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Khun Sa cashes ticket. And more!
A great post on mindful consumerism (and the dangers of digg) at Zen Housewife (featuring Kerouac from Dharma Bums: "work, produce, consume, work, produce, consume..."
And Barry Graham aka the Urban Monk invites us all to the Phoenix Buddhist Festival on Saturday, November 3rd.
BURMA: A fascinating article, "Tell a Joke, and You Disappear," courtesy of the Worst Horse. And speaking of Burma (where jokers disappear in the dark of night) one of the world's most wanted men, Khun Sa, (a notorious warlord / drug dealer dubbed the "Prince of Death" by Washington, which was frantically hunting him in the U.S.
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Bits and Pieces
Is that a lama behind the camera? More movies from Bhutan.
Will sanctions on Burma be enough? asks Mike Nizza.
Prime Minister Steven Harper of Canada met with the Dalai Lama and got China all worked up.
A technical overview of the internet shutdown in Burma.
Opinion from the Bangkok Post: The status quo in Burma cannot continue.
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Christians fight City Hall in Indiana
There was a great photo of a mural with both Buddha and Jesus hung in Bloomington City Hall in the news last week -- Now it's disappeared. Such is the impermanence of the web. Anyway, it -- along with several other murals set up in Bloomington, Indiana's City hall to welcome the Dalai Lama -- got some of Indiana's Christians hot under the collar.
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Bamiyan Buddhas Back?
Op-Ed columnist Roger Cohen of the New York Times looks into the rebuilding of the Buddhas of Bamiyan. Tricycle took a quick look at this story over a year ago. Don't forget, Buddhas are still being destroyed in central Asia -- In fact, Buddhas being dynamited serve as a kind of barometer of Islamist power in a particular region.
- Philip Ryan, Web Editor
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One Monk Emerges
Ashin Kovida, a Burmese monk described as one of the main organizers of the protests, escapes to Thailand and is interviewed.
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Gil Fronsdal on Tricycle Q & A
Trot on over to the Tricycle Q & A if you'd like the chance to have your question on the dharma or anything else answered by Gil Fronsdal, the guiding teacher of the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California. Fronsdal has a Ph. D. in Buddhist Studies from Stanford, and many of his audio teachings are available online, such as those on the Zencast blog. The Tricycle Q & A software was developed by a group called Zooleo, run by our friend Soren Gordhamer, founder of the Lineage Project. They have many other interesting summits going on around the web, so please take a look!
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Einstein's Quotes on Buddhism
6.23 Confucius said, "When a cornered vessel no longer has any corners, should it be called a cornered vessel? Should it?" - The Analects, quoted in Wing-Tsit Chan's Source Book in Chinese Philosophy, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1963
The Confucian school, like many other schools of Chinese philosophy, had a theory about names and actuality, commonly called the "rectification of names." The Confucians held that the rectification of names was an ethical project, not merely a metaphysical or logical concern, because all things must be fit into their proper scheme in the universe. But you don't have to be a Confucian to want to set the record straight on Buddhism and the quotes about it attributed to various luminaries and used to promote (or defend?) the dharma.
To wit: There are two similar versions of a prominent Einstein quote on Buddhism floating around the web, reproducing themselves in viral fashion.
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Burma, China, Mongolia, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand
Danny Fisher has a good round-up of the sad / hopeful goings-on in Burma. And Tricycle's own Jeff Wilson gives us a statement on Burma from the Buddhist Churches of America.
U.N. Envoy to Burma Ibrahim Gambari says the talks between opposition leader Aung Sann Suu Kyi and the Rangoon regime make him hopeful, but "much more is needed" to bring about real results. And meanwhile Burmese government forces are back out on the street in force and surrounding "holy sites" in order to forestall more action by Burma's monks.
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Aung San Suu Kyi meets with Government Official
Click pic (AFP-Getty images) to read.
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Unrepresented Peoples
Great piece about some guys on a mission to meet the Dalai Lama.
A blogger in San Diego reports on the fires there.
BURMA: Normalcy / Normality in Burma from the Penguin Blog. Plus, the Burmese regime agrees to an earlier visit by U.N. envoy Ibrahim Gambari. Australia imposes new sanctions on Myanmar. Is the willingness of the junta to deal more openly with the U.N.
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Books: Pure Heart, Enlightened Mind
Earlier this year Wisdom Publications released Pure Heart, Enlightened Mind: The Life and Letters of an Irish Zen Saint by Maura Soshin O'Halloran.
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Bush v. Burma
U.N. special envoy Ibrahim Gambari says he is encouraged by India's stance on Burma. Few details were provided, so we should take it this means India is willing to do "something."
Meanwhile Burma's southeast Asian neighbors fear ethnic conflict if Burma's government collapses. (This is essentially begging President Bush not to bomb Burma. Bush will bomb Burma then eat a short stack of buckwheat flapjacks with a side of bacon and a refill on that coffee when you get a second, please, sweetheart. The man doesn't play games with this kind of thing.
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Following up on the Dalai Lama's visit
Two of our favorite sites, The Worst House and Dreaming of Danzana Ravjaa, point us to two ha-ha's on the DL's visit with Dubya: one from Slate and the other a Letterman Top Ten list.
Some blowback on the visit: Chinese authorities drop the hammer on celebrations -- or rather, attempted celebrations -- over the DL's visit stateside.
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Bloomberg, Burma
Yet another piece on the Dalai Lama's visit to New York from the Times, but with some interesting bits:
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg invited him to a Gracie Mansion breakfast last Friday with 20 or so New York Buddhists. The event was not listed on Mr. Bloomberg’s public schedule. Leaving it off was not a political statement, a mayoral spokesman said. Mr. Bloomberg routinely has groups over for breakfast in private. Besides, the spokesman said, the mayor wanted the Dalai Lama’s appearance to be a surprise to the other guests.
[Robert] Thurman was there. The Dalai Lama spoke of “how his main concern was that people studied Buddhism, not just sort of adhere to it,” he said. “Faith was nice.
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Hope for Burma
Three trends that will keep Burma on the world's radar: diplomatic pressure from the West and China, increasing interconnectedness due to globalization, and the internet, particularly petitions by groups such as MoveOn.org.
Don't give up hope on hitting the Burmese generals where it hurts, says Tom Malinowski of the Washington Post. Try smart, targeted sanctions, among other things.
And a postcard from Burma: "Please tell others what you have seen here."
- Philip Ryan, Web Editor
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Burma news, 10/20/07
Life is superficially returning to normal in Burma (the Rangoon curfew is lifted) but fear is not far beneath the surface.
The White House orders sanctions on Burma, which means freezing the U.S.-held assets for some members of the junta and tightening the restrictions on exporting/importing certain products to/from Burma. Does that include oil? Now Congress needs to follow this up.
And Panties for Peace: as a sign of protest, women are sending panties to the junta:
The group, Lanna Action for Burma, says the country's superstitious generals, especially junta leader Gen.
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More sanctions, more arrests
President Bush is threatening more sanctions for Myanmar for continuing to defy international will and failing to "stop their vicious persecution." He also called on India and China, Burma's most powerful neighbors, to do more. This last part seems like the way to go. You can try and isolate countries like North Korea and Cuba, and the people end up starving while the government grows rich. Burma was pretty much a closed country anyway. But how about the president calls David J. O'Reilly, CEO of Chevron, and tells him to stop doing business in Myanmar? Well, human rights are human rights, but dammit, we need that oil. Take a look at how many dictatorships are propped up by oil money.
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Bush and the DL
The Dalai Lama went to Washington and spoke with the prez and received the Congressional Gold Medal. (Photo above © Doug Miles and the NYT.) As expected, China's pretty steamed. Oh well. Maybe if every Western nation said it would boycott the 2008 Beijing Olympics, as Richard Gere and others have suggested, China might budge on Burma. The Olympics are very important to China, so they are sensitive on this topic.
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Liberation Prison Project
We get a tremendous amount of mail from prisoners here at Tricycle, and we do our best to send them something in reply to their letters. Beth Phelan of the Vajrayana Institute in Sydney, Australia (guiding light behind the tremendous Happiness & Its Causes conferences) visited us today and, talking about last year's conference, mentioned the dynamic Buddhist nun the Venerable Robina Courtin and the incredible work she does on the Liberation Prison Project, which works with Buddhists in prisons around the world.
The U.S. has a prison problem.
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500 Still Held by Junta (maybe)
The Burmese government is saying it detained nearly 3,000 people during the protests. Around 500 are probably still in custody. China, Burma's most prominent supporter, says it agrees with UN envoy Gambari's mission, which is to get the southeast Asian nations (and probably India, if China's for it) to call Myanmar to account. Also Japan, which gave Myanmar 26.1 million dollars or so last year, is withholding that money now. (By comparison, Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees earned about 22 million dollars last year.)
In Washington, DC yesterday, the Dalai Lama voiced his support for the Burmese monks. He also said his successor might be chosen by an unorthodox method.
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