for human rights in Tibet; he is a co-founder of the Tibet House, creator of The Gere Foundation, and he is Chairman of the Board of Directors for the International Campaign for Tibet. Because of his support for the Tibetan cause he’s banned from the People’s Republic of China. Richard, you’re always welcome here.

Gere scores high marks for sincerity of practice, and meditates daily. “It helps me set my motivation for the day,” he says.

Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs is an American business magnate and inventor. He is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Apple Inc.

Steve Jobs' Apple company could be said to have a very Zen-like attitude toward design with it's pure lines and minimalist approach to user-experience. This might not be by accident. Jobs is in fact a follower of the Buddha.

It all began, as far as we know, in 1974 when Jobs, then 21, asked for a sabbatical from his employer, Atari, in order to go to India.

Today, Jobs is rumored to still practice Zen Buddhism and to be a vegan. He quotes from Zen masters and philosophy during his speeches, as when he spoke of the beginner's mind in an interview with Wired Magazine.

David Beckham

Victoria and David Beckham have turned to Buddhism.

The couple - who live in Los Angeles with their three sons - have "embraced" the mystical religion and are now chanting every morning in a bid to help them deal with their hectic lifestyles.
A source said: "David and Victoria have gone completely Californian! David has begun wearing health, prosperity and performance beads around his wrist. He has started yoga and stretching classes after a knee injury, and then a teammate suggested Buddhist chanting to soothe his mind.
"Now he and Victoria do a short five-minute chant when they wake up to start the day off on the right foot, repeating, 'Homage to the blessed one, the worthy one, the rightly self-awakened one.' "

Jennifer Lopez

Jennifer Lopez also known by her nickname J.Lo, is an American actress, singer, record producer, dancer, television personality, fashion designer and television producer. Lopez began her career as a dancer on the television comedy program In Living Color.
Jenny from the Block is studying the Eastern religion after Richard Gere, a devout Buddhist, gave her spiritual advice.

“I would say to Richard, ‘God, I’m always worried about being so strong.’ He said, ‘Maybe it’s time to be strong in a different way,’” Lopez said. “He didn’t say, ‘You need to convert,’ but he did give me some good advice.

Jenny from the Block, who grew up Catholic, believes its it is possible to recognize themselves as the creators of their own pain” as well as how to free “ourselves from the conflicting, unreasonable demands of the mind,”.

Kate Bosworth

Ms. Kate Bosworth was the star of Blue Crush and Superman Returns fame.
Are we being harsh in thinking Bosworth only started practicing because then-boyfriend, Orlando Bloom, was into Buddhism? Perhaps. And yet we’re happy to welcome Bosworth, even though she and Orlando broke up.

Still, while it lasted Bosworth’s affair with the Buddhadharma really seemed to mean something: “It’s just a really incredible state of mind. It’s just a beautiful place to try and be at. It’s basically about constantly growing and making yourself a better person and focusing on what you want for yourself and the world and really putting it out there. It’s amazing.” To which we can only say, “Awesome!”

Steven Seagal

The Buddhist world was, to put it mildly, in a state of deep, deep bemusement when Hollywood star Steven Seagal announced in 1997 that he had been recognized as a Tibetan incarnate lama, or tulku. Steven Segal - the action-movie hero who specializes in toting powerful guns and blowing stuff up is indeed a surprise but it turns out that Segal has a long history of practice. He moved to Japan at age 17 to study martial arts, acupuncture, and Zen, and he spent 15 years there before returning to the US.

While in Asia he had significant contact with Tibetan lamas escaping China, whose torture-induced traumas he treated with acupuncture. Seagal himself tends to be a little coy about his practice: “I have been doing serious meditation in my own pitiful way for probably twenty-seven years.”

Tina Turner

The “Queen of Rock and Roll” has an instantly recognizable voice, a career dating back to 1960, unbelievable legs, and a serious Buddhist practice. As shown in the biopic What’s Love Got to Do With It, it was Turner’s Buddhist practice that gave her the strength to leave her abusive marriage to Ike Turner in the 70′s, which in turn made her an icon for abused women everywhere. Turner is another practitioner of Buddhism and famously chanted Nam Moho Rengye Kyo on Larry King Live.
Turner said: “I had to teach myself because I didn’t have the freedom to go to actually go to meetings or for people to come to me … and it changed my life.”

Ricky Martin

Singer Ricky Martin may be a Christian, but when it comes to religion it is the Buddhist philosophy that he admires. “I believe that everybody has the right to decide what makes him/her happy. I am not one to say what is better and which is worse in terms of faith,” says Martin.

Harrison Ford

Born in 1942 he is best known for his roles in Star Wars (made by George Lucas – another Buddhist) and the Indiana Jones’s Series of movies. In fact he came to George’s attention as he was also as a struggling actor working to pay the bills by being a talented carpenter and was hired by the director to build some wooden cabinets in his Hollywood home where he promptly cast him in his film America Graffiti (1973).

His faith inspires him to do community work and he volunteered to serve food at Ground Zero following the 911 attack and regularly helps out in one of the homeless shelters in Los Angles every Thanksgiving. He is a follower of the Tibetan Dalai Lama and a passionate advocate for a Free Tibet.
“The focus and the concentration and the attention to detail that flying takes is a kind of meditation. I find it restful and engaging, and other things slip away."


Keanu Reeves (star of Matrix)

Keanu Charles Reeve is a Canadian actor, born in Lebanon , and raised in Canada. He is well known for playing Neo in the action film trilogy The Matrix . He is also well known for playing Ted in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey .

A Buddhist in real life, Reeves is reported to be very generous with his time and money, lending both to a variety of causes.

He was also the star in the film “Little Buddha”.

Jet Li

Jet Li is famous for his fists and kicks but he'd like his compassion to be a hit, too.
"I would like to spend more of my energy practising Buddhism and helping younger Chinese people to understand life," he told the San Francisco Chronicle.

"The Buddhism idea is to look back, to look into yourself. It's a feeling," he said, "the feeling is different from the material. You need to make yourself happy from inside your heart."

Leonard Cohen

Doyen of despair, godfather of gloom, master of misery, Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen’s oeuvre could be seen as an ongoing exploration of the Buddhist teaching that life is inherently suffering. But there’s much more to Cohen’s practice than that.

Following an interest in Buddhism that started in the early 1970′s, Cohen was ordained in 1996 as a Zen monk at the Mount Baldy Zen Center, on a mountain-top overlooking San Bernadino, California, and was given the Dharma name, “Jikan.” Because his teacher doesn’t know much English Cohen is a bit vague about what the name means. Apparently it’s something to do with silence — “ordinary silence, normal silence” — something like that anyway.


Uma Thurman

Uma Karuna Thurman, daughter of Robert Thurman and Nena Thurman, was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He was the first westerner to become a Tibetan Buddhist monk. Uma was named for a Hindu goddess.

Her father Robert was the first American ordained as a Tibetan monk here in the United States. She was raised Buddhist, and her name means “Great Middle Way”.

Angelina Jolie

Naomi Watts

Leonardo Dicaprio

Mark Wahlberg

Sting

Oliver Stone

Buddha’s Path to Enlightenment

I earlier told you how Price Siddartha understood reality – that all of us get old, sick, and eventually die.

At the age of 29, Siddhartha came to realize that he could not be happy living as he had been.

He had discovered suffering, and wanted more than anything to discover how one might overcome suffering.

After kissing his sleeping wife and newborn son Rahula goodbye, he snuck out of the palace with his squire Chandara and his favorite horse Kanthaka. He gave away his rich clothing, cut his long hair, and gave the horse to Chandara and told him to return to the palace. He studied for a while with two famous gurus of the day, but found their practices lacking.

Gautama studied under various teachers and followed their practices until he mastered them all. His first teacher was Alara Kalama who taught a form of meditation leading to an exalted form of absorption called "state of no-thingness", a state without moral or cognitive dimension. Gautama saw this was not going to solve suffering, and continued his search.

The next teacher was Udraka Ramaputra who taught him meditative absorption leading to “the state of neither perception nor non-perception”. Again, Gautama realized this was not the state he was looking for.

Next, he tried extreme ascetic practices at Uruvilva, with five other ascetics who turned into his followers. In the end, Gautama nearly died of starvation.

After about six years of searching, he realized that just wearing down his body did not generate new insights, but rather leads to weakness and self-destruction. When he decided to give up extreme asceticism, his students left him.

He then sat down in a place now called Budhdhagaya under a Bo-tree and decided not to get up anymore until he discovered the truth. Just a short time later, he became a fully enlightened Buddha.

This means that he actualized all positive potentials of a sentient being and rid himself of all negative qualities. With this, he realized the true nature of existence and suffering (emptiness), and how suffering can be ended.

After he became the Enlightened One, he preached the sermon of the Middle Path, which shows the way to a balanced and harmonious life.

Lord Buddha’s Life as Prince Siddhartha

I earlier brought to you details on the birth of Lord Buddha, who was named Siddhartha.

King Shuddodana – the Father of Prince Siddartha, eager that his son should become a king like himself, was determined to shield the child from anything that might result in him taking up the religious life.

And so Siddhartha was kept in one or another of their three palaces, and was prevented from experiencing much of what ordinary folk might consider quite commonplace.

He was not permitted to see the elderly, the sickly, the dead, or anyone who had dedicated themselves to spiritual practices. Only beauty and health surrounded Siddhartha.

Siddhartha grew up to be a strong and handsome young man. As a prince of the warrior caste, he trained in the arts of war.

When it came time for him to marry, he won the hand of a beautiful princess of a neighboring kingdom by besting all competitors at a variety of sports. Yashodhara was her name, and they married when both were 16 years old.

As Siddhartha continued living in the luxury of his palaces, he grew increasing restless and curious about the world beyond the palace walls.

He finally demanded that he be permitted to see his people and his lands.

The king carefully arranged that Siddhartha should still not see the kind of suffering that he feared would lead him to a religious life, and decried that only young and healthy people should greet the prince.

As he was lead through Kapilavatthu, the capital, he chanced to see a couple of old men who had accidentally wandered near the parade route.

Amazed and confused, he chased after them to find out what they were. Then he came across some people who were severely ill. And finally, he came across a funeral ceremony by the side of a river, and for the first time in his life saw death.

He asked his friend and squire Chandaka the meaning of all these things, and Chandaka informed him of the simple truths that Siddhartha should have known all along: That all of us get old, sick, and eventually die.

Siddhartha also saw an ascetic, a monk who had renounced all the pleasures of the flesh. The peaceful look on the monks face would stay with Siddhartha for a long time to come.

Later, he would say this about that time: When ignorant people see someone who is dead, they are disgusted and horrified, even thought they too will be dead some day. I thought to myself: I don’t want to be like the ignorant people. After than, I couldn’t feel the usual intoxication with life anymore.

Tomorrow I will bring to you details on how Prince Siddhartha left the Palace seeking an end to the suffering of mankind and how he attained enlightenment eventually becoming the greatest savior of humanity.

2600th Sri Sambuddathwa Jayanthi - Birth of Lord Buddha

There was a small country in what is now southern Nepal that was ruled by a clan called the Shakyas. The head of this clan, and the king of this country, was named Shuddodana, and his wife was Mahamaya Devi. Mahamaya was expecting her first born. She had had a strange dream in which a baby elephant had blessed her with his trunk, which was understood to be a very auspicious sign to say the least.

As was the custom of the day, when the time came near for Queen Mahamaya to have her child, she traveled to her father's kingdom for the birth.

But during the long journey, her birth pains began.

In the small town of Lumbini, she asked her maids to assist her to a nearby grove of trees for privacy.

One large tree lowered a branch to her to serve as a support for her delivery.

They say the birth was nearly painless, and a gentle rain fell on the mother and the child to cleanse them.

It is said that the child was born fully awake, he could speak, and told his mother he had come to free all mankind from suffering.

He could stand, and he walked a short distance in each of the four directions. Lotus blossoms rose in his footsteps.

They named him Siddhartha, which means "he who has attained his goals." Sadly, Mahamaya Devi died only seven days after the birth. After that Siddhartha was raised by his mother’s kind sister, Mahaprajapati.

King Shuddodana consulted Asita, a well-known sooth-teller, concerning the future of his son. Asita proclaimed that he would be one of two things: He could become a great king, even an emperor. Or he could become a great savior of humanity.

Tomorrow we will focus on Lord Buddha’s Life as Prince Siddartha.

Osama is dead - but it does not mark the End of Terror in the world

Osama Bin Laden – a brutal extremist Islamist Terror Chief who was hunted by US forces after the September 11^th attack was eventually shot dead in Pakistan on the 1^st of May. It is important to note that just like Prabakaran, Osama had also boasted saying that he will never let his enemies get hold of his body. But eventually both these ruthless, heartless terror chiefs had to say good bye to life and probably make their way to down to hell.

Osama Bin Laden formed the Al Qaeda in 1988 and declared war on the US in 1998. In the process he has taken away the lives of close to 10,000 innocent people which also includes the slap on the face of the US when he brought down the heart of the world economy – the Twin towers in US. The death toll in that attack alone stands over 3000.

Osama is dead - that makes 2 less daemons on earth, but is it all over?

However, Southeast Asian terror networks appear to believe the killing of Osama bin Laden by US special forces in Pakistan is the equivalent of a bloody nose, rather than a body blow, to their jihadist cause.

Southeast Asia jihadist movements such as Indonesia-based Jemaah Islamiyah and Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines have cooperated with and been inspired by Al-Qaeda, but their aims and means are independent.

Aqil Siradj, chairman of Indonesia's largest Muslim organization, the moderate Nahd-latul Ulama, which claims 60 million members, said Osama's demise "won't automatically eradicate radicalism from the earth".

The region's best-known Al-Qaeda-linked groups, Jemaah Islamiyah and Abu Sayyaf, have murdered hundreds of people across Southeast Asia since well before the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

While congratulating US President Barack Obama and the CIA Chief for the master plan to kill Osama Bin Laden, we should also remember that the War on Terror is not over.