Wayne’s Dhamma Blog describes a visit to Mei An, the southern Chinese temple built to honor the Sixth Zen Patriarch Huineng. Theres a whole series of plastic statues telling Huineng’s story. At right is a photo from Wayne’s blog of a diorama depicting the famous poetry contest between Huineng and Shenxiu with Hongren (the Fifth Patriarch, transliterated more like Hung-jen in my misspent youth) presiding. That should be Huineng in the dark blue and Shenxiu next to him, with Hongren in red at right? Plus another senior monk. Here’s the Sixth Patriarch on wikipedia if you’re interested.
Marcus’ Journal has an amazing translation of the rarely translated Thousand Hands Sutra which he says “brings together all of the main elements of Korean Buddhist thought and practice into a single text.” It’s a very nice rendering and worth a read (or chant.)
A somewhat poignant post on the imponderable perserverence and surprising non-plastcity of plastic at One City. Look around. Be aware that we are surrounded by plastic that will end up in landfills and stay there for kalpas.
B. Alan Wallace on Understanding, Happiness, and Virtue, courtesy of Hokai, the intrepid Buddhist web sleuth from Croatia. He also found this great article in the Guardian on how compassion is, well, out of fashion these days. If you liked the video, visit B. Alan Wallace’s website, paced with writings and videos, and also read his recent Q & A on tricycle.com.