Last Sunday, in a very nice chat with Rev. Danny Fisher I heard about the Tricycle article called “Dharma Wars.“ Much of the article concerns a particular situation that I don’t know much about. But it moves on to try to make pretty broad claims about Buddhists and the internet. After describing a comment section dialog over at James Ure’s blog, the author claimed: Twisted Branch had a point, though. In cyberspace, we can craft whatever persona we choose and... Read more

(As posted at Buddhist Ethics) Buddhism presents us with a particular orientation in the world. Another word for this broad sense of orientation in the world is cosmology. It seems that what unites Buddhist throughout history and geography is this shared cosmology: a cosmology in which we find “an ethically oriented “samsaric” cosmology coexist[ing] with an ethically oriented “Buddhic” cosmos brought into being by the achievements and teachings of the Gautama Buddha.” (1)What that means is that the Buddhist, starting... Read more

The last couple days here in Missoula have been utterly beautiful. I lament, however, not carrying my camera with me to capture some of the snow-capped and sun-kissed peaks visible in most every direction. It was unseasonably warm yesterday, 20 degrees (6 or 7 for you Celsius folks) above normal yesterday and, while not so warm, equally beautiful today. Here (above) is a photo from a couple years back, August of 07. May we each find beauty in this and... Read more

My friend and fellow University of Bristol alumnus, Margaret, recently posted some ideas for writing papers. This is a task that all academics know can be pretty overwhelming at times. So much to say! Where to start? What to leave out?! Her post is filled with detailed hints and helpers, but for a teaser, here’s a mind-map I just found for a paper I wrote 4 or so years ago for a conference… (wishing I could find where I did... Read more

Wow! More great Pāḷi resources… First, a lovely online look-up tool (which I’ll incorporate into the blog post-haste): And Second, a downloadable desktop tool for the complete Pāḷi Canon (perhaps some commentaries as well?), right here. Lovely. ~ As for the other stuff; relating to a couple posts back, my plan for now is to leave the past in the past and focus on the present (which is a rather wonderful place). Something about traveling seems to ruffle my feathers... Read more

“The reality of interdependence is sobering, as well as poetic.” Rita Gross – Toward a Buddhist Environmental Ethic, JAAR 1996 Read more

Today I ran 10 miles. That might sound like a lot, but after my marathon training, it qualifies as either a long “short” run or a rather short “long” run. Today it fit in the latter category, as I accompanied my girlfriend, Julie, on the long run for her own marathon training. She is fresh back from a vacation in Italy and will be running in January. Unfortunately, the elevation change from near sea-level to around 3500 feet was hard... Read more

But is it ever really over??? In the end, my paper, and the panel on Comparative Approaches to Meditation as a whole, was a great success. A publishing rep offered me a free book, the latest one out by Anthony De Mello, about the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. A journal editor approached us about potentially devoting an issue of his journal to our panel. And we had a very nice audience. What more could I ask for? A job!?... Read more

My view(s) for the day as I stayed in today, furiously reworking my paper for tomorrow’s presentation. It’s looking better now; fewer outlandish claims and unsupported theses; fewer theses altogether as well. I still have one outlandish and provocative phrase that I’m debating cutting out, but…. We’ll see. morning noon night Sitting across the table at dinner tonight was a professor at a certain Catholic school who let this one out: “Catholicism is the only religion that is capable of... Read more

More from AAR… Brian, a friend of mine from this summer’s China travels, will interview today for a job at an apparently very Christian college somewhere in the heartland of America. In a time and place where every interview counts, he finds himself scrambling to be a bit more Christian in the last few hours. Another friend, who interviewed with this college a couple years ago, gave him a bit of advice: Know of and be able to talk about... Read more