Rev. Danny Fisher

At our faculty retreat here on the campus of University of the West last week, President Allen Huang delivered the sad news that he will be stepping down June 30th after two years of invaluable service to the university.

Dr. Huang also informed us that his successor (pictured) will be C.F. Lee–the current Vice-Chancellor of The University of Hong Kong.

Those of us in the Buddhist Chaplaincy Program look forward to meeting and working with Dr. Lee. We also extend a fond farewell to Dr. Huang, who has been such a great ally and advocate for us.

One interesting note: Dr. Lee delivered the Convocation Address at the International Buddhist College’s first convocation in 2008. You can read that address here.

(Thanks to Bil Owen, our spectacular Extended Education Coordinator, for the links!)

“Fourth graders at Toluca Lake Elementary School in North Hollywood, Calif., learn meditation using exercises that include singing, breathing and well wishes toward others.” Photo by Dan MacMedan for USA Today.
This from our friend Secundra Beasley: USA Today has a feature in today’s paper about the use of mindfulness meditation techniques in schools and hospitals.

Once thought of as an esoteric, mystical pursuit, meditation is going mainstream. A government survey in 2007 found that about 1 out of 11 Americans, more than 20 million, meditated in the past year. And a growing number of medical centers are teaching meditation to patients for relief of pain and stress.

More than 240 programs in clinics and hospitals teach [a type of mindfulness meditation] says Jon Kabat-Zinn, who developed mindfulness-based stress reduction 30 years ago at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center.

The Associated Press reports that “Islamic insurgents shot dead a villager and then detonated a car bomb as a crowd gathered, killing one and wounding 19 in Thailand’s restive south on Sunday,” according to local police reports.

An Islamic insurgency launched in 2004 has killed more than 3,400 in southern Thailand. The insurgents target Buddhists as well as Muslims whom they believe have collaborated with the Thai government.

The attacks are believed intended to frighten Buddhist residents into leaving. The insurgents have never publicly declared their exact goal, but they have complained about discrimination in Buddhist-dominated Thailand.

A massive government counterinsurgency effort has slowed the pace of attacks but has shown little sign of ending the violence. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva announced in March that 4,000 more soldiers and other security personnel would be deployed to the region, supplementing more than 60,000 already there.

Abhisit acknowledged that the reinforcements were needed because of the failure to restore security.

The population in the three most troubled provinces, Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat, is more than 70 percent Muslim.

The Agence France-Presse reports that Sri Lanka’s president celebrated the national Buddhist holiday of Boson by granting pardons to 585 imprisoned military deserters. Boson marks the introduction of Buddhism to the country in the second century C.E. Today, about 70% of Sri Lanka’s population identifies as Buddhist.

In other Sri Lanka news, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today that an international investigation is needed to “examine the military actions of the government and defeated Tamil Tiger rebels during the civil war.”

“A rescue worker looks through the rubble of the ancient Danok pagoda, which collapsed last Saturday as workmen were completing its renovation — killing at least 20 people, according to émigré reports.” Photo by Soe Zeya Tun for Reuters.
Here’s the latest on what’s happening in Burma: