In Bells; Gongs; and Wooden Fish; Venerable Master Hsing Yun grants voices to the objects of daily monastic life to tell their stories in this collection of first-person narratives. From monastic shoes to robes and alms bowls; these everyday objects tell the story of their lives and the life of Buddhism from their own perspective. Originally published in 1953; the collected sketches are both lyrical and satiric. The collection of inanimate speakers describe and criticize the state of Chinese Buddhism in the early twentieth century in which educating the laity is an afterthought and the day-to-day activities of monastics are dominated by funerary rites. Bells; Gongs; and Wooden Fish showcases the beginnings of Master Hsing Yun's work as a Buddhist reformer; and describes a path to revolutionize; modernize; and humanize Buddhism that resonates to this day.
#3185877 in Books 2015-09-08Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 11.35 x .60 x 8.78l; .0 #File Name: 1927583667136 pages
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0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. "We do know how to respond [to the memory of the Holocaust]. The answers resound in the pages of this book"By STEPHEN PLETKOXXXXX“Dombrowa; July 22; 1943My Dear Sister and Brother-in-Law;I am writing this letter to you during the last days of my life. We are expecting [our demise] any time…I don’t believe even a miracle can help us now. My little son…and I are the last sacrificial victims…The only thing that makes it easier on my heart is knowing that [my eight year old daughter] will be saved…It is not our fault. We are innocent; our future is lost and it cannot be changed…It breaks my heart to have to write this letter to you; but you must know what happened to your family and how they disappeared. I am sorry to say that from the whole family; nobody is alive; we are the last. We are in danger and there is no possible way for us to live through this…I cannot write any more…This is the last letter from me to you.â€The above are excerpts from an actual letter written by a Jewish female prisoner that appears in this unforgettable book compiled by Eli Rubenstein with “March of the Living.†Rubenstein has been involved with Holocaust education for almost three decades. “March of the Living†is an educational program that brings Holocaust survivors and young people (students) from around the world together to march from Auschwitz (concentration camp) to Birkenau (extermination camp) in memory of all Holocaust victims as well as to demonstrate solidarity against prejudice; intolerance; and hate.The purpose of this book is to keep the memory of the Holocaust or Shoah (1941 to 1945) alive.This book consists of photographs; archival photos; a map; survivor testimonies; poems; quotations; and text. It proceeds in a logical sequence and answers such questions as:(1) What happened? And to whom?(2) Where did the Holocaust take place? Who let it happen?(3) Who resisted?(4) Who survived?Lastly; the students and survivors get together where the “torch of Holocaust memory†is passed on to a new generation. Survivors recount their Holocaust memories to students while students give survivors the emotional support they need to return to the sites where their family members perished.The students thus become witnesses to what happened. It is this new generation of witnesses that make a commitment.This book makes it clear that the Jews alone were not only persecuted. Other groups (such as Poles; Soviet POWs; and the disabled) met their fate during this morally fractured time.Finally; this is an interactive book where you can view on your smartphone or other device survivor testimony from the archives of the Shoah Foundation and March of the Living.In conclusion; this is an incredible book that; I’m sure; will help to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive!!!(First published 2015; note to the reader; introduction; 6 chapters; main narrative 115 pages; 2 appendices [not labelled as such]; acknowledgements and credits)XXXXX0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Never ForgetBy aron rowThis collection of photographs and stories chronicling the horrors of the rampant extermination on human life in the genocidal atrocities inflicted on the Jews and other populations during WW II serves as a memorial to those victims and the event itself. To maintain the memory and continue the struggle to prevent future occurrences; the Canadian organization March of the Living has sponsored visits for adults and students internationally to return to Poland and reexamine the concentration camps where the human degradation and butchery took place and to visit cemeteries where the remains are buried. Aged survivors mournfully recall their grief and the loss of family members. Along with photographs of the participants; the persecution in Poland by the Nazis and the containment sites visited; this chronicle also records the emotional reactions of the visitors to this experience in both moving poetical expressions and narrative accounts. The concentration and extermination camps infamously known as Auschwitz; Buchenwald; Treblinka; Mauthausen; Theresienstadt and too many others remain as reminders of man’s inhumanity. Through this book and other memorials; it is hoped that the youth of this world will continue to fight against injustice and pursue the cause of peace. Place a stone on this book as a monument memory that must be preserved.
