Category Archives: Interfaith action

Buddhists Roll On Together to the People’s Climate March

Posted on May 3, 2017 by | Comments Off on Buddhists Roll On Together to the People’s Climate March

by Caroline Contillo  

A “Rolling Retreat” of dharma teachers and practitioners, by the busload, helped Buddhists to join Saturday’s People’s Climate March in Washington, D.C.

Stepping off the Buddhist retreat bus in D.C. on Saturday, two things were apparent: the 2017 People’s Climate March was going to be huge, and it was going to be hot. The record-breaking 92-degree heat seemed to enhance the energy of the staggering crowds that had convened to march from the foot of the Capitol Building to surround the White House.

I’d chosen to march with the Buddhist contingent as part of the Faith Bloc, situated between the Science bloc and Fossil Fuel resistance groups that gathered to surge down Pennsylvania Avenue. It was Trump’s 100th day in office, and over 200 Buddhists from around the world had shown up to make their voices heard with another 200,000+ people. The common message was clear: we know the climate is changing, and we want to address this.
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Posted in Buddhist social ethics, Climate change, Engaged Buddhism, Interfaith action, News item, Uncategorized

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Sending a Message with Our Feet

Posted on July 26, 2016 by | Comments Off on Sending a Message with Our Feet

Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi

Yesterday, on July 24, 10,000 people came together in Philadelphia to join the March for a Clean Energy Revolution, held on the eve of the Democratic Party’s National Convention. In Philadelphia, the temperature broke the 100 mark, but marchers remained undeterred. Their  purpose in coming together was to urge our political leaders to act quickly and effectively to ban fracking, keep fossil fuels in the ground, stop dirty energy, transition to 100% renewable energy, and ensure environmental justice for all.

Food & Water Watch_Media Mobilizing Project

Scene in the courtyard of Philadelphia’s city hall (Photo: Food & Water Watch_Media Mobilizing Project)

Members of the BGR team and other Buddhists were among those on the march. BGR participants included Sylvie Sun, Charles Elliott, Marcie Barth, and Regina Valdez. Also joining were Rev. T.K. Nakagaki of the Buddhist Council of New York, Ven. Ru Fa of the Chinese Buddhist community, Bob and Sarah Kolodny of Buddhist Climate Action Network NY, and East Coast members of the Plum Village Sangha.

Phillie-BC-NY

L to R: Rev. T.K. Nakagaki, Sylvie Sun, Ven. Rufa. (Photo: Regina Valdez)

The heat wave hanging heavy over North America this past week is just one of thousands of manifestations of climate change. We see other signs in blistering droughts, more violent hurricanes, destructive wildfires, and rising sea levels. Some 25% of the world’s animal species face extinction. Climate change threatens the world’s food supply, turning fertile land into dust bowls and deserts, triggering deluges, and reducing the yields of staple grains. If we don’t act quickly, millions of more people will be subjected to terrible food shortages, malnutrition, and even starvation. Continue reading →

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Posted in Buddhist social ethics, Climate change, Engaged Buddhism, Interfaith action, News item, Social justice

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Marching on Behalf of the Planet

Posted on July 5, 2016 by | Comments Off on Marching on Behalf of the Planet

Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi

Photo credit: jomilo75 via Flickr / Creative Commons

Walking in unison can be a powerful means of social and political transformation. Gandhi’s Salt March in 1930 challenged British authority in India and began the long process of civil disobedience that culminated in India’s independence. African Americans in the 1960s won their civil rights by undertaking long walks and marches through the South and in the nation’s capital. Millions of people in the 1960s marched against the Vietnam War, and again in 2003 to protest U.S. plans to attack Iraq. Just two years ago, almost half a million people converged on New York City to join the Peoples’ Climate March, showing that climate consciousness was no longer the concern of a minority. The March for a Clean Energy Revolution, to take place in Philadelphia on July 24th, continues this practice of using our legs to express the ideals that stir in our hearts. Continue reading →

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Posted in Climate change, Engaged Buddhism, Interfaith action, News item, Social justice

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The Revolutionary Message of Martin Luther King Jr.

Posted on January 19, 2016 by | 2 comments

Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi

In the half-century since his tragic death at the age of 39, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. has been turned into a national idol. His birthday has been made a public holiday. His memorial stands in the heart of our capital city, close to the memorials of our greatest presidents. His name is invoked by politicians on both the left and the right, treated almost as sacrosanct. In the process of being glorified, however, King has been domesticated, sanitized, and tamed. His powerful voice, which once sent tremors down the spines of the power elites, now speaks in muffled tones. His speeches are quoted selectively, stripped of their fiercest and most insistent words. Nowadays we can even visit his memorial in D.C., read the quotations blazoned on the walls, and still chat blandly about the weather and the baseball scores.

MLK is most remembered for his “I Have a Dream” speech, which in the mid-1960s became the anthem of the civil rights movement. But King was more than just a civil rights leader representing the concerns of African Americans. He was above all a man of deep faith who was ready to follow the call of conscience no matter where it led him, even into dangerous waters. He stood up against all travesties of human dignity, against all violations against the integrity of the human person, without concern for the identity of the victims.
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Posted in Ending global poverty, Engaged Buddhism, Interfaith action, Politics & food justice, Social justice

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On Hope and Hype: Reflections on a New Year’s Tradition

Posted on January 11, 2016 by | Comments Off on On Hope and Hype: Reflections on a New Year’s Tradition

Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi

2016 New Year's at CYM

At the dawn of a new year it’s customary to suspend our habitual cynicism about human nature in order to express joyful hopes for the year that lies ahead. While this practice helps to spread good cheer, at least for a day, it often seems to me an exercise with no practical consequences. How, I ask myself, can declaring my hopes to others make a dent in a world oblivious to our dreams? How can we expect the mere change of a date to alter the conditions under which we live?

The practice, I fear, may not be very different from a drug habit. Both seem to serve a similar purpose. If I find my life’s circumstances intolerable, I may try to numb my pain and frustration by taking a drug. If I perceive the world descending into chaos, I  try to console myself and cheer up others by declaring that this year things will be better. In this way, hope may turn out to be little more than hype: a psychological hypodermic needle filled with a mind-numbing narcotic, a hyperbole that obscures the grim reality that engulfs us all.
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Posted in Buddhist social ethics, Climate change, Engaged Buddhism, Interfaith action, Social justice

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NYC Walk to Feed the Hungry

Posted on November 6, 2015 by | Comments Off on NYC Walk to Feed the Hungry

Sara McMahon

On our 6th annual NYC Walk to Feed the Hungry we were blessed with excellent weather—a little chilly at first, but the sunshine soon made it perfectly comfortable.​ About 150 people turned up to support this event!

Group Photo

Echo Bonner of the Dharma Drum Retreat Center ​got everyone warmed up with a mindful movement meditation, formally known as the Eight F​orm​ Meditation.

​Participants then gathered as ​Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi ​spoke of the history of the Walk, and read a ​special ​message of support from New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.
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BGR Walk in San Francisco

Posted on October 29, 2015 by | Comments Off on BGR Walk in San Francisco

Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi

Gold Mt Monastery

Group at Gold Mountain Monastery

Last Saturday (Oct. 24) I led the BGR Walk to Feed the Hungry in San Francisco. The walk started out from the Gold Mountain Monastery in Chinatown and proceeded up a very steep hill, with a pause for photos in front of the Grace Cathedral.

Starting Out-2

The Steep Ascent Uphill

We made our first stop at the Buddhist Churches of America on Octavia Street. Here we were treated to refreshments and were brought up to the stupa on the roof to pay homage to the relics of Shakyamuni Buddha and the chief disciples Sariputta and Moggallana. We also learned about the long history of BCA, the Buddhist organization with the longest continuous history in the US.

Buddhist Church of America


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BGR Walk in Michigan

Posted on October 4, 2015 by | Comments Off on BGR Walk in Michigan

Maureen Bodenbach

Some 125 people joined the fifth annual Michigan Walk to Feed the Hungry on Sunday, September 27, held in the Kensington Park in Milford. Participants came from more than a dozen Buddhist groups from across Michigan. These ranged from Sri Lankan and Thai monasteries to a Korean Zen temple, the Chinese Chan and Pure Land traditions, members of several Vietnamese temples and students of Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh. They also included Westerners from various insight meditation groups in Ann Arbor, Lansing, and the metropolitan Detroit area. And there were lots of kids! Bringing families out was one of the goals of Ven. Haju Sunim of the Ann Arbor Zen Temple, so our youngest “walker” was just learning how to stand up from a crawl!

Walkers with banner
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A Message to America in the Midst of Our Mourning

Posted on June 24, 2015 by | Comments Off on A Message to America in the Midst of Our Mourning

Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi

Rev. William Barber, in a stirring sermon on the Charleston killings, reminds us: “We must be concerned not merely with who the murderer is and what makes him tick, but about the system, the way of life, and the philosophy that produced him and produces others.”

Rev. Dr. William Barber II is the president of the North Carolina chapter of the NAACP and the national chair of the NAACP’s Legislative Political Action Committee. Since 1993 he has served as pastor of Greenleaf Christian Church, Disciples of Christ, in Goldsboro, NC. Rev. Barber has also been the spiritual leader of the Moral Monday movement in North Carolina, which organizes weekly Monday demonstrations in the state to protest state policies on such issues as voter suppression, discrimination, and government legislation that hurts poor citizens. In this capacity he has emerged as one of the leading moral voices in America today, a powerful voice of conscience in the tradition of Martin Luther King Jr.

This past Sunday, June 21st, Rev. Barber gave a magnificent sermon on the murder of nine members of the Emanual African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, the previous Wednesday night. The sermon is truly shattering, a stirring call to the conscience of this nation to confront its dark legacy of racism, violence, and discrimination, a legacy that continues today wrapped up in certain code words that advance racist attitudes without violating the conventions of polite discourse.
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Posted in Engaged Buddhism, Interfaith action, News item, Social justice

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Racial Hatred Must Cease

Posted on June 20, 2015 by | 2 comments

Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi

This past Wednesday night (June 17th) nine people, including the pastor, were ruthlessly gunned down at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. The murder rips into our hearts and leaves us shocked and speechless. With deep sadness, we extend our deepest compassion to the church’s clergy, its congregation, and the entire African American community of Charleston, who have had to endure a brutal assault on their very identities in their own church, city, state and country.

In this case, the heartrending murder is especially sinister because the attack was clearly a blood-curdling expression of racial hatred perpetrated by a young man who had barely entered adulthood. It’s also shocking because it occurred in a place of sanctity, a place in which the spirit of love and peace should prevail. If murder stemming from racial hatred can occur even in a church, where is safety to be found?

As we convey our sympathy to the survivors, we must call on this country to squarely confront its legacy of racism, a legacy constantly being jump-started by mentally warped radio hosts, news commentators, and inflammatory websites. Even more mainstream news outlets, such as Fox, tried to camouflage the truth, suggesting that the murderer slayed the worshipers because they were Christian rather than because they were black.
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