The Future of Tibet, a re-post in honor of Tibetan Uprising Day

Last updated on: March 10, 2014 at 8:42 pm By Justin Whitaker

The Tibetan Center in Kingston, New York, held a discussion last year of the six decades of human rights abuses in Tibet under Chinese occupation, the recent rise in protests (especially self-immolations), and the possibilities concerning the future of Tibet. The Future of Tibet Saturday, February 23, 2-4 pm Bertelsmann Campus Center, Bard College In 2012, there was an intensification of protests and a sharp increase in the number of self-immolations by Tibetans, a response to the continued annexation of... Read more

Prof. Robert Thurman on Tibetan Buddhism & Michael Roach’s “cult” – Dateline NBC

Last updated on: March 10, 2014 at 4:04 pm By Justin Whitaker

Last fall I found out that someone at NBC was trying to get in touch with me about the Geshe Michael Roach story (links to all of the background are below). It turns out that NBC NY producer Anna Schecter was piecing together a story for Dateline and had come across some of my writing here on Patheos. She and I spoke for some time. I told her about my background, how I was sort of a student of GMR in... Read more

Translating Meditation in Popular American Media

Last updated on: March 2, 2014 at 11:44 pm By Justin Whitaker

* A guest-post by C. Pierce Salguero. TIME magazine’s 2 Feb 2014 cover (above, left) announces the arrival of the “Mindful Revolution.” The publication joins a flurry of recent examples confirming that a shift is taking place in the representation of meditation in American popular media. This is not the first time that meditation has been featured by TIME—a strikingly similar cover was published on 4 Aug 2003 (above, right). Compared to the 2014 cover, the earlier one is transitional. The photograph of a white,... Read more

Thailand’s protests: An Op-Ed by Dr. Dion Peoples

Last updated on: February 24, 2014 at 1:56 pm By Justin Whitaker

I’ve been ‘aware’ of Thailand since I was an intelligence-analyst in the US Air Force, stationed in Germany, around early 2001. I watched on CNN as Thaksin Shinawatra was expected to win the elections, and immediately I felt I did not like this guy. I would soon leave the USAF after a decade of service, to become a fully-ordained world-renouncing Theravada Buddhist-monk. I’ve taken keen interest in Thailand’s political turmoil. I witnessed the horror of the daily killings on the... Read more

Mindful of your immorality?

Last updated on: March 1, 2014 at 8:47 am By Justin Whitaker

A contemporary Western Buddhist version of this would probably look something like this: In case you missed it, this is regarding (not that Google in particular is guilty of all of the above): Criticism of Google has, of course, poured in. Katie Loncke of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship writes of Google’s bus scheme, which is contributing to rising rents and gentrification: This is not true mindfulness. It’s selective awareness, optimized for pleasure. In other words, ignorance. And the problem is not... Read more

Wolves in Yellowstone: why “Trophic Cascade” should become a household term

Last updated on: February 17, 2014 at 9:05 pm By Justin Whitaker

This is an amazing story of the interweavings of interdependence in one of the most beautiful places on earth. Reintroducing wolves into Yellowstone National Park after nearly 70 years of absence has been controversial. Some of its effects have been expected, and some have been completely unexpected. Alongside discussions of pack size, tourism, and rancher’s losses, what is known as a “trophic cascade” occurred. This is when a predator species suppresses a prey, thus releasing pressure on that animal’s food source. In... Read more

photographing a meteor over SW England

Last updated on: February 17, 2014 at 11:04 am By Justin Whitaker

I haven’t posted much photography lately, but this is a worthy one. Saturday evening I went on a walk with my girlfriend into the Leigh Woods just south of Bristol across the Clifton Suspension Bridge. On our return journey we were on the east side of the bridge when I set up my camera for a couple shots (I wound up taking a 1-second exposure). Just as I got the camera positioned and set up, I saw a bright green... Read more

Buddhism in 200 words: Updating the AP Style Book on Buddhism

Last updated on: February 14, 2014 at 11:57 pm By Justin Whitaker

Speaking again of twitter, a colleague there, @samtenchuwo, just alerted me to the AP Style Book, a guide widely used by journalists. Its entry for Buddhism is around 200 words and, well, lets just say it needs some help. So let’s see if we can come up with something better, shall we? ~ Buddha, Buddhism A major religion founded in India about 450 B.C. by the Buddha. Buddha means awakened one, and was the name assumed by Siddhartha Gautama. Most of... Read more

Tibetan Sky Burial (photos) UPDATED: Propaganda vs Scholarship

Last updated on: February 12, 2014 at 7:05 pm By Justin Whitaker

In 2012 I found and shared some images of a then-recent Tibetan Sky Burial (original post is here). Over the years I have received a fair amount of feedback on the post, mostly of the “wow” and “thank you for sharing” nature. However, one commenter, using the handle @Tibetans at twitter, has repeatedly asked that I remove the post. In his/her own words, a recent tweet reads: “@Buddhistethics Again please stop promoting Chinese propaganda against Tibetan in occupied #Tibet, be human.... Read more

Sh*t the Buddha Says

Last updated on: February 6, 2014 at 1:54 am By Justin Whitaker

If any of you are fans of Buddhism, particularly Zen, and Shit My Dad Says, you should get a little kick out of this “Shit the Buddha Says” video: The video has been floating around for a couple years (with little attention) and the website it advertises, yogadawg.com seems to be defunct (with a 2006-2010 Copyright at the bottom). There is also a blog, which likewise stopped in 2012. It’s a shame, because the “Who said it: Birkam or Charlie [Sheen]” is a... Read more