More about those cartoons …
“Monks, if anyone should speak in disparagement of me, of the Dhamma, or of the Sangha, you should not be angry, resentful or upset on that account. If you were to be angry or displeased at such disparagement, that would only be a hindrance to you. For if others disparage me, the Dhamma or the Sangha, and you were angry or displeased, can you recognize whether what they say is right or not?” -- from Ryuei's Blah Blah Blaaaggghhh!, quoting Buddha in The Long Discourses of the Buddha, pg 68.Rev. Ryuei of Ryuei’s Blah Blah Blaaaggghhh! quotes the Buddha [see above] in his post “What Would Buddha Do About Unflattering Cartoons?” Writes Ryuei, “When I look to the teachings and example of Shakyamuni Buddha, I find that they provide a very high standard of maturity, that even many in first world countries would be hard put to live up to.”
“As the rude but legal printing of some offensive doodles in a middling Danish newspaper has snowballed into an international crisis, Buddhists have offered various responses.” writes Jeff Wilson of Tricycle Blog in his post “Better Off Dead.” Jeff Wilson cites Ryuei’s post in his own post about the cartoon fiasco, but then unbraids Ryuei, an American Nichiren Shu priest, for irony, writing, “the primary scripture of Nichiren Shu says that people who slander it will be reborn in the most terrible hell without any possibility of attaing [sic] Buddhahood.”
Jeff goes on to cite several other examples of hypocracies he finds in Buddhist responses to the Danish cartoon matter in his damning-of-others post. Jeff ends his post with this sour sentiment: “Buddhism, like Islam, becomes another weapon in the struggle against ‘others’; it becomes a site of expression for rage as well as forgiveness, hatred as well as hope, righteous ‘self-defense’ as well as peace. It both forms cherished self-identities and proclaims the absence of self; it creates nations and breaks individuals of their obsessions with external references. Did we expect otherwise?”
Ajahn Punnadhammo of Bhikkhu Blog writes a well-titled article on the cartoons: “Respect.” [The bhikkhu’s blog has no permalinks; to find the post click here and scroll down. “Respect” is the second post on Feb 17.] Ajahn Punnadhammo opposes restricting speak, favoring instead a climate of respect. He writes, “it's come to my attention that there's a franchise chain of booze halls called ‘Buddha Bar’ which feature a Buddha image in the room where patrons sit swilling back alcohol. This type of egregious insult is all too common an example of the general low lack of respect for the sacred in our society - the Mohammed cartoons are another example.”
Whipping Posts
Both Gareth of Green Clouds and kim of this life posted regarding deleting posts. Gareth tells us that one he keyboarded “didn’t really capture what I was thinking and feeling at all,” so he whacked it. Kim considered offing a post on aging that, she felt, presented her as “shallow and vain,” but decided to let it stand. She writes, “i practice zazen to see. and sometimes i don't like what i see.” Still, she kept it. “i feel that if what was written was true at the time,” she writes, “then it is a good practice for me to stand by it.”
Both Gareth’s and kim’s posts on deleting posts got a string of supporting comments. Rev. Mugo of Moving Mountains wrote Gareth, “…I’m glad you felt free to do what you felt was right.” Kim received a long comment from Chica of Van Gogh Chica who said, “I do not think you are vain. It is natural for women (especially in our culture) to fret over her appearances. Our appearances/desirability defines us in our society - no matter how much we try to transcend that. I have the same issues.”
Integral Relationships
William Harryman, blog-tender of Integral Options Café, wrote a capstone – maybe – to a series of earlier Integral Relationship posts. In the new bit, “Further Observations on Integral Relationship,” he gives credit to a Susan Piver article in the new issue of Shambhala Sun. “Piver gets closer to what love feels like from the inside than I ever could.” William writes, modestly. This line he holds up as as voicing the central idea of high-spiritual love: “Love has become the container in which we live.”
In the comment thread to the post, William cites another bit of Piver wisdom as being pivotal: “Each time I have opened up, extended myself, accepted what was being offered to me, stepped beyond my comfort zone to embrace him, the structure [of love/marriage/commitment] has been reinforced.”
In his opening salvo on the relationship tangle, “Preliminary Observations on Integral Relationship, Part One,” posted Jan. 21, William, borrowing from observations of Joe Perez of Rising Up, charts stages/levels of relationship moral/maturity development – through the first tier. Generally, the stages advance from self-interested hedonism to real intimacy. William feels, in contrast to Perez’s observations, that the “lowest” stage is more one of power and control than wanton fun-loving.
In Part Two, William discusses second-tier [Integral] love. A central element, he believes, is access to the observer self. “The observer self is the first authentic approach to finding the higher Self that resides beyond the realm of ego.”
Part Three is an effort to observe an Integral relationship “from the inside” – specifically from the workings of William’s ‘close entanglement of the second kind’ with Kira. Deep levels of vulnerability, openness and compassion play their part in wedding two people in ways well beyond mere contractual commitment.
Buddhist Blogger Threatens Electronic Suicide.
Jeb has announced in a post this week that he intends to wrap things up with his blog Wondering on the Way. “After some reflection, I plan to discontinue further contributions to this blog at the end of March this year.” he writes. “The last few posts will be a bit of retrospective, as the last effort here for both the cathartic aspect of writing and the sharing with others what I’ve noticed along the way.”
Jeb has many fans in the Buddhoblogosphere who have benefitted from his wise, beautifully-written posts. Hopefully, Jeb will stay, blogging less frequently if that's his wish, and from a free platform like Blogger, if that matters. Unless one's computer explodes, there simply is no reason not to blog. [And even then, one may blog from the library.] Blogging is free; like breathing in and out.
Blogisattva Award Nominations
The nominations for the 1st annual Blogisattva awards were announced on Feb. 18, in recognition of achievement in Buddhism-influenced blogging in the year 2005. There are fourteen awards categories. Five nominees were announced in each category.
Nominees for the top prize, Blog of the Year, Svaha!, are Gareth's Green Clouds, Dave Bonta's Via Negativa, Will Buckingham's thinkBuddha, Jeb's Wonderings on the Way and chalip's Zen Under the Skin. The most nominations, five, went to Nacho Cordova and his WoodMoor Village blog which received nods in the categories Best Achievement in Wonderful, Remarkable, Elegant Design; Best Philosophical Blog; Best Achievement in Addressing Public or Political Issues; Blogger Best Demonstrating a Multiplicity of Talents; and Blog Entry of the Year.
A complete list of the nominees, with links, can be found here.
Blog Harvest
[Editor's note: The term "Blog Harvest" was gleaned/kiped from the perhaps-moribund, perhaps-not-moribund blog Wondering on the Way.]
1) Moving Mountains = Rev. Mugo's blog, online since April 05, is a great find. Mugo practices with the Serene Reflection Meditation Tradition (Soto Zen) in Edmonton, Canada. "Serene reflections," is an acurate description of the calming and kind quality of the posts you will find in this blog AND in the gentle, loving comments to posts from readers. Mugo writes on a wide variety of topics. Animals, Stonehenge, Walt Whitman, Buddha relics, the weather in Edmonton, and going to the dentist are all subjects in the last week. There is an abundance of compassion without ever being coy or cloying.
2) Ryuei's Blah Blah Blaaaggghhh! = Rev. Ryuei of the Nichirin tradition blogs from the website Fraught with Peril which has the tagline "The Frankenstein's Monster of Nichiren Buddhism." But troubling surface signs about this wonderful blog are bogus. Ryuei is a bit of a free spirit, advocating that Buddhists act with a degree of independence, but his message is wholly loving and sympathetic to the suffering and misadventures of humans and other sentient beings. [Note: Your B'du reporter is probably out-of-touch. Based on the long comment streams to some of Ryuei's posts, the guy is clearly a celebrity to those 'in the know.']
3) Reverand Greg: Confessions of a Nichirin Buddhist Ninja = Another blog from Fraught with Peril, not greatly dissimilar to Ryuei's blog to a not fully initiated reader, like me. But it seems that Rev. Greg has a more gleeful writing style. Recent posts on Japan are very informative and show both a love and frustration with the Japanese, who are clearly absurd, as Greg demonstrates.
4) K’vitsh: a girl can always count on her typewriter = Oh, how happy I am when I broaden my horizons. This blog was found, indirectly, through Moving Mountains. This zen girl is both saucy and qwerky with a strong voice, but then suddenly she delves into mixed feelings (about the sad imprisonment of seniors, for example, some of whom have done horrendous crimes). I love how in this blog the blogger isn’t reductionist, summarizing a mixture of feelings as all canceling each other out. Rather, she accepts paradox and doesn’t race to judgment and conclusions. A wonderful voice. A fine harvest for B’du.
