Rev. Danny Fisher

Just a Buddhist Minister Trying to Benefit Beings

Month: May, 2009

May 28, 2009

Doesn’t Every Kid Deserve a Summer Vacation?

May 27, 2009

Dalai Lama Bailout

There’s a great, inspiring story from the Associated Press today about His Holiness the Dalai Lama coming to the aid of the slated-to-close Department of Religious Studies at Florida International University:

    The department is one of three at FIU slated to close in response to a $27 million cut in state funding to the public university.

    [Professor Nathan Katz] said he e-mailed the Dalai Lama’s office last month after finding out the program was in jeopardy and asked for a letter of support.

    FIU received a letter from the Dalai Lama’s office this week offering $100,000 and his help fundraising to prevent the planned closure of the department.

    “In our deeply interconnected world, understanding and appreciation of diversity of religions is critical in fostering a culture of genuine tolerance and peaceful coexistence,” read the letter from a secretary to the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan Buddhist leader who has spent 50 years in exile after a failed uprising to oust Chinese rulers. “If the department were to close down, it will not be easy to rebuild.”

    Katz said he first met the Dalai Lama in 1973 as a student studying the Tibetan language in India, and was later a researcher at his library. The Dalai Lama even wrote the introduction to Katz’s first book.

    Katz said he also thinks the Dalai Lama, who received an honorary doctorate of divinity from FIU in 1999 and returned in 2004, has “genuine affection” for the university.

    FIU President Modesto Madique is drafting a letter accepting the offer, an FIU spokesman said.

Sadly, though, the Department of Religious Studies at FIU isn’t quite out of the woods yet: Katz tells the AP that the department “must raise about $5 million to create an endowment that could fund the $600,000 yearly operating deficit.”

[Photo by Abhishek Madhukar for Reuters. "Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, watches exiled Tibetans outside the Tsuglakhang temple before offering prayers on the second day of 'Saka Dawa', the special Tibetan Buddhist month, in the northern Indian hilltown of Dharamsala May 26, 2009."]

May 27, 2009

Bill Moyers on Memorial Day

1 comment
May 27, 2009

Burma News (5.27.09)

“Daw Aung San Suu Kyi enters the court-within-a-prison on May 20, 2009 in this screenshot from Burmese state television.” Photo via MRTV.
Here’s the latest on what’s happening with the military trial of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma:

  • The Irrawaddy reports that in her testimony, Suu Kyi both protested her innocence and accused the prosecution of bias.
  • The Agence France-Presse reports on American intruder John Yettaw’s testimony, in which he claimed God told him to warn Suu Kyi about a “terrorist” plot to assassinate her.
  • Voice of America reports that the junta has rejected “all but one of [Suu Kyi's] defense witnesses as she faces up to five years in prison for allegedly violating the terms of her house arrest.”
  • VOA News also reports that the 15-member U.N. Security Council has issued a statement expressing concern about “the political impact” of Suu Kyi’s trial, and calling for the release of all political prisoners in Burma (including “The Lady”).
  • The BBC reports that “Burma’s military regime has blamed the incident which led to the arrest of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on ‘anti-government elements’.”
  • The BBC also notes the junta’s rejections of pressure from the European Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
  • In the pages of the New York Times, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, who was the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in Burma from 2000 to 2008, writes that it is time to end the junta’s “system of impunity.”
  • The Washington Post ponders the “mixed messages” sent by the junta in their recent behavior toward Suu Kyi.
  • The Post also reports on a demonstration of democracy activists in Rangoon, which marked two “grim” anniversaries: “19 years since the vote in which democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi led her party to a victory the military refused to recognize, and six years since she was last free.”
  • In a write-up for The Huffington Post, U Pyinya Zawta, founding member and the Executive Director in Exile of the All Burma Monks’ Alliance, notes that “the real culprits that the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) in Burma should have arrested for a foreigner’s intrusion into Aung San Suu Kyi’s house were the security officials charged with guarding the home where she lives with her female companions.”
  • Agam Tapak of Agam’s Gecko offers a thoughtful post about Suu Kyi’s testimony.

    • May 27, 2009

    The Center for Progressive Christianity Spotlights Buddhism This Month

    This via our good pal Jesse F. Tanner over at Progressive-Practical Christianity: This month, The Center for Progressive Christianity will be spotlighting Buddhism in the spirit of interfaith understanding and dialogue. Take a look!