monks

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Thai Temple Cleared of All Its Monks After Drug Test

Buddhist foursome in Phetchabun province came up positive for meth, a major issue in Thailand

(Newser) - Thailand has been trying to crack down on drug trafficking, especially when it comes to the methamphetamine pouring in from neighboring Myanmar, and drug testing has been a part of the nation's campaign against it. The latest group to be busted, however, is a bit of a surprise—and...

Zen Master Preached Compassion, a 'Return to the Breath'

Revered Zen Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh has died at the age of 95

(Newser) - Thich Nhat Hanh, the revered Zen Buddhist monk who helped spread the practice of mindfulness in the West and socially engaged Buddhism in the East, has died. He was 95. The death was confirmed by a monk at Tu Hieu Pagoda in Hue, Vietnam, who said that Nhat Hanh, known...

Monks Are Sitting on 4K Discs of Cheese

With demand plummeting, French monastery sells online

(Newser) - The pandemic has cut sales of the cheese produced at a French monastery in half. Restaurants are closed, and customers don't stop by the Cîteaux Abbey's shop these days. So the basement is filling up with 4,000 semi-soft discs, the Guardian reports. The Trappist monks who...

Belgian Monks Revive Medieval Beer Techniques

And they're building a microbrewery at Grimbergen monastery

(Newser) - The monks of Grimbergen Abbey in Belgium are getting back in the beer business with recipes that go back to the 12th century. The monks there spent four years poring over hard-to-decipher monastery books written in old Dutch and Latin and have produced a new brew based on the old...

Monk Meditates in Tiger Reserve, Gets Killed by Leopard

Not a great choice of locale

(Newser) - A Buddhist monk’s monthlong forest meditation was interrupted in a most horrid way Wednesday in India. Rahul Walke, 35, was meditating under a tree in Maharashtra’s Ramdegi forest, home to a Buddhist temple and a protected tiger reserve, when a leopard attacked, reports the Times of India . A...

Former Monk Sues L'Oreal Over Anti-Aging Formula

Says he was selling it to raise money for the poor until cosmetics giant came along

(Newser) - A former Roman Catholic monk has filed a federal lawsuit against cosmetics giant L'Oreal, accusing the company of stealing patented technology in an anti-aging wrinkle cream that his charity was selling to raise money for the poor. Dennis Wyrzykowski and his company, Carmel Laboratories LLC, have been joined in...

NYC Tourists Warned of Fake 'Hostile' Monks

Buddhist leaders say men soliciting money are a real problem

(Newser) - New York City Buddhist leaders are sounding the alarm to tourists: Beware the "fake monks." Men in orange robes claiming to be Buddhist monks are approaching visitors to some of the city's most popular attractions, handing them shiny medallions and offering greetings of peace. They then hit...

Monks Don't Brew Leffe. A Man Is Suing Because of It

It's not exactly brewed in smaller quantities, as Henry Vazquez believed it to be

(Newser) - In the year 1240, Leffe came into being , brewed by Belgian monks at the Abbaye Notre-Dame de Leffe. The French Revolution put an end to the brewing in the 1790s, but the reestablishment of the abbey in 1929 was followed, 23 years later, by its restart, though no longer at...

Shandling Will Be Made Buddhist Monk Posthumously

Sources give TMZ details of comedian's funeral

(Newser) - Garry Shandling didn't speak much about it publicly, but he was Buddhist, and he had planned what TMZ calls an "elaborate" Buddhist funeral before his death. Sources tell the gossip site Shandling's head will be shaved by a monk, a symbolic gesture that ordains Shandling as a...

Monk Embezzled $200K From Temple to Fuel Gambling Habit

Khang Nguyen Le pleaded guilty

(Newser) - A Buddhist monk accused of embezzling more than $200,000 from his Louisiana temple to feed a casino gambling habit has pleaded guilty to fraud, the AP reports. The Advocate reports that 38-year-old Khang Nguyen Le will be sentenced June 27 after his guilty plea Thursday to one count of...

Buddhist Monk Is Philly's Newest Crimefighter

61-year-old tried to take down thief who interrupted his lotto session

(Newser) - Don't mess with Philadelphia's men of the cloth—especially if those cloths are orange. A 61-year-old Buddhist monk at a lottery machine in a Philly gas station Jan. 3 was targeted by a thief who probably assumed the holy man was an easy mark, the Philadelphia Daily News ...

Monks Lied About King Arthur's Burial to Raise Cash

Supposed grave is really a pit of rubble

(Newser) - A team of 31 specialists led by an archaeologist at the University of Reading are shedding light on some supposed Dark Age legends in their four-year work at Glastonbury Abbey in the UK, reports the Guardian . To wit: "Those feet, immortalized in William Blake’s poem Jerusalem , never walked...

Man's Body Found in Ancient Buddha Statue

Dutch experts say it's the Buddhist master Liuquan

(Newser) - Look inside a 1,000-year-old Chinese Buddha statue, and what do you find? Why, a mummified body, of course. At least that's what Dutch researchers saw when performing a CT scan on a statue shown last year in the Netherlands at Drents Museum, Discover reports. The body is believed...

Buddhists: Mummified Monk Is Just in Trance

Lama found in lotus position may not be dead, experts suggest

(Newser) - The 200-year-old Buddhist monk found still seated in the lotus position is not dead, but is rather in a rare spiritual state known as tukdam, Buddhism experts suggest. Dr. Barry Kerzin, a famous fellow monk who is also a physician to the Dalai Lama, tells the Siberian Times that monks...

Alaska Nuns Crack Case of Monks' Missing Boat

Eagle-eyed sisters help remote monastery near Kodiak solve what happened to skiff

(Newser) - What crime could there possibly be on a desolate, wooded island near Kodiak, Alaska, where a community of Orthodox Christian monks are holed up in a monastery? Boat-napping, according to Alaska State Troopers, who say that the Archangel, a 21-foot aluminum skiff used as the monks' primary means of transport...

US Gets a Taste of Monk-Brewed Beer

Massachusetts abbey becomes first Trappist brewery outside of Europe

(Newser) - American monks are done letting their European counterparts have all the brewing fun. For more than a century, Catholic Cistercian monks known as Trappists have been brewing and selling what many beer lovers consider some of the best in the world. Eight monasteries—six in Belgium and one each in...

Beer Lovers, Rejoice: Monks Export Rare Brew

Westvleteren 12 sales will pay for abbey renovation

(Newser) - Beer fans, meet the monks of St. Sixtus Abbey. The Belgian monks are temporarily exporting their world-famous brew, Westvleteren 12, to pay for a pricey abbey renovation, NPR reports. The monks lead such a spartan, devout life that they lack cash reserves, so they're selling the beer at select...

Thailand's Tubby Monks to Get Nutrition Lessons

Study finds nearly half of country's monks are obese

(Newser) - Thailand's monks have been piling on too many pounds on their way to enlightenment. Authorities plan to educate the country's hundreds of thousands of Buddhist monks about healthy eating following a study that found 45% of them are obese and 40% of them suffer from diseases such as...

Monks Fight for Right to Sell Caskets

Monastery heads to court against state of Louisiana

(Newser) - A group of monks in Louisiana is heading to federal appeals court in a battle against the state. The monks want the right to sell their handcrafted caskets, but the state has demanded they cease and desist because of regulations regarding "funeral merchandise"—which the monks say were...

Pope Evicts 'Loose-Living' Monks

Monks hosted concerts starring prancing nuns

(Newser) - Some party-loving monks have been evicted from Rome's Santa Croce monastery by order of the Pope. The monks, whose abbey was attached to a church holding some of Catholicism's holiest relics, staged concerts featuring a lap dancer-turned-nun, hosted VIP guests including Madonna, and opened a hotel with a...

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