a message from the editors

To our loyal readers and supporters,

Prapañca is unfortunately, officially, on hiatus. Whereas we have received wonderful and deeply appreciated support from our readers, we find ourselves a bit overwhelmed and understaffed at present to bring to you a third installment of Prapañca.

We have always believed in the intent and mission of this project; namely, we wanted to bring to the wider American Buddhist community voices and perspectives not often heard in traditional Buddhist media outlets. Combining these voices with strong editorial oversight we felt would be an ideal way to raise the tenor of the conversation about Buddhism in this corner of the world, move beyond the surface level conversations about “mindful driving,” on the one hand, and the petty bickering one usually finds on the Web, on the other.

A lofty goal, to be sure, but one certainly worth working for, one worth championing.

We know the following: first, we’re proud of what we’ve accomplished this year, and we think that we have, in some small way, attained that lofty goal; second, we’re not done yet. We hope to bring the journal back in the new year, reinvigorated, while remaining committed to bringing our loyal readers good quality Buddhist writing, the kind you just can’t find anywhere else.

So please stay tuned for updates in the new year. And, as always, if you want to be a part of this project, if you want to contribute in any way possible, please reach out to us a playofwords [at] prapancajournal dot com or via Facebook or Twitter.

Thanks for all your support!
the editors

Inception

A little late for the summer blockbusters we know, but let’s face it: Christopher Nolan’s powerful film Inception is going to be talked about for some time to come, especially amongst us Buddhists who find in its exploration of the mind many Buddhist themes. New contributor Dillon Wallin reviews the film for this issue of Prapañca. (And we have a feeling we’ll be hearing more from Dillon in future issues!)

Read his review here.

Poetry in this issue

This issue of Prapañca features a number of wonderful poems (apart from Lucile Clifton’s of course!) Check out each of these amazing poems here:

• Honey
• Haiku
• Robin’s Nest
• spine

Generation Buddhist

This issue of Prapañca features the first column in a forthcoming series that will explore the experiences of these young Buddhist practitioners by Phu Ly.

These alumni are high achievers by any reasonable standard. Trent is publishing a book on Cambodian Buddhist chanting, Shari sits as vice-president for academic affairs at a Buddhist university, while David has undertaken novice precepts in pursuit of a lifelong monastic vocation. Not only are they committed practitioners, these individuals have fully immersed themselves—and their careers—in both Buddhism and Buddhist institutions. But I was even more intrigued by something else these young Buddhists had in common: each one of them has in the past served as a leader of the student-led Buddhist Community at Stanford.

Read this column here.

Public Art, Buddhist Art

Reflections on Three Heads, Six Arms, by Scott Mitchell

Zhang Huan’s performance art piece Dream of Dragon, performed at the San Francisco Asian Art Museum in 1999, involved the artist laying on tree branches, naked, and covered in dog food. A pack of nine dogs were then allowed to lick the food off his body. (One dog purportedly bit him.) Five years later, his installation piece, Dharma Circle, premiered in Frankfurt, Germany. Dharma Circle featured a Buddha statue half-buried in sand under a small spotlight, facing itself in a mirror. This was the first time that a Buddhist image manifested itself in Zhang’s work, and it represented a turning point in his personal life when he formally took on a Buddhist practice.

Read the rest of this article here.

Ten Oxherding Picture

In this issue of Prapañca, we are pleased not only to present Lucille Clifton’s wonderful poem, “a meditation on ten oxherding pictures,” but also Qiana Whitted’s reflections on this poem in her recurring column, Middle Passages.

Qiana writes:

Ultimately, the Zen Oxherding Pictures are an invitation to all seekers on the Middle Path. Its fundamental truths emerge in any adaptation, whether interpreted through story, as in Charles Johnson’s novel of the same name, or through modern art, as in the images and media currently on display at The Japan Society in New York. But Clifton’s poem also asks us to consider how cultural difference might shape her insights along the way: what does it mean for a black woman poet to be an Ox Herder? How does she relinquish the notion of an inherently existent self that is often regarded in African American feminist traditions as a hidden treasure to be found, asserted with pride, and protected from harm? What is to be gained by conceding such a hard-won claim to her name, her story?

Be sure to check out the Middle Passages column here and read Lucille Clifton’s poem here.

(And don’t forget to click the images on those pages to view a slide show of the original oxherding pictures!)

Six Questions for the Buddha-statue Girl

Ikumi Hirose, the Buddha-statue Girl by Naoyuki Ogi.

At the forefront of this new trend is the so-called “Butsuzo Girl,” or Buddha-statue Girl, a thirty-year-old woman by the name of Ikumi Hirose. She’s been promoting Buddha statues for the last few years, traveling from one end of the country to the other, visiting temples and shrines, giving lectures, and spreading her enthusiasm for Buddha images. Her second book on the subject, Dekakeru Kanziru Kitto Deaeru Butsuzo no Tabi, was recently published by Yama to Keikokusha publishers. Earlier this year, I had a chance to sit down with her in Tokyo and talk with her about this new-found interest in Buddha statues and Buddhism in Japan, and her work in helping to promote the Buddha’s teachings.

Read the rest of this article here.

art and culture round up

Here’s a little round-up of some Buddhist art and culture news for your weekend. Enjoy!

• Theravada Buddhist Temple gains approval for construction in Raynham, Massachusetts
• The third Melbourne Buddhist Film
• The Trailer for Michael Imperioli’s The Hungry Ghosts
• What is the sound of one hand clapping?
• 1,800-yr-old Buddha statue excavated

Attraversiamo!

Engaging Metta through Buddhist Pedagogy and Eat, Pray, Love by Jessica Labbé.

In “Book I: Italy” of her best-selling memoir Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert becomes infatuated with the Italian phrase “Attraversiamo,” which Giovanni, her Tandem Exchange Partner, utters as they are crossing the street one evening. Claiming that it is the perfect blend of Italian sounds (72), Gilbert uses the phrase continuously to the humorous exasperation of her friends. Though Gilbert comments on her love for the word, she does not mention that the act of crossing over is very much at the core of her—or really anyone’s—exploration, whether that exploration is personal, spiritual, cultural, or psychological. If we ever want to grow or change or improve, we will inevitably need to cross the metaphorical “street” and take our chances on the other side. And, conveniently enough, this crossing over is at the heart of Gilbert’s memoir along with the very notion of Buddhist pedagogy, thereby making them complementary subjects for this essay. More specifically, this article investigates how teaching can be a form of metta, how metta can inform teaching, and how Eat, Pray, Love serves as an effective teaching tool for engaging Buddhist pedagogy through insights gleaned by teaching the book in my own women writers course.

Read the rest of this article here.

The Luxury of Masochism

It Costs a Lot of Money to Feel This Cheap by Bija Andrew Wright.

It takes a certain kind of affluence to pursue deprivation as an entertaining pastime. It’s the luxury of masochism. You see it in the “trustafarians,” those young people who get significant funding from their affluent parents, but choose to cultivate an image of bohemian poverty. In one way, perhaps it’s liberating — rather than buying sensible shoes so that you can get a job so that you can afford more sensible shoes, you just let yourself be. But if you take it as a sign of authenticity or cachet, if you think you’ve shown greater moral character by proving that you can go on a four-week trip with only one change of clothes, it’s not.

Read the rest of this piece by Bija Andrew Wright here.