Jane Lynch made a reference to Buddhism after her acceptance speech for the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy at Emmy last night. As MTV News reports:
“I love being an actor. I love being an ensemble.” Later, recalling the calming spirituality of Buddhism, she joked, “Although I am not Buddhist, they do seem like a very calm people.”
…I don’t quite get it, but I think it’s fair to say that, Hey — we like you too.
Great headline, but say it ain’t so*, Ram Bomjan. (See here.) …And in case you didn’t know: Bomjan, the so-called “Buddha Boy” of Nepal, is considered a modern-day Buddha by some, and is eyed with supspicion by others. Either way, he makes for good copy.
From another account: “The victims said, Bamjan, with the help of a local, brought them to a local’s house and thrashed them saying they were trying to scuttle his meditation.”
Hm. Well, that’s disappointing. But I can’t say I don’t understand it!
* Update: turns out he can’t say it ain’t so….
“Despite being a practising Buddhist, Louise Goodman, a.k.a. Blackout Susan, plays roller derby with the Slaughter Daughters.”
The Ottawa Citizen has the story from which this great sentence comes. Go, Blackout!
Remember this great, great, great album?
Well, don’t expect to hear that distinct brand of greatness again. Courtney Love has told the Dallas Observer that:
“Eric Erlandson and myself shall not play guitar together again,”citing that it is for “religious purposes” having to do with them being of different Buddhist sects that are not allowed to be in the same room as one another.
Um, what?
Well, Love is an SGI (Sokka Gakkai International) Buddhist. Erlandson is a practitioner of Nichiren Shoshu, and yes, it seems that never again shall the twain meet. Quoth Wikipedia (because I’m feeling lazy today):
In 1991, Nichiren Shoshu officially excommunicated the leaders of its then-largest lay organization, Sōka Gakkai, for their doctrinal deviations and disputes with the priesthood. In 1997, those non-leaders who chose to remain as members of the Soka Gakkai, instead of becoming members of Nichiren Shoshu, also lost their status as “believers.” The Soka Gakkai now operates as a doctrinally and organizationally distinct group.
Huh.
A real quick Hulu clip from the Today Show — about a sculptor making Buddhas from cardboard.
Check it, gamers — via Vice comes the story of “totalitarian [former] Buddhist” and Koyaanisqatsi fan Vincent Ocasla:
Vince guy spent four years wallowing in equations and graph paper building a totalitarian Sim City hellscape called Magnasanti, racking up a population of six million and claiming to beat an otherwise unbeatable game. Watch this and get scared:
Even if it weren’t somewhat sinisterly inspired by the Buddhist Wheel of Life, this is still something to see.
Read the rest over at Viceland.
“Had a powerful meditation just now,” he wrote yesterday. [...] “Caused an earthquake in Southern California… Was meditating on Shiva mantra & earth began to shake. Sorry about that.”
Seriously, he wrote that. See it here. He had to be kidding, not knowing it was going to be as bad as it was, but still — kinda unfortunate.
The Horse make an appearance in the Winnipeg Free Press this morning. My last name gets a bit mangled, as usual — it’s actually “Meade Sperry” — but what the heck. It’s cool that people are reading about Dharma-Burgers north of the border.
Read “It’s Wrong to Cheapen Great Eastern Religions” here. And if you got here by reading the WFP, welcome.
Update: The formidable Scott A. Mitchell has a reasonable beef with the WFP post. Don’t miss his piece, “Misquoted,” here.
Yes, that’s right — people are protesting Akon’s “insult to Buddhism.” Protest = good. Protest with violence = not so good.
Buddhists protesting by throwing stones? Ridiculous.
Isn’t it?
Update: the Sri Lankan government has denied Akon a visa.
March 24 update: Akon has postponed his Sri Lanka tour.
March 27 update, via tamilweek.com: “Akon visa denial has wider impact on Sri Lanka and Buddhism”
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.
