In a nation where we barely make up five percent of the population, it’s easy for Asian Americans to be marginalized and also be expected to accept it. The history of violent oppression, humiliation and marginalization have deep roots in American culture. In the American Buddhist community, however, we constitute the outright majority. Still, America’s institutional racism is so strong that Asian Americans are marginalized in this very community we planted on American soil, in a community where white Buddhists comprise a largely neophytic minority cohort. Just take a look at the staff of America’s favorite Buddhist magazines—Shambhala Sun, Tricycle and Buddhadharma—and it’s not hard to see the irony that an Asian American’s got a better chance of getting a seat on the White House Cabinet.
Uncategorized
Berkeley Honors Michelle Maykin
On September 22, the Berkeley City Council honored the life of the late Michelle Maykin.
Project Michelle successfully registered over 18,000 people, increasing the likelihood that others needing a bone marrow transplant may have a match. To date four matches have been made. Please help us try to fulfill Michelle’s goal of registering 20,000.
Watch the video here. You can learn more at Project Michelle or at the National Marrow Donor Program. Be the match!
Bat Nha on the Wall Street Journal
Hanoi was listed from 2004 to 2006, and then removed as a reward for limited liberalization. Vietnam remains the only country that has changed its laws explicitly to get itself removed from the roster. The government made it easier to register religious groups, dropped some egregious policies such as forcing believers to renounce their faith, and improved its relations with the Vatican.
The Bat Nha example exposes how prone to backsliding Hanoi is if it’s not forced to follow such early steps with further progress. Now is a good time to ratchet up the diplomatic pressure again.
In a coupleprevious posts, I linked to differing views on the Bat Nha situation—the whole back-and-forth can be found on the Buddhist Channel(see here, here, here, here and here.)
Modern Art for An Ancient Tradition
Artist Emi Motokawa talks with LAist about the role Buddhism plays in her art.
Buddhism influences my work tremendously. My fascination is Buddhist concepts such as oneness, universality, compassion, and human nature. I try to take these old concepts and express through a pop, modern picture. By doing this, it helps me to deepen my own spirituality. It’s a very fun process for me and my drive is to become better at it. Right now, I am painting caricatures of different bodhisattvas that appear in Buddhist sutras.
You can buy some of her unique “Krokeshi” dolls from the Japanese American National Museum store.
A Customized Buddhism
The Tricycle Editors’ blog features a quote from Bhikkhu Nyanasobhano’s Summer 2007 article.
For most of us born in the Western world, remote from Buddhism of any institutional kind, knowledge of the dhamma has come entirely from books and, occasionally, spoken words, some quite excellent and informative, certainly. But this kind of learning still retains a somewhat ethereal air in the absence of actions, traditions, and spiritual observances in which we can participate. That the Buddhist religion has survived so long in the world is a result not so much of the durability of manuscripts as of the power of ideas embodied in custom; and custom, for all our abundant sources of information, is what we lack and cannot in the long run do without. Books crumble easily enough; thought crumbles faster, if not made firm by some sort of concrete practice that holds together believers and sees to the transmission of the teaching to the young.
It’s not every day you see me linking to the Tricycle Editors’ blog! Tricycle has made available the full text of the article too—I sincerely appreciate them including it.
Guadalupe Centennial
Guadalupe Buddhist Church celebrates its centennial, but not forgetting the trauma of the concentration camps.
“Today says a lot about what the Issei (first-generation Japanese-American) and Nisei (second-generation) went through before, during and after the war,” said Mike Furukawa, Buddhist temple president. “We, the Sansei (third generation) are trying to carry on for them.”
[…]
At the centennial celebration Saturday, members of the Buddhist church held a moment of silence for the Issei, for the parents and grandparents who gave birth to the church and quietly suffered so that their children might prosper.
As Shin Buddhism moves forward into its second century on American soil, we must neither forget nor ignore the scars inflicted by a government that treated its own citizens as enemies simply because they were Japanese.
Like Teaching Basketball Online
Brad Warner insists “Zen cannot be taught via the Internet or on a blog.”
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, I don’t keep this blog as a way of teaching Zen. Zen cannot be taught via the Internet or on a blog. Same as you couldn’t teach someone how to play basketball via the Internet or on a blog.
Sure you could teach a lot about basketball via the Internet, its history, its major players, statistics, descriptions of playing techniques. You could even put up some helpful videos or give advice to people who emailed questions. But you couldn’t really teach basketball that way. You would need to be face-to-face in the same gymnasium. No two ways about it.
Not a Zen practitioner myself, I have no honest opinion on the Zen-to-basketball comparison. But I would say it applies to the Theravada—if you’ve never place rice in a monk’s bowl before, you might want to add a new line to your spiritual checklist.
The Great Blog of Ksititgarbha Bodhisattva
Via @yueheng, I learned about The Great Vows of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva blog. The most recent post talks about the condition of being pressed by ghosts in your sleep.
Ever experienced being pressed by ghosts in sleep? Common symptoms are:
you wake up in the middle of your sleep
you are stationary and however you struggle you cannot move
you may open your eyes and look around but you can’t turn your head/neck
you open your mouth to scream but no voice comes out
Ghosts were a core part of the Buddhist milieu I was raised in, but they’re something I spend very, very little time thinking about these days. I am little affiliated with either Mahaynist or Chinese Buddhist institutions, but I enjoy learning more about other traditions. I’m also keen on learning Chinese too.
Now Available in Khmer
On the Khmer Buddhist website, I’ve noticed a number of recent Khmer translations posted (that’s translations from English into Khmer).
- The Word of the Doctrines (Dhammapada-gatha) a Khmer-English text by Ven. Suy Sovann
- Practical Vipassana Meditation Exercise by Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw, translated by Ven. Prum Sina
- The Four Foundations of Mindfulness, by Ven. U Silananda, translated by Ven. Prum Sina
- How to Practice Buddhism, by Ven. Dr. K. Sri Dhammananda, translated by Ven. Soeurng Vutthy
- Happy Married Life, by Ven. Dr. K. Sri Dhammananda, translated by Ven. Prum Sina
- An Exposition of Buddhism, by Pidiville Piyatissa, translated by Ven. Prum Sina
- The Purpose of Life, by Ven. K. Sri Dhammananda, translated by Ven. Suy Sovann
- Why Buddhism? by Ven. K. Sri Dhammananda, translated by Ven. Suy Sovann
- A Talk on Kamma, Rebirth and Suffering, by Ven. U Sayadaw, translated by Ven. Suy Sovann
In the ever more interconnected domain of Buddhist publishing, the English language reigns supreme. This is where the cultural center of gravity is moving in the Buddhist world. It’s fortuitous for someone like me, a native English speaker, but I wonder what it will mean for the majority of Buddhists, who do not speak English as their native tongue—and what the broader implications will be in terms of influence, prestige and education.
Ready for the End
H.M. King Father Preah Norodom Sihanouk announces that he has little wish to live longer, but is not about to take his own life. (Translation below.)
Beijing, PRC, October 2, 2009.
My father, H.M. King Preah Suramarit, died at the age of 64 (diabetes). 1960.
His father-in-law, H.M. King Preah Monivong, had died at the age of 64 (died of grief in 1941—the grief of having lost Battambang, etc…—unjustly annexed by Thailand with the help of Japan).
My maternal great-grandfather, H.M. Preah Sisowath had the reputation of having lived a very long life; he died at the age of 83 (died of “old age”).
But I, who sincerely want to die as near in the future as possible, have “lived too long”: on October 31, 2009, I will be 87 years old.
This overly long longevity weighs on me like an unbearable weight.
Unaware of my mentality, an incalculable number of compatriots are wishing for me to live beyond 100 years. Some of these well-loved compatriots have gone so far as to wish me to live 300 years!!!
More out of courtesy and affection than out of hypocrisy, I thank these compatriots. But to be frank and stripped of hypocrisy, I would like to for all to know (Khmers and foreigners) that they bring me no pleasure when they wish me a long life. What I want is to die as soon as possible, without infringing on the teaching of the Noble Buddha which forbids suicide.
Sihanouk
This story also appeared last week in Cambodge Soir and in the Straits Times.