Get this: our friend and past interviewee Joshua Eaton will be teaching a class on “Buddhism and Social Justice” at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education this fall. The course description reads: Join us to look at Buddhist ideas about social justice, both ancient and contemporary. Readings will come from poetry, philosophy, narratives, sermons, and lectures from across Buddhist Asia. You’ll gain a working knowledge of the history of ideas about political philosophy with the various Buddhist traditions, the context that... Read more

We know what happens next. Or, rather, we know what doesn’t happen next: we won’t talk about guns, and we won’t talk about mental health care. As I write this, a terrible shooting attack has just ended at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin in Oak Creek, near Milwaukee. A man, as yet unidentified, opened fire on the community, killing six and seriously wounding at least three others (including a policeman). In an exchange of gunfire with the police, the killer... Read more

One of many emerging stories of heroism from Colorado, this one via The White House: ‎During his visit to University of Colorado Hospital, the President had a chance to meet Allie Young and Stephanie Davies… During the film, Allie and Stephanie were seated near an aisle and when the gunman began his attack by tossing a canister of gas into the crowd, Allie, just 19 years old, stood up to warn those around her. She was hit in the neck... Read more

Over at my personal website, I’ve posted a few times about my friend and former Naropa University classmate Alisa Roadcup. Formerly Outreach Director and Development Associate for the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions and Director of Strategic Initiatives for The Voices and Faces Project, she is currently Vice President of the Board of Directors for Rape Victim Advocates and a leader in the Women’s Human Rights Coordination Group for Amnesty International USA. She is also busy these days as the Director of... Read more

Every June the U.S. Campaign for Burma, an organization I support, asks its members to host fundraising events to help “ensure that the voices of the people of Burma get amplified and addressed on a global level.” I have never done this before…until now! Please consider contributing to my fundraising campaign, which will ultimately lead to an event here in Los Angeles. To find out more about what I’ve got planned (and to donate), just follow this link. Read more

After reading Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn’s Half the Sky, the book that inspired my most recent sermon, I have no doubt that it’s the most important subject I’ve ever addressed in a dharma talk. You can listen to the talk and read my comments about the book at my official website. In the short time that it has been online, the talk has also really gotten around: among other things, I was thrilled and touched that it got mentioned on the... Read more

Read all about it (and see quite a few pictures) at my official website. It’s all highly relevant to our purposes here. Read more

Alex Co is an undergraduate at the University of St. Andrews in the United Kingdom, where he studies Social Anthropology and Psychology. Along with five other friends, Alex is producing a feature-length documentary film about Tibetan Buddhist nuns entitled, Daughters of Dolma: The Spiritual Journey of Tibetan Buddhist Nuns in Nepal. The film tells the story of three generations of nuns living in two nunneries in modern-day Nepal. Speaking about the film, Alex says, “We took our bags and camera... Read more

Dr. Michaela Haas is an international reporter, lecturer and consultant. In addition, she is the media consultant for and a board member of Lotus Outreach — the secular humanitarian organization founded by Buddhist teacher Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche and dedicated to “ensuring the education, health and safety of at-risk and exploited women and children in the developing world.” Dr. Haas is also currently a lecturer and research scholar in the Religious Studies department at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She... Read more

Please check out my latest news post for Buddhadharma: The Practitioner’s Quarterly Online. In it, I talk about (and link to) a petition Change.org is currently hosting, which asks President Obama to prevent the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), “a US Federal agency which operates the Voice of America (VOA),” from ceasing VOA’s broadcasts to Tibet. With China’s crackdown on both Tibetan activism and outside media scrutiny increasing all the time, such broadcasts are crucial for Tibetans. Tenzin Wangmo, an executive board member... Read more