Forgiveness

 

When asked to describe a moment of compassion during an Upaya training, I remembered a Cambodian friend's story. He survived the genocide in the 1970s, but barely, and numerous members of his family did not. (He pointed to a blue building in Battambang and said nine of his family members had died in that "hospital." This was after we went to see the unmarked space in a field where his father had been killed.) After the Khmer Rouge were out of power, but still fighting, he was on a road in the center of the country, when someone came to him to ask for help. It turned out the help was needed by wounded Khmer Rouge soldiers. He took them to the hospital, disguised as civilians, noting only that the soldiers must have been surprised by his actions.

 

(off Facebook)

Fall, 2016 Courses!

Here is my syllabus for Honors 101: Research, which I teach as a memoir course:

https://sites.google.com/site/honors101researchmemoir/

And here is my syllabus for English 461: Documentary Poetry, the latest iteration of my favorite course at UHM.

https://sites.google.com/site/english461documentarypoetry/

I'll also be continuing my work with the Compassion Hui, whose Facebook page is here:

https://www.facebook.com/uhmentalhealthhui/?fref=ts

The emphasis so far this year is on suicide prevention; there's an event in September, here:

https://www.facebook.com/UHManoaCSDC/photos/a.257681547944192.1073741828.257576864621327/282470318798648/?type=3&theater

And we'll be working on a Walk Out of Darkness for next Spring.

http://www.afsp.donordrive.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.eventGroup&eventGroupID=9AA117B3-F522-BB6D-359D1AA2D75A7958

memory card: kuan yin: 7 june

The old plum tree is boundless. / A hard cold rubs the nostrils. Attend the breath; it is film, banyan, mosaic. Four empty squares grow in Kuan Yin's Waikiki mural. A construction worker in green shirt, white helmet, stands on a scaffold to pull her down, tile by blue tile. Make space for Saks, for Christian Dior. After the war ended, Hongly encountered Khmer Rouge soldiers, one of whom was sick. Asked to take the man to hospital, he drove a wooden cart miles down jungle roads. Fear in the man's eyes, knowing what he must have known. Nine of my family members died in that “hospital,” Hongly said, outside a blue building in Battambang. And then we ate lunch. You cannot see Kuan Yin for her shopping cart, her wall eyes. They're meeting in secret now, sending emails without her address. She called the ambulance when she found a man dying in the bushes. So many maggots, the ambulance driver wouldn't take him in. When asked, Nico Schultz, of Taubman Co., LLC, responded: “We recognize, respect and appreciate the protection and prosperity Buddha and the goddess Quan­­ying have bestowed on the property through their mural for the last 30 years." Toward the end of his life, my father grew more deaf. A maid in Waikiki brought cold water in a bucket for his burned feet. They assure us the old banyan tree will be protected.

                                                                              --7 June 2014

Notes:

Old palm tree: Dogen 

Kathy J. Phillips has a beautiful book about Kuan Yin, here.
News article on the Kuan Yin mural coming down, here.