“Recovering a credible sense of the self – this agency, as he points out: without a sense of agency, any practical ethics or the possibility of any practical ethics is impossible.” – Ron Perrin (45:55 of this discussion of David Sherman’s project with his book on Sartre and Adorno) Ron Perrin and David Sherman have been influential philosophy professors of mine for nearly a decade now. When I studied Sartre under Sherman I was happily astonished by the potential similarities... Read more

Borrowed happily from Rev. Danny Fisher. Read more

Why to meditate? Why? Because meditation teaches us that the sorrows of life are like water, flowing, and not nearly so solid as they may feel. Meditation teaches us that the joys of life are like water, flowing, and somehow thus all the more beautiful and precious. Meditation teaches us that the ‘us’ at the heart of pain and joy is not so solid either, a mere potentiality. Meditation lets us let go to all that might hold us back... Read more

In my continuing efforts to organize myself in limited pockets of time, I am trying out bubbl.us – a newish tool for mind-mapping that is proving to be amazingly intuitive and useful. We’ll see how it works… For now, here’s a real quick mind-map of some Buddhist Ethics stuff: http://bubbl.us/sys/view.swf?sid=205198&pw=yauRRU32YXi/kMTFiaGsuS1Rxc1FhMg Read more

This is from Shantideva’s Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, as transcribed by the Asian Classics Institute. Anger feeds on the food Of feeling upset, then strengthened Turns to smash me. And so then I will smash The sustenance that feeds This enemy of mine. My foe knows no other Kind of work at all Except to cause me pain. No matter what happens I will never allow My joy to be disturbed. Feeling upset cannot accomplish My hopes,... Read more

“Let’s rejoice today and get ready to work hard to rebuild our country’s future.” Donna Brazile. Sigh… Thanksgiving has come and gone and I am again reminded of the sheer beauty and joy living in every moment of our lives. I brought the new girl (we’ll call her ‘Jules’) to Helena to meet the family, enjoy amazing and excessive foods, and to play hours of cards (and some trivial pursuit). It was truly wonderful, we stayed up half the night... Read more

Seek and ye shall find. I just stumbled across this from the BBC: Should shopping be a patriotic duty? It has interviews with an anti-consumerist, a consumer writer (Amanda Ford, below), a psychologist, and an economist. The anti-consumerist is the most interesting to me. The psychologist gives empty fluff. And the economist, while pro-consuming, still compares it to being on a drug. Like any good drug, he suggests, it’s not wise to just stop. We need to take it slowly,... Read more

Lacking anything very Buddhist(ic) or philosophical for the day, I’ve found some more photos to post. Oh, I did read that all is looking poorly for Tibet these days, as Britain bows to economic pressure (and China) and gives up claims to Tibet’s special status which has existed between Britain and Tibet for over a century. I saw that Citibank is getting a huge bailout and homebuilders are now asking for money. I’m contemplating provoking students to demand our piece... Read more

Tonight on my evening run to and from the gym in the bitter cold Missoula air I found my mind wondering to deep thoughts. Thoughts of modern communication, nostalgia and the flow of life, and amor fati and meditation. Now first of all it should have been no shock that such thoughts should be arising. I am naturally pensive, introspective, probing, searching for the grand meanings of things. But these days that has been mostly missing. Why? Half I can... Read more

Next Friday (wow, so soon) some friends and I will be showing our photos from our October trip to Glacier park as part of the UM Wilderness Institute. The following will probably be printed out and probably 5 or 6 of them will be shown. Let me know if you have any favorites (I’m especially curious about preferences between the two Bridge and Shooters pictures): River and Sky Moon Mountains and Sky Bridge and Shooters (2) Bridge and Shooters (1)... Read more