Veteran’s Day
For Veteran’s Day, here’s an essential reading and a good cause…
Rev. Danny Fisher
Just a Buddhist Minister Trying to Benefit Beings
November 11, 2008
The Washington Post on the Benefits of Mindfulness
The Washington Post has a good piece about Buddhist mindfulness by sociologist Christine B. Whelan in today’s paper. Take a look.
November 11, 2008
Urge President-Elect Obama to Take Three Crucial Actions to Renew America’s Commitment to Human Rights
This from Amnesty International:
- The attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001, were a crime against humanity. Since then, the U.S. government has committed grave human rights violations in the name of countering terrorism.
- Announcing the timeline to close Guantánamo
- Issuing an executive order to ban torture and other ill-treatment as defined under international law
- Ensuring that an independent inquiry into the USA’s detention and interrogation practices in its “war on terror” is set upThese are three key steps on Amnesty International’s checklist for your first 100 days in office.
You can counter terror with justice. We are counting on you.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
Suspects have been abducted and covertly transported to secret U.S.-run facilities or transferred to the custody of other governments where they have faced torture. Individuals have been victims of enforced disappearance. Some remain unaccounted for. Hundreds of people have been unlawfully detained in conditions that have amounted to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment at the Guantánamo Bay detention facility.
U.S. officials have effectively admitted that the U.S. government has used torture and other ill-treatment and have reserved the right to do so again.
The response of the U.S. government to the public exposure of these human rights violations has been plainly inadequate, and at worst it has amounted to helping perpetrators go unpunished for crimes under international law.
President-elect Barack Obama must take immediate steps after taking office to end this assault on human rights. Sign our petition to President-elect Barack Obama and urge him to demonstrate a commitment to human rights in his first 100 days in office:
- Dear President-elect Barack Obama,
I urge you as president to change the government’s course on human rights and to reverse the damage done by the U.S. government’s actions in the name of national security.
I call on you to demonstrate your commitment to justice by:
Sign the petition here.
November 11, 2008
NEWS: Sulak Sivaraksa Arrested in Thailand
Via New Mandala: According to the Associated Press, Nobel Peace Prize nominee Sulak Sivaraksa, Thailand’s preeminent social activist and engaged Buddhist leader, has been arrested on the charge of insulting the country’s monarchy. His lawyer tells the AP that a conviction could carry with it a prison sentence of up to fifteen years.
Sivaraksa has been arrested several times before on charges of insulting the monarchy, a crime which is also known as “lèse majesté.” This time, the trouble stems from a speech he gave in December 2007 to mark the occasion of International Human Rights Day. (His lawyer declined to quote the offensive passages for reporters.) Sivaraksa has denied the charges and was released on bail.
The AP puts all of this into perspective:
- In recent years, a nationalist fervor that emphasizes devotion to the monarchy has swept Thailand, making authorities more sensitive to possible criticism.
Thais in 2006 celebrated the 60th anniversary of King Bhumibol Adulyadej taking the throne. In the same year, a coup toppled Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was accused of showing disrespect to the monarchy as well as corruption.
Thaksin’s opponents continue to fight against his political machine, which they sometimes accuse of seeking to establish a republic. The government, led by Thaksin’s allies, consistently avows its loyalty to the crown.
Almost all Thais revere the monarchy, and especially admire the 80-year-old king. However, the lèse majesté charge is often used for political purposes as a way of smearing its targets.Sivaraksa, who founded and directs Thailand’s Sathirakoses-Nagapradeepa Foundation, also serves on the advisory board of the International Network of Engaged Buddhists. And in addition to all his work as an activist, organizer, and social critic in Thailand, he has served as chair of the UN’s Asian Cultural Forum on Development and has been a visiting professor at the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Hawaii, and Cornell University. He is also the author such books as Seeds of Peace: A Buddhist Vision for Renewing Society, Conflict, Culture, Change: Engaged Buddhism in a Globalizing World, and Loyalty Demands Dissent: Autobiography of a Socially Engaged Buddhist.
I’ve had the distinct pleasure and true honor of meeting and receiving teachings from Sulak, and I think he’s one of the most extraordinary and inspiring individuals I have ever met. Here’s what some others have had to say about him:
- “Sulak Sivaraksa has set an admirable example of the relevance of Buddhism in the contemporary world.”—His Holiness the Dalai Lama
“Known as one of Asia’s leading social thinkers, Sulak Sivaraksa sees the goals of Buddhist development as equality, love, freedom, and liberation.”—Aung San Suu Kyi
“Sulak Sivaraksa is a bodhisattva who devotes all of his energies to helping others.”—Thich Nhat Hanh
“An irrepressible campaigner for a sane and just society, Sulak unites the strengths of a traditional Dharmic sensibility with the critical rigor of a Western-educated intellectual. His life offers an heroic example of engaged Buddhism in practice.”— Stephen Batchelor
“Like Gandhi, Sulak offers great inspiration to a civilization that has lost its way.”—Jack Kornfield
“Sulak is one of the heroes of our time, offering us deep wisdom and refreshingly sane alternatives to the Earth-destroying religions of consumerism, greed, and exploitation.”— Joanna Macy
