2010 March 02 « Rev. Danny Fisher

My Terrible Bhavacakra Drawing for Class

…With bonus hungry ghost in the corner!

Being a professor is all fun and games until you have to draw.

Today’s quote is another from the Venerable Ajahn Chah Subhaddo (1918-1992), an enormously influential twentieth-century teacher in the Thai Forest Tradition, whom I previously quoted and wrote a short bio for in this post. This is it:

Don’t think that only sitting with the eyes closed is practice. If you do think this way, then quickly change your thinking. Steady practice is keeping mindful in every posture, whether sitting, walking, standing or lying down. When coming out of sitting, don’t think that you’re coming out of meditation, but that you are only changing postures. If you reflect in this way, you will have peace. Wherever you are, you will have this attitude of practice with you constantly. You will have a steady awareness within yourself.

March 2, 2010

Roger Ebert’s New Voice

Roger Ebert, the famed, Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic whose struggles with cancer and reflections on life and death I’ve previously blogged about here and here, was featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show this week. Here‘s a nice moment: Ebert unveiling his new digital voice to his wife Chaz.

March 2, 2010

How to Help Burma at Your Oscar Party

This from the U.S. Campaign for Burma:

“Witnessed with wonder and then with despair as the inevitable response from the government comes, there’s a palpable feeling that watching Burma VJ is an amazing experience that somehow becomes an act of solidarity.” ~ Paul Moore (Burma VJ Review, Sundance 2009)

There is a different air around the Oscars this year. That’s because an internationally acclaimed documentary film about the Saffron Revolution of 2007 in Burma is in the running for the best documentary film at the Oscars.

All your friends will be staying up to watch the Oscars Awards, like yourself, so why not throw an Oscar Get-Together to root for Burma VJ and also to use this time to take concrete action for Burma. While films and oscar nominations shine a spotlight on Burma, it is your action that can bring about the political change we want to see in Burma.

House Resolution 898 calls for the release of all political prisoners of conscience and an end to the systematic and widespread violations of human rights against ethnic minorities in Burma.

At the Oscar Night bash, ask your friends to sign the petition urging your member of Congress to co-sponsor House Resolution 898. Click here to download the petition. Don’t know who your member of Congress is? Find out here www.house.gov.

Downright gripping and utterly inspiring film, Burma VJ is an inspiring account of a nation of a million voices facing down death to call for freedom and democracy in Burma. This timely Oscar’s nomination of Burma VJ hails worldwide recognition for the selfless journalists and monks who took to the streets of major cities in Burma in a show of unparalleled courage and defiance against the brutal military dictatorship.

There will also be another Burma advocate at the Oscars. James Cameron, a longtime supporter of Burma’s freedom struggle and a friend to USCB, has been nominated for 3 Oscar Awards for his widely acclaimed film, Avatar. Check out this video spot featuring James Cameron talking about Burma.

When you’re done with your Oscar Night bash, please mail the names collected on the petition to our office,
U.S. Campaign for Burma
1444 N Street NW, Suite A2,
Washington, DC 20005

Let the countdown begin for the winning moment of Burma VJ at the Oscars 2010!

March 2, 2010

Jerry Brown Announces New Run for Governor in California

This via our pal and editor Rod Meade Sperry at Shambhala Sun Space:

Looks like it’s now official: California’s avuncular and sometimes controversial Jerry Brown will be running to be California’s governor again. He’d held the position from 1975 to 1983, and is currently the state’s attorney general.

CNN has this morning’s update, here.

Read the rest of Rod’s post here. And for more from the Sun about Brown and Buddhism, check out the past article “Jerry Brown: Zen and the Art of the Possible”.