Awakening in a world of white,Early, I suppose, these days.August snow memories,From childhood come to life. Smiling in bathrobe warmth,Fresh coffee and newspaper.My lover sitting beside me,Her smile colors the world. Gas stove fights the cold,Burns ice from windowpanes.Reveals nature’s glory,Painted on white this fall day. Read more

“It’s the little things,” my roommate said to me today with excitement, upon discovering that his Mac version of excel could open Microsoft Access documents too… Yea, it’s true. Today – just now – I found this: the Digha Nikaya! And it looks like the WHOLE thing, in English! Even Access to Insight (a long-time friend of mine) has some gaping holes in the available suttas. Of course I had to discover this 10 minutes AFTER ordering a copy from... Read more

Philosophers can be funny too: 2009 dialectica essay prize (£500): ‘ought’******************************************* ‘Ought’ is one of the most used words in philosophy. But what does it mean? There are oughts to do, oughts to be, ought to F of all sorts. There is the ethical ought, the epistemic ought, the semantic ought, and many others. What do they have in common? Or are there as many oughts as there are reasons and stars in the sky? Can deontic logic tell us... Read more

Some people like to say the Buddha didn’t do metaphysics. Or that he did ontology instead of metaphysics, with some idea that ontology is necessary and useful while metaphysics is just a bunch of empty speculation. So I open up a couple dictionaries of philosophy to ontology and get the following entry: see metaphysics. Granted, other dictionaries do define ontology as a subfield of metaphysics, but even then the definition doesn’t support the idea that ontology is inherently useful and... Read more

My great thanks to Andrew Olendzki and Dharma.org for a great chart (a .pdf) of the aspects of the Buddhist Divine Abidings (Brahma-vihāras). Here is what we find for Mettā, the first of them: Characteristic (lakkhana): promoting welfare (hit-ākāra-ppavatti) Function (rasa): to prefer welfare (hit-ūpasaṃhāra) Manifestation (paccupaññhāna): removal of annoyance (āghāta-vinaya) Proximate Cause (padaññhāna): seeing the loveability of beings (sattānaṃ manāpa-bhāva-dassana) Succeeds when it (sampatti): makes ill-will subside (vyāpād-ūpasama) Fails when it (vipatti): produces sentimentality (sineha-sambhava) [a.k.a. selfish affection] The... Read more

I wonder just how far this goes – the placebo effect that is, the idea that I think I’m doing something to get better and I actually do, even if it’s just taking a sugar pill. Faith. Belief. Health. Obviously it can’t be taken too far. We all hear of tragic consequences of people just believing an illness will go away, or trusting in God to fix this or that major ailment. Stuff, things, people, and medicine do work. But,... Read more

In my inbox today: Dear Amazon.com Customer, As someone who has purchased or rated Buddhist Ethics by Hammalawa Saddhatissa or other books in the Buddhism > Theravada category, you might like to know that Horse-Breeding: Being the General Principles of Heredity Applied to the Business of Breeding Horses, With Instructions for the Management of Stallions, … of Breeding Stock (Classic Reprint) is now available. You can order yours for just $8.72 by following the link below. Really? Read more

Little mind wanders. It jumps from tree to tree. It spins stories like yarn until it is enclosed on all sides. Big mind rests. It is open as the crisp night sky in autumn. Eternal and accepting, it tolerates little mind with a knowing smile. Life is an ebb and flow between Little and Big mind. Diligent practice is our route to rest and stability. Distraction nudges and attracts the Little mind… Leap! Big mind laughs and soaks up some... Read more

That’s me. I’m something like the 9th stage in some sub-lineage of the Chinese Master Linji that has made its way through Thich Nhat Hanh (7th gen, I believe). Today, on the final day of a short retreat, I was given the Dharma name “Sublime Dwelling of the Source.” You can call me Sid. Or Justin still works. It was my second Zen retreat in this tradition (I’ve also done one Soto Zen retreat), the last one being near Missoula... Read more

A Marathon. I’ve read that only 1 percent of humanity will ever run one. The funny thing is, in my experience at least, once you start training for one and talking about it, you find that about 20% of the people you talk to have done one or are planning one. I suppose it’s like most things, your attention goes to something and picks out things that are similar and ignores non-confirming data. I’m sure that in fact about 95%... Read more