Rev. Danny Fisher

Beastie Boy and Tibet activist Adam Yauch, who is “faring well” after surgery and treatment for cancer, is asking people to join him (in spirit) at scheduled times for sitting meditations to “smash cancer.”  He writes to those on the Beastie Boys’ mailing list:

wanted to send this out to you guys in case you were into it, or wanted to give it to anyone who you think might be.

a few friends and i are meditating at the same time twice a day. 9:30am and 6:30pm eastern standard time, for about an hour and half.

we are picturing smashing apart all of the cancer cells in the world.

we are visualizing taking the energy away from the cancer, and then sending it back at the cancer as lightening bolts that will break apart the DNA and RNA of the cells. if you have the time, please join us in whipping up this lightening storm. mind over matter……

[...]

if you prefer to sit then sit, but if you are not used to meditating, or sitting quietly doesn’t sound like fun, put on some music and dance while you do the visualization, and if you want to do it at some other time, or picture curing some other illness that’s fine too. [Yoko Ono] will be joining the meditation by visualizing all of us dancing with joy to celebrate the world without cancer. all variations are welcome. this is really just being done with a wish for all beings to be cured of all illnesses and to find true lasting happiness.

i’ll also be saying prayers for the earthquake victims in tibet, so join in on that if you can too.

please feel free to pass this onto anyone who you think may find it interesting.

with all my love,

adam yauch

You can find out more at The Onion A.V. Club.

The proposal came following yesterday’s news of the death of Gang Starr member Guru from cancer.

The Beastie Boys were the organizers of the immensely popular and influential Tibetan Freedom Concerts, and some of their Buddhist-inspired songs appear in Gary Gach’s absolutely wonderful anthology What Book?!: Buddha Poems from Beat to Hiphop. Yauch, who identifies as a Buddhist, is married to Dechen Wangdu, who was active in Students for a Free Tibet. His Buddhist faith has been the subject of substantial articles in both Tricycle: The Buddhist Review and Interview. He also heads up the film distributor Oscilloscope Laboratories, which last year put out the Buddhist-relevant films Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country and Unmistaken Child. Though active mostly in film distribution, Yauch directs as well: he helmed the experimental Beastie Boys concert film Awesome; I Fuckin’ Shot That! (2006) under the pseudonym Nathaniel Hörnblowér.  You can find out more about him here.