Rev. Danny Fisher

This via MahaSangha News:

The Milarepa Children’s Theater and Chorus, whose members are children and young adults of Tibetan, Asian and Western descent living in New York City. They offer traditional songs of realization as taught by the great Tibetan yogi and scholar Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche and the Vidyadhara Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. They performed at the 92Y on June 22/09 before an event with Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche and Daniel Goleman. The chorus was led by Paul Griffin, and guest director Harry Einhorn. Flute music played by Steve Gorn.

Photo by David H. Wells.

Our friend and past interviewee Erick D. White points us to a feature by Robert D. Kaplan in the latest issue of The Atlantic that argues, “after 26 years and 70,000 casualties,” the key to “easing the fears of [Sri Lanka's] historically beleaguered Buddhist majority while protecting its Hindu minority” is “rediscovering the blend of faiths that laid the foundation for the ancient kingdom of Kandy.” Here’s a choice snippet:

…Even if the artistic grandeur of Kandy has helped form the emotional source of Buddhist nationalism, which has proved itself as bloody as other religious nationalisms, Kandy’s religious monuments also offer a much deeper lesson: the affinity—rather than the hostility—between Buddhism and Hinduism. Buddhism arrived in Sri Lanka from India as part of the missionary activity of the great Mauryan emperor Ashoka in the third century B.C. And later eras of Indian history would witness an amalgamation of Buddhist teachings into Hinduism. A few miles from Kandy, deep in the forest amid glistening fields of tea, I saw statues of the Buddha and of Hindu gods under the same roofs, together in their dusky magnificence: in dark stone vestibules at the 14th-century temples of Gadaladeniya, Lankatilake, and Embekke. At the temple of Embekke, I lifted aside a veiling Hindu tapestry to behold the Buddha. At Lankatilake, I saw the Buddha surrounded on all four sides by devales (shrines) devoted to the deities Upulvan, Saman, Vibhisana, and Skanda—of mixed Hindu, Buddhist, and Persian origin. At the Buddhist shrine of Gadaladeniya, I saw stone carvings based on the style of the Hindu empire of Vijayanagar in Andhra Pradesh, in southern India. Each of these temples “reflects the fusion of Buddhism and Hinduism,” writes SinhaRaja Tammita-Delgoda in Eloquence in Stone: The Lithic Saga of Sri Lanka (2008).

In fact, Wickrama, the Buddhist king who was deposed by the British, became the last in a dynasty, the Nayakkars, that was South Indian and Hindu in origin; even as its members patronized Theravada Buddhism, they sought Hindu brides for their male Buddhist heirs. The British, by ending this dynasty and thus breaking the link between Buddhism and Hinduism, helped set the stage for the polarization of politics in the postcolonial era. The truth was that Theravada Buddhism, so concentrated on ethics and the release from worldly existence, was too austere for the Kandyan peasantry, who were drawn to the color and magic of the Hindu pantheon. Kandy and its forests are a monument not only to Buddhism, but to Hinduism as well. The historical and aesthetic legacy of Sri Lanka that long predates modern statehood is, in the final analysis, deeply syncretic. Only when Sri Lanka’s political leadership recognizes that legacy will communal peace be at hand—and with it the arrival of globalization and chain hotels, and the end of Kandy’s quaintness.

Read the whole piece here.

“In this photo released by the office of U.S. Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., Webb, right, meets with Myanmar’s detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in Yangon, Myanmar, Saturday, Aug. 15, 2009. Sen. Webb’s office says he has won the release of an American prisoner in Myanmar. A statement Saturday said John Yettaw will be officially deported on Sunday afternoon when he will travel with Webb to Bangkok. Yettaw was convicted Tuesday of helping Suu Kyi violate the terms of her house arrest.” Photo by the Associated Press.

Here’s the latest Burma news:

• Of course, the big news, as the Washington Post reports, is that Sen. James Webb (D-VA), during his trip to Burma, visited junta leader Than Shwe and detained Prime Minister-elect/Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. He also secured the release of John Yettaw, the American whose swim to Suu Kyi’s home resulted in the trial that extender her house arrest by 18 months. The Associated Press has footage, which is embedded below:

• The AP reports that the junta’s freeing of Yettaw, “whom it had sentenced to seven years of hard labor… could help persuade Washington to soften its hardline policy against the military regime.”
• The Guardian further reports that Sen. Webb’s visit to Burma has “triggered speculation that the Obama administration will attempt to steer the regime towards a new era of engagement.”
• The AP also reports on Yettaw’s family, eagerly awaiting his return home.
• The BBC reports that “two days after Burma sent opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi into further house arrest, regional governments are fine-tuning their responses.”
• The Agence France-Presse reports that “the UN Security Council agreed on a watered-down statement expressing ‘serious concern’ at the extended detention of Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar after a tougher draft met opposition from China, Libya, Russia and Vietnam.”
• Reuters reports that “exiled Myanmar pro-democracy groups said Thursday they were seeking to break the political deadlock in the country by proposing an amended version of a widely condemned constitution drafted by the ruling junta.”
• The Telegraph reports on the word that Suu Kyi has allegedly dropped her opposition to tourism in Burma.
• The Telegraph also features a comment from Mark Farmaner, director of the Burma Campaign UK, who believes “tourism will do nothing to prevent human-rights abuses.”
• The Wall Street Journal offers a “review and outlook” piece on sanctions post-Suu Kyi’s sentencing.
• Reuters offers a “factbox” on Burma and sanctions.
• CBC reports that a former child soldier has avoided deportation back to Burma and may remain in his adopted Saskatoon.

This from the International Campaign for Tibet:

For the first time since the protests across Tibet began in March, 2008, Chinese authorities will allow United States Congress personnel into Tibet, following previously rejected requests by Members of Congress and their staffs. At least 10 Congressional staffers depart for travel in China and Tibet this week.

As typical of such visits to Tibet, the itinerary will likely be tightly scripted with scant if any opportunity for independent inquiry. Several European government officials and foreign journalists have been allowed on tightly controlled visits to Tibet, almost exclusively to Lhasa, since the protests began in March 2008.

Todd Stein, Director of Government Relations at the International Campaign for Tibet, said: “The U.S. Congress has a demonstrated interest and remains very engaged in Tibetan issues. What these staffers will be given permission to see and do will be another indication of how the Chinese government wants the international community to interpret the situation in Tibet. To date, Chinese authorities have explained away tension and unrest across Tibet as isolated incidents resulting from outside interference. We hope the staffers will see enough to make their own judgments about the underlying causes and the impact of Chinese policies on the Tibetan people and their prospects for the future.”

“These staffers are well-briefed and aware of their possible exposure to Chinese government machinations during the visits, including being used for propaganda purposes. Discussions among Members of Congress, staff and Chinese officials are often parsed by the Chinese official media to suggest, for example, that any endorsement of economic progress in Tibet is a departure from concerns about the impact of Chinese encroachment on the Tibetan identity and the legitimacy of the Dalai Lama’s efforts for the implementation of genuine autonomy for Tibetans.”

The International community continues to press Chinese authorities for full access to Tibet for diplomats, foreign journalists and human rights rapporteurs. These Congressional staff visits could signal a new Chinese strategy of allowing “opaque access” in order to deflect such pressure, an approach that may have been previewed during the July riots in Xinjiang when foreign journalists were allowed to see the sites of the riots but were not permitted to pursue independent investigations.

A few days ago, I posted about efforts by over 10,000 volunteers from the Taiwanese Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation mobilizing for Typhoon Morakot relief efforts.

In Taiwan, Buddhism is practiced by a significant portion of its population. Four organizations are doing an enormous amount of work to propogate the Buddhadharma there today: Master Cheng Yen’s Tzu Chi Foundation, the late Master Sheng-yen’s Dharma Drum Mountain, Master Hsing Yun’s Fo Guang Shan, and Master Wei Chueh’s Chung Tai Shan.

At Barbara’s Buddhism Blog, the author points us to the news that the Dharma Drum Mountain sangha has joined relief efforts by cleaning up debris and offering victims food, clean water, sleeping bags and flashlights.

Also, over at The Buddhist Channel, there’s quite a bit of news about the efforts of Fo Guang Shan followers as well. Among other things, they have been setting up mobile clinics, texting vital information from the most devastated spots, and using monasteries and temples throughout the country as rescue shelters.