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Comment by Modgala Duguid on July 5, 2010 at 20:33

Dear Koizumi, it is very nice that you have made contact and hear your care for this planet. I am sorry that I am not often available for skype conversations but i am happy to chat via email. Namo amida bu Modgala

Comment by Robert McCarthy on June 23, 2010 at 12:54

Hi Koizumi, It is good to hear your words of care for our planet and that you find better health and understanding now. welcome to our group, sometimes it sleeps a little, sometimes it is very alive. Namo Amida Bu

Comment by Koizumi Hitoshi on June 23, 2010 at 5:00

Hello everyone. Thanks for letting me join this group. i'm very interested in socially engaged Buddhism. Now i belong to 3 international volunteer organizations. Those are Shanti International Volunteer org, Tendai School Volunteer org, and UNHCR jp. I'd been suffering from some neurotic-handicapped disease for about 40 years. I had been in desperation for so long. But i met a very good doctor and almost cured. Then i found that my suffering was the mission from Buddha to save the people suffering from diseases, discriminations, stigma, poverty etc. I love the words from Yuima (維摩経）, that I'm suffering because all the people on the ground are suffering. Please let me talk with many of you in this group.

Comment by Aramati on June 14, 2010 at 14:10

Nonviolent Living
What is nonviolence? Is it simply the absence of violence or is it the opposite of violence or an altogether different idea? What is conflict? Is all conflict bad? Is violence always physical or are there other forms of violence? What about power and nonviolence; is it weak to be nonviolent?

These and other questions we will be exploring in a course at Amida France called Nonviolent Living and Conflict Transformation 19 to 23 July 2010 inclusive. This is a new course, which we hope will attract considerable interest. One of the features of it is that it will be tailored to meet the interests of participants. So it could focus on being effective at achieving change without violating others in the day to day context, or it could look at nonviolence in the activist context and campaigning nonviolently.

We think this will be quite an innovative programme as it will combine different traditions and approaches to working with conflict. We have three interesting facilitators: Zee-Zee Heine has many years of experience in facilitating nonviolence training and alternatives to violence, Bhaktika (Mike Fitter) is very experienced in conflict facilitation and transformation, and Sundari (Gina Clayton) has experience with refugees and group processes. We think this will be an exciting and challenging combination.

Do come if you can and do discuss these questions here if you know you can't.

Comment by Andrew Weare ( Yao Xiang -ZBOHY ) on September 25, 2009 at 18:08

Hello Ruksen Barua and may I wish you well and equanimitous and at peace in the moment. Andrew.

Comment by Ruksen Barua on September 25, 2009 at 14:39

Hello, I'm Ruksen Barua.

Comment by Robert McCarthy on June 19, 2009 at 4:50

Thank you very much Andrew for what must be -with pain- to go back into such places. For the majority of us, we have no skills such as the wonderful aikido for instance and even then such use is after the act of violence commencing. But at times act we must, in the face of real danger. We can wear the spirit- we can workshop- but the reality of staying strongly within other power when personally confronted by violence is hard medicine- so easy to fall, so hard for us bombu to be selfless. namo amida bu

Comment by Andrew Weare ( Yao Xiang -ZBOHY ) on June 19, 2009 at 0:02

Each scenario is different. Mentalities differ from simple anger to some psychotic delusion. A notorious man now in jail for stabbing again, failed to intimidate me. Once his screaming rants , as I anticipated, came to a cessation, I sincerely thanked him for his honesty. After all, rational or irrational, didn't matter, it was the cessation of serious aggravation that matterd. He steamed and vented all manner of abuse, new and just out of top security prison. I thanked him for venting how he felt and that it was an open and honest display, nothing hidden. This disarmed him mentally, and I maintained my sympathetic posture. he then spoke normally and actually started crying, saying I was the only one he could trust. I wish things could have had the fairy-tale ending we love to hear, but, alas, he stabbed someone yet again and went straight back to same top-security prison, where incidently he was badly slashed by two inmates. They later flew him from Alaska to a jail in Arizona. Not all scenarios run like this. Oh Anicca, Dukkha, Anatta. I'll answer any questions you wish. Demonstrations are a mob event worth avoiding. Mob conciousness can happen.

Comment by Andrew Weare ( Yao Xiang -ZBOHY ) on June 18, 2009 at 23:39

The 'feeling at those times'-? God, I knew the horror I was in for, an intense thought or thoughts flashed through my mind. I just let it go, as I had to use nano-seconds to figure a plan out of this with as little 'planning' as possible. I looked for a chink in the armour so to speak, of the wall of bodies with hate filled eyes and faces trying to engulf me in a ring of bodies. I saw more space between a pair of mobsters and they saw that I saw it. I rushed at the space as they tried to close with all focus, and I knew this was make it or you're damned scenario. Fight or flight I flung up both arms uppercut style at the two men, one to my left and the other at my right as I breached and burst through and ran like the wind. Even as I made headway, calls were shouted by the mob to others ahead in my path and more bodies to my left were emerging even ahead of me as I ran..God knows what at this point, I knew this cannot last my escape had its limits. But, I saw some white uniforms ahead..the Royal Australian Navy in force. I reached them OK and explained the situation. They could see it anyway. It was at this point, even as I reflect now, that I had/have the time to -if I dare- ponder the coulda, woulda shoulda of the experience. Occurrences here happened in the village of Sembawang and Nee Soon on Singapore during the 1960's. RN Barracks HMS Terror and Simbang ANZUK barracks.

Comment by Andrew Weare ( Yao Xiang -ZBOHY ) on June 18, 2009 at 23:03

Robert, yes..scary times. 'MANDT' training explores well ,skill in thought and speech during confrontation. Scenarios vary and some I've seen were gory. Ex servicemen behind enemy lines, at some time in their lives, have confided in me considerable life or death dilemmas. Aikido is an art that evades attack. Original Ryu Te karate under 'Taika' Seiyu Oyata the Okinawan Master indeed the highest authority on Classical kara-te, the only surviving school, ( see websites for 'Oyata Ryu Te' ) as I was saying, Ryu Te karate attacks the attack. Such arts provide relief from extraneous fears and leaves one hopefully with plain fear and allows better judgements. I hold a nidan in Ryu Te, a shodan Wado-ryu karate and shodan Oikiru ryu Jiu Jitsu. Above all, I meditate zazen ..Live, love and grow. Namu Amidha Buddha.

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