The Zen Peacemakers and Bernie Glassman return to Auschwitz for Bearing Witness Retreats on Nov 1-5, 2010.
To read descriptions and/or to register, please click here. This retreat includes Youth from Israel, Palestine, Poland, Germany, Switzerland, US and other countries.
Please!"Adopt a Monk." Join Alan Senauke, founder of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship, and help the monks and nuns of Burma's Saffron Revolution.
The Buddha was a master of social networking. If social networks are
rapidly expanding circles of shared interest and activity – regardless of
age, gender, race, or class – then the early Buddhist sangha resembles the
viral spread of friends and fans on Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter today.
First, five yogis recognized a former Indian prince as a spiritual adapt
and teacher, then the news raced ahead as the teacher and his group moved
from place to place. Soon we read of “five hundred monks” and thousands
of lay supporters who gather to hear the teachings -- postings, tweets --
of the Buddha Shakyamuni.
The spread of the Dharma in India, East Asia, and globally may be credited
to the skillful use of new media. After three hundred years of oral
transmission, the early Mahayana scriptures called for readers to copy and
distribute the written word. "Anyone who copies, keeps, reads, and
recites this sutra, makes offerings to it, and expounds it to others after
my extinction, will be covered by my love" (Lotus Sutra 10). A Buddhist
text, the Diamond Sutra, is earliest known printed book in the world,
produced in China in the ninth century CE. And since the thirteenth
century, the copying (Japanese shakyo), distribution, and chanting of the
words of the Gohanzin, a sacred scroll, has been central to the practice
of Nichiren Buddhists.
Today, the Internet provides the newest platform for transmission and
transformation of the Dharma. Yet the creation of online communities in
Buddhism – called cybersanghas in the 1990s – has not been limited to
widening circles of information and opinion, supported by news groups,
e-mail, chat boards, and networking sites. Engaged Buddhists have used
the instant, global transmission of images and calls for help to organize
massive rallies, fund-raising campaigns, and advocacy groups. The crises
facing Buddhists in Tibet and Burma have mobilized immediate collective
action worldwide, thanks to our electronic Indra’s Net. Compare this to
the time it took to alert the world to the plight of the Vietnamese and
Cambodians in the sixties and seventies through print, fax, and broadcast
media .
Articles in this month’s Bearing Witness raise provocative questions for
socially engaged Buddhists. Despite the power of the web to alert us to
the suffering of beings around the world, are we spending far too much
time staring at screens in darkened rooms? Are typing and clicking,
texting and Googling truly Buddhist practices, in the way that meditating,
chanting and serving are? Is “high tech” a substitute or a supplement to
“high touch”? Can the virtual activism of Second Life avatars be compared
to the bodily service of flesh-and-blood bodhisattvas? One article at a time will be featured on the Bearing Witness Blog over the next month. Please visit and share your thoughts!
The Newsletter serves as a clearinghouse for information about
western socially engaged Buddhism. Announcements of upcoming events and
resources may be found in the sidebar at the left. Our Directory of
Western Socially Engaged Buddhism is quite possibly the most
comprehensive anywhere: please follow the links there to visit many groups
and projects. If your group or resources you know about are missing,
please write to us with the reference. We will make sure it is added.
The theme for the next issue of Bearing Witness will be “Buddhism and the Environment.” If you are active in this area, please write to us so that we can profile or mention your work.
Please help promote the cause of Socially Engaged Buddhism by
sharing this URL with friends, associates, sangha members and groups you think would be interested. Click on the line below, "Send mail using your own address book".
Lessons from the Wisdom 2.0 Conference: Seven ways to use online technology to reduce suffering by Ari Pliskin
1. Practice being present in person, 2. Practice being present online 3. Build Relationships, 4. Enforce accountability 5. Raise money and spread petitions, 6. Organize information & Study 7. Coordinate Actions & Meetings... read more
Twitter and the Dalai Lama: Can Social Media Help Create a Happier World? by Soren Gordhamer
The issue of happiness, and technologies role in either helping support or diminish it, came up recently at the Peace summit with the Dalai Lama, where one of the panels included eBay founder, Pierre Omidyar. The Dalai Lama spoke of the danger of developing more affection for technological devices than people....read more
Socially engaged Buddhism has gone online. Or rather, we have gone online as socially engaged Buddhists. Yet, there are those who may cringe at the idea. One can easily find on the Internet rampant materialism, and new methods of communicating human anger and ignorance such as cyberbullying, flaming and spamming. So is the Internet truly a beneficial technology for promoting social justice and activism? And if so, how do we use this technology to benefit sentient beings?
....read more
Translating Cybersangha into Action at the Zen Peacemakers
by Ari Pliskin
"As a form of mere consumption, the internet 'colonizes our consciousness' transforming us into inactive coach potatoes where the sedative of sitcoms and commercials is replaced by homepages and pop-up ads."
Bearing Witness Assistant Editor and blogger explores the power of the web, including interviews with Roshi Joan Halifax, Alan Senauke and Vince Horn. ....read more
Using the avatar Vivienne, Peacemaker Institute and Prison Dharma Network director Kate Crisp organized hourly meditations to promote Tibetan peace and organized a day-long vigil and a chain of avatars that stretched 500 people in support of Burmese monks. View Tibetan Peace video.View Burmese Support video.
'Open-Source Politics' Taps Facebook for Myanmar Protests by Sarah Lai Stirland Wired Magazine
Facebook-fueled marches protesting Myanmar's recent crackdown on monks' pro-democracy demonstrations... show the increasing power and reach of a social-networking site originally designed to help college students find drinking buddies.
....read more
THE FIRST SYMPOSIUM FOR
WESTERN SOCIALLY ENGAGED BUDDHISM