Two "Boddhisattvas" in the News...

I went walking early on this bright New England sunny morning surrounded in the  swirl of a golden, mahogany & umber world of  late autumnal splendor...leisurely taking in the sights and sounds of woods and sea so near my home, greeting a few morning walkers & their dogs while soaking up the crisp Fall air.  As I walked I marveled at how unrestricted, unhampered & free to go as I please I am...just as you reading this surely have this same freedom.

Compare this to today's news of Myanmar's democracy heroine & 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Auno San Suu Kyi, just released by officials from her most current house arrest after 7 1/2 years.    The 65-year-old, whose latest period of detention started in May 2003, with a recent setback for housing an American who swam to her home in 2009, has come to symbolize the struggle for democracy in the Southeast Asian nation ruled by the military since 1962.  Suu Kyi has been jailed or under house arrest for more than 15 of the last 21 years.  For more information on Auno San Suu Kyi visit http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/as_myanmar_suu_kyi

And then there's China's newest Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Liu Xiabo, imprisoned Chinese human rights activist and non-violent protestor for fundamental human rights in China.   Xiaobo was sentenced to 11 years imprisonment on December 25, 2009 for co-authoring the Charter 08 manifesto & his passionate fight to address the political repression by China's leadership, beginning with his participation in Tiananman Square in 1989.   Liu was chosen over a record number of nominations – more than 200.  Yet major Chinese printed press, television and online sources heavily censored this news OR chose not to carry this story at all, according to an October 2010 Newsweek article I read recently.  Though some radical online Chinese bloggers tried to cryptically ask readers if they knew this man's name or his accomplishments shortly after the prize was awarded, no sooner did they post the question that the censors blocked their sites.  For more information on Liu Xiaobo visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Nobel_Peace_Prize

Can any of us imagine what it is to be detained for years, to endure this kind of scrutiny and restrictions whether in our own home or in prison, for a courageous act to enable greater personal freedom yet deemed by our government as "subversive"?    

Boddhisattvas say their incarnations on the planet cannot end until all human suffering is eradicated.  Auno San Suu Kyi and Liu Xiaobo join hands with other names in history like Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Nelson Mandela...sojourners towards that end...as well as the "invisibles"...like the estimated 2,200 political prisoners in Myanmar's prisons for their conscientious objection to the militant rule of their country...

Their notable courage & endurance to this end sits squarely before me today.

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