Today, a smattering of news culled from the wonderful World Wide Web:
WHILE in Japan, President Obama enjoyed some green tea ice cream and revisited the Great Buddha of Kamakura.
I’VE written about Sulak Sivaraksa before, here and here. He’s a activist-economist-philosopher and Buddhist from Thailand, and has one of the most relevant and thoughtful voices out there. I really like him and I’m not alone. So do the Dalai Lama, Aung San Suu San Kyi, Thich Nhat Hanh and many others. You can read their comments about Sivaraksa here.
This week the Huffington Post ran an interview with this great peacemaker, conducted by Katherine Marshall. He relates some of his biography and speaks a bit about Buddhism, offering thoughts such as this: 
To make a long story short, I feel that to practice Buddhism, you must care not only for yourself but for society. To be Buddhist, you should not only adhere to the main teachings — not killing, stealing, having sexual misconducts or lying — but you also have to consciously distance yourself from the structures of violence that frame our lives. You may not kill directly, but you kill through the social structure. You don’t steal directly, but you let the bank steal. So, I became more involved in addressing what you could term “structural violence.”
Read the entire interview here.
SPEAKING of Aung San Suu Kyi, here’s what has happened since her release a week ago: Burmese Aids patients ordered to leave shelter after Aung San Suu Kyi visit; Lady of Burma Aung San Suu Kyi counts the true cost of isolation; Suu Kyi sees military role in democratic Myanmar; and UN chief, Suu Kyi hold first phone call.
ON a completely different note, according to Kenki Sato, horse riding “gels well with Buddhism”.
I’VE lamented the use of the word “Zen” in marketing and poked fun at articles with “Zen of” and “Zen and” whatever-one-is-promoting in the title, but this is one case I’m willing to overlook: a review of Begin Again, A Biography of John Cage By Kenneth Silverman, in the NY Times entitled “The Zen of Silence”.
IN the healthy and green living section of care2.com, Marc Lesser offers 3 Radically Simple Zen Lessons.
WHILE in Grand Rapids, be sure to check out The Funky Buddha Yoga Hothouse.
IN Georgia, it’s Buddha vs. Jesus.
FINALLY, your heart really goes out to this poor woman: Enters hospital for minor gynecological procedure, leaves as double leg amputee.
