"Photo from around Zuccotti Park on Day 36 of Occupy Wall Street in New York, Friday, October 21." Photo by David Shankbone.

Please check out my brand new interview with the great Joshua Eaton (founder of Dana Wiki) for my new Patheos blog Off the Cushion. In it we talk Buddhism and the #Occupy movement. It’s a really good discussion — don’t miss this one.

I previously interviewed Joshua once before about Dana Wiki for Shambhala Sun Space. He’s a really great interview subject, let me tell you! Don’t forget to follow him on Twitter @joshua_eaton and @OccupyBuddhism.

Read our interview here.

(L-R) "Where the Iron Bird Flies" co-producers / co-directors Amber Bemak and Victress Hitchcock.

Buddhadharma: The Practitioner’s Quarterly Online has just posted my new interview with Amber Bemak — an old friend, and the co-director / co-producer (with Chariot Productions founder Victress Hitchcock) of When the Iron Bird Flies: Tibetan Buddhism Arrives in the West, “a documentary-in-progress, seeking to give the world a comprehensive look at the impact Tibetan Buddhism is having on Western culture.”

Among other things, Amber has worked as a film maker for Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche and Phakchok Rinpoche in Katmandu, collaborated in Mumbai on a video installation based on the concept of mandalas, and served as a cinematographer on the documentary Blessings: The Tsoknyi Nangchen Nuns of Tibet. In addition, she and I were students together years ago on Antioch Education Abroad’s Buddhist Studies in India program (along with Ravenna Michalsen and others).

You can read my interview with Amber here.

(L-R) The author and Araia Tesfamariam at Denison University, Granville, OH, circa 2000. Photographer unknown.

Over at my new Patheos blog Off the Cushion I have just posted an interview with Araia Tesfamariam, an independent film and TV producer who has worked with, among others, the preeminent American pastor T.D. Jakes. In addition, Araia is an old and dear friend of mine from college days.

Araia is currently at work on a documentary entitled Big Araia, and we discuss it in the interview. I think it’s an important and moving project, which is why I wanted to talk to Araia about it. I hope you will read our interview here.

(Incidentally, I just love the picture above. It’s pretty ridiculous and hilarious from here.)

The author at University of the West, Rosemead, CA, January 14th, 2012. Please visit justicefortroy.org.

Last weekend, I had a lot of people on the street stop me to ask me what me shirt said. (See above.)

It occurs to me that I didn’t do anything about the late Troy Davis and his case at this blog, largely because I was so incredibly busy at the time of his execution by the state of Georgia. (My tweets about him got noticed by The Washington Post along with those of a variety of other religious Twitterers, though.)

Though I was, like many, particularly concerned about the specifics of Troy’s case, I’ve been an anti-death penalty advocate my whole adult life. I first got involved in the work during college: while I was a student at Denison University, the state of Ohio executed its first prisoner in over thirty years when it killed Wilford Berry on February 19, 1999. In advance of this, along with other members of our campus chapter of Amnesty International, I demonstrated at the home of then-Governor Bob Taft, participated in a statewide fast, wrote letters, and helped circulate petitions. (As I trip down memory lane here, it is worth noting that Ohio this week produced their 6th and the U.S.’s 140th death row exoneration.)

Anyway, long story short, I like to make sure to promote anti-death penalty work as often as I can, so, please…

Take a stand for Troy Davis.
Pledge to fight to abolish the death penalty.

The author at the Tibetan Cultural Center in Bloomington, IN, circa 2007. Photo by Camille Gammon-Hittelman.

Well, this is a nice surprise: an article that I originally wrote for Inquiring Mind a while back has been reprinted as a feature in the latest Upaya Newsletter. I’m touched that the folks at the Upaya Zen Center saw fit to publish the piece. Thanks, gang!

You can read the piece here.

Please check out my exclusive new Buddhist Channel interview with one of the coolest guys I know: Rohan Gunatillake. Rohan was recently named one of Wired Magazine‘s “Smartest of 2012,” and in this interview we discuss his brand new mobile meditation app buddhify.

Read our interview here.

]]> http://dannyfisher.org/2012/01/17/tomorrow-2/feed/ 0 djhappydan http://dannyfisher.org/2012/01/16/thoughts-on-martin-luther-king-day/ http://dannyfisher.org/2012/01/16/thoughts-on-martin-luther-king-day/#comments Mon, 16 Jan 2012 21:21:23 +0000 Danny Fisher http://dannyfisher.org/?p=14139 ]]>

"Portrait of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr." by Betsy G. Reyneau.

…are over at my new Patheos blog, Off the Cushion. I hope you’ll take a look.

[UPDATE: The time has been changed to 9 a.m. on Sundays. The poster below has been updated to reflect this change.]

(L-R) The author and Charles S. Prebish at Moscone Center West, San Francisco, CA, for the 2011 American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, November 21st, 2011. Photo by Bill Aiken of SGI-USA.

I don’t go every year, but I did attend this past year’s American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting in San Francisco only a few weeks back. Among the many rich and joyful opportunities it provided — including seeing Gary Snyder read poetry, visiting with a number of former professors and students, and watching Cornel West give Scott A. Mitchell a big hug when Scott introduced himself — the best part for me was getting to spend some quality time with the astonishing Charles S. Prebish and his wonderful wife Susan.

I’ve blogged in the past about Chuck, whom we can thank for (among many, many other things) coining the phrase “scholar-practitioners” and firmly establishing the study of Buddhism in North America as a sub-discipline within academic Buddhist Studies. Now retired from Utah State University, he is the author of more than twenty books, including the absolutely essential, must-reads Luminous Passage: The Practice and Study of Buddhism in America and Buddhist Monastic Discipline: The Sanskrit Prātimoksạ Sūtras of the Mahāsāmg̣hikas and Mūlasarvāstivādins. In addition, he is the co-founder of The Journal of Buddhist Ethics, the Buddhism Section of the American Academy of Religion, and Routledge’s “Critical Studies in Buddhism” series. Most recently, he was very deservedly honored with the “festschrift” Buddhist Studies from India to America: Essays in Honor of Charles S. Prebish in 2005, which acknowledges the tremendous debt our field owes him for all of his myriad efforts.

Chuck is also the author of a brand new, absorbing memoir entitled An American Buddhist Life: Memoirs of a Modern Dharma Pioneer (from Sumeru Press). Besides being incredibly honest and beautifully written, the book pioneers a kind of writing we desperately need to see more of from Buddhist scholars, practitioners, and scholar-practitioners: memoir. Chuck’s life has brought him into contact with some truly remarkable figures in the study and practice of Buddhism — everyone from Richard H. Robinson to Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche — and his reflections about them not only “make history come alive,” but also bring new dimensions to our understanding of the scope and shape of Buddhism and Buddhist Studies in America in the twentieth and twenty-first century. At the memorial service for the late Leslie Kawamura at AAR, Chuck has expressed hope that others will write similar memoirs, and I think his book will always serve as a shining example of why that’s a really, really, really good idea. (As an aside, regular readers may recall that I interviewed Chuck and John Harding, who also spoke at the memorial, about Dr. Kawamura for Buddhadharma: The Practitioner’s Quarterly Online last year.)

Anyway, Chuck has really been a hero of mine in many respects. People often tease me about doing a lot (too much?), and I think at least some of that comes from being really inspired by how much people like Chuck have done to contribute to the growth and development of Buddhist Studies and Buddhism in America. We wouldn’t be where we are without the incredibly hard, dedicated work of people like Chuck.

On top of that, he’s an incredibly kind and generous guy, whose interest in and enthusiasm about some of the things I’ve tried to do has meant the world to me. I want to be for my students what Chuck and a few special others have been for me.

Anyway, hanging out with Chuck and Susan made my year.

By way of closing, I wanted to alert you all to Chuck’s latest venture with Damien Keown (who has been a mentor to my great pal Justin Whitaker of American Buddhist Perspective): two new e-books. (Regular readers may recall my past mention of their other efforts on this front.) This by way of H-Buddhism (The Buddhist Scholars Information Network):

Damien Keown and Charles Prebish would like to announce the publication of their latest ebooks. Both ebooks are available for Kindle ebook readers at Amazon.com and for all other ebook readers (as well as Kindle) at Smashwords.com.

Damien’s ebook, “Buddhism and Bioethics” is the first book to discuss contemporary issues in bioethics from a Buddhist perspective. Written in a clear and accessible style by a leading expert in field, and drawing on both ancient and modern sources, it shows how Buddhist ethical teachings can be applied to a range of controversial issues like abortion and euthanasia. It’s price is $9.99.
@ Smashwords
@ Amazon

Chuck’s ebook, “Looking West: A Primer for American Buddhism” is a short, basic introduction to one of the fastest growing new religions in America. It provides all the historical, doctrinal, and community information a curious person would want to know about Buddhism in its American home. It highlights all the key figures and religious practices employed by the various Buddhist communities in America. It’s price is $9.99.
@ Smashwords
@ Amazon

Check them out, folks! I’m picking up copies of both right now, and they’re going right to the top of my reading list. I recommend you do the same.