DC Hindu Temple Worships Buddha

[Guest guest]

Namaste!

 

I know that a number of you live in the Washington, D.C. area. Also,

you may remember that I am also interested in Buddhism as well as

Advaita. So I thought the following article from the Washington Post

might be interesting. It does have at least one error: I don't know

why it says that Buddhists don't believe in reincarnation.

 

Om!

Benjamin

 

 

 

WIDENING THE GATES OF FAITH

In Chantilly, Hindu Temple Becomes Area's First to Worship Buddha

 

by S. Mitra Kalita

Washington Post Staff Writer

Sunday, May 18, 2003; Page C01

 

 

They surround the room, some swathed in silks and golds, others in

floral garlands. There's Krishna, about to play his flute. And Shiva,

twirling his trident. Saraswati strums her lute-like veena and

Mahavir sits cross-legged, eyes closed.

 

The dozen or so deities at the Rajdhani Mandir, a Hindu temple in

Chantilly, draw hundreds of devotees each week who stand or kneel

before the various incarnations of God to seek blessings. But this

weekend, Hindus found themselves praying alongside newcomers of a

different faith.

 

In a three-day ceremony where smoky tendrils of incense swirled and

wafted as monks chanted, the temple inaugurated Lord Buddha into the

ranks of its deities. In doing so, the Hindu temple became the first

in the Washington area to worship Buddha, organizers say. Hinduism

experts say the temple is one of just a few in the nation to worship

Buddha.

 

Founded in India by the son of a wealthy Hindu family, Buddhism tells

followers they can free their lives from suffering by controlling

desires. Buddhists do not practice the same rites and rituals of

Hinduism, nor do they believe in reincarnation. But most religious

scholars agree that many fundamentals of the two faiths are identical.

 

"There are parallel teachings. . . . Both teach compassion,

equanimity, joy," said Bante K. Uparatana Mahathera, a Sri Lankan

immigrant who serves as president of the International Buddhist

Center in Wheaton.

 

When the Rajdhani Mandir opened three years ago, organizers said they

wanted to make it a place where people from all parts of India --

where dozens of languages are spoken -- would feel comfortable. In

Northern Virginia, the number of Indians rose from 13,900 in 1990 to

more than 36,100 in 2000, according to Census figures.

 

Many settled in the western part of Fairfax County, lured by

affordable housing and high-tech companies in the Dulles area, said

temple volunteer Alok Srivastava, a Chantilly father of two and a

computer scientist. Whereas earlier waves of immigrants came from

northern India, many newcomers are from south India, which has a

burgeoning software sector, he said.

 

As a half-dozen men walked in yesterday morning, Srivastava said they

fit the profile of the temple's newest members. "They must be IT

professionals. They haven't been here more than two years," he said.

"You can tell from their faces, their clothes."

 

Sure enough, one of them, Amar Parthasarathy, said he'd arrived 16

months ago from the southern Indian city of Chennai and worked as a

software engineer. He wasn't aware of the ceremony to honor Buddha,

but he took a place on the floor anyway, crossing his legs like the

deity before him. In India, his family usually prayed to Vignesh, or

Ganesha, an elephant-headed lord who removes obstacles. Now he bows

before all the deities at the temple.

 

The two-story temple sits along a busy road dotted with churches,

offices and homes. The temple blends in with its surroundings,

resembling an office building. The main hall is about the same size

as most churches, but it boasts no chairs or pews. Instead,

congregants pray on the floor on sheets spread over the carpet.

People must take off their shoes before entering the main hall, which

is surrounded by the deities.

 

"In olden days, there would have been a lot of conflict to think

Buddha would be placed in the same place as other deities," said Uma

Mysorekar, president of the Hindu Temple Society of North America in

New York. "Here, I think people think it's okay. The main thing is,

you worship."

 

Temple organizers say they expect more immigrants from Southeast Asia

to worship at their temple now. Usually when she wants to worship,

Hanh Le, an immigrant from Vietnam, drives an hour from her Chantilly

home to a Buddhist temple in the District. She walked around the

Hindu temple for a few minutes before the unveiling of Buddha and

asked resident priest Ram Sneh Tripathi what the different gods

represent.

 

"This [temple] is not too far from our home," she told him.

 

"Good," he said. "Now you come here."

[Guest guest]

Nameste!

 

Buddhists have much discussion over this issue and the problem is not

just semantic. The following is my understanding of the Buddhist

position.

 

The position is built out of the concept of "anatta", no-self, there

is no permanent, eternal "self", so there is nothing

to "reincarnate". In English there is a quibble, which is the idea

of "rebirth", which refers to "rebirth" of the unfinished karmic

latencies created by unfulfilled desires.

 

Thus this lifetime "I" live is the only one I live, but my karma

includes the latent tendencies of past karma which shapes my birth

and life. When "I" die the tendencies continue and are attracted to

the conception process which is responsive to these tendencies and a

new "I" comes into being, including the "memory" of the causes of the

karmic influences, so it appears that I remember past lives, but they

are not mine as such.

 

The more enlightened "I" am, the more I have conscious influence over

what is sent as "karmic content" to the next lifetime, until such time

as I achieve true liberation and therefore Nirvana, where there is no

more "self" and no more "karmic tendencies" subject to desire to

create a being caught in the cycles of constant rebirth.

 

Thus it is not "I" who reincarnate but the karma which reincarnates.

 

This may seem like a quibble, and semantic confusion, but the

confusion is not because of the Dharma, rather it is because of the

corruption of the Dharma in the age in which we live.

 

This is my understanding, and I hope that it clarifies the "error" in

the article, which for many Buddhists is not an error.

 

lotusaware

advaitin, Benjamin Root <orion777ben>

wrote:

> It does have at least one error: I don't know

> why it says that Buddhists don't believe in reincarnation.

>

> Om!

> Benjamin