Blog Profile / American Buddhist Perspective
| URL : | http://americanbuddhist.blogspot.com/ | |
|---|---|---|
| Filed Under: | Religion / Buddhism | |
| Posts on Regator: | 172 | |
| Posts / Week: | 1.3 | |
| Archived Since: | November 5, 2010 | |
Blog Post Archive
Montana based Non-profit offers Wilderness Meditation Expeditions in Wyoming
The Absaroka Institute, a non-profit educational organization dedicated to supporting spiritual and ecological literacy, will offer two Wilderness Meditation Expeditions this year in the Absaroka (pronounced ‘absor-kee’) mountain range which runs through Wyoming and Montana. Show More Summary
More Buddhism in Congress? This time it could be via Republican Mark Sanford.
Today a special election in South Carolina pits former Governor Mark Stanford, better known as the guy who lied about hiking the Appalachian trail so he could cheat on his wife with an Argentinian woman (whom he now plans to marry) against Elizabeth Colbert-Busch, better known to many as the sister-of-Steven-Colbert. As a recent ABC news headline [...]
Buddhism: religion of the internet? Digitizing the word.
The Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC), has a couple podcasts and articles this week on this topic: Buddhism: made for the internet and Buddhism on the Move. The article surrounding the first begins: At the heart of Buddhism is a metaphor for interconnectedness: Indra’s net. The Vedic god’s net, which is supposed to hang over his palace [...]
A recent Catholic take on Buddhism
My news feed had an interesting title in it a week or so back, “In case you were wondering about Buddhism.” “Yes,” I thought, “I am wondering about Buddhism…” So I clicked through to see what it was all about and found that it was a link from a fellow Patheos bloger, Mark Shea (Catholic and Enjoying [...]
A Nominee for most outlandish Buddha Statue… ever?
Courtesy China’s Global Times (thanks to Tricycle’s Emma Varvaloucas, who you can follow on twitter here). The article states: A giant statue of a gold Buddha in Luoyang, Henan Province garnered attention on Weibo recently for sporting a slicked-back hairstyle, jschina.com reported. First posted by Tian Yichen, a social commentator on Sina Weibo on April 22, [...]
Harvard Divinity School Graduate Conference call for papers
From their site: The Science, Religion, and Culture Program at Harvard Divinity School (SRCP) announces the second annual graduate student conference on religion. In our inaugural conference, held in October 2012, eighty students and...Show More Summary
I’m Back…
Well, it’s May. And in case you missed my last post – or, actually the one before that – I spent (nearly) all of April away from social media, including this blog. I can’t say it was a life-changing experience, except that when I logged in to facebook today, my reaction was more of an [...]
An Interview with a Group of Americans Entering a Year-Long Buddhist Retreat
One year with no TV, no cell phones, no email. “You’re kidding, right??!!” That was the response from one retreatant’s daughter, at least. But no, no kidding. March 31st marked the first day of a one-year retreat for around a dozen members of Kagyu Changchub Chuling “KCC”, a center founded by the renowned Tibetan teacher Kalu [...]
A month unplugged (no joke)
I will be spending the rest of April ‘unplugged’ from most social media as I spend some much-needed time in my own mini-retreat. I’m sure there will be some meditation involved, but also plenty of writing on my bigger projects: a couple articles and two chapters for my thesis that are underway. 2013 has been [...]
Freedom House: Images of Repression and Freedom
This year I submitted the above photograph to Freedom House’s 2013 Photography and Art contest. Yesterday I found out that it has been chosen as one of the top 30 finalists and it will be featured in the Images of Repression and Freedom Auction. It will be printed and framed with other finalists and winners to be [...]
3 Struggling Buddhist Countries
Sri Lanka, Japan, and (often most of all) Bhutan often elicit images of peaceful monks in flowing robes walking peacefully by. In Sri Lanka they go on orderly alms-rounds in villages, In Japan their temples are often sanctuaries in the midst of the chaos of an advanced industrialized economy, and in Bhutan the scene behind [...]
Meditation and this Human Body: Two Recent TED Talks
These are two talks that are really about ‘everyone’ – everyone social that is. Everyone that has to deal with people, and stress, and stuff, and managing all of that people-stress-stuff on a daily basis. The first, with some remarks below the video, is: Amy Cuddy: Your body language shapes who you are Not only [...]
The Ordination of Women in Buddhism, Old Facts & New Fables, a guest post from Eisel Mazard
One of the recurrent issues in my own writing is the misconception that “crazy theories” come from the fringes: on the contrary, in Buddhism, the craziest theories can (and often do) come from the pinnacle of prestige, influence and academic authority (sometimes from the centers of religious authority, too). I dealt with this question generally [...]
Buddhist Meditation and the Harlem Shake?
I’m about a month behind on this and I’m not sure I’ll ever understand this internet phenomenon, but, for what it’s worth, apparently Buddhist meditation groups are in on this thing as well (this one via Karme Choling, a Shambhala center in northern Vermont): I find the “kids react” video much more ‘enlightening’: Says one [...]
Femicide, a guest post by Naga R Dhoopati
Educating girls around the globe. There have been many cases where a girl’s life has become a burden to her parents, especially in India. Femicide is one practice used to reduce the population of girls. Giving and taking a dowry is still practiced in India in many forms, though there are laws against it. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dowry [...]
A Talk and Guided Meditation with Lama Surya Das and Ram Dass
The talk starts off a bit slowly and meanders (in a good way) at times, but for those who like Lama Surya Das and/or Ram Dass, this will be a great treat. The conversation flows from preparing for death, being Jewish and inspired by Jesus, Maharaj-ji, experiences in India, Cats vs. Dogs, baseball, love, and [...]
Essential Advice for new Meditators: An interview with Leigh Brasington by Willoughby Britton
In this informative and wide reaching conversation of concentration meditation, Leigh Brasington (meditation teacher) and Willoughby Britton (Brown University teacher/researcher) cover the advantages and the many potential pitfalls a new -or old- meditator might find. Show More Summary
Jesus & Buddha: Practicing Across Traditions, a review
I sat down over the weekend to watch (for a second time), this short documentary, joined by two fellow PhD students, one a Theravadin Buddhist, the other a Roman Catholic. At just 44 minutes in length, it is brief, but perhaps it is the perfect length for a high school or university class on Comparative [...]
3 Reasons to Welcome the ‘tt’ in St. Patty’s Day
I’m not sure what it is. Perhaps something in my Irish-English-Polish(Jewish)-Scottish heritage and dirt-road, blue sky, tumble-weed, Montana upbringing, but I just don’t understand a lot of …. how should I put it? Conservatism? Orthodox traditionalism? Now, today is St. Patrick’s Day. This has always been a fun holiday for my family as yesterday (March [...]
Maladjusted Buddhism – A Guest Post by Nathan Thompson
Today we have a guest post by Nathan Thompson of Dangerous Harvests. Nathan is one of the most highly regarded Zen practitioner writers in the blogosphere today. In addition to his blog, he also writes for Life as a Human, an online magazine dedicated to “writing on topics such as personal growth, mindful living, humor, [...]