Making Time: Renunciation for Resourcefulness

Dearest Dharma Folk Readers –
[Cute community nickname pending]
I would love to tell you much more about God and his creation of Buddha statues, as indeed I will, but I’ve been extremely swamped at work as of late and the `ol writing machine isn’t working like it used to at the moment.
However, in an extremely [...]

Read Full Post »

Or was it karma?

 

Yesterday morning, I opened my web browser to read about Sharon Stone suggesting that the Sichuan earthquake was China reaping its own karma (see article or video).
She has since apologized, and I don’t think she meant any harm. And I don’t think there was anything particularly unique about what she said. After all, Buddhists have been [...]

Read Full Post »

If Only God Made Buddha Statues (Part 1)

All of the statues, beads, incense, and other collected Buddhist miscellania I’ve received over the years has been given to me by friends or monastics. For this I am extremely grateful, not only for their kindness and generosity, but because if I wanted to go out and find these things myself I would have no [...]

Read Full Post »

Kitchen Gathas

On one occasion, at a time not far removed from now, I found myself in a meeting housed in a building that was home to several Bhikkhunis. Perhaps midway through the meeting I ducked into the kitchen and saw this:
HE ALWAYS LIKE S TO DREAM ABOUT DOG AND PUPPY
Refrigerator magnet poetry.

Read Full Post »

The Cheap Zafu

In a much earlier post, I briefly mentioned cheap zafus. I imagine a few websurfers were lured to that article because they were searching for cheap meditation cushions. How they must have been disappointed to find a rant on Buddhist student conferences (or the lack thereof)! So here I am making it up to them [...]

Read Full Post »

The Ground of Inspiration

Having spent a goodly amount of time amongst all manner of Buddhist traditions, the academic part of me keeps coming back to the startling similarities that we all share.
However, oddly enough, it is that emotional part of myself, the emphatic part, the part that is moved, that brings me back and back again to the [...]

Read Full Post »

Throwing away your Buddha

On a Vesak celebration four years ago, a monk presented me with a Buddha statue to thank me for my service in the community. It was a typical statue of Lord Buddha sitting with legs folded, made of white plaster and set in a mold that the monk himself had crafted with his own hands. [...]

Read Full Post »

Popular Buddhist Media

While a lot of Buddhist popular media is emerging, like Buddhist Pop Songs, Buddhist Movies, and even Buddhist Videogames, and I find a lot of it very interesting, sometimes it sort of hits the wrong note.
I think one of the reasons why that is is because Buddhism is very much not about Buddhism. It is [...]

Read Full Post »

Running in the family

Tonight is the last of three nights that I’m staying at my brother’s place in the Bay Area. I came back up here for the first time in two years to run a race and see family that I don’t usually get the chance to see. This weekend has also made me realize the comforts [...]

Read Full Post »

Celebration in the ruins of Rangoon

On May 19, the moon will pass into its full phase, marking the festival on which Theravada Buddhists celebrate Lord Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and parinibbana. This date marks the most important and largest Buddhist holiday.
Devotees often undertake the eight precepts, make donations to charity and also go to temple to pay respects to Lord Buddha, [...]

Read Full Post »