Listening to the Translator

Huh. Last evening's Dharma talk, or just talk, I'm not sure it was to be taken as Dharma, by the translator of the Vimalakirti Sutra was a hoot. 

Dude is 80 and has translated numerous Buddhist works and was ordained by the Dalai Lama and left the monastery to go teach at Columbia and who knows where else, and he has all kinds of degrees and not much of it matters because he doesn't know anything, and don't take what he says as gospel, he's just sharing what he can, you know?

He talked a mile a minute, clearly enjoying every minute of it, and informing the gathered multitude as he did, both about Vimalakirti and himself and Buddhism and whatever you want. I mean it's all the same in the end, isn't it?

I've said the sutra is one of the more enjoyable I've encountered, and after listening to Robert Thurman talk about it last evening, I think I know why. He loves it. He loves what he is able to do, and if he could, he would just keep doing it forever. But he's old, like so many of us are getting, and he won't be able to keep going forever, so why not meet in Costa Rica and have a grand old time? (He said he hoped to meet with Roshi in Costa Rica soon, or maybe somewhere else... but of course with the pandemic and the infirmities of age, it's not clear that that will ever be possible.)

So much of Zen and Buddhism is presented as something so damned serious and it's really not. Not if you scratch deep enough. There's a lot more hilarity and silliness than sometimes the abbots and roshis and senseis and such want to let on. 

And so, Robert Thurman has my admiration for making our task as students of the Sutra of Vimalakirti an enjoyable exercise, an uplifting Dharma teaching, and much less of a struggle than it might otherwise be.

🙏

Thurman's Wiki page is almost as fun as he is:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Thurman

And if you're into this sort of thing, go to his own website:

https://bobthurman.com/

Who and What is "New Citizen" and "Center UA?" -- Part the Second

I had to break off going through the list of orgs under the umbrellas of "New Citizen" and "Center UA" -- both funded by Omidyar Network and USAID  -- after researching 15 or 16 of them because it is an exhausting endeavor if you aren't already familiar with the outfits and people involved. In order for me to do it, I have to find appropriate links and hope that there is an English version. If there isn't, the Ukrainian language site needs to be translated. Google Translate works well enough, but garbles some potentially important things, so I have to go back to the original and attempt to puzzle it out the best I can.

Then there are all the dozens to hundreds of related links and sites that crop up; these orgs have spawned and are integrated with many other orgs and individuals that aren't under "New Citizen" or "Center UA." Researching all the heads of these organizations -- and their many other links -- takes a great deal of time as well.

Consequently what I've been able to do is far less comprehensive and knowledgeable than I would like it to be. There are others going through this material, and I hope their work is more thorough than mine.

I can't draw any final conclusions about these organizations and their role in the overthrow of Yanukovych, but it really seems that most of them are organized for anti-Russian propaganda and revolt against Yanukovych and/or pro-EU propaganda and "educational" efforts. These are organizations with a common interest and mission: to detach Ukraine from the Russian orbit and from Russian influence, but not necessarily to offer Ukrainians a better life or a more inclusive and democratic future. It looks more like the idea is to detach and perhaps carve up a nation and exploit a relatively unsophisticated population on behalf of a certain faction of (primarily) European interests and oligarchs.

But there's much more, and it's time to get back to it.

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Our next organization on the list is called the "European Association of Ukrainians," run by Alexey Tolkachev. He appears to be a rightist technocratic theorist associated with Svoboda. The European Association of Ukrainians is in Brussels, and its mission statement is as follows:

The main purpose of EUA - the development and deepening of relations between Ukraine and the European Union.
Association has the following strategic objectives:
- Promotion and protection of Ukraine and Ukrainians in the European Union;
- Promotion of Ukraine, creation and support of its positive image in Europe;
- Promoting effective and continuous dialogue with the Ukrainian public institutions and civil society in the European Union.

European Association of Ukrainians today in practice promotes European integration of Ukraine. The main activity of the Association is in the political, economic, social, humanitarian, cultural and youth aspects of cooperation between Ukraine and the European Union.

Yet another  EU centric organization, this time in the belly of the beast in Brussels. Tolkachev apparently formed this organization on behalf of Ukrainians living abroad but seems to have focused it on integration -- coordination -- of Ukraine with the rest of Europe.
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The Centre for the Development of Society is next. It appears to be promoting traditional cultural and social values, whatever they may be. The following appears on its "activity" page:

(Translation adjustments in process.)

 Development, public discussion and approval [of] fundamental ideological [document.]

Stvorennya [Creation], support and development of the Ukrainian community interaction orhanizatsiy [organization].

Zaluchennya [Involvement] to cooperate with TSRS business environment, education and training, sports organizations, professional organizations and movements, active social movements, local associations, public figures international orhanizatsiy [organization].

Vidtvorennya [Reproduction] and distribution of Ukrainian society, traditional values, family traditions and ideals, promoting the basic elements of national life, which came back from a centuries-old Ukrainian peasant kultury [culture].

Rozrobka [Working], implementation and improvement of mechanisms for practical cooperation between society to state and local public vladoyu [power].

Zdiysnennya [Implementation] monitoring and public control over activities of state and local vlady [power].

Stvorennya [Creation], support and development of their own media informatsiyi [information].

Stvorennya [Creation of] mechanism of accumulation, systematization and widespread collective knowledge and experience for the benefit suspilstva [of society].

Zdiysnennya [Implementation of] ongoing monitoring and research status and development of Ukrainian civil suspilstva [society].

Doslidzhennya [Research] and dissemination [of] techniques and practices of individual, physical, spiritual and mental abilities lyudyny [and rights].

Pidtrymka [Support] [of] education, research, innovation seredovyscha [environment].

Zahyst [Protection?], distribution and free development of the Ukrainian language, opposition to artificial restrictions on its use, literacy control its use in public places, advertising and media media.

 Rotislav Tomenchuk is the head, and so far as I can tell, he is very active in international NGO circles.
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Have to stop again. The previous translation was on the difficult side since it meant going back and forth between alphabets and finding appropriate translations for words that the Google Machine didn't translate or didn't translate properly... exhausting...;->