Grass blows in the wind above meTrees, planted on balconies, brave Canada’s cold… Perhaps the start of a poem. Likely not. Either way, I’ve made it to Montréal, where I’ll spend the next three days taking in as much Buddhism; Buddhist Philosophy; Buddhist-Christian Studies; Comparative Religious Ethics; Philosophy, Religious studies, and Humanism; Buddhist Critical/Constructive Studies, Rethinking Secularism, and whatever else I can find (that’s just workshops and panels for tomorrow and Sunday morning). It is soooo good to be here.... Read more

When I’m not busy being a crotchety academic, marathon runner, meditation poster-boy, autumn-leaf photographer, one of the things I like to do is teach meditation. I’ve done it in a somewhat official form for about six years. I mostly work with college kids who are intersted, but I’ve taught retirees, housemates, last year our college athletes (many at least) had to sit through 15 or so minutes of me and my meditation bell, and this year I get to work... Read more

That’s a quote (or very close) from a recent interview with psychologist Mark Epstein, featured over at the Tricycle blog. My response(s) follow, slightly edited. Hmmm… Is that like saying a creator God exists, it’s just not as real as you think? Sounds fishy. Perhaps skillful, but fishy nonetheless. Sabbe dhamma anatta, all phenomena are not-self. Even nibbana is anatta. And all of samsara is associated with the 5 khandhas, which are the basis for all other dhammas. Where then,... Read more

From a taxi in Shanghai: It’s an advertisement for a device that will “shape your breasts, care for your face, and tone your body.” Read more

There is a new TED talk this month, by designer Stefan Sagmeister (thanks to my friend, Chic Monk for the head’s up). In it Sagmeister describes the results of an innovative scheme of time off and the amazing way it boosted his life and income. His idea, incredibly simple in a way, was to take 5 years out of his retirement and insert them into the 40 or so that he projected to be his working life (age 25-65). Thus... Read more

Polebridge, MT. Photo by Julie. Read more

icebergs are buddhist monks i send forth,released into the world from the great monasteries of the poles.their mantra is the blue light humming within their frozen cores.their message is peace and oneness,but alas they simply vanish.every year monks leave me and never return. – yann martel Read the rest here. (found here via twitter. Thanks Isabella!) I missed the whole Blog Action Day thing this year (tisk tisk), but this poem fragment reminded me of it and the whole fact... Read more

Julie and I made it back to Glacier National Park this weekend, exactly one year after first journey there together. As before, it was gorgeous. Going-to-the-Sun road was closed, unlike last year when we made it all the way to the top of Logan Pass (big map). So we decided to focus our efforts on the west side of the park. After camping at Apgar campground Friday night we took the road north (the Inside North Fork Road) that takes... Read more

Big sigh as I just completed my online CV for the American Academy of Religion annual conference and job center. I passed by an former colleague (we were grad students together in philosophy at UM) today and informed him of this and he said, “wow… that’s so… grown up!” He, on the other hand is in his second or third year applying to PhD programs. He’s right though, it is pretty grown up. And, by golly, I do feel a... Read more

Luckily Amazon isn’t always flaky, and this week suggested a book I would love to get my hands on (except, perhaps, for the price and the fact that I have a stack of un-read books before me that are more directly related to my thesis). I have long admired the ideas of Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Merleau-Ponty was a phenomenologist, one who sets experience itself as the starting point for philosophy, for understanding life. In that respect he finds good company in... Read more