Hate is not overcome by hate; by love alone is hate appeased. This is an eternal law. The Buddha

Not really a thought, just a couple of peaceful pictures I took during the Deer Park Retreat last September.


Thich Naht Hanh giving a dharma talk at the big mountain-top Buddha during early morning walking mediation. It was cold!





The Big Buddha

Religious Freedom in Viet Nam
Target:EU, US & ASEAN governments and UN High Commissioner, Human Rights
Sponsored by: Friends of Thich Nhat Hanh

Please sign this petition addressed to the European Union, the United States government, ASEAN governments and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to ask the Vietnamese government to formally recognize the Plum Village practice of buddhism. By joining the petition and the group of 100,000 people asking for religious freedom, you will make a great measurable step towards global human rights in Southeast Asia.

The Bat Nha community has been under severe violent governmental pressure to cease activity in Viet Nam. The monks and nuns were forcefully expelled from Bat Nha monastery and are been persecuted in their place of refuge, Phuoc Hue temple, Bao Loc, in Lam Dong province. These monks and nuns are practicing in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh and continue his tradition in his homeland.

Our initial effort and petition to protect the Bat Nha monastics was recognized by EU and U.S. leaders, which in turn caused the Viet Nam government to ease pressure on the Bat Nha monastics for the last three weeks of Oct 2009. But on Nov 2nd, the Chief of the Province Lam Dong summoned the Abbot who is currently hosting the 400 refugee monks and nuns, and demanded he force them to leave by the first of December.

The strong harassment and intimidation of this community continue with attempts to disband them from Phuoc Hue and other temples where they have sought refuge. They also are threatening to draft the young monks into the army within a few weeks. We need your help to bring an end to religious persecution in Viet Nam with this new petition to ASEAN, European Union, United States governments and the High Commission for Human Rights to continue diplomatic pressure.


Read more and sign petition here: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/6/religious-freedom-in-viet-nam

A big burly samurai comes to a Zen master and says, "Teach me the nature of heaven and hell."

The Zen master looks him in the face and says, "Why should I tell a scruffy, disgusting, miserable slob like you? A worm like you, do you think I should tell you anything?"

Consumed by rage, the samurai draws his sword and raises it to cut of the master's head.

The Zen master says, "That's hell."

Instantly, the samurai understands that he has just created his own hell—black and hot, filled with hatred, self-protection, anger, and resentment. He sees that he was so deep in hell that he was ready to kill someone. Tears fill his eyes as he puts his palms together to bow in gratitude for this insight.

The Zen master says, "That's heaven."

—From Comfortable With Uncertainty by Pema Chödrön.

Only for his ruin does renown come to the fool. It ravages his bright fortune & rips his head apart. He would want unwarranted status, preeminence among monks, authority among monasteries, homage from lay families.

- Dhammapada, 5, translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.

I couldn't help substituting "Writer" for "monk." Success is a two edged sword, minimum.

One should not imagine oneself to be one with the eye or independent of it or the owner of it. The same with the ear and all the other senses, including the mind. Nor should one imagine oneself to be identical with the world or contained in it or independent of it or the owner of it. In this way, free from imagining, one no longer clings to the things of the world. When one no longer clings, there is no more agitation, insecurity, and worry. Being no longer worried, one can reach into the depths of oneself and understand that where there has been loss there is now fulfillment.

- Samyutta Nikaya



From Beliefnet.com
The Death Knell of "Funeral Buddhism" in Japan

From The Christian Science Monitor
American Buddhism on the Rise

What I take away from these two is a desire to get past ritual and practice directly for spiritual and mental development. A Buddhist Reformation?


Prison Inmates Go Zen to Deal with Life Behind Bars http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/10/09/prison.meditation/index.html

During Thich Nhat Hanh's last visit to Viet Nam he established a monastery and 400 young people took orders. Since then they have been ruthlessly persecuted by the VN government. Here's the latest news.
http://helpbatnha.org/2009/09/urgent-press-release-30-09-09-5pm-vn-time/

You should be an island to yourself, a refuge to yourself, not dependent on any other but taking refuge in the truth and none other than the truth. And how do you become an island and a refuge to yourself? In this way. You see and contemplate your body as composed of all the forces of the universe. Ardently and mindfully you steer your body-self by restraining your discontent with the world about you. In the same way, observe and contemplate your feelings and use that same ardent restraint and self-possession against enslavement by greed or desire. By seeing attachment to your body and feelings as blocking the truth, you dwell in self-possession and ardent liberation from those ties. This is how you live as an island to yourself and a refuge to yourself. Whoever dwells in this contemplation, islanded by the truth and taking refuge in the truth--that one will come out of the darkness and into the light.

- The Buddha, Digha Nikaya

You can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.

—Joseph Goldstein

O monks, even if you have insight that is pure and clear but you cling to it, fondle it and treasure it, depend on it and are attached to it, then you do not understand that the teaching is like a raft that carries you across the water to the farther shore but is then to be put down and not clung to.

- Majjhima Nikaya

By charity, goodness, restraint, and self-control men and woman alike can store up a well-hidden treasure— a treasure which cannot be given to others and which robbers cannot steal. A wise person should do good— that is the treasure which will not leave one.

- "Khuddhaka Patha"

Accept my words only when you have examined them for yourselves; do not accept them simply because of the reverence you have for me. Those who only have faith in me and affection for me will not find the final freedom. But those who have faith in the truth and are determined on the path, they will find awakening.

- Majjhima Nikaya

[Mindfulness] is like walking on a tightrope, [either grasp at something or push away] and you lose your balance and fall... and inevitably what we land on is another tightrope, another opportunity for mindfulness.

-Sharon Salzberg

From Science Daily

Meditation May Increase Gray Matter

ScienceDaily (May 13, 2009) — Push-ups, crunches, gyms, personal trainers — people have many strategies for building bigger muscles and stronger bones. But what can one do to build a bigger brain? Meditate.
That's the finding from a group of researchers at UCLA who used high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to scan the brains of people who meditate. In a study published in the journal NeuroImage and currently available online (by subscription), the researchers report that certain regions in the brains of long-term meditators were larger than in a similar control group.
Specifically, meditators showed significantly larger volumes of the hippocampus and areas within the orbito-frontal cortex, the thalamus and the inferior temporal gyrus — all regions known for regulating emotions.
Read more.

Somehow, in the process of trying to deny that things are always changing, we lose our sense of the sacredness of life. We tend to forget that we are part of the natural scheme of things.

Pema Chödrön

Seeing ourselves plainly, we can change, and as we do so, it brings a feeling of great relief, as if we had dropped a heavy load.

-Ayya Khema, "Who is My Self?"


This works for editing books, too. "Seeing my manuscript plainly, I change it, and as I do so . . . ."

I need this today. :-)


Adverse circumstances test our courage, our strength of mind, and the depth of our conviction in the Dharma. There is nothing exceptional about practicing Dharma in a good environment and atmosphere. The true test is if we can maintain our practice in adverse conditions.

-Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey, "Advice From a Spiritual Friend"

From the International Campaign for Tibet:


I am happy to report that funding recently approved for the 2009 budget totaled almost $17 million for a wide range of Tibet programs, including:

Tibetan refugee programs that ensure health care, food, clothing, and transportation. More than 100,000 Tibetan refugees in India and Nepal receive basic health care and have access to education because of your support of ICT's advocacy work.

Funding for non-government organizations working inside Tibet supporting the preservation of Tibetan culture, promoting sustainable development, and advancing environmental conservation.

Radio Free Asia and Voice of America Tibetan language broadcasts into Tibet, the main media source of information not controlled by the Chinese government.

Funding for the Office of the Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues. This State department position is charged with coordinating U.S. policy on Tibet and promoting dialogue between His Holiness the Dalai Lama and China.
This year, funding also included $1 million to establish a Tibet section in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing to monitor political, economic, and social developments inside Tibet until there is a U.S. consulate in Lhasa. The Lhasa consulate was approved last year by Congress following much hard work on Capitol Hill by ICT's advocacy team. For a complete list of programs funded, visit the Policy Center of our website.


I wanted to share this information with you because it's a vivid demonstration of how the small, combined efforts of many people can make a big difference in the lives of tens of thousands of Tibetans. Thanks to your support, ICT's advocacy team makes sure your donation is multiplied many times over for our Tibetan friends. For that, we can all be grateful. Thank you for making this possible.

This mind is like a fish out of water that thrashes and throws itself about, its thoughts following each of its cravings.

Such a wandering mind is weak and unsteady, attracted here, there and everywhere. How good it is to control it and know the happiness of freedom.

-Dhammapada

Apparently bowing to pressure from huge trade partner China, S. African gov't refuses to let the DL attend a 2010 peace conference. They're official excuse? It would draw attention away from their hosting of the World Cup, to which the conference is somehow related. Desmond Tutu and several Nobel committee members have withdrawn from the conference in protest. Fellow Laureate FW de Klerk has also withdrawn and Nelson Mandela's position is currently unclear.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7958881.stm
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jTkljKOZ7Oo78FAiWyCqLPIIlABAD974CTNO0

The sad thing is that the S. African gov't may be right in terms of change of focus of the conference. My question: why the heck is this somehow attached to a World Cup game in the first place?? The good that could come out of this is not to be overlooked. It certainly opens up some dialogues and conversations and shows the complexity and interconnectedness of the world we live in. This decision is probably more of a beginning than an end.


**Update: According BBC America, the conference has been cancelled.