The Elephant Story

The Fiftieth Anniversary of The Tet Offensive

Mar 05, 2018 | 0 comments

It is a strange event for any American, Australian, New Zealander, South Korean or Thai who fought in the Viet Nam War to celebrate the Tet offensive in South Viet Nam which occurred fifty years ago last month. The offensive preceded the Tet holiday or lunar new year celebrated by the Vietnamese. The Tet offensive spawned a massive escalation in the Viet Nam War and resulted in the loss of an average of 45 American soldiers per day that year. It led President Lyndon Johnson not to seek a second term of office. Accordingly, it was a celebratory event for...

Activism in Buddhism

Jan 16, 2017 | 0 comments

We think about Buddhism being a kind of a passive religious faith but the author would describe it as a form of spirituality from a deeply revered enlightened one whose teachings were not radically different than those of Jesus and Mohamed in their recognized religions. Moreover, despite the massive bloodshed in the past over alleged religious reasons, the precepts are all pretty much the same. So what has caused Buddhist monks to be less than the passive, quiet folks, they are supposed to be? In the final analysis, when things are woefully wrong, they step up and react. Without going...