Fox news commentator Brit Hume seems to think Buddhism is inferior to Christianity in its capacity to offer forgiveness to Tiger Woods. Rev. Danny has a rundown of reactions to Hume. Here's the clip, h/t Sunspace:
I've bookmarked lots of random stuff over the past couple of weeks.
Do you love Phoebe Snow's music? I do. From a recent write up:
Phoebe Snow spent last New Year's Eve chanting. Snow, the recording artist and Teaneck native best-known for 1975's "Poetry Man," is Buddhist (more on that later). To usher out 2008, she chanted for 10 hours at her temple.
This one is for Mr. Oaks. A rundown of wacky fringe religions, including Happy Science, whose founder has predicted the reincarnation of Nichiren.
Some Nichiren Buddhists have received an email message asking them to download a copy of the Kempon Hokke Gohonzon, which is supposedly attached to the message. Caution is always called for when asked to download mystery files from email. I downloaded the file with no ill effects. It's a hi-res scan suitable for printing. If you're curious what the Kempon "Gohonzon for the Transmission of the Dharma" looks like, you can see a lower-res copy of it here.
Interesting article about the role of ritual in religion. Now in Nichiren Buddhism we have repetitive, low-stress ritual. Also in the old days we had conventions and pilgrimages to Japan which were for most participants traumatic or peak experiences, or both (well they were for me, anyway). How do you overcome the tedium of our daily ritual? How do you have peak experiences when your sangha does not organize them?
He was all excited about how science was catching up to Buddhism. I always have a brisling reaction to a statement like that. Science has been under the yoke of superstition and religion for millennia and one needed to be very careful about who you revealed any insight to lest you be burned at the stake for contradicting the belief system de jure.
...and dealing with it. Pema Chodron in this video talks about the value of being provoked, because it shows us what we have to work with and work on in our Buddhist practice.
I'm trying to see my family and certain, specific loved ones (argh) in this light and regard them as wonderful spiritual teachers. The alternative is to go out of my mind with annoyance and frustration.
I'm embarking on round two of my massive self-improvement project, also known as The Holidays 2009. If I don't have time to post again soon, merry merry, everyone.
Today we commemorate the awakening of Shakyamuni Buddha. Shakyamuni means the "Sage of the Shakya Clan." Buddha is a title which means "Awakened One." Out of all the millions and millions of people who have lived upon this earth, we believe that he, at least, awoke from the dream of life's all too frequent sufferings and all too fragile joys and saw the Truth for himself. This Truth that he awakened to was the Truth which resolved all his previous concerns about the meaning of life and death. This Truth was the solution to the problem of suffering that he had been seeking. All of his subsequent teachings and all the efforts of the 2,500 year old community that has passed on those teachings to the present day are all for the purpose of helping us to see the Truth for ourselves as well, the very same Truth that the Buddha realized.
The swine flu vaccine is limited in supplies and H1N1 is spreading like wildfire. This combination should send us all running for the hills, right? No, not at all actually. According to BrowardPalmBeach, when in doubt, do nothing. The media has publicised H1N1, the government has aided in public panic and the health care industry has nothing to lose by the hysteria. That is a combination most Americans are not going to trust.
I bring up Beliefnet and the OneCity blog in response to the highly uninformed and misguided belief that Buddhists in the West and particularly in America only belong to "...the velvet roped circle of artists and smart people that seem to mostly practice in the West" as one Jerry Kolber of OneCity likes to envision himself and the rest of the pack of culture-snobs. This is precisely the same attitude The Tricycle Editors take.
Nichiren Buddhists rarely are accused of elitism. More often, we're accused by elites of being lowest-common-denominator, bottom-feeder Buddhism because, really, you don't have to be smart or literate to chant....
Upon learning that I am a Nichiren Buddhist, an acquaintance asked me what I "believe." I said that I chant Namu Myoho Renge Kyo because I believe it is a summation of the Lotus Sutra. Also, it feels good to intone; I enjoy it. Afterward, I tried to sketch out what my "beliefs" regarding Nichiren Buddhism actually are right now. My views have changed somewhat over the years.
Here is a partial list of what I "believe." Please feel free to chime in with your own beliefs or rebuttals.
1. Nichiren did not inscribe the DaiGohonzon. It's lovely, and I am glad I once was able to see it. But it's not a super-special Gohonzon to be lorded above all others.
2. If you can obtain a copy of a Nichiren-inscribed Gohonzon, do it. Chant to that. I have no rational basis for claiming that Nichiren-inscribed scrolls are "better" than those inscribed by Nichiren's followers. But I believe, irrationally, that they are better....
