Rev. Danny Fisher

(Click on the image above for more information.)
After watching HBO’s absolutely extraordinary, multi-part series on Addiction, I can’t wait to see this.

The New York Times reports on the “odyssey of the newly uninsured”–in print and on video, which you can watch below.

Image via Phayul.
The Associated Press asks, “Will President Obama meet with His Holiness the Dalai Lama?”

Obama must make a delicate calculation as he considers a meeting with the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet’s Buddhists, seen by his supporters as a symbol of peace but vilified by China as a “wolf in monk’s robes” who seeks to split Tibet from the rest of China.

Whatever Obama decides about the visit will spark anger.

Meeting with the Dalai Lama, as every president since George H.W. Bush has done, would infuriate China, whose help the United States sees as crucial to global economic recovery efforts and dealing with nuclear standoffs in North Korea and Iran.

Activists would seize on a White House visit for the Nobel Peace laureate as a powerful message to Tibetans and others struggling for human rights around the world.

Click on the above image for more information. Entrance is restricted to UCLA students only, who must show their Bruin card at the door. FYI: The Buddhoblogosphere’s very own Arun over at Dharma Folk is involved with this event!

Via the awesome Rod Meade Sperry over at Shambhala Sun Space: W.S. Merwin was the recipient of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his chapbook The Shadow of Sirius. The Associated Press reports:

This is the second Pulitzer for Merwin, whose writing career can be traced to the hymns he wrote as a child and who won in 1971 for “The Carrier of Ladders.” The Princeton-educated son of a Presbyterian minister, Merwin has published more than 20 books of poetry and nearly as many works in translation from Latin, Spanish and French.

In 1976 he moved to Hawaii to study with a Zen Buddhist master. Since then, his work has been marked by his passionate commitment to Buddhism and environmentalism. The judges described the book as “a collection of luminous, often tender poems that focus on the profound power of memory.”

Congrats, Mr. Merwin!