As reported in the Hindustan Times, the Dalai Lama‘s response to the recent attacks in Paris was concise and to the point: Violence is a reaction by short-sighted, out-of-control people. At 81, I believe it cannot be resolved through prayers or government help. We have to begin the change at individual level and then move on to neighbourhood and society. The Dalai Lama, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, has long advocated non-violence in conflicts across the world, including... Read more
In case you missed it, this week Burma hosted a truly historic election in which Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party won enough seats to choose the next President. Aung San Suu Kyi is herself currently banned from becoming the President by the constitution recently redrafted by the ruling military government, but she has vowed to take up a position, “above the President.” Suu Kyi has been criticized for her failure to speak up for the oppressed Muslim... Read more
I’ve just completed teaching the Bodhicaryāvatāra (Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life) for the third time in my academic life, which probably makes this the 6th or 7th time I’ve been through the text. Some of it is finally, maybe, starting to sink in. Vesna and Alan Wallace, whose translation I borrow from below, tell us that it, “has been the most widely read, cited, and practiced text in the whole of the Indo-Tibetan Buddhist tradition” and that it is... Read more
The English-speaking world loves their gurus and Eastern mysterious wisdom and enlightenment and all that stuff. And while (I hope I’m not being too optimistic in saying) we’re collectively growing out of our most infantile–and destructive–phase of interacting and mingling with “the East”, there is still a long way to go. Colonialism’s dual projections of “dark evil” and “mysterious goodness” continue to play out in popular culture. But both rely on obscured vision of the place(s) and people for what and... Read more
UPDATE: 11/24, The autumn course is underway. Here are upcoming courses: Winter – 8 spots left. You can still register Course: Jan 2 – 24, 2016 This session is US time zone friendly, but anybody in the world is welcome to attend. If your time zone is not listed there are many good online tools to convert, we have found this one to be useful. Please be mindful of daylight savings time. Pacific time: Sat-Sun 6:00-9:15am and 10:15am-1:30pm, Tue-Wed-Thu 6-9:15am (PST) London time: Sat-Sun 14:00-17:15 and 18:15-21:30, Tue-Wed-Thu 14:00-17:15 (GMT) Hong Kong time: Sat-Sun 22:00-01:15 and 02:15-05:30,... Read more
News out today from Tergar Learning Community: As you know, Mingyur Rinpoche was on an extended solitary retreat in the Himalayas for the last four years. In the tradition of the great meditation masters of times past, he spent his time wandering freely with no fixed plan or agenda, meditating in caves and hermitages in remote places. In his absence the Tergar Meditation Community continued to thrive with Tergar lamas and instructors holding meditation workshops and retreats around the world.... Read more
In an entertaining and thoughtful talk, Columbia University’s Robert Thurman discussed Buddhist ethics at Google late last week. The talk is excellent for both situating Buddhist ethics in the context of the Four Noble Truths and the Eight-fold Path as well as engaging with aspects of Western philosophy and current ways of thinking. The talk revolves around a visual aid, The 10-fold Path of Skillful and unskillful evolutionary (karmic) action*: Kill Save Life Body Steal Give Abuse Sex Beneficial Sex... Read more
Thich Nhat Hanh is revered as one of Buddhism’s greatest living masters: a poet, a translator, a peace activist, and most importantly to most: a teacher of profound depth and meaning to tens of thousands of followers around the world. It has been over a month since our last health update, and given the trajectory over the last 11 month, it seems that cautious optimism is still warranted. Yet, even as his health continues to improve, his followers have been... Read more
It has become fashionable these days, in both academic and more popular writing, to describe recent developments in Buddhist thought and practice as being influenced by certain Western trends. The most common and broad trend applied is “Protestantism.” The idea here is that in the face of colonial powers, from roughly the 18th century give or take and speeding up into the 19th and early 20th, Asian Buddhists have altered their traditions to be more like Protestant Christians. There are good... Read more
Remember this word: Pareidolia. We’ll come back to that in a moment. Sarcasm in print is always tricky. In pithy stories reporting science news, all the more so. Thus a well-earned tip of the hat is owed to the folks over at Discovery News for their coverage of the alleged Buddha statue showing up in one of last week’s Mars Curiosity Rover photographs. Pointing to two real space science stories, they conclude: Sure, they told us about liquid water on Mars today and... Read more
American Buddhist Perspectives
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