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What is the Third Buddhist Precept? The 3rd Precept: One accepts the training rule of avoiding All Sexual Abuse. One should NOT cause Pain to others or oneself in one's search for pleasure! Avoiding sexual abuse is thus an essential core component of harmlessness! Specifically: One should not mate sexually with another's partner. One should not mate sexually with minors < 16-18 years of age. One should not have sex that bears risk of an infectious disease. One should not mate sexually with anyone engaged, or married to another. One should not mate sexually with those imprisoned, forced, or under the law. One should not have sex with one's own children, or those protected by others. One should not have sex with one's father, mother, brother, sister, uncle or aunt. One should not have sex with those entrusted to one's parent-like responsibility. and adoption, when working in schools, kindergartens, orphanages, churches, temples, monasteries, youth o

Craving for Sense Pleasure always causes Suffering! The Blessed Buddha once said: Truly, due to craving for sense pleasure, conditioned by sensuous craving, compelled by craving for sense pleasure, entirely pushed by craving for sense pleasure, does kings fight with kings, princes fight with princes, priests with priests, citizens with citizens; mother quarrels with son, son with mother; father with son, son with father; brother with brother, brother with sister, sister with brother, a good friend fights even with his best friend. Thus, lost in conflict, quarrelling, and hostilities, they attack one another with fists, sticks, or weapons. And thereby they suffer death or deadly pain. And further, due to this craving for sense pleasure, people break into houses, rob, plunder, pillage whole villages, commit highway robbery, and hot-headed seduce the wives of others. Then the rulers have such people caught and inflict on them various forms of punishment. And thereby they mee

  This is a very compelling narrative from someone who detoxed and just finished rehab and is trying to get themselves clear. We all know somebody who's been there even if we haven't exactly been there ourselves. The Shitshow & The Oxygen Mask: A Postmodern Narrative I find the end of it particularly poignant–I feel this is true not only of this process but of things like Buddhist practice. You put on your oxygen mask first. You do what you can in the world, but you've got to save yourself first. It won't take long until I can help others, you think. You take it one day at a time. Read More @ Source

Eleven Myanmar, 30 June 2013 Yangon, Myanmar -- Bhante Ashin Nyanissara, commonly known as Sitagu Sayadaw, one of the most prominent Buddhist monks in Myanmar, has urged the government and the people to work together to safeguard the religion and the nationality in the country. << Sitagu Sayadaw giving speech at the ceremony (Photo - EMG) Speaking at a special ceremony held at Aung Sann Tet Monastery in Insein Ywama, Yangon on June 27, Sitagu said, "The objective is good enough. We need to choose a word wise enough to capture the whole process of protecting the country as well as safeguarding the religion and the nationality. In front of the respected monks here, I would like to announce to you [the monastery's head] that a leading committee will be formed, and its organizational rules, structure, and title will be decided soon. The unity is very important," said Sitagu Sayadaw. He also urged the monks attending the ceremony to be patient, forgiving, an

The relationship between the mind and the body is a fundamental part of Dharma practice. As Anyen Rinpoche , founder of the Orgyen Khamdroling Dharma Center, explains, reflecting on the mind-body connection through mindfulness and self-discernment can help ground you and reconnect you in your own practice — which we all can use from time to time. Click here to read "Examining the Body-Mind Connection Through Mindful Self-Reflection," an excerpt from his book Momentary Buddhahood . Anyen Rinpoche, along with John Tarrant and Polly Young-Eisendrath, will be leading " Getting Off the Emotional Rollercoaster ," a weekend program — coming soon, from July 19 to 21 — co-presented by the Shambhala Sun Foundation at Omega Institute this summer. The program will be held at Omega's Rhinebeck, NY, campus and will explore emotions and how to work with them in everyday life. During the weekend, participants will learn to cultivate a sense of calm and spaciousness, make

Rabkar Wangchuk, "Spiritual Mind and Modern Technology," 2013 A rare exhibit of contemporary Tibetan art will be on display later this year at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, at the State University of New York at New Paltz. The show, entitled Anonymous , features more than 50 works of painting, sculpture, installation, and video art by 27 artists living in Tibet and in diaspora. These will include many works from the private collection of Shelley and Donald Rubin (founders of New York's Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art) that have never before been exhibited. The show opens July 20 and runs through December 15. According to curator Rachel Perera Weingeist, "It is only roughly in the last ten years that a contemporary Tibetan visual culture has galvanized." The museum's press material further explains: "Anonymity and self-expression are commonly polarized values and artistic goals within the global art market. In traditional Tibetan art, artistic c

There's a new online contributor among us here at the Shambhala Sun Foundation, so we thought we'd let him introduce himself. Friends, meet Konchog Norbu , who recently began writing regularly for us both here and at Buddhadharma News . About himself he says: "I come from a family of bibliophiles in which Scrabble games were gladiatorial in their intensity, and disownment was the implied threat if you couldn't write a clever letter that made the recipient snort and immediately snatch up a pen to reply. (Yes, people once wrote letters to one another. With pens.) Carrying that momentum into the study of 20 th century American literature and creative writing at Brown University, I discovered my favorite application of whatever talent I possessed was promoting cool stuff that I loved. In and just out of college, this mainly meant underground music and performance, but soon thereafter I met the dharma, and, wham : That was it. "I became a Buddhist in 1990 and