Dharma Audio, Audio Dharma In case you didn’t know, there is an AMAZING proliferation of dharma-audio on the web these days. An attempt to catalog all of the sites offering hours and hours of wonderful talks, chanting, and discussion, even in just one tradition, is well beyond me at this time. However, I will send you off for a taste with three wonderful websites: Audiodharma.org – This site focuses on the talks of Gil Fronsdal, at the Insight Meditation Center... Read more

It has been all too rare lately that I have been reminded of just how much of a recluse I am at heart. I love being alone. I remember having a conversation years ago with my friend Patia about this and she told me, “your an introvert.” Her theory, which I think is correct, was that if you get energy more from being around people, then you’re an extrovert. If you get energy more from your alone time, you’re an... Read more

For those who don’t know, I love radio. The same way some odd people love poetry or shoes (kidding, of course). One of my favorite possessions is my (replica) Emerson woodbox single-speaker radio with the big 5 inch diameter analog tuning dial. I haven’t owned a TV for about 4 years and the one I had then was strictly for movies. I also worked for 4 years in the radio industry, both commercial and non-profit. For a couple years I... Read more

(Post deleted) This post had a lot to do with a proposal for an AAR presentation at next year’s Annual Meeting. The presentations are judged and selected on a blind peer-review basis and, after some thought I decided I should remove the post in the very unlikely chance that one of the reviewers might stumble across my post between now and when the presentations are selected. I do not wish to upset the process by removing the anonymity of my... Read more

Time again (well past time in fact) for another collection of thoughts on gratitude…. Twitter – of all things… I worried it would be too much a repository for people’s mundane crap lives (like these silly blogs, hehe), but I’m actually finding good nuggets, links, and more. Still plenty of moments of brevity though, as I read tonight my old meditation teacher note how an item he had just purchased was now just “$1.69, WTF!” Silent space – For three... Read more

Ohh, sometimes I so wish I was still living in England… Perhaps one day I’ll go back as I finish up my doctorate or for post-doc work. Likely not too soon, as all is well here and even with the economy going down, work for me is secure and plentiful. In any case, this jumped out at me today: VICES AND DISORDERSLANCASTER UNIVERSITY FRIDAY 13TH MARCHFUNDED BY THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF PHILOSOPHY AND THE SOCIETY FOR APPLIED PHILOSOPHY The workshop... Read more

Gregory Schopen is, without a doubt, one of the great living scholars of Buddhism, and arguably one of the greatest in Western history. Just turning to the references page of one recent book, Paul Williams’ “Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations” and you find Schopen referred to nearly 20 times. That’s way more than Tsong kha pa, way more than D.T. Suzuki, more than Paul’s colleague and also-great Buddhologist Rupert Gethin, and it’s even more than you’ll find to such massive... Read more

This is Sjors (pronounced Shorsh), a Dutch web designer who lived with me in our flat, “Batavia Mews” in London last year. The place was bleak, even for English standards. At times the whole building had no heat, it was constantly infested with mice (other parts had rats and cockroaches, and our flat had pigeons roosting in the walls after I left), and the complacent management conveniently blamed everything on us students. But despite it all, we had fun together.... Read more

Spring is not yet here (definitely not in Missoula as we just received a massive flurry of snow) and I’m already planning for summer. It’s a bit unlike me, but lets give it a whirl. Some conferences/classes I’d like to be in/at this summer (and spring): Theory and Philosophy Summer School 4-8 May 2009Organised by the School of Sociology and Philosophy, University College Cork The Theory and Philosophy Summer School is an intensive course in theories, concepts and methods of... Read more

One of my major projects at The Center for Ethics these days has been coordinating and overseeing wiki learning environments. For those who have never worked in wiki, it’s a bit daunting. But after the steep learning curve faces light up as users begin to see a world of possibilities opening up. Slowly but surely we are dumping expensive proprietary software (the most common is Blackboard) in favor of this free and virtually limitless learning environment. It has tremendous potential... Read more