2009 May 01 « Rev. Danny Fisher

His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s Speech to Harvard University

Via William Harryman over at Integral Options Cafe:

Ajahn Brahm on the Question of Fully Ordained Nuns in the Theravāda Tradition

The Bangkok Post interviews the brilliant Ajahn Brahm about the question of the Theravāda bhikkhuni sangha. Can it be revived with integrity to the tradition? Ajahn Brahm says the question itself demonstrates misunderstanding. He tells the Post:

In Thailand, we sometimes spend too much of our time believing our teachers, believing accepted wisdom rather than investigating and challenging. I thought, too, when I was a young monk in Thailand that the

order couldn’t be legally revived. But having investigated and studied, I’ve found there is no problem at all.

[...]

One of the biggest myths is that bhikkhunis in the Mahāyāna tradition are somehow separated from the Theravāda. But the truth of the matter is, there is no such thing as a Mahāyāna Vinaya. In all the Mahāyāna schools, they follow mostly a Dharmagupta Vinaya. Dharmagupta is one of the Theravāda sects. They follow Theravāda Vinaya. So the bhikkhunis we see even now in Taiwan and China is a lineage that is unbroken since the time of the Buddha.

In addition, there is another way of reading the Vinaya to say that the Buddha left an opportunity open for just the bhikkhus to ordain bhikkhunis and revive the bhikkhuni sangha.

He’s got a lot more to say. Check out the full interview here.

[Image via The Buddhist Channel.]

May 1, 2009

Master Cheng Yen Issues Statement about Swine Flu

This via the marvelous Molly De Shong over at Shambhala SunSpace: The Tzu Chi Foundation’s Master Cheng Yen’s responded to the swine flu situation in a statement yesterday. She said:

This is the cycle of cause and effect. Human beings should return to the simple lifestyle, stop killing animals and go vegetarian. When everyone performs kindness, spreads kindness and lets the earth take a rest, there will be peace and harmony in the world.

[Image via The Huffington Post.]

May 1, 2009

Burma News (5.1.09)

“In the Irrawaddy Delta of Myanmar, new houses rise in the background for cyclone survivors.” Photo by Lwin Maung Maung for the Agence France-Presse.
[This post has been updated as of 12:40 p.m. PST on 5.1.09.]

Here’s the latest about Burma:

Reuters, the Associated Press, the Agence France-Presse, the Guardian, Voice of America, the BBC, Al Jazeera English, the Irrawaddy, and the New York Times all reflect on Burma one year after Cyclone Nargis.

The AP also reports that Burma’s National League for Democracy Party has said “it will consider taking part in elections next year if the country’s military rulers meet three demands, including for the release of their leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, from house arrest.”

The AFP also reports that “human rights groups on Friday urged Myanmar’s government to release more than 20 aid workers they said were imprisoned for making donations to cyclone victims and insulting authorities a year ago.”

The Committee to Project Journalists has named Burma “the worst place in the world to be a blogger.”

The Associated Press of Pakistan writes that “the United Kingdom has called for more political openness in [Burma] in building its civil society and democratic institutions.”

The editors of the Boston Globe say, “Burma needs Obama’s help.”

May 1, 2009

Tibet News (5.1.09)

Here’s the latest Tibet news:

Phayul reports that “Chinese authorities in Nagchu County, Nagchu Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region, have secretly detained three Tibetan Buddhist monks.”

The Associated Press reports that His Holiness the Dalai Lama expressed “optimism about the Obama Administration and about his own eventual return to his native Tibet after 50 years in exile” while visiting Cambridge, MA.

The Religion News Service also reports that, while in Cambridge, His Holiness was present for the opening of MIT’s Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values.

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