Category — Buddhism

Dalai Lama with senior faith representatives at Lambeth Palace [Photo: © Lambeth Palace]

Here’s a picture of the Dalai Lama with the religious representatives at Lambeth Palace on 23 May. You can find my post about this wonderful encounter here.

I’m in the back row on the left of the line-up, next to Cardinal Cormac Murpy-O’Connor.

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, Buddhism, Barnabas Quotidianus, Dalai Lama, faith leaders, Archbishop of Canterbury

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Could Tibetan Buddhist monks be the secret weapon against climate change

I recently came across this 2002 article from the Harvard University Gazette. It seems that some Tibetan Buddhist monks were the subject of an experiment while in deep meditation:

In a monastery in northern India, thinly clad Tibetan monks sat quietly in a room where the temperature was a chilly 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Using a yoga technique known as g Tum-mo, they entered a state of deep meditation. Other monks soaked 3-by-6-foot sheets in cold water (49 degrees) and placed them over the meditators’ shoulders. For untrained people, such frigid wrappings would produce uncontrolled shivering.

If body temperatures continue to drop under these conditions, death can result. But it was not long before steam began rising from the sheets. As a result of body heat produced by the monks during meditation, the sheets dried in about an hour.

Now (silly thought, I know), just imagine that everyone home replaced its tumble drier with a meditating Tibetan Buddhist monk. Energy consumption would drop; carbon emissions would reduce; climate change would be ameliorated. Simple! (?)

Technorati Tags: climate change, Tibetan, Buddhist, monk, meditation, g Tum-mo, carbon emissions