Buddhism

What is it that attracts an American to Buddhism? The question was put to a panel of Asian and American clerics and lay teachers gathered Feb. 10 at Swarthmore College. A seven-member panel of Korean, American, Thai and Japanese Buddhists met within the white walls of the Friends meeting house on campus to discuss Buddhism in contemporary America. "Many Americans are interested in meditation. Meditation is a vehicle to understanding the mind, and can be employed on one's own," said Tubten Pende, a tonsured, red-robed Tibetan monk and native of Syracuse, N.Y. Pende, who was ordained in the foothills of the Himalayan mountains in 1974, said he traveled to India and Nepal out of a sense of urgency to find something - he didn't know what - and because he was overwhelmed by a lack of purpose.

A couple of years ago, I saw a movie in one of those New Jersey strip mall movie theaters where last week's popcorn is still strewn around the lobby and the seats are sticky with . . . you don't want to think about it. In the vestibule was a lampstand whose large white shade was disfigured with brown cigarette burns and holes. Below the shade, anchoring the pole that supported the shade, was a gilded figure of the seated Buddha about two feet high. The lamp pole entered his head in the center of his skull.

The place is quiet now - far too quiet, many believe - but the ancient walls and time-worn artworks tell of once-great happenings here in this small village in the flat, steamy lowlands of southern Nepal. There is a 12-foot commemorative pillar, erected on this spot 2,300 years ago to honor an event that took place even earlier. There are scores of other now-ruined brick temples built to glorify what happened here; there is a centuries-old purifying bathing tank and an air of history that is almost palpable.

"An elderly Jewish woman was dying at a convalescent home," recalls Simcha Raphael, Jewish chaplain at La Salle University. "Her daughter was a student of Buddhism and wanted to read at her bedside from The Tibetan Book of the Dead. But she decided against it because her mother 'would never understand.' " Too bad, says Raphael, that the daughter "never heard of The Jewish Book of the Dead. " But there is indeed such a book: the medieval Mavoor Yabok, which contains prayers for the soul of the departing Jew, according to Raphael.

His wife is in the kitchen, cooking. His boys are upstairs, watching TV. And supermarket owner Ken Klein is slouched comfortably in his Bala Cynwyd living room, telling a funny story. "And then they send us this letter," he says between bites of cheese-dip on a cracker, "only it's addressed to Pennsylvania Avenue, and our store's on Fairmount, so we never get it, and . . . " An ordinary evening in suburbia. Then, the doorbell rings. Klein rises, glances at his watch, and opens his front door to the December darkness.

With much of its 604,000 square miles covered by Gobi Desert or wind-blown steppe, and almost half of its human population still leading a nomadic life, Mongolia can appear a deceptively tranquil place, forgotten by time and bypassed by politics. But like so many countries now emerging from the oppressive blanket of a Communist state, this giant central Asian country has many dark secrets to reveal. Some of the most shocking revolve around the systematic and often brutal efforts to banish Buddhism from a nation that once embraced the faith as its state religion.

It's a rite of spring that marks the birth, enlightenment and death of a teacher who for thousands of years has inspired his followers in a constant search for truth. It's the Buddha's birthday. Area Buddhists this month are celebrating the life and teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, who lived in northern India more than 2,500 years ago. Observances of this most important holiday on the Buddhist calendar are as varied as the ethnic backgrounds of those who practice the faith.

Despite efforts by the communist regime to suppress religion in Vietnam, people of all creeds are evidently ignoring their government and practicing their faiths as best they can. In Tay Ninh, near the Cambodian border, the adherents of the Cao Dai sect followed their bishops and priests into their ornate temple in a quiet and orderly fashion. They filled the cavernous temple, chanting their prayers at high noon between soaring pillars to face an altar behind which floated a huge green globe adorned with an all-seeing eye that warded off evil.

About 10,000 American Buddhists filled the Spectrum yesterday with patriotic and spiritual frenzy, twirling flags, making loud music, building a record-breaking, six-tier human pyramid and applauding everything in sight. With reproductions of historical paintings and the faces of the Founding Fathers as a backdrop, members of the Nichiren Shoshu Soka Gakkai of America (NSA), a Buddhist lay organization, transformed their 24th annual General Meeting and Bicentennial Show into a raucous July Fourth celebration.

Before a military junta took over what is now Myanmar, the Rev. Russell E. Brown and his wife, Becky, spent nine years as Baptist missionaries there. When they arrived in Burma in 1951, their church served congregations from five ethnic backgrounds: Burmese, Chinese, English, Indian, and the native Karen people. Mr. Brown was ecumenical before it became common. He studied Buddhism there, his daughter Carol Ward said, "because of the influence that it had on those people as well as on Christians.

Whether your preferences run to stark minimalist dance or gross-out zombie musicals, Live Arts & Philly Fringe offers something for every outre taste. But with well over 200 diverse performances scattered throughout the city, from the grandest halls to makeshift basement stages, navigating the festival can be as much of a sensory overload as some of its performances are meant to be. Below are a few choice Daily News picks that are happening over the next seven days to get you started.

Before a military junta took over what is now Myanmar, the Rev. Russell E. Brown and his wife, Becky, spent nine years as Baptist missionaries there. When they arrived in Burma in 1951, their church served congregations from five ethnic backgrounds: Burmese, Chinese, English, Indian, and the native Karen people. Mr. Brown was ecumenical before it became common. He studied Buddhism there, his daughter Carol Ward said, "because of the influence that it had on those people as well as on Christians.

Though their work mainly suggests otherwise, Guariglia and Chen do not come through the fine-art channels. Not so long ago, Justin Guariglia was a documentary photographer; Zoe Chen is a fashion designer who has worked for Issey Miyake. Together, the two have created a seamless, quasi-conceptual collaborative art that borrows its look from the worlds of fine art, advertising, commercial photography and Buddhism (that their work was recently selected for a two-year Nokia print and TV ad campaign and will also be the subject of a book published by the Aperture Foundation tells you something about its broad appeal)

World religions, I An editorial on Jan. 8 proposes that a course in "world religions" be required in the public schools. This might be suitable for most students, but what of those who are nonbelievers? A course covering "world belief systems" would be more appropriate, since it could include systems that don't depend on belief in a supreme being, such as Buddhism and secular humanism. Many people think that one can't lead a moral life without belief in God. The course could remedy this misapprehension by showing that it is possible to formulate ways of living morally and ethically without believing in a supreme being.

I recently attended a Zen training retreat at a monastery in Upstate New York. The program taught me mindfulness and the subtle art of Zazen meditation, and provided me with a new perspective on the nature of reality: The world is only what you experience without expectations. This new insight made me, a Philadelphia public school teacher, think of my fellow educators, particularly those first-year teachers. Next month, these newcomers will enter classrooms all across the region with expectations that are naive and unrealistic, expectations that could make them become disenchanted with their chosen profession.

THE movie prop gets to stay, but the gold-framed King James Version doesn't. Hanging the Ten Commandments in a courthouse in Kentucky is unconstitutional, but displaying a 6-foot granite monument of them on the Capitol grounds in Texas is not. In the two cases decided yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court got one right and one wrong. It should have outlawed all displays of these Bible passages as an unconstitutional breach of the separation of church and state. Instead, it punted, split the difference - and guaranteed many more court cases on the issue in the future.

When the conclave of cardinals elected 78-year-old Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger to succeed Pope John Paul II, it chose the man whose intellect, faith and worldview had shaped John Paul's long pontificate more than any other member of the hierarchy. As prefect, or president, of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for 24 years, Ratzinger helped to develop some of John Paul's most important policy documents. As the church's principal theologian, he also was called on to explain the church's positions on a wide range of topics.

God Is Great, I'm Not (Dieu Est Grande, Je Suis Petite) stars Audrey Tautou, Parisian pixie princess of Am?lie, as Mich?le, fashion model and congenital flirt. If something has an aura - be it spiritual emanation, man or dog - Mich?le goes into eyelash-flutter mode. Accordingly, so does the object of her flitting affection. After an elective abortion, mixed-up Mich?le seeks religious sustenance. With hungry heart and famished soul, she proceeds to sample the spiritual buffet.

Philadelphia-area Buddhism is no longer just a smattering of small groups getting together to study and chant. Temples and centers are growing in number, serving followers from Center City to the suburbs. An institute of graduate Buddhist studies is slated to open in September. The strains of Buddhism available for study and exploration are increasingly diverse. On Saturday, a coalition of about 30 area Buddhist organizations will host an afternoon festival to share their practices with the public.