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Author Archives: Maia

Mindfulness for Military Vets

Posted on June 9, 2012 by Maia

Maxine Hong Kingston, author of “The Woman Warrior”

On a day when the New York Times headline story is  “Suicides Outpacing War Deaths for Troops,” I wanted to call your attention to some good work going on with returning combat veterans.

To be clear — I want to see the day when military action becomes entirely replaced by skillful and persistent diplomatic efforts, and when the U.S. as a whole (government and citizens) is able to look deeply at the root causes and conditions of war and understand our place in that karma. Until that day comes, we have vets coming home who are wounded physically and emotionally.

Here are a few contemplative and mindfulness-based initiatives that I’m aware of that are serving this community (one of which is time-sensitive, with a retreat coming up this July). If you know of more, please share them in the comments below.

  • “The Coming Home Project” is a non-profit organization founded by Dr. Joseph Bobrow, Roshi, a Zen teacher. The project, begun in 2006, is devoted to providing expert, compassionate care, support, education, and stress management tools for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, service members, their families, and their service providers. Visit their website to find out more about their services.
  • The Buddhist Military Sangha is a nonpolitical and nonsectarian forum for Buddhists serving in the US Armed Forces. This website includes quite an extensive collection of links on pastoral care, mental health, and re-entry/readjustment websites.

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Dharma of Food Justice: Call For Submissions! | Turning Wheel Media

Posted on May 23, 2012 by Maia

See on Scoop.it – Socially Engaged Buddhism

For the month of July at Turning Wheel Media, help us highlight issues of food justice! Submit your prose, poetry, photographs, interviews, video, audio, and multi-media work by June 15th…

See on www.turningwheelmedia.org

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Socially Engaged Buddhism… Bits and Pieces

Posted on May 13, 2012 by Maia

The author and Roshi Bernie Glassman at Upaya Zen Center (photo by Roshi Joan Halifax)

For my longtime readers, I miss seeing you here… for my newer readers, just to get you up to speed, I don’t post very regularly on The Jizo Chronicles anymore. I am focusing my energy these days on my other blog, The Liberated Life Project, as well as on the work I do as Upaya Zen Center’s director of community outreach and development.

I’m having a rare quiet night so thought I’d give this blog a little attention and share some news from the world of socially engaged Buddhism that’s come across my desk this past month:

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If You Want Peace, Stop Paying For War

Posted on April 23, 2012 by Maia

Last week, I became a war tax resister. I’ve been thinking about this for a long time, and finally this spring my actions aligned with my intentions and I sent the following letter to the Internal Revenue Service:

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The Protest Chaplains (Part 4): Conclusion and What It Means to Be a Revolutionary Chaplain

Posted on April 15, 2012 by Maia

This is the fourth and final installment from my thesis for the Upaya Buddhist Chaplaincy Program. In the first post, I covered the context and background of the Protest Chaplains as well as the Occupy Wall Street Movement. In the second post, I shared the findings from my interviews with four of the chaplains. In the third post, I explored five lessons distilled from studying the Protest Chaplains.

This last post is the conclusion to my thesis. Most of it is devoted to a long quote from one of the original Protest Chaplains, Marisa Egerstrom. I was so taken by her words that I felt it was important to give voice to the whole quote.

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Protest Chaplains: Five Lessons for Social Change (Part 3)

Posted on April 7, 2012 by Maia

This is the third installment from my thesis for the Upaya Buddhist Chaplaincy Program. In the first post, I covered the context and background of the Protest Chaplains as well as the Occupy Wall Street Movement. In the second post, I shared the findings from interviews with some of the chaplains.

In this excerpt, I explore five lessons that I distilled from studying the Protest Chaplains.

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A Big Day in Burma: Aung San Suu Kyi Elected to Parliament

Posted on April 1, 2012 by Maia

New York Times photo by Adam Ferguson

A brief interruption in our series on The Protest Chaplains to mark a milestone in Burma (Myanmar).

Today, April 1, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her party, the National League for Democracy, appears to have won a seat in Myanmar’s Parliament. This New York Times article does a good job of describing the elation that Suu Kyi’s supporters are feeling, and how this event may mark a turning point in that country’s long period of oppressive military rule.

There is a long way still to go, however. As this eyewitness account from Burma by Hozan Alan Senuake notes, many political prisoners continue to be held and the military junta is effectively holding on to power by keeping the vast majority of seats in Parliament for their cronies.

Even so, today’s election results seem to mark a significant shift, perhaps reflecting the pressure that the junta has felt internally and as well as from economic sanctions imposed by other countries.

As Alan writes at the end of his post:

The conversation [with the Burmese monk] was just beginning, but simply to meet and talk is a radical act.  As I was paying my respects to the monks, preparing to leave, one said quietly: “In the last twenty years we didn’t have such opportunities.  We couldn’t speak with foreigners.”

The opportunity for dialogue — all kinds of dialogue — is an encouraging sign.  But it is not enough.  Real change in Burma, or anywhere is a matter of access to resources, mutual accountability, and the power for people to determine the course of their own lives. When war has ended in Burma, when all the prisoners are free, when there are reasonable laws that apply to everyone — then we can start to celebrate.  Not yet.

To learn more about how you can support the struggle for a truly free Burma, visit any of these links:



					


	

		
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Protest Chaplains: “It’s All About Love” (Part 2)

	
	

		Posted on March 29, 2012 by Maia
	


	

				
Robin Lutjohan


This is the second installment from my thesis for the Upaya Buddhist Chaplaincy Program. In the first post, I covered the context and background of the Protest Chaplains as well as the Occupy Wall Street Movement. In this section, I share the findings from interviews with four chaplains.




A) The Creation Story


The group of 10 students from Harvard Divinity School (HDS) that was to become the Protest Chaplains was present at Occupy Wall Street from day one. I asked Dave Woessner to tell me how it all got started. This is the story he shared with me:


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