Buddhists could be perpetrating a genocide in Burma (Myanmar)

Last updated on: September 27, 2017 at 12:19 pm By Justin Whitaker

Bangladesh: “They have come in their thousands, crossing hills and rivers, marshes and rice paddies for the chance to cross into Bangladesh and escape the mass killings they say are being perpetrated against their people.” This is how in-depth coverage of the crisis in Burma by Euan McKirdy, Rebecca Wright and Z. Saeed, of CNN begins. According to UN estimates, they continue, 50,000 Rohingya (a predominantly Muslim ethnic group in Burma*) have been forced to flee their homes, over half reaching neighboring Bangladesh,... Read more

Black Lives Matter rally and march, Seattle WA (Photos)

Last updated on: November 28, 2017 at 12:31 pm By Justin Whitaker

On Saturday, August 26, a Black Lives Matter rally and march was held in downtown Seattle, WA. News accounts suggest several hundred were in attendance, though I would say at least a thousand, perhaps 1500 people, were there. The event was organized by the Black Freedom Front of Seattle with the following message: As we watch that hate and racism is alive and well in the United States- we must not only stand up to hate and racism but defeat it to as... Read more

A Brief Meditation on Cosmic Wholeness: A Buddhist and an Eclipse

Last updated on: November 28, 2017 at 12:32 pm By Justin Whitaker

What can I say about the eclipse – the experience of totality? When I first looked into the coming total eclipse of the sun, I heard that it would be epic, life changing, a “religious experience” and so on. And I heard this not from hippies or millennials but from scientists, nerds, good skeptics with otherwise sober and sane views of life. I made my plan to see it, dragging my partner Beth along, quite willingly of course. Coming from... Read more

A Montana Mindfulness Retreat

Last updated on: November 28, 2017 at 12:32 pm By Justin Whitaker

This October (6th-8th), you can join me and others at a beautiful lakeside retreat center on Flathead Lake in NW Montana. The retreat will offer an opportunity to step out of our busy, noisy, hectic every-day lives for two nights to quiet the mind and simply look within. The idea of a “retreat” goes far back in both Eastern and Western religious and philosophical traditions and we will draw from both, but primarily Buddhist thought and practices (sitting and walking... Read more

Buddhism and the afterlife with the Voice of Islam

Last updated on: November 28, 2017 at 12:33 pm By Justin Whitaker

Occasionally, I am invited to do an interview about Buddhism, Buddhist ethics, Buddhist philosophy, etc. Here, you can find me speaking with the good folks at Voice of Islam radio (based in London). It was 8am my time and due to a little error, I was expecting them at 9am, so I wasn’t nearly as caffeinated as I should have been. That said, you can find me answering questions about Buddhist beliefs in the afterlife (from at mainly Theravadin point... Read more

Dismantling Buddhist Patriarchy and Denial From the Inside

Last updated on: November 28, 2017 at 12:32 pm By Justin Whitaker

The Dalai Lama's message was clear: you defend Buddhism by calling out abusive people, not by defending them, not by remaining silent. Read more

The merit of pointing out abuse in Buddhism: Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche

Last updated on: November 28, 2017 at 12:32 pm By Justin Whitaker

A common teaching in Tibetan Buddhism suggests that, “if a lama or rinpoche says something wrong, you MUST point it out as wrong.” They might be pure beings, perfect Buddha’s etc, but right there, right then, they were, “manifesting an opportunity for you to correct them.” This and similar teachings permeate the Buddhist tradition, which is built upon harmonious behavior, careful instruction, reflection, reason, and debate. With that in mind I point at a few things in Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche’s recent... Read more

Dalai Lama Speaks Out on Buddhist Teacher Misconduct

Last updated on: November 28, 2017 at 12:34 pm By Justin Whitaker

In the video below, from his teachings in Ladakh on August 1, 2017 the Dalai Lama states: I feel, that some of these lama institutions [have] some sort of influence of feudal system. That is out of date. It must end. So with some feudal influence, then eventually the lama institution creates lama politics [laughing]. So, that is very bad. Lama politics… Lama individual disgrace, doesn’t matter. But very bad impression about monastery or monk – very bad. So we must pay... Read more

Abusive Tibetan Buddhists: Continuing the Conversation

Last updated on: November 28, 2017 at 12:34 pm By Justin Whitaker

Tibetan Buddhism will always have a special place in my heart. As I embarked on my studies in (Western) philosophy in college, I found a treasure trove of philosophical brilliance in the Buddhism of this Himalayan region. In particular, the works of one man: Tsongkhapa. I studied his works closely, along with Sakya Pandita and Atisha and others before him and the current Dalai Lama. My M.A. in Buddhist Studies consisted mostly of Mahayana and Tibetan Buddhism courses before turning... Read more

Detroit: Intimacy with Racial Hatred and the Suffering it Causes

Last updated on: November 28, 2017 at 12:34 pm By Justin Whitaker

Director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal have teamed up twice before, on The Hurt Locker (2008) and Zero Dark Thirty (2012). It is tempting, then, to see Detroit as the climax of this team’s war trilogy, where the war comes home. The film brings us to the city in the summer of 1967. It is set off with a series of images drawn from Jacob Lawrence paintings showing the rising racial segregation of the city, the promise and failure of... Read more