In western popular culture Buddhist monks often are depicted as unflappably serene, wise, and really, really nice. So it might be jarring to hear about Buddhist monks behaving very badly. But, in fact, sometimes they do behave very badly.

Recently Korea was scandalized by a video showing Jogye monks drinking and playing high-stakes poker. Jogye is a Korean school of Zen. It is alleged that two monks also paid for prostitutes. The order has denied that allegation and has filed a libel suit against the Wall Street Journal, where the allegation first appeared.

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The government of China has released a documentary through its CCTV global media outlet that claims His Holiness the Dalai Lama is behind the wave of self-immolations in China. About 34 ethnic Tibetans, most of them Buddhist monks and nuns, have set fire to themselves over the past few months to protest Chinese oppression of Tibetan Buddhism.

The documentary was released globally, according to the Associatd Press.  This is significant, IMO, because it shows us that Beijing is serious about influencing world opinion of the Dalai Lama and Tibetan Buddhism.

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Now that I've got a Facebook fan page to maintain I'm spending a lot more time on Facebook. I think about half of the posts from friends that scroll down my "home" page are pictures of babies or pets, or graphics with inspirational sayings. Sometimes they are pictures of babies/pets with inspirational sayings.

Most of these sayings are innocuous. Sample: "Be yourself. Everyone else is taken." Some are nice reminders -- "Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured." --Mark Twain. But occasionally I see a supposedly wise saying that rubs me the wrong way.

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I'm ambivalent about Mother's Day. I'll be spending some time with my adult children later today, which I enjoy. But my own mother is long gone, and I miss her.

It seems lately that half the people I know are losing their parents. Of course, this is part of the natural progression. There was a time that half the people I knew were finishing school and starting careers. Then half the people I knew were getting married. Then they were having babies. Then the babies were graduating. Now half the people I know are losing parents to old age, disease, and death.

Of course, it must be harder when a parent dies while one is still young. But you're never really prepared for it. When one's elderly parents are fading, the world seems upside down. You are walking a strange path without a map. And when they are gone, it feels like waking up in a foreign country. Everything may look the same, but it all seems alien.

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