Colorful Tibetan adornments

Tibetans, young or old, all love traditional style decorations. On this holy land, adornments mean more than just jewelry but part of their life. No matter in people's daily life or festivals,Tibetans will always put on various adornments from rings, bracelets, necklaces to all kinds of precious stones as a courtesy.

Welcome to our Tibetan Blog for Handcrafted Silver Jewelry, Handmade Tibetan Jewelry and Nepalese Jewelry. We have a wide selection of handcrafted silver jewelry and handmade tibetan jewelry including tibetan silver bracelets, tibetan silver pendants, tibetan silver necklaces, tibetan silver rings, tibetan silver earrings and tibetan buddhist mala beads bracelets, 108 beads prayer beads, prayer wheels, buddha statues...Since all our tibetan jewelry are handcrafted by the tibetan local craftsmen, each item is charming & unique - that's how we make everything different. Please contact us by email if any question or advice, we will reply your email within 24 hours.

Warding Off The Evil By Charm Bracelets from china

Upon a look at the entire human history, and in almost every culture and religion, the eye figure amulet on an chinese charm bracelet is deemed to have a powerful impact to defy the surrounding evil forces. Such figure is found in the Italian charm bracelets commonly worn by women adhering to Jewish, Christian, and Muslim cultures, as well as Buddhist and Hindu societies.

The Buddhist Bracelet protects the wearer from the destructive power of evil forces and prevents diseases, poverty, accidents, or other misfortunes. It also wards off any kind of negative power or bad energy including any well-intentioned compliments, which may include a conscious or unconscious element of envy or resentment.

If you have just had a baby, bought a new car or built a new office building or perhaps you may be worried that your acquaintances and others are filled with envy about your good fortune then the protection offered

by the Italian charm bracelets may be just what you should have to cater to all such concerns.

If you do not intend to wear it for any reason whatsoever, you may also hang the bracelet in an open area of your house, for any visitor to have sight of it. Alternatively, it can also be hanged on your cloth, bag, or neck and may also be carried with you in your handbag, at all times.

You do not pay much vis-à-vis the benefits of such a bracelet (not to mention the psychological relief it provides you with). Depending on the size and gold content involved, an average bracelet would not cost you more than $50.

The evil eye amulet charm bracelet can be a multi purpose product which can, amongst other things, protect your house, your office, you loved ones and you.

Meditation – Peaceful Abiding

It’s been quite some time since I last devoted some of these articles to the subject of meditation. Since meditation is basic to Buddhist Belief,this is a very important subject. This process where we devote time each day to our sitting practice is a process of training our minds to realize more clarity. So, although I realize many of you have a regular practice of meditation, there may be some readers here who might be just starting out. I will write today about how I do my practice. What I describe today is not meant to give you any hard and fast rules for meditation. There are many teachers who will offer different techniques or styles. All I’m doing here today is showing you how I do my own practice.

Taming our mind through meditation, or “peaceful abiding”, is, to my way of thinking, the most important thing we can do. When we are regularly practicing peaceful abiding, we learn to rest peacefully and fearlessly in our natural state. When I say our “natural state” I’m referring to our basic goodness. We experience basic goodness when we allow ourselves to relax deeply into how things are, without wanting to change everything. Training our minds to be this way is the purpose behind why we meditate.
So often, there is a tendency to procrastinate about our practice because we think we don’t have the time to sit. However, once you’ve developed a regular daily practice in your life, you will see how the stability, clarity and strength you’ll develop through meditation will make your life simpler and you’ll be feeling a lot less stress.
The first step is to develop a basic routine. You should know when and where you will practice. Put your practice on your daily schedule just as though it was a daily business meeting. Once you set a time that works for you, stick with it. Consistent practice will lead to a better meditation. I now practice an hour each day – sometimes more – but that hour is scheduled. I didn’t start out at an hour. In the early days I found fifteen minutes was workable and gradually discovered the time allotted grew on its own.
Take a look at your life and surroundings and find a place that will provide the proper environment for meditation. It should be a quiet place – one where distractions won’t become a problem to you. At my age I sit in a chair to meditate, but you may prefer to sit on a cushion or meditation bench on the floor. It is also a good idea to prepare yourself for your practice. Take a note of how you’re mind is feeling. If you just had an argument with your partner – or have just come from a high-stress meeting, you may want to go for a slow walk before taking your seat. Do whatever it takes to provide a good bridge from your daily life to the chair or cushion. Think of your mediation seat as a throne in the center of your life.
These next steps are the steps I take myself. Again, you may have been taught differently and that’s fine.
On your cushion or chair, take a balanced grounded seat. If you’re on a cushion, sit with your legs loosely crossed. If you’re on a chair, sit with your legs uncrossed and feet flat on the ground. Imagine a string tied to the top of your head pulling your spine erect. Feel your organs, muscles and bones settle around your uplifted spine to allow the energy in the center of your body to move freely. Slouching will not only impair your breathing, but it will restrict the flow of energy. Not holding yourself upright will also bring in a temptation to fall asleep.
Place your hands on your thighs with your palms facing down. Keep your fingers relaxed. You can tuck your chin in and relax your jaw while you rest your tongue against the roof of your mouth. If you find it easier to breathe you can leave your mouth open a bit and you can either have your eyes gazing downwards with the eyes half open, or you can close them, whichever works best for you.
In a practice of peaceful abiding, the object is the act of breathing. By resting our mind on the breath, we are training it to stay present and mindful. Stay with the feeling of breathing. Feel it in your nostrils and feel it in your abdomen. Hold your mind on the breath. Focus on the air moving in and out. This will help to keep your mind focused as well as help you to relax. You will notice how your mind tends to slip away from the focus on the breath and move into a variety of thoughts and emotions. When you do notice these distractions, which are normal, just acknowledge their presence silently or you could label them as “thinking”. I often use the vision of my discursive thoughts as clouds in the sky and watch them gently float away.
Don’t come down hard on yourself because your mind keeps wandering away from your breath. This is a normal thing. We humans really can’t stop thinking. It’s going to happen, so be gentle with yourself as you just let the thoughts slip away without giving them your complete focus. If you beat yourself up over this, your mediation will seem like a boot camp and the purpose will be defeated. Let the thoughts fade on their own as you gently bring your focus back to your breathing. Don’t bring judgment to yourself or try to analyze why you’re having thoughts. Just recognize thoughts as thoughts and avoid being distracted by them.
At the end of your session, enjoy the space you’ve created in your mind by this peaceful abiding. You may want to bask in the peacefulness for a couple of minutes before resuming your daily life. You may find it’s now easier to be present to what is going on in your life, to communicate more clearly with others and to be able to stay more focused on the tasks at hand.
Next time, I’ll begin some articles about how using peaceful abiding can greatly improve your mind’s inherent stability and strength. Since most of our lives have been spent in allowing our minds to go wherever they wish, learning to train the mind will bring about wonderful developments to enable greater strength, stability and clarity.
Metta ….May I be well and happy. My I live in safety. May I be healthy and strong. May I live with ease. May all beings be well and happy. May all beings live in safety. May all beings be healthy and strong. May all beings live with ease.

Buddhist Belief – What Do You Know?

One of the inevitabilities of life and among the aspects of Buddhist Belief we can’t avoid, is the inevitability that we will all reach a moment in our lives when we will die. As much as we all go to great effort to avoid this truth, it is the truth. Nothing is permanent, not even us. We know this but we don’t like to know we know it.
Now on that uplifting note …

One of the things I’ve learned in my Buddhist studies, and one of the results of folks knowing I’m trying to live a Buddhist lifestyle, is how many people I come across who lose interest in the study of the dharma because it seems to be “sort of negative” – and even harsh at times. I know one of the aspects I’ve written about here is the idea of “not knowing”. My own interpretation of “not knowing” is not about being a dummy or being ignorant – it is about not clearly understanding – you don’t understand, you don’t know, … yet! For me, “not knowing” as it relates to the teachings of Buddhist Belief, is sort of like “not knowing” a certain traffic law could end up getting you a ticket. Your “not knowing” about the law isn’t a problem to you until you get stopped and handed a ticket. Then the suffering sets in, doesn’t it?
But, (I hear you thinking), I’m pretty happy. I don’t feel like I’m suffering so much. Why should I worry about “not knowing” about something I may never truly understand anyway?
The answer is this — and I am speaking from experience – every minute of life is absolutely precious and those minutes will slip away from us faster than you would ever imagine. We’re just cruising along living our lives and seeking as much satisfaction as possible – cars, TVs, friends, lovers, movies, and other things we desire to make us feel happier. We all do this – it’s seems to be human nature. As long as we’re having fun, why worry about anything negative. But, those fun things will also pass – they aren’t permanent either. They will eventually end.
Now, I may be wrong about this, but I feel strongly about it so I’m going to write about it here. Feel free to disagree. I believe one of the reasons why we’re so focused on the accumulation of satisfaction is because it’s easier than allowing our minds to distract us from the fear of death, disease, war, poverty, and pain of all kinds. I guess it’s another human trait – if we avoid it – maybe it will go away. Keep the mind happy and everything will be fine.
Why do we do this? Because it’s what we’ve been taught to do from the very early days of our lives. We are generally focused on trying to keep one jump ahead of whatever might be right around the corner. We tend to cling to what we know because we’ve been taught it’s something that can’t be taken away from us. We add more and more labels to our experiences because we feel it adds predictability and stability to our lives. We label ourselves as athletes, or professionals, or wealthy, or beautiful, etc. We even label ourselves with negative labels like loser, poor, fat, ugly, etc. When we use the negative labels we then “know” we will fail or be disliked. With the positive labels we “know” we will succeed and be liked. This is where our lack of true wisdom becomes a real problem.
Why?
Because we all have the same chance of getting sick and dying. This is a 100% true fact. We are all in the same boat. All the rest of the stuff we rely on so heavily is in the eye of the beholder and we have no control over it. Our constant striving for all the “things and stuff” as a means of making us think we’ll be happy is a monumental waste of time – and it’s downright addictive. This may sound pessimistic, but when we work so hard at denying the truth of suffering it doesn’t decrease our chances of experiencing it – in fact – it could increase the potential circumstances that bring it about. When we begin to accept the fact that accumulating more and more will lead to less happiness, the more we will do the work necessary to understand the undeniable truth of suffering and the less it will be frightening to you. It also has the hidden benefit of teaching us about being humble and becoming more compassionate to those who don’t “get it” yet.
People who are selfless and humble tend to live longer and be healthier, making their lives more enjoyable even in trying situations. It also sets the stage for more positive events to occur in their lives without any discernible effort on their part, like a person who never smiles has a smaller chance of being approached by potential friends than someone who smiles at everyone.
The benefits are endless. Learning this lesson can be the most worthwhile pursuit in our lifetime.
Metta ….May I be well and happy. My I live in safety. May I be healthy and strong. May I live with ease. May all beings be well and happy. May all beings live in safety. May all beings be healthy and strong. May all beings live with ease

Sometimes Happy – Sometimes Not

Looking at the quote above, and according to what we’ve learned from our study of Buddhist Beliefs, the negative side will bring to our life experiences which are not comfortable. Oh sure, in the short run you may experience some sort of satisfaction, but in the long run, when we are behaving badly, this negativity will eventually lead to unpleasantness.

On the other hand, when we engage in more positive activities we will find we develop an inner strength. Once we develop such inner strength, we find we have less fear and are much more confident of ourselves. We find it easier to show our caring for others without concern for barriers, whether those barriers might be religious, cultural or political. To my way of thinking, I believe it makes good sense to understand the importance of the potential results of our behavior, whether good or bad. It bears putting some of our meditation time into this.
As Buddhists know, gaining more understanding of human values as vital. One of the primary human values we want to develop is compassion – our putting greater value in our sense of caring and commitment to others. It truly doesn’t matter where you may prefer to be religiously, if you’re doing good things for people, you will be happier – you will feel good. As you who have been reading here for any time know, Buddhism for me is a way of life, rather than a religion.
Promoting the values of love and forgiveness are among the values promoted by most religions. The methods of how these are promoted may differ some from religion to religion, but the goal is the same, regardless. It’s about having a happier life and being a more compassionate person. When you develop these values in yourself, others will follow your example which is the first step toward a more compassionate humanity.
I’m going to touch on the core teachings of the Buddha here and then end this article for today – but I will continue this in my next post.
As Buddha taught, the Four Noble Truths are the foundation of Buddhist teaching. These truths are the truths of suffering, its origin, the possibility of the cessation of suffering and the path leading to this cessation.
The Four Noble Truths are grounded in our human experience. Something we all seek in our lives is to find happiness and avoid suffering. The happiness we desire – and the suffering we would like to be rid of are the result of causes and conditions in our lives. It’s the understanding of this which is what the Four Noble Truths are all about.
There are many people who would argue that the experiences which make us suffer – and the experiences which make us happy are nothing more than the luck of the draw. Buddhist teaching says the “luck of the draw” is not the case. Some people believe that our suffering and happiness are the will of some higher power. Buddhist teaching says this is not the way it is, either. There are also some who believe that whether we’re happy or miserable is predetermined by our genes or some other type of primal substance. This concept is also rejected by Buddhist teaching.
So, what is the answer?
You are probably not going to be happy with me when you finish this today, because I’m going to leave you with a question. You see, Buddha taught that our experiences of suffering and happiness do not come about by themselves or some other independent cause. Rather, all things and events, including our happiness and suffering, come about as a result of the process of interdependent origination – which is a whole variety of causes and conditions.
What does interdependent origination mean?
Be sure to watch for my next post when I will dig into this in a way I hope will be understandable by everyone.
Metta ….May I be well and happy. My I live in safety. May I be healthy and strong. May I live with ease. May all beings be well and happy. May all beings live in safety. May all beings be healthy and strong. May all beings live with ease.

Core beliefs of Buddhism

Buddhism, like most of the great religions of the world, is divided into a number of different traditions. However, most traditions share a common set of fundamental beliefs.

1. Buddha is Not a God

The Buddha was an ordinary man, who 2,500 years ago saw clearly into the true nature of reality. As such, Buddha’s teachings are not set rules to follow, nor the only wisdom in the world. Rather, they should be seen as advice to consider, from someone who has ‘gone beyond’ everyday views, ideas, and conceptions. Many have also become ‘enlightened’ before Buddha, have since the Buddha, and will in the future.

2. You Should Not Believe Anything Without Thinking

Buddhists are encouraged to test everything they read or hear, to see if it stands up to their own standards as true or not.

Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.

3. Gods and Deities are Cultural

Some Buddhist schools have many Gods, others have none. But it would be wrong to say that Buddhism itself teaches atheism, pantheism, or any other position on gods and deities. Gods are the conception of a particular time and culture, and may be used more or less wisely in the development of one’s spiritual practice.

4. But… Don’t worry too much about the nature of God

The Buddha said it was more important to take steps to end your suffering than to follow endless discussions on the ‘true’ nature of God (and other such unanswerable questions).

Our theories of the eternal are as valuable as are those which a chick which has not broken its way through its shell might form of the outside world.

5. The Purpose of Life

Life exists in itself - there is no inherent meaning attached to life. However - as all human beings (and animals) wish for happiness and not to suffer - the purpose of life may be said to end that suffering.

6. The Afterlife Depends on this Life

Buddhism teaches that in an interconnected world, all actions have consequences (karma). The consequences of acts undertaken in this and earlier lifetimes will be felt in a next one, in a process known as reincarnation. It is a Buddhist aim to educate oneself and meditate in order to escape from this cycle of rebirth, to enter Nirvana.

7. Books and Teachings are Very Important

It is important to read and to listen to great teachers, so we can ‘undo’ more of our ignorance. Books are important, as is listening to great teachers. In fact, it is one of the most important things we can do with our lives.

8. Meditation is Key

A key belief in all Buddhist groups is the importance of meditation. Without calming our mind, and examining our mind’s nature and its beliefs, we can never reach enlightenment. Doing this sitting down is called meditation, and doing this while we undertake everyday activities is called mindfulness.

Everything is based on mind, is led by mind, is fashioned by mind. If you speak and act with a polluted mind, suffering will follow you, as the wheels of the oxcart follow the footsteps of the ox.

9. Healing Comes from Mind

Buddhism believes that our external situation is created by our internal minds. This is equally true for our health and the state of our bodies. Many Buddhists use meditation, mantras, and prayers alongside medicines to help heal themselves.

10. It’s Up To Ourselves

Buddhism maintains that it is not up to others to make us meditate or study. We are responsible for creating our own suffering, and it is solely up to us to create the circumstances for our release. It requires personal wisdom and commitment.

Work out your own salvation. Do not depend on others.

11. Our Bodies Are Precious

A life reborn as a human is considered a very precious thing. To have a long life is a rare and important opportunity to end our suffering. Hence, it is important to keep healthy.

To keep the body in good health is a duty…otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear.

12. Your Spiritual Community is Important

You do not have to go to a temple or meditation class to be a Buddhist. But being surrounded by others with similar views and objectives as yourself will be beneficial for one’s motivation, sense of purpose and deepening one’s understanding.

13. Interconnectedness is the Nature of Reality

Buddhists believe that everything is interconnected - every object, being, and concept is connected to what caused it, and what is around it. Also known as ‘emptiness’, Buddhists try to see that there is nothing in the universe that is not connected to everything else.

Emptiness is impermanence, it is change.
We should not complain about impermanence,
because without impermanence, nothing is possible.

Thich Nhat Hanh

It most clearly explains how we are not separate from the people and objects around us, in beautiful writing.

14. It’s Good to Be Good

Buddhists believe in the idea of karma (a logical extension from everything being interconnected). What we do to others will ultimately affect ourselves.

Hence Buddhism advocates doing good deeds, but not just the following strict rules. It is up to the individual to consider the wisest course of action for their future long term happiness. Five precepts, or ‘guides’, are often given as advice as to actions that will often most lead to beneficial outcomes. They are: not to lie, steal or defraud, kill or injure others, hurt via sexual relationships, and to not further cloud your mind with too many intoxicants.

Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one getting burned.

15. Compassion is Key

Compassion is a natural extension of understanding and wisdom. With true wisdom we grow more compassionate for the people we meet. And with compassion we ourselves grow wiser.

If you light a lamp for somebody, it will also brighten your path.
The Buddha

16. Sex is Neither Bad nor Good

In Buddhism, it is less the act of sex, or when or with whom it is performed that is important. More important is the motivation, attachment, and consequences of any act.

17. Strive for Balance

The Buddha himself learned that it is important not to be too strict on oneself (or on others). Moderation is the key to success in most things.

If you tighten the string too much, it will snap, and if you leave it too slack, it won’t play.

18. It’s Never Too Late to Begin

Some Buddhist schools emphasize that enlightenment is a quick process, that can happen at any moment. Others emphasize that it is difficult, and can take many lifetimes. Both agree, it is never too late to start practicing and thinking about the right way to live. The less ignorance you have, the less you will suffer.

It is never too late.
Even if you are going to die tomorrow,
Keep yourself straight and clear and be a happy human being today.
If you keep your situation happy day by day,
you will eventually reach the greatest happiness of Enlightenment.
Lama Yeshe