Author Topic: Buddhist A-Listers... Who's saying what!  (Read 11997 times)

Positive Change

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1008
Buddhist A-Listers... Who's saying what!
« on: July 29, 2012, 06:32:53 PM »


Small | Large


(check out from 10:05 onwards)

TIGER WOODS:
During the press conference where he apologized in "public", Tiger Woods cited a return to Buddhist principles as an important part of his recovery. "People probably don't realize it, but I was raised a Buddhist,” the 34-year-old golfer said, “and I actively practiced my faith from childhood until I drifted away from it in recent years. Buddhism teaches that a craving for things outside ourselves causes unhappy and pointless search for security. It teaches me to stop following every impulse and to learn restraint. Obviously I lost track of what I was taught." His re-dedication won over the Dalai Lama, who admitted he had not heard of Woods, but told the AP: "Whether you call it Buddhism or another religion, self-discipline, that's important," he said. "Self-discipline with awareness of consequences."




KEANU REEVES:
In 1993, Reeves played Siddhartha in Little Buddha, a role that may have turned the actor onto Buddhism. In a video series called "Discovering Buddhism," Reeves notes, "There is a profound power that is awakened in us by contemplating impermanence and death. We are inspired to practice the dharma in everything we do and not to waste another moment of our precious lives."




K.D. LANG:
Nearly a decade ago, k.d. lang began studying the Nyingma tradition of Buddhism, but the 48-year-old singer says she has been drawn to the practice since childhood. "From a very early age I have considered myself to be a Buddhist. I don’t even know where that came from, it was just an innate feeling," she said in an interview with the Shambhala Sun. "Then the older I got and the more I learned about Buddhism, the more I felt at home with its principles and philosophy."




RICHARD GERE:
Among the most famous Buddhists in Hollywood, Richard Gere has been a very vocal supporter of human rights in Tibet and is often seen in the company of the Dalai Lama. Their first meeting even included a vital acting lesson for Gere: “‘So when you do this acting and you're angry, are you really angry?’” Gere recalled His Holiness asking. “ ‘When you're acting sad, are you really sad? When you cry, are you really crying?’ I gave him some kind of actor answer, like it was more effective if you really believed in the emotion that you were portraying. He looked very deeply into my eyes and just started laughing. Hysterically. He was laughing at the idea that I would believe emotions are real, that I would work very hard to believe in anger and hatred and sadness and pain and suffering.”




UMA THURMAN:
In 1964, Uma Thurman’s father, Robert Thurman, became the first Westerner to be ordained as a Tibetan Buddhist monk. Though she is named after “dbuma chenpo” (“the great middle way”) she considers herself to be agnostic and regrets that her father didn’t give her a more formal religious upbringing: "My father didn't impose his religion on us as children,” the actress has said. “To the point that maybe it would have been nice to have a little more—something to rebel against."




ORLANDO BLOOM:
The Pirates of the Caribbean star has been practicing Buddhism since he was 19, adhering to the Nichiren principles. Over the years, the faith has been “ a real anchor” for Bloom, because it has given him “an unshakeable sense of self,” the 33-year-old actor says. “You just have to keep focused on living life, being good to the people around you, and respecting all life.”




KATE HUDSON:
After trying on Kabbalah with Madonna, Yankee third baseman Alex Rodriguez was reportedly “flirting” with Buddhism when he was dating Kate Hudson. Though Hudson was raised Jewish—the faith of her mother, Goldie Hawn—the family also practiced Buddhism. Hudson would even bring Buddhist prayer beads to Yankee games, and perhaps it worked: The team won the World Series in 2009.




TINA TURNER:
Seventy-year-old Tina Turner credits her Buddhist faith for giving her the strength to leave her abusive husband, Ike, even though she was penniless in 1976. ''I tested it, and it worked,'' Turner told Rolling Stone. ''When I started practicing, something happened to me inside.''




OLIVER STONE:
In a commencement speech to the UC-Berkeley class of 1994, filmmaker Oliver Stone spoke of the importance of his faith in the world. “Buddhism in this country is not really understood; it's regarded as sort of quaint, it seems to be an old-fashioned religion,” the 63-year-old Stone said. “But it isn't, really. It's a very active one and has a place in the modern world.”




RUSSELL SIMMONS:
Rap mogul Russell Simmons samples from a smorgasbord of spirituality: He is a vegan who practices yoga and Buddhism. Simmons says his business decisions are influenced by the ethics of his faith. “[My] book Do You! is about your inner voice. And when you connect to that voice then you—then the freedom comes. And we're only here to be happy. So happy makes money. Money doesn't make happy.” Buddha himself could not have said it better.




LEONARD COHEN:
Singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen has practiced Buddhism since the 1970s, but it was only after he finished touring for his 1992 album, The Future, that he decided to devote himself completely into the faith. The man who wrote “Hallelujah” lived for five years in a Zen Buddhist monastery in Los Angeles.




STEVEN SEAGAL:
Steven Seagal has been studying Buddhism since he was a boy, and in 1997, the action star was declared to be a reincarnated lama, or tulku (a sacred vessel of Tibetan Buddhism). Seagal also served as the American protector of the daughter of the tenth Panchen Lama while she was in college.  Seagal had heard she was in danger, so he contacted people in Tibet. “I spoke with my friends there, and they said I was one of the few people who could protect and take care of her… be her father figure, her guardian,” Seagal said. “Try to guide her so that she kept her heritage in the dharma… You're born naked, you die naked… In between, you should find a spiritual guide.”




HERBIE HANCOCK:
Jazz legend Herbie Hancock has been practicing Buddhism, since the early 1970s. He discovered it one night on stage when his bassist started playing something innovative, even “magical.” “People were freaking out,” Hancock said of his satori, “it was so incredible what he was playing.” The bass player said he’d been chanting. Hancock was intrigued, and discovered the Buddhist faith lined up with what he’d already believed. “I said, This sounds like what I always believed in anyway. I thought I was the only one.”




PHILIP GLASS:
Composer Philip Glass was first drawn to Buddhism in the late 1960s, when he traveled to India. In 1972, he met the Dalai Lama and eventually scored the soundtrack to Martin Scorsese's film about His Holiness, Kundun. Scorsese said of Glass, "His Buddhist faith and deep understanding of Tibetan culture combine with the subtlety of his composition to play an essential role in our movie on the life of the Dalai Lama."




STEVE JOBS:
In 1974, as soon as Steve Jobs earned enough money working for videogame-maker Atari, he traveled to India where a Buddhist monk shaved his head and he began practicing the faith. A few years later, Jobs began studying Zen Buddhism under Kobin Chino who would later officiate at his wedding. While being a billionaire may seem to go against Jobs’ faith, his Zen-like business attitude has certainly paid off when it comes to the religion Jobs founded in 1976: Apple.

Klein

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 502
Re: Buddhist A-Listers... Who's saying what!
« Reply #1 on: July 29, 2012, 07:56:28 PM »
The most recent Buddhist who made headlines worldwide is Ms Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma. She sacrificed her personal pursuits of being with her husband and children for the sake of her countrymen. She stayed in house arrest for 20 years and still arise without any bitterness. She is truly inspirational.

The following is a video clip on a Q&A regarding Buddhism and the Sangha.

Aung San Suu Kyi Q&A : On Buddhism


In addition, during an interview with Ms Sally Quinn of Washington Post, Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi expressed how Buddhism has influenced her.

QUESTIONER: I’m Sally Quinn from the Washington Post, editor-in-chief of “On Faith.” And like Fred Hiatt, my colleague, I wish you would write for us. (Laughter.) This is more of a personal question. I don’t know what I expected to see from you today, maybe somebody looking very tired and worn and maybe a little embittered. And yet I see an incredibly cheerful and optimistic person before me. And given what you have been through in the last 15 or 20 years, which none of us can really imagine, what has gotten you through all of this? You have talked about how we mustn’t -- we want restorative, not punitive. And you’ve said, let’s forget the past. Is it your faith that’s gotten you through this and brought you to the point where now you can be as optimistic and as cheerful and as forward-looking as you are?

SUU KYI: Well, let me answer you bit by bit. So -- (audio break) -- and secondly, I am tired -- in fact, rather sleepy as well. But I’m glad it doesn’t show. (Laughter.)

And thirdly -- well, I’m not embittered. But I have to say that I’m not saying forget the past. We must face the past. We can’t forget it. But we don’t need to remember it with bitterness. We don’t need to remember it with anger. We need the past in order to -- we need to remember the past in order to avoid the kind of mistakes we’ve made then in the future. So we need the past in order to help us live the future better -- the present and the future better.

And you asked if it was anything to do with my faith. I suppose you mean with my religion. I suppose partly it must have something to do with that because, well, I am a believing Buddhist, so I am sure the teachings of Buddhism do affect the way I think.

But more than that, I would state that when I started out in politics, in this movement for democracy, I always started out with the idea that this should be a process that would bring greater happiness, greater harmony and greater peace to our nation. And this cannot be done if you are going to be bound by anger and by desire for revenge. So I’ve never thought that the way to go forward was through anger and bitterness, but through understanding, trying to understand the other side, and through the ability to negotiate with people who think quite differently from you and to agree to disagree if necessary -- if necessary and to somehow bring harmony out of different ways of thinking.

fruven

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 659
Re: Buddhist A-Listers... Who's saying what!
« Reply #2 on: July 29, 2012, 08:32:55 PM »
The most recent Buddhist who made headlines worldwide is Ms Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma. She sacrificed her personal pursuits of being with her husband and children for the sake of her countrymen. She stayed in house arrest for 20 years and still arise without any bitterness. She is truly inspirational.

The following is a video clip on a Q&A regarding Buddhism and the Sangha.

Aung San Suu Kyi Q&A : On Buddhism

In addition, during an interview with Ms Sally Quinn of Washington Post, Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi expressed how Buddhism has influenced her.

QUESTIONER: I’m Sally Quinn from the Washington Post, editor-in-chief of “On Faith.” And like Fred Hiatt, my colleague, I wish you would write for us. (Laughter.) This is more of a personal question. I don’t know what I expected to see from you today, maybe somebody looking very tired and worn and maybe a little embittered. And yet I see an incredibly cheerful and optimistic person before me. And given what you have been through in the last 15 or 20 years, which none of us can really imagine, what has gotten you through all of this? You have talked about how we mustn’t -- we want restorative, not punitive. And you’ve said, let’s forget the past. Is it your faith that’s gotten you through this and brought you to the point where now you can be as optimistic and as cheerful and as forward-looking as you are?

SUU KYI: Well, let me answer you bit by bit. So -- (audio break) -- and secondly, I am tired -- in fact, rather sleepy as well. But I’m glad it doesn’t show. (Laughter.)

And thirdly -- well, I’m not embittered. But I have to say that I’m not saying forget the past. We must face the past. We can’t forget it. But we don’t need to remember it with bitterness. We don’t need to remember it with anger. We need the past in order to -- we need to remember the past in order to avoid the kind of mistakes we’ve made then in the future. So we need the past in order to help us live the future better -- the present and the future better.

And you asked if it was anything to do with my faith. I suppose you mean with my religion. I suppose partly it must have something to do with that because, well, I am a believing Buddhist, so I am sure the teachings of Buddhism do affect the way I think.

But more than that, I would state that when I started out in politics, in this movement for democracy, I always started out with the idea that this should be a process that would bring greater happiness, greater harmony and greater peace to our nation. And this cannot be done if you are going to be bound by anger and by desire for revenge. So I’ve never thought that the way to go forward was through anger and bitterness, but through understanding, trying to understand the other side, and through the ability to negotiate with people who think quite differently from you and to agree to disagree if necessary -- if necessary and to somehow bring harmony out of different ways of thinking.


Her motivation has been all along for others, it goes to show that with the correct motivation it will bring change to society. Not blaming others for injustice but instead taking responsibilities by listening and communicating to others. By not giving up it means having hope, one will be inspiration to others and received the support of others.

Aurore

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 356
Re: Buddhist A-Listers... Who's saying what!
« Reply #3 on: July 30, 2012, 02:13:04 PM »
Nice post Positive Change for with this I learned that Robert Thurman is Uma Thurman's father. Actually never knew that. Wonderful.

I especially like what Oliver Stone said about Buddhism being a modern religion.
“Buddhism in this country is not really understood; it's regarded as sort of quaint, it seems to be an old-fashioned religion,” the 63-year-old Stone said. “But it isn't, really. It's a very active one and has a place in the modern world.”

This statement alone tells us that Buddhism is very suitable for the modern world because of its logic and it is practical to apply. In fact, it is sorely needed as modernisation accelerates and more people are having mental distress and difficulties. If people turn to Buddhism, Buddhism will grow. When Buddhism grow, Dorje Shugden is crucial to protect the doctrine of Lama Tsongkhapa. Buddhism must remain pure and untainted.

Ensapa

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4124
    • Email
Re: Buddhist A-Listers... Who's saying what!
« Reply #4 on: July 30, 2012, 05:07:03 PM »
Let's not forget about Jet Li who started an NGO altogether based on Buddhist philosophy. He even wanted to quit showbiz in 2008 to learn Buddhism fulltime, but he probably decided against it as his NGO does need a lot of money to sustain and run its activities. It is very inspiring to see such a huge celebrity be such a devout Buddhist and actually took action and did something with his fame and fortune to benefit others!

Quote
Actor Jet Li, a devout Buddhist, is taking up a new career -- philanthropy. Li has established the Jet Li One Foundation Project in China as a grassroots non-governmental organization (NGO). One Foundation already has contributed to Sichuan earthquake relief.

Lynda Gorov quotes Li in today's Boston Globe: "I need to pay back to the world. I started in China because I know the culture very well. In the future I will help elsewhere in Asia, then maybe five or 10 years later in other places in the world. Wherever they need help, I will do my best."

In recent years there have been occasional unfounded reports that Li was preparing to leave his film career to study Buddhism. Li is a student of Lho Kunsang Rinpoche, a Tibetan teacher of the Kagyu school, but he pursues Buddhist studies and a film career at the same time. Li told Gorov that he is not quitting movies this time, either, but he expects to spend less time on film and more on philanthropy in the future.

and an even older news:

Quote
   
Jet Li to quit film for Buddhism
(Shenzhen Daily)
Updated: 2004-03-11 10:42

Hollywood martial arts star Jet Li would quit movie making next month and turn to Buddhist studies in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in Southwest China, sources close to him said.

Li planned to announce the decision on his 41st birthday on April 26, his friends and relatives in Beijing said.

Li was the highest-earning Chinese mainland entertainer last year, with an income of up to 140 million yuan (US$17 million), according to Forbes. His income even surpassed NBA star Yao Ming.

Li had repeatedly said previously he would turn to Buddhism after he spent 13 days studying Buddhism in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. He participated in some Buddhist activities in Hong Kong and Taiwan recently.

Li reportedly has the support of his wife Nina Li, the 1996 Miss Asia.

However, Zhang Weiping, producer of Li’s box-office smash Hero and a close friend of Li, said the news was unfounded.

“Li called me from the United States several days ago. He said he was very satisfied with our cooperation in Hero and was looking forward to another project,” said Zhang.

However, Zhang confirmed that Li was a pious Buddhist.

“Once we were on the same flight to the United States. He practiced za-zen and prayed for more than four hours, during which time I fell asleep and woke up,” said Zhang.

Yet Zhang still insisted Li would not retire at the top of his career.

“He is only studying Buddhism and will not become a monk,” said Zhang.

Buddhist disciples are not rare among film stars. Twenty years ago, Hong Kong superstar Huang Yuanshen, hero of the famous TV series Legend of a Fighter (Huo Yuan-jia), became a monk at the prime of his career.

Jackie Chan and Eric Tsang are also pious Buddhists as were the late Anita Mui and Leslie Cheung.

Positive Change

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1008
Re: Buddhist A-Listers... Who's saying what!
« Reply #5 on: July 31, 2012, 08:52:15 AM »


Maddox Jolie:
While mama Angelina doesn’t consider herself a Buddhist, she does say that she wants the religion to be an important part of her adopted Cambodian son’s life. Maddox has spent a lot of time in temples with monks and is actively learning about the faith with his parents’ guidance.




Kate Bosworth:
“It’s just a really incredible state of mind. It’s just a beautiful place to try and be at. It’s basically about constantly growing and making yourself a better person and focusing on what you want for yourself and the world and really putting it out there. It’s amazing.” To which we can only say, “Awesome!”



According to contactmusic.com, Watts feels drawn to the faith and has even taken up meditating and wearing Buddhist style beads on her wrist.

She says, "I have some belief but I am not a strict Buddhist or anything yet. There was a lot of excitement and energy there."



With ethereally mellow songs like "Barely Breathing," which was nominated for a Grammy eight years ago, Mr. Sheik, 36, may not be the first name that comes to mind on the subject of hormonal teenage angst. But as a devoted Buddhist, he said, he strives to thread sufferings and salvations of all kinds into his music.

"Buddhism deals with all aspects of the human condition," he said. "We're always shuttling through different states of life" — from love to pain, anger to shame.


More on Tina Turner:
The “Queen of Rock and Roll” has an instantly recognizable voice, a career dating back to 1960, unbelievable legs, and a serious Buddhist practice. As shown in the biopic What’s Love Got to Do With It, it was Turner’s Buddhist practice that gave her the strength to leave her abusive marriage to Ike Turner in the 70?s, which in turn made her an icon for abused women everywhere. Turner is another practitioner of Nichiren Buddhism and famously chanted Nam Moho Rengye Kyo on Larry King Live (see video, below).

Turner said: “I had to teach myself because I didn’t have the freedom to go to actually go to meetings or for people to come to me … and it changed my life.”

Small | Large


Ensapa

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4124
    • Email
Re: Buddhist A-Listers... Who's saying what!
« Reply #6 on: August 01, 2012, 05:25:55 PM »
And yes, here are more of them:

Adam Yauch

Beastie Boys - Bodhisattva Vow (Live 1994) Small | Large


It goes without saying that there was no musician more closely linked to the Dalai Lama in the minds of music fans than Adam Yauch. It was Yauch that pushed the rest of the Beastie Boys to organize the Tibetan Freedom Concerts and found the Milarepa Fund. For many it was their first exposure to the Free Tibet movement.

Born to a Jewish mom and a Catholic dad, Yauch was a Buddhist long before the cancer invaded his body. Even after he got sick he still believed in the power of mind over matter, partaking in meditation and encouraging his fans to do the same.

Yauch may be gone, but for fighting the good fighting both around the world and inside his body he'll always have a special place in our heart.

David Bowie

David Bowie Tibet House Benefit 26.02.2001 Silly boy blue Small | Large


Before the Beatles ever made it to India Bowie had Tibet on the brain. A chance meeting with a Tibetan lama in the mid-'60s set him on his spiritual path before he hit 18. Before there was Ziggy, there was a man named David unafraid to mix Buddhism in to his work.

While a young Bowie may have dreamed about running to Tibet and becoming a monk he settled for a career in music and the occasional reference to yak butter statues. He'd eventually revisit "Silly Boy Blue" thematically 3 decades later with "Seven Years in Tibet". We can only hope to be so lucky as to get another part of the story in 2027.



Alanis Morissette
Alanis Morissette - Thank You (Video) Small | Large

When we first met Alanis, it was as the jilted lover and the potential new face of female rock. Jagged Little Pill sold more than 30 million copies worldwide and a new star was born. Anticipation was high for her second record, but when "Thank U" dropped it alienated some of her fans. India might have been good for her spirit but not necessarily her album sales.

With a cover referencing the Eight Precepts of Buddhism and significantly less anger, it was clear that she was finding at least some sense of inner peace. She'd later meet the Dalai Lama and play a series of shows for Tibetan freedom. While we may secretly want another "You Outta Know" we can't fault her for seeking enlightenment.

Kirk Hammett (Metallica)
Metallica - Frantic [Official Music Video] Small | Large

Give their early albums a listen and it's hard to imagine anyone in Metallica as peaceful. Even in a post-Some Kind of Monster world, it's still a little weird to think about the softer side of Metallica even though we know it's there. The idea that Kirk Hammett is a Buddhist makes a lot more sense when you look at the big picture: you'd have to really know inner peace to deal with the other personalities in the group.

So while James may be the face on the band onstage and Lars the outspoken one offstage, Kirk is content to be laid back and just go along for the ride. What else can you do when you're the lead guitarist in band and the rest of the guys say they don't want any guitar solos on the album?




Jessie Fong

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 690
Re: Buddhist A-Listers... Who's saying what!
« Reply #7 on: August 03, 2012, 02:10:26 PM »
Here are a few more Celebrity Buddhists :


Jennifer Lopez is spectacularly popular, but only recently took up an interest in Buddhism after starring in a movie recently with Richard Gere.

Goldie Hawn's mother was Jewish, but Goldie Hawn is not know to practice Judaism in any way.
Goldie Hawn is reportedly a practicing Buddhist.

English actress Joanna Lumley, OBE was born in Srinagar, Kashmir in 1946. She is especially well known for playing the roles of the glamorous Purdey (successor to Mrs. Peel) on The New Avengers (1976-77), and the hard-drinking, chain-smoking Patsy Stone in the BBC-TV comedy Absolutely Fabulous (1992-96). Lumley has narrated two BBC documentaries with Buddhist content: Kingdom of the Lost Boy (April 1996), the excellent film about the young Panchen Lama, and Kingdom of the Thunder Dragon (November 1997), a documentary about her visit to the mountain kingdom of Bhutan. Lumley also supports Choose Cruelty Free, a non-profit organisation dedicated to stopping produt testing on animals. More recently Lumley appeared as the piemaker Mrs. Lovett, engaging in some very unwholesome karma in the film The Tale of Sweeney Todd, and was active in fundraising for the victims of the 1999 floods in Orissa (India).

"Belligerent bohemian punk poet. Street-hot rock and roll messiah. Ultimate female rock rebel. The Queen of Piss. That was the Patti Smith of the 1970's... Mother of two. Widow. Poet and performer. Student of religious imagery. Author. That is the Patti Smith of 1996." Thus begins "The Death and Rebirth of Patti Smith" [http://www.shambhalasun.com/Archives/Features/1996/July96/PattiSmith.htm], the Shambhala Sun interview with the rock-and-roll legend Patti Smith. The article includes her account of meeting H.H. the Dalai Lama and a short poem/prayer that Smith later wrote in his honour. Patti Smith talks about death in "The power and the glory, the resurrection and the life"

bambi

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 722
Re: Buddhist A-Listers... Who's saying what!
« Reply #8 on: August 04, 2012, 01:18:45 PM »
Thank you for all the wonderful posts on celebrities. I didn't know there were so many who are practicing and how they can actually influence people. Not only actor or actresses but many sportsmen are Buddhists as well. How they are on vegetarian diet and they can still be good at what they are doing. Isn't in inspiring?

Chan is a Buddhist and has always wanted to be a role model to children, remaining popular with them due to his good-natured acting style. He has refused to play villains and has almost never used the "F word" in his films. Chan's greatest regret in life is not having received proper education, inspiring him to fund educational institutions around the world. He funded the construction of the Jackie Chan Science Centre at the Australian National University and the establishment of schools in poor regions of China. He has promised over half of his estate to go to charity after he dies.



Roberto Baggio (born 18 February 1967) is a retired Italian footballer (soccer), among the most technically gifted and popular players in the world throughout the 1990s and early 2000s.
He played for the Italian national team in three World Cups, and is the only Italian player ever to score in three World Cups. He helped reach second place at the 1994 World Cup and third place at the 1990 World Cup.
He won both the European Footballer of the Year (Ballon d'Or) and the FIFA World Player of the Year award in 1993. Pelé named Baggio as one of the 125 greatest living footballers in his 2004 FIFA 100 list. Baggio was voted eighteenth in a poll organised by the French weekly magazine France Football consulting their former Ballon d'Or winners to elect the Football Player of the Century.
Baggio, formerly a Roman Catholic, practices Nichiren Buddhism and is a member of the Soka Gakkai International Buddhist organization.



Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner, CBE (born 2 October 1951), known commercially by his stage name Sting, is an English musician and actor from Wallsend in North Tyneside. Prior to starting his solo career, he was the principal songwriter, lead singer and bassist of the rock music band The Police.
Sting has incorporated some aspects of vegetarianism into his diet, but is not a vegetarian in any regular use of the term. He follows Vajrayana Buddhism.


ilikeshugden

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 181
    • Email
Re: Buddhist A-Listers... Who's saying what!
« Reply #9 on: August 04, 2012, 03:18:43 PM »
Many celebrities now are Buddhist. Some Mahayana, some Zen and some Vajrayana. Many of them have Buddhistic backgrounds.

1. Tiger Woods.
I never knew that Tiger Woods was a Buddhist. It is good that he managed to confess and relate to his spiritual background as part of his recovery. When the Dalai Lama said that self-discipline is important. I completely agree. When someone has self discipline, that person will be able to become a better person with self-control.

2. Keanu Reeves
I only knew him from the Matrix. I have to watch Little Buddha. He contemplates on death and impermanence. Those two are both pillars of Buddhism. When we acknowledge that one day we will die, we will want to do something about ourselves. When we learn of impermanence, we know to not chase after secular things that will bring no long term benefit.

3. K.D. Lang
I never heard of K.D. before. So, I would now know about her practices other than the fact she practices the Nyigma tradition.

4. Richard Gere.
He is one of my favourite actors because of Hachiko. That movie made me tear. What I learn from this paragraph is that emotions are never real. When you are happy, you will not stay happy. When you stay sad, you will not stay sad. It is also a lesson of impermanence. The emotions we experience are all deception by our mind.

5. Stephen Seagal
My favourite action star! He learns that you are born with nothing and you die with nothing. It is a very true teaching.

Aurore

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 356
Re: Buddhist A-Listers... Who's saying what!
« Reply #10 on: August 05, 2012, 06:56:48 PM »
Faye Wong is one of the biggest pop singers in Asia and is known internationally for her 1 million dollar song, "Eyes on Me", a theme to Final Fantasy 8.

She is a also famous for being a Tibetan Buddhist and she proudly shows to the world by wearing a red cord on her right hand. Presumably this red cord was given to her by her guru, Lama Zopa Rinpoche. (hmmm ... I wonder if he's given her DS practice as well  :P)

In the tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, the red cord is called a "protection and blessing cord." In her case, she wears it for protection and peace.

A big supporter of Buddhism, Faye Wong has also produced Buddhist tracks and performs in various Buddhist charity events. 

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DaX76E0AqhYY&v=aX76E0AqhYY&gl=MY

This buddhist song is recorded in the CD album "Loving Kindness & Wisdom" for the Maitreya Project where all net profit from sales will be donated as fund of the construction project of the huge Maitreya Buddha Statue in India.

Loving Kindness & Wisdom album is a CD By Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Faye Wong. It contains over 60 minutes of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s beautiful, resonant chanting overlaid upon the accompaniment of vocals from Faye Wong. This two-CD anthology is intensely devotional, containing the full praises to the Twenty-one Taras and their mantras, “Calling the Guru from Afar” and the “Four Immeasurables”. Tracks of particular note include Faye Wong’s attractive recitation of the “Sutra of the Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom” and her rendition of the Maitreya Buddha mantra.

Such a lovely way a celebrity can contribute to Buddhism with her talent and fame. I find her inspiring.