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Hello again already! As the Indian food fans among you will know well, the Hindi word "masala" means a mix of freshly ground spices. The word is also used outside the kitchen to describe anything with a variety of different flavors (such as the infamous Bollywood musical/romance/adventure films). The month of April was like that for us - seasoned with a rich assortment of very different activities, all of which blended sweetly and nourished us well.
THE MONKEY IN THE MATZA
You heard in the last Lunar letter about the Ohr Olam Passover in Dharamshala program, which went very well and got a lot of good publicity for the cause. Most notably, our friend Rodger Kamenetz (author of The Jew In the Lotus, a best-selling book on the dialogue between Jewish leaders and H.H. the Dalai Lama in 1990) wrote an article about the program for Beliefnet.com (a leading website for spiritual issues), which you can read here. The story was also covered (somewhat sensationalistically) in the Jerusalem Post, worse in the Jerusalem Report (which incorrectly and embarrassingly spun our bridge-building activities as a sort of Jewish proselytizing!) and (more accurately) in the San Francisco Jewish Chronicle.
After the Passover program, there were several thought-provoking interfaith dialogues, both formal and informal. We also once again had the pleasure of hosting a couple of inspiring public talks given by our friend the Venerable Thubten Chodron, a nun in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Chodron spoke about walking the Buddhist path while remaining engaged meaningfully in the world, and gave great answers to many burning questions posed by our guests. You can learn more about Ven. Chodron and her work at www.thubtenchodron.org.
A MIND FOR MINES
The long-term Lunoids among you will remember that we have often sung the praises of our friends Dawn Engle and Ivan Suvanjieff, who run one of the coolest nonprofit organizations (NGOs) that we've ever seen: PeaceJam. PeaceJam brings Nobel Peace Prize laureates together with high school students to do apprenticeships in peacemaking and community service projects. The impact on the lives of youth participants is rare and precious inspiration and empowerment.
Last year, H.H. the Dalai Lama was the featured Nobel laureate at the first Indian PeaceJam, which took place at the Tibetan Children's Village (TCV) school in Dharamshala. Just a few days ago, the Dalai Lama returned to TCV for another PeaceJam. This time, the Dalai Lama came to introduce fellow Nobel laureate Jody Williams, who won the prestigious Peace Prize in 1997 for her dedicated work to achieve an international ban on landmines.
Why landmines? Landmines indiscriminately kill and maim more civilians than any other conventional weapon of war and, worse, they remain long after the war is over, hiding in the fields and riverbanks just waiting for the foot of a child or a farmer to trigger them. Ever year, landmines claim thousands of victims, and millions of undetonated mines remain undiscovered in the ground of 80 countries. Pained and disgusted with the needless suffering due to landmines that they saw in Cambodia and elsewhere, Jody and two colleagues founded the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) in 1992. Since then, over 130 countries have signed the treaty which ICBL has worked to promote.
Disgracefully absent from the long list of signatories to the treaty is the self-appointed global policeperson, the good ol' US of A. We appeal to the hearts of all our friends in the US to contact your President and Congresspeople and let them know that we demand ratification of the global treaty requiring a complete and permanent ban on the production, stockpiling, transfer and use of anti-personnel landmines. [This also applies to our friends in India, China, Cuba, Finland, Russia, South Korea and Vietnam.] You can find more info about landmines, the treaty and the campaign at the ICBL website, and you can learn all about PeaceJam at www.peacejam.org.
We were very inspired by our encounters with Jody Williams and honored to play our small roles in welcoming PeaceJam to Dharamshala again. We look forward to next year.
GENTLE MONK EATS MACHO BURRITO
Last month, the Dharamshala Earthville Institute (DEVI) had the privilege of hosting a profoundly moving talk given by the Venerable Palden Gyatso, a 68-year old Tibetan monk who was imprisoned by the Chinese military regime in Tibet for 33 years, simply for calmly stating the truth - that Tibet is a nation unto itself which is unlawfully occupied by China, and that H.H. the Dalai Lama is Tibet's rightful leader.
One extraordinary part of Palden Gyatso's story is that he kept telling the truth in prison, even while he was brutally tortured repeatedly in ways too gruesome to describe here. He refused to back down; he continued in his personal nonviolent campaign of insistence upon truth. When the prison guards tried to "re-educate" the prisoners with anti-Dalai Lama propaganda, Palden Gyatso would speak up in objection to their distortions of fact, restating the truth for all to hear. Every time he told the truth, he was tortured horribly - and every time he was tortured, he kept telling the truth.
Another exceptional part of Palden Gyatso's story is that, when he was finally released in 1992, he was able to bribe a sympathetic guard to let him smuggle out one sample of each of the instruments used to torture him while he was imprisoned. He took these instruments (including an American-made electric cattle prod that delivers terribly painful electric shocks) with him as he testified before the US Congress and European Parliaments, so that the world would know the horrific truths of the Chinese violations of human rights in Tibet. He also told his story in a must-read book entitled Fire Under the Snow, which is available around the world. [Click here to buy it at Amazon.com and some of the proceeds will benefit the work of The Earthville Network.]
For us, though, the most inspiring part of Palden Gyatso's story is that, throughout his decades in prison, he maintained strong feelings of compassion for his Chinese torturers. He knew that they were also suffering intensely, and prayed for their happiness and eventual enlightenment even as they tortured him. Palden Gyatso tells us that because he kept compassion in his heart, he did not suffer greatly. This demonstration of compassion in action serves as both an inspiration and a challenge to us who are often so easily provoked to anger. We are grateful to Palden Gyatso and to all the world's traditions that teach the value of courage and compassion. We were also honored to feed him one of our popular "macho burritos," which he swears he enjoyed - and with his reputation for insistence on truth, we think we can believe him!
I LOVE DOGS!
We are also happy as clams about the situation for dogs in Dharamshala! As some of you will remember, Dara has been spearheading a very successful campaign to vaccinate all the dogs in town. This work originated as a response to repeated rabies outbreaks in the area that resulted in the wholesale slaughter of dozens and dozens of street dogs - and a few pets by accident :-(. Now, thanks to the work of Dara, our Tibetan staff and our international supporters and volunteers, the threat of rabies has been nearly eliminated (with no recent known cases) and we're raising our sites. In addition to a continuing program to vaccinate dogs against rabies and six other common diseases, we are now considering expanding the project to include spaying and neutering street dogs (which, despite the intrusiveness and temporary pain involved, got the nod from a prominent local lama as the more compassionate option).
As it did last winter, our "I Love Dogs, Dharamshala" project (as Dara recently named it) will employ several Tibetan refugees throughout the monsoon season, when they otherwise might have had no income. Profound thanks to our new friends Janet Macaulay and Shayne Robinson for their recent generous donation to enable this project to thrive, and to everyone else who has contributed time, money and love. Thanks to all of you, Indian dogs may soon be barking from the sacred ground long enjoyed by their bovine cousins! Arf! :-)
JOY AND FRUSTRATION AT THE DONATION STATION
Speaking of donations, thanks SO much to all of you who test drove our new online donation system on the Earthville website. A few of you had trouble figuring out how to use it; we're sorry that it was confusing. PayPal is a free service, which is pretty great for us, but it also means it's more complicated than some of the paid services (and it seems it doesn't always work!). We hope in the near future to have a more streamlined system for online donations, which we intend to use not just to support Earthville's work, but also for many other worthwhile projects around the world. Stay tuned!
That's all for now, folks. Until the moonshadow falls again, keep burritos in your bellies and compassion in your hearts!
Dara and mark, your neighbors in Earthville
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