Rev. Danny Fisher

Just a Buddhist Minister Trying to Benefit Beings

Month: February, 2009

February 26, 2009

Burma News (2.25.09)

Here are the Burma-related headlines for today:

  • In the U.S. State Department’s recent report that I mentioned in my Tibet news post today, the junta is taken to task for its “brutal” human rights record. The Agence France-Presse has more.
  • Reuters reports that a senior diplomat has told them that “the United States wants Southeast Asian states to press for reform, openness and political progress in Myanmar, while seeking views on a new approach toward the military-ruled country.”
  • Rep. Joe Crowley (D-NY) posts a video to his YouTube profile of his speech to the House of Representatives about the post-cyclone humanitarian crisis in Burma, in which he emphasizes emphasizing that “the inaction of the Burmese junta is unacceptable.”

    • February 26, 2009

    Tibet News (2.25.09)

    Here are today’s Tibet-related headlines:

  • The Guardian reports that three cases of self-immolation that occurred at Tiananmen Square today “may be linked to protests at start of Tibetan new year.”
  • New Zealand’s News 3 reports that “fifty Tibetan monks began a three-day long hunger strike in Dharmsala on Wednesday, part of an unofficial boycott of New Year festivities to mourn victims of a harsh crackdown on anti-government protests last year.”
  • National Public Radio reports on sweeping police action in Tibet to ferret out banned, “reactionary” in shops and markets, and make arrests.
  • The Associated Press brings us the news that the U.S. State Department has issued a new report accusing China of “stepping up ‘severe cultural and religious repression’ of minorities in Tibet and elswehere as well as increasing its detention and harassment of dissidents.”

    • February 26, 2009

    A New York Times Picture of the Day for February 25th, 2009

    Via Tibet Will Be Free:

    “Monks left their morning prayer at the Rongwo Monastery in Qinghai Province on Losar, the Tibetan New Year. Many Tibetans boycotted New Year celebrations, and used the day to mourn and pray for the Tibetans killed or injured in the March 2008 crackdown.” Photo by Shiho Fukada for The New York Times.

    February 25, 2009

    The New York Times: Leonard Cohen Returns

    Via Daniel Burke at the Religion News Blog: The day after the legendary singer-songwriter’s first American concert in fifteen years, the New York Times catches up with Leonard Cohen for an interview about Zen, music, spirituality, and money. The “Grey Lady” writes:

      After a five-year stint in a Zen Buddhist monastery and various legal distractions, he is back on the road: an undertaking that seems to combine his quest for spiritual fulfillment with an effort to regain his financial footing, lost when his former business manager made off with his money while Mr. Cohen was living as a monk on a mountaintop above Los Angeles.

    Cohen has lived off-and-on at the Mt. Baldy Zen Center in Mount Baldy, CA. I blogged about one of my trips to Mount Baldy a couple years ago in this post.

    [Photo by Fred R. Conrad for the New York Times.]

    February 25, 2009

    The New York Times: Child Caregivers