Rev. Danny Fisher

Just a Buddhist Minister Trying to Benefit Beings
April 24, 2011

A Gift of Dharma for 4.24.11

Photo by Rinchen Lhamo.

Today’s quote is from Peter Lieberson (1946-2011), the American composer whose works were often inspired by Tibetan Buddhism, and who also served as international director of Shambhala Training for many years. He died yesterday at age 64. This is it — from a beautiful piece he wrote for Shambhala Sun in 1997:

The Buddha let go of his struggle [to gain enlightenment] because he saw through all the techniques he had been faithfully practicing for years. He understood that the intrinsic wakefulness of his basic being was beyond any concept of enlightenment.

At the same time, he discovered that freedom paradoxically came about through those very disciplines that were artificial, gradual in application, and, ultimately, constricting. So for those inspired to follow the Buddha’s example, a path developed based on the skillful methods of the Buddha himself and of realized teachers in the lineages that followed.

From the very beginning of the Buddhist path simple techniques are presented to the student that encourage a state of wakefulness; in a sense one is deliberately playing a trick on oneself. Still, because one is trying to let go, there are nine yanas, or vehicles, in the Buddhist path that present ever more subtle and powerful techniques, each wearing out the previous ones. From this perspective, it might be said that enlightenment is a kind of transcendental exhaustion.

April 24, 2011

Reports of Two Tibetans Killed in Chinese Raid at Kirti Monastery; Tibetan Government-in-Exile “Deeply Concerned” about Situation

Tibetan students pray outside Rajghat, the memorial of Mahatma Gandhi, during a march demanding immediate withdrawal of Chinese troops from Kirti Monastery in Tibet, in New Delhi, India, April 19, 2011

"Tibetan students pray outside Rajghat, the memorial of Mahatma Gandhi, during a march demanding immediate withdrawal of Chinese troops from Kirti Monastery in Tibet, in New Delhi, India, April 19, 2011." Image via Voice of America.

This from The New York Times:

A Tibet advocacy group based outside China said in a report released Friday that two Tibetans were killed Thursday night by Chinese paramilitary officers who were raiding a monastery in Sichuan Province to detain rebellious monks.

The group, the International Campaign for Tibet, said security officers beat to death a man, Dongko, 60, and a woman, Sherkyi, 65, as they gathered with other people outside Kirti Monastery to try to prevent 300 monks from being taken away.

Officers from the People’s Armed Police, a paramilitary force usually deployed to quell riots, had put the monks in 10 trucks, the group said, citing as its source a monk from Kirti living in exile who remained in contact with the monastery. The officers then clashed with a large number of laypeople, many of them elderly, who tried to prevent the trucks from driving out the main entrance gate, the group said.

The report could not be independently confirmed, though information from the International Campaign for Tibet has generally been accurate. Several human rights groups said this week that Chinese officials had begun barring foreigners from the area.

In addition, Voice of America reports:

The cabinet of the Tibetan government in exile says it is “deeply concerned” about China’s security clampdown at a large Tibetan Buddhist monastery, expressing fears the situation could grow into “genocide.”

In a statement Saturday, the Kashag of the Central Tibetan Administration said Chinese police “severely” beat Tibetans gathered at the Kirti monastery in an ethnically Tibetan area of Sichuan province on Thursday night. The statement says the group had been trying to prevent police from taking away about 300 monks in military trucks.

The cabinet says most of the Tibetans gathered were elderly people, and that two of them died after being beaten.

The statement called on the international community to persuade China not to use force at the monastery and to release the monks it has detained.

The Tibetan government also asked for the issue to be raised during the United States’ and China’s annual meeting on human rights next week.

The U.S. State Department said last week that China’s use of force at the monastery to block demonstrations by monks was inconsistent with freedom of religion and human rights. China’s Foreign Ministry has said conditions at the facility are normal and called the U.S. remarks “irresponsible.”

The monastery has been under guard since last month, when a young monk set himself on fire to protest China’s policies on Tibet.

April 24, 2011

Peter Lieberson (1946-2011)

Photo by Hiroyuki Ito for The New York Times.

Peter Lieberson, an American composer whose works were often inspired by Tibetan Buddhism, and who also served as international director of Shambhala Training for many years, has died. The New York Times has posted their obituary, which includes the following:

In one of his final works, “Remembering JFK (An American Elegy),” he quoted the fourth of Brahm’s valedictory Chorale Preludes for organ. Mr. Lieberson’s remarks in the program note could speak for his music as well: “The poetry of the Lutheran chorale has an elegiac quality but at the same time conveys a sense of renewal and rebirth and of the possibilities of basic human goodness.”

As we say in the Shambhala tradition at the time of death…

May they be free from the ayatanas. May they attain a state of liberation. May the merit of the sangha provide eternal companionship for them. May the blessings of the teacher lead them on their journey. May their relatives and companions proceed with them on their journey.