My studies of Buddhism have always been with a philosophical bent. My first academic conference paper was titled, “The Use and Abuse of Ontology in Buddhist Philosophy of Mind,” trying to trace the history of how Buddhists have understood the connection between mind and body, and how Westerners have labeled those understandings. I think I covered everything from the Pali texts to Merleau-Ponty and John Searle. It was a mess, but a fun one. More recently I’ve looked at the... Read more
The photo of Taiwan’s first Buddhist same-sex wedding, posted to the Wipe-out Homophobia facebook group, has been making the rounds today. The caption reads: Two women became the first couple to have a Buddhist same-sex wedding in Taiwan. Fish Huang and You Ya-ting , who have been together for seven years, exchanged vows and prayer beads instead of rings at a monastery in Taoyuan, northern Taiwan, accompanied by chants from nearly 300 Buddhists. While this is a huge moment in... Read more
This documentary explores the links between genetics, environment, and violence, featuring Ex-punk rocker Henry Rollins, MMA fighters, former gang members, bikers with violent histories, and three Buddhist monks. All of them gave their stories of violence, both against them and by them, and were tested for what is known as the “warrior gene” (a mutation that leads to poor re-uptake of seratonin in the brain, turning a normally pleasant hormone into something quite different). Part of the moral discussion at... Read more
For fans of the 1990s burger-and-fries loving, Southern-Baptist sounding former President of the US, some recent changes in Bill Clinton may be a bit of a surprise. To begin with, after a 2004 heart attack, he has moved steadily toward a vegetarian, almost vegan, diet (the Christianpost reports that he occasionaly eats fish). They report him saying: “I essentially concluded that I had played Russian roulette,” Clinton told CNN‘s Sanjay Gupta regarding his previous poor health in an Aug. 2011 interview. “I... Read more
Ian Thorson’s tragic death was covered once again in the higher echelons of the mainstream press last week. CNN’s Anderson Cooper, with reporter Miguel Marquez, covers the story briefly but very well in this short video (thanks to Tenzin for the heads-up): It is the first I have heard from the police department there, who have reportedly closed the case, and the first I have heard concerning the coroner’s report, which confirms the belief that Thorson died of dehydration and... Read more
Time for a quick update on my training, for those interested. I went out for a fairly quick 6 mile run today, clocking in at around 55 minutes with just a quick pause here and there. At this point (2 months out exactly; the race is the 30th of September) I’m not shooting for any specific speed, but instead just trying to stretch out the distance at least a mile per week on my long runs. During the week I... Read more
Yesterday, England’s newspaper The Telegraph (nicknamed the “Tory-graph” after the country’s conservative political party to which it caters) ran a piece of pure Chinese propaganda. The piece (one could hardly call it an article) is by Liu Xiaoming, the Chinese ambassador to Britain, and was featured just a day before the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony (tonight). Amazingly, Liu claims that: Today, Tibetan people are masters of the Tibet Autonomous Region. They no longer have to worry about livelihood. They all have... Read more
Jeffrey Kotyk of the Flower Ornament Depository 華嚴藏 blog has a fascinating piece up today about the recent decline in web searches for Buddhism. There he discusses statistical data showing that digital mentions of Buddhism is on the decline, and in a dramatic way: Perhaps unsurprisingly, Hinduism has faced a similar fate in recent years. But what about Abrahamic religions? Well, here’s a look: These are the search results, but what do they tell us about what people are actually doing on the... Read more
Sometimes the only word I can come up with to describe my country is “exacerbated.” First there is the shooting in Aurora, CO. What can one say? Except to express the shock and sadness we all feel for those lost and hurt, their families, and everyone else affected by this tragedy. This hits close to home – close enough at least – as my mom, Ronnie, grew up in Aurora and my sister, Eve, currently lives just a few miles... Read more
When I was first introduced to Buddhism, over ten years ago now in early University days, I found the ‘Noble Truth’ of suffering to be profoundly pessimistic. That only lasted a few days, fortunately, as I had a great professor who showed the broader context and meaning of this central aspect of Buddhism. I have since come to see Buddhist cosmology as neither pessimistic nor optimistic, but rather morally balanced; perhaps, in a word: indifferent. So I was struck today... Read more
American Buddhist Perspectives
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In