“We must rapidly begin the shift from a ‘thing’-oriented society to a ‘person’-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism and militarism are incapable to being conquered.” “The dispossessed of this nation — the poor, both white and Negro — live in a cruelly unjust society. They must organize a revolution against that injustice, not against the lives of the persons who are their fellow... Read more

For those of us who care about social justice generally and human rights in countries with large populations of Buddhists, 2011 certainly ended on a sad note with the death of Czech playwright and activist Václav Havel, who also served as the last president of Czechoslovakia and the first president of the Czech Republic. Public condolences have been issued by both His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma — two Nobel Peace... Read more

The New York Times has a disquieting article today about a series of firebombings that took place in Queens across Sunday night. The piece indicates that the police are currently investigating the arson attacks as “a possible bias crime against Muslims.” (One the places targeted was the Shiite Muslim-affiliated Imam Al-Khoei Foundation.) The news of these attacks is particularly sad and frustrating in the wake of two other recent stories of prejudice on different scales (though they are by no means the... Read more

As you may have read, U.S. President Barack Obama signed the hugely controversial $662 billion National Defense Authorization Act into law today, despite “serious reservations” about it. These reservations would seem to arise from several provisions that have to do with “the interplay between military and civilian law enforcement in regard to taking terrorism suspects into custody.” In short, they have distressing implications in terms of both Constitutional law and universal human rights. In their article about the passage of the bill,... Read more

Well, after one attempt at starting this new blog some time ago, I think we ought to try this again… Welcome to my new Patheos blog, everyone! I had originally intended to continue what had been a podcast here, but I think we all would be better served by my trying to do something simpler. So, taking my inspiration from this blog’s subtitle — “Reflections from a Buddhist Minister” — I will instead try shooting from the hip, offering my... Read more