American Buddhist Net

“If only there were evil people somewhere, insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line between good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?” --Aleksander Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago
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August 7, 2008

Author Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who exposed the horrors of Soviet slave-labor camps, was buried yesterday in a cemetery filled with evocations of Communist cruelty and the fight against it that defined his life.

Solzhenitsyn's death Sunday at 89 silenced one of Russia's most influential figures, a man regarded by mourners as critical in destroying the Soviet Union. His funeral and burial at Moscow's Donskoi Monastery offered evidence of his renown -- the Russian president was there as military honor guards fired rifles in salute and white-robed priests sang dirges.

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Protesters unfurl flags and banners near Bird's Nest stadium

# Tania Branigan and Paul Kelso in Beijing
# guardian.co.uk,
# Wednesday August 06 2008

Four protesters including two Britons have been detained in the Chinese
capital after hanging Free Tibet banners close to the main Bird's Nest stadium.

The demonstration underlined the clash between competing views of the Olympics in Beijing, as thousands of euphoric spectators cheered the arrival of the torch in Tiananmen Square while foreign activists launched a series of small protests around the city.

Given the massive security operation in the capital and the carefully organised audience, no one expected demonstrations in or around the square during the relay.

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I see the Mahayana as mainly being a more positive statement of what enlightenment or nirvana is. The Mahayana was also a response to passive monasticism and a tendency to exclude lay people from deep understanding of the teachings. Much of the best Mahayana philosophy wends its way to statements of "pure emptiness' and thus leaves readers with something that much resembles Theravada teachings, with the changes mentioned above.

As for the Dalai Lama and his teachings on God and Christianity, as far as I understand, his main motive for being open to so many other beliefs and practices lies in his understanding that it is very difficult for most people to change religions, so to try to convert them to Buddhism will cause them to suffer while at the same time offending their traditional religious and political leaders. ABN
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2008-08-06 01:16
By Dr. Edward Perera

One of the acute problems in the Buddhist world is that there are so many Pundits with extensive Dhamma knowledge but their conduct is extremely contradictory to what they preach. In the past, the pious monks travelled from village to village, state to state, on some occasions also from country to country to carry the Dhamma message.

So-called Buddhist scholars talk on Buddhism to make themselves popular or if possible to have more money in their pockets. It is quite interesting to listen to the speech delivered by the white gentleman on Four Noble Truths and I am pleased to hear this sermon from someone brought up in the West. ( Buddhist Society of Western Australia - Forum)

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By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: August 3, 2008

MOSCOW (AP) -- Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the Nobel Prize-winning Russian author whose books chronicled the horrors of dictator Josef Stalin's slave labor camps, has died of heart failure, his son said Monday. He was 89.

Stepan Solzhenitsyn told The Associated Press his father died late Sunday in Moscow, but declined further comment.

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Hundreds of Kashmiri Hindus backed by political parties clashed with police in the Capital on Saturday while holding a rally to pledge support to activists in Jammu protesting the killings of two people and revocation of the land transfer to the Amarnath Shrine Board.

Around 3,000 people of all age groups gathered at Jantar Mantar in the heart of the Capital and proceeded towards Parliament House, but were stopped by police officials near the Parliament Street police station.

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Army called out in Kashmir religious protests

India-Pakistan clashes bring fear to Kashmir villages

August 1, 2008
By SIMON ROMERO

CABIMAS, Venezuela — From a makeshift chapel in a schoolhouse where a portrait of President Hugo Chávez and revolutionary slogans from his government adorn the entrance, the bishops of the new Reformed Catholic Church of Venezuela welcomed congregants to Sunday Mass.

Missionary Bishop Simón Alvarado, 39, strummed a guitar and led the small congregation in singing hymns. Bishop Coadjutor Jon Jen Siu-García, 37, preached a sermon on assisting the poor while his wife, Hiranioris Calles, 24, smiled at him from her seat on a white plastic chair.

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Thursday, July 31, 2008

It is a pity that in a country that is blessed with natural fauna and flora, its people are the number one destroyer to this natural wonder. A country safe from quakes, volcanoes, typhoon, and other natural disasters, it has attracted thousands and millions to her land since early civilization.

Our history dates back to early Hindu and Buddhist empires and the remains at Bujang Valley prove the existence of civilized man. Then came the explorers from China, led by Zheng Ze and other visitors from the west. They marvel at our beauty, and took full advantage of our resources.

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July 30, 2008
By ANNE BARNARD

MOSCOW — For many Russians, it is bad enough that Ukraine is pushing to join NATO and to eject the Russian Navy from its Black Sea port. But over the weekend, the confrontation over Ukraine’s attempts to shrug off Russian influence reached an even more emotional pitch — when the Ukrainian president sought to split his nation’s church from Moscow’s.

It was the latest round in an increasingly fraught tug of war over history, identity and power. The two governments have fought with many different political weapons — from Ukraine’s threat to join Russia’s cold war rivals to Russia’s ability to shut off the natural gas deliveries on which its neighbor depends. Both quickly made it clear that the struggle over the church — traditionally an institution closely entwined with state power — was at least as important.

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The IOC and the Iraqi government have reached an agreement that will allow the war-torn country to send two athletes to the Beijing Games. The deadline for competitors entering the Games has passed for most sports, but the IOC said it could allow Iraq to send two track and field competitors to Beijing.

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Robert Dreyfuss on 07/27/2008

While everyone's looking at Iraq's effect on American politics -- and whether or not John McCain and Barack Obama are converging on a policy that combines a flexible timetable with a vague, and long-lasting, residual force -- let's take a look instead at Iraqi politics. The picture isn't pretty.

Despite the Optimism of the Neocons, which has pushed mainstream media coverage to be increasingly flowery about Iraq's political progress, in fact the country is poised to explode. Even before the November election. And for McCain and Obama, the problem is that Iran has many of the cards in its hands. Depending on its choosing, between now and November Iran can help stabilize the war in Iraq -- mostly by urging the Iraqi Shiites to behave themselves -- or it can make things a lot more violent.

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July 28, 2008
American Buddhist Net News
Alvin Revere

Realpolitik is defined as realism in politics. It stresses power over ideals. Realpolitik leads to an expansionist foreign policy based on narrow, materialistic interpretations of national interest.

Fakepolitik is defined as an ego-based Realpolitik that stresses the career of the individual over all other concerns. Fakepolitik invariably leads to corrupt and inefficient government filled with egocentric office-holders who will say and do practically anything to remain in power, or get more. Their political speeches are generally characterized by lying, bait-and-switch, vague goals that are never fulfilled, cooing tones, and soppy emotions that hypnotize the gullible.

The strategic advantage of Fakepolitik lies in its capacity to fool most of the people much of the time. Its fallback strategy, if it is seen through by large numbers of citizens, which often happens as elections near, is to position its candidate as the "lesser of two evils." By definition, there are always only two possible "lesser of two evils" in the USA since even more of them would make for confusion, both for newscasters and TV viewers.

Generally speaking, all "viable" US politicians must practice Fakepolitik to garner media attention and the respect of their "colleagues." The media demands it due to its need for crisp conflict without meaning or nuance. Politicians demand it because how can you cut a good deal with any other type?

by Ali Gharib
July 28, 2008

The controversial Christian Zionist pastor John Hagee and thousands of supporters filled a convention center in downtown Washington this week for his Christians United for Israel (CUFI) organization's Washington-Israel Summit, where the "Iranian threat" was a recurrent theme.

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Reuters
Published: Friday, July 25, 2008

MUMBAI - About 100 people worried about industrial pollution set fire to a construction site of a local unit of Dow Chemical Co. in western India on Friday, police and a Dow official said.

The company is setting up a research and development centre with an initial investment of 4 billion rupees ($90 million) near Shinde village, about 200 kilometres from Mumbai.

Dow Chemical Co is the largest U.S. chemical maker.

For many Indians, Dow is synonymous with the catastrophic industrial accident in Bhopal in central India in 1984, when tons of toxic gas leaked from a pesticide plant owned at the time by Union Carbide.

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July 28th, 2008
By SOMINI SENGUPTA

NEW DELHI — Over the past several years, terrorist attacks in India have become an everyday presence in everyday places. The targets seem to have nothing in common except that they are ordinary and brazenly easy to strike.

In eastern Varanasi, a deadly explosion interrupted Hindu devotees as they lighted oil lamps to Hanuman, the monkey god, one Tuesday at dusk. In southern Hyderabad, a homemade bomb planted inside a historic mosque killed worshipers on a Friday afternoon. In Mumbai, India’s largest city, nearly 200 commuters on packed city trains died in a series of blasts.

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# Robert Tait in Ankara
# The Guardian,
# Monday July 28 2008

Turkey's volatile political landscape was plunged deeper into turmoil last night when two bomb blasts in Istanbul left at least 15 people dead and about 150 injured in what officials called a "terrorist" attack.

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Saturday, July 26, 2008

BAGHDAD — An Iraqi delegation headed to Switzerland on Saturday for talks with the International Olympic Committee over a ban on Iraq competing in the Beijing Games, government officials said.

The Iraqis will meet with IOC representatives early next week at the committee's headquarters in Lausanne, said IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies.

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By MARWAAN MACAN-MARKER / IPS WRITER Friday, July 25, 2008

BANGKOK — In their hour of despair, Burma’s beleaguered people continue to find comfort in humor. New jokes reflect new frustrations. The latest target is Ibrahim Gambari, United Nations special envoy for Burma.

One revolves around the nickname that has been coined by local comedians for the Nigerian diplomat. He is labeled as "Kyauk yu pyan" (pronounced chow-u-peean), which in Burmese refers to a man who receives precious stones from the government as a bribe. (Burma is renowned for its gems.)

Other nicknames are harsher, like "Gan pha lar" (pronounced gun-pa-la), a play on the envoy’s name, which is the word for the receptacle that Burmese use to wash themselves after going to the toilet.

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In many parts of the world, the right to change one's beliefs is under threat

Jul 24th 2008
From The Economist print edition

AS AN intellectually gifted Jewish New Yorker who had reached manhood in the mid-1950s, Marc Schleifer was relentless in his pursuit of new cultural and spiritual experiences. He dallied with Anglo-Catholicism, intrigued by the ritual but not quite able to believe the doctrine, and went through a phase of admiration for Latin American socialism. Experimenting with lifestyles as well as creeds, he tried respectability as an advertising executive, and a more bohemian life in the raffish expatriate scene of North Africa.

Returning from Morocco to his home city, he was shocked by the harsh anonymity of life in the urban West. And one day, riding the New York subway, he opened the Koran at a passage which spoke of the mystery of God: beyond human understanding, but as close as a jugular vein. Suddenly, everything fell into place. It was only a matter of time before he embraced Islam by pronouncing before witnesses that “there is no God but God, and Muhammad is his prophet.”

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Thursday July 24, 2008

A $5000 reward is being offered to any Auckland University student who can make a successful citizen's arrest of United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during her visit to the country this weekend.

Auckland University Student Association (AUSA) president David Do said the arrest would be for her role in "overseeing the illegal invasion and continued occupation" of Iraq.

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Good essay, worth reading. ABN
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July 24, 2008
By Ashin Mettacara

Allow me to discuss with the reader the subject of the Buddha and His views on politics. Being a Buddhist monk, I will try to illuminate you on the right way of life and the best kind of political involvement, according to Buddha's teaching. These teachings are not only for Buddhists, but also for all non-Buddhists: for everyone.

...The Buddha once said, "When the ruler of a country is just and good, the ministers become just and good; when the ministers are just and good, the higher officials become just and good; when the higher officials are just and good, the rank and file become just and good; when the rank and file become just and good, the people become just and good."

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Foreign Office spells out dangers to Beijing visitors. Chinese to take tough line on athletes and spectators.

* Paul Kelso
* The Guardian,
* Thursday July 24, 2008

British spectators and athletes have been warned that they face arrest and detention by the Chinese authorities if they stage demonstrations during next month's Beijing Olympics.

Many activists are based in the UK and will be travelling to China as tourists or sports fans, with a number of groups planning protests in Beijing and Hong Kong, which is hosting the equestrian events.

Athletes, meanwhile, have been encouraged by groups including Free Tibet and Team Darfur to use the global platform provided to make political statements at medal ceremonies, during competition or during media appearances. There are genuine concerns in Beijing and within International Olympic Committee circles that the issue could overshadow the Games, which begin on August 8.

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This is a piece of good news. It shows that people can do things to stop pollution. We need to do far more. As matters now stand, just a few generations of humans are on course to destroy virtually all of the natural world within which we--and so many other animals and plants--have evolved. That is a horrendous thing to do, especially when you consider that the "benefits" we have been receiving in return for our profligacy are few and can easily be replaced or foregone. ABN
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July 21, 2008
Reporting by Roddy Scheer

Arctic animals are showing less toxic chemicals overall, but more mercury.
A new study by the Canadian government shows that levels of toxic chemicals in animals across the Arctic are dropping. The study concluded that carcinogens such as PCBs, DDT, chlordane and toxaphene have largely leveled off or have begun declining in Arctic animals after years on the rise.

According to Laurie Chan, the University of Northern British Columbia researcher who led the study, falling toxin levels in Arctic animals are proof that international environmental agreements on limiting the use of toxic chemicals are have a real positive impact on food safety and the health of wildlife in the Arctic and beyond. “That’s good news,” she told reporters.

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By Michael Kahn

LONDON, July 22 (Reuters) - Austerity measures attached to International Monetary Fund (IMF) loans may have contributed to a resurgence in tuberculosis in eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, researchers said on Tuesday.

Governments may be reducing funding for health services such as hospitals and clinics to meet strict IMF economic targets, the British researchers said.

The study, published in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Medicine, found that countries participating in IMF programmes had seen tuberculosis death rates increase by at least 17 percent between 1991 and 2000 -- equivalent to more than 100,000 additional deaths. About one million new cases were recorded during the same period.

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Sirico makes a good point. See also this for something about the Buddhist tradition: A Monk Does Not Bow Down Before a King. By the way, we expect to be doing updates on this site fairly soon and hope to fix the problems we have been having with Asian fonts and some punctuation marks. If you are interested in Huiyuan's essay but do not read Chinese, it is fairly easy to research it online and get a good idea of what the issues were back then and why he wrote it. Centuries of Confucianism have somewhat weakened Huiyuan's bold assertions, but they are still part of a well-known historical record which is very much respected. ABN
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Robert Sirico | July 21, 2008

THE arguments for the unity of freedom and unbelief are common cultural currency. We are told faith makes us subservient to authority. It makes us unwilling to think for ourselves, so that we become tribal and collectivistic.

We don't demand our rights against the state because we are always thinking of the next life. We turn the other cheek and put up with endless abuse from tyrants because we are predisposed to suffer.

We long to be ruled with an iron hand in the same way that we imagine God rules the universe. What's more, we are told, religion brings about conflict because people argue about tiny points of doctrine and end up killing each other over them. Or, as Rousseau put it: "Christianity preaches only servitude and dependence."

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