I probably have far too many photos on flickr already, but I just uploaded about 100 more! I thought it would make a great photo project to take a photo every day at the same time from the same place of a Missoula sunset. Perhaps if I ever get a permanent job here I’ll try it (it was also suggested to me to do it with friends, splitting up the duties). Meanwhile here are some of my recent pics: (all... Read more

And new opportunity – to share, grow, exercise, work, play, smile, and be grateful. These last couple weeks have provided yet another roller-coaster of emotions for me – mostly ups though. I have had to plan – agonizing about what to do this fall: go to London or stay in Montana (I chose London); and figuring out what to do this summer: eek out an MA here and be a wreck going to London or relax here and prepare for... Read more

Noticing the sky grow golden from my office window, I decided to abandon my computer in exchange for the wet grass and trees of Mount Sentinel. Five minutes later I was on the other side of campus at the Center for Ethics; in five more minutes I was about 80 feet up the hill taking photos like the one in my last post. It was a nearly silent ascent, the wetness of the grass muffling my footsteps. Suddenly I was... Read more

Something startled me as I walked to my office on the UM campus this evening: the silence, cut only by birds chirping in a nearby tree. The peace of campus in late May. Have a listen. Read more

… but mind is supreme.” When I finish my first marathon, if anyone bothers to ask me what I’ve learned from it all, that’s what I’ll say. Kind of silly – you’re not supposed to prepare for such things. But it occurred to me just now that that would sound good. That ‘insight’ came as I marked the fourth day in a row of my triumphant return to the gym and running after 3+ weeks of sickness/busyness/finals, and if anyone... Read more

“Today you lose. Tomorrow you may win. Things change, Kundun.” – Norbu Thundrup to the Dalai Lama, age 8 orso, in the film, “Kundun.” Change, anicca in Pali and anitya in Sanskrit, is one thing that we so often fear and avoid (especially when things are going well). But it is ever-present, unavoidable, and, in itself, harmless. It is clinging to things, people, jobs, offices, cars, pets and the rest that make change so difficult. So clinging is the real... Read more

Sometimes something happens. We see a crying child with no shoes or food to eat, we see nuns serving lepers in poverty, we hear about the genocide of Rwanda, Sudan, the Balkans, Armenians, Jews, Tibet, Cambodia and so on, we see the smiling face of a spiritual person. And it happens, our life changes. We can no longer follow our old habits, our selfish goals lose significance. We change. But usually we don’t. We avoid, rationalize, become cynical, defeatist, distracted.... Read more

I now have two days until the deadline for the Teaching from a Buddhist Perspective essay, but instead of worrying about that, or my drive back to Missoula (I’m in Helena at the folks’ house now) to work, I’m thinking about Happiness and Community. I’m reading Matthieu Ricard’s book, Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill, and it’s simply wonderful. I skipped right to the end for the juicy stuff (being an expert on all of this as... Read more

A post about posts. As a light rain passes over campus, followed by bursting evening sun, I slowly realize that the semester is ending. I haven’t reflected much on teaching this term… too busy. I didn’t much prepare this time around, foolishly, considering it was a completely new (to me) course. My plan, which more or less worked out, was to take a class when I should have been preparing and then to make it up creatively as I went... Read more

A growing trend of nationalism seems to be spreading in Thailand amongst the Buddhist monks. They have been recently calling on the committee currently drafting Thailand’s next constitution to enshrine Buddhism as the official state religion. Does Buddhism need such status? Can it survive and thrive without an official place in politics? I think certainly it can survive and indeed has in Thailand and other countries by carefully winning and maintaining the favor of government officials and elites. Enshrining a... Read more