It’s time once again for our monthly survey of Buddhist political affiliations. It has been a… well… interesting month following the conventions – which I mostly missed as I was in China at the time. Clinton received a solid post-convention boost in most polls, getting into double-digit leads at times over the struggling Trump who was snubbed by one of his own convention speakers, former rival Ted Cruz. Since then, a number of Republicans have come out against Trump, so... Read more
Phayul news service reports that two more Tibetan nuns have taken their lives due to the destruction of the city of Larung Gar in eastern Tibet (Western China). Authorities there claim that the expanse of new structures is a fire hazard and that the rapid growth of the city has not been officially permitted. I wrote this last month: This is Larung Gar a year ago. It is a vast monastic complex in eastern Tibet (in China’s Sichuan Province) housing... Read more
“take a moment to think of just… flexibility, love and trust” Steven Universe is a coming-of-age cartoon featuring a boy (Steven) and his friends in a fantasy land of gems, aliens, and humanoids. All but two of the major characters are female, and the show premiered as Cartoon Network’s first animated series created solely by a woman. The show’s creator, Rebecca Sugar, has said that she intended to “tear down and play with the semiotics of gender in cartoons for children” because... Read more
One of my first exposures to extended Vipassana practice was through the voice of S.N. Goenka, who I was fortunate enough to see speak in Missoula, Montana around 2002. His clarity and focus on life and practice holds with me to this day. Goenka, an Indian businessman who was born in Burma and who became a serious Vipassana practitioner late in his life, is one of the foremost popularizers of Buddhist practice around the world today. Goenka’s teacher was U... Read more
After over 3 years of work, China has debuted its first ever Tibetan-language search engine: yongzin.com (which means “teacher” in Tibetan). The front page sports the bright blue, red, green, and yellow that are well-known to Google users, but the search results are very much a reflection of China’s, and not Google’s, priorities. According to the Wall Street Journal: A quick image search for the Dalai Lama, for example, requires sifting through pages of results before locating any of the... Read more
Yesterday an organization in Japan held its second annual “Most Handsome Monk Contest” in Tokyo. One participant chopped through 10 cement blocks as part of the talent round. Another monk, a DJ, presented a mock radio program for the audience. But Koyu Osawa, the first ever female participant, won over the audience by leading them through a short meditation practice. In her post-victory interview, Osawa said “I want to connect with people who have never tried it before, or have always... Read more
In a long (4000+ word) post on facebook yesterday, the Buddhist teacher and filmmaker, well known for his wit and sense of humor, speaks about the need for reform in the system of reincarnated teachers in Tibetan Buddhism known as tulkus. Titled “Time for radical change in how we raise our tulkus,” the document has eight sections. Excerpted here are those sections with key points and quotations. The document itself was prompted by the choice of Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche to leave his... Read more
Barry Kerzin is an extraordinary person. A medical doctor, a philosopher, and a Tibetan Buddhist monk. He has been featured on PBS advocating for more compassion in medicine and has given two TED talks, one on happiness and the other on compassion and anger management. Today he writes on forgiveness: At one level, forgiveness means you shouldn’t develop feelings of revenge. Revenge harms the other person. It is a form of violence and usually leads to counter-violence – so the problem never... Read more
A guest post by Ravi Pradhan In the West, mindfulness is often presented as just a technique, and widely claimed to be secularized by Western experts. Where and how did such a perspective emerge? How is this different from the claims in the Eastern Wisdom traditions which have a long proven track record in mindfulness meditation – beyond just being a technique? You have to go back to 16-17 century Europe where Copernicus and Galileo were up against the all-powerful... Read more
When I was 15 or 16 I went to the hospital for a physical. The doctor looked me over – basically healthy, okay. Then he looked at my feet, grimaced a bit, and proclaimed, “you’ll never be a runner with these.” I took it as gospel truth at the time, but soon after began at least trying to run with my older sister who was a competitive cross-country runner in her high school days. And run I did. My very low arches (not quite... Read more
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