2010 January 12 « Rev. Danny Fisher

January 12, 2010

A Gift of Dharma for 1.12.10

Today’s dharma quote is yet another from the Vidyādhara, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche (1939-1987), whom I first quoted and wrote a little bio for here. I know I said I would keep the kyping/re-posting of quotes from other sources to an absolute minimum, but this one was too good to pass up. It’s from The Sadhana of Mahamudra Sourcebook, via Shambhala Sun Space (via Ocean of Dharma):

Buddha in your heart is a symbol of faith: you could be immaculate and perfect, as perfect as Shakyamuni Buddha himself. That possibility already exists in you…. In this case, faith has nothing to do with praying to somebody. Faith is a sense of dignity. The Christian mystic Meister Eckhart talks about faith in the sense of being awake: being present and mindful and aware of the situation. Faith is seeing things as they are — whatever that might be — precisely, directly, and without any hesitation.

January 12, 2010

Defend the Human Rights of Uganda’s LGBT People

This from Amnesty International:

Uganda’s Parliament is considering an anti-homosexuality bill that would result in a sentence of death or life in prison for Ugandan LGBT people, and seven years for anyone offering them protection or assistance. The proposed bill is one of the most severe pieces of anti-homosexuality legislation in Africa; if passed, its impact could reverberate not only throughout the continent but globally, placing LGBT people throughout the world at greater risk and dealing a severe blow to human rights. //

Learn more »

Urge Congress to strongly condemn the proposed legislation and tell the Ugandan government that persecution of the Ugandan LGBT community is not acceptable.

Send a message to your representative here.

January 12, 2010

“Tonglen for Haiti”

This from Shambhala Sun Space:

Just after 6pm EST this evening, we received news of the earthquake in Haiti by way of a friend in the Shambhala community, who in her email suggested that it might be a fine thing to say prayers for Haiti, and to do tonglen practice, which, as Rosalind Harris so succinctly explained it in her piece Jamil’s Heart, is “the practice of taking into our hearts the suffering of ourselves and others and of sending out compassion.”

In the following, extracted from a Shambhala Sun article by Judy Lief, you’ll learn how to do tonglen, and why it’s good medicine for a world where suffering is all too often the top story. Certainly, that’s the case for Haiti this evening, as, sadly, it’s so often been.

Read the rest here.

January 12, 2010

Petition to President Obama

Click on the image below to send your message to the President.

January 12, 2010

Your Brit Hume Items for the Day

After several days of Brit Hume-related news items, I think this whole flap is starting to die down a little.

Before we leave it alone, though, there are a few new pieces to tell you about:

At the Washington Post/Newsweek endeavor On Faith, panelists are currently debating a question:

Fox News analyst Brit Hume said “widespread media bias against Christianity” was to blame for criticism of his suggestion that Tiger Woods should embrace Christianity to find redemption. “Instead of urging that Tiger Woods turn to Christianity, if I had said what he needed to do was to strengthen his Buddhist commitment or turn to Hinduism, I don’t think anybody would have said a word,” Hume told Christianity Today. “It’s Christ and Christianity that get people stirred up.”

Sarah Palin and other conservative Christians have made similar claims. Is there widespread media bias against Christianity? Against evangelicals such as Hume and Palin? Against public figures who speak openly and directly about their faith? Against people who believe as you do?

Our pal Justin Whitaker at American Buddhist Perspective, meanwhile, thanks Mr. Hume.

Barbara O’Brien at Barbara’s Buddhism Blog tackles “ignorance about Buddhism” in many of the responses and coverage of the Hume kerfuffle.

Lastly, over at Religion Dispatches, Peter Laarman, executive director of Progressive Christians Uniting, notes, “Tiger could take Brit Hume’s suggestion and get Jesus for his troubles but nobody should pretend that anything Christian is going on here.”

1 comment