If you don't have the time or money to make a pilgrimage to the Vishwanath Temple in Varanasi, India, to offer your prayer, you can outsource your obeisances to a cyber-priest.

The temple went online in August and within a month received 180,000 hits on its Web site, www.shrikashivishwanath.org. That is more than double the average number of devotees who show up in person every month, braving difficult journeys, the smelly narrow alleys leading to the temple, the security pat-downs outside the entrance and the vendors hawking sweets, marigolds and jasmine, and other religious paraphernalia.

Cyber-worshipers can be spared all of that - and in the bargain save time, a commodity in increasingly short supply for the growing cohort of middle-class Indians busy with the trappings of secular affluence, from attending cocktail parties to shuttling their children to after-school tutorials.

To learn more, click here.

Deadline May 15, 2008

 

Presence: An International Journal of Spiritual Direction announces its fourth annual juried poetry contest.

 

The grand prize winner will be awarded a $100.00 USD cash prize. Three runners-up will receive $ 75.00 USD each.

The top four selections will be published in the September, December, March, and June issues of Presence respectively. A number of honorable mentions will also be featured in future publications of Spiritual Directors International.

Anyone may enter. However here are a few essential criteria to follow. 

• Only one poem per person is allowed.
• Poems may be no longer than 30 lines.
• Only previously unpublished poetry can be entered.
• Poems may not be submitted to other publications until after the results of the Presence Poetry Contest are announced.
• Poems chosen for publication in Presence may not be submitted to other publications until after publication in Presence.
• Poems should pertain to a spiritual theme or should relate to spiritual direction.
• All poems must be submitted by e-mail, as an attachment, preferably in MS Word form.

• Write “Presence Poetry Contest” in the subject line.

• DO NOT INCLUDE ANY IDENTIFYING INFORMATION IN THE ATTACHMENT OTHER THAN
  • THE POEM TITLE
  • THE POEM ITSELF
  • DO NOT INCLUDE YOUR NAME ON THE ATTACHMENT

The poems will be judged anonymously by a three judge panel. 

Include all of the following information in the body of the e-mail submission:

• Name of Poet
• Name of Poem
• E-mail address
• Country 

ALL POEMS SUBMITTED WILL BE ACKNOWLEDGED. HOWEVER ONLY SUBMISSIONS WHICH CONFORM STRICTLY TO THE CRITERIA ABOVE WILL BE JUDGED.

Okay, this last part is the most important:

E-mail your poem to poetrycontest@sdiworld.org.

If you send them to any other e-mail, there is a high likelihood they will wind up in poetry heaven but not in the poetry contest. Good luck!

 

 

The New York Times recently published a story on Kyozan Joshu Sasaki Roshi, a 100-year-old Rinzai Zen master.

Forty-five years after arriving in the United States at 55 with no English but two dictionaries tucked into his robe sleeves, Roshi, or "venerable teacher," the honorific by which he is widely known, is still going strong, traveling from his base in California to more than a dozen Zen centers he opened or inspired around the country, ordaining priests -- more than 25 to date -- and challenging students with Buddhist-style tough love.

"Enlightenment? I don't like this subject at all," Joshu Roshi said, speaking in Japanese through his interpreter and chuckling softly in a rare interview. "I bet you can find all sorts of different descriptions of it in the bookstore."

Read more about Joshu Roshi here.

Jayarava, a western Buddhist, points out the primacy of practice over text in Buddihst teaching.

I love the Buddhist scriptures, and value them both as spiritual inspiration and as literature. But I believe that what we Buddhists actually do is far more important than what we believe. The scriptures may well contain echoes of the words of the Buddha, but there is no substitute for practice, and the instruction of a more experienced spiritual friend. If, in the end, what works is in contradiction to the texts, then we must follow our insights, as the composers of the later Buddhist texts did. Buddhism is founded on principles, not on texts. Buddhist fundamentalism can never be justified in terms of Buddhist principles.

Click here to read more of what he has to say.

A British Buddhist, living and teaching in Ubon, Northeast Thailand, recently commented on the six kinds of reverence in Buddhist practice. My favorite is number six, reverence for hospitality.

Being a good host to everyone that comes our way is a fuller way to live out this particular kind of reverent behavior. Seeing everyone as my guest, to whom I should be a generous host and make them feel comfortable and happy.

Click hereto see all six.

The Jerusalem Post reported yesterday about a campaign to encourage Jews around the world to light one less candle for Hanukka to help the environment.

The founders of the Green Hanukka campaign found that every candle that burns completely produces 15 grams of carbon dioxide. If an estimated one million Israeli households light for eight days, they said, it would do significant damage to the atmosphere.

However, everyone is not every is happy about the campaign.

Rabbi Benny Lau of Jerusalem's Ramban Congregation, who is himself an environmental activist, praised the good intentions of the people behind the campaign. But he said the environmentalists should be trying to reach out to observant Jews instead of running campaigns that turn them away.

You can read all about it here.