2010 January 13 « Rev. Danny Fisher

A Gift of Dharma for 1.13.10

Photo by David Levene for The Guardian.

Today’s quote is yet another from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, whom I first quoted and wrote a short biography for in this post. It’s from a teaching entitled “Basically Good”:

Once you accept a religious tradition, it should become part of your daily life. In this way, you may have some experiences, and with these experiences we will come to know the deeper value. The practice is very essential.

If we do not appreciate the importance of implementing the teachings into one’s own life through practice, there is the danger of following a cliché or popular impression. For example, when someone talks about Christianity, the first image one thinks of is a big cross inside a church or chapel. Perhaps when someone talks about Buddhism, the image you get is of a serene Buddha inside the huge hall of a temple. Specifically, when people talk about Tibetan Buddhism, perhaps you get the impression of a monk holding a drum and cymbal; maybe people think of a monk wearing a weird-looking mask. This is what I mean by popular impression or cliché. There is a sort of danger in this.

When someone mentions Buddhism, in particular Tibetan Buddhism, you should have the feeling of altruism, infinite altruism, and an understanding of sunya—emptiness or ultimate reality. We should cultivate our perception so that when we think about Tibetan Buddhism, the first images in our mind are concepts like altruism, universal compassion, and the understanding of the deeper nature of reality. This is the kind of perception that we must cultivate.

The Buddha is My DJ, Dr. Scott A. Mitchell is My Hero

Our pal in the Buddhoblogosphere Dr. Scott A. Mitchell of the buddha is my dj and the DharmaRealm podcast has a (pardon my emphatic French) kick-ass guest post at Beliefnet’s One City: A Buddhist Blog for Everyone today. Here’s the choicest snippet:

If we take that old Zen refrain seriously — that Dharma doors are boundless — then we must take this diversity of American Buddhism seriously. So when I say that I don’t believe in American Buddhism, what I mean to say is that I do not believe in its singularity. I believe, deeply and passionately, in its multiplicity, in American Buddhisms.

I believe in, and celebrate the necessity for, multiple Dharmas — or, perhaps more specifically, multiple approaches to understanding the Dharma. There are multiple ways of approaching the Buddha’s teachings because, at the end of the day, sentient beings are numberless, and we’ve each got our own individual karmic burdens to work out. So there can’t be one Dharma just like there can’t be one way of being human.

I see American Buddhisms and the Buddha’s Dharma not as “one” thing but rather as multiple, overlapping things with fuzzy and ill-defined borders, a crazy Venn diagram of ideas and practices that are all related and, collectively, can be called “Buddhism” or “Dharma.” But no one of these things can stand in for the whole.

Just like we can’t point to one of the Five Skandhas and say “that’s the essence of ‘me’”, we can’t point to one brand of Buddhism, one part of the vast library of the Buddha’s teachings, and say “that’s the essence of Buddhism.” It is only when looked at collectively can we describe them in their entirety as “Buddhism.”

Dharma doors really are boundless, and for a good reason. If you haven’t found one that works for you, try another.

I agree wholeheartedly. Read the rest of Scott’s post here.

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January 13, 2010

“Discovering Buddhist Violence”

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Over at Religion Dispatches, Michael Jerryson, co-editor with Mark Juergensmeyer of Buddhist Warfare, the “first collection of essays on Buddhist violence from a comparative perspective,” presents an explanation of his work entitled “Monks With Guns: Discovering Buddhist Violence”. It’s a must-read. Here’s a snippet:

In an effort to combat this view and to humanize Buddhists, then, Mark Juergensmeyer and I put together a collection of critical essays that illustrate the violent history of Buddhism across Mongolia, Tibet, Japan, China, Korea, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and India.

Our intention is not to argue that Buddhists are angry, violent people—but rather that Buddhists are people, and thus share the same human spectrum of emotions, which includes the penchant for violence.

Although the book only arrived at bookstores last month, it apparently touched some nerves in the academic community before its release. Some have objected to the cover [image right], which they feel is not an appropriate subject for Buddhism. Ironically, that is the very reason this collection of essays is so important: to address the apparent and widespread inability to acknowledge the violent side to religious traditions. It is this inability that robs its adherents of their humanity.

In a way, I wish I could return to that dream of Buddhist traditions as a purely peaceful, benevolent religion that lacks mortal failures and shortcomings. But I cannot. It is, ultimately, a selfish dream and it hurts other people in the process.

Buddhist Warfare certainly contributes to the broader discussion of religious violence, but on a more intimate and local level, I hope this collection will effect some significant change in the way Buddhism is perceived in the United States. Only time will tell.

I agree with much of what Jerryson has to say, and hope that his and Juergensmeyer’s book has the desired effect. Buddhists are human beings and individuals too, and you find all kinds of beliefs and behaviors within the vast and various traditions of the religion–including diverse ones around the issue of violence.

1 comment

January 13, 2010

One of My Most Favorite Films, One You Must Watch At Least Once

January 13, 2010

Haiti – How to Help

Stefano Zannini/Médecins Sans Frontières,via Associated Press

You’ve probably heard the news by now about the catastrophic earthquake that has struck Haiti. Over at NPR’s The Two-Way blog, Mark Memmott offers some really useful resources and ways to help:

– The State Department’s DipNote blog writes that “for those interesting in helping immediately, simply text ‘HAITI’ to ’90999′ and a donation of $10 will be given automatically to the Red Cross to help with relief efforts, charged to your cell phone bill. Or you can go online to organizations like the Red Cross and Mercy Corps Mercy Corps to make a contribution to the disaster relief efforts.”

– The American Red Cross has posted more information about its efforts and how to donate here.

– Mercy Corps’ online donations page is here.

– It’s Just Light, a blog by photographer Nick Zantop, has collected a long list of aid organizations and how to donate money to them here.

– CBSNews.com has its list of aid groups here.

– Musician Wyclef Jean, who’s from Haiti, says if you text “Yele” to 501501, you’ll automatically be donating $5 to the Yele Haiti Earthquake Fund. The charge will show up on your phone bill. You can find out more about Yele here.

Read the rest of his post, that is still being updated with links to NPR’s continuing coverage of the aftermath in Haiti, here.

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