June 20, 2022: “This Week I’m Thankful For…”: Saga Dawa, H.H. Dalai Lama, neighbors who care, a cancer breakthrough, forests and fungi…

At times it may seem the news is only filled with negative news: war, pandemics, violence. We sometimes forget to recognize the “good news.” Those little acts of Karuna (compassion) and Metta (loving-kindness) that help affirm we all have Buddha Nature [For a feature on Buddha Nature, see>>].

As Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche said,

“Buddha Nature is all-encompassing … This Buddha Nature is present just as the shining sun is present in the sky.”

With this in mind, we’d like to start each week — please help out by sending your news! — by highlighting some of the good news that might have been buried in your news broadcast or social media feeds. May this inspire us all to act with compassion and loving-kindness towards all living beings — and to remember there is good news in this world. Note: These will not be “Buddhist stories” — just our take, with your help, on the good news of the week!

Saga Dawa month — an unprecedented month of merits

The month of merits saw a flurry of kind and compassionate teachings and empowerment from around the world, from His Holiness the Dalai Lama [website]— at least two Avalokiteshvara empowerments and teachings on ‘Concise stages for the path to Enlightenment — to the kind and noble His Holiness the 41st Sakya Trizin Kyabgon Gongma Trichen Rinpoche [website], with empowerment and teachings for Shakyamuni Buddha, Green Tara, Yellow Jambalah and Medicine Buddha. Most Dharma centers around the world broadcast an unprecedented number of teachings, pujas and empowerments online from many great and noble teachers.

Don’t miss this story of Linda — good karma and vast karuna and Metta:

Inspiring acts of kindness and karma: neighbors buy retiree’s home to prevent her eviction

In a heart-warming story of neighborly Metta (loving-kindness) the neighbors of a retiree Linda Taylor, bought her house when she was threatened with eviction in a Minneapolis community, as first reported on ABC, Eyewitness news.

This is also a tale of “good karma.” Linda was known for her many years of helping the homeless and needy. As reported in Good News Network: “After arriving in the area 19 years ago as a volunteer to help the homeless and needy, she began renting a small house on 10th avenue and East 36th street in the Powderhorn Park district. There, the 70-year-old retiree became a “bright star” of the neighborhood.”

Together, the neighbors raised a quarter-million dollars to purchase the home she had rented for years. The neighbors created vast merit and good karma, and helped Linda as return for her many years of kindness and devotion!

Medical breakthrough: 100% of tumors vanish in a cancer drug trial

All of the participants — to just a percentage — “all 14 participants of a recent experimental drug trial saw their colorectal cancer disappear, researchers revealed in a new study published Sunday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

“I don’t think anyone has seen this before, where every single patient has had the tumor disappear,” Andrea Cercek, an oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York and lead author of the study, told The Washington Post.

Fungi help fight climate change!

Trees alone aren’t enough to help stop climate change — although they’re vital, “acting as reservoirs for carbon.” As reported in the BBC:

“A 2016 study led by researchers from Imperial College London revealed that one particular type – ectomycorrhizal fungi – enables certain trees to absorb CO2 faster (and therefore grow faster) than others. This is known as the “CO2 fertilisation effect”.

101-Year old gets a birthday surprise — his high school diploma!

Merrill Pittman Cooper, who just turned 101, received the high-school diploma he always wanted. As reported in The Week, “Cooper, 101, grew up in the segregated South, and his single mom worked as a live-in housekeeper to afford tuition at Storer College in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. When Cooper realized his mom didn’t have enough money to pay for his final year of high school, he suggested they move to Philadelphia, and he started working at a clothing store. Cooper broke down barriers as one of Philadelphia’s first Black trolley car drivers, and went on to become a bus driver and vice president of the International Transport Workers Union. Even with his success, Cooper always wished he had graduated from high school. ” With the help of his son-in-law, he finally received an honorary high school diploma.

A gas-station owner sells gas 50 cents a gallon cheaper than his cost

In these days of high gas prices, at least locally, there was a neighborly act of kindness, as Jaswiendre Singh, owner of a Phoenix gas station, is losing hundreds of dollars a day to help his neighbors by selling at 50 cents under his cost per gallon. As reported on Good News Network, he said, ‘”We are not here to make money right now. I’m very happy to help the other people,” he told AZ Family. Despite losing $500 per day, he and his wife are working longer hours in their store next to the pumps in order to make up the difference.’

What’s your good news — or what news have you heard that inspired you? Let us know for next week’s report!