The idea of a United Nations or a United Nations Council on Human Rights has always struck me as filled with potential even if merely as an arena for dialogue. But dialogue seems rather a paper tiger when faced with actual genocidal mass murder or sociologically sanctioned bludgeoning of it's own strata.
President Barack Obama attended the annual National Prayer Breakfast this morning. Any Buddhists in attendance? I don't think so. If Buddhists were invited I did not find a report of it. What I did find was this New York Times article about the deliberately shadowy group that sponsors the event:
Usually, the annual event passes with little notice. But this year, an ethics group in Washington has asked President Obama and Congressional leaders to stay away from the breakfast, on Thursday...
The objections are focused on the sponsor of the breakfast, a secretive evangelical Christian network called The Fellowship, also known as The Family, and accusations that it has ties to legislation in Uganda that calls for the imprisonment and execution of homosexuals.
The Family? I'm creeped out already. Here's more from the CREW website:
The Fellowship has been cultivating an unorthodox brand of Christianity amongst the political, military, and economic elite of America and other countries for over 50 years, focused on meeting Jesus "man-to-man." The group operates in secret, away from the "din of the vox populi." Doug Coe, described as "The Stealth Persuader," has led the group since 1969.
The one time of year when the Family emerges from the shadows is the annual National Prayer Breakfast, its signature event. This large-scale function serves as a recruiting tool for the group, but is often misconstrued by attendees as an official government event....
Holy culty deception. The Family also provides lodging for philandering politicians. I'd say this almost rivals Sun Myung Moon's infiltration/manipulation of D.C.
ALISO VIEJO An 18-year-old student at Soka University of America has been coaxed out of his dorm room after hurtling furniture out a 4th-floor window and barricaded himself in the room for nearly four hours, sheriff's officials said.
SWAT officers and crisis negotiators were stationed outside the teenager's dorm after he locked himself inside and refused to speak to anyone. The teenager eventually gave up to deputies just after 8 p.m., said Orange County Sheriff's Department spokesman Jim Amormino.
The student was reported to be suffering from psychiatric problems.
Soka University is closely affiliated with Soka Gakkai International, the scientology-like multibillion-dollar multinational religious corporation that claims to practice Nichiren Buddhism.
Here's my latest cache of Nichiren-related links... I caught this blurb regarding one-pointedness of mind:
As luck would have it, some years later I happened to attend a lecture at San Jose State College conducted by Bishop Nippo Shaku (1910-1991), of the Nichiren tradition. ...He began the lecture by showing us this crazy, poster size ink brush painting he had made with black ink. It looked liked something Jackson Pollock might have done if he had been born and raised in Japan.
Bishop Nippo went on for a long time talking about the ordinary mind represented by the heavy, wild black lines. Then with a grin, looking at the class he said, "And here is your pure Mind" pointing to the white paper...
A "crazy, poster size ink brush painting"? I wonder if he's referring to the Gohonzon. Interesting....
Every time there's a natural disaster -- earthquake, flood, famine, tsunami -- I brace myself for the inevitable inrush of stupidity from commentators who claim to speak for Nichiren. You know, people who say things like this:
Getting back to Nichiren, he went so far as to say that earthquakes are effects of the beliefs that the leaders of the land disseminate.
Nichiren knew nothing about plate tectonics. He didn't know even half of what the average Fifth Grader today knows about geology. That's not Nichiren's fault. If he knew these things, he likely would have revised his opinions somewhat.
As a devotee of Nichiren, I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that his teachings weren't intended as victim-blaming cudgels. But that won't stop the Nichiren Fundamentalists from pointing fingers and claiming that erroneous beliefs caused destruction in Haiti. These people remind me of Christian Fundamentalists who deny evolution. Read A Fault Is Not a Sin for a general rebuttal of religious stupidity.
I just read about Monks With Guns. This isn't exactly a response to that article, just an aside...
Not long ago, I was working on contract in an office when my colleague pulled out a pistol. He was showing me where the guns were hidden around the office just in case I needed to use one to defend myself. In his line of work, guns are an occupational necessity.
When I saw the pistol, I almost fainted. I felt dizzy and nauseated. It freaked me out. As a Buddhist, I should want nothing to do with guns, right? My fear was understandable. But I saw that my attitude could put others at risk. I imagined my colleague depending on me to pick up a gun in defense, and I pictured myself going all to pieces. I had to get over my phobia....
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?
