Buddha's Back

The London telegraph group have reported that a young boy is well on his way to becoming the next Buddha. This article is printed below:

Pilgrims flock to see 'Buddha boy' said to have fasted six months

Thousands of pilgrims are pouring into the dense jungle of southern Nepal to worship a 15-year-old boy who has been hailed as a new Buddha.

Devotees claim that Ram Bomjon, who is silently meditating beneath a tree, has not eaten or drunk anything since he sat down at his chosen spot six months ago.

Ram Bomjon maintains his vigil in the shade of his pipal tree

Witnesses say they have seen light emanating from the teenager's forehead.

"It looks a bit like when you shine a torch through your hand," said Tek Bahadur Lama, a member of the committee responsible for dealing with the growing number of visitors from India and elsewhere in Nepal.

Photographs of Ram Bomjon, available for five rupees (4p) from his makeshift shrine, have become ubiquitous across the region. "Far and wide, it's the only topic of conversation," said Upendra Lamichami, a local journalist.

He said no allegation had yet emerged of Ram breaking his fast or moving, even to relieve himself.

Santa Raj Subedi, the chief government official in Bara district, appealed to the capital, Kathmandu, for assistance in dealing with the influx of visitors, and for a team of scients to examine the case.

Local doctors failed to reach a final conclusion, although they were allowed no closer than five yards from the boy mystic, declaring that they could confirm no more than that he was alive.

The popularity of the phenomenon is partly because it resembles an episode in the life of the historical Buddha, who was born 160 miles away around 543 BC. The Buddha achieved enlightenment when he meditated beneath a sacred pipal tree for 49 days.

Ram Bomjon is also sitting beneath a pipal tree, in the same posture as the Buddha is depicted, but his vigil has already taken longer.

Ram's mother, who is called Maya Devi, like the Buddha's mother, admits to anxiety, particularly at meal times. But she tells herself: "God took him to the forest and I have faith that God will feed him."

She said: "He's definitely got thinner. Early in the morning he looks sunken, like there's no blood in him, but as the sun rises he seems to get brighter and brighter."

The fervour increased last week when a snake is said to have bitten Ram, and a curtain was drawn around him.

After five days it was opened and he spoke. "Tell the people not to call me a Buddha. I don't have the Buddha's energy. I am at the level of rinpoche [lesser divinity].

"A snake bit me but I do not need treatment. I need six years of deep meditation."

Despite his protestations, "Buddha boy" is famous.

A thriving market has grown in the once pristine forest, supplying pilgrims with everything from chewing tobacco and bicycle repairs to incense and sacred amulets. The ground is covered in litter.

A fence was built around Ram's tree to prevent pilgrims prodding him, then a second, and now a third is planned, as well as a bus park, leaving Ram at the centre of an ever growing circle of rubbish.

Prakash Lamsal, a businessman said: "Some people are selling 2,500 rupees [£20] worth of tea a day.

"These lamas [monks] are going to build mansions out of this. If I wasn't a bit embarrassed I'd take a van down there and set up a stall."

In light of the claims of a new Buddha being reincarnated and meditating in Southern Nepal, I thought I would post an article on the original.

Buddha

Around 560 B.C., according to legend, a woman dreamt "that a white elephant carrying a white lotus in its trunk came and entered her womb through her right flank."

This was interpreted as a good omen, rather than the grisly and painful ordeal it sounds like.

Nine months after this wild night of passion, the woman gave birth to Siddhartha, the boy who would grow up to be Buddha. (Understandably, the lotus flower has outpaced the rapist elephant as the more widely disseminated symbol of Buddhism.)

Siddhartha's father was a king, and he grew up in luxury. He married and had a son, but the fat and happy life wasn't for him. Discontented, he strayed from his home to see how the little people lived.

Siddhartha encountered four people during these excursions. Had he encountered a clown, a juggler, a puppy and a sweet young thing, it would have changed the course of Eastern civilization. But young Siddhartha's roaming led him to a series of downers.

The sight of an old man taught him the inevitability of decay. The sight of a sick man taught him the inevitability of suffering. The sight of a corpse taught him the inevitability of death. The sight of a monk taught him that serenity was the best one could hope for in life.

Siddhartha took up the practice of yoga in order to begin purifying his soul. But he found that yoga alone wasn't enough to reach enlightenment, not even bikram yoga or yogaerobics. Upping the ante, he fasted and denied himself all the pleasures of life for several years.

Realizing he was heading toward a joyless life and an early death, Siddhartha decided this approach wasn't working out either. Exasperated, he parked himself under a tree, vowing not to leave the spot until he had achieved enlightenment. According to Buddhist scriptures, "he neither bathed, nor rinsed his mouth, nor did he ease himself; but was wholly taken up by the delights of the Trances, of the Paths, and of the Fruits."

Despite temptations from evil spirits and a series of supernatural distractions, Siddhartha emerged from his ordeal smelly and enlightened, and assumed the title of Buddha, which means "enlightened one." The deities of 10,000 worlds commended him for his accomplishment, but he didn't let it go to his head. Buddha recited the formal Buddha's creed, articulating the basic premise that would go on to inspire billions:

Through birth and rebirth's endless round,
Seeking in vain, I hastened on,
To find who framed this edifice.
What misery! --birth incessantly!

O builder! I've discovered thee!
This fabric thou shalt ne'er rebuild!
Thy rafters all are broken now,
And pointed roof demolished lies!
This mind has demolition reached,
And seen the last of all desire!

The concept outlined here, more or less, is that human existence consists of an extremely long cycle of birth, death and reincarnation in which the travelling soul continually refines itself in search of divine wisdom.

By demolishing his ego, the attachment to self and mind, Buddha freed himself from earthly desires and attachment to material things. Buddha had reached Nirvana without the pain of sleeping with Courtney Love -- a blissful liberation from the cycle of reincarnation through direct communion with the divine.

Now officially the founder of a religion, Buddha did what anyone would do. He went looking for disciples. He started with his former colleagues in asceticism, who were relieved to discover they could start eating again. The platform he outlined was based around "four noble truths" and an "eightfold path."

The truths were:

• Life's a b*tch.
• The reason life's a b*tch is that people are attached to material things.
• Life doesn't always have to be a b*tch. You can achieve nirvana.
• The way to achieve nirvana is by following the eightfold path.

Naturally, when you hear about these truths, you're going to be curious about the eightfold path, which consists of:

• Right views, i.e., smarten up.
• Right intentions. Once you're smart, try to do the right thing.
• Right speech. Say the right thing.
• Right action. Knowing and saying the right thing isn't good enough, you have to actually do the right thing.
• Right livelihood. Make your living in an honourable way, i.e., don't work for the Inland Revenue Department.
• Right effort. All of the above doesn't just happen on its own. You have to work at it.
• Right mindfulness. Once you've beaten your physical self into submission, you have to start working on your mental state, seeking the ability to think clearly and see things as they really are.
• Right concentration. Focus, focus, focus! The path is only complete when you have refined your mind into a state of total focus on reality, which is generally thought to be accomplished by the process of meditation.

Following the eightfold path is key to Buddhism's system of spiritual advancement, in which doing the right thing (as outlined above) earns you karma, metaphysical bonus points which can be exchanged for only one fabulous prize, Nirvana. In order to make the trade, however, you have to accumulate an unspecified number of karma points, a process which usually takes several lifetimes. (Your karma points roll over when you're reincarnated.) Alternatively, you can lose karma points by engaging in wrong views, wrong intentions, wrong speech, wrong actions, and so on.

Newly enlightened, Buddha took his message to the streets. Unlike Jesus, he opted out of an early and painful death in favour of a long life peacefully propagating his beliefs. While Jesus benefited from the quick surge in popularity which comes from a spectacular death, Buddha had the advantage of 50 extra years personally teaching people his beliefs, a big plus in terms of making sure his followers were getting it right and perhaps one reason why you don't read too much about Buddhist Crusades and Inquisitions.

For the remainder of his life, Siddhartha Buddha travelled the plains of India and Pakistan, winning followers and setting up his religion. Despite an assassination attempt employing the time-honoured tool of political enmity -- a wild elephant -- Buddha lived to the ripe old age of 80, and died in his bed. As the deities of 10,000 worlds wept, Buddha relinquished his spirit, continuing to issue precepts of enlightenment the whole time.

His final words to his disciples summed it up: "And now, O priests, I take my leave of you; all the elements of being are transitory. Work out your salvation with diligence." Passing through four trances, Siddhartha Buddha is said to have entered Nirvana.

The Many Faces Of Buddha

But that's not quite the end of the story. As Buddhism developed over the years, a set of tales laid out the afterlife – pre-life -- of the Enlightened One. Depending on your flavour of Buddhism, and there are several, you might believe that Buddha has had up to seven incarnations on this earth, and you probably believe he'll be back for the big finale.

Aside from Siddhartha, there are a few incarnations of Buddha that get talked about on a fairly regular basis. They include:

Amitabha: Commonly referred to as the Buddha of the Lotus, or the Buddha of Light, he appears to have lived some time after Siddhartha. Followers of the Amitabha Buddha were widespread in Tibet, China and Japan for centuries.
Avalokiteshvara: More of a supernatural creature than what you think of when you hear the word "Buddha," the original incarnation of Avalokiteshvara is often depicted a hermaphroditic granter of healing and fertility.

Bodhisattva: Bodhisattvas are sort of the Junior Rocket Rangers of the Buddhas. They're very enlightened, but not quite enlightened enough. Buddha himself started out as a bodhisattva, so the title has a certain amount of potential. Different sects may not agree on whether a particular individual is a bodhisattva or a Buddha.

Dalai Lama: Roughly the equivalent of the pope for certain branches of Buddhism, the Dalai Lama is a much sought-after celebrity speaker, in addition to being the living incarnation of Avalokiteshvara. Only not so much a hermaphrodite. Well, presumably.

Maitreya: The Maitreya Buddha is the Buddha yet to come. Like most religions, Buddhism has various elaborate myths about the end of the world. One of these involves the incarnation of the Maitreya Buddha, the final Buddha who will teach the world to sing in perfect harmony, or something like that.

Buddha Says...
"He who loves 50 people has 50 woes; he who loves no one has no woes."