Today’s post is a sermon I gave in my home church this past Sunday (some of this will be familiar to regular Holy Rover readers). It explains, among other things, why I enjoy Happy Hour so much with my husband: Let me begin by telling you a story, one that proves yet again that books can change lives. In 1521 in Spain, a young man was recuperating from injuries he had received in a battle. He was bored and restless... Read more
Today we come to the end of our series on Tibetan Buddhism in the Midwest. As I said earlier, His Holiness the Dalai Lama will be in Louisville, Kentucky, on May 19-21 for a festival on Engaging Compassion. Tickets for his public talk on May 19 are already sold out but there are still places left for his public teachings on May 20. See www.dalailamalouisville.org for details. But that’s not the only reason to go to Louisville in May. During the week prior... Read more
Today I want to tell you about what has grown from the seeds planted in Indiana by Thubten Jigme Norbu, the brother of the Dalai Lama (see With the Dalai Lama’s Family in Indiana). Norbu founded a cultural center in 1979 to promote understanding of his homeland (it was later expanded to include Mongolian culture as well). From that small foundation has grown nearly a dozen buildings on 108 wooded acres in the southwest corner of Bloomington. This is a... Read more
The Dalai Lama is so well-known that he seems as if he belongs to the entire world. But on my visit to Tibetan Buddhist sites in Bloomington, Indiana, I realized that he also belongs to a family–one with surprisingly deep roots in the U.S. Born Tenzin Gyatso, the Dalai Lama began his monastic education at the age of six. But that didn’t mean that his biological family ties were severed. Throughout his life he has continued to keep in touch... Read more
We take a break from our series on Tibetan Buddhism for a reflection that seems appropriate for Valentine’s Day: “Intimacy could be described as our capacity for closeness and tenderness toward things. It is often revealed in moments of risky self-disclosure. Intimacy lets itself out and lets the other in. It makes all love possible, and yet it also reveals your utter incapacity to love back as the other deserves. Intimacy therefore encompasses a loneliness, but a sweet loneliness. In... Read more
When you arrive at the Drepung Gomang Institute (DGI) in Louisville, it looks a lot like any suburban house–until you approach this door. Its brilliant colors and designs are an indication that the home isn’t your ordinary dwelling. Though DGI was established relatively recently in 2001, it has a much older lineage. It is the sister organization to one of the oldest and most important Tibetan Buddhist monasteries, the Drepung Gomang Monastery, which was founded in 1416 near Lhasa. Before the... Read more
Inside the main hall of the Drepung Gomang Institute, gilded statues of the Buddha and brilliantly colored images of fierce deities adorn the altar. As the smell of incense wafts through the air, a Tibetan monk chants a sutra, his low tones weaving a soothing, meditative melody. Dharamsala? Lhasa? Some remote outpost in the Himalayas? Nope–it’s a suburban neighborhood in Louisville, Kentucky. This Tibetan Buddhist temple is just one of a growing number of such centers that have found a surprisingly... Read more
Philip Jenkins (author of books that include The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity) is always worth reading. I’ve long admired his ability to distill complicated religious movements and themes in clear and insightful ways. In How To Read China on the website Real Clear Politics, he writes that knowing something about The I Ching, the ancient Chinese book blending philosophy and divination, is necessary to understand modern China. His piece raises interesting questions about our own built environments. What messages... Read more
“I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant and kindness from the unkind; yet, strange, I am ungrateful to those teachers.” Khalil Gibran Read more
Louie Schwartzberg is an award-winning cinematographer, director, and producer who created this short film on Gratitude and Happiness. The music montage was created and composed by Gary Malkin, and the narration was written and spoken by Brother David Steindl-Rast. I invite you to pour yourself a cup of coffee and savor its beauty. Read more
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