“Torture awaiting those who sin in this lifetime.” Photo by Stephanie Mee for the Phnom Penh Post.
Via the wonderful James Shaheen over at the Tricycle Editors’ Blog: The Phnom Penh Post reports on the “macabre images” of the Buddhist hell realm that surround Cambodia’s Wat Mondul Seyma, which is outside Koh Kong near the Cambodian-Thai border. Macabre, but also very striking–take a look.
Over at his blog Dharma Folk, Arun takes a stab at answering the question. He makes good cases for the correctives he offers to the Pew Forum’s flawed survey, but his arguments are also ripe for critical reflection. (For example, I would certainly question the assumption that the number of Spanish speakers who identify as Catholic is equal to the number of non-English-speaking Asian American Buddhists.) What do you think?
Photo by HBO.
I watched a wonderful little documentary tonight about one of my favorite television shows: HBO’s In Treatment. In Treatment is the American reworking of the Israeli series Betipul. Each week, we get five half-hour episodes that dramatize five psychotherapuetic sessions. There are certainly narrative threads, but the show is faithfully committed to giving us the verisimilitude of “a full session” in every half-hour. The star, who is the therapist for four episodes and the patient for one, is the peerless Gabriel Byrne, of Miller’s Crossing and The Usual Suspects fame.
Anyway, this documentary, In Treatment: Private and Confidential, was not so much about the production of the show as it was about the psychotherapeutic issues that In Treatment explores. HBO assembled a whole host of professionals in the field of psychology to talk about the show and its themes. Among them, I was delighted to see Mark Epstein, contributing editor to Tricycle: The Buddhist Review and the author of such vital works as Thoughts without a Thinker: Psychotherapy from a Buddhist Perspective and Going to Pieces without Falling Apart. Dr. Epstein had a lot of good things to say, and I thought it was great to see Buddhists in the caring professions represented. Follow this link to find future showtimes for the documentary.
I don’t know about you, but I could certainly stand to watch less television. That said, if everything I watched was as good as In Treatment, I probably wouldn’t feel that way. It’s well worth taking a look at if you haven’t already. I’ve posted the trailers for seasons 1 and 2, respectively, below.
Via Barbara’s Buddhism Blog: The Wall Street Journal offers a fascinating piece today about how the medical school at the Buddhist-founded Tzu Chi University has taken the lead on encouraging Taiwanese people to donate their dead bodies to science. Certain aspects of Chinese religious culture have hindered the study of cadavers in the past, but Tzu Chi founder and leader Master Cheng Yen has created farewell rituals to help doctors and donors navigate these concerns. Author Tseng Guo-Fang writes:
Ms. Cheng also makes a more profound pitch to potential donors: Society needs you.
The effect of this work at Tzu Chi University has been remarkable.
“The public was conservative about corpse donation, but Tzu Chi has made the public more open-minded,” says Lu Ko-shian, director of the National Taiwan University’s Graduate Institute of Anatomy and Cell Biology. “Tzu Chi changed that mindset with the power of religion.”
Master Cheng Yen’s Tzu Chi Foundation is one of four organizations in Taiwan doing significant amounts of work to propogate the Buddhadharma. The others are Master Sheng-yen’s Dharma Drum Mountain, Master Wei Chueh’s Chung Tai Shan, and Master Hsing Yun’s Fo Guang Shan.
Take a look at the article–as I say above, it’s pretty fascinating. The story also includes a video report:
“A child soldier wearing a Burmese army uniform.” Photo by Yuzo for The Irrawaddy.
Here are today’s stories about Burma:
