Just as I finished my last post, Julie suggested I check this out:Americans can be dumb and work too much, but we also come up with stuff like this. Almost enough to forgive us for our last President, right? Read more

Sometimes I just don’t think I belong in America in the 21st Century. For one thing, I’m way too lazy for our “protestant” work ethic. 40 hours a week, 50 weeks a year is insane. At my peak, about 3 years ago, I was both a University Instructor and a philosophy graduate student. At that time I think I was putting in anywhere from 65-80 hours per week. Eek. These days my priorities are all over the place (something I’ll... Read more

The littlest things. I’m a language-geek, so this might not be so humorous to the rest of you, but I found it worthy of a post. A.R., a friend of mine from Asia was recently in Boston. He took a picture of himself with the skyline behind him and gave it the following caption on facebook: “Beautiful Boston city on my behind” A Western friend corrected him, “behind me ;)” A.R. responds, “Thanks for correction X. Fortunately it is a... Read more

“What unites us is much greater than what separates us…. It is necessary … to rid ourselves of stereotypes, of old habits. And above all, it is necessary to recognize the unity that already exists.” – Pope John Paul II What unites us in samsara is our basic nature as beings, caught in ignorance, causing suffering both to ourselves and others. Sabbe tasanti da.ndassa – sabbe bhaayanti maccuno; Attaana.m upama.m katvaa – na haneyya na ghaataye. All [beings] fear the... Read more

I’m grading student papers (Buddhist academic purgatory) now and one of the topics they could choose to write on was the Buddha’s first teaching, the Dhammacakkappavattana-sutta, the “Turning the Wheel of Dhamma Discourse.” It’s a wonderful sutta to know, if not by heart, then at least conceptually. And there’s a handy trick for setting it to memory, using (Tom will love this) numbers. (numbers are in fact somewhat ubiquitous in early Buddhist teachings, as ways of setting the teachings to... Read more

As I did my umpteenth crunch at the gym tonight, watching the students go by, it dawned on me that I’m getting old. Now, not in any earth-shattering, dread-inspiring way, but in a gentle, “oh” sort of way. Part of this is that I’m 29 now and most people at the University gym are about a decade younger than me. I became somewhat fascinated by this, by the odd fact that each of them has a whole ten years ahead... Read more

…. just happens to be in Missoula. I think I might just have to run it. ~ And that gets me thinking about all the effort that will require – training again for months ahead of time, taking care of injuries and being mindful to avoid them to begin with. Among the many great articles posted yesterday in our first ever Buddho-Blogging Article Swap was a great one by Adam, suggesting that while Buddhism and “enlightenment” are being packaged and... Read more

Today it’s a great honor to share an article by Nate Montgomery, from Precious Metal: the blog. As Nate says in describing himself, “I am just a guy trying to have some fun, help a few people and raise some awareness on issues I think ought to be raised.” His article today on enlightenment and the power of just “slowing down” does a wonderful job of just that: raising awareness. His reflections on society should also bring some smiles and,... Read more

More scholar-nerdiness to follow (a warning or an enticement)… Here are a couple great web pages giving simple introductions to language trees and to the evolution of scripts. Neither is exhaustive (of course), and I was sad to see Persian/Farsi omitted from the language tree, but these are very helpful tools for beginners, and some not-so-beginners to get oriented. The whole idea of a “Indo-European” language family is still foreign to many Buddhists. Hopefully we can help with that a... Read more

It is a fitting time, I think, to explore Gratitude. Yet in an ideal sense, gratitude would suffuse our every thought, word and action. Just thinking about this brings a sense of calm, stillness, and openness. The field of awareness expands and we hold gently all things. As I mentioned a while back, I’m reading the latest book out by Anthony De Mello, about the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. And I should be finalizing my conference paper for publication... Read more