dr. ambedkar's message for social justice was not limited to his own community, those considered 'untouchable" in india. his vision was of the freedom and dignity of all people, a truly international message. as proof of the power and timelessness of this message, there is a growing jai bhim movement among the gypsy community in hungary, buddhists who feel more connected to the tbmsg buddhist movement in india than with western buddhism.

our friend from india, ashwin jangam, visited hungary in 2007 and is there again now. below is an excerpt from his 2007 journal about his first visit. we'll be crossing paths with ashwin next week in northeast hungary and will report back about that meeting. sadhu ashwin. sadhu janos and tibor, the pioneers of this important human rights work in hungary, following in the footsteps of dr. ambedkar, creating new dharmic pathways . jai bhim!

"Ashwin Jangam’s Diary (2007)

"I was invited by Derdak Tibor and Orsos Janos in Hungary to see the Gypsy people and their life.I Stayed in my friend Orosos Janos house.Derdak Tibor and Orsos Janos want to make strong relation with the T.B.M.S.G.Buddhist community. So that they have invited me there to see the same problems they have which we Dalit people was experience 75 years ago.T.B.M.S.G. is Buddhist Ambedkarites movement. Orsos Janos want to establised like this organisation in hungary for the Roma/Gypsy people. Orsos Janos is the founder president of “Jaibhim Network”.Derdak Tibor and Orsos Janos work together for the Gypsy poor people to uplift their living standard.

Living with Gypsy Family
"In Hungary, I lived with the Gypsy family about 2 & 1/2 month.This family name is Orsos Family. This family is of my friend Janos.In this familys members are so lovely and kind with me. we could say that this family is combilne family like indian family. They also work together and feel happy life. In this home have his mother who is very much kind and his friend Derdak Tibor who is white hungarian man. In the world it is very rare to discover that one white hungarian living in the Gypsies house. Janos and Tibor are very good and best friends.
And i was also the member of this beautiful and big family. In every morning Janos mother make breakfast for me. She dont know really how to make vegetarian food but she tried to make it for me. All time she thinking of me how could she make the different vegetarian food for me. She dont know the english language but by the body language she try to asked me what is my need.

Gypsy Villages
"In Hungary, I saw most of the Gypsies are without schooling,good housing and any kind of social security. Gypsy people lived segregated from Hungarian white peoples society. The professional life of Gypsy people are different than the rest of the Hungarian people life. These people dont have work/business. I have seen Gypsy/Roma families in villages like Manfa,Hidas,Alsszenmarton,Sajokaza,orsovadaz. Family plays a large role in their life.

"Roma/Gypsy language is quite similar with the India language.In indian Marathi,Hindi aek,don,tin,char,panch,aakh,kale baal.In english one,two,three,four,five,eye,black hair.In roma/gypsy language aeki,doei,three,star,panch,aakh,kale baal.So these Roma/Gypsy like words are very simmiler and easy for me to understand than hungarian language.Sometime Tibor,Janos,and Boda peter teached me about similarities of words.They come here form our indian family because their language,skin colour and family life style is same like indian people.

Gypsy People
"Unemployment is another major problems in gypsy people due to the lack of education. sometime they have employmebt in entatainment, farm work, shop cleaner. I did not find there a single gypsy man who have good business/work.In hungary,G ypsy people have the nationality of Hungary so they called as Hungarian Gypsy. If they went to search the job in cities like Budapest or Pecs then they need to keep their identity card to show the police that they have nationality and they are not criminals.These people looks different than Hungarian white people,it is easy to differentiate between them.

"Once I and my friend Janos Orsos was travalling in Budapest by city bus.We was waiting for the city bus at the Bus stop,after sometime police car come near to us and asked us`show the identity card`. policemen did not asked other white people over there but they asked us because of diferent skin colour. Janos told me if he want to come in Budapest or like this cities then he should have to keep his identity card to show policemen to ensure that he is not belongs to criminal. Every time police and white people discriminate. He told if he travelled from the bus,no one like to sit near to him. So that they called themselves the untouchables of Hungary.

School Of Gypsy
"Tibor and Janos opened school in Alsoszentmarton, Tomor, Sajokaza. Little tiger school is in Alsoszentmarton. here are 1200 population of Gypsies.I n this year 1 saptember 2007 opened new school in tomor and Sajokaza.This school name is Dr.Ambedker school.This school running under the Jaibhim Network. Derdak Tibor is the director of the Dr.Ambedker school. Tibor and Janos goes different villages to search Gypsies children who dont have education or elder people who has left the school. They encourage them to start their studies of their school.

"1 to 2 percentage of gypsy people get education. Tibor told me why they opened school? His plan to send gypsy youngstars to universities and colleges.Village schools and Teachers dont send them even to secondary school education that is why Dr.Ambedkar ideology is needed for us. Educate, Organise and Agitate 'We went in very poor family in orsovadaz to serch students for the Dr.Ambedkar school. Now Dr.Ambedker school has 100 students in this year.Dr.Ambedkar school opened this year and have very good response of the students.'

"Janos and Tibor are worked and going on the foot step of Dr.Ambedkar. We Dalit people did not have housing,education and employment but Dr.Ambedkar shown us the way of education and given equal rights in constitution so now we get respect and eqality by non Dalit people.

"This small root of education which is planted by Janos Orsos and Derdak Tibor is growing now.In future Non gypsy people will be prepared to accept Roma/Gypsy people as they are,because of gypsies education."

This winter Jai Bhim International's Board member Maitriveer Nagarjuna was working tirelessly to take the Buddhist Dhamma on the road. He organized public talks, retreats and workshops all over north India, from late January until early March, which were led by Dhammachari Subhuti. See fotos and read about their traveling Dhamma on The Dhammachakra Buddhist Center's blog:
http://dhammachakra.livejournal.com/2463.html
Sadhu to all of our Buddhist Friends in North India for planting the seeds of a Dhamma Revolution!

TED is coming to india!
http://conferences.ted.com/TEDIndia/

according to the ted website: "TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out, in 1984, as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader. The annual conference now brings together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes)."

previous ted talks are downloadable here: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/list
and you can choose talks according to those deemed "most inspiring", "most beautiful", or "most persuasive".

ted india will be in mysore november 4 -7. they are accepting applications for 100 fellows, and the application process opens april 20th. take a look at the fellows link:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/pages/view/id/242

thanks to dh. vajradarshini for sharing this information with jai bhim international.

"brave new voices" is a new film about the youth speaks spoken word project in san francisco, and other cities as well.
http://www.beyondchron.org/articles/Brave_New_Voices_Come_to_the_Kabuki_Sundance_6752.html
their project inspires me. i wonder...how could we create a poetry/spoken word jai bhim project with indian youth?

i am feeling very inspired by an interview i just heard on the radio with jean shinoda-bolen about social change. she said to create effective, long-lasting social change all of our projects must have 3 components. they must be personally-meaningful, they must be fun, and they must be motivated by love.
that rang true for me. it is how i feel about the launch of jai bhim international.

i have just written an article for the connecticut college alumni magazine about our work here at jai bhim international, as a way of getting the word out about what we are doing and building community.take a look and give us your feedback:
http://www.jaibhiminternational.org/article

happy first day of spring!

just returned from a wonderful sfbc retreat, "recollecting the buddha", led by dh. shantinayaka, down in the santa cruz mountains. gazing at different buddha images in the beautiful book "buddha radiant awakening" (edited by jack menzies) i came across some images of the medicine buddha, the blue buddha of the 5 buddha family. the description on these pages had some fascinating information about the buddhist view on medicine and public health. the quote below echoes dr. ambedkar's views on how cruel caste has been, and his own urgency in converting to buddhism for the betterment of indian society.

"buddha's personal interest in the purity of both the body and mind or thought is well attested in literaure. it was clear to him that without physical well-being one could not endure the strains and stresses of an austere life necessary for meditative practices and mental development."

"according to the pali canon, medicine, along with robes, food and lodging, was a requisite for life. indeed, medicine has also remained one of the five 'sciences' to be studied by a monk aspiring to be a bodhisattva. as keeneth zysk has noted in his extensive study of healing and medicine in india, buddhist monks were on the vanguard of developing the tradition of empirico-rational medicine in the country. pre-buddhist medicine, as we know from vedic literature, was largely magico-religious. indeed, medical practice was forbidden for brahmins, and physicians were considered impure as they 'roam with humans'.

"had he not converted to buddhism, it is unlikely that the maurya emperor ashoka (reigned 268 - 233 bce) would have been so ardent a supporter of public health for both humans and animals."

our friends in india are grieving the loss of dhammachari akashabodhi, an order member from pune. i have never met dh. akashabodhi, but i know that his death of a heart attack comes as a great shock to all who knew him. i feel personally connected through our friends in india, and also because he died on wednesday, the same day my own father went into the hospital for unexpected open heart surgery. my family is very lucky that our father is now okay, and should be released from the hospital in another day or two. we send our love to all who knew dh. akashabodhi and share in your sadness. below is a copy of the death announcement from the fwbo news blog, written by dhammachari amrutdeep. with metta, ann in san francisco

"This is to inform you of the extremely sad news of the death of D. Akashabodhi died at approximately 7.00 a.m. Indian time on Wednesday March 11th. He died of a sudden and unexpected heart attack.

"Akashabodhi was aged 49, and he was ordained in 1994, with Suvajra as his private preceptor and Subhuti as his public preceptor. His sadhana was Sakyamuni.The funeral took place the same evening , first at the Mahavihara and then at the nearby cremation ghat. There were maybe 3,000 people present, from Dapodi and surrounding areas where he was very well known and much respected and loved, and also from many other parts of Maharastra as people had set out for Pune immediately on hearing the shocking news of his death.

"Only last night Akashabodhi had given a vote of thanks after a talk by Sudarshan on the occasion of the 19th anniversary of the inauguration of the Mahavihara, and then he joined others in performing a song of Maitri. Those who heard him said that he was in a very positive mental state indeed. The previous week he had been at the International Convention at Bodhgaya which he found greatly inspiring and immediately preceding this he had visited Sarnath, Vaishali and Nalanda with friends.

"Akasabodhi was a poet and singer, a hugely friendly man who made strong connections not only with many Order members but also with those from other Buddhist groups and political parties, and always he made friends not only with individuals but also with their whole families. For several years he was Chairman of our centre in Dapodi (Mahavihara).

"It's very shocking for us that Akashabodhi has left us, especially so suddenly, and he is going to be greatly missed.

Yours in the Sangha, Dhammachari Amrutdeep,
Co-ordinator of Order Convening Team, India.

good news today from the internal revenue service. wait...isn't that an oxymoron? well, the good news is that we are now an official non-profit corporation, and have been granted "501c3 status". what a relief! this means that all contributions to our jai bhim international, effective july 24th of 2008, are tax-deductible. jai bhim!

the other night i heard greg mortenson speak at city college, and felt very inspired listening to him tell of his life's journey. the book "three cups of tea" describes mortenson's climb up k2, the 2nd highest mountain range in the world, getting lost on his descent and being rescued by a local mountain village, his return to this village to build a school, and his life's work to follow, establishing the central asia institute, to go on to build schools in other mountain villages across pakistan and afghanistan.

the book outlines this journey, but in person mortenson truly embodies the vision and the humanity behind the story. he is a big, gentle man, funny, humble, passionate and a bit mischevious. he is so committed to education as the path to peace, and particularly to educating girls. he said that when you educate girls, to at least a 5th grade level, you reduce infant mortality, reduce the population explosion, and improve the basic qualities of health and life itself. when you educate girls the girls read to their mothers and educate them. in "jihad" areas a young man must get the blessing from his mother to go on a jihad, and an educated woman in less likely to give this blessing to her sons. mortenson said that the former taliban members who have since become great advocates for education in these remote mountain regions had mothers who did not support what they were doing on jihad.

religious extremists understand the power of educating girls and women. the bad news is that since 2007 over 480, mostly girls', schools have been bombed, destroyed or shut down by the taliban or other jihad groups. they know in their hearts the truth of the islamic proverb "the ink of a scholar is more powerful than the blood of a soldier". the good news is that in the year 2000 800,000, mostly boys, attended school in afghanistan. in 2008 7.2 million children attend school there, including over 2 million girls. this is the greatest increase in school enrollment in modern history anywhere in the world!

one of several highlights of the night was seeing the slides of all the beautiful children's faces, the communities building their schools, and the magnificent mountain scenery, in pakistan and afghanistan. there was also a video of mortenson with his gorgeus young daughter (who is only a newborn baby in the book!) talking about their "pennies for peace" project, where american schoolchildren donate their pennies to build new schools in central asia. the project also encourges children to start their own projects in their own communities, which they have done with impressive success.

mortenson told how his initial support came from a 4th grader at a school in the american midwest, where his mother was the principal. mortenson had unsuccessfully been trying to fundraise and build support for his new project all over the country. this child heard mortenson talk, and brought his piggy bank to offer. other children followed, and in 6 weeks the children had brought in 6,234 pennies, totaling $623.40, beginning the work of the central asia institute. it is poignant that it was the children who understood mortenson's mission and were his first supporters. "pennies for peace" began with the support of 270 schools, has grown to 3,500 schools, and by next year will include 15,000 schools! "when kids get onto a mission," he said "get out of the way!"

throughout the evening mortenson kept relating the importance of education in promoting and building peace, and that peace must not be based in fear and anxiety, but in HOPE. jai bhim!

tonight in san francisco i will be going to hear greg mortenson speak at city college. greg is a mountaineer who has built community schools in the mountain communities of pakistan and afghanistan. his journey is described in the book "three cups of tea", which i was reading last summer as i began our work developing jai bhim international. the book describes 2 of my city college colleagues, joy and bob, who traveled to central asia with greg to train teachers in these new local schools. joy and bob are now on our english teachers' advisory board, helping jai bhim international in our vision for our own community english project in india's dalit communities.

to learn more about greg mortenson and his organization, the central asia institute go to: https://www.ikat.org/
jai bhim!

take a peek at the link for the youth poetry slam happening this month in san francisco: http://www.youthspeaks.org/

our friends in the western buddhist order and tbmsg are gathering this week in bodh gaya for an international order convention. we are getting news that it is amazing there, very powerful.
here is an entry from the fwbo blog:
http://www.fwbo-news.org/2009/02/order-convention-at-bodh-gaya.html

in december jai bhim international gave scholarships to 10 students in bodh gaya to attend the annual nnby convention in bor dharan. we were so impressed by these students, several of them living cooperatively and building sangha in their community. even though bodh gaya is the place where the buddha gained enlightenment, it is now a very poor area and the people there really struggle. we hope to work more closely with our friends in bodh gaya this year to support the amazing work they are doing and to collaborate on our community english project. jai bhim to everyone in bodh gaya!

i am curious about these protests in india, over slumdog millionaire, organized by the "slumdwellers action committee". they accuse danny boyle of making "povety porn". take a look at the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCLyx0gzW_k
myself, i loved the movie. what do you think?

here in san francisco folks are preparing for the oscars tomorrow night, and talking about the movie "slumdog millionaire", shot in mumbai. here is an entry from the fwbo blog about the film's director danny boyle, who is a supporter of the karuna trust:
http://www.fwbo-news.org/2009/02/karuna-supporter-danny-boyle-directs.html
sadhu danny boyle!

it is raining here in san francisco, and i am preparing to head off this afternoon to the santa cruz mountains for a 4-day retreat with the north american women's sangha of the fwbo. in india, our friends in delhi at the dhammachakra buddhist center have been busy with subhuti's tour. their retreat in delhi was a success, and now maitriveer nagarjuna is traveling with subhuti and dharmashalin through rajasthan. i so enjoyed my own visits in north india in january, and am looking forward to returning there later this year for new jai bhim international projects.

here at our headquarters in the u.s. i have been busy with paperwork. sadly it is much less glamorous than traveling through india! but we are lucky to have the generous help of sarah brown, one of our board members, who finished our accounting for 2008. happily, we finished the year with a surplus of nearly $280! i will be posting all of our expenses on the website next week, so our supporters can see how our money is being spent. now we are gathering all our documentation together to being to prepare our taxes for the first time, with the help of our bookkeeping ally victoria. it sure helps to know people who understand finance!

in october we submitted our 1023 form to the internal revenue service, for non-profit 501-c3 status. this week we heard back that they require more documentation from us, so i have been writing detailed reports of our 2008 projects and proposals for 2009, as well as a more itemized budget and financial projections for the next 2 years. it is always daunting doing official paperwork, but i am seeing it as a learning opportunity. every time we prepare official documents it is a chance for us to get clearer about our mission anf our vision, and check that there is clarity in how we are operating. thanks i.r.s.!

take a look at the latest posting on the fwbo blog about buddhism alive and well in delhi, bodh gaya and tamil nadu.
http://www.fwbo-news.org/2009/02/tbmsg-activities-expanding-in-north.html

one of our videos is now on youtube, thanks to our friend dharmashalin in india, depite working in often very low-tech conditions! share the link with your friends:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzLl-zHRQa4

dharmashalin also put together a nice little video from the nnby retreat in december at bor dharan:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FfbxdXzIhc
enjoy!

my fabulous colleagues at city college of san francisco have shown a lot of curiosity and support for our jai bhim international projects. last week they asked me to make a presentation about my recent trip so they could learn more. we celebrated the occasion by sharing some indian take-away and i gave some background on the caste system, the life and work of dr. amedkar, and the vision for jai bhim international. it was a pretty informal presentation, but the group was spirited and full of questions, such as, "how do indians know one another's caste?" "how have things changed in india in terms of caste?" and "how was ambedakr able to be educated despite his low-caste identity?"

since that afternoon the faculty development committee has asked me to make more presentations to our faculty at other campuses! i am very excited about this new project and so grateful for the support. reaching educators is at the core of our work. teacher training is central to getting the word out about dr. ambedkar in the west, and aslo for building our community english project in india. i feel very honored to be working in this field, the field of teachers who consider themselves lifelong learners.

this week is the "dhammakranti mahashivir", a large buddhist retreat in delhi, organized by our friends at the dhammachakra buddhist center. subhuti will be leading this retreat, and soon we will be posting updates from maitriveer nagarjuna and the delhi sangha.

in the meantime, our friend dharmashalin has posted news of subhuti's tour of india on the fwbo site this week:
http://www.fwbo-news.org/2009/01/news-from-india-dhamma-talks-and-tours.html .
i was on retreat with both subhuti and dharmashalin at the nnby conference in december. while there i learned so much more about dr. ambedkar, got a chance to practice meditation and the buddhist dhamma with the indian sangha, and most of all, deepen my friendships with the youth on retreat.

on this last visit to india i spent time in both central india and northern india. nagpur is the geographic center of india in the state of maharastra. it is dr. ambedkar's "diksha bhumi", the place where he converted to buddhism. there is a stupa there to mark this site, and nearby is the tbmsg's nagaloka center, as well as the dragon palace, a beautiful taiwanese buddhist temple. ambedkar's influence is strongly felt in nagpur, actually throughout the state of mahrastra, where the dalit buddhist community is very organized. the nagpur airport is named after dr. amedkaar and there are statues and other images of ambedkar throughout the city. in north india, by contrast, the dalit community is a minority, and dalit buddhists organize on their own, or in very small groups. buddhist ambedkarites are in north india within a hindu fundamentalist context, and there are many challenges to their work. for this reason i was very impressed by my committed buddhist friends who are in delhi, as well as in towns and villages across north india. i saw for myself how hard they are working to spread the dharma in this area, often with very little support.

in delhi i re-connected with my friends at the new dhammachakra buddhist center. it is a lovely sangha emerging there, organized by one order member, dh. maitriveer nagarjuna, near the jnu campus. the dhamma mitras are university students and recent university graduates, and local people from the community also attend their sangha events. i was delighted to witness the cooperation on display in this emerging sangha.

also in delhi i met with dhamma mitras who are creating a right livelihood business, encouraging one another to study foreign languages, such as german and korean, to build a tour company that offers ethical travel packages to westerners. their specialty is tours to sacred buddhist sites, and includes accurate buddhist history, opportunities for travelers to meditate and do puja with local buddhists, and discussions on dr. ambedkar and the revival of buddhism in modern india. i saw for myself how tough life is in delhi, for both local residents and for tourists! in my experience, tour operators there can be quite aggressive, and often rather dishonest. i am very eager to connect my western buddhist friends with these young buddhist entrepreneurs as an alternative, as a means of promoting ethical travel, and also a way to keep our money flowing through the local buddhist economy.

outside of delhi i visited some north indian villages, which i loved. modinagar is an hour away from delhi, and the local sangha there had a celebration on the grounds of a buddhist orphanage. it was a festive day with presentations of drama, poetry, speeches and song, praising dr. ambedkar and teaching the dharma. i was received warmly as their guest, and the garland they presented me was woven from marigolds grown right there in their own garden. i loved the warmth and generosity of the local people i met, and felt the buddhist spirit very much alive in their gathering. i was also very moved by the beautiful ragas people sang and played on traditional instruments.

another village, bharat pur, rajasthan, is the site of a magnificent bird sanctuary, one of the most renowned bird parks in the world. in bharat pur we met local buddhists in their homes, in preparation for subhuti's visit there. they fed us well and took us on a tour of the local school where subhuti would be speaking. that night we gathered with local villagers for a short dharma talk by nagarjuna, and a little presentation by me about jai bhim international. this small gathering was very powerful for me. i imagine us bringing our community english project to communities just like this one.

now nagarjuna and the dhammachakra buddhist center are busy preparing for a 4-day retreat with subhuti in delhi next week, and also arranging the details of the rest of his tour, in places like modinagar and bharat pur. it is exciting to think of the buddhist dharma returning to the north of india, and impressive and humbling to be practicing with people who are committing themselves so whole-heartedly to this work.


see fotos from our time in delhi on our website:
http://www.jaibhiminternational.org/delhi2008-2009
and from north india: http://www.jaibhiminternational.org/january2009northindia