Emerging from the Earth

I got a taste of the stand-alone spirit when I joined the United States Peace Corps in September of 2004. I was assigned to work in a Muslim country as a small business development advisor. Alone in my mountain village, my SGI-USA publications and daimoku sustained me. It was the first time in my life that I had lived without the SGI...(continue reading)

I know, I know. With 10 days left in the month, it isn’t much help. Will try to get August up in a timely fashion.

To see the July calendar, go to the Calendar page, or just click on the flower below.

As you may know, a major re-organization of the SGI-USA was announced during a nation-wide leaders teleconference on Saturday, June 26, 2007. Important information like this is collected, typed up, and mailed to all the district members each month by District Leader Suzy Curcio.

To read July’s notes, go to the Archive page and look under “Monthly District Notes” or just click on the butterflies below. As always, many thanks to Suzy for her tireless efforts.

Moving past the first set of cabbies, I stopped one guy on the move who ignored my first offer and suggested he could do it for no less than 500 rupees. “Ha, out of the question,” we chortled and he sped off. To our chagrin, the next driver explained that even the 500 rupees was unlikely to be a serious offer. In fact, we probably wouldn’t back able to return to Boudha at all. Huge sections of the city had a bandha (a Maoist-enforced strike). For the cabbies, that meant men with guns, not only unchecked by government forces, but with perhaps more overall raw political and military power than the king, roaming the city perpetrating whatever violence necessary to prevent strike-breaking behavior. That meant no taxis, buses on the road, outside of Thamel, no service to the airport, a virtual shut-down of the city.

To read the whole blog, visit Phantom City.

The newest Nichiren Buddhism Passage of the Week is the popular “Reply to Kyo’o.”

Scroll down and look to the right to read the gosho. Passages change periodically.

 Many thanks to the SGI-USA Library, a wonderful reference for the Writings of Nichiren Daishonin online.

The second installment of Stand-Alone Spirit is here. SAS will consist of monthly blogs by SGI members Brad Jadwin and Cybelle Cochran.

Nicholas Witkowski, who is currently at Stanford for his PhD in Buddhist Studies—and who, eleven years ago, introduced me to this practice and nurtured me through those first hard years of chanting—has been writing powerful blogs on his current travels through India and into the Himalayas. I travel with him every day from my cubicle. No kidding.

Where can you read these Letters from the Subcontinent? At our blog on Buddhism, culture, art, and literature: Phantom City.