Rev. Danny Fisher

OK, my pal Erick absolutely must join the staff here at the blog. Enough of this stringer business. Unfortunately, I can’t offer him a living wage, a basic health care package, or a research stipend. He’ll settle for free chai and happy face cookies, though. (Which makes me feel like I owe him at least a dental plan; he’s probably going to develop a cavity or two on such a diet.)

Seriously, though, my intrepid anthropologist friend: you’ve got a guest column here whenever you want it.

Below are Erick’s catches for us this week:

Exciting news today in an email from Adam Engle, chairman and CEO of the Mind & Life Institute: the sixteenth Mind & Life conference, which will examine the science and clinical applications of meditation, as well as convene His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, scientists, clinicians, contemplative experts, and others at the Mayo Clinic, will be webcast live on April 16th. You will be able to access the webcast here.

Engle writes:

Talks during the morning session will include:
1. A Contemplative Approach to Human Flourishing: the Short and Long-Term Effects of Mental Training with contemplative Matthieu Ricard, Ph.D.
   
2. Reflections on the Origination, Development, and Scope of Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Programs in Mainstream Medicine with Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D.
   
3. Mind-Brain-Body Interaction and Meditation with Richard J. Davidson, Ph.D.
   
4. Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Programs for Patients and Families Living with Cancer: Overview of a Program of Research with Linda Carlson, Ph.D.
   
5. Compassionate and Mindful End-of-Life Care: A Relational-Contemplative Approach for Clinicians with Roshi Joan Halifax, Ph.D.

The morning session will be moderated by Mind and Life board member and best-selling author Daniel Goleman, Ph.D.

The afternoon session will include His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s remarks on compassion in medicine, a panel discussion among His Holiness, Glenn S. Forbes, M.D., CEO of Mayo Clinic Rochester, Nisha Minek, M.D., and Amit Sood, M.D. of Mayo Clinic Rochester, Daniel Goleman, Ph.D., and Geshe Thupten Jinpa, Ph.D., to discuss the broad range of subjects covered in the morning session, and questions from the Mayo Clinic audience.

Mind and Life XVI will be a remarkable opportunity to share the fruits of ongoing scientific investigations, inspired and promoted by over twenty years of Mind and Life dialogues between contemplatives and scientists, and to begin a conversation on these investigations and their relevance for future science and clinical practice with a community of the nation’s leading physicians and physician-scientists. The Mayo Clinic is an organization of nationwide scope and global reputation in medical research, clinical practice and education. Finding new and better ways of providing health care is a part of Mayo’s mission. With this meeting, Mind and Life Institute brings together leading scientists and health care professionals with contemplatives and His Holiness the Dalai Lama in the service of forwarding that mission.

For more information, you can read the program brochure here.

I’m still catching up on news items and other tidbits that I missed while I was away this past weekend. One of the diamonds in the ruff is certainly this op-ed piece by Nicholas D. Kristof for the New York Times. At one time, I was considering writing a post about the pros and cons of an Olympic boycott in reaction to the Tibet situation. I think I’d to so much agreeing with and quoting of Mr. Kristof, though, that it would be much easier for me to just say, “What he said.” Here’s just a bit of what he says–I encourage you to read the whole piece, though:

So what do we do? A boycott of the Olympic Games themselves is a nonstarter. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has raised the possibility of a boycott of the opening ceremony, and that is plausible.

The best answer is: Postpone the decision until the last minute so as to extort every last ounce of good behavior possible out of the Chinese government — on Darfur as well as Tibet. But at the end of the day, if there have been no further abuses, President Bush should attend — for staying away would only inflame Chinese nationalism and make Beijing more obdurate.

If President Bush attends the ceremonies, however, he should balance that with a day trip to a Tibetan area. Such a visit would underscore American concern, even if the Chinese trot out fake monks to express fake contentment with fake freedom.

President Bush and other Western leaders should also continue to consult with the Dalai Lama, even though this infuriates Beijing. The Dalai Lama is the last, best hope for reaching an agreement that would resolve the dispute over Tibet forever. He accepts autonomy, rather than independence, and he has the moral authority to persuade Tibetans to accept a deal.

The outlines of an agreement would be simple. The Dalai Lama would return to Tibet as a spiritual leader, and Tibetans would be permitted to possess his picture and revere him, while he would unequivocally accept Chinese sovereignty. Monasteries would have much greater religious freedom, and Han Chinese migration to Tibet would be limited. The Dalai Lama would also accept that the Tibetan region encompasses only what is now labeled Tibet on the maps, not the much larger region of historic Tibet that he has continued to claim.

With such an arrangement, China could resolve the problem of Tibet, improve its international image, reassure Taiwan and rectify a 50-year-old policy of repression that has catastrophically failed.

This from Amnesty International:

This April the House and Senate appropriations committees are considering supplemental appropriations bills that should include funding for humanitarian aid and peacekeeping operations in Darfur. The U.S. government is currently $334 million short of its expected contributions to United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) for FY08. Some $50 million is needed to transition African Union peacekeepers to UNAMID, and to provide essential transport equipment for them to protect civilians in Darfur. Famine and disaster assistance is short $335 million to provide to provide for the needs of displaced Darfuri and other civilians. We need you to ensure that your elected officials support this critical funding for Darfur. Contact your Senators and Representative today to request their active support for funding for UNAMID peacekeepers and humanitarian assistance for the people of Darfur.

You can petition your elected officials here.

From the Associated Press:

About 30 Tibetan Buddhist monks staged an anti-government protest Wednesday in front of a group of foreign journalists visiting a monastery in western China, South Korean media reported.

Authorities have tightly restricted access to Tibet and Tibetan areas of western China, where riots against Chinese rule broke out last month. The sometimes violent demonstrations were the largest and most sustained among Tibetans in almost two decades.

China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported only that monks at the Labrang monastery in western Gansu province bordering Tibet had interrupted the event, and that the visit resumed soon afterward.

The incident followed a similar interruption during a closely scripted government media tour of Lhasa two weeks ago to view damage from the protests.

However, the Yonhap news agency said about 30 monks burst in on the carefully controlled Chinese government media tour and called for Tibet’s independence from China.

The Associated Press was not invited to participate in the trip, and it was not immediately possible to independently verify Yonhap’s report.