Dang Zang

I should explain. Regularly on Sunday nights here in NSW, ABC’s Geraldine Doogue plays the part of the Queen of Bland as she presents Compass, which claims to be “an engaging program reflecting and exploring faith, belief and values in Australia and around the globe”. I don’t want to complain too much – it does look at a much wider range of issues than some straighforward “religious” programmes might. But in its worthy struggle to find common ground and not give offence it often appears toothless. Here she is:
(Thanks to ABC for picture)

The last two weeks have been taken up with a two-part series by Robert Beckford. He may not look bland:

but then he talks. I’ll be honest – I also allowed myself to be irritated at being spoken to like a 10-year-old, and at interviews where the subjects were left little option but to agree with the simplistic views he was urging on them. OK, they could have disagreed I suppose, but that would have ended on the cutting room floor. And, by the way, I do still use “simplistic” in its sense of excessively or misleadingly simple, not in the modern usage of just “simple”.

Our man presented “remarkable parallels to the Jesus story in other faiths; some that predate Christianity by thousands of years. He looks at the stories of Horus, Mithras, Krishna and the Buddha…” Let me take the last: we were told a number of times about the “remarkable parallels” between the teachings of Christianity and those of the Buddha. Quoi? Arguably a key feature of Christianity is love and compassion. Yes, some might argue against it, but the case can be made. Arguably a key feature of Buddhism is also love and compassion – we have a saying that if there were one teaching that could put Buddhahood in the palm of your hand, it would be great compassion. Arguably this is the most important thing about either religion. But that is as far as it goes. As for practically everything else I can think of – the soul, the self, the mind, god, the world, the effects of our actions, the nature of reality and so on – the teachings of the two are as different as bacon and bananas. To pretend otherwise is to reduce both to “just be kind to everyone”. Good advice, no doubt, but I expect something more incisive from someone advertised as “academic theologian Dr Beckford”.

I watched because there was plenty of colourful location shooting. But if there were a third episode I would hesitate before letting myself in for further exhortations to drop the doctrine¹, drop the dogma² and serve god by living the message of the real Jesus³.

1, 2 – said as if dirty words
3 – said as if it’s obvious what that means

A “found lighting moment” in gold and low-intensity turquoise caught by Sarah as she walked the dogs. I’m doing my evening practice, hence the lamp on the low table inside; Tashi is hanging out by the window being feline. Click arrow under the small video picture below for a sound-track! (Yes, I’m looking for a better way to do this.)

The Sydney Morning Herald is probably the best paper around here, although the word “radical” would be a tad excessive. But this morning they not only put a story (1m 45s) about a video entitled ‘China’s brutality in Tibet exposed’ into their video section (at http://media.smh.com.au/ – though I’m not sure how long they keep their video reports there), but they even featured it on the front page! (By the way, that link just goes to the general video area at the SMH – you would have to look for this particular report yourself.)

Their front page says:

Tibet: China’s brutality on film
The Central Tibetan Administration releases ‘China’s brutality in Tibet exposed’, a documentary film of what they say are Chinese atrocities on the Tibetans.

Even this bit is not perhaps quite advised for the faint-hearted, although the paper has not shown the strongest parts of the video. The CTA clip itself can be seen at http://media.phayul.com/, and this is definitely not for the faint-hearted!

Revisiting March 10:

Loud chanting of battle cries, lots of cameras – when people have suffered, it’s hardly surprising that younger demonstrators can get carried away by the urge to somehow, anyhow do something!

Woke up before the 4:00 a.m. alarm to catch the bus down to Central Station for 5:00. The Sydney contingent was two full coaches plus a minibus. Dozing on the 4-hour trip to Canberra was slightly successful. Arrived late.

There were speeches outside Parliament House, a march to the Chinese Embassy, a touch of rabble-rousing chant, just enough to get some young ones to try to rush the police line, which makes for more dramatic footage. Chants like “Shame, Shame – China Shame”, “Stop Killing – In Tibet”, “Stop Torture – In Tibet”, some silence, some songs.

And that was it really. What’s the point? I think just being there to be counted usually has a point, though it’s obviously very indirect.

“Karmajohn” has given his permission for me to show you this picture, showing himself flanked by his good wife and my good self. I hope it acts as an antidote to the previous entry!

Or not?

After serious discussion, as befits a Buddhist forum, on the Kagyu list at yahoo, concerning such matters as kangaroos, possums, drinking beer in singlets while talking about footie and wearing thongs (in the Australian sense of the term), not to mention the Australian meaning of Durex, Jamie (whom I suspect to be a whisky-swilling Scotsman) offered me this impression of myself, reproduced below. It is definitely not totally correct – my mala, for instance, is not red. Do my dear readers think it might be accurate?

I am considering blasting back with a picture of myself in full magnificence, but I’ll have to think about that a bit. Is such a picture possible? Can I manifest magnificence?