Namu Amida Butsu
Xing Ping
August 16, 2009
February 17, 2009
The Five Precepts – My Next Translation Project
This Chinese source is from a handout that Fo Guang Shan Abbess Yi Feng gave us last Sunday:
五戒 – The Five Buddhist Lay Precepts
I think this is a really good discussion of something that the Chinese tend to go to extremes about.
I will take the Five Precepts at Fo Guang Shan on 1 Mar 09, and I intend to continue working on this document in the meantime.
Namu Amida Butsu
Xing Ping
February 14, 2009
February 10, 2009
Are. We. Having. Fun. Yet?
Someone has been searching this site for “international association membership card,” so I thought I’d give them something to find. It’s true, when you join Buddha’s Light International, which is the international umbrella of Fo Guang Shan, you become a card-carrying Buddhist, with a tewtally kewl plastic Buddhist picture ID. I consider mine more important than my driver’s license.
But that’s not really the important part; in fact, that doesn’t even really make you a Buddhist. You’re not Buddhist until you’ve taken Refuge with the Triple Jewel and gotten a Dharma name. Refuge and the Five Lay Precepts will be given on 1 Mar 09 at Fo Guang Shan Center Honolulu, on the 2nd floor of the Chinese Cultural Center. You have to fill out an application in advance, and provide two passport pictures. Refuge is free, but if you’re taking Precepts for the first time there’s a fee, which is something like $25.00, to help pay for your black robe.
[mode=Darth_Vadar] It is your DESTINY, Luke! [/mode]
Namu Amida Butsu
Xing Ping
February 2, 2009
Photos of 1 Feb 09
For a few more shots of this occasion, see my Fo Guang Shan/1Feb 09 Album.
Oh, and hey, is this below what happens when you combine pseudo-yuppie drivel with Chinese Pure Land Buddhism? Human? Vehicle? Buddhism? I DON’T THINK SO !!! Namu Amida Butsu
Xing Ping
January 19, 2009
Recent Photography
For a few more images of Fo Guang Shan activities last Saturday, please see my Fo Guang Shan/17 Jan 09 Album
And for more photos of other activities in the Chinese Cultural Center on that day, please see my Chinatown/17 Jan 09 Album
My Best Girl
– and a couple of her innumerable transformation bodies!
For a couple of more images of the U. S. Vets in the Martin Luther King Day parade in Honolulu on 19 Jan 09, please see my new US Vets Album
Namu Amida Butsu
Xing Ping
Namu Amida Butsu
Xing Ping
November 13, 2008
November 3, 2008
What Ails the Leadership at FGS Hawaii
…It’s not that we have to have an attitude of disobedience towards the lineage. Obviously, that would also go nowhere. It’s that we have to insert the American convention that communication is a two-way street into an administrative structure which has been one-way, that is to say essentially despotic, up to now. For example, if we say “why,” and they come up with reasons that are acceptable to the group as a whole, then, for sure, we should absolutely break our backs to enact whatever they want. But to AUTOMATICALLY enact every damned thing that comes out of Taiwan, simply because they came up with it, is something that would be ethically wrong for me to be a part of, knowing what I know about what inevitably happens when you fail to interfere with despotic administrative habits.
Up to now, this kind of feedback has existed, but it has been informal. That is not satisfactory to me, because of the unjust political burden it places on whistle-blowers. If I am on the Board, I will insist on a FORMALLY ENACTED AND VIGOROUSLY USED process of feedback about the suitability, and the demonstrated results, of what comes out of Taiwan.
Namu Amida Butsu
Xing Ping
October 16, 2008
Earth Rat Year comes to Fo Guang Shan – III
Earth Rat year is a time of karmic fruition. The appearances fall off, and what has been earned appears. In 1948, the last time Earth Rat happened, America had a positive experience, resulting from the fruition of the good karma we gained in WWII. Now we are having a negative experience because of the evil karma of corrupt government and an unjust war.
Fo Guang Shan has great karma. It controls huge assets, and throughout its existence, has used them for the good of humanity. Therefore, we should not fear structural change at Fo Guang Shan in this year, or in Metal Ox. We know that there can be nothing but good results from this, as long as we remain in good faith.
Many of the people who read this blog are like me: Buddhist activist outliers who would like to participate in a proper Sangha, but have been frustrated in this by the fact that what calls itself a Buddhasangha in America tends to be one of these three things:
1. A bunch of touchy-feely Santa-Barbara-class yuppie weekend seminar artists, or
2. A cabal of racist and cultural chauvinist immigrants who are essentially too paralyzed by primal fear to deal with the American mainstream, in any form. Particularly terrorizing are American Buddhists, who tend to actually have read scripture, unlike the members of such groups. Or else
3. A group of intellctuals whose Buddhism is mere words.
If you read what I’ve written over time in this blog, I think you may conclude that, although it is not clear what Fo Guang Shan actually is, it is unlikely to be any of the above. And that’s true. It is none of the above, although what is kvelled about it by recent returnees from mass extravaganzas in Asia is equally unlikely to be exactly the truth.
So then what is Fo Guang Shan, exactly? Hey, who’s asking, you know what I mean?
Whatever FGS is, it is on the brink of major structural change. So this is the time, Buddhist activist outliers, to get on board and be part of the change. To do that in spades, join FGS before the November elections so that you can participate in them. We need to pack the Board with activists that are going to do absolutely nothing for the rest of the year but grow membership, so that the group will be strong enough to start building a proper temple in Metal Ox.
Opportunity knocks but once! The train is leaving, get on board! There is no doubt in my mind whatsoever at all that this opportunity will not come again to any of us in this life. Please act immediately!
Namu Amida Butsu
Xing Ping
October 15, 2008
Earth Rat Year Comes to Fo Guang Shan – II
The last Board of Directors election that I attended at FGS Honolulu was under the previous Abbess Yi Jiao, who gave me Refuge. At the time I was not a member, but the membership really wanted me to be present at the election. The election actually did not allow much choice. There were something like 21 nominees for 18 seats, and most of the nominees were already serving on the Board. In America, we do not call this an election. We call it a rubber stamp. I didn’t have a problem, however, with rubber-stamping a status quo that was working well at the time.
Now, going into the upcoming election at the end of November, the situation has changed completely. Attendance has been steadily declining. I’m sure that finances are therefore a mess. Every serving Board officer has resigned, with the exception of the esteemed Vice-Chair. Besides being someone whom I love beyond what can be written, Vice-Chairman Julie has guanxi everywhere, speaks fluent English, has a Bodhisattvic attitude, and is beautiful and humorous. She is almost certain to chair the next Board, in my never humble enough opinion.
However, let us not delude ourselves. One person does not a Board of Directors make. This time, we need a different kind of election; an election that is designed to bring about real change. To that end therefore, I think that the nomination process should be opened up to the membership. Any member should be able to nominate any other member. Sure, the existing and out-going leadership can also nominate, but they should not author a limited slate of nominees.
Not everything that is said and done in Taipei is appropriate for Hawaii. Not every notion of a jet-setting nun can come to earth here. Not every well-intentioned activity furthers the interests of the group. Not every political connection is of value. To sort through all of this, and to secure a stable and productive direction of the group’s collective focus, there exists the Board of Directors. To give direction that obtains real-world results, the Board must be empowered to say “No” to what is inappropriate. The authority to do that comes from solidarity with the membership. Solidarity with the membership is obtained by having an election in which the membership elects the nominees of its choice.
A Board of Directors should not be elected for the purpose of simply rubber-stamping what comes out of Taipei or the Abbess. In that case, by what is the collective will of the group made known to Taipei and/or the Abbess?
As a whole group, we purely and fully need to elect a Board that can throw off outside distractions and start taking care of the group’s business, which I will discuss, from my POV, in my next post.
Namu Amida Butsu
Xing Ping
