Category Archives: Uncategorized

This has been the week to mix it up with other Buddhist bloggers, for sure! Thanks to everyone who’s come to visit this blog and read Shane’s post, which was fantastic.

This week, I’m traveling through Southern California and yesterday I finally got to spend some good quality time with Danny Fisher, Buddhist blogger extraordinaire, my counterpart as the chaplaincy coordinator at University of the West, and just an all-around good guy/bodhisattva. Here’s Danny’s iPhone photo of the two of us doing the night round of Pasadena:

two bloggers run amok in Pasadena

I’m heading home to Santa Fe tomorrow and hopefully will get back into some more regular kind of blogging rhythm. Till then, be well!

Happy new year to everyone! I hope that your holidays were both energizing and relaxing for you.

I am just getting back into the blog rhythm again, hence the absence of entries over the past week.

January 8 is the big “Buddhist Blog Swap (part 2)” initiated by Nate DeMontigny, author of Precious Metal. So, tomorrow will be all topsy-turvy in terms of where things are… I’ll have a post up on Home Brew Dharma, and the author of Zenfant’s home for dirty dharma will have an article here, among other happenings. Should be an interesting day!

See you then…

I’m slowly adding some of my past articles to the “Writing” section of this blog. Just uploaded one from 2004 called “Impossible Choices: Thinking about mental health from a Buddhist perspective.”

And I’m honored that this blog was named in a list of women Buddhist bloggers on Marguerite Manteau-Rao’s  “Mind Deep.” Thank you!

There are all kinds of ways to deal with the upcoming holiday shopping season. One is to buy nothing on the day known as “Black Friday” (Nov 27 this year), an action pioneered by Adbusters. Gary Gach gives a  dharma perspective on “What Would Buddha Buy?” (the answer: not too much, not too little).

Another approach is to take part in the cycle of giving and receiving, but to do it in a way that may be of benefit to others. Generosity is, after all, one of the basic Buddhist virtues.

If living beings knew the fruit and final reward of generosity and the distribution of gifts, as I know them, then they would not eat their food without giving to others and sharing with others, even if it were their last morsel and mouthful.
~ Avadana Jataka

I am a big donkey lover. I’m not sure I can even tell you why, but I am. So, last holiday season, I was tickled pink when a friend of mine sent me a donkey as a gift. The only catch was that my donkey was actually given to a farmer in Darfur, on my behalf, through Oxfam America. It turns out that donkeys are a key piece of helping farmers there to become more self-sufficient. The donkeys can transport materials, help with cultivating the fields, and they can also be hired out to others. It was one of the best gifts I’ve ever received.

If you’re looking for a way to give a gift that does more than gather dust and may make a difference in someone’s life, here’s a list of suggestions starting with two that have an impact in Buddhist countries:

• Adopt a Monk or Nun from Burma’s Saffron Revolution
The Clear View Project invites you to “Adopt a Monk” to help bring attention to the false imprisonment of the monks and nuns in Burma. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners of Burma (AAPPB), reports that when the international community shines a light of attention on particular prisoners, their lot improves.  When one prisoner’s life improves, hope is restored.

• Sponsor a Tibetan Nun
Through this sponsorship program, the Tibetan Nuns Project supports over 700 nuns living in northern India. For less than $1 per day, sponsors can provide a nun’s basic necessities. One hundred percent of sponsorship money goes directly to India to meet the nuns’ living expenses. The TNP also makes a great calendar you can purchase on their website as well.

• Seva Foundation’s Gifts of Service
Through Seva, your gift can help restore sight to a blind person in Tibet, Nepal, India, Cambodia or Guatemala, or support other projects that alleviate suffering caused by poverty and disease. Seva works with local people to create sustainable solutions.

• Oxfam America
Oxfam America – the givers of the aforementioned donkey – is an international relief and development organization that creates lasting solutions to poverty, hunger, and injustice. Besides the donkey, other gifts include mosquito nets for a family in Africa, a dozen chicks that will provide eggs and income for an HIV/AIDS-infected household, and support for indigenous craftswomen

• Changing the Present
Changing the Present is a clearinghouse of gifts that “change the world.” Shop here to give everything from an afternoon of tutoring for inner city kids to funding a loan for a widow in India to start her own business. Nonprofits can also register on this site so that more people can learn about their cause.

• Equal Exchange
Equal Exchange is the largest Free Trade company in the US. You can buy organic coffee, tea, sugar, cocoa, and chocolate bars produced by democratically run farmer co-ops in Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

• The Womens’ Peace Collection
The Womens’ Peace Collection an enterprise that fully supports women in regions of conflict and post-conflict as mothers, peace builders and skilled artisans. Their website features handmade jewelry, textiles, and other gifts from around the world, including “dolls of compassion” crafted by Karenni women living in a refugee camp on the Thai-Burma border.

Any more suggestions for this list?

_________

Additions:

Lulan Artisans: Contemporary designs fused with ancient weaving techniques to create extraordinary hand-woven textiles, apparel, and products for the home. Your purchase helps to support more than 650 weavers, spinners, dyers and finishers in weaving cooperatives in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and India.

No Sweat: Union-made footwear and casual clothing. “Our gear is produced by independent trade union members in the US, Canada, and the developing world. We believe that the only viable response to globalization is a global labor movement.”

The Global Center for Cultural Entrepreneurship’s blog has a good list of “Ten Places to Buy Gifts That Support Women Artisans”

I just noticed that the  sidebar with links to some of my favorite blogs is missing in action. Apparently when I switched from one WordPress theme to another a couple of days ago, that changes the availability of some of the widgets.

Until I get this straightened out, here are just a few blogs that post good material on engaged Buddhism:

http://dangerousharvests.blogspot.com/

http://angryasianbuddhist.blogspot.com/

http://dannyfisher.org/

I realize there has been a lack of original material on this blog for the past week. I’ve been putting a lot of creative energy into writing a novel (my first ever!) for National Novel Writing Month (a really cool thing that you should definitely try if you’re a writer) and in the process I’ve neglected this blog. It’s my intention to write more original and provocative posts in the near future. But alas, today we continue the trend of picking up from other sources.

This is a re-post from a great blog called “How to Save the World,” authored by Dave Pollard. I’d like to help cultivate a socially engaged dharma that is systemic–recognizing that we live in an interconnected world of nested environmental and social systems–and yet personal at the same time. The suggestions offered below are one way of getting at both those dimensions, in that they offer us as individuals clear actions we can take that may help to alleviate suffering and reduce harm.

from Dave:

How the Rich Can Stop Hurting the Poor: Sharon Astyk adds her own recommendations to the Transition Initiative’s recommendations, in an interview with Vandana Shiva,  to help reduce the exploitation of struggling nations:

• Do not buy or eat any industrial meat – period.  Grain-fed meat raises the price of commodities in the poor world.  Either give up meat or eat only grass-fed meat.
• Do not support biofuel production from foodstuffs or on land that is suitable for growing human crops.
• Purchase high value, dry shipped luxury goods like spices, coffee, tea, etc… *only* when certified fair trade and grown in responsible ways (ie, shade grown coffee, etc…)
• Don’t buy imported produce.  Shift your diet to eat what’s available in your locality.  Remember, flying produce around the world is using planes to transport water, effectively.  That’s nuts on a whole host of levels.
• Begin shifting your “shadow acres” of imported foods, resources and goods to your own locality – buy local when possible, even if it means buying less.  If you can’t produce something in your area, look for substitutes and work to establish local manufacture and production.

I’m curious to hear your thoughts on this list…