SUMERU » Peace work

Every Lost Country

Yönten — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:10:58 +0000

Every Lost Country
Stephen Heighton
Knopf Canada, 2010
ISBN: 978-0307397393 (hardcover)
352 pages / Paperback and e-book available

From Quill & Quire:
High-altitude adventure meets morality tale in Steven Heighton’s third novel. While mountain climbing along the Nepal–Tibet border, an altruistic doctor named Lewis Book, his daughter, and a Chinese-Canadian filmmaker are drawn into an international crisis when they attempt to help a group of Tibetans fleeing Chinese authorities (the events are based on a real incident that occurred in 2006). Soon, the well-intentioned Westerners are also on the run, being chased through the mountains by ATVs, helicopter gunships, and even rocket-firing fighter jets. Meanwhile, in Nepal, Wade Lawson, the expedition’s leader, continues alone on his quest to conquer a dangerous peak.

There is nothing subtle about the moral map Heighton draws here. Lawson embodies pure will, a superman who wants to rise above petty and “soft” humanity. Dr. Book, formerly of Doctors Without Borders, is a humanitarian who can’t resist the impulse to reach out to others in need. Recurring motifs, like the safety rope that connects climbers to one another, help to make the point. Lawson sees this rope as a drag, something weighing him down. Elsewhere, however, the rope is likened to an umbilical cord, representative of human connection and responsibility. Survival is linked to love, family ties, cooperation, and mutual aid. Isolation – from the group, the tribe, the family – leads to death.

This is all rather obvious – reminiscent of Ian McEwan at his most schematic – and made more so by Heighton’s willingness to toss in the occasional heavy authorial pronouncement. There are, however, a lot of action scenes that keep driving up the tension along the parallel narrative tracks. The writing moves skilfully through a range of registers, from tragic to (darkly) comic, intimate to political. And the magnificent setting is dramatically evoked on a lush canvas.

Every Lost Country is an ambitious novel, at turns both rough around the edges and overpolished (the ending, in particular, is too tidy). But it has an expansive moral vision wedded to a thrilling plot. Perhaps not a match made in heaven, but one that works well enough.

Globe & Mail Review: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/article1560484.ece

Toronto Star Review: http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/article/809774–every-lost-country-drama-at-the-top-of-the-world

The original events which inspired this novel were witnessed by more than 100 people and captured on film. Details of that are available on YouTube, and were first covered on Sumeru in April of 2009. Here is our previous post on the subject: http://www.sumeru-books.com/2009/08/murder-in-the-snow/

Tibetan protest in Canada

Yönten — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 13:35:52 +0000

A week before PM Harper’s China visit, Tibetan Canadians urge him to support Tibet.

Buddhists weigh in on Canada’s new Office of Religious Freedom

Yönten — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 00:16:44 +0000

It hasn’t even opened, and Canada’s Office of Religious Freedom is already stirring up controversy. This article from the Toronto Star brings up some of the problems, and if you read between the lines, you can get some idea of Canadian Buddhists’ thoughts on the subject…

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1119007–does-the-office-of-religious-freedom-have-any-teeth

Corporate Craving and Buddhist Compassion

Yönten — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 11:53:29 +0000

UBC’s Buddhism and Contemporary Society Program presents a lecture by Jan W. Walls.

“Corporate Craving and Buddhist Compassion: Is There a Middle Ground for Buddhism in Business?”

Date: Thursday, 02 February 2012
Time: 5:00 – 7:00 PM
Place: Room 120, C.K. Choi Building, 1855 West Mall

Lectures are free and open to the public. Seating will be on a first-come first-serve basis.
To download a .pdf poster for printing: Jan W. Walls.

The choice of “Right Livelihood” is so important among primary Buddhist values that it has been enshrined in the Noble Eightfold Path. “Right Livelihood” does not exclude serving or owning a wealth-generating business, but the rightness of a livelihood is determined not by the amount of material wealth it produces, but rather by the well-being it generates. Since the business of businesses today is the pursuit of as much profit as markets and laws allow, isn’t “Buddhist business” an oxymoron by its very nature? In recent years, owing to widespread concern over “corporate greed”, many “ethical business” initiatives have emerged and continue to grow. Assuming that “ethical business” and “Buddhist business” should have much in common, this presentation looks at the diametrically different starting points of Buddhist thought and free enterprise corporate goals, then considers the recent ethical business movements in search of a future convergence of Buddhist ideals and corporate behavior.

After completing his B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Chinese and Japanese languages and literatures, Dr. Walls began his academic career teaching Chinese language and East Asian cultures at the University of British Columbia (1970-78) and the University of Victoria (1978-85). In addition to teaching at UVic, he founded and directed the Center for Pacific and Oriental Studies. From 1981 to 1983 he served as First Secretary for Cultural and Scientific Affairs at the Canadian Embassy in Beijing, and from 1985 to 1987 he was Senior Vice President of the newly established Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, where he founded and developed their first Education and Cultural Affairs programs.

In September, 1987, he joined Simon Fraser University, where he founded and directed a center for the interdisciplinary study of international, intercultural and interlingual communication at SFU’s Harbour Center campus in downtown Vancouver: the David Law Center for International Communication. He also founded and directed SFU’s Asia-Canada Program, an interdisciplinary minor or intensive minor program for undergraduate students.

He has published literary and cultural studies and translations, and lectured widely in the fields of East Asian languages and cultures, East-West intercultural communication, and the theory and practice of cross-cultural translation.

BCS Program lectures are made possible by the generous support of The Tung Lin Kok Yuen Canada Foundation.

Happy New Year

Yönten — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 19:58:36 +0000

With best wishes from Sumeru… Sentiments we share with the card’s creators at the Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance.

http://www.religioustolerance.org/

Buddhism and Terrorism

Yönten — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 23:54:51 +0000

Here’s a link to Wayne Codling’s guest blog in the Victoria Times Colonist: http://blogs.timescolonist.com/2011/09/10/buddhism-and-terrorism/

Buddhism after 9/11 survey

Yönten — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 18:21:04 +0000

This is Srisuda Hongthai from The Buddha Garden and I wanted you to know that we are conducting a survey on Buddhism in North America in the ten years since the 9/11 Tragedies, since many people found solace in the teachings of Buddhism after 9/11. The survey is at:

http://www.thebuddhagarden.com/911survey/

We are contacting you because we really would like input from Canadian Buddhists to help diversify the survey results.

We want to share with the Dharma community why so many people become interested in Buddhism after the 9/11 attacks? Does Buddhism still play a role in their lives ten years after the attacks? How do the attitudes of new Buddhists differ from those who were Buddhists before 9/11?

Will you kindly let others know about the survey by mentioning it on your blog, FaceBook or Twitter? The more people who take the survey, the better we will ALL understand how Buddhism is viewed in the decade after September 11th.

Thank in advance. Every mention of the survey helps the Buddhist community.

Sawasdee Kha,
Srisuda Hongthai
The Buddha Garden

4 Paths to Peace – Dalai Lama @ Vancouver Peace Summit

Yönten — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 16:22:45 +0000

4 Paths to Peace: Inspiration from the Dalai Lama is a documentary film that chronicles His Holiness the Dalai Lama at the Vancouver Peace Summit and the personal journeys of four summit attendees who try to learn from the Dalai Lama, Nobel Laureates and other eminent speakers to put words into action in their own lives. The Vancouver Peace Summit took place in 2009; the DVDs (produced and developed in association with CTV) of the event have only recently been completed and released. Here is the link:

http://www.4pathstopeace.com/

Ven. Sik Yin Kit on teaching the dhamma in Canadian prisons

Yönten — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 01:46:32 +0000

Here’s a 50-minute video of a talk by the abbess of the Po Lam Nunnery in Chilliwack, speaking about Buddhist chaplaincy in the Canadian prison system. Her talk was given at the University of British Columbia to about 90 people last March.

http://ubcbuddhism.wordpress.com/2011/07/11/1578/

The UBC’s Buddhism and Contemporary Society program also ran a workshop in connection with Ven. Sik Yin Kit’s talk, entitled: Buddhists working in Prison, Corrections, and Rehabilitation: Volunteers, Chaplains and Teachers.

http://ubcbuddhism.wordpress.com/2011/06/22/1581/

Aung San Suu Kyi released, 2202 more prisoners to go

Yönten — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 13:04:21 +0000

The world is grateful for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi today.

Thousands of other political prisoners remain behind bars in Burma. (http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/index.php/news-and-reports/news-stories/aung-san-suu-kyi-released-1-down-2202-to-go/2)