Chinese Beggars Forced To Sit Behind Bars During Annual Fair For ‘Protection’

Posted by Shobogenzo Zen Center on September 22, 2012 | EDIT

Originally posted by the Huffington

See the slide show and video by following the link below.

 

To prepare for an influx of visitors for an annual temple fair, Chinese officials decided to get their beggars out the way by shutting them up in an iron cage.

The Xishan Wanshou Palace Temple Fair, which takes place on the seventh month of the Chinese lunar calendar, fell out on Sept. 15 this year and brought in 200,000 tourists, BBC reports. Officials told China News that they feared stampedes and beggars bothering visitors, so they decided to contain about 100 beggars from the town of Xishan, in China’s southern Jiangxi province in a 165-foot-long iron cage.

“We had to consider both sides: the pilgrims and the beggars,” the head of the civil affairs office of the Xinjian prefecture government told NBC. “There are some fake beggars who just want to trick money from pilgrims. We did see the pilgrims were harassed by such beggars in the past. On the other hand, the temple fair is so crowded that beggars might be hit by cars or trampled by the crowd.”

The beggars voluntarily entered the cage, according to the news outlet.

But when photos of the confined beggars emerged on Sina Weibo, China’s popular version of Twitter, critics became outraged. The images were forwarded to more than 30,000 users and generated 4,000 comments by Sept. 18, according to China News.

Some were particularly incensed because of the festival’s spiritual origins, NBC reports. Such fairs began as an opportunity to worship and pray for happiness, peace and luck, and now involve eating, shopping, and recreational activities, according to the Beijinger.

But officials insist that the beggars were given food and water and that the cages were only put in place as “to take protective measures.”

Click through the slideshow below to find out which countries are most charitable.

FOLLOW THIS LINK FOR HUMAN RIGHTS VIDEO IN CHINA: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/20/chinese-beggars-sit-behind-bars_n_1901370.html?ncid=webmail6#slide=558222

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Minnesota Judge Has 200 Blunt Words for Divorcing Parents

Posted by Shobogenzo Zen Center on September 22, 2012 | EDIT

 

Although some may feel it is rare, some judges actually know what they are talking about. Received a copy of a news article from 2001. Thought I would take the time to type the words of this judge out.

Please note in our discussion group over the years with one common goal in mind “Defending Ourselves against False Allegations.” Although this article eludes to Parent Alienation, here is one thought we all may want to consider: “We do not OWN Our Children. We as adults are merely here to Guide them through Sharing, Caring, and Guidance, with the hopes, that they too will become Responsible Adults. Noting, of course, Responsibility is not necessarily a Democratic Process?”

So here is the article by the judge:

Minnesota Judge Has 200 Blunt Words
for Divorcing Parents

By Judge Michael Haas
2001

“Your children have come into this world because of the two of you. Perhaps you two made lousy choices as to whom you decided to be the other parent. If so, that is your problem and your fault.

No matter what you think of the other party—or what your family thinks of the other party—these children are one-half of each of your. Remember that, because every time you tell your child what an “idiot” his father is, or what a “fool” his mother is, or how bad the absent parent is, or what terrible things that person has done, you are telling the child half of him is bad.

That is an unforgivable thing to do to a child. That is not love. That ispossession. If you do that to your children, you will destroy them as surely as if you had cut them into pieces, because that is what you are doing to their emotions.

I sincerely hope that you do not do that to your children. Think more about your children and less about yourselves, and make yours a selfless kind of love, not foolish or selfish, or your children will suffer.”

Original Article

The following advice from retired Minnesota Judge has been circulating for years among judges, attorneys and child advocates as powerful words of advice for all parents going through a divorce.  We hope you’ll take the time to read them!

Judge Michael Haas retired in December 2002 after 26 years of service as a Judge in Cass County, Minnesota.  In a letter written to advice columnist Abigail Van Buren as early as October 1994 by attorney Paul J. Kiltinen of Baxter, Minnesota, Mr. Kiltinen shared the following remarks by Judge Hass in a particularly difficult divorce case, describing the Judge’s remarks as “some of the most profound words of wisdom I’ve ever heard from the bench in all my years as an attorney.  His philosophy could provide insight to all parents, especially those who are involved in difficult dissolutions.”

Judge Haas’ concise advice in less than 200 words is so well known and so widely respected that it has been referenced in multiple appellate court decisions, includingBurke v. Burke, Tennessee Court of Appeals, No. M2000-01111-COA-R3-CV, Aug. 7, 2001 and Krupp v. Cunningham-Grogan, Tennessee Court of Appeals, No. M2005-01098-COA-R3-CV, August 29, 2006.

It’s also been cited in Lawyers Weekly USA No. 9921543 and in Don R. Ash’s law review article, Bridge Over Troubled Water: Changing the Custody Law in Tennessee, 27 U. Mem. L. Rev. 769, 771-72 (1997).

This message was “resurrected” in 2000 when it was republished as a letter published by advice columnist Ann Landers (the twin sister of “Dear Abby”).

More than 15 years after the fact, Judge Haas’ moving words are sprinkled all over the Internet, found on court websites, blogs, attorney webpages, in court decisions and in law journals.

We don’t know if Judge Haas was speaking extemporaneously on the record or if these 197 words above were purely “off the cuff”.  Regardless, this message will always remain profound and powerful advice when parents are ready to engage in custody battles for their children.

New Pew Survey on Asian-Americans and Religion, and an Old Controversy

Posted by Shobogenzo Zen Center on September 23, 2012 | EDIT

Originally posted by Buddhism About.Com.

Asian-Americans and religion, the numbers!

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life has come out with a new survey, this time focusing on Asian-Americans and religion. I haven’t had time to look through it carefully, but one thing jumped out at me right away.

“While Asian Americans make up a majority of U.S. Buddhists, roughly a third of American Buddhists are non-Asian; the Pew Forum estimates that 67%-69% of Buddhists in the U.S. are Asian,” it says. That’s not a startling statistic, but it is very much at odds with a Pew survey released in 2008, which said that only 32 percent of Buddhists in the U.S. are ethnic Asians. Big difference.

  I see, however, that the older survey – still online – has not been corrected.Arun of Angry Asian Buddhist has written several posts about this, demonstrating that the older numbers just don’t crunch. See, for example, “Stop Using the Pew Study” from September 2010. Arun’s “back-of-the-envelope” rough calculation found that the percentage of U.S. Buddhists who are ethnic Asians had to be closer to 62 percent than 32 percent. Turns out Arun was right.

 The 32 percent figure from 2008 has been picked up by journalists and sociologists ever since it was published. From this number many conclusions have been drawn about Buddhism in the U.S. that are, obviously, invalid. Arun has argued that the older Pew survey numbers have the effect of marginalizing Asian Americans.

 Other than that — and again, I’ve only looked through the new survey quickly –  the next most interesting thing was comparing Buddhists in the 2008 survey and the new survey in areas of social issues. From this I take it that ethnic Asian Buddhists tend to be more conservative than the Buddhists sampled in 2008.

 The 2008 crew tended to lean heavily toward being liberal in political and social outlook, whereas the new survey shows Asian American Buddhists tend to be closer to the U.S. general public in political and social outlook. That’s hardly startling, but it suggests that the 2008 survey did not present an accurate picture of U.S. Buddhists.

Patrick Groneman to transition out of role as Executive Director of Interdependence Project

Originally posted by Buddhadharma

 “What a privilege it is for me to help lead, in passionate service.......

The NYC-based Interdependence Project has announced that Patrick Groneman will transition out of his role as the organization’s executive director. It’s been a year since Patrick has begun serving in this capacity, and we’re all grateful for the service that he has provided to the organization and the community,” write IDP Executive Committee members Kat Hendrix, Jerry Kolber, and Ethan Nichtern in their email. The committee also goes on to say that Gronemen will serve part-time as transition consultant, and that MV Sweeney, the organization’s creative capital director, has been invited to serve as interim executive director. They quote her as saying, “What a privilege it is for me to help lead, in passionate service, the extraordinarily kind and innovative community that is IDP!”  Groneman adds, “I feel as connected to IDP’s mission as ever and plan to remain involved remotely in IDP’s leadership, as a meditation instructor and online contributor.” You can read the full announcement here.

“Zen Has No Morals!”

Originally posted by Buddhist Chanel

The Latent Potential for Corruption and Abuse in Zen Buddhism, as Exemplified by Two Recent Cases

Montreal, Canada – Zen Buddhism was long considered by many practitioners to be immune from the scandals that occasionally affect other religious sects.

 Dr. Klaus Zernickow (a.k.a Sotetsu Yuzen, left) and Eido T. Shimano

Zen’s iconoclastic approach, based solely on the individual’s own meditation experience, was seen as a healthy counterpoint to the more theistic and moralistic world-views, whose leading proponents often privately flouted the very moral codes that they preached.

The unspoken assumption in Zen has always been that the meditation alone naturally freed the accomplished practitioner from life’s moral quandaries, without the need for rigid rules of conduct imposed from above.

The perfect embodiment of this state was held to be the Zen Master, a type of person to whom almost superhuman qualities of insight, spontaneity, compassion, and freedom from desire have been imputed.

However, the veracity of such claims is now slowly being called into question, due to numerous modern Zen Masters having in the meantime exhibited behaviour no less scandalous than that seen in other religious communities

In his paper, “Zen Has No Morals!” Christopher Hamacher examines two of the most recent and egregious of such scandals in Western Zen: the well-publicised case ofEido T. Shimano in New York, USA, as well as that of Dr. Klaus Zernickow (also known as Sotetsu Yuzen), who is still relatively unknown outside of his home country of Germany.

Both of these Zen teachers have been accused of long-term, systematic abuse of their students, with allegations ranging from sexual predation to financial improprieties.

Hamacher reviews the respective case histories, including the disconcerting facts that Shimano has only recently stepped down – after almost fifty years of documented misconduct – and Zernickow still teaches unhindered even today.

Hamacher continues by categorising, with examples, eight types of behaviour that are characteristic of both, namely: the inability to deal with criticism reasonably, favouring formality and extravagant accoutrements in their practice, blaming the student’s own ego to deflect accusations, hypocrisy, using group dynamics in their favour, controlling the flow of information to students, self-aggrandisement, and autocratic leadership of their organizations.

The paper then discusses how these teachers could have been allowed to continue teaching for so long, despite the flagrant abuse and even though, at least in Shimano’s group,scandal after scandal had erupted over the years.

Hamacher argues that there are in fact several reasons why, on the one hand, such conduct by a Zen teacher might not have been considered inappropriate in the first place, and, on the other, why Zen students might not have been inclined to take action even if the conduct had been deemed wrongful. Hamacher also notes that the discussed behaviours are all typical warning signs for high-demand/cultic groups, and suggests that, as a consequence, more serious structural problems with Zen underlie the teacher misconduct.

He finally concludes that, far from being immune to scandal, Zen Buddhism as it is currently practiced in the West in fact needs serious re-examination if it intends to remain a viable alternative to the more traditional Western religions.

Download full paper here (PDF)

Christopher Hamacher graduated in law from the Université de Montréal in 1994. He has practiced Zen Buddhism in Japan, America and Europe since 1999 and run his own Zen meditation group since 2006. He currently works as a legal translator in Munich, Germany. This paper was presented on 7 July 2012 at the International Cultic Studies ssociation’s annual conference in Montreal, Canada.

Hungarian Buddhists oppose new law’s narrow definition of religious congregations

Originally posted by Buddhadharma.

 Fidesz – Hungarian Civic Union claimed a two-thirds majority in Parliament watch the video 

The Buddhist Channel offers an interesting post this week concerning the recent regime change in Hungary and its effects on the nation’s Buddhist population. Buddhist groups in the country will no longer be recognized as religious groups.

In the most recent elections, Fidesz – Hungarian Civic Union claimed a two-thirds majority in Parliament. Socially conservative, one of Fidesz’s first acts was to enact the new “Law on the Right to Freedom of Conscience and Religion, and on Churches, Religions and Religious Community,” which has drawn criticism because it privileges certain religious communities over others.

The new legislation, which is popularly referred to as “the Church Law,” only recognizes churches with long traditions in Hungarian history: Catholic, Lutheran, Calvinist, Orthodox, other Protestant denominations, and some Jewish congregations (excluding reform). No Hindu, Muslim, or Buddhist organization is accepted, and the law stipulates that to be recognized, an organization must have a membership of over one-thousand and “have been in existence for more than twenty years.”

Officially recognized religious groups have access to government subsidies and tax advantages, which all the country’s Buddhist and other unrecognized groups lost in January. Only a two-thirds vote by parliament can decide if an organization meets these criteria.

Among the Buddhist organizations in Hungary, the Jai Bhim Network has taken the lead on opposing the law and seeking recognition for the country’s Buddhist groups. You can sign their petition here.

For more on the story, visit the Buddhist Channel, and watch the video with this post.

World Fellowship of Buddhists promotes ethical treatment of animals

Originally posted by Buddhadharma.

 The Call on humanity to extend compassion and loving-kindness to all living beings in the final declaration at its 26th General Conference.

The World Fellowship of Buddhists, established in 1950 to foster cooperation between Buddhists of different sects all over the world, called on humanity to extend compassion and loving-kindness to all living beings in the final declaration at its 26th General Conference, held in South Korea last month. This action was prompted by Ven. Senaka Weeraratna of the German Dharmaduta Society, who handed in a draft resolution at the conference calling for an animal welfare subcommittee of the WFB Standing Committee for Humanitarian Services.

To read the full text of the draft resolution at lankaweb.com, click here.