Rev. Danny Fisher

My mom Dana, who blogs at The Quilted Librarian, is a middle school library media specialist as well as a quilt artist.

When I graduated high school, Mom gave me a beautiful quilt she had made out of my old t-shirts from various things (school activities, events, etc.). Recently, while weeding through the things I have in storage with my folks, I gave her another collection of old t-shirts from what I suppose you could call my adventures in Buddhism. They’re shirts from my time in India, at Naropa, and elsewhere. I asked her if she would someday do another one for me made of them. Being super-mom, she immediately sat down and started. (I would have been perfectly happy to have her do it in twenty-five years, but…) She recently finished, and the finished quilt is pictured below. (Click on the image for a larger view.)

You can see more of my mom’s quilts at her website, including one she did about an injury I sustained in the third grade.

The new issue of Newsweek features the below interview with His Holiness the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, which was conducted by reporter Sudip Mazumdar.

MAZUMDAR: How has your recent trip to the United States changed your perspectives on the world?
THE KARMAPA: It was a big change for me, because I had only seen pictures of America. Now I have seen America in real life, and I was amazed. The Western world is so different from the Eastern world. I feel that I can learn so much from the Western world.

What are conditions like inside Tibet today?
I don’t have any news. My understanding is only through television. It is difficult to get the real picture. This is a problem not only for me but for the entire world.

What is your view of the recent protests?
The protesters had different views. Some asked for a free Tibet; some talked about a middle path [autonomy within China]. The most important thing is what Tibetans in Tibet think. Their secure future is very important. They should have a good future. The protests have made lives more difficult. They need results. If there are no good results, things will become even more difficult.

How do you see calls to boycott the Beijing Olympics?
China is a big country and does not belong only to the Communist Party. It belongs to the Chinese brothers and sisters. The world needs to give them more chances and opportunities to show their growth and express their views. The Olympics are such a chance. I am not for the boycott, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama is also [against it].

Do you think you could become a bridge to Beijing when you get older?
[Laughs.] Fortunately, His Holiness the Dalai Lama recognized me, and the Chinese also have a little bit of support [for me]. Not that I want it, but if they give me a chance, then I hope [to play that role].

You have now lived for about eight years near the Dalai Lama. What have you learned from him?
I am a spiritual disciple of His Holiness. I need to learn spiritual practices from him, I need to train and be educated. During these years, I’ve learned many things from him.

For example?
For example, patience. His life is very hard. He must be patient, and he has lots of patience. This is an important lesson. Sometimes if I am a little bit sad or I have problems, I go see him. And after meeting him, the problems disappear and I forget them. There is a spiritual power in him. Every time I see him I come back happy.

Can Tibetans live under Chinese rule?
It is difficult to say. When we are in India, we always talk negatively about the Chinese. All information about Tibet and the Chinese is negative, nothing positive. But the situation needs to be examined and investigated thoroughly. We need more information. We have to think about the positive side for the future of China and Tibet.

Do you see any positives right now?
It is difficult to say. Maybe you journalists should investigate.

Chinese government officials continue to attack the Dalai Lama, accusing him of fomenting trouble. What would you like to tell them?
They should examine and investigate themselves. However much we try to explain, it never fulfills their wishes. They never trust. They get more doubtful. So they should investigate themselves.

Is it true that you criticized patriarchy in some Buddhist communities?
Not criticism, just an observation. In some Asian countries, men have all the control and power. From a Buddhist point of view, men and women are equal. All sentient beings are capable of attaining enlightenment, so obviously women can. But sometimes some traditional cultures hold the wrong view, that men are more powerful. That is not correct.

What would you like to tell the Tibetans living in Tibet?
It is difficult to express in words. I hope that just my living in this world should be for the benefit of all sentient beings, including all Tibetans. If it is not, then also it is OK. But I always hope that my life benefits all Tibetans.

Our pal Phil forwards Richard Cohen’s column in today’s Washington Post. It’s a provocative, and I think quite accurate, take on the uncomfortable and highly inappropriate relationship between religion and politics in our country. Specifically, he looks at presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain’s questionable cozying up to the likes of Billy and Franklin Graham. Both candidates, he rightly asserts, are “over-pastored.”

For too long now, the term “faith-based” has been synonymous with dumb. It’s dumb to speak of Islam as if the terrorists are its true representatives (F. Graham). It’s dumb to think the Holocaust was God’s way of getting the Jews to return to Israel (Hagee) or that Catholics are not true Christians (Hagee, again) or that “Islam is an anti-Christ religion that intends through violence to conquer the world” (Parsley).

It’s dumb to reject evolution when all of science thinks the opposite, and it’s dumb to oppose sex education, as if knowledge was by itself a sin. It was beyond dumb for the Rev. Pat Robertson to predict a natural calamity for Orlando because of Disney World’s policy regarding gay men and lesbians. Yet, the endorsement of such clergymen has been sought by virtually every Republican presidential candidate of our times. To pass this kind of muster is very disquieting.

He wraps up with an observation that feels a bit like a call to arms:

The liberal clergy in this country is a faded force. Gone are the days when ministers did such things as leading the civil rights movement and marching to end the Vietnam War. Now, the ones with political clout are too often small-minded men who swaddle their bigotry and ignorance in the soothing word “faith.”

Of course, there are many religious figures of all faiths who offer strong progressive leadership, but I think he’s right that the liberal clergy is a faded force. Engaged Buddhism is a vibrant movement both here and abroad, but it lacks the size and attention of other sorts of religious movements. It’s time for us to speak a bit more loudly.

Our friend Sujatin Johnson over at lotusinthemud tips us off to a new book about death and dying in the Pure Land tradition: Never Die Alone: Death as Birth in Pure Land Buddhism. The publishing house, the Jodo Shinshu Research Institute, says this about the volume:

o die alone is perhaps everyone’s greatest fear, yet in the modern world in hospital rooms, nursing homes or private residences, it has become “routine”. This volume covers many aspects of this issue, from our basic fears of death and of facing death alone, to what lies on the other side of death, and perhaps most importantly, what we should do now to prepare for that penultimate moment of life, which is death. It explores why the pursuit of wisdom, compassion, and the ending of our cycles of affliction and dissatisfaction is not a task that should be pursued nor can be achieved alone. We should never die alone because we all can learn together from the amazing moment of death. Like a birth, a marriage, or a graduation, death can be a festival of sharing a tremendously important experience. It can bring us closer to others, to ourselves, and to wholeness. From the lavish cover painting which has served Pure Land followers for centuries as an object of contemplation on their deathbeds to the five essays by prominent Pure Land specialists contained inside, this small book offers useful tools with which to encounter death; and to experience death as Birth (ojo).

Authors include: Mark Blum, author of The Origins and Development of Pure Land Buddhism; Carl Becker, author of Breaking the Circle: Death and the Afterlife in Buddhism; David Brazier, author of Who Loves Dies Well: On the Brink of Buddha’s Pure Land; Yoshiharu Tomatsu, the Director of the Jodo Shu Research Institute’s Ojo and Death Project; and a group of Thai Buddhists offering a different view of Buddhist dying.