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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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Vipassana Forum and Awakening 101
There's a new site out called the Vipassana Meditation Forum, run by the Irreverent Buddhist. Looks like it's getting a lot of action after only a few days alone, which is great.
Also came across the site Awakening 101, a self-guided tour of the Dharma. It included the cool pic below, from the Illustrated History of Buddhism.
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HHDL in NYC
This weekend, Tricycle's hometown of New York City was lucky (or big and rich) enough to host His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. In lieu of his usual barnstorming, His Holiness gave three full days of teachings at a Manhattan landmark, Radio City Music Hall, home of the Rockettes (yes, they're alive and... kicking). Did they welcome him to town with a saffron kick-line? Sadly, no, but Radio City made for a magnificent venue, the huge arched ceiling lit a subtle orange. (Here's a photo from flickr that gives you an idea, despite the biblical scene.)
I've always found there to be a certain jolly energy in the air before and after HHDL events (this is my 4th, if you count the one in central park that I didn't end up getting into up but did show up at). Perhaps that's why waiting in enormous lines to see His Holiness is a somehow pleasant chore.
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"There must be no justice or good people in the world"
No, that headline is not some disillusioned do-gooder decrying the world's lack of action on the Burma situation, but rather a petulant Chinese official mad at the US for dealing with the Dalai Lama. Big Red's hopping mad over the DL's visit to Washington, DC, where he'll trade pleasantries with the Prez for the third time. He'll also visit Capital Hill and be honored by the US Congress with the Congressional Gold medal.
“Such a person who basely splits his motherland and doesn’t even love his motherland has been welcomed by some countries and has even been receiving this or that award,” Tibet’s Communist Party boss, Zhang Qingli, told reporters during the [Communist Party] congress.
“We are furious,” Mr. Zhang said.
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Lopez on the term "aryan"
Donald S. Lopez Jr.'s article on the term "aryan" from the Winter 2006 issue of Tricycle is available here.
Buddhist extremists gang up on Catholics in Sri Lanka. Those Sri Lankan Buddhists aren't playing, either. Many monks have been militarized by the long, brutal civil war with Tamil rebels in the north.
Buddhist movie plot #427: Tiny Jodo Shu church represented by a spunky little law firm fights the big mother church in Japan, which is of course backed by a huge faceless corporate Firm.
Buddhist Relics do Edmonton.
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Who Said What on Burma
Danny Fisher points us to the Buddhist Peace Fellowship's collection of statements on Burma, and also what Buddhist leaders Thich Nhat Hanh and Jack Kornfield said recently.
And for all the coffee fiends out there pouring their hard-earned money into the crowded coffers of Starbucks, Urban Monk shows the way to CoffeeTao, a blog on coffee and the politics thereof.
Peter of the Buddha Diaries spoke with Thanissaro Bhikkhu recently on pacifism and whether it was ever ok f
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Burma and Boycotts
Big Buddhist week in New York last week: Thich Nhat Hanh and the Dalai Lama were in town (see the Worst Horse tracking Gawker Stalker as HH rolls through the Village), and the Tricycle office had a little gathering attended by many fine readers from the area plus Sharon Salzberg and Lama Surya Das.
British PM Gordon Brown is working to put pressure on Burma.
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