Rev. Danny Fisher

The Tricycle Community‘s 90-Day Zen Meditation Challenge begins today. The venerable Buddhist magazine hopes you will join in and take part. Buddhists of all stripes, non-Buddhists–everyone is welcome. You can get started by creating a profile at the Tricycle Community page. And for more details about what is involved in this challenge, I’ll refer you to Andrew Cooper‘s write-up about the event for the latest issue (Spring 2009) of the magazine:

• Sit in formal meditation for 20 minutes each day.
  
• Listen to one dharma talk each week on tricycle.com.
  
• Study Dogen’s Genjokoan, the text selected for the period.
  
• Commit to the sixteen bodhisattva precepts.
  
• Practice with others at tricycle.com or at a local meditation center.
  
• Begin when you like. Tricycle’s staff will begin February 23.

For even more information, check out the “Into Practice” section of the lastest issue in print or online. Commit to sit here.

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Photo by Agence France-Presse.
Lest we get too excited about the news that Burma’s junta has granted amnesty to 6,300 prisoners, the Agence France-Presse says that only 17 of those released were political prisoners. Human rights groups estimate that there are well over 2,000 political prisoners in Burma. The AFP reports:

But Nyan Win, spokesman for detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party, said only about 17 of Myanmar’s estimated 2,000 prisoners of conscience were freed beginning Saturday.

“So far, we heard 17 political prisoners were released. We are still listing the names. Eleven NLD members were among those released,” he said, adding that five Buddhist monks and a nun were the other political detainees set free.

My old Naropa colleague Ven. Tenzin Kacho and her brother Robert Kiyosaki are the subject of an article this week in the San Francisco Chronicle. The two have authored a book together entitled Rich Brother, Rich Sister: Two Different Paths to God, Money and Happiness. Ven. Tenzin, who recently began work as a hospice chaplain, is also assistant spiritual director and teacher at Thubten Sherap Ling: Center for the Study of Buddhism and Tibetan Culture in Colorado Springs, CO.