War and Peace
Spring 2014 Vol. 30 #2
Spring 2014 Vol. 30 #2
Introduction
Twenty years ago in the Isan region of Thailand, near the killing fields of Laos and Cambodia, I noticed that the tapered …
Features
Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi affirms the Buddha’s call to put down our weapons but wonders if there aren’t times when military force could be the most moral choice.
Influenced by Buddhist teachings, Ann Wright resigns from the U.S. State Department in protest against the Iraq War.
On an Afghan airfield, Angela Caruso-Yahne is invited to write a message on a bomb soon to be delivered to its target, and considers the complexities of her own call to service.
Michael Nagler points to Gandhian nonviolence as the bridge between spiritual practice and social change.
On the 60th anniversary of Bonnie O’Brien Jonsson’s father becoming MIA in Korea, she attends his full military funeral and wonders, “Who am I to judge my father?”
When Barbara Gates finds herself wheelchair-bound for three months, a mirage of a forest monk coalesces in her kitchen and urges her to be content with what life puts into her bowl.
Paula Green shows how Buddhist principles are leading to peace and reconciliation on three continents.
James Schnebly interviews Kenji Muro on Zen Buddhists and the Japanese War effort in WWII.
. . . . . Mindfulness & the Military
Is it skillful to teach mindfulness to soldiers going to war? Jon Kabat-Zinn says yes, with discernment to maximize the wholesome and minimize harm.
I hail from a long warrior lineage, with Stanleys having served in the U.S. Army every generation since the Revolutionary War. My …
In 1966 my uncle had just returned from his second tour of duty in Vietnam. He promised that on his next tour …
Amishi P. Jha studies the neuroscience of mindfulness and attention at the University of Miami, where she is associate professor of psychology …
Amid chopper sounds, rumbling tanks and machine-gun fire, Margaret Cullen teaches mindfulness to military wives.
. . . . . Self-immolation & Tibet
Martine Batchelor introduces compelling last notes left by the immolators.
Director of the Tibetan Nuns Project and sister-in-law of the Dalai Lama Rinchen Khando Choegyal tells us, “Don’t say they shouldn’t have done it. It’s done. Ask: what did they wish?”
Hozan Alan Senauke reluctantly questions the dharmic implications and the strategic value of self-immolation as a tool for social change.
Hozan Alan Senauke compiled a list of books and online resources related to self-immolation.
Poems & Not Poems
My father still screams some nights And packs with him A handkerchief, an apple, a hat, a small bag of nuts, a …
I sit quietly, alone. I acknowledge an unseen mechanism to stave off this kind of news. Somehow it’s not possible, not real, …
At night I walk alone— still thinking of gliding over rubbled streets turning corners where nothing awaits though belief remains that …
We used to laugh at him/Staff Sergeant/Platoon Sergeant/The old crooked man with a lisp…
Dharma Jewel
Recently I opened the New York Times to find a photograph that I can’t put out of mind. It was taken …
Books & Bodhi
Hardwiring Happiness: The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm and Confidence, by Rick Hanson
Reviewed By Paul Bialek
(304 pp., Harmony Books, 2013)
Love Your Enemies: How to Break the Anger Habit and Be a Whole Lot Happier, by Sharon Salzberg and Robert Thurman
Reviewed By Don Morreale
(172 pp., Hay House, 2013)
(93 min., Two Shoes Productions, 2011)
(243 pp., Shambhala Publications, 2014)
No Ordinary Apple: A Story About Eating Mindfully, by Sara Marlowe and Philip Pascuzzo
Reviewed By Christopher Willard
(36 pp., Wisdom Publications, 2013)
What the Buddha Never Taught: A “Behind the Robes” Account of Life in a Thai Forest Monastery, by Tim Ward
Reviewed By Diana Winston
(321 pp., Changemaker Books, 2013)
Practice
Ven. Pannavati Bhikkuni asks: how do our everyday actions cause war? How can we end it?
The Dharma & the Drama
Wes Nisker exposes the absurdity of war and exhorts us to sing along with John Lennon: “War is over! If you want it.”