Rev. Danny Fisher

While I was in New York City this past week, I made a pilgrimage to the Upper West Side to see the statue of Shinran Shonin that stands in front of the New York Buddhist Church.

I had first read about the statue in my friend Jeff Wilson’s book The Buddhist Guide to New York: Where to Go, What to Do, and How to Make the Most of the Fantastic Resources in the Tri-State Area. It wasn’t until last week, though, that I finally got around to seeing the statue. I wanted to see it primarily because of its unique history.

This statue of Shinran Shonin survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, in which 150,000 people died, and 90 percent of the buildings in the city collapsed or burned.

[Resident Minister Reverend T. Kenjitsu Nakagaki says:] “The statue stood alone in the middle of all the burning. This gave the people some kind of hope. It is now the focus of an annual peace gathering held on August 5th when a bell is tolled at 7:15 p.m. At that moment in Japan, it is 8:15 a.m. on August 5th, the hour that the bomb was dropped.”

For those unfamiliar with Shinran Shonin, he was the founder of the Jōdo Shinshū (or True Pure Land) sect of Buddhism in Japan. The placard in front of the statue (pictured to the left) tells visitors to the New York Buddhist Church more about their tradition’s progenitor. It also explains that he is depicted here in his missionary traveling robes and accoutrements.

I was glad to have been able to visit and pay my respects. I leave you now with this quote from Shinran, which he wrote “on the night of the second month, during the hour of tiger” in 1257, after he heard it in a dream:

Entrust yourself to Amida’s Primal Vow (Namu Amida Butsu).
Through the benefit of being grasped, never to be abandoned,
All who entrust themselves to the Primal Vow
Attain the supreme enlightenment.

There are some good professional development opportunities for chaplains coming up this summer. Among them:

As you may know from recent and major reports by the Washington Post, The Economist, and National Public Radio, we’re currently facing a global food crisis. In a editorial on the subject several days ago, the New York Times described the situation clearly and directly:

Last year, the food import bill of developing countries rose by 25 percent as food prices rose to levels not seen in a generation. Corn doubled in price over the last two years. Wheat reached its highest price in 28 years. The increases are already sparking unrest from Haiti to Egypt. Many countries have imposed price controls on food or taxes on agricultural exports.

Last week, the president of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, warned that 33 nations are at risk of social unrest because of the rising prices of food. “For countries where food comprises from half to three-quarters of consumption, there is no margin for survival,” he said.

Prices are unlikely to drop soon. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization says world cereal stocks this year will be the lowest since 1982.

When we look at the causes and conditions for this crisis, the responsibility of the developed, industrialized nations to end it become apparent. The Times editors continue:

The United States and other developed countries need to step up to the plate. The rise in food prices is partly because of uncontrollable forces — including rising energy costs and the growth of the middle class in China and India. This has increased demand for animal protein, which requires large amounts of grain.

But the rich world is exacerbating these effects by supporting the production of biofuels. The International Monetary Fund estimates that corn ethanol production in the United States accounted for at least half the rise in world corn demand in each of the past three years. This elevated corn prices. Feed prices rose. So did prices of other crops — mainly soybeans — as farmers switched their fields to corn, according to the Agriculture Department.

Washington provides a subsidy of 51 cents a gallon to ethanol blenders and slaps a tariff of 54 cents a gallon on imports. In the European Union, most countries exempt biofuels from some gas taxes and slap an average tariff equal to more than 70 cents a gallon of imported ethanol.

All of this in mind, Avaaz.org has created a petition to G8, UN, and EU leaders. The text reads:

We call on you to take immediate action to address the world food crisis by mobilizing emergency funding to prevent starvation, removing perverse incentives to turn food into biofuels and managing financial speculation, and to tackle the underlying causes by ending harmful trade policies and investing massively in sustainable agricultural productivity in developing nations.

I encourage you to sign your name to the petition here.

Avaaz.org has also created this video message along with Sierra Leone’s foreign minister Zainab Bangura. In Zainab’s country, rice prices have doubled, leaving 90% of its people unable to afford even a meal a day. Take a look at what she has to say.

From the Associated Press:

A Chinese court sentenced 17 people to jail terms Tuesday ranging from three years to life in prison for their alleged roles in the deadly riots in the Tibetan capital last month, state media reported.

The Intermediate People’s Court of Lhasa announced the sentences at an open session, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. It gave no other immediate details.

China’s state broadcaster reported that 200 people attended the trial, the first since the mid-March riots.

[...]

The sentences come the same day authorities announced the reopening of the first of the Buddhist monasteries in Lhasa–the Sera Monastery–closed after last month’s riots, Xinhua reported.

“Monks have been taught legal knowledge in recent days and the monastery has resumed normal religious activities,” Tenzin Namgyal, deputy director of the Tibet Autonomous Regional Ethnic and Religious Affairs Committee, was quoted as saying.

Other monasteries that were closed will be reopened soon, he said.