Rev. Danny Fisher

Via Students for a Free Tibet:

I’m delighted to share some relevant personal news with you all: I just found out that I will be presenting at this year’s American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting in Chicago, Nov. 1st-3rd. I’ll be giving a paper for the Buddhist Critical-Constructive Reflection Group on the importance of the emergent area of study dubbed “Buddhist theology” (or, “Buddhist critical-constructive reflection”) for us Buddhist chaplains. The paper is basically a micro-version of the master’s thesis I wrote while I was student at Naropa University. Here’s the abstract I submitted:

Attending to the Buddha: The Importance of Buddhist Theology for Practitioners Working as Professional Healthcare Chaplains

Chaplains working in the professional healthcare context are faced with a challenge: negotiating their own religious frames of reference with the standards for respectful spiritual care set by federal and state law, regulatory organizations, and certifying bodies. How does a chaplain help a patient draw upon his or her values, views, and beliefs as beneficial resources when the chaplain’s own values, views, and beliefs might be quite different? What can and cannot be done with integrity? As the number of professionally certified Buddhist chaplains grows, it behooves them to reflect carefully on these issues. By evaluating writing by Buddhist chaplains and bringing in insights from scholar-practitioners, I highlight ways that the Buddhist critical-constructive reflection movement offers useful direction. Additionally, I suggest that Buddhist chaplains might help this area of study grow by offering examples of practical theology.

I’m very excited about giving this paper, and I’m both honored and terrified to be presenting along with the likes of such remarkable scholars as John Dunne, Anne Klein, Mark Unno, and Abraham Vélez de Cea. Most of all, though, I’m glad that this topic will be getting some “airtime”: I believe that Buddhist theological work is hugely important for practitioners working in professional chaplaincy to engage in. And I’m not alone in thinking so among my colleagues: at the 2007 Buddhist Spiritual Care Symposium, C.P.E. supervisor Tom Kilts spoke passionately about its importance. We do have some excellent examples of what could be called “Buddhist pastoral theology” (in particular this piece by Mikel Monnett for Journal of Pastoral Care & Counseling), but it would good to see more. In short, if you’re a Buddhist chaplain and you haven’t read Roger Jackson and John Makransky’s Buddhist Theology: Critical Reflections by Contemporary Buddhist Scholars, please do so.

And if you’re planning to attend A.A.R.’s annual meeting this year, drop me a line. It would be nice to connect with more of you out there.

This courtesy of our friend Erick:

The government of Nepal should end arbitrary detention, threats and harassment against peaceful Tibetan protesters, Human Rights Watch said today. Government forces are pre-emptively arresting Tibetans in Kathmandu as they attempt to move around the city on foot, in taxis, or on buses. The police have directly threatened several individuals in detention with deportation to China.

“The threat of detention and deportation to China is being used by the government of Nepal to silence peaceful dissent,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Police have used excessive force to disperse some protesters and to arrest others, while beating some of those in detention.”

On March 25, 73 protesters were arrested around 11 a.m. in front of the Chinese consulate in Kathmandu and were detained until around 9:45 p.m. the same evening. Three of the individuals detained received some medical treatment, but were returned to detention while in obvious need of further medical care. Most of those released, along with eight friends, boarded two buses to travel back to their homes in Boudha. Shortly before reaching their destination, the buses were stopped and two Nepal police officers boarded each bus. The buses then reached a roadblock manned by police in front of the Boudha police station, where the passengers were forcibly removed from the buses and beaten as they were dragged into the police station at around 10:15 p.m. One individual was reportedly told by the district superintendent of police that if the person were seen demonstrating again, deportation would follow.

In separate incidents on March 25, Tibetans in the Swayambu area were stopped on the street by police and threatened with violence if they continue to protest.

On March 24 alone, at least 461 people were detained, including 13 Nepali human rights defenders. The government has ignored calls from national and international human rights organizations, including the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, to respect freedom of expression, assembly, and movement.

“Kathmandu has been a sanctuary for Tibetans for decades,” said Adams. “These arbitrary arrests and intimidation tactics go against this tradition and sadly reflect the behavior of Chinese authorities across the border in Tibet.”

The great Robert Thurman offers this to the “Guest Voices” section of On Faith today:

We are at a moment of great significance for humanity, at the beginning of this new century, which could be either a horrendous time of natural and man-made mega-disasters or the greatest century yet of environmental restoration and peaceful global community. Of all world leaders at this time, the Dalai Lama most convincingly provides spiritual, intellectual, and ethical leadership, exemplifying and elucidating the most reasonable path to peace and happiness. This is the secret of his worldwide popularity. His person and teaching really do matter, to the Tibetans, to the Chinese, and to all of us and our future generations.

If there ever was a social and political movement based on faith, on spirituality, it is the 50-year campaign of the Dalai Lama for the freedom of his people, and the present spontaneous uprising of the Tibetan people who want to be free to restore their spiritual life, in the closer presence of their spiritual and political leader. These acts of truth—the Dalai Lama’s long insistence on nonviolence and dialogue in responding to the genocidal acts of one of the world’s largest military powers, and the Tibetan people’s resistance in the face of overwhelming odds—may yet produce miraculous results, as one of the world’s greatest “lost causes” becomes a possible success.

The promise of the present moment has been precipitated first by the innovative leaders of China, gingerly stepping out into the glare of world publicity and opinion by hosting the Olympic Games and second, just now, by the brave people of Tibet stepping out on their own past the plans of their leader and, against great odds, standing up for the truth of their existence as Tibetans. Risking their very lives, they protest the total destruction of their culture, environment, and way of life. They have done this in the spirit of nonviolent resistance, although decades of bitterness and the extremity of their present situation did cause some of them to lose sight of this foundational principle of their struggle and commit some acts of violence. They stood up to the firing of armed Chinese troops, they raised their flag of freedom, and they remain standing in spite of the massive loss of life and liberty they knew would come.

The Dalai Lama didn’t ask them to sacrifice themselves in this way. He tells them he will resign if they commit more violent acts, even exceptionally, and he agonizes over the vengeance the hard-line authorities can be expected to exact. At the same time, he and the rest of the world stands in awe of the extraordinary depth of faith being exhibited by his brave people, an echo of similar courageous acts witnessed in the last century during the Civil Rights struggles in the U.S. and South Africa.

The opportunity the Chinese leaders now have is nothing less than earth-shaking. For sixty years they have sought to dominate and control, in the futile effort to transform Tibet and its Tibetans into China and Chinese, a project the Dalai Lama has called cultural genocide. They have clearly failed. The “Dalai Lama clique” they blame and vow to destroy turns out to be all Tibetans. They now have the chance to look carefully at the facts, seek the truth, and accept that failure by trying something new. They have unnecessarily been trying to make an enemy of their best friend in all the world, the Dalai Lama, not only believed by Buddhists to be the incarnation of the god of compassion but beloved by people of all religions and humanisms as an inspiring thinker, teacher, and spiritual example – the Nobel Laureate, the living Gandhi, and the apostle of nonviolence, intelligent dialogue, and unbending hope. He has all along continued to offer them the open hand of friendship, aiming to find a solution that will be satisfying for China as well as for Tibet. It’s time, now, for President Hu Jintao to reach out and welcome his help.