"GOD BLESS AMERICA" MEANS WHAT, AGAIN?
These are my thoughts on the words "God Bless America." What do they mean to you? How do you feel when you hear them over and over again during a political campaign? What could they mean?
WHY DO BUDDHISTS CARE ABOUT CELL PHONES?
I hope you'll watch these brief videos and let me know what you think about people who drive with cell phones. In the first one, I offer my thoughts.
In this one, Paul asks me a few questions about why I see things this way. (We had a little background noise when we made this one, so you might want to turn your speakers up for this one.)
Now, what do you think? Please leave your thoughts in a comment.
MEETING DEATH: YOU'RE INVITED
From October 31 to November 2, I will be at Wisdom House in Litchfield, Connecticut to participate in the program "Meeting Death" sponsored by The Casagrande Institute for Interfaith Conversation. We will explore the spiritual support offered to people by American Indian, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim as well as Buddhist traditions at this juncture in life. Perhaps you'll join us. Click here to view the brochure.Photo: Stock Exchange
MAY I...
May I be peaceful, happy, and well.
May I be free from harm and grief.
May I be free from hatred and greed.
May I be free from jealousy and envy.
May I have courage, understanding, and determination.
May I resolve my problems.
May I overcome my failures.
May I be successful.
Photo: Stock Exchange
WHO IS THE KARMAPA LAMA?
The Karmapa Lama is Tibetan Buddhism's second highest ranking spiritual leader. Called "a reincarnation of the living Buddha," the 23-year-old is considered by many to be the Dalai Lama's spiritual heir and the next international voice of Buddhism. The term karmapa literally means "the embodiment of all the activities of the Buddhas." For the last nearly 1000 years, a karmapa lama has led the Kagyu tradition within Tibetan Buddhism. Buddhists believe enlightened spiritual masters can choose to be reincarnated in order to come back and help others to achieve enlightenment.In an exclusive U.S. television interview, the Karmapa Lama talks with Kim Lawton about his increasing public role and how he can help the modern world better understand the teachings and main purpose of Buddhism. "It does seem to be the case that I am receiving more and more recognition in the world," notes the Karmapa. "And my main aspiration is that I use this recognition for a beneficial purpose. The essential points of Buddhism are beyond culture and beyond traditions." (Click here for the interview.)
Photo: The Dalai Lama (left) with the Karmapa Lama
GEORGE CARLIN HAD THE GIFT OF A KEEN EYE
Comedian George Carlin, who died Sunday, June 22, had a keen eye for the humorous in the ordinary. His genius lay in his ability to articulate the humorous and the absurd in the ordinary of our lives. Here is a link to a Beliefnet reflection on Carlin's life and here is an obituary in the Baltimore Sun. The Sun link will take you to video clips and a photo gallery as well as other links.THE GIFT OF MINDFULNESS TO COMPASSION
As we learn to open and come close to the suffering in our own lives, we find we have greater strength and courage and insight to be with the suffering of others. This is the great gift of mindfulness to compassion. (from One Dharma, The Emerging Western Buddhism by Joseph Goldstein)J.K. ROWLING'S COMMENCEMENT SPEECH AT HARVARD
Internationally acclaimed author of the Harry Potter series of books J.K. Rowling delivered an address at Harvard University's 375 commencement. The text is well worth reading, and the following excerpts from it are especially worth our consideration:
Failure
So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had already been realised, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.
You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all - in which case, you fail by default. . . .
Imagination
Unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can learn and understand, without having experienced. They can think themselves into other people’s minds, imagine themselves into other people’s places.
Of course, this is a power, like my brand of fictional magic, that is morally neutral. One might use such an ability to manipulate, or control, just as much as to understand or sympathise.
And many prefer not to exercise their imaginations at all. They choose to remain comfortably within the bounds of their own experience, never troubling to wonder how it would feel to have been born other than they are. They can refuse to hear screams or to peer inside cages; they can close their minds and hearts to any suffering that does not touch them personally; they can refuse to know.
The complete text and a video are available here.
I might be tempted to envy people who can live that way, except that I do not think they have any fewer nightmares than I do. Choosing to live in narrow spaces can lead to a form of mental agoraphobia, and that brings its own terrors. I think the wilfully unimaginative see more monsters. They are often more afraid.
What is more, those who choose not to empathise may enable real monsters. For without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves, we collude with it, through our own apathy.
Failure
So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had already been realised, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.
You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all - in which case, you fail by default. . . .
Imagination
Unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can learn and understand, without having experienced. They can think themselves into other people’s minds, imagine themselves into other people’s places.
Of course, this is a power, like my brand of fictional magic, that is morally neutral. One might use such an ability to manipulate, or control, just as much as to understand or sympathise.
And many prefer not to exercise their imaginations at all. They choose to remain comfortably within the bounds of their own experience, never troubling to wonder how it would feel to have been born other than they are. They can refuse to hear screams or to peer inside cages; they can close their minds and hearts to any suffering that does not touch them personally; they can refuse to know.
The complete text and a video are available here.
I might be tempted to envy people who can live that way, except that I do not think they have any fewer nightmares than I do. Choosing to live in narrow spaces can lead to a form of mental agoraphobia, and that brings its own terrors. I think the wilfully unimaginative see more monsters. They are often more afraid.
What is more, those who choose not to empathise may enable real monsters. For without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves, we collude with it, through our own apathy.
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