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BEARING WITNESS

NEWSLETTER FOR WESTERN SOCIALLY ENGAGED BUDDHISM - MAY 2010
SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT & SOCIAL NETWORKING

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Bearing Witness Blog: The Companion to the Newsletter for Western Socially Engaged Buddhism




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MORE SOCIALLY ENGAGED
BUDDHISM ONLINE

   Dalai Lama Joins Tweeter
   Buddhist Geeks interview Bernie Glassman
   Two More Groups Start Online Dharma Study
   Global Cybersanga by Laura Busch (25-page downloadable PDF)



RESOURCES FOR MINDFUL
TECHNOLOGY USE

listening_cartoonFrom My (Probably Crazy) Plan To Give Up the Internet By James Sturm on slate.com


10 Social Media Meditations by Gwen Bell

Articles by Soren Gordhamer

    •Zen and the Art of Twitter:         4 Tips for Tweeting
    •If the Buddha Used Twitter
    •A Zen Approach to Information Overload




JOIN THE ZEN PEACEMAKERS RESIDENTIAL PROGRAM IN SOCIALLY ENGAGED BUDDHISM. FAMILIES WELCOME!




NOVEMBER 2010 AUSCHWITZ BEARING WITNESS RETREAT

First Auschwitz Bearing Witness Retreat Trailer

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.



NEWSLETTER
ARCHIVES












chris_queen








Dear Friends,

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".

Send mail using your own address book.

Blessings,
Christopher Queen

Editor

SOCIALLY ENGAGED BUDDHISM ONLINE

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

For an excellent collection of more articles connected to the Wisdom 2.0 Conference, visit Upaya Zen Center's latest newsletter, available by free subsription.

Twitter and the Dalai Lama:
Can Social Media Help Create a Happier World?
by Soren Gordhamer

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

Iran, Burma and Global Cybersanga
by Laura Busch

newsletter

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

ari_pliskin

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

Second Life Activism
by Kate Crisp

kate_crisp

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

myanmar_facebook

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

August 9 to 14, 2010
at the Mother House of the Zen Peacemakers in Montague, MA

Attendance is Limited for this Historic Event.
Register Now!

$600 Fee Includes Tuition, Continental Breakfast and Lunch.

A Major Gathering of
Western Socially Engaged Buddhist Activists, Academics and Sponsors.

A Concluding Banquet to Honor Robert Aitken & the Pioneers Who Followed

To read more about the Symposium, link here

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PRESENTERS (partial)

PANELS (partial)

WORKSHOPS (partial)

Mirabai Bush
Christopher Queen
Honoring the Pioneers
Arts for Social Change
Melody Chavis
Reggie Ray
Social Entrepreneurship
Chaplaincy
Bernie Glassman
Richard Reoch
Politics
Conflict Resolution
Joan Halifax
Matthieu Ricard
Challenges for Soc. Eng. Bud.
Trauma
Stephanie Kaza
Alan Senauke
Mental Health
Funding for Soc. Eng. Bud.
Jon Kabat-Zinn
Peter Senge
Compassionate Care
Being with Dying
Peter Matthiessen
Robert Thurman
Environment
Prison Ministry
Fleet Maull
Anne Waldman
Special Ministries
Community Development
Mayumi Oda
Jan Willis
Zen Houses
Street Ministry

The event is sponsored by the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation, the Lenz Foundation and the Zen Peacemakers. Tricycle: The Buddhist Review is the exclusive media partner.

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