Okay, “Enlightenment or bust” might be a bit dramatic, but…
"Dang Zang" is an empty name. The blog has to do with the dharma; material related to Buddhist teachings (Tibetan style in particular, Kagyu in even more particular), meditation, gurus and lamas be they genuine or flaky, books and events.
I do have a more personal blog, Pica Pica, and a site for my work.
It turned out that the helicopters were not doing anything about a bridge, but were installing poles to restore some electricity supplies. Last week, however, we heard that the bridge to Castagnetoli had been reopened, so we went to take a look. As you will see, it is more a triumph of ingenuity than a triumph of Read more... The Road to Castagnetoli […]
Stuff has really been going on! A few days ago I walked up the hill and saw that the bridge to Castagnetoli was in exactly the same state (see earlier post), and the only activity was the harvesting of fallen trees. If and when there was going to be any attempt to replace this bridge, I Read more... Helicopters abound […]
The epicenter of the storm on 25 October was Brugnato, in the Val di Vara, which is just about 8 miles as the crow flies south-west of where we live. By road, it would be a great deal further, as there are mountains reaching up to 1000 m in between. They recorded what is described as Read more... A few figures about the rainfall […]
Picture above is near the bridge just down the road. I know that this has been on the national news in other countries, but probably not for long. In case anybody was worried, the first thing is that we are okay. In case you don’t know what I’m talking about, let me just mention that after a very Read more... Flood disaster, but we ourselves are OK […]
The comment from Tashi to my last post includes this link to pictures of a trip to Benchen in 2005 that I enjoyed so much I thought I’d “elevate” it to mention in a front-page post. (Correction: the link doesn’t seem to work, but if you go to http://www.benchen.org.pl/ and look through the gallery, you’ll find them easily enough.)
Interestingly, the Polish site includes pictures of the Chime Rinpoche of Benchen. I include below a picture including a stupa containing relics of his previous incarnation. I should make it clear that when I referred in the previous post to “Chime Rinpoche”, I was actually thinking of my first teacher, known in the West by his personal name of Chime, but more properly called the Radha Lama or Chime Radha Rinpoche. He is also from Benchen, but the commonality of name is a coincidence. Getting confused about this has been known to upset a few people in the past, and some odd stories (that I need not repeat) went round. But in fact both lamas are entirely genuine, both are connected to Benchen – they are just two different people.
Tashi’s friend’s pictures are far better than anything I ever took, and it looks like they had a great trip. For contrast, here are a few from 1992:
Chime (Radha) Rinpoche on the verandah at Benchen
Me at the stupas - the one on the right is the "other" Chime's stupa
John Powers gave a presentation in Sydney University yesterday under the auspices of the AABS. Entitled “Tortured Logic”, he dealt with the presentation of Tibet and of Tibetan Buddhism as provided by the Chinese Communist Party, as against its mirror image provided by the Central Tibetan Administration. Very informative, very clear.
John P is the author of what I think is one of the best introductions to Tibetan Buddhism there is. It’s called Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism, straightforwardly enough. I’ve often recommended it, as it is solid, sympathetic yet impartial, assumes no prior knowledge at all on the part of the reader but really does give you an introduction, not just a few hand-waving, good-feeling morsels. So it was nice to meet the author and see a sharp, open and greatly knowledgeable mind combined with a warm personality and an enthusiasm for communication. A real scholar.
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!
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!
