Changes on Site

If you've visited our News Section recently you may have noticed that it is somewhat smaller in content. Several of our feeds were hosted by the feed reader "Topix" which is now concentrating on community forums and no longer supports the content we were posting.

Also, the Buddhist Channel news section is no longer running and the feed from that site has ceased.

Don't worry, there is still plenty to read with news from Barbara O'Brien, the Guardian, New York Times, Lion's Roar, Wildmind and Google News.

Review of the Year............ sort of

Regular visitors to this site may be wondering what has happened to our traditional Review of the Year which should have appeared in June. Well I missed the deadline for a whole raft of reasons and then got paralysed by the usual "well I can't do it now, it's too late" syndrome.

However, on reflection I think that it is an ideal opportunity to bring the review in line with the actual year so what follows is a review of our postings from July of last year to the end of 2013. We will then have a "conventional" review of this year in early January 2015.... just like everyone else!

We started July with the story of "A Buddhist Shanty Town?"

and then continued the theme of Buddhist buildings with the news that the Tassajara Zen Mountain Centre Escapes Fire.

And then into August with the story of Ayya Khema and the Coincidence. This was followed with a reminder of the upcoming annual Buddhist picnic and then into September for the event itself..............

"It's becoming a tradition that it pours down for the annual Buddhist picnic and this year was no different.....",

 

"However for those few brave souls who made it to the Duver in St. Helens there was a clear (ish) slot in the weather for us to enjoy the event."

On the 23rd we had the story of Giel, the Belgium boy who the authorities banned from travelling to India to become a Buddhist monk.

The month ended with the news that the long awaited film "The Buddha’s Forgotten Nuns" had finally been released.

We had originally reported on this back in January 2011 when the working title was "Bhikkhuni: Revival of the Women's Order". We purchased the film from Vimeo and have shared it with other Buddhist groups on the island.

On the 7th of October we had the great pleasure of a visit by Bhante Bodhidhamma to the West Wight Sangha.

 

Also in October we reported that with Armistice Day only being a fortnight away (as it is now) that you may like to consider also wearing a Purple Poppy this year to commemorate all of the animals killed in war. The poppies can be obtained from the Animal Aid website with profits going to support the charity's work.

In November we reported how Chinese Buddhist frescoes had been overpainted a'la the Spanish church masterpiece that was so widely reported.

This was shortly followed on the 14th with the news that Giel had been given permission to leave for India!



On the full moon of the17th we featured our regular Dhammapada reflection from Ajahn Munindo. The subject for this one was Endearment and I came across this amazingly moving picture of a sculpture of the dying mother Theresa.

Talking of amazing photographs, that post was immediately followed by a piece on the work of American Buddhist monk Nicholas Vreeland.....................

And there's more......................

23rd of November.... Regular readers will know that we have been committed supporters of full female ordination within all Buddhist traditions and have had a particular interest in supporting full Bhikkhuni ordination within the Thai forest tradition of Ajahn Chah.

I received an email from the Alliance for Bhikkhunis on their site they catalogue all the Nunneries for fully ordained Bhikkhuni that are now available since that first "controversial" ordination in Perth. It has become an impressive list so I've reproduced it here.............................

We ended the month with the "News" that the Buddha's birth was earlier than previously thought. This however remains a controversial finding and we will report on any definitive conclusions as and when they arise.

 

December started with the news that the Bible was being sold as fiction, in the United States!!!

And we finish our roundup with the news that a new Dictionary of Buddhism had been published.

Review of Our Sixth Year

Yes, that's right, the West Wight Sangha website has now been running for six years. As has become "traditional" we now take a look back over the proceeding twelve months to remind ourselves of just some of the stories that made the Buddhist news last year.

Just click on the links to follow the full Stories....

On the 16th of June Aung San Suu Kyi's was at last able to deliver her Noble prize acceptance speech.

On the 9th of July my "Daily Dhammapada" program displayed a random quote from the Dhammapada on my desktop which was very relevant to the, then current, debate on reforming the House of Lords. (Nothing changes, the Lords are still controversial as can be seen in our latest story "Dodgy Lords and the Dhammapada".)

The big event in the U.K. last year was the Olympic games and in the lead up to the incredible opening ceremony on the 27th of July the Olympic flame was relayed around the Country. On the 14th the flame came to the West Wight and was carried through Totland, home of the West Wight Sangha!

Also there was a Giant Prayer Flag Installation in the West Wight symbolising the Olympic flame.

In August came the sad news of the death of Gore Vidal, author of "Creation" which describes an encounter with the Buddha and his disciples. The month also brought the surprising news that ex President Bill Clinton was learning Buddhist meditation........ it's never too late.............

While the U.K. government agonises over legalising same sex marriage the Buddhist wedding of two women in Taiwan last August was the latest sign of obstacles to same-sex unions quietly being dismantled in Asia, especially in predominantly Buddhist countries.

In September we were pleased to be able to advertise the 2nd Annual International Bhikkhuni Day. Our first post was an email from Susan Pembroke, President of the Alliance for Bhikkhunis. Our second piece that Month was on the 29th, the actual Annual International Bhikkhuni Day.

October sadly started with a story on the, then, growing tensions and violence between Buddhists and Muslims in Myanmar. Our report actually related to the burning of Buddhist temples in the Bangladesh border region with Myanmar.

 

On the 20th we featured the story of the Dalai Lama "swearing". An audience of students at Brown University in Rhode Island, were surprised when at the end of a speech on world peace, the Dalai Lama appeared to utter the "F" word.

The Buddhist spiritual leader's thick Tibetan accent led to confusion at the end of his talk when he pronounced "forget" in his traditional manner, but the crowd burst into laughter— they thought he swore, saying "f--- it."

Caption screens in the auditorium were showing subtitles of the event, and a stenographer transcribing the speech also appeared to think His Holiness had uttered the words, 'F**k it'.

The exiled Tibetan leader was in fact urging listeners to share his thoughts with others if they found them interesting. If not, he said, they could “forget.”

'If you feel these points are not much relevant - not much interest - then forget.'

I've  repeated the entire post here as the video of the event now only displays, "The YouTube account associated with this video has been terminated due to multiple third-party notifications of copyright infringement."

At the beginning of  November we reported on two elections; that of President Obama who supports gay marriage, and that of Justin Welby, the new Archbishop of Canterbury, who doesn't.

Then we reported on two firsts. Starting with the election of Mazie Hirono who became the first Buddhist Senator in America. Hirono, who was born in Japan, practices the Jodo Shinshu tradition of Buddhism.








The other "first" was a tragic one, a British man became the first Western Tibetan Buddhist monk to die from self-immolation. David Alain, 38, had taken the dharma name Lobsang Tonden. His action was, apparently, a gesture of solidarity with Tibetans who have died by self immolation protesting against the
Chinese occupation of their country.

December witnessed a call for the destruction of Egypt's cultural heritage. Murgan Salem al-Gohary, a leader of Egypt’s ultra-conservative Salafist party, recently called on Muslims to destroy the Giza pyramids and the Sphinx as a religiously mandated act of iconoclasm. "The idols and statutes that fill Egypt must be destroyed. Muslims are tasked with applying the teachings of Islam and removing these idols, just like we did in Afghanistan when we smashed the Buddha statues," said Gohary, who claims to have participated in the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan in 2001.

He needn't bother really as the 21st of the Month was the end of the World according to the Mayans, only it wasn't..................................... Watch this short video to find out what they really meant.



We started 2013 with a couple of stories on equality, the first being "Through the Stained Glass Ceiling, or Not?".

Which was followed by the story of Zen priest Enkyo O’Hara Roshi who had recently married her
partner, Barbara, at City Hall in New York.


This last one ticked so many boxes, she's a woman priest, she's married, she's married to her same sex partner and she's a Buddhist!



January ended with the Dalai Lama commenting on the five Indian men on trial for the rape and killing of Jyoti Singh. They could be hanged if they are convicted.

“I do not like the death sentence,” he said, adding that there are other ways to deal with the alleged perpetrators. The Dalai Lama said that, the 21 century belonged to dialogue and not to confrontation or violence."

As a footnote to this story, Ram Singh, the alleged ringleader in the gang-rape and murder of the young woman hanged himself in jail.

In February we featured this Video of a statement by Professor Robert Thurman on the Tibetan self-immolation protests.



Our next story was "Which is the Largest Buddha?", more on that later..............................

Later in the Month we had the story  that authorities were confiscating Buddha statues from shops in the Iranian capital, Tehran, to stop the promotion of Buddhism in the country,

March featured two contributions from Sangha members. The first came about because we'd been discussing the danger of holding "opinions". One of our Sangha members sent me this piece by Adyashanti ..................

The second posting, Buddha in the Snow, was inspired by this photograph taken by one of our Sangha members.

The piece goes on to talk about the Dharma Primary School which is Europe’s only primary school based on Buddhist principles and is located in Patcham in Brighton.

At the school they use a meditation exercise, ‘Buddha in the Snow’ – a simple exercise to help ‘cloudy’ minds find a clear focus.

April started with the good news that no horses were killed in this years Grand National.

Next came the news that Parliament was voting to outlaw discrimination on the grounds of caste. This was followed by the report that the motion had been rejected by 307 votes to 243.

Our regular full moon reflection on the 25th contained this photograph...............

It was on November 25 2011 that an old man was found dead in the waiting hall of a train station in Taiyuan, the capital city of North China’s Shanxi Province. Among his fellow passengers was a Buddhist monk. Photos of the monk holding the dead man’s hand, bowing and praying for his final peace became overnight hits online. It was this image that was voted – by 58% of respondents to the popular Phoenix TV network – the most important Buddhist event of the year.

In May we ran the story, Why are Buddhist Monks Attacking Muslims? It is the best analysis of the sectarian conflict in Burma that I have come across. It is by Alan Strathern who is a fellow in History at Brasenose College, Oxford.

We also returned to the theme of large objects with Our Thing's Bigger Than Your Thing! Click on the link to find out what our thing is!

We also reported on one of our fellow Buddhist groups on the Island holding an event in Newport. The Soka Gakkai Nichiren group held an informal walk-in open day showing how Buddhism can benefit people in their daily lives.

Talking of Island Buddhist groups, the following amazing photo of the Isle of Wight was taken by Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield from the International Space Station. (the West Wight Sangha meeting hall is in Totland, the second small bay round from the Neddles at the Western tip of the island).

At the end of the Month we featured the communication from the Vatican wishing us all a happy Wesak.

And so back round to June this year and the story yet again of Dodgy Lords and the Dhammapada, just as back round at the start of this review!

A Review of the Year: Now We Are Five!

Yes, that's right, the West Wight Sangha website has now been running for five years. As has become "traditional" we now take a look back over the proceeding twelve months to remind ourselves of just some of the stories that made the Buddhist news last year.

Just click on the links to follow the full Stories....

First up is the one about the Dalai Lama and the Pizza Shop................



Followed by Aung San Suu Kyi delivering the first of her two Reith Lectures at the end of June.

July featured Aung San Suu Kyi's Second Reith Lecture and a story from the Isle of Wight County Press on the urban myth of being able to fit the entire world population (soon to be 7,000,000,000) onto the island (standing room only). World Population Day out on the Isle of Wight?

Oh, and there was also the story about how if the Japanese had Been Christian there would have been no Tsunami!






Talking of Japan, August saw the anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and we ran the heart breaking, but inspiring story, of Sadako Sasaki and the Origami Peace Cranes.

There was news of yet another Tibetan burning themselves to death in protest against the Chinese occupation of their Country. 29-year-old Tsewang Norbu from a monastery in Tawu, south-west China, drank petrol, sprayed petrol on himself and then set himself on fire, shouting, 'we Tibetan people want freedom', 'long live the Dalai Lama' and 'let the Dalai Lama return to Tibet'.

And then, full circle, back to Japan with the heroic, yet ultimately fruitless attempts of a Zen monk to clean up the nuclear pollution from the Fukushima reactor by planting sunflowers.

September started with the holding of the 14th Buddhist Island Picnic! Palaka posted a nice comment.....

"Warm regards to all taking part in this event. I'm very happy to see that it still takes place and draws the different Buddhist groups together. I very much hope that every tradition practising on the Island will be able to find one or two picnic-ers to join in". dh.palaka

September was also a month of "firsts". On the twelfth it was the world's first Mindfulness Day and on the 17th it was the 1st Annual International Bhikkhuni Day.

 On the 26th Two young monks, Lobsang Kalsang and Lobsang Konchok, from Kirti monastery in Aba county, Sichuan, called for religious freedom and shouted "Long live the Dalai Lama" before setting fire to themselves.

October officially saw a landmark event for Humanity, the World's seven billionth human being was born. Danica May Camacho, a girl born in the Philippine capital Manila, was chosen by the UN to symbolically mark this global population milestone.

It was only 12 years previously that the Worlds 6 billionth inhabitant,  Adnan Nevic was born.

One in, one out...... on the 5th, Buddhist, Steve Jobs, co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple Inc. died.

Early this month there were the first signs of the changes starting to take effect in Burma..........

The 21st was supposed to be the end of the world again, so on the 20th I put up my "last post".

 To continue......................................

Still being here a couple of days later we highlighted a "Thought for the Day" by a non Buddhist speaker, the Rev. Lucy Winkett, Rector of St James’s Piccadilly.

This moving piece is about the horrific killing of Yue Yue, the little Chinese girl run over twice in the street and ignored by passers-by. (Yue Yue died shortly after this was broadcast).






We ended the month with this amazing image from Kalmykia.............

In November we offered a Buddhist take on the Occupy Wall Street and the St. Paul's protests and also on reincarnation and the seven billionth human being.

In December there was the death of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il which bought to mind this verse from the Dhammapada,



The physical body consists of bones
covered with flesh and blood.
Stored up inside it
are decay and death, pride and malice.

The month also saw the release of Luc Besson's film "The Lady" with Michelle Yeoh playing Aung San Suu Kyi.

The Burmese pro-democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi became famous around the world when she won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. But even after her release in 2010 after years of house arrest in Burma she remains enigmatic. Luc Besson's new film The Lady focuses both on the politics and on her 27 years of marriage.

In January of this year we ran a story from the Beeb on how science has "discovered" mindfulness!



And then, harping back to our story about Sadako Sasaki and the Paper Peace Crane came news of Linda Barnes, here on the Island, who is going to fold a million peace cranes, not hopefully all on her own!


February started with our reproduction of a poster advertising another Meditation Course being run by our friends from the Lake Buddhist group. This was a one day course and was a precursor to their now regular Monthly Meditation Drop-ins in Newport.

Following this we ran a series of posts concerning the anti Buddhist vandalism which erupted following the "coup" in the Maldives.

Maldives President Resigns - Buddhist Image Vandalised

Maldives - Latest Attack on Buddhist Culture

More on the Anti-Buddhist Vandalism in the Maldives

Then, from one Island to another, there was a story with an Isle of Wight connection. The High Court ruled that the saying of prayers as a formal part of a council meeting was unlawful. Prayers appear on Isle of Wight Council full meeting agendas but before the numbered items of business.

Council leader Cllr David Pugh said: "It remains our view that our prayers precede full council meetings and are not part of the formal agenda".

But if you're not a Christian you still have to leave.

(Communities Secretary Eric Pickles moved quickly to restore the legal basis for councils to hold prayers at the start of business).

This month we also featured this amazing animation against factory farming. It was aired at this year's Grammy Awards.


We also reported on how Vietnam sent six Buddhist monks to the disputed Spratly islands ahead of the anniversary of a bloody battle with China over the hotly contested archipelago.

The monks were to re-establish three temples abandoned by Vietnam in 1975. These have been recently renovated as part of the communist country's drive to assert its territorial claims over the potentially oil-rich islands.

And then there was the story of the Buddha in Kenya..........................

Sadly, we ended the month reporting yet more deaths by self immolation of Tibetans protesting the Chinese occupation of their country.

Jamphel Yeshi, who set himself on fire at a protest in the Indian capital, Delhi against the visit by Chinese President Hu Jintao, dies.

Lobsang Sherab, a 20 year old Buddhist monk died after setting himself on fire in Ngaba county, Amdho, north-eastern Tibet. 

And so to April, where we started the month by featuring an excellent article by Vishvapani on a subject of particular interest, that of Western Buddhism.

The deaths of two horses at the Grand National once again highlighted the amount of suffering the horses have to endure.

May brought the uplifting story of Afghanistan opening a an exhibition highlighting the country's rich Buddhist heritage.

The middle of the month featured the Dalai Lama being interviewed by Sarah Montague for the Today program...........   

The end of the month brought news that Europe's biggest Buddhist Temple was to open outside Paris.

This was closely followed by the news that a new Buddhist centre is planned, just over the Solent from us, in Southampton.

And Finally, June started with the news of an iPhone App for Dharma Seed, the Dharma talks archive.