Rev. Danny Fisher

Just a Buddhist Minister Trying to Benefit Beings
April 27, 2008

The Buddhist Channel: Earth Day 2008 Special Edition

As I’ve mentioned here many times before and every Buddhist blogger knows, the Buddhist Channel is probably the best and most important resource/filter out there for news items relevant to Buddhist scholars and practitioners. If it has been picked up by an international news outlet and it has to do with Buddhism, they’ll find it. The Buddhist Channel never misses a trick.

If you missed it this past Tuesday, make sure to take a look at their Earth Day 2008 Special Edition, which features a collection of writings, opinions, editorials, and teachings about Buddhism and the environment.

The special edition also features this editorial from the Buddhist Channel’s International Advisory Panel:

    Today, together with millions all over the world, the Buddhist Channel will lay down its regular routine and bow towards its spiritual home, our venerable mother Earth. As we breathe in, we pay homage to the only place we know that allows us to practice the Buddha-Dharma. As we breathe out, we pay our gratitude to this hallowed planet, for allowing us to savor a bit of what it means to be Enlightenend, for allowing us to hope. Read on, and we hope you will enjoy this special edition just as we have enjoyed putting it together. We would like to dedicate this Earth Day special to all sentient beings.

    This Earth Day Special has a special message from His Holiness The Dalai Lama:

    “We are also being drawn together by the grave problems we face: overpopulation, dwindling natural resources, and an environmental crisis that threatens our air, water, and trees, along with the vast number of beautiful life forms that are the very foundation of existence on this small planet we share. I believe that to meet the challenge of our times, human beings will have to develop a greater sense of universal responsibility. Each of us must learn to work not just for his or her own self, family or nation, but for the benefit of all mankind. Universal responsibility is the real key to human survival. It is the best foundation for world peace, the equitable use of natural resources and, through concern for future generations, the proper care of the environment.”

Stay tuned to the Buddhist Channel for more on Buddhism and environmentalism, and much, much more. Just this week, I found two absolutely fascinating stories–one about Thai monks cheating on their exams, and one about the discovery that the Buddhist cave paintings at Bamiyan were done in oil hundreds of years before Europeans “invented” the technique–just by giving the front page the most cursory of glances.

1 comment
April 27, 2008

AP: Olympic Torch Protesters Tossed From Hong Kong

April 27, 2008

Good Stuff from the Buddhoblogosphere

Some of my colleagues in the Buddhoblogosphere whipped up some pretty incredible posts while I was away this past week. These folks always do great work, but you really must make sure to see these posts:

  • F.X. Leach at Tibet Will Be Free posts a photograph (the one to the right) of a fiery, evocative graffito in Bangkok. (He also <a href="http://blog.studentsforafreetibet.org/2008/04/24/alternet-piece-on-sfts-use-of-facebook/
    “>points us to a cool piece at Alternet about the use of Facebook by non-profit organizations and political movements.)
  • Our friend James Ishmael Ford has a terrific little post at Monkey Mind about a hugely important task for postmodern Buddhists: critically analyzing Stephen Batchelor’s Buddhism Without Beliefs. The post includes links to the works of authors who have done some extensive and thoughtful reflection on the book. The post stimulated my own thinking about the book: it turns out I have more to say about it than I thought! (Perhaps there will be a post from me about Batchelor’s book in the future.)
  • Another pal, Nacho over at the Woodmoor Village Zendo, did two posts that I was really struck by. First, he shares this beautiful poem by David Whyte with us. Second, he offers a pithy, convincing critique of the National Day of Prayer.
  • The great James Ure writes beautifully about Earth Day, Buddhism, and vegetarianism at The Buddhist Blog. (For some of my own writing on vegetarianism, environmentalism, and Buddhism, follow the links in my Earth Day post from last week.)
  • ~C4Chaos points us to Frontline‘s remarkable program “Sick Around the World”, which asks, “Can the U.S. learn anything from the rest of the world about how to run a health care system?”
  • At amida-ji-retreat-temple-in-romania, Joshu Adrian Cirlea honestly answers the question, “Why am I a Jodo Shinshu Buddhist?”
  • Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo’s “Caretaker Vow” is reprinted at By My Hand and Heart Alone…
  • The remarkable Agam of Agam’s Gecko reports on the Chinese government’s willingness to meet with representatives of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Government-in-Exile.
  • The Interdependent presents Lodi Gyari’s summary of the current situation in Tibet. Gyari is Special Envoy of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and President of the International Campaign for Tibet.And in addition to all of this good stuff, be sure to check out Ven. Loden Jinpa‘s new site BuddhistForums.net. This could prove to be a very cool new resource.

    • 1 comment
    April 27, 2008

    Important Items from Erick

    It’s official: my great friend Erick has officially eclipsed Indiana Jones as my favorite anthropologist ever. Like the world-weary Dr. Jones (pictured to the left in a still from the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull), the soon-to-be Dr. White shines his light on gobs of good stuff that I’m happy to be able to share with you here.

    First, Erick sends four items from the Far Eastern Economic Review:

  • Benedict Rogers, deputy chairman of the Conservative Party Human Rights Commission and an employee of Christian Solidarity Worldwide, reports on the military junta’s “sham elections” in Myanmar.
  • Andrew Martin Fischer, a fellow at the London School of Economics and the author of State Growth and Social Exclusion in Tibet: Challenges of Recent Economic Growth, offers what Erick aptly dubs “a good explanation of the long-term, structural changes fueling the protests [in and around Tibet].”
  • The International Campaign for Tibet‘s vice president, Mary Beth Markey writes about “Tibetans’ uncertain future in Nepal.”
  • Jeremy Sarkin, a visiting professor of International Human Rights at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and recent appointee to the Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances for the U.N.’s Human Rights Council, looks at China and considers the concept of “Responsibility to Protect” (R2P). As Sarkin understands it, R2P means that “sovereignty comes with responsibility and if that responsibility is not met others have duties to ensure that the doctrine is met.”Next, Erick shares four good pieces from the Irawaddy:
  • It is reported that Kyaw Zin Naing, the man who immolated himself at Schwedagon Pagoda in protest of Myanmar’s ruling junta, has died. (I wrote about the immolation back in March in this post.)
  • Kyaw Zwa Moe offers an opinion about the strength and “durability” of the Myanmar junta.
  • In another opinion piece, Aung Zaw writes about how the U.N. has lost the trust of the Burmese people.
  • The National League for Democracy accuses Myanmar’s junta of coercing votes for the referendum to draft their new constitution. (I explained a bit about the junta’s proposed constitution in this post.)It may not be good news, but it’s vital that we be aware of it. Thanks, Erick.

    • April 27, 2008

    Los Angeles Times: U.N. Puts Darfur Death Toll at 300,000

    Jeffrey Weiss over at the Dallas Morning News RELIGION Blog points us to a recent piece in the Los Angeles Times about the situation in Darfur. The news is not good.

      The U.N.’s humanitarian chief on Tuesday updated the estimated number of conflict-related deaths in Darfur to about 300,000 and lamented that efforts to solve the crisis were stalled on all fronts.

      In a briefing to the Security Council, John Holmes, the U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said that continued attacks make it more difficult for aid workers to reach vulnerable people, food aid is about to be halved, the deployment of peacekeepers is beset by obstacles and the peace process has stalled.

      “I am saddened and angry that after five years of suffering and four years since this council became actively engaged, we have still not been able to find a lasting solution to the suffering of these millions of men, women and children,” he said.

      Holmes also noted that there are six times more people suffering in Darfur than when the council first took up the issue four years ago this month. He said that five years of fighting between rebels and government-backed militias has seriously affected 4.27 million people, with 2.45 million internally displaced and an additional 260,000 becoming refugees in neighboring countries.

      Holmes said that the combined effects of the conflict had claimed an estimated 200,000 lives by 2006.

    I encourage you to read the whole article here. And get involved here: http://www.savedarfur.org.

    Follow

    Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

    Join 45 other followers