I have my first class tomorrow. That is, I teach my first class tomorrow. I have 174 students. I don’t have my syllabus photo-copied. I don’t have the in-class video excerpt we are supposed to watch. sigh. breath. smile. relax. But really, really I am a bit terrified. Mostly I’m afraid I’ll be so nervous that I fidget annoyingly, stutter (no.. I never stutter), and bore the living daylights out of 70% of them. I have my lecture (introduction and... Read more

This is the quote I was trying to track down. I think it is from the Asian Journal, but the page number I copied (p.162) doesn’t match up – could be a different edition, could be another book… Let me know if you know where this is from: “I think that we suffer (not least I myself) from the disease of absolutes. Every answer has to be the right answer an, not only that, the final one. All problems have... Read more

I woke up early today, before 7; and that after staying up past 1am last night. It’s nerves. Meditation helps, spontaneously stopping to follow the breath and just soak up a bit of the world calms me, but not for long. I’m taking it easy though, relatively speaking. Came to the office at around 10. It’s not a work day for me, or so I say at least. I’m emailing old friends, a slow process. For many of them I... Read more

I’m back. It’s hard to know what to say. In some respects it is as though I’d never left: the smell of my office, the people on campus, my wonderful housemates. My twenty days in Spain came and went so quickly, far too quickly. Eventually I’ll post something of a travel log, but for now there are some selected photos. Now I need to hit the ground running – class changes to address, notes to prepare, enrollment numbers leaping (from... Read more

(from an email list I received this today. I highly recommend it, and all else from B. Alan Wallace) B. Alan Wallace, Ph.D., recently gave a lecture entitled “Toward the First Revolution in the Mind Sciences” at Google Headquarters in Mountain View, CA. Google has made a video recording of this lecture freely available on the web: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=983112177262602885&q;=alan+wallace Mind and Life Affiliate B. Alan Wallace is president of The Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies. He trained for many years... Read more

Why can’t I seem to take a break?! Last month was total overload for me, though I made it through with general praise all around and only one illness (a sinus infection took me out of action for a few days). Now, two days after our Center for Ethics course-event-field trip blitz I managed to move all of my possessions across town (reminding me of how acquisitive I really am). And tomorrow will be my last day here, still yet... Read more

I attended/helped organize a panel discussion last night on “Science, Religion, and the Environment.” In retrospect I think it could have been called “Christianity and Environmental Philosophy,” as three out of four of the panelists were Christians, and the fourth was a naturalist/secularist Environmental philosopher. All of the panelists are wonderful people, and the event as a whole was very well received. I had earlier been encouraged to try to interject a question relating to Buddhism and Environmentalism, but the... Read more

I was sick all this week with a sinus infection, so I haven’t been blogging (or doing much else). But today, after spending an hour or so in the 100°F+ heat of Western Montana, I thought I might say a bit more about Global Warming. I’m no expert, but the experts out there have spoken loud and clear. It’s time for the rest of us to say and do something. So, on the do side, I’ve just purchased a “terrapass”... Read more

Calculative thinking computes… it races from one prospect to the next. It never stops, never collects itself. It is not meditative thinking, not thinking which contemplates the meaning that reigns in everything there is… Meditative thinking demands of us that we engage ourselves with what, at first sight, does not go together. — Martin Heidegger, Memorial Addressfound in “The Death of Environmentalism“ Calculative thinking is equivalent to vijñana in Buddhism – the mind which flutters on the surface of reality... Read more

Too busy, too lazy, I’m not sure which really. In any case I’ve been doing a lot lately and haven’t had time to blog. So I’m posting a Blogmandu inspired weekly Roundup. Sunday, the 9th I found my way to Ali’s for the last game of the World Cup, and also found an article saying that Tibetan Buddhist monks would be rooting for Italy (so I naturally did likewise). I only really caught the last 5 or so minutes of... Read more