In the snow a single twig of plum blossoms!
The whole universe is plum blossoms.
~Dogen
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Wishing all my readers a blessed holiday season…
May all beings dwell in peace, joy, and sufficiency this coming year.
~Maia
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Seasons Greetings
Two Good Things for Jizo Chronicle Readers
This short post is just to let you know about two things I created recently that you might be interested in –
• A free e-book called “Collected Words” — I compiled some of my favorite pieces of writing over the years and am giving it away to celebrate my birthday (which was last Sunday). There are a number of essays on engaged Buddhism in the book, which is available for download on my other blog, The Liberated Life Project.
• “Fully Engaged!” – a toolkit for small nonprofit organizations who are looking for help with marketing. There’s a special 25% discount on the kit until 7 pm (Pacific Time) tomorrow, November 30th.
We’ll return to our ‘regular programming’ in the next post — thanks for reading!
May you be well,
Maia
The Greatest Wealth is contentment: A Buddhist Perspective on Poverty (David Loy)
Via Scoop.it – Socially Engaged Buddhism
A reflection by David Loy…
Show original
Good Stuff You Should Know About…
A collection of things that have been piling up to share with you…
♦ New Book by Zenju Earthlyn Manuel
Zenju Earthlyn Manuel, past executive director of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship, has just published a new book: Tell Me Something About Buddhism. Larry Yang writes about the book: “Zenju Earthlyn Manuel’s book is a lyrically written description of how the Teachings of the Buddha are relevant to all communities in our contemporary world. Her words are simple and yet penetrating, covering philosophy, technique, and the ineffable qualities of experiencing a spiritual life.” You can find it here at the Powells online bookstore.
♦ Thich Nhat Hanh to Offer Mindfulness Retreat for Members of Congress
My friend Louise Dunlap writes, “Those of us longing for a more mindful congress might want to join this effort to urge our senators and congresspeople to attend a short retreat in October with Thich Nhat Hanh. Even though this is not a directly political tactic, I think it can make a difference. Especially if you are already in touch with legislators or their staff (who are also invited), perhaps you can pass on this invitation and urge others to do so too.”
You can find more information about this event here on the Plum Village website.
♦ Urban Retreat in Providence, RI
Acharya Fleet Maull will be offering a year-end 7-day retreat through the Shambhala Center in Providence, December 26 to January 1, 2012. From the description: “Acharya Maull’s teachings will focus on the integration of meditation practice and spiritual evolution with the realities and needs of daily life and our shared aspiration to create a healthy, sane, and sustainable society for ourselves, our families, and future generations.”
I know Fleet from his involvement in the Upaya Buddhist Chaplaincy Program; he’s a wonderful teacher and I hope some of you will be able to participate in this. For more info, see: http://www.shambhalasun.com/news/?p=23426
♦ Scoop It!
I’ve been experimenting with a new online tool for curating articles on socially engaged Buddhism that I find around the Internet. It’s called “ScoopIt” and you can see the page I created here. I’ll be curious to know if you find this interesting, useful, inspiring, or none of the above : )
The Window
There is this moment, often just a split second, between the time something happens and our reaction to it.
Anything can happen in this moment. Whatever does happen turns the wheel of karma.
In the moments and days after September 11, 2001, there was an open window for those of us here in the U.S., a time when we were stunned by what happened and we hadn’t yet reacted, as a nation. And then the window closed, in the form of a formal declaration of war on Afghanistan (and subsequently Iraq).
But before that, can you remember?
Peace on Earth
Peace on Earth and Good Will to All!
Art by Mayumi Oda, Upaya Zen Center Christmas Tree
Wishing you and your loved ones a blessed holiday season…
in kindness,
Maia
Finalists Named for Blogisattva Awards
The Blogisattva Awards are kind of like Christmas for us Buddhist bloggers. Originally started by Tom Armstrong, these awards have been given out over the past several years and have really helped to build a sense of sangha among Buddhist bloggers, as well as brought more awareness of their work to the larger community.
I am honored and humbled to be included in the lists of finalists, a list that includes some of my favorite writers like Genju, James Ford, Marguerite Manteau-Rao, Nathan Thompson, and Marnie Louise Froberg. You can view the complete lists of nominees here. The “winners” will be named tomorrow, December 12, but in my book, they are all winners!
(To me, the one glaring omission was not including Katie Loncke’s excellent blog in the list — I hope that she will be recognized next year and in the meantime I encourage you to take a look at her writing, which is consistently thought-provoking and heartfelt.)
A very big thank you to the team that administered this year’s awards: Nate DeMontigny from Precious Metal, Kyle Lovett from The Reformed Buddhist, and Anoki Casey of Buddha Badges who will always be my favorite graphic designer.
The Great Jizo Book Giveaway
To continue the one-year blogging birthday celebration, I’m giving away one copy of the book Not Turning Away: The Practice of Engaged Buddhism (Shambhala, 2004). This is an anthology of articles from Turning Wheel magazine, edited by Susan Moon. Writers featured in the book include Robert Aitken Roshi, Jan Chozen Bays, Fleet Maull, Thich Nhat Hanh, Jack Kornfield, Joanna Macy, and Diana Winston. (Oh yeah, and one of my articles is in there too.)
Here’s what you need to do to be eligible:
1) Take a look at the new Amazon book store that I created to go along with The Jizo Chronicles, and enjoy browsing through it. There are three categories: books on socially engaged Buddhism, general Buddhist books, and books on activism and politics.
2) Then, let me know what books you would suggest adding to the store by making a comment at the bottom of this post, by November 30. If the comment doesn’t automatically include a link back to you, make sure to include your email address so I can contact you if you win. (To protect yourself from the obnoxious robots that crawl through the Internet, put your address in this format: maia [at] gmail [dot] com )
3) For extra credit! Send an email to a friend (or many friends!) who you think might enjoy the bookstore. Let me know that you did this in your comment and you’ll get an extra chance to win!
On December 1, I’ll write down the names of everyone who left a comment, put it into a hat, pull a name, and then I’ll contact the winner so I can ship the book to you. I’ll even autograph it for you, if you want.
Does that make sense? So it’s a giveaway with a randomly chosen winner, but you can increase your odds of winning by telling your friends about the book store. Pretty simple. No purchase necessary, as they say. Go to it and have fun!
