[Assam] Reincarnation banned: Tibet's Buddisht lamas Re: HPI, August 8, 2007

Fri Aug 10 11:11:42 PDT 2007

Hindu Press International <hpi.list at hindu.org> wrote:Hindu Press International August 8, 2007                 August 8, 2007 

   Most Reincarnation Claims are True, Says Dr. S.K. Pasricha 
   China Tells Living Buddhas They Must Obtain Permission Before Reincarnating 
   Ganesha Goes Green for Khairatabad 
   Advertising's Disturbing Influence on Children's Food Choices  

    1. Most Reincarnation Claims are True, Says Dr. S.K. Pasricha hindustantimes.com
 NEW DELHI, INDIA, August 5, 2007: Dr. Satwant K. Pasricha, a NIMHANS Professor of Clinical Psychology and a leading national authority on reincarnations, has been using rigorous scientific methods to investigate reincarnation claims since 1974. Here are excerpts from an interview with Neha Tara Mehta: "It is important to first understand what we mean by reincarnation. For the purpose of our research, we use the term to refer to the concept that human beings consist of two components: a physical body and a non-physical component, some call it psyche, others may refer to it as mind, personality, or soul. At death, the physical body perishes but the non-physical component survives and after an interval, becomes associated with a new physical body. On the basis of meager data that we have, we can't make generalizations about whether or not everyone reincarnates. But what I can tell is that every one does not remember a previous life.  I have investigated nearly 500
 reincarnation claims in India, Seventy-seven per cent of them were authentic. Children who talk about previous lives usually do so between the ages of 2 and 5 and stop talking about their previous life between 5 and 8; rarely do they continue beyond 10 years of age. They display corresponding behavior that is unusual for their present circumstances but is appropriate for the behavior of the deceased person whose life they claim to remember. Some children have facial features, gait or mannerisms corresponding to their claimed previous personalities; some even have birthmarks or birth defects attributed to the previous lives."

One such reincarnation story is of a young boy named Sachin. Every time Sachin tried to tell the adults in his village that he was in fact Kanti, a domestic servant from the nearby Dhanaura village whose master had murdered him, the villagers would laugh. His family also thought the child's imagination was runnin  g wild.  "We thought it was a game of make-belief," says his elder sister Poonam. But Sachin, a Class III student at the village primary school, seldom spoke, behaved or conducted himself like the 12-year-old he was. "He was always so grownup, talking about development and other social issues," says Imran, Sachin's playmate. The boy soon earned the title of 'Netaji'. To read Sachi's story, click here.

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  2. China Tells Living Buddhas They Must Obtain Permission Before Reincarnating www.timesonline.co.uk
 BEIJING, CHINA, August 4, 2007: Tibet's living Buddhas have been banned from reincarnation without permission from China's atheist leaders. The ban is included in new rules intended to assert Beijing's authority over Tibet's restive and deeply Buddhist people. "The so-called reincarnated living Buddha without government approval is illegal and invalid," according to the order, which comes into effect on September 1. The 14-part regulation issued by the State Administration for Religious Affairs is aimed at limiting the influence of Tibet's exiled god-king, the Dalai Lama, and at preventing the re-incarnation of the 72-year-old monk without approval from Beijing. It is the latest in a series of measures by the Communist authorities to tighten their grip over Tibet.  Reincarnate lamas, known as tulkus, often lead religious communities and oversee the training of monks, giving them enormous influence over religious life in the Himalayan region. Anyone outside China is banned
 from taking part in the process of seeking and recognizing a living Buddha, effectively excluding the Dalai Lama, who traditionally can play an important role in giving recognition to candidate reincarnates.

For the first time China has given the Government the power to ensure that no new living Buddha can be identified, sounding a possible death knell to a mystical system that dates back at least as far as the 12th century. China already insists that only the Government can approve the appointments of Tibet's two most important monks, the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama.  The Dalai Lama's announcement in May 1995 that a search inside Tibet -- and with the cooperation of a prominent abbot -- had identified the 11th reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, who died in 1989, enraged Beijing. That prompted the Communist authorities to restart the search and to send a senior Politburo member to Lhasa to oversee the final choice. This resulted in top Communist officials presiding over a ceremony at the main Jokhang temple in Lhasa in which names of three boys inscribed on ivory sticks were placed inside a golden urn and a lot was then drawn to find the true reincarnation. The boy chosen
 by the Dalai Lama has disappeared. The abbot who worked with the Dalai Lama was jailed and has since vanished. Several sets of rules on seeking out "soul boys" were promulgated in 1995, but were effectively in abeyance and hundreds of living Buddhas are now believed to live inside and outside China.

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  3. Ganesha Goes Green for Khairatabad www.hindu.com
 HYDERABAD, INDIA, August 5, 2007: The Khairatabad Ganesha this year is all set to blaze a new trail going in for an eco-friendly makeover. The district administration that has been campaigning for a shift to eco-friendly natural dyes for the Murthis, hopes that more Murthi makers and festival organizers would follow suit. "We have yielded to the Government's request for use of eco-friendly colors," says S. Sudarshan, chief organizer of Khairatabad Ganesh Utsav Committee. Whether clad in natural Indigo, dark green, maroon or chocolate, the 40-foot giant Deity however cannot do without that matt finish in its fashion statement. The Chirla-based Shyamal Handlooms involved in Kalamkari work for a decade was approached by N. G. Ranga Agricultural University for developing eco-friendly colors. It took them four months of research to come out with required hues.  They would supply as many as nine colors for the Deity.

"Sixty liters of colors will be needed to paint the whole statue. We have already sent samples of a liter each," said U. Venkateshwar Rao from Shyamal Handlooms that is ready to supply eco-friendly colors to other manufacturers and artisans. Hyderabad District Collector R. V. Chandravadan commended the big step taken by the Utsav Committee on Saturday while speaking at an awareness workshop attended by artisans, resident welfare associations, committee members and officials of Pollution Control Board and National Green Corps.

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  4. Advertising's Disturbing Influence on Children's Food Choices www.news-medical.net
 STANFORD UNIVERSITY, CALIFORNIA, August 7, 2007: A study with pre-school children has revealed just how potent and effective the power of advertising is. In what many parents will find very depressing news, new research has revealed that as far as tots are concerned food wrapped in McDonald's packaging tastes up to six times better than the same food in plain wrappers. The study by researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine, in California, was designed in order to gauge the power of advertising on young children. It comes at an opportune moment as there is widespread concern over the growing obesity rates in children and the influence of advertising on children's health. In the developed world child obesity rates have trebled over the last two decades and currently 10 per cent of six-year-olds and 17 per cent of 15-year-olds are estimated to be obese. Experts say that by 2050, half of all primary school-age boys and a fifth of all girls could be   so overweight
 that their health is at serious risk. 

A total of 63 children completed the study and performed a total of 304 individual tasting comparisons. The researchers led by Dr. Thomas N. Robinson, found that children as young as three found food nicer when they thought it was made by a big brand and this preference was not merely restricted to fast foods; the youngsters found that milk and carrots tastier better when they believed they had been bought at McDonald's. For the study, the researchers asked children aged between three and five to rate five foods for tastiness; each child was given two samples of identical food, one in McDonald's packaging and one in plain wrapping.  The researchers say the children found the McDonald's wrapped food was judged as far more appealing but when the children were not influenced by branding, they found both samples equally tasty. McDonald's fries were judged tastiest by six times as many children as the same fires in plain packaged wrappers and the same applied to chicken nuggets.
 It seems even milk and carrots, foods not as a rule associated with McDonald's, were rated as more appealing when packaged with the fast food's logo. McDonald's says it actively tries to promote healthy food to children. The food and beverage industries spend more than $10 billion each year on marketing aimed at children in the United States and by age 2, many already have beliefs about certain brands; 2- to -6-year-olds are able to recognize brands and associate them with products. The study is published in the journal Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

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