Well, sort of. As the chart shows, that 25 miles is spread over 4 runs and 8 days (11th-18th). And the barefoot isn’t totally bare – it’s in a pare of Vibram Five-Finger minimalist running shoes, along with specially made toe-socks. How? Why? Just how these strange little shoes work is one of those mysteries that only the so-called ‘scientists’ will ever explain. They’ll give you ‘evidence’ and ‘studies’ and all of that – which you’re welcome to look up... Read more
This is a repost from a while back. I have a busy week or so ahead working on phd stuff, but wanted to re-share this and see your thoughts on it. Luckily Amazon isn’t always flaky, and this week suggested a book I would love to get my hands on (except, perhaps, for the price and the fact that I have a stack of un-read books before me that are more directly related to my thesis). I have long admired... Read more
I have been interested in Sam Harris’ work for some time now. I’ve never sat down and read a whole book from him, but numerous articles, youtube clips, and mentions of him have made his name well known to me. In popular literature he is mentioned alongside Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, and Christopher Hitchens as the “Four Horsemen” of contemporary Atheism. In my studies of the Philosophy of Mind and Ethics and Evolution I read Dennett and touched on Dawkins;... Read more
My friend and my first meditation teacher, Bodhipaksa, has a great site that while not new, might be new to you – I blogged about it a couple years ago here. The premise is simple: to find and rectify Fake Buddha Quotes as much as possible. And Confucius says: people like to misquote Buddha. My suspicion is that the whole meme is somewhat of a continuation of the old (70s? 80s?) meme based on the lovable Chinese philosopher Confucius – recent... Read more
Wow. Time is passing quickly. I now have four weeks of training time for the 2012 Bristol Half Marathon. The bad news is that I injured my knee playing soccer (football) a couple weeks ago. But the good news is that after a week off it was feeling okay again and this last week I managed two good runs and some tennis with friends with no problems. Tomorrow I’ll do another long run, pushing to 8 miles, or 9 if... Read more
In what can probably be filed under “most bizarre stories ever” an article I came across today claimed that I, yes I, had a real shot at being one of the 1%. The article is in the USNews and World Reports’s special “university directory” claims that Religoius Studies ranks 5th in degrees that land people in the 1%. Number one, not surprisingly, is Economics, with over 8% of their graduates getting into the 1%. Then comes Political Science with 6.2%.... Read more
It has been a year and half since I was in Burma, which its military leaders renamed Myanmar in 1989. I was urged to go there by colleagues at the Antioch Education Abroad program in India where I taught in the fall of 2010. “The Lady” (Aung San Suu Kyi) had only just recently been released and elections held (claimed to be free by the government, but not by observers), and change was in the air. Of course, I remember... Read more
For several months (or in fact, possibly much longer), a former student of Ken McLeod based in Montreal, Canada, has been attempting to put forth a grievance of misconduct on the part of McLeod, a well known American Buddhist teacher and principle teacher of Unfettered Mind (UM) a California-based organization dedicated to modern, pragmatic Buddhism. The details are still murky, with the former student understandably reluctant to make public the full scale of the actions and relationships in question. However, the fact... Read more
A quick wrap up of the last week-ish in the web and whatnot. I’m on Pinterest now. I’m not sure exactly what I’ll do with it, but hey. Feel free to follow. I’m on twitter and Google+ too. In Tibet news, the Voice of America shares the story that unrest is unlikely to fade. Meanwhile, Lobsang Sangye, the elected leader of Tibetans in exile, rightly complains that the immolations and other troubles have generally gone unreported in the West. And... Read more
Or, a review of David Webster’s “Dispirited: How contemporary spirituality makes us stupid, selfish, and unhappy.” Webster teaches Religion, Philosophy, and Ethics not far from me and as a fellow traveler on the road of Buddhist studies (Webster’s fist book is on Buddhism and Desire) and philosophy, I have been looking forward to reading this book for some time. At just over 70 pages, it’s written as a pamphlet almost, perhaps a manifesto: light on footnotes, jargon, and the kind... Read more
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