2010 July 18 « Rev. Danny Fisher

July 18, 2010

A Gift of Dharma for 7.18.10

Today’s quote is from Thanissaro Bhikkhu, an American in the Thai forest tradition who currently serves as abbot of Metta Forest Monastery in Valley Center, CA, and one of the authors of Wadsworth Publishing’s hugely important Buddhist Religions: A Historical Introduction (fifth and latest edition). This is it:

Is a mountain heavy?

It may be heavy in and of itself, but as long as we don’t try to lift it up, it won’t be heavy for us.

This is a metaphor that one of my teachers, Ajaan Suwat, often used when explaining how to stop suffering from the problems of life. You don’t deny their existence — the mountains are heavy — and you don’t run away from them. As he would further explain, you deal with problems where you have to and solve them where you can. You simply learn how not to carry them around. That’s where the art of the practice lies: in living with real problems without making their reality burden the heart.

July 18, 2010

Happy Birthday, Mandiba!

Image via the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

This from the Nelson Mandela Foundation:

Surrounded by members of his family, Nelson Mandela today celebrated his 92nd birthday at his home in Houghton, Johannesburg.

Mr Mandela started off his day by receiving visits from old friends including former Zambian Prime Minister, Kenneth Kaunda. Various other invited guests brought him gifts and cards.

He was later serenaded by a large group of his grand-children and great-grandchildren, most of whom wore Nelson Mandela Day t-shirts to mark the first United Nations Nelson Mandela International Day. Many of Mr Mandela’s family had been out volunteering at community projects before they arrived at his private birthday party.

After singing “Happy Birthday, dear granddad!” the children were joined in their applause by the man of the moment. After two of his youngest great-granddaughters tried unsuccessfully to blow out the candles themselves, they were helped by a group of older ones.

Mr Mandela and his wife, Graça Machel, today also celebrated their 12th wedding anniversary. They were joined at the private celebration by his second wife, Mrs Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.

Before the main party got under way in a marquee erected in the garden, prayers were said by various ministers of religion. The occasion also marked a commemoration of the passing away since the 1940s of various members of the family.

These included Zenani Mandela junior, who was killed in a car accident at the age of 13 on 11 June, 2010; Mr Mandela’s daughter, Makaziwe, with his first wife Evelyn Mase, who passed away in 1946 after an illness at the age of nine months; Mandela’s eldest son, Thembekile, 24, who was killed in a car accident on 13 July 1969; and his second son, Makgatho, 54, who died of complications of AIDS on 6 January 2005.

For more, watch the film below…

July 18, 2010

Tricycle‘s James Shaheen on “Demonizing–and Idealizing–Tibet”

"Chinese tourists dressed as Tibetans, from 'Demonizing Tibet.'" Image via spiked.

Tricycle: The Buddhist Review‘s great editor and publisher James Shaheen offers a thoughtful response to a recent series of articles by spiked editor Brendan O’Neill, who is visiting and writing from Tibet. Here’s an important snippet from James’ post:

How, then, to look at the “Tibet issue?”

For one thing, it is not unique; in fact, it is not the exception but the rule. As difficult and tragic as the situation is, there is historical precedent for it. This is not a case of a pure and happy people facing an enemy bent on evil; nor is it a case of an enlightened people liberating a feudal society. It is yet another case of a modern industrialized state finding within its boarders a nation people whose very existence it considers an existential threat. There are plenty of contemporary analogues (consider Kurdistan, say, or Chechnya, or Palestine, or the many members of Unrepresented Nations and People Organization, known by its acronym, UNPO). We need only look to our own history and the fate of the Native American to understand how common—and close to home—such conflicts are. In fact, according to UNPO (whose president is a Tibetan), over 90% of the conflicts in the world are intra-national. Because these peoples live in isolation from one another, representing different cultures and languages, countervailing ideology has not yet fully emerged. Organizations like UNPO, it should be noted, may formulate such an ideology that will unify these otherwise separate causes.

Tibetans are among many others who find themselves within the geographical borders of a modern state that is hostile to it. People can chafe at comparisons with Native Americans, but Tibetan exceptionalism is a failure to see what it is the Tibetans face and more, it’s a failure to see ourselves.

Read the rest here.

July 18, 2010

Roshi James Ishmael Ford Reports on the 2010 American Zen Teachers Conference

It’s all at his blog Monkey Mind.

And don’t miss my recent Shambhala Sun Space interview with James about his recent participation in the National Day of Action Against SB1070 at Phoenix, AZ.

July 18, 2010

It’s Obon 2010

Named plaques of the members of the Buddhist temple who died since the last Obon are displayed in a place of reverence near the ‘Onaijin’ inside the Buddhist Temple. This plaque recognizing Shaku Kakugyo Kay Kiyoshi Terashima is one of seven at the front of the temple know as the Onaijin. The Salt Lake Buddhist Temple is celebrating the annual Obon Festival, the period of praying for the repose of the souls of one’s ancestors, Saturday 7/11/09.” Photo by Scott Sommerdorf for The Salt Lake Tribune.

Arun over at Angry Asian Buddhist provides us with a list of upcoming Obon festivals in Southern California. Take a look!

The Obon festival is a yearly event at which Japanese Buddhists honor and pray for their deceased ancestors. For more about Obon, follow this link. And for past posts about it at this blog, follow this link.

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