The conversation over Buddhisttorrents goes on, most recently with an excellent post by NellaLou at Madhushala. Other posts on the topic from Rod, me, Danny, Nathan, Adrian, and me again. From a sociological standpoint, it’s been an interesting debate. The scenario reads just like a case in the Ethics Bowl, in which I was first trained in moral reasoning. You’ve probably never heard of the Ethics Bowl, but it was another bit of my undergraduate life that I chalk up to being very lucky. Around the same... Read more

My thanks first of all to everyone who has commented on this, both here and at Nathan and Danny’s sites, and to Nathan and Danny in particular for keeping the discussion going. The issue is still far from resolved in my mind, but I want to lay out some of the arguments. I’m meshing various things from various people, so don’t think I’ve picked you out personally unless I say so. To be clear, we’re talking about Buddhisttorrents (and, by extension,... Read more

As I mentioned recently, I’m reading Noa Ronkin’s Early Buddhist Metaphysics which documents the rational development of Abhidhamma (and its dhamma theory) out of early Buddhism. Today, skimming through recent articles and reviews at the Journal of Buddhist Ethics, I came across Alexander Wynne’s coverage of Daniel Boucher’s new book Bodhisattvas of the Forest and the Formation of the Mahāyāna. You can view it in full here (.pdf). It’s an excellent article and I look forward to getting to the book (though not likely... Read more

Um… Yea? * with quick update, see end of post. Back in February, 2009, Rod Meade Sperry of Shambhala Sunspace posted a short and thought-provoking article on the Ethics of downloading Dharma books. It seems that for a while now there has been a site called Buddhisttorrents that posts links to Dharma books (and similar items like yoga DVDs) that have been -most certainly illegally- uploaded to the web. Last week Buddhisttorrents posted a letter from the publishers at Shambhala... Read more

I was very fortunate as an undergraduate. Even at a rather modest state school, The University of Montana, I managed to stumble into a course taught by a world-class scholar of Buddhism. Prof. Alan Sponberg had taught at Berkeley and Stanford (I believe), before deciding to slow things down a bit with a move to the Rocky Mountains. Despite being skeptical of all things religious – I recall calling myself an ‘anti-theist’ and a Humanist at the time – I... Read more

I’m off to London for the weekend, so no blogging for me until at least late Sunday. But, before I go, here are some things well worth a read that I’d like to write about early next week: NPR reports on “The End of Gender?“ The New York Times interviews Marsha Lineham, founder of a breakthrough (Zen-based) therapy for Borderline Personality Disorder, which I’ve written about here and here. Wildmind’s excellent article on loving-kindness (metta) and insight. And Religion Dispatch’s article... Read more

Click here (.pdf) for a complete transcript. A key passage from her address, via the U.S. Campaign for Burma, is as follows: “Professor Quintana has spoken of the need for a commission of inquiry into human rights violations in Burma. I support his call for such a commission, making it quite clear that a commission of inquiry is not tribunal. It is simply a commission of inquiry to find out what human rights violations have taken place and what we... Read more

This week’s Psychology Today has a wonderful piece dedicated to the late Charlotte Joko Beck (pictured left), one of the pioneers of Zen in America. In it, Toni Bernhard, J.D., a former law professor at UC Davis, gives us the perspectives of three great Zen teachers: Charlotte Joko Beck, Zen master Seung Sahn, and Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh. The crux of the article is simple but profound: we often let our minds get away from us when it comes to ‘interpreting’ the... Read more