An American Zen Buddhist training center in the Mountains and Rivers Order, offering Sunday programs, weekend retreats and month-long residencies.
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Thaksin to return to Thailand; Monlam Chenmo
Deposed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is expected back in Thailand February 28th.
After President Bush imposed fresh sanctions on Burma's business interests, The Irrawaddy says Burma's Asian neighbors, who are bigger trading partners than the U.S., need to do the same.
Reuters on Monlam Chenmo, Tibet's Great Prayer Festival. More on Monlam from Phayul.com.
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Krishnamurti, Chogyam Trungpa, and Fleet Maull
A series of YouTubes, courtesy of Hokai.
Krishnamurti speaks with Chogyam Trungpa (5 videos)
Fleet Maull on Integral Peacemaker Training
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Tibetan Olympics; More from the Pew Report
More sanctions on Burmese businesses from the U.S.
Disillusioned with the Beijing Olympics? Try the Tibetan Olympics! The games will take place in Dharamsala from may 15th to 25th.
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Pew Forum on Religion in the U.S.
The Pew Forum survey of religion in the U.S. has arrived. The U.S. is said to be 0.7% Buddhist. More to follow on this.
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Blogisattva Award Winners 2008
Just in time for the Oscars, this year's Blogisattva Award winners have been announced! Congratulations to all the winners, including Tricycle's own Jeff Wilson, whose "Addressing Comments from the Meditation Thread" won Best Post of the Year!
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Washington Post on Burma
The Washington Post joins the chorus of voices condemning Burma's false progress.
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Which Religion Will "Win"?
Alan Wolfe writes about worldwide religious market share in the March issue of The Atlantic:
Hindus and Buddhists together make up 20 percent of the world’s people, and high birthrates in the countries in which they are dominant suggest that this proportion will grow.
There's not much more on Buddhism, but there is an interesting graphic plotting countries relative to wealth (the x-axis) and religiosity (y). As usual, much of the preoccupation of the article is with the rapid growth of Islam and the United States' atypical religiosity compared to western Europe. Does secularism grow as wealth increases? It doesn't seem to in this country, anyway.
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Buddhism in Vietnam and England; Buddhist Center in Kashmir
Buddhism has had rocky times in communist Vietnam, but now the state-sanctioned church is flexing its muscles at the expense of Catholics.
But it's very different in London, where Cambodian Buddhists use a two-bedroom flat as their temple and community center. They now have no place to gather, after a recent fire.
In India, the government set up a Buddhist center in Kashmir and cited the religion's influence on Mahatma Gandhi, and value as an antidote to the extremism that plagues the region.
And in gratuitous celebrity news, Orlando Bloom's squeeze Miranda Kerr discusses the couple's mutual love of Buddhism.
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Beijing vs. the Tibetan language
The Tibetan language is said to be under siege by deliberate Chinese policy:
The Chinese government is neglecting and actively undermining the Tibetan language as part of continuing efforts to dilute the region's unique culture, a human rights group said on Thursday.
Schools are forcing Tibetan children to learn China's national language, Mandarin, at a younger and younger age and are failing to support use of Tibetan in official fields, the Free Tibet Campaign said in a new report.
"China's insistence on Chinese language in Tibetan schools has failed a generation of Tibetans who now lag behind the rest of China in terms of basic literacy," the group's Matt Whitticase said in an emailed statement.
Beijing hits back.
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On Being and Not Being a Buddhist
Woodmoor Village points us to this post on the Washington Post's On Faith section.
I am not a Buddhist. I've never told anyone that I am a Buddhist and have in fact denied the title on more than one occasion. Even though I have been circling around the stupa for the last ten years, I have never made any formal or official commitment to the Buddha sāsana. I've never sown a rakusu or received a "dharma name." I am, as of this moment, a freelance wanderer through the six realms of samsara.
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Bhutan in National Geographic; Burma News
National Geographic has a piece in the current issue about Bhutan, with pretty pictures.
Burma fights back at Rambo. Lonely Planet is criticized for its Burma guidebook. The Boston Globe on the world's conscience and Burma.
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Urgent Appeal for Burma Protest Leaders
From Amnesty International. Danny Fisher has the details.
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Major U.S. Religion Survey to be Released Monday
A major Pew Research Center study on religion is coming soon:
On Monday, Feb. 25, at noon, the Pew Forum will release the first report of a landmark survey that details the religious affiliation of the American public and explores the remarkable dynamism taking place in the U.S. religious marketplace.
Based on interviews conducted in English and Spanish with a representative sample of more than 35,000 adults, the survey includes detailed information on religious affiliation and provides estimates of the size of religious groups that are as small as three-tenths of 1 percent of the adult population.
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Ram Dass on Knowledge
Information is just bits of data.
Knowledge is putting them together—
wisdom is transcending them.
- Ram Dass, One Liners A Manual for a Spiritual Life
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Killing the Buddha
2001: KtB: The Buddha is dead.
2008: The Buddha: KtB is dead.
Vaya con dios.
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"Dive-bar Dharma" in Salon
Salon has an interesting article called Dive-bar Dharma about Ethan Nichtern and Noah Levine and the new generation of Buddhists (or at least one of the new generations) in New York. The article mentions the graying of American dharma centers, and we should note this is true of all -- or maybe we should most -- churches and religions across the industrialized world, so the solution to this problem is by no means unique to Buddhism or even Buddhism in the West.
The article describes young New Yorkers who are stressed out and looking for peace and relief from their crackberries, the 24-hour news cycle, and Facebook pages, so they're heading to dharma centers run by hip young people who speak in terms young Americans can understand (i.e.
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Makha Bucha Day, Wat Dhammakaya, and the Metta Center
Makha Bucha Day is a major holiday in Thailand and it falls tomorrow, February 21.
According to Buddhist scriptures, nine months after Siddharttha Gautama attained enlightenment, on the full-moon day of the third lunar month, a total of 1,250 disciples of the Buddha from various places spontaneously assembled at Veluvan in Magadha to pay respect to the Buddha. This meeting is considered very significant in Buddhist history because first, it was done without previous appointment and was therefore a miracle, and secondly, all the disciples had been ordained by the Buddha himself and had attained sainthood and become arahants.
Wat Dhammakaya's website will let you experience Makha Bucha from the comfort of your own home.
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Bombs in Burma; Buddhist Burned Alive in Thailand
Several small bombs were set off in a hotel in northern Burma, while violence continues in southern Thailand, ignored by the world. This time the victim was a 46-year-old Buddhist man who was shot then burned alive. Another man was also shot but managed to escape the militants.
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Burma's New Constitution will exclude Aung San Suu Kyi from government (again)
Burma finishes up a draft of their new constitution and not surprisingly Aung San Suu Kyi won't be allowed to run for election in 2010. This is part of their faint pretense at moving toward democracy. ASEAN, criticized for lack of action throughout the Burmese crisis, expresses concern.
Burma's junta could give two figs what the world think, but China cares, and China controls the purse strings. So when the junta kicks, make China, specifically the effort to mount the Berlin 1936 Bejing 2008 Olympics, feel it.
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