Peter Rowan was just on NPR — he’s a big deal in the bluegrass (and wider) music world. Did you know he is Buddhist? And even has a song, “Across the Rolling Hills,” with a Buddhist chant in it?
Hear it here, and get the story on it, in Fresh Air’s wonderful interview with him.
I’m pretty sure you’ll be glad you did. And for more about Peter Rowan, visit his website.
(And: Happy Thanksgiving.)
Punk godfather (god, he must hate that, but he did sing for Black Flag and the woefully underappreciated Rollins Band) Henry Rollins travels. A lot. He also writes. A lot. Some of his recent traveling and writing has been all about Asia.
He was recently in Tibet, and you’ll find an excerpt from his online journal after the jump. He’s now been to Paro, Bhutan, and has written about that as well. Always worth a quick read. (more…)
No, of course not –the guru, per se, doesn’t exist in Zen. Zen has teachers of course, but the distinction is an important one, especially in Tibetan Buddhist tantra, where “one’s teacher is seen as inseparable from the meditational deity and the Three Jewels of Refuge.” (That definition comes from the glossary in Introduction to Tantra, by Lama Yeshe.) Now, being that Chopra is spiritually concerned in a sometimes specific, sometimes dharmic way (and has written about the Buddha in long-prose and comic forms), it’s not surprising that some might get confused. But Tina Brown’s Daily Beast has in fact called him a “Zen guru,” in this report:
Chelsea Clinton wasn’t the only famous female making it official this weekend: Powerhouse songstress Alicia Keys and her main squeeze, producer Swizz Beatz (aka Kasseem Dean), exchanged vows in an intimate ceremony presided over by Zen guru Deepak Chopra.
And it should be said that Chopra has no specific credentials related to the Zen Buddhist school.
Not that big a deal, granted, but no wonder there’s so much confusion about what Buddhism is or isn’t. Often the media likes to, as Steve Martin said, “make up facts.”
Via Phayul.com:
Recently Keds — a unit of Kansas-based Collective Brands, Inc. and a mass-marketer of canvas-top — sneakers came out with a new line of sneakers called ‘Tibetan Buddhist Shoes’. These bear images of the Dalai Lama, the Buddha, holy mantras and other sacred images that Buddhist all over the world revere. Buddhists generally keep these images and scripts in temples, monasteries and on altars in their homes.
Keds’ commercial trumpets:
“Gorgeous shoes! They’re Keds, so they’re sturdy and comfy, yet they’re beautiful because of the images on them. How unique is this! A Tibetan Buddhist image in brilliant pinks, yellows, oranges and blues. Colorful and Beautiful!”The last three words should read — Shameful and Disrespectful!
What do you think? More here.
Update: There’s a possibility these are an urban myth of sorts. If you have a pair — of these shoes, I mean! — send a photo so we know they’re real. They currently don’t seem to be on the Keds site and one diligent dharma-friend is looking into it for us all….
Heidiminx — the very model of the punk-rock dharma activist — rules. But you knew that, right? Well, if you didn’t, check out her new video, “Tattoos and Tibetan Ex-political Prisoners.” In it, she interviews a member of the Tibetan ex-political prisoners association, GuChuSum.
As Heidiminx writes, “While there are numerous sites and TV shows dedicated to the meanings of tattoos, the tattoos of Tibet’s ex-political prisoners have not been well documented. Their experiences are crucial to understand the human rights violations China commits on a daily basis.”
Support and follow Heidiminx’s work here. And visit GuChuSum here.
Huge thanks to the mighty Konchog Norbu for a heads-up on what looks like a must-see film (at least for this Worst Horse):
“Journey of a Dream is a feature-length documentary that will take audiences on a global journey into heavy metal music, exile, Buddhism, and Tibetan roots. How one man is trying to find solace and self-realization through Buddhism, living the life of a refugee, and playing death metal.
I am IN. Are you? Watch the trailer here.
If you haven’t heard about the earthquake in Yushu county, a Tibetan autonomous prefecture in western Qinghai Province of northwest China — that is to say, Kham, Tibet – here‘s a good start.
More importantly: Tibet Relief Fund has launched an appeal for victims of today’s earthquake. Donations can be made here.
With the news that Twin Peaks — David Lynch and Mark Frost’s unlikely ABC smash hit — is celebrating its 20th anniversary, now seems like a fine time to re-present this appreciation from the Horse’s archives. Enjoy.
A MAN LAYS DYING on the floor of a jail cell between two mountains of the Pacific Northwest. Not even two weeks ago, despite his middle-age, he’d had a head of youthfully dark hair; now, it is completely, shockingly, all-white. The sprinkler system of the sheriff’s department that holds him has been set off, creating the effect of a tumultuous indoor downpour that rains down upon the white-haired man and his captors.
One of his captors — the very one who has most doggedly pursued him — is kneeling down. The white-haired man has committed the kind of unthinkable crimes that would disgust and shake most of us to the core, but Special Agent Dale Cooper instead remains very much with the moment. He holds the white-haired man, stroking his hair, comforting him even as the horrors of his crimes are finally admitted between last gasps. Then, Cooper speaks. The words come to him naturally:
“Leland,” he says, “the time has come for you to seek the path. Your soul has set you face to face with the clear light and you are now about to experience it in all its reality, wherein all things are like the void and cloudless sky, and the naked, spotless intellect is like a transparent vacuum, without circumference or center. Leland, in this moment, know yourself, and abide in that state. . . Look to the light, Leland. Find the light.”
Though spoken as much from the heart as from the head, Coop’s words are not truly his own. Compare them with this famous passage from The Tibetan Book of the Dead, meant to be recited to the dying as they pass on:
“O, nobly-born [so and so by name], the time hath now come for thee to seek the Path [in reality]. Thy breathing is about to cease. Thy guru hath set thee face to face before with the Clear Light; and now thou art about to experience in its Reality in the Bardo state, wherein all things are like the void and cloudless sky, and the naked, spotless intellect is like unto a transparent vacuum without circumference or centre. At this moment, know thou thyself, and abide in that state.” [W.Y. Evans-Wentz (translator and editor), The Tibetan Book of the Dead (Oxford, Third edition, 1957)]
Leland, though in his final moment, is surprised, almost smiling, in response to Coop’s urging that he find the light: “I see it!”
“Into the light, Leland,” Coop says, ” Don’t be afraid.”
And with that, Leland Palmer is dead.
It’s unusually moving; hardly your typical primetime TV jailhouse scene.
But this is no ordinary jailhouse, and it’s certainly not ordinary TV.
This is Twin Peaks, where nothing — not family, not FBI-men, not even the owls in the trees — is as it seems. (more…)
The tattoo in question, via farm4.static.flickr.com
Sports site TSN reports that:
“English welterweight Dan (The Outlaw) Hardy’s stomach tattoo was airbrushed out of the UFC 111 fight poster because it is ‘anti-Chinese government stuff,’ according to UFC president Dana White.
‘”I’m trying to get into China,” he told fans at a question-and-answer session Tuesday. ‘I don’t need anti-Chinese government stuff on my fighters.’
“Hardy, however, says the tattoo — the fighter’s favourite — is a Tibetan Buddhist prayer written in Sanskrit.
‘”It’s basically just like a prayer for focus,’ Hardy said. ‘It keeps me walking the path that I should be walking without veering off and distracting myself.’
“Apprised of that explanation, White said: ‘That’s not what I heard.’
[...] “‘I heard that it was anti-Chinese government, so I ripped that thing off it. I’m not going to put him on a poster with anti-Chinese government writing on it when we’re trying to get into China. . . . I don’t know what this stuff means, so I’ve got to be safe.’
But, as the MMA site Bloody Elbow (nice name, that) points out:
“The tattoo is the well known Buddhist mantra “Om mani padme hum” which has no political significance in relation to China.”
Well, not quite no political significance. While the tattoo isn’t an overt anti-China statement, China sure is sensitive to hearing about Tibetan Buddhism. Some, like Robert Thurman, would even go so far as to say that the Chinese government is trying ‘re trying to, um, airbrush it away.
