Last year, I interviewed Alex Co, team leader of the documentary film Daughters of Dolma: The Spiritual Journey of Tibetan Buddhist Nuns in Nepal, for this blog. Along with five other friends, he has produced this wonderful feature-length documentary film that tells the story of three generations of Tibetan Buddhist nuns living in two nunneries in modern-day Nepal. Alex very kindly offered me a sneak peek at the film, and I must say: it’s as remarkable a piece of film as its subjects are practitioners. With its... Read more

#DreamDay Read more

She has been named as one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People, Glamour’s Woman of the Year, and a CNN Hero. Along with such luminaries as Sophia Loren, Chilean writer Isabel Allende, Susan Sarandon, the late Nobel Peace laureate Wangari Maathai, and others, she was part of the historic first group of women ever to carry the Olympic flag at the 2006 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony. Two-time Pulitizer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Nick Kristof — heroic in his own right — calls her... Read more

In case you’ve missed news coverage about it — and you might have, as the media has not been granted interviews with striking prisoners — a coordinated, mass hunger strike by 400 California prisoners is now in its second month. The prisoners have five demands (which I will explain in full later), but which primarily have to do with what they see as violations of their human rights by the California prison system (especially the state’s use of what are called “Security Housing Units,” or SHUs). Because the... Read more

The Sakyadhita International Association of Buddhist Women, “an alliance of women (and men) committed to transforming the lives of women in Buddhist societies,” is soliciting submissions for a book of photographs that will “show the history and cultural diversity of Buddhist women around the world.” They continue: “A picture is worth a thousand words.” A book with written information is less appealing than a photo book with a simple, short piece of essential information. Let the photos tell the stories. Since... Read more

Some weeks back, Texas Senator Wendy Davis did an incredibly brave thing by filibustering (for an amazing ten-plus-hours) Senate Bill 5, a piece of legislation meant to create new abortion regulations in the state. This not only brought attention to dangerous restrictions on women’s reproductive rights (and attempts at more) in Texas and elsewhere, but has since proven to be a flashpoint in the “war on women.” Following Davis’ filibuster, Texas Governor Rick Perry, who can always be counted on to say things of... Read more

Some weeks back, I had the pleasure of attending the Myanmar Muslims Genocide Awareness Convention in Culver City, CA. I subsequently published a special report on it at this blog. You can read what I wrote right here. I’m very pleased to report that Said Kredieh, Reference Librarian of the Lebanese American University in Beirut, Lebanon, took an interest in the post and has now translated it into Arabic. I think both Said and I hope this will increase readership of... Read more

Thailand’s The Nation has exclusive interviews with noted LGBT activist Anjana Suvarnananda, as well as Engaged Buddhist icon Sulak Sivaraksa and Buddhist scholar Suraphot Thaweesak, about the same-sex marriage debate and the place of Buddhist thought in the discussion. In The Nation‘s view, all of them seem to suggest that Buddhism should be kept out of the debate all together. You can read the whole piece here. What do you think? Do we need a Buddhist opinion (or opinions) on... Read more

My pal, former student, and fellow UWest employee Monica Sanford has a terrific new post at her much-beloved blog Dharma Cowgirl this week that is essential reading: “The Threat Effect”. In it, Monica recounts a story of accidentally locking her keys and dog Archer in her car. What’s particularly striking, though, is the opportunity the incident provides for contemplating gender, safety, the workplace, and justice (among other things). Monica writes: Women are discouraged from pursuing largely male professions in part because of... Read more

Neat… Read more