There’s so much on these Burma protests and I can’t add much new information or insight, so here are some links:

Buddhists fear ‘white head’ monks will give junta excuse for violence - ‘White head’ is slang for new monks whose newly shaven heads are still white, or more specifically, undercover policemen posing as monks.

Bush Announces Tighter Sanctions on Myanmar - Cheney had to point it out on the map and tell W it’s “not far from China.”

British PM Calls for Harder EU Stance on Burma

and the best headline of all, from the LA Times: The Buddhism Bomb (which could blow up in the junta’s face.)

In non-Burma news, record numbers of tourists arrive in Tibet’s Ngari region. This is the “ridge” on the roof of the world that attracts climbers. Expect more promotion of this area (at the expense of Nepal’s tourist industry, which is already struggling in the wake of the Maoist insurgency) in the buildup to Berlin 1936 Beijing 2008.

What would you ask the Dalai Lama if you could ask one and only one question? An Emory student prepares for just that situation. The DL is now an honorary prof at the Atlanta, Georgia university. Will the DL hang out with Jimmy Carter? Will he drink Coca-Cola? Time will tell.

Tricycle’s Jeff Wilson and Bodhipaksa of Wildmind.org have both commented on the Buddhist Books Being Banned from Libraries Behind Bars deal. Wildmind includes a list of the 60 sanctioned Buddhist books.

And Tom of Thoughts Chase Thoughts has good post reviewing a recent Zen is Stupid podcast (#28, “Privilege.”) Gwen Bell of Zen is Stupid and several other online outlets including Buddhist Geeks has an undefined gripe about (American) Buddhism being dominated by middle-class middle-age white men. It seems to boil down to something like, “White men have everything already, now they want Buddhism too.” (That handsome head with the whorl of hair would look nice mounted between the Sumatran rhino and Siberian tiger on the wall of my library, which incidentally has several valuable first editions by Nate Hawthorne, Sam Clemens, and Chuck Dickens, not to mention a signed copy of Bill Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Won.) What I think she may be saying is that many white male Buddhists are selfish navel-gazers, as opposed to Gwen and her partner Patrick, who both give back to the world. But her gripe is directed at authors Brad Warner and Noah Levine, both of whom give to the community in the form of teaching the dharma, and aren’t exactly poster children for the patriarchy. It is hard to argue with what might be described as her larger point, that Buddhism in America is by and large wealthy and white. Many dharma books are available for free, and many dharma events can be attended for free, but there are also many that cost money, and people who can afford to pay for retreats and big fat dharma books will be on balance white and middle class. But that says nothing about the gender of those writing the books (and she didn’t like Sumi Loundon’s Blue Jean Buddha, edited rather than written by Sumi, I think.) Maybe Gwen herself can write a book on the new Buddhist patriarchy so no one will have to ask, “Where are the women?” among today’s young/ish (white) Buddhists and / or Buddhist authors.

- Philip Ryan, Webmaster

Ruth King, author of the excellent new book Healing Rage, will be speaking at the New York Insight Meditation Center this Friday, September 28 (7–9:30pm, fee: $20) and Saturday, September 29 (10am–5pm, $40.) Register online for the Friday or Saturday session.

Also, check out Ask the Next President — You can submit questions and rate other people’s questions, then the “winning” questions will be sent to our fine presidential aspirants. This is a gig by the fine folks at Zooleo.com, who power our Q&A’s. Zooleo is helmed by Soren Gordhamer, who started up the Lineage Project, which offers yoga, meditation and other awareness-based practices to at-risk and incarcerated youth in New York City (and maybe elsewhere.)

A new Theravadin meditation center opened in Mesa, Arizona — you may have read about this on Urban Monk. It got me thinking what a proud and joyful moment it is for a sangha to be able to offer this space for practice, and how hard it is to do and how many struggle so much with it. I don’t know if it’s harder or easier or the same now with the real estate and mortgage markets doing whatever they’re doing. Those of us who grew up in churches and synagogues might take for granted how hard it is for less established religions to find breathing space on our expensive American soil.

Also: Is the Dalai Lama overrated? An exclusive feature now playing at the Dharma-Burger Drive-Thru. And Danny Fisher has a nice post on Burma / Myanmar. Oh yeah, and one of the links on the CYM page was screwy — here it is fixed: Thanissaro Bhikkhu on Getting into the Body (12 min. 15 sec.)

= Philip Ryan, Webmster

ICANN took over the internet in 1998. ICANN is responsible for accrediting domain name registrars.

Monks protesting in the western Burmese city of Sittwe were tear-gassed by the military junta.

A note on the Nashville Change Your Mind Day.

Zen and the art of handling a divorce — but not Zen with a capital Z.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper will meet with the Dalai Lama and is not worried about the inevitable abuse from Beijing that will follow. GWB invited his good buddy the DL to the White House in 2003.

CA Kallianpur, (pictured) National Coordinator of Friends of Tibet (FOT) disappeared while traveling in India.

Also, the “government” of Iraq does something right: They want Blackwater out. More here.

- Philip Ryan

Did you know there are only three countries in the world that have not officially adopted the metric system? They are (drumroll) the United States, Liberia, and Myanmar. I don’t know what Liberia’s excuse is. More on Myanmar later. (Britain and Ireland and probably many other countries are part-time metric users.) I love the odd globes on that first link. The one on this page represents our fearless Leader’s view of the world, by the way. (Just don’t go quizzing him on the state capitals! Man’s got a job to do.) Speaking of our glorious Commander-in-Chief, Peter of The Buddha Diaries reminds us of his gaffe heroic remark in Australia last week:

Iraq and Afghanistan dominated discussions. Mr Bush later thanked Australian military personnel at a lunch at Garden Island.

He believes success is being achieved in Iraq and told the Deputy Prime Minister, Mark Vaile, upon arrival on Tuesday night that “we’re kicking ass”.

Kicking ass in Iraq?… To an extent, Boss, to an extent.

More on the militants-trying-to-erase-Buddhist-history-in-Central-Asia thing. I’m no expert but I think it takes time to drill holes in statues and plant dynamite. I understand how the Taliban could destroy the Buddhas of Bamiyan, running the country and all, but aren’t these militants on the run in a hostile country? Guess not. Anyway the statues are still standing, until next time.

According to The Daily Shame, [the Christian] God is considering leaving Christianity and joining Buddhism. Quite a scoop! This will certainly raise Buddhism’s profile here in the States. But sadly, all the billions of Buddhas may be jumping ship over to Christianity as part of a reciprocity-type deal, so Big G won’t find many loyal subjects waiting when He sets up in His new office. I’m not sure why this isn’t bigger news.

Here’s a long and learned post on Burmese-Thai Relations, a very interesting subject most of us know next to nothing about. You’ll learn dozens of things if you read this post. Thank goodness the U.S. had the wisdom and foresight to clean up southeast Asia back in the 60s and 70s (and possibly a little bit in the 50s.) People all over the world better be careful unless they want Uncle Sam to come to town and clean up their countries for them. Just ask whatever countries we’re fixing up now. Here’s a taste of the Burma-Thailand article:

For centuries, the two nations have shared a common territory in Southeast Asia, whose prominent physical feature - the north-south valleys and rivers - were the highways of migrants from China and the Himalayas from time immemorial. New arrivals settled on both sides of today’s common border and populated the area with peoples of the same languages, cultures and traditions. Even now, as migration from China to Burma continues, a relatively larger migration is occurring from Burma to Thailand, as Burmese ethnic minorities flee from oppression and violence at home for safety in Thailand. These new migrants follow a new route, moving across mountains and rivers which, in the past, were barriers to west-east movement. But the conditions inside Burma are so terrible, the latest migrants are creating new routes at great personal hardship because they see no other way to escape from the murderous wrath of the Burmese military. This migration is one of the key problems in the current relations between Burma and Thailand.

Finally, if you don’t already you simply must read Dreaming of Danzan Ravjaa. If you’re short on time, don’t even read it, just look at the beautiful pictures.

- Philip Ryan, Webmaster