Bartholomew's Notes

A press release from the International Buddhism Sangha Association announces that the Buddha is back and living in California:

…More than twenty holy leaders of Buddhism, employing the rules of Buddhism, have formally determined and verified through personal attestations and written proclamations that H.H. Master [Wan Ko] Yee is the holiest and most honored leader of Buddhism.

H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III Holiest Tathagata is the most compassionate, the kindest, the holiest and the purest being of all. The wisdom of His Holiness is complete, and His learning is exceedingly profound. He is the Buddhist equivalent of the Pope, said Shih Long Hui, Chairperson of the International Buddhism Sangha Association…

Shih made his announcement while presenting a copy of a book which details the evidence for Yee’s claim to Asian Division of the Library of Congress of the United States. Apparently “members of Congress, the Diplomatic Corps and sixteen Dharma Kings and Rinpoches from around the world” attended this event, although Yee himself was in seclusion, praying for Tibet.

A copy of the “lavishly illustrated” tome (Dorje Chang Buddha III, a Treasury of True Buddha-Dharma) also made its way to the BBC, and caught the interest of Dan Damon of the World Service’s Reporting Religion. The BBC contacted various Buddhist organisations, including the Dalai Lama’s office in Dharamsala, but “they’ve never heard of Master Yee”. The International Buddhism Sangha Association appears to be rather obscure, too. To be fair, though, Yee’s name appears to have a number of variations, and this may have caused confusion – I’ve found “Wan Ko Yeshe Norbu” and “Yangwo Yisinubu Wan Ko”.

A bit of Googling brings us to this site, which publicises an exhibition of the “unprecedented achievements” of Master Yee, described as “Over Two Hundred World-Class Treasures in Twenty-on Categories From a Single Person”. The exhibition, which took place in 2006, was organised by the Master Wan Ko Yee International Cultural Institute and the United International World Buddhism Association. The site explains that

Master Wan Ko Yee is known as Dharma King Yangwo Yisinubu Wan Ko, an unprecedented great master of all Five Mings (Vidyas).

Another site has further details:

H.H. Great Dharma King Master Wan Ko Yeshe Norbu…immigrated to the United States from China, is a great master of outstanding international fame. During the thousands of years of human history, never has anyone person made such magnificent achievements as H.H. Master Wan Ko Yee. In the field of art, he has been a pioneer and has opened a new page in history in areas such as Chinese painting, Western oil painting, representational painting, abstract painting, 3-dimensional painting, the art of applying colors to portray realistic rock texture and rock grains, as well as sculpture, frame art, and calligraphy.

…In 1994, the 5,612 experts and scholars representing forty-eight countries and regions at the “World Poets and Culture Congress” unanimously named Master Wan Ko Yee as a “Distinguished International Master.” The certificate was signed and issued by Juan Antonio Samaranch, the then President of the International Olympic Committee.

In September of 1999, the Master was conferred a Ph.D. in Buddhism, Philosophy, Art, Calligraphy and Painting by the American League of Colleges and Universities. Moreover, Master Wan Ko Yee is the only artist awarded the position of “Fellow” by the Royal Academy of Arts in the United Kingdom in the Academy’s over two hundred year history.

(That’s a strange thing to write; in fact, there are many “Fellows” of the Royal Academy of Arts, who use the initials “FRSA”; some are artists and academics, others are well-connected mediocrities who get proposed by someone and pay a subscription fee for the snob-value of letters after their names – in some cases I’ve seen in the UK, this a practice that can become addictive, leading to absurd strings of letters. But I digress…)

…On October 28th and 29th, 2003, the U.S. Congress held an art exhibition for the first time in its history. It was called “Exhibition of Yun Sculpture Art Originated by Master Wan Ko Yee for the Benefit of Mankind” and took place at the Gold Room of the Congressional House Office Building. A continuous stream of visitors came to the exhibition. Hundreds of them wrote down their sincere impressions in guest books. The congressmen who attended were so excited that they gave forth spontaneous speeches of praise and admiration. Some people came to the exhibition three or four times in one day. Many people praised the Master’s Yun sculptures as “treasures from heaven”!

Meanwhile, a site run by “Lama Zhaxi Zhuoma, a disciple of Great Dharma King Yangwo Yisinubu” provides some useful context; although the site states it is currently “not available”, this applies only to front page, and there are lots of “orphaned” pages of information which one can browse via the directory pages (here and here). One report included on the site, from 2000, tells us that

Both the State of California and the City and County of San Francisco declared March 8 to be Master Wan Ko Yee Day. The State Assembly and Senate both passed resolutions in appreciation for Master Wan Ko Yee’s outstanding service and invaluable contributions, dedication, and leadership in art, philosophy, and science and for promoting cultural exchange between the United States and China.

China has also honoured Yee

The government of the People’s Republic of China built a palace-like museum to house the many awards and honors received by H.H. Master Wan Ko Yee along with examples of his paintings, calligraphy and books on logic and Buddhist philosophy.

The Museum is in Sichuan, and during a ceremony there nectar was observed to appear; apparently this is one of Yee’s supernatural powers. There is also much about Yee’s artistic abilities, and a James Randi-like challenge:

Any one who can duplicate the works of H.H. Master Wan Ko’s Yun Sculptures, either “One Column Upholding Sky” or “Stone with Mysterious Mist”, will receive award in the amount of six million US dollars. This duplicated work must be identical to the original work in shapes, details, degree of nature, degree of transparency, texture, phenomenon of mist, colors, no less and no much. There must be no difference between the original and the duplicated works when they are put next to each other. If there is any difference between the original and the duplicated works, this person cannot receive the award.

There are a number of other stories, including an account of a 1999 visit to Thailand, where even animals recognised Yee’s status:

Many types of birds and fish came to the area. These animals, along with dogs and insects, became totally still as they respectfully listened to the dharma. The lake started to surge up in waves. A large, dark gold fish used its tail to stand up by itself on the surface of the water along with a small black fish and a silver-white fish. All three fish paid homage to H.H. Wan Ko Yeshe Norbu. His Holiness said that the large fish was really a dragon who had transformed itself into a fish.

A photo of the fish is included.

Some of Yee’s art is sold through a company called Microputt, along with artwork by members of his family – despite the claim on the BBC that Yee is a monk, he has a son and a daughter. This company also runs International Arts Publishing, which sells books by Yee.

The “International Buddhism Sangha Association” meanwhile, is based at the same address as the “Bodhi Monastery” in San Jose, which also promotes Yee as “H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III”. The Association teaches Vajrayana Buddhism, which is the esoteric, tantric, tradition.

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Interfax Religion reports that some Russian Orthodox clergy are headed for the North Pole to perform a religious service:

“Archbishop Ignaty of Petropavlovsk and Kamchatka will head the Divine Liturgy. Two priests and a deacon will also participate in the expedition,” representative of the Petropavlovsk Diocese in Moscow Fr. Alexander Terpulov told Interfax on Friday.

A 2-meter wooden cross and Russian flag will be set at the “zero point” of the North Pole.

The report adds that this is not the first time that Orthodoxy has reached the North Pole: a priest named Viktor Smetannikov has previously performed prayer services at both Poles. Smetannikov is a controversial figure; according to this 2001 report, from the FSU Monitor,

In June 2001, a local newspaper reported that Father Viktor Smetannikov, the deacon of Novosibirsk’s Church of the Shroud of the Most Holy Mother of God, was transferred from his post by a decision of the Novosibirsk Russian Orthodox diocese. The paper reported that Father Viktor is well known in the city for his ties to local “national-patriotic semi-militarized organizations” and that under his leadership, the church published the “openly antisemitic” newspaper Pokrovskie vesti. However, it appears that the diocese’s decision was motivated by allegations that Father Viktor improperly used donations on a variety of projects.

It seems likely that Smetannikov’s trips to the Poles had a “national-patriotic” aspect, and Ignaty’s expedition is clearly also politically-charged, coming a few months after Russia deposited a flag on the seabed at the North Pole as a symbolic claim to the resources there. As the New York Times noted in August:

That claim, which has no current legal standing, rests on a Russian assertion that the seabed under the pole, called the Lomonosov Ridge, is an extension of Russia’s continental shelf and thus Russian territory.

Russia submitted its claim in 2001 to an international commission, which has ruled that the available data is not sufficient to support it. But Russia has pressed on.

Ignaty (actually a bishop rather than an archbishop, according to other reports) is also apparently famous for celebrating “the first Divine Liturgy under Arctic ice onboard of the submarine – the Tomsk atomic strategic cruiser.”

Name variations: Ignatius, Bishop of Petropavlovsk and Kamchatka; Ignatii, Bishop of Petropavlovsk and Kamchatka

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A few days ago, the World Evangelical Council has caused annoyance with an advert in the New York Times, entitled “The Gospel and the Jewish People – An Evangelical Statement”. The advert (text available here) is a gesture of “genuine friendship and love for the Jewish people”, but it also affirms that Jews need to accept Jesus:

We believe that it is only through Jesus that all people can receive eternal life. If Jesus is not the Messiah of the Jewish people, He cannot be the Savior of the World (Acts 4:12)… It is out of our profound respect for Jewish people that we seek to share the good news of Jesus Christ with them, and encourage others to do the same, for we believe that salvation is only found in Jesus, the Messiah of Israel and Savior of the World.

There is also a defence of Messianic Judaism:

We deplore the use of deception or coercion in evangelism; however, we reject the notion that it is deceptive for followers of Jesus Christ who were born Jewish to continue to identify as Jews (Romans 11:1).

The statement has been signed by a number of prominent evangelical leaders, but it has also brought down the inevitable wrath of Abraham Foxman of the ADL:

The World Evangelical Alliance Statement defending the targeting of Jews for conversion is offensive and insulting to the Jewish people and brazenly dismisses Jewish self-definition. Instead of validating God’s irrevocable covenant with the Jewish people, and ongoing Jewish covenantal life, themes also found in their Scripture, this group of religious leaders does the opposite.

It is especially odious to defend the duplicitous proselytizing of Jews by groups such as Jews for Jesus and so-called “Messianic Jews.” 

The ADL said the statement also stands in contradiction to Rev. Billy Graham who said:  “I believe God has always had a special relationship with the Jewish people, as St. Paul suggests in the book of Romans. In my evangelistic efforts I have never felt called to single out the Jews as Jews…”  In 2000, Graham defended Jews during the Southern Baptist Convention’s major effort to proselytize Jews, saying, “I normally defend my denomination. I’m loyal to it. But I have never targeted Muslims. I have never targeted Jews.”

(Graham has also said a few other things about Jews…)

The traditional evangelical view is that Jews, like everyone else, need to accept Jesus, and this is reflected in the new statement. I recently read a 1974 popular paperback entitled Tramp for the Lord, by Corrie ten Boom, the famous Dutch Pentecostal who spent time in a concentration camp for hiding Jews from the Nazis. After the war she became an itinerant evangelist, and the book recounts various anecdotes from her travels. On one occasion she visited a hospital in Argentina (104-6):

…Then I came to a man on a rocking bed. He had a different kind of polio and instead of being in a lung he was on a bed that rocked up and down…The nurse told me he was Jewish.

‘Ah’, I said, ‘I am happy to meet one of God’s chosen people. My old father, my dear sister, and some others in my family died in concentration camps because we loved the Jews. I, too, was in prison for helping Jews. But tell me, do you know the Jew, Jesus, as your personal Messiah?’

The bed rocked up and down and he shook his head for he could not speak.

According to the story, the man indicated that he wanted to listen, and ten Boom explained that God had a plan for his life, and encouraged him to look on the bright side. Just before he finally expired he left an appreciative note. Ten Boom concludes:

What a miracle. He understood God did not want him to become a Gentile. Rather he would become a completed Jew.

There is no way that ten Boom could be called anti-Jewish, but I think that many evangelicals today would be rather hesitant to preach to Jews on their deathbeds, let alone to publicise the fact afterwards. However, the idea of getting a Jewish convert does seem to have a particular appeal; back in 2004 I noted a documentary being made by some California Charismatics which would show the impact of Mel Gibson’s Passion. The makers wanted to hear from people with stories such as

a marriage being rescued, an addict who was set free, a Jew who now accepts Jesus as Messiah, someone who experienced physical or emotional healing, and so on.

Aside from the question of bad taste, the theological problem with Christian exclusivity as regards Judaism is that if Judaism used to be the true religion, how can that not be the case now? This is what Foxman is getting at with his “irrevocable covenant” comment, and the idea of a “Dual Covenant” which validates Judaism and Christianity is one which some on the Jewish end of the Jewish-Evangelical alliance have sought to promote: a couple of years ago Rabbi Aryeh Scheinberg tried to attribute such a position to Jerry Falwell, who forcefully denied the suggestion. Christian Zionist “prophecy expert” John Hagee has shown more sympathy for concept, and some of the rhetoric of the American right suggests a move towards a “Judeo-Christian” religion. On the one hand, this recent post by Ed Brayton questions the extent to which Christian right “Judeo-Christian” posturing is really serious about the “Judeo” part, but on the other hand the idea of a “Judeo-Christian” religiosity is implicit in American “civil religion”. Also, among Christian Zionists there is now trend towards appropriating Jewish culture: buying Jewish devotional products for their own use, affecting to write “G-d” rather than “God”, and in some cases affiliating with Messianic synagogues. I once met a Christian from Texas who was desperate to find a Jewish ancestor – he eventually converted to Judaism so that he could become a Messianic Jew. But if we have a Dual Covenant, where does that leave the idea of Jesus as the only way to God? And would a convert to Judaism also be saved, or only those practising Jews with “chosen people” DNA?

However, Foxman has problems too. He rails against Messianic Jews, but Judaism is about orthopraxy more than orthodoxy – Messianic services look quite Jewish, so why not see them, like the earliest form of Christianity, as a manifestation Jewish identity? And why should belief in Jesus be a bar to being Jewish, when another kind of Messianic Judaism has recently emerged, based around the belief that the late Menachem Schneerson is the Messiah?

I discussed these tensions further here.

(Footnote: Tramp for the Lord was ghosted by Jamie Buckingham, a neo-Pentecostal writer who was close to Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, who today runs the Fellowship of Christians and Jews. Eckstein’s enthusiasm for Buckingham and Charismatic Christianity has also been controversial, as I explored here. One person who has been keen to claim ten Boom’s mantle is Mike Evans, who founded the Corrie ten Boom Foundation in Holland. Evans is a best-selling Christian Zionist author, and he is currently pushing for an attack on Iran.)

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Meet Dong Yunhu:

With his striped Pierre Cardin shirt and his easy smile, Dong Yunhu doesn’t fit the stereotype of a tow-the-line Communist. Yet at just 37, he is a prime architect of China’s sensitive human rights policy.

…With a Ph.D in Western philosophy from a Chinese university, he cites Kant, Hegel and the U.S. Bill of Rights in his quest to develop “a concept of human rights appropriate for China’s reality,” which he freely acknowledges has non-Western priorities.

“The West stressed personal and individual rights; we stress the need for harmony between the individual and the collective,” he said, from his office in the Tibet Hotel. “The West stresses political liberties, and we stress the right to subsistence…”

…At first many balked, even blocking publication of his first book. But ultimately his view prevailed, which he views as a great personal triumph.

“This was a very big change for the ’90s — opening up human rights as a legitimate topic of study and concern,” he said. “Now we can talk about it with foreign governments.”

Although he admits that China still has problems, he maintains that it now supports many of the same rights as the West, even signing last year, though not ratifying, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights…The difference, he said, is how and where countries limit such freedoms in the interest of national development.

Dong is a vice-chairman of the China Association for Human Rights Stduies, and he edits its glossy English-language magazine, which features smiling members of non-Han ethnic minorities in traditional costume. The Association website carries Xinhua reports on human rights in China, and currently features a banner with the slogan: “Dalai Clique’s Separatist Activities Condemned”.

Dong gets to travel around the world telling audiences about the slow but sure advance of human rights in China.

Meet Hu Jia:

Hu Jia is an outspoken advocate for people with living with HIV/AIDS, especially in China’s poor rural areas. He is the co-founder of the Beijing Aizhibing Institute of Health Education.

…Hu Jia is also a veteran environmentalist, and was an active member of the Chinese environmental movement from 1995-2001. He was a leader of China’s Green Camp from 1996 to 1997, helping promote student participation in environmental conservation. Hu Jia offered tremendous support to the development of one of China’s best known environmental groups, Friends of Nature. He also helped to establish Greenpeace’s first Beijing office in 2000… He set up a Tibetan Antelope Information Center and ceaselessly raised awareness about antelope poaching on the Tibetan Plateau.

…Hu Jia has never hesitated to stand up against violations of human rights, particularly those of China’s most socially-vulnerable groups.

Hu gets to spend the next three-and-a-half years in a Chinese prison.

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No, not the absurd Rev. Robert West (see here), but another British ecclesiastic found to have aligned himself with the far right. Yesterday, the South Essex Echo reported:

A FORMER council chairman and church leader has quit the Lib Dems – to become an activist for the British National Party.

The Rev John Stanton, who was elected Lib Dem chairman of Rochford District Council in 1997, is now the far-right party’s organiser for the Rochford district.

…”I flirted with joining the UK Independence Party, but the BNP is the only one putting forward theories I agree with.”

…He said: “The BNP is very Christian-based and it gets very frustrated at the way Christianity is side-lined.

“If we can influence the main political parties with our views, then we have done enough.

“We are putting as many candidates across the country as we can and Rochford is one of the areas we are looking at.”

The BNP’s contribution to UK Christian life has been to set up a front group called the Christian Council of Britain and to display Christian symbols at a couple of protests (during which members sang “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas”).

Today, however, Stanton has recanted:

A FORMER council chairman and church leader who joined the British National Party as a local organiser has dramatically turned his back on the far-right party.

The Rev John Stanton, who was Lib Dem chairman of Rochford District Council in 1997, admitted he was “stupid” for not knowing what the BNP really stood for when he signed up to the party about a year ago.

…He said: “I had no idea party leader Nick Griffin has been convicted of inciting racial hatred. I also discovered the party was anti-Semitic and homophobic.

“I was misled by what they said about themselves. The impression I got when they joined was that it was just a very British, Christian organisation. Now, I don’t really trust anything that they say.

“If a West African came here and adopted British values and customs, the impression I got was he would be welcome, but according to the BNP he wouldn’t be.”

Apparently appalled friends and tearful family members brought about the turnaround.

Stanton runs an obscure house church named Rock Dene Christian Fellowship, which does not appear to have a website. One site, however, describes it as a “Free Church”. Stanton involves himself local ecumenical activities; a Methodist site mentions that:

Last year John Stanton gathered together a set of all the elements that are used in the ritual of the Passover meal – a ritual that has remained virtually unchanged for thousands of years. John used them as part of Rockdene’s preparation for Easter.

Now you can share a Passover meal and learn more about the meaning of Passover and its part in Jesus’s Crucifixion because John has been invited to repeat the evening on Tuesday March 26 at our church.

This hardly goes well with being an activist for a party whose leader once wrote a booklet called Who are the Mindbenders? (Answer: Jews) However, to be fair to Rev Stanton Griffin has in recent years made a strategic decision to downplay his own and his party’s anti-Semitism, in order to concentrate on demagogic campaigns against British Muslims (an aspect of the BNP which Stanton tellingly fails to comment on).

Stanton has also in the past given local Christians the benefit of his learning in a series of Lenten lectures:

If you haven’t had a chance to get along to the Lent Lectures, you’ve only got one more chance. The series has been on the history of the various denominations – how they started and how they developed…The last one (on Cults) is on Wednesday 5th April at 8pm…

Why someone who supposedly blundered into an authoritarian political organization for the best part of a year without noticing what it stands for should be an expert on “cults” is also rather baffling.

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