Blog Profile / Dharma Folk
| URL : | http://dharmafolk.wordpress.com/ | |
|---|---|---|
| Filed Under: | Religion / Buddhism | |
| Posts on Regator: | 31 | |
| Posts / Week: | 0.2 | |
| Archived Since: | November 5, 2010 | |
Blog Post Archive
Aung San Suu Kyi, please speak out and help to relieve the suffering in Burma
“The fires of suffering and strife rage around the world,” and continue to rage in the Rakhine state of Burma. Recent sectarian strife between Arakanese Buddhists and the Rohingya Muslim community have claimed the lives of at least 78 people, and displaced over 80,000 fleeing from the violence. With the situation degenerating into a vicious [...]
Let’s Go Clubbing with the Buddha
This picture frustrates me over and over again. It’ disrespectful, insensitive, and offensive. My friend tells me that I’m overreacting and taking it too seriously. But would they say the same if a Christian person complained about their religion taken out of it’s context and being used for commercial purposes? Why, for some reason, do [...]
Happy New Year!
If you’re from one of the reddish areas, Happy New Year! My first post was a similar new year greeting nearly four years ago. Since then I’ve gone off to be the Angry Asian Buddhist and let my own writing here die down as my talented co-bloggers John, Oz and kudos have taken up some [...]
Do You Love God?
As an ESL teacher, I spend several hours a week individually tutoring a first grader named Thomas. I started working with him because his mother, who was taking adult ESL classes at the community college I was volunteering in, approached me with concerns about his ability to acquire English reading and writing skills at the [...]
“Fidelity” – Relationship Advice from Our Very Own
I went through my first breakup last November, around the time of Thanksgiving, and anyone who has been through a breakup knows what that feels like. For those that don’t, I felt like my mind split into two halves: one side able to understand the situation and why it was the best for both of [...]
Working Your Way into the Buddhist Community
Over the years this blog has had plenty of questions and comments from people asking how to join a Buddhist community, or sharing stories of their failed attempts. Truth be told, it is not always easy to become part of a Buddhist community. For many people who do not live near major cities, the nearest [...]
The Importance of Doing Yoga First
Most of my early meditation education happened in the shade of a tree. But in place of lotusly postures, I was sprawled, my legs some variety of akimbo. My body was emanating wavy lines in the summer heat, and I was covered in painful yellow cartoon lightning bolts. I had just experienced my first yoga [...]
I Am Not My Favorite Book: How Buddhist Education Really Works
I’ve known Arunlikhati for a number of years now, and he carried with him an ability common to old friends: he knows what things really twist my ears. And so I receive from my old friend this article from About.com’s Buddhism page, where the guide Barbara O’Brien wrote: Schools that emerged in China and spread [...]
Shinnyo-En temple visit
I recently had the chance to visit a Shinnyo-En temple with my girlfriend and learned more about this relatively new form of Buddhism. Though Shinnyo-En’s followers are mainly Japanese, it has managed to establish a foothold in several other countries as well. The temple we visited was in the Los Angeles region and we joined [...]
Democracy’s Dharma and Buddhist Pluralism
Recently I read a really good Buddhist Book: Richard Madsen’s Democracy’s Dharma. I don’t read a lot of really good Buddhist books, because most Buddhist books are dreadful. This is because so many of them fly too close to New Age and self-help and are more concerned with making the reader feel good than communicating [...]
The Dharma of Trick or Treating
As a Buddhist Sunday School teacher one issue of great importance to me is that my students see Buddhism as part of their lives, rather than a packaged and defined category that exists for a few hours on Sunday morning and then vanishes in a puff of smoke. So when I have the chance to [...]
Buddhist T-shirt Irony
“Buddha Says Stop Wanting Stupid Shit.” I hope this T-shirt never sells.
The True Story of Winston Churchill’s Buddha Statue
While preparing notes for a lesson for this coming Sunday I recalled the story of Winston Churchill’s Buddha statue. It is a peculiar story, showing up in anecdotes and talks in a variety of different forms depending on who is telling it. It goes something like this: Winston Churchill kept a Buddha statue by his [...]
Angry Asian Buddhist Hacked!
Don’t go to the Angry Asian Buddhist blog! Sometime in the past couple of days the site got hacked. You can learn more about it at the Google Safe Browsing diagnostic page. If you do a Google search for “Angry Asian Buddhist,” you’re likely to find a result that says, “This site may harm your [...]
That could be my mother
Compassion and rebirth are two basic tenets of traditional Buddhism that both came together for me recently as I sat reflecting on how I nearly drove my mother off the road. That incident occurred another night long ago. Irritated by a slow driver ahead of me, I tailgated the vehicle so closely that I could [...]
Snark Attack!
I have a new favorite piece of Buddhist snark! I think a lot about the writing of seemingly uncomposed things—restaurant menus, instruction manuals, catalog copy, and all those things we assume are not the work of artists. They are, of course. I have been moved by a fine and readable terms of service (google writes [...]
Engaging the Buddhist Community
Last weekend I participated in a small panel on Buddhism, where a Buddhist student in the audience asked me how I incorporate Buddhist practice into my everyday life. I gave her a fairly lame response along the lines of, “I meditate daily and—gosh, Buddhism practically permeates my life!” Here is my attempt to give her [...]
Round and round we go
Members of my generation will remember from their childhood the Power Rangers. In fact, the American television series is still with us as I recently found out the original season was being broadcasted last year, and that there are plans to renew the show with a 19th season. I loved the Power Rangers. I recall [...]
Made to Lose: the Red Green Game
I spend much of my time as a Buddhist Sunday School teacher trying to fit my lessons to the specific personalities of the class. For the three years I’ve been teaching each group of students has been so different that I seldom use a lesson twice. One exception, which I eventually try with any and [...]
Asian Art Museum in San Francisco
During the first week of March, I made a trip with a friend to the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. Every first Sunday of the month, admission into the museum is free, with the exception of $5 to see the featured exhibit, of which was themed around Bali. I was quite impressed with the collection [...]