Engaging in Un-Buddhist Activities

Over on the other blog, a very thorny issue has reared its head. I thought I’d tow the question over here because I like to save longer posts for Dharma Folk.
Can a Buddhist serve in the military? The answer is No. At least for those who argue that soldiering is the profession of killing, in [...]

Read Full Post »

Mosquito in the Night

All the windows closed and the fan turned on, I tried getting to sleep. Then I heard that high frequency humming of a mosquito in my ear, and now I’m up again. This usually isn’t a problem I have in California.
When I was younger in Paris, mosquitos would fly in whenever I left the window [...]

Read Full Post »

Buddhist Recovery Network

Via the Buddhist Channel, news on an upcoming conference to be held down here in Southern California from October 9 to 11. This organization sounds great, they’ve certainly won my support.
The Buddhist Recovery Network supports the use of Buddhist teachings, traditions and practices to help people recover from the suffering caused by addictive behaviors. Open [...]

Read Full Post »

Why do Buddhist monks sleep upright?

The BBC News magazine reports on Buddhist monks who slept sitting upright. Danny Fisher linked to the article, but making sure to note that it’s about Tibetan Buddhist monks. Sleeping in an upright sitting position is an ancient tradition recorded along with twelve other ascetic practices, which in the Pali Canon are referred to as [...]

Read Full Post »

Titles of Respect for Monks and Nuns

“What did you call me?”
Two friends of mine are going to be ordained soon, and this has got me thinking about how we address monks and nuns in English. We tend to use the term that the monastics themselves use. Sometimes we have to ask, but we increasingly often encounter titles in books, magazine bylines [...]

Read Full Post »

Aung San Suu Kyi Turns 64

In the Buddhist community, I’m sure (or hope) quite a bit of online fanfare will be devoted to Aung San Suu Kyi, who turns 64 today. Most readers are probably well aware that Aung San Suu Kyi has been a key leader in the Burmese democracy movement, and has championed this role with an emphasis [...]

Read Full Post »

Buddhism for Sale – Part 2

I have posted about this topic before. Scott Mitchell from the buddha is my dj recently posted his wonderfully paper on “Buddhism, pop-culture, and the homogenization of the Dharma”. Read it here. I’m so glad that scholars are addressing this issue from an academic standpoint. It is something so important for the development of Buddhism [...]

Read Full Post »

Importance of Precepts

The five precepts were my first exposure to Buddhist virtue. I was pretty impressed that there were only five: refrain from taking life, from taking what has not been given, from sexual misconduct, from speaking falsely and from consuming intoxicating substances. And to boot, they weren’t hard and fast rules — at the very least, [...]

Read Full Post »

Birth Is Suffering

Thanks to Barbara’s Buddhism Blog, I was pointed to a very touching piece by Jeff Wilson, Birth Is Suffering. He paints a new picture of Lord Buddha’s birth story for me:
The Buddha is said to have been born from his mother’s side, which hints at an emergency Caesarian section, and a week later she was [...]

Read Full Post »

Non-Denominational Buddhist

Once upon a time I got together with a bunch of friends to start a Buddhist group. It so happened that we tended to all be followers of the Theravada, were all pretty solid meditators and went to the same sorts of temples. We spent a lot of time together talking about how we wanted [...]

Read Full Post »