Rev. Danny Fisher

Just a Buddhist Minister Trying to Benefit Beings

Month: June, 2010

June 21, 2010

Cambodian Buddhist Monks Bless Stolen Artifacts Upon Return

This from the Associated Press:

 The United States returned seven sculptures from the great Angkorian era on Thursday that had been smuggled out of Cambodia.

Cambodian Buddhist monks blessed the artifacts during a handover ceremony at the port of Sihanoukville, said John Johnson, a U.S. embassy spokesman.

The sandstone sculptures were recovered by U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials during an 2008 raid in Los Angeles. They arrived in Cambodia aboard the hospital ship USNS Mercy on Tuesday, Johnson said.

The Mercy docked at the seaport for a 13-day mission to provide free medical care to Cambodians.

Johnson said the artifacts include two heads of the Buddha, a bas-relief and an engraved plinth. The items date from 1000 to 1500 when the kings of Angkor ruled over an extensive empire and produced some of the world’s most magnificent temples, including the famed Angkor Wat complex.

June 21, 2010

Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche (1942-2010)

Sad news from the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center…

On the auspicious day of Medicine Buddha, June 19, 2010 at 8:07pm, our most beloved teacher and one of the great scholars and masters in Nyingmapa Buddhism, Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche passed into parinirvana peacefully and beautifully. All stages of meditation were perfectly demonstrated according to the teachings of the Buddha and Guru Padmasambhava, and as Khenchen Rinpoche himself taught for so many years. He entered fearlessly without any emotion or attachment, joyfully and with confidence at his home, Arya Palo Ling, in the presence of his beloved brother, Venerable Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche, and Jomo Lorraine, and during the sangha’s practice of Vajrasattva in the glorious Copper-colored Temple at Palden Padma Samye Ling monastery. Surrounded by every lush spring quality of gentle breezes, birds singing, flowers blooming, and deer playing in the meadows, he remains in thugdam meditation.

Read the rest here.

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June 21, 2010

“China Now Pressuring Tibetans Outside Politics”

The Associated Press has the story.

June 20, 2010

A Gift of Dharma for 6.20.10

Aung San Suu KyiToday’s quote is from Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma’s democratically-elected Prime Minister, Nobel Peace laureate, and socially-engaged Buddhist icon who has spent fourteen of the last twenty years under house arrest.  (She celebrated her 65th birthday this weekend.) This is it:

A revolution which aims merely at changing official policies and institutions with a view to an improvement in material conditions has little chance of genuine success. Without a revolution of the spirit, the forces which produced the iniquities of the old order would continue to be operative, posing a constant threat to the process of reform and regeneration.

June 20, 2010

Jeremy Browne MP’s Birthday Message for Aung San Suu Kyi