In their most recent update, the Monks and Nuns of Plum Village have great news regarding Thich Nhat Hanh’s continuing improvement: We are happy to report that Thay’s health has improved greatly since he returned to his Plum Village Hermitage in early April. Every day Thay has been out in nature, enjoying the blossoms, listening to the birds and resting at the foot of a tree. Thay enjoys lying in his hammock next to the running creek, in the fresh cool... Read more
Today I am thrilled to join millions across the country in celebration of the Supreme Court’s decision to legalize same-sex marriage across all 50 states. In honor of the decision, along with joining the facebook “Celebrate Pride” campaign with this blog’s facebook profile pic, I thought I would repost one of the blog’s most popular entries. Please enjoy, comment, take pride, etc, and remember that there is still much work to be done. ~ The first place I generally turn whenever... Read more
In a meeting hosted by the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops this week, the Pope today met with around fifty Buddhists from America: A dialogue between Catholic and Buddhist religious and social action leaders began today at the Vatican. Pope Francis stopped by the meeting and Cardinal Jean Louis Tauron gave a welcoming address. The Pope then made some brief remarks that were translated to English as he spoke: This is a visit... Read more
Rev. angel Kyodo williams, who spoke last month with Bhikkhu Bodhi about mindfulness, responsibility, and social justice, has been the guest teacher for June at “Mindful Mondays.” Mindful Mondays is a community “designed to democratize wellbeing” according to founder Kerri Kelly of CTZN Well. This week Rev. angel Kyodo williams led a meditation titled #9Minutes for Charleston. After the meditation williams led a discussion of race in America, noting in particular that had this been an act by a Muslim the term “terrorism” would have been used immediately, and if these... Read more
When we think of weird new robots and robot-human relations, what place comes to mind? Probably Japan. In a story first posted by the AFP in February of this year and again just this week in the New York Times, it seems that robot dogs, first introduced in 1999, are beginning to die. Up until last March, Sony, the creator of the Aibo robot dogs had been repairing them, effectively bestowing immortality on the family robotic pets. The pets, equipped with... Read more
Today the Mangalam Research Center posted video of a post-conference seminar following the June 3-7 Mindfulness & Compassion conference at San Francisco State University. The topic, “Buddhism and Modernity: Conversations at the Edge,” drew a variety of responses from top academics in Buddhist studies and philosophy, psychologists, practitioners, and others. Below are the videos with brief notes and impressions. Panel 1: Buddhist Philosophy and the perennial concerns of Western philosophy Stephen Jenkins, Humboldt State University Steven Stanley, Cardiff University David Brazier,... Read more
This post is part of the Interfaith Ramadan: Shared Vision of Inclusion & Co-Existence series, cross-posted there at Interfaith Ramadan here. As our series host Sara Ager writes: Ramadan is a time when Muslim communities traditionally come together – to fast, to pray, to reflect, and to encourage one another. In that spirit, the Interfaith Ramadan blog series aims to extend that sense of community to people of all faiths and none. The series provides an inclusive platform where people from around the world share... Read more
Partially in response to increasingly vocal protests by Shudgen practitioners, the Tibetan Community UK has issued a statement on what they call the “Cult of Dolgyal Shugden.” You can read more about members of this group, who are currently protesting the Dalai Lama in Australia here and via links below. STATEMENT CONCERNING THE CULT OF DOLGYAL SHUGDEN (Issued by Tibetan Community in Britain on 12 June 2015) Since early 2014, a sectarian group, the International Shugden Community (ISC), has been... Read more
One of the great joys of doing philosophy is drawing the great minds of the past into contemporary conversations. As we do this we attempt to step outside ourselves, in a sense, to broaden our perspective. As a student of the great German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), I have also been amazed by the ways in which his ideas have been brought into contemporary conversations over the past 200 years. Kant Scholarship Scholarship on Kant has taken an exciting turn over... Read more
Mes Aynak (meaning “little copper well”) is a desert region 25 kilometers southeast of Kabul. It is an enormous archaeological treasure trove 400,000 square feet in size. Found there are an ancient Buddhist monastery complex, extensive wall frescos, massive devotional temples, and more than 200 life-sized Buddha statues. It is a discovery of immense global importance. Mes Aynak is also home to the second largest copper reserve in the world. Directly beneath the Buddhist site are mineral deposits worth an estimated $100... Read more
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