Author: arun

A Bit More than a Smattering?

| arun

The much anticipated 2011 Buddhist Teachers Council has finally concluded, in spite of all the griping. It was organized secretly. It was exclusive. But I was more interested in how many Asian participants were invited to the party.

“Mostly, as might be expected,” Rev. James Ford writes, “folk of European descent. But a bit more than a smattering of [People of Color], African descent and Asian, as well as a few Tibetans and other Asians.”

Those terms are hard for an unskilled layperson like me to gauge. Fortunately, Rev. Ford posted a list of attendees, which I spent the last few days coding. The list falls short of the 230 mentioned in the press release, but I have to work with what I’ve got. After crunching the numbers, it turns out that “a bit more than a smattering” equates to about one in nine.

If you break out the Asian participants, there were just fifteen of us (that’s one in twelve). Thus “a bit more than a smattering” falls short of the representation of Asian writers in The Best Buddhist Writing (one in five), but hangs a couple notches above the paucity of Asian contributors to Tricycle (one in fifteen). Maybe then a “smattering” is the handful of Asians you find in Tricycle.

On the other hand, if we look at the inclusion of women at the conference, their representation is much stronger. There were four women for every five men present. That’s a little better balanced.

So even as the White gatekeepers seemed to have no trouble finding spots for the female half of Western Buddhism, the share set aside for Buddhists of Color was obscenely low. We also make up about half of Western Buddhism, but we’re apparently not as important to the discussion of the future of Buddhism in the West. (I’m having flashbacks.)

That said, I’m glad for the Buddhists of Color who showed up, including one whom I interviewed on this blog. A strong contingent came from the East Bay Meditation Center, along with several others whose names were entirely new to me. Since this conference is scheduled to recur, I hope the organizers will make an effort to be more inclusive the next time around.

Lastly, as editors from both Shambhala Sun and Tricycle were in attendance, we might just be able to look forward to a few new contributors in the next few publication cycles. (Is that too much to expect?) Or at least Tricycle might be able to boost its Asian quotient to “a bit more than a smattering.”

For more on the conference from Rev. James Ford’s blog, see here, here, here, here and here. Not to mention photos!

Update: This post has been revised to reflect corrections from a Tricycle editor in the comments below.

LGBT Pride Month

| arun

(I hate it when I accidentally post mid-draft. Apologies for this repost.) On Tuesday, President Barack Obama officially proclaimed this month of June Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month. You can also check out the associated White House website.

Last month was Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, and one way I encouraged bloggers to celebrate was to actually talk to Asian American Buddhists and then post their words. I’m proposing the same idea for LGBT pride month—let’s celebrate LGBT Pride Month by welcoming the voices of LGBT Buddhists to our blogs.

It’s easy to think of these months as throwaway celebrations—“You get one month out of the year so that we can ignore you for the other eleven months!”—but the point, I’ve come to see, is that these celebrations give us license to focus on our community, to air our frustrations, to explore our history and to celebrate ourselves for who we are. We might even learn something.

Many of us can’t identify with these celebrations. They’re about other people. There can be an awkwardness about celebrating a community that we don’t sincerely identify with.

My proposal is simply to recognize that Asian American Buddhists and LGBT Buddhists (and Black Buddhists and Latino Buddhists…) are part of our community. We don’t have to identify with every part of our community to embrace it all. A great step forward is to simply shine a spotlight on the voices of those among us who have historically been ignored and marginalized.

Maybe you know everything there is to know about LGBT issues and the Buddhist community—and if you do, I hope you can educate me. Because I don’t. And I would bet most of my readers don’t.

Maybe if each of us reaches out and actually talks to other Buddhists who are normally silenced, if we share their perspectives and understanding in their own words—maybe this is the sort of process that celebrates our diversity while also bringing us closer together.

However you choose to celebrate this month, I hope that you do. And that you do so with pride.

Buddhist APAHM Roundup

| arun

As the sun sets on Asian Pacific American Heritage Month 2011, I’d like to extend my thanks to Maia Duerr (@fivedirections), Jack Daw (@ZenDirtZenDust), Chris Hoff (@NarrativeChris), Adam (@flylikeacrow) and Nathan (Dangerous Harvests) for their posts that delve into the ocean of the Asian American Buddhist community.

Many thanks also to the very supportive nods from Danny Fisher and Caine Das, who posted about APAHM on their blogs.

This month’s A Gift of Dharma posts from Danny Fisher included a unique focus on Asian and Asian American Buddhist quotes. You can read the words of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama (5/1, 5/4, 5/8, 5/9, 5/15), Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh (5/2, 5/12), Siddhartha Gotama (5/7), Chögyam Trungpa (5/11, 5/17), Sulak Sivaraksa (5/18), Daw Aung San Suu Kyi (5/19), Preah Maha Ghosananda (5/20), Dr. A. T. Ariyaratne (5/21, 5/22, 5/23), Venerable Cheng Yen (5/24), B. R. Ambedkar (5/25), Bhante Henepola Gunaratana (5/26) and Mushim Ikeda-Nash (5/27).

My hope is that, in the future, Buddhist bloggers, editors and journalists will make more of an effort to incorporate the voices of Asian American Buddhists—not merely post about us in the third person or fish up writings off the web that we published years ago. Just as I have to put in a little extra effort to welcome in the voices of Asian American Buddhist women, there will be obstacles for other bloggers who aren’t used to reaching out to Asian American voices. Even so, for those of us who speak out in the name of equality and diversity in the Buddhist community, our actions should follow our words.

It’s another eleven months till APAHM 2012, but I’m already making a list of whom I’d like to interview. Anumodami to all who participated this year!

What Happened to the Chit Peace Accord?

| arun

The Tenth Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues has been underway for the past week. One conference development relevant to the Buddhist world was a study on the status of the implementation of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord.

The Chittagong Hill Tracts are a part of Bangladesh’s Chittagong division. The CHT indigenous population—collectively referred to as Jumma, of whom a plurality are Buddhist—has been subject to forced displacement by government-sponsored Bengali settlers, military occupation, systematic rape, killings and torture. Buddhist temples have been desecrated, set on fire and destroyed. Furthermore, this ongoing intimidation occurs with complete judicial impunity; Bangladesh’s courts have failed to take the initiative in support of the CHT indigenous groups, while Jumma are routinely excluded from joining the police forces.

In the words of Elsa Stamatopoulou, Chief of the Secretariat of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, the CHT situation is “one of the most underreported human rights and humanitarian crises in the world.”

A peace accord was signed between indigenous representatives and the Bangladeshi Government 14 years ago, but many of its central provisions have failed to be implemented by the government.

As described in the press conference on the implementation of the CHT Peace Accord, the intimidation of indigenous peoples continues. Systematic rape of indigenous women and girls has worsened in the past five years, while the police and judiciary have continued to turn a blind eye to the burning of villages, killings and torture—all amid the presence of the Bangladeshi army, ironically so as the army is the top or second top contributor of forces to UN peace keeping missions.

In response to the report and press conference, the Bangladeshi mission to the UN has attempted to divert any criticism of its policies by denying the Jumma’s indigenous status. “Bangladesh does not have any ‘indigenous population’,” stated Iqbal Ahmed, the first secretary of the Bangladesh mission to the United Nations. “The Accord has nothing to do with ‘indigenous issues’ and therefore, the government of Bangladesh reiterates its position that the forum, which is mandated to deal with ‘indigenous issues’, does not have any locus standi in discussing the issues related to the CHT Peace Accord.”

Raja Debasish Roy, a UNPFII member representing the indigenous peoples of the Asia region and also the traditional Chief of the Chakma people of CHT, was quoted by the Indpendent about the government’s reaction within the larger framework of international conflict resolution, “It is important to bear in mind the asymmetry in the status of the two parties to an accord—the state party and the non-state party. If the state reneges on its promises, what can the non-state party do but approach the United Nations? The Permanent Forum is mandated to deal with issues of indigenous peoples, irrespective of what term the governments use to refer to their indigenous peoples—‘tribes’ or ‘ethnic minorities’ or otherwise.”

If you wish to stay informed on the status of the CHT situation, I encourage you to follow the CHT news update blog.

Buddhist Bloggers Celebrate Asian America

| arun

It’s so great to see other bloggers celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month!

Yesterday, Maia Duerr posted about ten Engaged Buddhists—nine from Asian America including Anchalee Kurutach, Anushka Fernandopulle, Canyon Sam, Duncan Ryuken Williams, Sister Jun Yasuda, Kaz Tanahashi, Ken Tanaka, Mushim Ikeda-Nash, Ryo Imamura, plus the redoubtable Thich Nhat Hanh. Go visit her post to read more about them! Jack Daw followed with a post about Rev. T. K. Nakagaki, a very unique Shin Buddhist minister in New York City.

Replying to my suggestion to welcome in the voices of Asian American Buddhists, blogger Chris Hoff invited me to publish a guest post on his blog, which you can read here. Maia Duerr also invited me to do an interview with her by email, which I hope we’ll be able to pull together in the near future. I’m eagerly looking forward to reading the interviews by @ohiobuddhist “with three Japanese-American Buddhists, two of whom were in Japan when the tsunami hit.”

If you know of other Buddhist bloggers who’ve chosen to celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, please don’t hesitate to drop me a line in the comments. As I mentioned on Dharma Bum, APAHM provides an opportunity樂威壯 for Asian Americans to write about these issues in a way that might feel awkward at any other time of the year—and these pieces, written about Asian Americans by Asian Americans, provided an opportunity for my father to share with me some of his struggles as an Asian American that he had never felt comfortable talking about before.

I hope that we as Buddhist bloggers can help foster that sort of connection—and not just for Asian Americans! This particular APAHM given me a new appreciation for these cultural celebrations and also shown me a way that I can participate, even when I might not identify with the celebration itself. Hopefully we can all join in together and bring the community just a little bit closer.

Asian American Holiday Musings

| arun

Of the five holiday interviews I’ve conducted this year (Magha Puja, Ohigan, Thingyan, Songkran and Vesak), each one has reached out to a different Asian American voice in a different part of the world.

The goal of the holiday interviews has been to expose my readership to the diversity of Asian American Buddhist voices and to let these voices speak for themselves. For those of us who have limited contact with Asian Americans in the Buddhist community, our understanding of Asian American Buddhists far too often comes from poorly-deduced conclusions penned by non-Asian authors. I’d like to think that these interviews provide plenty of evidence that we might actually have some unique perspectives to offer.

Take for example the recent Southeast Asian New Year celebrations (i.e. the Other Lunar New Year). If you were to refer solely to the descriptions on Barbara’s Buddhism blog (“think egg hunts at Easter”) or in a comment left on this blog (“it’s really not a Buddhist holiday”)—both accurate but superficial and incomplete perspectives from outsiders—you would have missed out on the viewpoint of the Thai American meditator who takes this holiday as an occasion to renew his Buddhist practice or the Burmese American student activist who sees the new year as an opportunity to embrace the precepts, generosity and respect.

But I have a humiliating omission to confess. For all my dedication to highlighting the voices of Asian Americans, I’ve actually failed to bring forward the voices of our community’s largest demographic.

Namely, women.

All of the people I interviewed in the past are men who I met and interacted with online. The vast majority of Buddhist bloggers are men—a proportion that is even more extreme when we look at Asian American Buddhist blogs. It’s not prohibitively difficult to reach out to our Asian American Buddhist sisters—it just takes a little more work. I have to step out from behind my fig leaf of pseudonymity and actually reach out beyond the Buddhist blogosphere.

My only excuse for not having a Gotan-e post was that I had made the commitment to interview Asian American Buddhist women, and then I was too hesitant to take that extra step. This excuse is not a good one, and I’m not going let this opportunity slip by.

My plan is to continue to reach out for this interview—simply because it’s worth taking that extra effort to reach out to the women in my community. It’s worth the token sacrifice of my pseudonymity to bring a fuller diversity of Asian American Buddhists to the readers of this blog. It would be shameful to do otherwise.

If you’ve gotten this far, I’d also encourage those of you with your own blogs to take a similar step. This month is Asian Pacific American Heritage month, a celebration the United States established to spend a little extra time noticing the contributions of its APA citizens, and so it would be great if the Buddhist blogging community took advantage of the eight remaining days in May to spend a little time—maybe just one post—recognizing the voices of Asian American Buddhists.

I encourage you all to celebrate this month by publishing an interview with or a guest blog by an Asian American Buddhist.

Of course, you could reach out at any time that works for you, but just as it’s never to soon for me to publish the voices of Asian American Buddhist women, it’s never too soon for, say, Danny Fisher or Jack Daw to publish that interview with or guest post by Asian American Buddhists. When was the last time you did so? In fact, if you’re someone who agrees with absolutely nothing I write here, then here’s a fantastic opportunity to invite an Asian American Buddhist to post about how they think my blog is full of crap!

Ultimately, if you really believe that we are also American Buddhists, then please welcome us into your blogs as you welcome other American Buddhists. Let’s celebrate this month together.

Happy Vesak 2011!

| arun

Firehorse is a particularly inspiring blogger I met through the Buddhist blogosphere. For most holiday posts, I give a short bio of the interviewee in question; in the case of Firehorse, he speaks more eloquently for himself than I ever could. Below, he answers my questions about himself, about Buddhism and about Vesak (also spelled “Waisak”), a major holiday celebrated on the full moon today.

Who are you?

Tough question.

I am someone who loves flowers. I don’t know their Latin names etc but I love the experience of being with flowers; their beauty, fragility and “nowness.” I love biking, dogs, eating street food, exploring new places and playing stuffed animals with my children.

I have always been a seeker.

I didn’t cry for many, many years but now tend to tear up quite easily.

I have struggled tremendously with what it means to be a man and to be an Asian American.

I am a second generation Chinese American born in Flushing, Queens. I grew up not knowing much about Chinese culture or being able to speak Mandarin or Cantonese but from elementary school age experienced racism. My mother told me I was chased home to our apartment by a group of kids and I ran in grabbed a baseball bat and ran out again. This must have been before 4th grade. Up through and including college I often got into fights; getting beat up, beating other kids up and getting bullied, with racism often being in the mix.

Contrary to the stereotype I am not good at math—I failed geometry and trigonometry.

I was asked to leave 2 high schools for disciplinary reasons.

As a college student I continued to have disciplinary issues, was on academic probation and helped lead a diversity movement where we took over the administration building for a week and at the end negotiated our demands with the trustees.

I was a community organizer in the Bronx for 2 years and then in 1992 came to Indonesia to teach English but mostly to deepen my study of martial arts and am still here now.

I am the husband to a wonderful wife and father of 2 wonderful children. They are all wise and patient teachers of mine.

I have been an organic farmer, using it as a vehicle to teach life skills to street youth and other disadvantaged youth. Learning about organic farming is a way to directly connect with oneself and nature. Holding a fistful of seeds, massaging manure into the earth, digging holes, planting, watering, nurturing life, getting rained on—just feeling how we are part of nature’s rhythms. Its been great to see how the youth have continued to develop after graduating from the program—how passionate they are about the environment and how they have started to help others.

Currently I am the Country Representative for the Indonesia program of the American Friends Service Committee. We are a peacebuilding organization based on Quaker values and collaborate with local organizations seeking to create peace where there is social and economic justice, healing, accountability and democracy. It’s been great to learn about Quakerism and to be part of AFSC’s efforts in peacebuilding.

What’s the Buddhist significance of this holiday?

As a meditation student I have focused on my own practice but after doing a retreat at a monastery in East Java recently, have become more interested in finding out about Buddhism as a whole and in Indonesia in particular. So I look forward to learning the answer to this question.

Indonesia has been experiencing challenges to its religious diversity which is an integral part of the country’s history and identity. For Indonesian Buddhists in particular I think this holiday should be viewed as a call to make Buddhist values and practice more relevant in preserving Indonesia as a diverse and pluralistic society. 

For Buddhists in general, I think it’s an opportunity to reflect on how our practice can be of benefit to more people. In other words, how can we be more “engaged”? How can our own struggle with suffering help us engage with and help alleviate the suffering of others? Meditation has been a wonderful gift and tool but I also feel that its only the beginning—that we need to engage the injustice and violence all around us; in ourselves, in others and in society.

What does this holiday mean to you?

For me it’s an opportunity to reflect on and reaffirm my personal commitment to realize my own awakening and the awakening of others through my daily life and my work. Although they are interrelated, it reminds me of the need to constantly try to balance and integrate activism with my own meditation practice. What comes to mind is the Thich Nhat Hanh book title, Peace Is Every Step.

Perhaps Waisak is also an opportunity to reflect that the “raft is not the shore” and to remember we should not cling too tightly to any identity, including that of being Buddhist.

What do you plan to do on/for Vesak?

I will be meeting with representatives from local civil society organizations to plan how we can implement more effective peace activities including active nonviolence training that aims not only to facilitate personal transformation but also address societal issues. After that I hope I will still have time to make it to Borobudur in the evening to observe and participate in activities held by the Indonesian Buddhist community. There is something tremendously powerful about Borobudur and feeling connected to ancient generations of Buddhists.

I also plan to give thanks—to the many people and teachers who have helped me on the path with wisdom, kindness and love. Thank you all!

May we all love and be loved
May we all be touched by wisdom, peace and kindness
May we greet each day with clear eyes and a gentle heart 
May we all be happy!
8-))

Don’t forget to check out Firehorse’s blog here. You can also also check out links to other holiday interviews here.

Happy Asian Pacific American Heritage Month!

| arun

This post comes a bit late, but perhaps better later than never. Happy Asian Pacific American Heritage Month!

You can read the official presidential proclamation here, the kick-off statement from Secretary Locke here and the official Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month website here. The White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, co-chaired by Secretaries Locke and Duncan, even has its own website. You can also read the presidential executive order that established this initiative (Executive Order 13515, “Increasing Participation of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Federal Programs”).

Of course, every month is APAHM at the Angry Asian Buddhist blog. I wish I had time to write more, but it will have to wait for another day. Still, this is an occasion that the entire Buddhist community can celebrate!

Monastic Buddhism Summer Course

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Here’s more information on an interesting summer practice couse a friend emailed to me. If you’re curious in learning more about Buddhist monasticism in North America, you’ll have a great opportunity this summer with the Dharma Realm Buddhist University course “Monastic Buddhism: Introduction to its Theory and Practice” from July 5 through 15. I’ve reposted the information below.

This summer, the Pacific School of Religion and Dharma Realm Buddhist University present a direct encounter with a living Buddhist tradition dating back to ancient China. Students will have the rare opportunity to experience the daily pace and patterns of a Buddhist contemplative and explore a way of life designed to instill peace, equanimity, and awakening.

The direct immersion in the rhythms of monastic life combines theoretical grasp with direct experience. Participants will read and discuss sacred texts, learn methods of Buddhist meditation (samadhi), traditional chanting, rituals and liturgies, observe a vegetarian diet, and train according to a Buddhist moral code of conduct (vinaya).

This learning “from within”, can spur a process of re-examination—both of oneself and of the assumptions and presuppositions on the nature of religion, the religious community, and the notion of a religious experience.

Course Dates: July 5th to 15th, 2011
Credit Options: 3 credits/4 CEUs

For inquiries, email summer@psr.edu or summer@drbu.org.

Instructors:
Prof. Martin Verhoeven and Bhikshuni Heng Chih will lead the course which includes monks and nuns from both the Mahayana and Theravada traditions as guest lecturers.

Bhikshuni Heng Chih is a Buddhist nun of over 40 years ordained in the Chinese Mahayana tradition under the guidance of the late Venerable Master Hsuan Hua. She is currently a Lecturer in Buddhist Philosophy at Bond University in Gold Coast, Australia, and holds M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Translation of Buddhist Texts from Dharma Realm Buddhist University.

Prof. Martin Verhoeven is adjunct professor in Comparative Religion at Pacific School of Religion and professor in Buddhist Study and Practice at Dharma Realm Buddhist University. With a M.A. and Ph.D. in History from the University of Wisconsin, he specializes in European and American encounters with Buddhism.

About the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas (CTTB):
Recently named “a sacred site” by National Geographic, CTTB is nestled within 448 acres of orchards, meadows, and woods in Mendocino County, California, just 110 miles north of San Francisco. In addition to being the home of Buddhist monks and nuns, CTTB also houses a university and K-12 school. The quiet countryside landscape and clean air of beautiful Ukiah Valley provide an ideal environment for study, wholesome fellowship, and spiritual growth.

You can get more information on the course at its website.

Suksan Wan Songkran!

| arun

Today is the second day of Songkran, the Thai New Year—also a New Year (albeit under slightly different pronunciations and traditions) celebrated by Laos, Khmers, Mons and Burmese. Beyond Southeast Asia, this “Other New Year” is also celebrated in Nepal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam, Punjab and Bengal (including Bangladesh). For this holiday, I interviewed a marvelously enthusiastic Buddhist practitioner, whom I met years ago through mutual friends in America’s Midwest.

Who are you?

I’m Dome, an American-born Thai, repatriated in Thailand ☺

What’s the Buddhist significance of this holiday?

Songkran’s history with Buddhism runs deep, though only two things come to my mind that show its ties: as it is considered a New Year, new resolutions or renewing old commitments towards doing good is always a Buddhist practice. As they say, practice makes perfect. So aside from the squirt guns, powered water and the games people play to get each other wet during Songkran, some devote their time off from work to go to temples, uphold precepts, and practice their minds to achieve their New Year goals. Nonetheless, for those less bound to a temple, a Buddha image is always presented in front of offices, in neighborhood communities, or as part of a ceremony for anyone to pour water over as an act of cleansing and cooling both the receiver and giver.

What does this holiday mean to you, and how do you plan to celebrate it?

To me, Songkran is a time for reflection of things gone by and things to come. But more importantly, I reflect on my happiness and my practice. I have to admit though, my reflections in these past few years during Songkran have been short. Even now, I’ll be spending it abroad outside of Thailand! I’ll be missing all of the water fights, and the time to spend at the temples, but I continue to make this holiday a merry one!

It brings me immeasurable joy to be able to share the voices of other Asian American Buddhists with the wider Buddhist blogging community. Especially when it comes to holidays that celebrate our cultural heritage, it’s great to hear our voices speak for themselves. Suksan Wan Songkran!