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What is Obon?

| arun

The West Los Angeles Buddhist Temple has posted a wonderfully well-written and informative article by Rev. Patti Usuki on American Obon festivals.

In Japan, Obon has been held since 657 CE. It is observed in July or August. A commonly held belief among people in Japan is that the disembodied spirits of the dead return to visit at this time of year. This belief is not supported by Jodo Shin Buddhists, who consider such a belief to be an unfounded superstition

Most Japanese-American Buddhists belong to the Jodo Shinshu school (including the sangha of West LA Buddhist Temple), so it is important to understand the history and significance of our Obon Festival. It is not, as some mistakenly believe, to welcome back the spirits of the dead. Instead, it is a time of gratitude, giving, and joy in the Truth of Life. Hence, it is also known as Kangi-e, or the Gathering of Joy.

I searched around the Buddhist blogs for other mentions of Obon and sadly found only a single post by Rev. Danny Fisher with a couple links he plucked out of his daily news scan. Obon is a major holiday for Japanese American Buddhists, and by extension one of the longest held Buddhist festivals in North America. This weekend, you can catch the Revs. Usuki at West LA Buddhist Temple’s Obon festival. You’ll find me there and also in downtown LA at Higashi Honganji Buddhist Temple’s 50th annual Obon festival!

The Neutral Man’s Burden

| arun

I couldn’t help myself. Somewhat related to the post on Dharma Folk.

[Archivist’s Note: the original post contained an embedded video of a “The Word” segment from The Colbert Report. The video was embedded via Flash which is no longer supported by the Internet.]

My favorite lines:

In America, white is neutral.

Now for years, band-aids only came in only one color…white person. It’s standard “person” color. In fact it is so standard, that when I was a kid, in crayola boxes, it was the color called “flesh.” Now most Americans accept this [points at his own hand] as “neutral” without thinking about it.

And that is why the decisions made by all those white justices were not affected by their experiences; because their life experiences were “neutral.” That led to “neutral” decisions.

For instance, take the Dredd Scott Case. Those justice’s life experience, being white men in pre-Civil War America, some of whom owned slaves, in no way influenced their decision that black people were property. And the personal backgrounds had nothing to do with the all neutral court’s decision that it was legal to send Japanese-Americans to internment camps in 1942. Imagine how the life experience of an Asian judge would have sullied that neutrality!

Not to mention, in our “post-racial” society, a Harvard professor can be arrested for getting upset when police ask him to prove that he entered his own house. What a day.

Reflections on Racially Excited Buddhists

| arun

Plenty of excitement in the Buddhist blogosphere touching on our racialized society and discussions of white privilege. Here’s a timeline with the last sentence of each post provided.

If you know of other posts on this thread, please feel free to drop a comment below.

Many Layers of Buddhism

| arun

Just a short story on a Florida robbery that caught my eye.

Whoever stole the Buddha head from a Boca Raton restaurant better know something: Bad karma is coming … That’s the sentiment of theft victim Zack Gardner, a native of Vietnam and a Buddhist who owns Saba restaurant in the 400 block of South Federal Highway. The 150-pound, four-foot-tall cement head was stolen sometime Sunday night from its spot in front of the restaurant … When the statue was stolen, Gardner called his sister, a Buddhist nun in Vietnam. She told him not to be upset and that things happen for a reason.

What drew me to this article was the panoply of “Buddhism” in this short piece, touching on the philosophical, familial, symbolic, sacred and institutional. It’s a snapshot of life interwoven with Buddhism, and not necessarily entangled in it. I hope Zack Gardner also gets his Buddha back.

Gardena Buddhist Church

| arun

I decided to replace today’s post for another day. In the meantime, my post on Southern California Obon festivals has brought over a number of web surfers who Googled for the blog of the Gardena Buddhist Church. I think this confusion has since been fixed on the search engine. The Gardena congregation maintains both a blog and temple website. They also hold the last and one of the most popular Obon festivals in Southern California, on August 1 and 2. If you live in the area you should check it out! Not to mention, you should also go “Obon hopping” to all the other local festivals on the weekends in between! This weekend you can check out festivals in Pasadena, Venice and Guadelupe.

Annoying Asians and White Privilege

| arun

Barbara’s Buddhism blog pointed me to an Asian Nation blog post by C. N. Le on a retreat at Deer Park Monastery, incorporating disruptive Asian foreigners, ambivalent Asian Americans and privileged white Buddhists who didn’t want to take out the trash.

As it turned out, of the 15 or so people who stayed to help clean up, all but one was a person of color — there was just one White person who helped in the cleanup … In particular, I took notice of one young White couple who came to the morning activities (apparently on the last day of the retreat, the monastery invites those from the surrounding community to come in and participate in a group walk and lunch). During lunch, this couple actually raised their hands when the monks asked for volunteers to stay and clean up, but for whatever reasons, just walked away and left once they finished their lunch.

But that quote’s just the part on white privilege. It’s worth reading the whole piece and Barbara O’Brien’s post too.

Buddhism on Wikipedia Sucks

| arun

Over on his blog, Ven. Shravasti Dhammika discusses the regrettable state of most Wikipedia articles on Buddhism.

A few of the entries that directly relate to Buddhism; e.g. Nirvana, Dharma, Bodhisattva, Dalai Lama, etc. are well-done, while most are too brief or superficial. Perhaps the entry ‘The Miracles of the Buddha’ is indicative of most of those directly related to Buddhism. It has only one reference to the Tipitaka and no actual quotations. It makes no mention of the earliest, the early and the later traditions but lumps them all together as if they were all equally authoritative and valid. It casually confuses ‘popular tradition’ with scriptural teaching. It does not explain the Buddha’s attitude to the subject in full. At its best it is a superficial overview, and at its worst incorrect.

I’m right with there with Ven. Dhammika. The current state of Buddhism Wikipedia pages is so bad that I’m not even willing to begin to want to try to fix them up. One of the chief problems is that many of the current contributors clearly lack even a basic understanding of what Wikipedia is about. I’m hoping other Buddhists out there will be both ambitious and educated enough to take this project on.

Calling Asian American Buddhists!

| arun

Thanks to a post over on the Angry Asian Man, I learned about the recently débuted Indian American Story blog.

HomeSpun: The Smithsonian Indian American Heritage Project is a national grassroots effort to create an exhibit chronicling the history of both immigrants from India and their descendants in America. Though Indian Americans number more than 2.7 million in the United States, the history, contributions, challenges and perspectives of this vibrant community have yet to be told at the Smithsonian Institution, the largest museum and research complex in the world.

To borrow a leaf from the Smithsonian, I’m going to start posting the voices of other Asian American Buddhists over at the group blog, Dharma Folk. We make up the majority of American Buddhists, and it’s time for us to throw our thoughts and experiences into the mix. Dharma Folk needs more diverse writing anyway. If you’re interested, just leave me a comment below!

Dharma Realm Buddhist Young Adults

| arun

Here’s a group of amazing young Northern California Buddhists who work to make Buddhism more accessible to young folk.

The Dharma Realm Buddhist Young Adults (DRBY) consists of college students and young adults who are interested in applying Buddhist principles to their daily lives. DRBY is a community of young people who are searching for wisdom and are committed to helping others while advancing on their own spiritual path. This community provides support for each other’s spiritual cultivation and inquiry into life’s deeper meaning in a friendly and open atmosphere. 

DRBY meets every Wednesday at the Berkeley Buddhist Monastery for meditation, discussion and food. You can follow this group of truly inspirational individuals on Facebook and on Twitter, with a blog to come soon!

Saving Bangladeshi Buddhism

| arun

Indopia reports that Bangladesh seeks to incorporate its Buddhist heritage sites as part of regional Buddhist tourism.

“The matter was taken up at a BIMSTEC meet and a proposal has been made for creating a heritage path to promote Buddhist circuit tourism involving Bangladesh, India and Nepal,” Bangladesh Tourism Corporation Joint Secretary Samena Begum said here.

She said the Somapura Vihara, a UNESCO world heritage site, is a Buddhist monastery dating from the late eighth century located at the south of the Himalayas in north-west Bangladesh.

I’m delighted to see that Bangladesh is moving to highlight its Buddhist heritage, but the greater legacy of Buddhism in Bangladesh is the Bengali Buddhist community, who are routinely oppressed by local authorities. Even better than preserving eighth century monuments is to promote Bangladesh’s Buddhist minorities and their human rights.