Rev. Danny Fisher

A still from Pixar Animation Studio’s short film “For the Birds.”

Over at my Patheos blog Off the Cushion, I have posted a new interview with my friends William Whittington and Vicki Callahan, professors at the University of Southern California’s School for the Cinematic Arts. In it, we discuss the intersection of Buddhism, film, and social justice. You can read it here.

I met Vicki (who has become a good friend) and William four years ago, during an event we all were participating in at Hsi Lai Temple. As scholars of film interested in Buddhism (rather than the other way around), I was particularly interested to pick their brains about a few things — social justice included. They graciously agreed, and we had our discussion via email.

Check out our conversation here!

At Los Angeles Central Library, Los Angeles, CA. Photo by the author.

I’ve blogged before in the past about my friend and inspiration Charles S. Prebish. I interviewed Chuck and John Harding about the late Leslie Kawamura for Buddhadharma: The Practitioner’s Quarterly Online; did a roundtable conversation with him, my buddy Justin Whitaker and Sarah Haynes for Ted Meissner’s The Secular Buddhist Podcast; and reviewed his memoir An American Buddhist Life: Memoirs of a Modern Dharma Pioneer in the last issue of The Journal of Global Buddhism.

Chuck wrote to me recently and sent along the pictured patch, explaining to me that it was part of a project for Sumeru Books’ amazingly great blog, and asking if I would be interested in adding to it. Over at the blog, Yönten explains:

My cousin, Mickey Glantz, is a world-renowned climatologist from Boulder, CO. (http://fragilecologies.com) When the Vietnamese and Americans normalized relations after the Vietnam war, he was the first person they invited to visit. He designed the badge while he was in Kathmandu recently for a climate change conference.

The hand belongs to Dhiraj Pradhananga, who runs Small Earth Nepal (http://www.smallearth.org.np), who is doing advanced education work in Canmore, AB  this year.

Between the three of us, we have cooked up what we think is an awesome idea.

Dhiraj has had 108+ similar badges manufactured by cottage industry ladies in Nepal for $1.25 each. Good business for local handicrafts persons, working out of shops the size of half a North American single-car garage.

I’m selling them, at cost, plus shipping and handling and any donation you care to make ($5+ suggested, covers costs and a small contribution). All profits will go to NGOs in Nepal and Bhutan: environmental action, education for girls, and orphanages . Some badges say “Plot to Save the Planet” and some say “Plot to Save the Earth.” There are three different designs, which I’ll show in later posts. Let me know which you like best.

What I really want is for people to take pictures of their “Plot to Save the Earth” badges in front of their favourite local nature spots, all over the planet, and send them to me to post. I’m hoping the pictures also start popping up all over the web. It’s a great heartfelt message for anyone who has the good fortune to see one of them. How cool is that!

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Write me if you want a badge! Sumeru, Box 2089, Richmond Hill, ON, Canada L4E 1A3. Don’t forget to tell me your mailing address.

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We’ve also started a Facebook Group: Plot to Save the Earth

Sumeru already has some of the photos up at their blog, and you can see them here.

I’ve previously written about my own environmental work, and you can read about that here. Obviously, I was happy to participated in this effort and decided to contribute my own photo (shown above). As a city slicker these days, I decided to put the focus on one of my favorite green spaces in Los Angeles: the Central Library.

I hope you’ll consider joining Sumeru and others in this cool project!

Awesome news: my dear old college friend Dan Ewen, the noted screenwriter and comedian, and his friend Tom Richner (a longtime artist for The Simpsons) have designed an amazing T-shirt that both honors the Buddhist connection to The Big Lebowski and benefits Buddhist Global Relief with 10% of each sale. You can buy one right here.

Dan wrote to me awhile back asking me what one Buddhist charity I would make a donation to if I had a bunch of money, and I said Buddhist Global Relief – the visionary, Buddhist-inspired humanitarian organization that contributes to relief and justice efforts worldwide, and does, I think, a truly extraordinary job of it. Bhikkhu Bodhi, founder of BGR, is a friend I’ve mentioned before: I’ve interviewed him many times in the past, and you can find those interviews here, here, here, here, here, and here.

The Big Lebowski is, of course, Joel and Ethan Coen’s 1998 cult classic which tells an absurd, Chandler-esque L.A. detective story of sorts. It’s also been co-opted by Buddhists as part of the canon of “Buddhist films.” Earlier this year, I was honored to serve as moderator for a conversation with the film’s Academy Award-winning star Jeff Bridges and Zen master Bernie Glassman for the Library Foundation of Los Angeles’ [ALOUD] series. The two were promoting a new book they wrote together about Zen and The Big Lebowski entitled The Dude and the Zen Master. You can listen to the conversation in podcast form, as well as watch it on video at Vimeo.

Anyway, I was thrilled to see what Dan (who is not only one of the funniest guys I know, but one of the sweetest too) and Tom did, and I hope you’ll buy a shirt. If you love Buddhism and film, and want to benefit good works being done by Buddhists, then this is the shirt for you! Again, you can buy one right here.

Nick Kristof helps the author propose. Image via Half the Sky Movement (www.facebook.com/halftheskymovement).

I’m very pleased to share with you all that three days ago, on my birthday, with a little help from the incredibly heroic and very dear New York Times columnist Nick Kristof, (see above), I proposed to my partner Steph and she said “yes.”

I’ve blogged twice before — here and here — about the book Nick co-authored with his wife Sheryl WuDunn, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. Certainly one of most important books ever written, it has inspired a television miniseries, a Facebook game, and a movement that I’m now very proud to be a part of as Lead for Religious Outreach.

The book and the movement have also had an unexpected effect on my personal life…

Rev. Danny Fisher (pointing) with the students in University of the West’s “Spiritual Leadership” class at Pershing Square before their walking tour of Los Angeles’ Skid Row. Photo by Anny Shi.

All is revealed in my new post at University of the West’s Dharma Dialogue blog!

For the uninitiated, Dharma Dialogue began last fall with a course taught by UWest’s Chair of the Religious Studies Department, Dr. Jane Iwamura. That course was “Buddhism in the U.S.”, and the posts from the students generated much conversation in the Buddhist blogosphere.

This semester, it has been handed off to myself (representing the Buddhist Chaplaincy Department at UWest) and the students in my “Spiritual Leadership” class. We hope you’ll come by and take a look at what we’re up to! Though it has arrived a bit late, my post might be a good place to start for context. Check it out here.