Busy, Busy…

Sorry that there hasn’t been much new here for a while. The past couple weeks have been rather hectic and finding extra curricular time is virtually impossible.

Will bounce back soon though.

A Room With A View

I was searching around for old 80’s metal videos on YouTube and stumbled on a song I used to love “back in the day”. The song is, as the subject reflects, A Room With A View by Death Angel. Death Angel was a band of family members from the Bay Area of San Francisco, infamous in the 80’s it’s influence on thrash metal.

In high school some friends and myself performed this in a talent show. I really loved the song and was more than ecstatic to come back down memory lane for a bit. I really enjoy listening to the lyrics, the harmonies and overall great melody of the song.

Heavy security surrounds Olympic torch runner in Japan

From Associated Press - Japanese runners bypassed minor protests Saturday and carried the Olympic torch through Nagano’s streets, lined by thousands of riot police and closely monitored by helicopters overhead.

Police guards in track suits surrounded the first runner - the manager of Japan’s national baseball team - and another 100 uniformed riot police trotted alongside six patrol cars and two motorcycles. They were backed up by thousands of other police.

A New Buddhist Forum/ Discussion Board

Got an e-mail from a fellow blogger and Australian Monk, Loden Jinpa, telling me about a new forum he has put together for discussion, etc. So I figured I’d throw a link and a post up here. The forum looks good and is very clean, not cluttered or distracting like alot of other forums. So drop by http://buddhistforums.net/

The monastery (more Buddhist humor)

There once was a monastery that was very strict. Following a vow of silence, no one was allowed to speak at all. But there was one exception to this rule. Every ten years, the monks were permitted to speak just two words. After spending his first ten years at the monastery, one monk went to the head monk. “It has been ten years,” said the head monk. “What are the two words you would like to speak?”

“Bed… hard…” said the monk.

“I see,” replied the head monk.

Oranges (A joke to lighten things up)

There’s this wonderful story about the first meeting between Kalu Rinpoche and Zen master Seung Sahn:

The two monks entered with swirling robes - maroon and yellow for the Tibetan, austere gray and black for the Korean - and were followed by retinues of younger monks and translators with shaven heads …

Torch Relay In Indonesia on Grim Trip

From Reuters - The Olympic torch was paraded through a heavily guarded stadium in Jakarta on Tuesday after police stopped about 100 anti-China protesters from disrupting the latest leg of the torch’s fraught journey around the world.

Indonesian badminton star and Olympic gold medalist Taufik Hidayat lit a cauldron in front of a cheering crowd as about 2,500 policemen and 1,000 military guarded the relay, which has been a magnet for anti-China protests in Europe and the Americas following Beijing’s crackdown last month on protests in Tibet.

China Said to Arrest 100 Protesting Monks

From New York Times - As many as 100 Tibetans were arrested in northwest China on Thursday after they demonstrated against the earlier detention of monks from a nearby monastery, witnesses and a Tibetan human rights group said Friday.

Local residents reached by telephone on Friday said that the police beat and arrested people at an open-air market in Tongren, a town in Qinghai, a western province bordering Tibet, after they refused orders to leave.

Jara Sutta Sn 4.6

From Access To Insight - “Short indeed is this life, this side of a hundred years one dies; whoever lives long even he dies from old age. People grieve for things they are attached to, yet there exist no permanent possessions but just a state of (constant) separation. Seeing this one should no longer live the household life. That which a man imagines to be his will disappear at death. Knowing this a wise man will have no attachment (to anything).

Japanese Buddhist talks about the Tibet problem

Tokyo temple vandalized after halting Olympic plan

From Associated Press - A major Buddhist temple in Japan was vandalized early Sunday, days after temple officials halted plans to host the upcoming Olympic torch relay because of sympathies with Tibetan protesters, police said.

Spray-painted graffiti — consisting of white circular patterns and lines — was found Sunday morning in six spots in the main hall at Zenkoji Temple, a national treasure in the city of Nagano, Japanese broadcaster NHK reported.

Nepal authorizes deadly force to stop Olympic torch protests

From Associated Press - Nepalese soldiers and police guarding the slopes of Mount Everest are authorized to shoot to stop any protests during China’s Olympic torch run to the summit, an official said Sunday.

Chinese climbers plan to take the torch to the summit of Everest - the world’s highest peak on the border between Nepal and Tibet - in the first few days of May. During that time, other climbers will be banned from the mountain’s higher elevations.

Japanese temple withdraws from torch relay

From CNN - Security concerns and sympathy toward Tibetans prompted a Buddhist temple in Nagano, Japan, to withdraw from participation in the Olympic torch relay next week, a temple official said on Friday.

The torch relay had been set to begin at Zenkoji Temple in Nagano, site of the 1998 Olympic Winter games — on April 26.

“We have to protect our heritage and visitors,” a temple official told reporters, citing security concerns and the “Tibet issue.”

Xinhua: China finds dynamite and guns in 11 monasteries

Ed. Note - I am only posting this to show just how quick the world news organizations will turn just for a story. Since March 10th there has been many articles about how China needs to calm down and resist the disgusting behavior in Tibet. But now, because it’s a “story” they are more than happy to repost news from the Communist run newspaper Xinhua. Anyone who knows anything at all, knows that Xinhua and the Chinese are trying their best to make it look like “poor China, these terrorist monks are going to blow us up and split the motherland.” Who in their right minds would believe such nonsense? It’s common sense here folks, China is trying to make the monks look like monsters for standing up for themselves last month. They will, and probably did, plant bombs and other weapons in the monasteries. I am willing to bet everything I have (which isn’t much) that this is all bullshit and the Chinese are doing nothing but lying to make their brutality seem justified. If you believe anything coming from Xinhua or any other CCP run news agency than…(insert any word you choose for moron, dolt, ignorant, etc)…

From Reuters - Police have found guns, dynamite, bullets and satellite receivers hidden in 11 Tibetan Buddhist monasteries in China’s northeastern Gansu province, state media reported on Wednesday.

The weapons caches were found over the past two days in monasteries of the Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, where riots between March 14 and 19 injured 94 people, Xinhua news agency said.

Chinese bloggers claim Coca-Cola backs Tibetans

From The Guardian - This article appeared in the Guardian on Wednesday April 09 2008 on p17 of the International section. It was last updated at 00:05 on April 09 2008.

First Tibetan exile groups attacked Coca-Cola for sponsoring the Olympic torch relay. Now the soft drink company is under fire from the other side of the political divide - with Chinese nationalists boycotting the brand after a blogger claimed one of its adverts supported Tibetan independence.