Climate Change: Crisis or No Crisis?

	Graph shows result of ten efforts to measure global temperatures of the past thousand years. Source of graphic: Global Warming Art

The huge issue of Global Warming finds opposing viewpoints within the land of Buddhoblogistan. Most recently, ~C4Chaos of the eponymous blog put up a post titled “IQ2 Debate: Global Warming is Not a Crisis.” Independently, on the same date, Ajahn Punnadhammo of Bhikkhu’s Blog posted “Facing Facts,” where he tells us “First, the [global warming] situation is beyond serious.” Strange -- isn’t it? -- that an issue that should be wholly the province of scientists to determine what’s what finds advocates on the far sides of the matter among non-expert Buddhists.

C4 presents as evidence the arguments of author Michael Crichton in a debate which he and his team "won," demonstrating that the challenges of what relatively minor climate changes might occur will be met by human technology and creativity. For his part, the bhikkhu quotes an article in New Scientist where it suggests, if nothing is done, we have a radically different planet in store for us. With his post, Ajahn Punnadhammo presents a map of Florida with a much diminished land mass.

Other buddhobloggers that I track that have posted “no crisis”-leaning posts are hokai of hokai’s blogue who posted an echo of C4’s post: Joshua Zader of Mudita Journal who posted “Putting Science before Politics” which quotes an article in the Chicago Sun-Times titled “Alarmist global warming claims melt under scientific scrutiny” and Matthew Dallman of The Daily Goose who quotes an article that says, “So why do the pessimists think we won’t adapt to another change in climate? Why are they hyperventilating about what is likely to be a relatively minor environmental shift?”

Meantime, those that see a real crisis ahead include, in addition to Ajahn Punnadhammo, Danny Fisher (of Danny Fisher) with, most recently, "On Buddhist Evironmental Activism," and also in “Vegetarianism, Buddhism and the Climate Crisis,” and last year's “Stop Global Warming”; and Sujatin (of lotusinthemud) with many posts on the climate crisis in recent months, including “al gore sees 'spiritual crisis' in global warming” and “world needs to axe greenhouse gases by 80pct: report.”

I haven’t tried to (and probably couldn’t) gather statistics to prove it, but my sense of it is that bloggers everywhere, including those in the greater Buddhist community, seem to see the climate-change issue through the prism of their political position. Buddhist bloggers who have a demonstrated liberal bent see a crisis acoming, while the more conservative among us are highly critical of evidence of a climate change or doubt what change in climate might come will present worrisome problems.

But why should that be!? Should not anyone’s position on whether there is or whether there ain’t a pending crisis be wholly determined on an objective basis, taken direct from the unbiased instruction of The Science Gods!? Should not the scientific consensus be the sole authority?

Perhaps rather obviously, this matter, like so many others, demonstrates that we tend to see what we are looking for. We diminish the significance of evidence we prefer not to see and place on pedestals anything that confirms our beliefs/suspicions/expectations or the beliefs of those in our political tribe. Thus, we inhibit our ability to look out on the world with objectivity, to see with clarity whatever is true.

Still, while I don't doubt all the Buddhist bloggers' global-warming posts come from compassionate hearts directing wise, truth-seeking minds, some of the posts that are being written are flat wrong and, fifty years hence, will prove to be ridiculous.

From my wet finger in the wind, I have been convinced that the bhikkhu, Danny and Sujatin are far the most correct here. A concensus has gathered. The scientific community tells us human activity is warming our planet and a crisis is nigh.

Dharma Dan to Return as a Guest at Buddhist Geeks

Daniel Ingram

Daniel Ingram, aka Dharma Dan, appears to be on his way back for a second go-round at Buddhist Geeks. What I learn from a blog by hokai d sobol in hokai’s blogue is that Dan and hokai will be together in a forthcoming BG pod cast series hosted by Geek Vincent Horn. In his post, hokai calls Ingram “the arahat extraordinaire,” and links to his free online 300-page book in pdf-format, “Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha: An Unusually Hardcore Dharma Book.”

The relatively obscure Dharma Dan has been the surprise hit, the best guest they've reeled in thus far, in the seven months that Buddhist Geeks has been casting pods. The three-episode audio posts where Vincent interviewed Ingram have gathered long comment streams with Dan answering questions and elaborating on his thoughts as BG listeners/readers express their delight or complaints with what they heard. [The second episode has an astonishing 88-item-long comment stream, at the time I write this. In that stream are many interesting and long comments by both Dan and hokai.]

Ingram is an intense, fast-talking fellow, eager to discuss issues that have been semi-hidden or taboo. Specifically, he earnestly discusses the true nature of Enlightenment, which does not make those who attain it perfect, imperturbable or sublime.

Here is a snippet from the first of three [1, 2, 3] episodes in the Ingram interview that Buddhist Geeks posted last Feb/Mar. Here, Ingram describes the onset and attainment of Enlightenment:

Essentially what happens is layer by layer of your consciousness and experience- you begin to notice that those things are not split up in the way that we thought they were. There’s not the independent, discrete, steady, continuous, controlling, observing, isolated entity in the center of it all that is either thinking or observing thoughts or doing or, you know, being done to or, you know, whatever it is. That sense of things progressively begins to be weakened until finally the last hints of that illusion just suddenly stop.

And the nod of perception that was clouding things and making us think that we were a subject or a doer or an independent entity or a continuous person is gone. That said, all the processes that were there making us think that - to use paradoxical language. All those processes of identification of thought, of emotional life, of psychology, of thinking the word I, of intention, all the sensations of the body, thoughts, and everything that went into that are still there essentially happening as they did before. So, they were causal and empty before that and they are causal and empty afterwards and suddenly that‘s just understood.

And that’s at once a good thing in that it does tend to help the system function as best it possibly can, given the limitations of the human condition. And yet it’s also, having stripped away the sort of defense mechanism of the sense of a center point, one is left intimately connected and integrated with reality in a way that you now can’t get out of. And that has a certain sometimes excruciating and embarrassing aspect to it just owing to the nature of humanity.

Terrific stuff, in my estimation. The whole 3-part pod cast is terrific.

Unhappily, as excellent as Ingram has been as an interviewee, I have been disappointed with his online book. The book seems to flow back and forth, changing from being subjective to objective, dispassionate to personal, serious to jokey, even in the midst of a sentence. Ingram also seems to be obsessed with what the reader might want or need from the book vis-à-vis what Ingram can or chooses to provide. It‘s clear to me the book needs to be more-sharply focussed. If that could happen, it should be published and I would buy a copy in a jiffy.

hokai is a long-time premier Buddhist blogger in addition to being a “practitioner of dharma, lecturer and meditation instructor; apprentice in shingon buddhism; translator and publisher.” He is founder and editor of Dharma Treasury. He lives in Croatia. I will be interested to hear hokai for the first time. His blog is written in American English - rare for a European. I will be curious to see if I can discern US pronounciations in the midst of his expected Croatian accent.

Roundup on July 12, 2007

In today's B'du, Live Earth slips, Ego could use a massage, Darfur needs saving, the Geeks as French Royalty, airport art, a suicide and Moore v. CNN.

Slippery Rock

Both Ajahn Punnadharmmo of Bhikkhu’s Blog and Cliff of everyday zazen point out the irony of the huge multi-venue Live Earth Concert being used to draw attention to global warming.

The modest-living Canadian bhikkhu writes

The hard fact is that if we can stop this warming at all (which is doubtful, curly light bulbs or no) it can only be done by massively scaling back our (meaning the rich countries) lifestyles. Use less power, travel less, consume less. In many cases it may not hurt to eat less. Nobody wants to face up to that yet, and probably won't until Mother Nature scales back our lifestyles for us, the hard way.

Cliff’s sentiment is similar,

… i’m not sure if such grand gestures [like the Concert] help but the intention is good. … as in all things, it comes down to individual effort. concern is not enough. it’s what i do that matters.

The Concert may or may not have helped much. News reports tell us the TV ratings for the event were terrible, but this may have been well-compensated for by a big online viewership.

Leggo my Ego

Gary Stamper takes co-credit for stirring up interest in the Seattle area over whether the feminine perspective is a bar to enlightenment [Andrew Cohen says it is in the current issue of his magazine, WIE. Stamper in Integral in Seattle and his partner, Anyaa McAndrew, in Goddess on the Loose explain why it’s not.] Now, Gary has blogged on another aspect of this, likely to stir more interest and debate: The Ego killing connection. Gary suggests that it is those with the biggest ego that advocate egocide and that in their ego-bloat want to drag off everyone else’s egos with theirs to a flaming death in Ego Hell. Contrariwise, Gary prefers a course of making friends with one’s ego and credits the Total Integration Institute when he makes this observation about the ego: “It's a valuable tool that, when befriended, allows us to be more fully integrated in our felt sense body experiences during this existence, rather than living the masculine approach of Eros without the integrated being of the feminine Agape. … En­light­en­ment is not masculine. Nor is it feminine. It's not emptiness. It's not fullness. It's all of the above, integrated into our human experience as fully and complete as humanly possible. It is ‘multi-dimensional whole being and Integration.’” [B’du reporter disagrees. Murder the ego monster, I say.]

The Stream

Danny Fisher of the same-name blog has submitted a vid question for the CNN/YouTube debate later this month that conjoins global-warming’s coming disasterous effects with the on-going crisis in Darfur. Danny also has posted a YouTubed ad from the Save Darfur Coalition that he hopes we all will see.

Let them pod cake. The Buddhist Geeks spend much of the time in their latest pod cast grousing over how busy, busy, busy each of them is which constraints them from bothering to respond to listener comments. This follows the prior episode where much of their time is spent marketing their T‐shirts to listeners. I guess I just don’t understand these ALL ABOUT WONDERFUL US pod casts. It’s Geek to me. What interviews have been really good have been so because of the interviewee, not because the three Geeks are impressive, polished interviewers or charismatic celebrities. Get over yourselves, Geeks!

Amadeus of Dharma Vision writes about the art to the right that appears in Portland International Airport. Many are protesting it's display there.

Bill of Integral Options Cafe writes touchingly about the loss to suicide of a friend he knew from the gym. The friend was a prominent, beloved Tucson obstetrician-gynecologist and "[b]y all accounts, ... one of the kindest and gentlest men you might ever meet."

I've been following the Moore-CNN saga because of a couple posts by Bill of the IOC. A crappy fact-skewing piece of reporting by Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN's medical reporter, that thrashed Michael Moore's documentary Sicko, propelled Moore into a pasting of CNN's Wolf Blitzen a couple days ago. Later, Moore and Gupta faced off on CNN's Larry King Show. Follow-up reporting on Moore's blog and the Huffington Post and elsewhere show that Moore's facts are pretty solid and Gupta's journalism is corrupt and corroded.

I'm leaving out a lot, but this is all there's time for. I'm busy, busy, busy, you know. S'later.

Roundup on July 6, 2007

No theme, no meme, just stream, today. Here are some quick words on some of the excellent posts just a click away, out in the Buddhoblogosphere [and maybe a little beyond, into the Integral savanna] that popped up during this young month:

Recently, kathy wilden [A Soto Zen Priest who blogs Monterey News], offered a comment to a Danny Fisher blog post re the virtues of vegetarianism in aiding our fragile planet in which she suggested that stemming population growth was the most important thing we should try to do. Independent from that, but relating to it nonetheless, a post in Matt Holbert’s integraljournal provides a synopsis of Kenneth Boulding's forthright set of three theorems, from 1971, for addressed the population problem. The theorems are “THE DISMAL THEOREM” “THE UTTERLY DISMAL THEOREM” and “THE MODERATELY CHEERFUL FORM OF THE DISMAL THEOREM.” Pretty dismal stuff. Lots of misery and starvation to be found there.

And the dismal just keeps on comin'! Michael Bauwens of P2P Foundation writes of "The Coming Dark Age." It seems it is inevitable. "But there is also good news is this scenario, ... [a Dark Age is] actually a necessary occurence for the overall growth of humankind, a kind of socially necessary collective regression, much like the same principle of regression in the service of the ego used in psycho-analysis." Right. The positive side of the Black Plague.

Bad Boy Al of In Pursuit of Mysteries offers a couple of meaty, clever rebel quotes from a pair of authors. Here's the first sentence from one: "If you want to really hurt your parents, and you don’t have the nerve to be gay, the least you can do is go into the arts."

M. Alan Kazlev of Integral Transformation offers an update on his book-in-progress. He's retitled it "Integral Metaphysics and Transformation" and says this: "... I'm making the language a bit snappier and more provocative; the previous drafts were rather too tame. I was trying too hard to be polite, and I think a lot was lost as a result. There are times when one has to speak out strongly and boldly."

Bernie Simon who "jots and scribbles" The Careless Hand writes about the the body of a Russian lama, dead for 75 years, whose body has not decayed. Bernie tells us there are many other stories of Buddhist masters whose bodies did not decay. The masters put themselves in a state somewhat akin to samadhi. "According to Abhidharma, you cannot die or be physically harmed while in samadhi. There are stories in Tibet of yogis meditating in caves who accidentally fall into samadhi and are discovered many years later, their hair grown to their waist and fingernails grown into claws." Btw, an article, borrowed from Interfax, on the dead lama's body has been posted to The Buddhist Channel.

moe of Mystery of Existence builds a list with sublists, all about a thought. And a non-specific one, at that.

Gary Stamper of Integral in Seattle recommends Bill of Integral Option Cafe's vid on Crazy George Bush. It's a satire, based on "Gnarls Barkley's Crazy" that Bill found.

Speaking of Gary, he is outraged at the latest issue of Andrew Cohen's What is Enlightenment? magazine. He writes in Integral in Seattle, "Andrew Cohen and Ken [Wilber] talk about enlightenment for women and how [women] have to get past and give up their sexual (feminine) power in order to become enlightened. ... Andrew totally fails to [understand] that there might be different approaches to enlightenment."

Bill of Digital Dharma borrows a quote from an great old column in Zbohy about sobriety. Here, two sentences: " The person who desires change must reach his physical, spiritual, emotional and mental bottom. A good candidate for salvation is one who has no more answers and no more plans."

Mushin of Love, Truth, Beauty, Pluralistic Spirituality links to several posts that tell us the next Buddha will be a collective.

Dave of Via Negativa writes an Independence Day poem. It begins, "Independence Day:/the hunters gather/for archery practice/in the woods."

~C4Chaos of the same-name blog writes - from Ireland! - of patriotism on his first July Fourth as an American citizen. "To me, patriotism is a step towards 'selflessness.' Patriotism is stepping into a bigger ethnocentric circle, where motherland is one's nation (instead of one's tribe) and people are one's fellow citizens (instead of one's kin)."

Meantime and contrariwise, Danny of Danny Fisher quotes Howard Zinn from an article in The Progressive. "On this July 4, we would do well to renounce nationalism and all its symbols: its flags, its pledges of allegiance, its anthems, its insistence in song that God must single out America to be blessed. ... We need to assert our allegiance to the human race, and not to any one nation."

James Ure of The Buddhist Blog wishes us, or America, a Happy Interdependence Day. Quoting an article, "Beyond Fireworks," James writes, "... freedom is different from independence. Independence implies that we are not dependent on others -- that we are autonomous, able to act on our own. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. We are completely dependent on others and we can do nothing on our own."

PeterAtLarge of The Buddhist Diaries wishes everyone a Happy Fourth, but with a kicker: "...you guys might have done better to stay with us Brits--but we're working to re-colonize this place. Have you noticed how many British accents you hear these days? We're working underground to re-civilize the barbarians. Not much success so far, I have to say. Ah, well."

Paul Cox, A Blue Eyed Buddhist, writes there is "Still a horrible war going on ...". "One thing that we might tend to forget is that there’s still one hell of a tough war going on in Iraq. I still believe that the US should draw down its forces there; I think we’re probably doing more harm than good, and we don’t have much of a dog in the fight." Paul recommends that for perspective we should all read Michael Yon's "Bless The Beasts and Children, about a massacre that occurred in Iraq. The regular media doesn’t report it for any number of reasons, but they should."

This is self explanitory. Gregor of Entering the Path writes a post called "Wearing Down the Mountain." Here is its beginning lines: "My mind tends to wander quite a bit during the beginning of a Zazen session. The shear volume and randomness of the thoughts that pop up are really amazing. The mind can be a strange thing, and I’m convinced that my own is overactive to the extreme."

Meantime, Cliff of everyday zazen is wearing down his carpet. He writes, "but the carpet, like my habit, has worn down in some places only. maybe the path i walk isn't broad enough."

hokai of hokai's blogue begins a series of posts called "History and Dharma" this month. It is all dense and meaty, geeky and Integral and requires a lot of focus and attention to read if you are as stupid and ignorant of hokai's references as me. Nonetheless, I'm digging into it, and, in the beatnik sense, diggin' it and I recommend y'all click on over there and do the same. Here, a bit of a foretaste on what it is about: "What I'm interested in is how states & structures co-arise, in other words, in which ways and to what extent they affect each other? Has anything changed in that influence from premodern to modern to postmodern? Is our role in that relationship somewhat different due to the growing awareness of such distinctions?"

Tom Morgan of In the Becoming Undone is pretty excited. His first book of poetry, On Going, comes out Monday.

ebuddha of Integral Practice offers a YouTubing of Eckhart Tolle this week. It is terrific. The message is that if instead of reacting to life's content that arises in the NOW we become aware of the NOW ITSELF, the undercurrent of stillness, we may realize that we are IT. Content and "the story of 'me'" becomes no longer problematic.

Serendipitously related to the Tolle Tube, is a Johnny Newt The Invisible Cat post, some of which reads. "do not cling to your delusions of what you wish the world could be or how the world should be, lets open our eyes and see the truth around us, be it harsh or painful let your open eyes destroy the mirrors of illusion"

Ian Sinclair of Jinajik links us to "an exhibition of some of the oldest documents of Sanskritic culture."

The identical twin brothers Smith report they are working hard in central Asia. Michael of Kathmandu for You is sending manufactured goods from Kathmandu to his US home in New Orleans. He writes, "I hope to set up regular shipments of certain items to raise awareness and money for the education of monks and nuns in Nepal." Dan of Kham Abiding writes from Tibet on July 4, "Today I worked hard to get off the job as quickly as possible, like A Good American. ... A lot of the girls cried at our year-end party the other week, and I didn't see any reason to uncork a small river before their examination. I returned my key, negotiated my phone bill with the building manager, and found a car to Kangding. Besides, I've always kind of sucked at goodbyes. I get reminded of change fairly often, but have difficulty expressing the right emotion at the right time."

Heather of K'vitch loved the new movie A Mighty Heart. "Economic, well acted by everyone, gut-wrenching, inspiring, filled me with horror at the same time as it painted Pakistan as a wonderful place.

Speaking of heart, and mighty ones at that, the mighty Sujain of lotusinthemud quotes the mighty Pema: "If you follow your heart, you're going to find that it is often extremely inconvenient."

Jack offers a long, thoughtful post in Mind Mountain about anger, generally, and toxic emotions of his own. He begins, "I’ve never had much difficulty with an explosive temper. Rather, my form of poison is a grinding arthritic frustration with the eventual effect of judging people very harshly in my mind, though less often in word or deed."

Whoa. morganells of morganells has a long post putting Truths together. Excellent stuff. It weaves the Truths from Buddhist perspectives through to discoveries from particle physics.

Joshua of Mudita Journal was no fan of Al Gore's film An Inconvenient Truth before. Now, he cites an article in the Chicago Sun-Times that ticks off seven instances where there is scientific evidence to refute significant claims in the documentary.

ryan of Nine Out of Zen finds motivation to do zazen from David Chadwick via Brad Warner.

Justin of Ordinary Extraordinary writes about the nexis of Zen and Love. I don't buy the usually brilliant Justin's thinking here. I would say Zen is about moving from ordinary to extraordinary and is not so much about love. [But, of course, Zen comes in many flavors.]

In a post called "Conditioned suffering," Zenmar, The Zennist, writes, "The Buddha teaching isn’t really about impermanence and suffering. What kind of spiritual physician would the Buddha have been to tell the many, in the words of Thomas Hobbes, that life is 'solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short?' The physician Buddha only gave the diagnosis of a disease to those who thirsted for phenomena. [For those who see with the third eye and break] the spell of phenomenal embodiment, they win nirvana."

The meaning of meaning and its significance: Kalsang Dorge's post in The-universe-is-all-in-my-head is great, heady stuff I've read twice and am still trying to get my head around. Here's a snip: "...Seeing and formulating is a basic requirement in order to exist as an intelligent being. Meaning is the operating system for the accomplishing person. ... The bases of meaning being realized, allows for new modes of thought. And perhaps these methods could be called "Meaning Processors" as these produce new meanings either directly or indirectly and they undo meaning in certain cases so that meaning becomes simpler, more general and therefore much more powerful."

And Th-th-th-th-tha-th-that's all, folks. Happy seeking.

Roundup on July 1, 2007

A picture by Michael, Gratitude, new blogs and the stream from recent days are on the card today of what's fresh and interesting in the buddhoblogosphere.

Picture This

	Three details from a recent photograph in One Foot in Front of the Other. Copyright 2007 Michael

Michael of One Foot in Front of the Other astounds me with his photo­graphy -- though he is no less inter­esting a writer of prose and poetry in his blog. At right, are three details from a recent photograph. A basketball flies into the trees, on its way toward the basket, posed perfectly to capture the name of its maker. Three players under the basket look like a grouping from The Last Supper. Two players’ shadows tell us the action that just happened. The details are scaled diferently, for display here. But you get the idea. Somehow, Michael squeezes a lot that is interesting into a single snap.

The Benefits of Gratitude

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity.... It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow. - Melody Beattie

Beginning March 9, 2006, Bill Harryman, in his Integral Options Café blog, started a 30-day regimen of Gratitude Blogging, "an experiment [where he committed himself to posting] one thing each day for which [he was] grateful." His first statement of gratitude was simply this: "Today I am grateful for a good friend who called me to arrange a lunch date."

On his 30th day, Bill was still going strong and finding himself to be expansive. His sentiments on Apr 7 weren’t a single item, but a list: "So many things to be grateful for, so today I will choose just three: canned protein drinks (taste bad, but do their job), clients who want to change and do their part to make it happen, and Kai's comments on my efforts at haiku (very helpful)." And he finished with the trailing tagline "What are you grateful for?"

Bill’s gratitude-posting regimen lasted well past the thirty days he committed himself to, but eventually, he did stop. But he has started up again with daily gratitude postings rather recently. And he blogged some gratitude today, hooray.

A week ago, I came upon an article that cites a study on the benefits of gratitude. The 2003 study, "Counting Blessings Versus Burdens: An Experimental Investigation of Gratitude and Subjective Well-Being in Daily Life" tells us "that a conscious focus on blessings might have emotional and interpersonal benefits."

While we all seem to think we know what gratitude is, categorizing it and understanding what raw gratitude is is open to some dispute. As you might suppose. Try categorizing your own emotional states. But, rather non-controversially, gratitude is slotted in among clusters of other emotions that are pleasant, positive and interpersonal.

But there is an element of negativity in gratitude, for some, and this can be why many people are reluctant to explore and expose what they are grateful for. Gratitude can arouse feelings of indebtedness and one's lack of value to society.

Without going into the details of the impressive-seeming study and unpacking the statistical analysis of the collected data [which is well beyond my ken these days, anyway], it is reported that "participants in the gratitude condition reported considerably more satisfaction with their lives as a whole, felt more optimism about the upcoming week and felt more connected with others than did participants in the control condition. ... Therefore, it appears that participation in the graitude condition led to substantial and consistent improvements in people's assessments of the global well-being."

Thus, Gratitute seems very Buddhist and healthful for one's spirit and the community one lives in. Blog on, Bill. We all can be grateful for your gratitude-blogging regimen as something we may, ourselves, take up. What else might we be grateful for?

Birth Day

It is a birthday. Lucid Nomad began a new blog just this weekend, titled An Open Book: Of Mindfasting & Enlightenment. Mindfasting is not a term I'm familiar with. Lucid Nomad describes it in one of four posts already up. Quoting Alan Fox of the University of Delaware, Lucid Nomad writes,

"Mindfasting ... is emptying the mind of artificial constraints to open it up and make room for the appropriate natural response to occur. It therefore involves the elimination of rigid, dogmatic, formulaic attitudes and habits, and our self-identification with them."

Another new - practically brand new - blog is The Hinterlands, written by Gregor of Entering the Path. The Hinterlands is where Gregor intends to post words and photography from his hiking adventures in the back country.

It's not a birthday for the blog Buddhism and Conflict Resolution, an Amida Trust blog. It's been around four and a half months, but is new to me. The blog describes itself thus, "We aim for this weblog to be a source of guidance and inspiration for those people following the dharma who seek to resolve confict situations. Effective resolution is characterized by finding an agreement between two opposing ideas which engenders commitment, avoids harmful emotions and actions, and safeguards principles and relationship."

Ryan Oelke has a fairly new blog, begun last March, called Ryan Oelke, to add to the four he already had going - Buddhist Geeks, of course; the long-lived all-quadrants-all-the-time Integral Awakening; the valuable group blog Anxious Living and his blog in the Zaadz community. Ryan also informs us there's yet another blog, Tumblog, out there that he hasn't yet done much with. Ryan Oelke (the person) tells us that Ryan Oelke (the blog) is to be his "central campsite on the web," to be used for "personal/business" purposes. This makes sense since the new blog is at ryanoelke.com.

The Stream

James Ure of The Buddhist Blog had a profound, touching experience helping people who were recipients of free meals at a nearby Presbyrterian Church. "As I filled each persons cup I concentrated on them as if they were the only person in the world. I saw the water I poured as precious gold. On such a hot day these folks gulped water as if it was the only thing that mattered--and in that moment it was. In that moment, offering them water was the most important thing I could do."

iPhone, uPhone, we all moan for iPhone: We find that ~C4Chaos of the same-strange-name blog is "sourgraping" for an iPhone in addition to drooling over it all, while Nagarjuna of Naked Reflections is "uncommonly excited" about them, but won't get one right away, if ever, even though he's "dazzled by its elegance and seamless multi-functionality." But in the midst of all the mad interest, Carlos Rull of carlosrull.com suggests that we "iChill" and says we should enjoy "the iFlowers and the iOcean [and] go for an iWalk."

Sean of Deep Surface recently wrote of his father's death which happened suddenly while the two of them were on vacation, walking along a beach on Waikiki in 1984. The father was just 43 years old. In a follow-up post, Sean writes, "The images of that day with my Dad are vivid, but they exist only in my mind. Even what I do remember has grown fuzzy and lost details over the years. It’s clear to me that even the most defining moments in my life are not real in this moment. All my memories can be described this way - imagined stories of the past, incomplete and inaccurate. Even so, still being able to deeply feel the emotions related to those stories feels like a gift. When I can accept my memories as illusion, with no more reality than a novel, they are easier to savor as they arise."

After rather recently wiping out his blog, MikeDoe of DoeDo is back into heavy blogging, again. A current topic is creating, wearing and modelling a line of men's skirts. It is a very surprizing topic, fully unexpected, from the manly Mr. Doe.

Roundup on June 27, 2007

Well, well, well. Here-ya-go, buddhoblog-reading world. It's not stuff I planned [per Wed's post], quite -- but its good stuff, hot to the touch, from the heart of the Buddhist blogging world.

Buddhists Travel the World

Buddhist bloggers, if not Buddhism, is on the move these days.

Will Buckingham, author of Cargo Fever and a coming novel, set in Bulgaria.

Sometime soon, Will Buckingham of the blogs thinkBuddha and willbuckingham.com will be off to Bulgaria to research his next novel. He has funding from Arts Council England, but he'll not be living in the lap of elegance at some swanky hotel, no. He'll be Couchsurfing, which means he'll be bumming nights' stays on strangers' fleabitten sofas when he's in Sofia, and out in the Bulgarian countryside. This is something he's done before -- in Indonesia, India and Pakistan. [OK. I've told a fib. Actually, Will tells us that Couchsurfing is an "extremely well run" "global network, run on the basis of generosity and hospitality" that facilitates staying in private homes and is "not much more dangerous than eating crackers."

Justin Whitaker, a vicious clay-bird killer and member of the Dalai Lama wing of the NRA. [From post "Life: Family activities"]

Justin Whitaker, aka Buddhist Philosopher, of American Buddhist Perspective [But who will soon move his blogging activities to Justin in England, or to American Buddhist in England -- not sure which.] is cloyingly, insufferably happy these days. He's been accepted by Goldsmiths College of the University of London where he will be in hot pursuit of his PhD in Buddhism [or, Philosophy specializing in Buddhism, or something]. In his effort to rub our noses in his happiness, he facilitated a reading group based on Mattieu Ricard's latest book, "Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill." In his post re the reading group, Justin links to an article that tells us Ricard is the world's happiest man [now supplanted in Guinness by Guinness-drinking Justin]. Justin is also happy because student reviews of the Buddhism classes he taught at University of Montana, Missouli, were all glowing in their love of him. Also, while in England, Justin can be with his beloved who lives just a canal swim and a long walk away in Spain. Justin has now determined that he will direct his life toward teaching Buddhism to others. But How might that work? Our religion is about suffering! Ay, Carumba!

C4 with his beloved (in a London Starbucks?)

Our man ~C4Chaos, blogger of ~C4Chaos, is currently in Jolly Old. We know this because a recent post shows his legs standing on the grave of Charles Darwin. In a prior day's post, he says, "I just love everything about the city of London – the people, the fashion, the attraction, the history, the art, the architecture, the shorter working hours and the public transportation."

Seamus "Moose" Anthony

Seamus "Moose" Anthony who blogs Seamus Anthony, which recently supplanted The Contemporary Taoist, is in Paris in the summertime, when last he blogged. We know he had a stop in Lumpy Koala, Malaysia, [Ha, ha. We think he means "Kuala Lumpur."] and will be several places in Europe, including France and Ireland. Bad news is that on the way to the airport in Melbourne, Moose was in a huge car smash-up – but that has not dampered his enthusiasm for his travels. He writes, from Paree, that he is "sipping ultra expensive coffee in cafes and feeling very chick however you spell that and generally enjoying some no brainer time."

The World-Aiding Benefits of Vegetarianism, Part II

It was just Saturday last that I mentioned that Danny Fisher, in his eponymous blog, wrote about the “world-aiding benefits of vegetarianism.” Because of intense interest in the subject [and not because of the B’du’s blurb], the post has garnered a long comments stream: 12 posts as of this moment, many of them long, all of them thoughtful.

In his post, Danny develops three important arguments:

1. Vegetarianism can help in dealing with water and sanitation problems in the developing world.
2. Humans can significantly help to deter global warming by adopting a vegetarian diet.
3. The first precept of Buddhism is to refrain from killing. Plus, it is not a viable excuse to say the meat you buy at a store has already been killed. In our modern age, when purchasing meat, you stimulate the chain of supply in response to your demand.

By all means, read the post – and the comment thread that touches on these areas:

• Tibetans and the nature of their plateau necessitates the consumption of meat. The Tibetan diaspora should now become vegetarian.
• The idea that we can encourage vegetarianism by example, since confronting carnivorous humans doesn’t work very well.
• Rather than nibbling at our environmental problems, we should control human population growth.
• Meat eating is healthy and natural for humans and no more ecologically harmful than a vegetarian diet.
• There are humane ways to utilize animals for food.
• Meat is a natural part of the human diet and is a link in the modern-age food chain. For some animals, were we not raising them for consumption, they could not thrive as species.
• Meat eating violates the 1st precept.
• While there is not such a thing as a harm-free diet, a diet that excludes or significantly excludes animals is definitely less of a moral nightmare.

Brad Warner, Part III

In my last roundup, I wrote that I thought the first two [#1, #2] of a planned three Brad Warner audio interview episodes at Buddhist Geeks were terrific. Well, now the final episode has been posted. Let us just say it is disappointing – sort of like The Godfather, Part III was when, long ago, it was released. What was Francis Ford Coppola [or in the BG case, Gwen Bell] thinking!?

Actually, the third pod cast isn’t uber-terribly bad, but The Brad gets off on the wrong foot with me, complaining about the hoi polloi, proving himself to be fact-challenged with respect to the history of printing and then prattles on, more than a bit, about the obvious difference between encyclopedic knowledge and wisdom. [Thus, Brad bloviates just as he accuses the hoi polloi of doing.] But when Brad and Gwen venture into some fun and giggliness discussing sex and Brad’s work and future job opportunities the depth- and interest-throttle gets nicely squeezed. Brad does have interesting things to say about the cultural differences between Japan and the US.

UPDATE: Warner posts a bit about the “third part” in his blog, Hardcore Zen. He writes, “They put up the last part of my interview on Buddhist Geeks. So go give it a listen if you're into that sort of thing. I listened and did not puke, as is my usual reaction to my own interviews.” Brad’s stomach must be getting stronger if he thinks the third part, which Buddhist Geeks titled "It's Like Phil Donahue!," is better-than-average Brad fare.

Roundup on June 23, 2007

Howdy, y'all. Blogmandu has been resting, but it is back! Today, some notes on a few hot topics/ideas/things-acoming that are roiling the buddhoblogosphere, with more stuff coming shortly. My hope is to get the regimen of blogging regularly here going, again, with a plan of posts on weekends and Wednesdays -- twice a week -- that will stay abreast of all that is interesting or hot to the touch.

the Buddhoblogosphere is a new webspace, now in develop­ment.

You thought the Bud­dho­blog­o­sphere was already here, didn't you? Well, at a page at buddho­blogo­sphere.com, we are told a website called the Buddho­blogo­sphere will be "a directory of Buddhist blogs, podcasts, community sites and resources from across the Internet and the world," and that it hopes to be "a comprehensive online resource of Buddhism." And it intends to "go live" in August.

The project is the brainchild of Scott A. Mitchell who blogs the buddha is my dj <q.v.> [formerly, buddhaworld] that has been around since 2003, and has a web-design business going, Buddhaworld Design, that looks pretty damn spiffy. I will be eager to see how the Buddhoblogosphere develops. It is already on the Tricycle Editors' Blog's "Who are we reading?" listing [see sidebar on this webpage], so it appears Scott has a big friend or two in the American Buddhist establishment.

7/2/07 UPDATE: Scott is now very specific. He is announcing that his website will 'go live' on August 10. And he has posted a technologically impressive slideshow to give us an idea of what the Buddhoblogosphere will be like.

Go, Danny, Go

A button that appears in Danny's veget­arianism post reads "Eat Beans, not Beings."

The great Danny Fisher of the eponymous blog fame has been in activist save-the-world mode of late, with posts on the world-aiding benefits of vegetarianism; means to help Darfur -- a fundraiser by the Save Darfur Coalition; a petition to Condoleezza; seeking senate action on a Sudan Divestment bill -- and in cheering on, and providing info re, the Washington Post's effort to further explore returning injured servicemen's experiences at Walter Reed and other VA hospitals.

We Love You, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah

The BG's podcasts comprise a growing album of work in my laptop audio library.

I am dazzled by the quality of the podcasts that Buddhist Geeks have been producing this year. The three-member Geek chorus of Ryan Oelke, Vincent Horn and Gwen Bell had a modestly promising beginning in their initial effort, "Meet the Geeks!" [A takeoff on the Beatles' first album title.] Their subsequent audio podcast work, interviews with prominent Buddhists, has been impressively kind-hearted and professional. Ryan's introductions and closings to each pod are NPR perfect as is the pods' score, written and performed by guest artist Rommel of C5Chaos. Literally, all the podcasts I've heard have been great. I've loved the interviews of Genpo Merzel [#1, #2, #3] [by Gwen], Phil Stanley [#1, #2, #3][by Ryan] and of Vince [#1, #2, #3][by Ryan] Recent pod posts include a terrific first two of three interviews of Brad Warner [#1, #2] by Gwen. And, I must say this: What great voices everybody seems to have. Buddhists not only think great, they sound great, too. The interviews, all, have been taut and fascinating.

Frog Blog Returns!

Same frog; different pond. Plop.

As if the blogosphere wasn't already more wonderful than we could stand, Chris Baskind has refilled the pod, engineering the return of the venerable Paper Frog at www.paperfrog.com . PF had been cited as one of the three best Buddhism blogs about four years ago in Beliefnet, and was one of the two blogs to represent Buddhism in Blog Heaven before mean old Chris pulled the plug just over a year ago. Paper Frog, mach one, also was an inaugural winner of a Blogisattva for design in 2006.

Baskind moved on to other blogging activities, after etherizing his Frog, starting with the now-sleeping Onion-like Big Red Buddha <q.v.> and the eco-advocating more minimal. more minimal morphed into the lithe Lighter Footstep <q.v.>, a very successful green emagazine.

In its new incarnation, Frog will not be about Buddhism generally, Baskind tells us, but will focus on Chris's writing projects, including topics on "content creation, community building, and the technologies which underlie online publishing." Recent articles have been about the Redditt Effect, Apple's new Tiger operating system update and Joomla -- concepts that have not come down to us from Sanskrit scrolls.

... and on Wednesday

Blogmandu hopes to feature mostly that which is new or being hotly debated, but some general topics of interest, likely to spark feature-sections this coming Wednesday, or soon thereafter, include "Buddhoblogging Women", "Why are prominent-Buddhists' blogs so wretched?"; "The Benefits of Gratitude Blogging"; "The Dalai Lama in the Buddhoblogosphere."

Double the Pleasure, Double the Fun

This is doubly cool, so I have to share it. The photo at left is of the Smith Brothers, each of whom has started a blog in recent months from the roof of the world [Michael is a Fulbright scholar doing research in the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal. Dan is in Sichuan Province, China, working for an NGO, The Bridge Fund.]. The little coughdrops in front of the Smiths are the monks Fearless Wisdom and Fearless Compassion. [Which is which twin, I’m not absolutely sure of. But does it matter, except to the guys’ moms?]

The pic was kiped from Michael’s blog Kathmandu for You, which is doubly nominated for Blogisattva honors. Dan’s blog is Kham Abiding. [Ohhh, those Buddhists. Into suffering, no wonder there is often so much pun – ishment.]

Update: Be wary. I was attacked by spyware [HotBar 4.8.4.0] clicking into Dan's blogspace.

Blogisattva Award nominations have been announced

...in a larger sense, we cannot nominate, we cannot award, we cannot hallow the buddhoblogosphere. The brave Buddhist bloggers who struggle here have consecrated the Internet far above our poor power to add or detract. -- from a Blogisattva Blogsite post

Earlier today, the Blogisattva blogsite announced the 2007 Blogisattva Award nominations honoring English-language Buddhist blogging during calendar year 2006.

Bill Harryman and his blog Integral Options Café led the way with eight nominations, including Best Blog; Best Multi-part Post, for the series “Who Owns God?”; and the Wordsmithing Prize. Bill also garnered nominations for two series within his blog, "speedlinking," a daily link carnival, and "gratitude," a daily practice Bill had going for a spell where he blogged thanks for things or people in his life he felt grateful for.

Cliff Jones’s clever humour in This is This was honored with seven noms in categories including Best Blog; the Wordsmithing Prize; and Best Blog Post for “Vesak and the Art of Changing Tyres” which was the source for an article published in Mandala magazine last year. Two others of Cliff’s entries were nommed in the Funniest Post category.

Miso’s Onion-like blog Big Red Buddha tallied the most nominations for a blog less than a year old – five noms – with scores in the categories Best New Blog and Best Niche Blog. Other nominations were for Elegant Design and a double nomination in the Funniest Post category.

Other blogs with high tallies of nominations were George Dvorsky’s Sentient Developments, Will Buckingham's thinkBuddha.org and Michael’s One foot in front of the other. Each received four nominations including Best Blog of the Year.

Other blogs up for Blog of the Year are Danny Fisher’s eponymous blog and Mystery of Existance by a mysterious blogger Blogisattva is calling DotDotDot Putali

Vince Horn did something distinctive this year, getting two nominations to go with three he received last year, where all the noms are for differently titled blogs. This year, Vince was part of the trio that has started the podcasting Buddhist Geeks, a Best New Blog nominee. His solo blog Numinious Nonsense was nominated for a post that was a Conversation Sparker. Last year, Vince had three nominations in the Best Integral Blog category for his solo blog which was then titled VincentHorn.com, and for two group blogs he was involved with, Generation Sit and Kosmic Bloggers.

You can see the nomination announcement with a complete list of Blogisattva nominees at the Blogisattva blogsite. There are 21 categories of awards with an aggregate of 115 nominations. Winners will be announced there on February 15.

A Couple of Blog Conversations

Often, blogging is a conversation that bounces from blog to blog, or develops into long comment threads. Here are a couple recent integrobuddhoblog conversations you all may relish by reading or by jumping in on by adding your comments to a post on the topic, or by posting on the matter in your own blog, if you have one. And if you don’t have a blog, start one. The easiest way to start one? Probably at Blogger.com .

Why Meditate?

Buzz started on meditation when Jeff Wilson wrote on Dec 26, in Tricycle Blog –Jeff Wilson, a tangential statement of fact in a rambling post comparing Japan and America, that “meditation is quite uncommon in Japanese Zen.”

The first comment to the post, written by Pat Montague, asked about the statement, “How does this square with the enormous emphasis placed on meditation in Shunryu Suzuki's “Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind”? [Suzuki, a patriarch of Zen in America, started the San Francisco Zen Center, which focused on meditation, in the early 60s and he and the center were quickly sensations during the beatnik era carrying over to the hippie era. Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind was first published in 1970 – a year before Suzuki died. The book continues to be popular.]

Jeff devoted a new, long post on Dec 30 – a journal-quality article, really – to Pat’s comment, titling it “Meditation: A Rare Practice.” Jeff demonstrated the truth of his assertion that meditation is rare in Japan, and in Asia, too. He also explained why meditation became central to Western Buddhists: because it quickly became what lay Buddhists were interested in and because it was the easiest thing for English-challenged teachers to give instruction in. Jeff summed things up with these words, “Obviously, this isn't meant as an attack on meditation, which I too value. But we should be aware that meditation is not a common Buddhist practice, including within Zen. Helpful to some, valued by many, but by no means common.”

In the comment threat to “Meditation: A Rare Practice,” the discussion broadened along these lines: The great opportunity that the Internet affords and the Buddhist literature that Westerners have generally allows for a wonderful foundation to study and practice our religion and to know how Buddhism is practiced elsewhere in the world.

Jeff’s post caught the eye of CJ of CJ’s Words who wrote in a Jan 9 post, starkly titled "Real Buddhists Don't Meditate," “I was quite pleased to read [about the rarity of meditation in Jeff’s post], as [I am] a lazy meditator. It strikes me that it really is a central theme in Western Buddhism and often the aspect that one will come across first and practise before having any inkling of ethics. Why are we so into this sitting still and navel gazing practice? Does it help us feel like we're being spiritual or does the daily discipline make us feel like we're being good Buddhists?”

CJ then quoted Wade from a Jan 2 post in his The Middle Way blog: “Meditation is not just sitting down on a zafu, or chanting...the Eightfold Path... is applied in all aspects of life, from talking to others, to breathing, to understanding things correctly.”

Jeff G. in his Barefoot Path took things from there on Jan 9, citing CJ's post and then writing in support of meditation. “We are creatures of habit and normal habit energy has us jumping from distraction to distraction. By practicing meditation we set the conditions to help us change our habit energy and allow our minds a little more spaciousness before reacting to external stimuli. This translates into our lives in real and concrete ways.”

Whither now, Integral?

Hokai in hokai’s blogue wrote unctuously of a post he read, “I thought and expected better of Paul Salamone.”

Paul had written a post titled “Integral: What Now?” in Paul’s Blog in the community of zaadz. Paul mused on what was now to become of I-I, Integral Institute, now that the wind had left its sails with staff layoffs [including himself] and the longterm health problems of Ken Wilber.

Paul proposed that people “continue to cultivate the intellectual curiosity which brought us to integral in the first place”, seek “a renewed commitment to personal development and practice” and “[refocus] on artistic and media-based [expression] OF an integral vision – of a life lived with greater freedom and fullness.” He also envisions a support community outside I-I for Integral ex-pats and other outsiders [or folks appalled by the cult they believe Wilberism has become] to buttress zaadz and Integral World. [Integral World is Frank Vissar’s website, chockablock with essays that analyse Integral issues. Many if not most of the some 750 essays in IW take Ken Wilber to task for perceived errors or inconsistancies in his writings. Last June, Wilber notoriously lashed out at Integral World and his critics, telling them to ‘suck my dick’ in a blogpost that was either a rant disguised as a test or a test disguised as a rant.]

In his post, Hokai was spitting venom, sarcastically dismissing the ex-pats as lazy and unskilled and lacking the dedication to move Wilber’s vision forward. He wrote, “Ken Wilber is desperately in need of competent staff, … people who don't see themselves as the ones who will take the integral vision further before they can attain the basic discipline of a five-year old.”

In what may be closely connected to all this is a post in ebuddha’s Integral Practice that delves into the mishaps of Andrew Cohen, Ken Wilber’s dialogue buddy who is now an authoritanian guru who has repeated abusive behaviour problems – including, perhaps, theft of $2 million from a troubled disciple. Even Cohen’s mother can’t stand him.

There are other personality-disordered characters associated with or at or near the top of the extended Wilber Empire exhibiting many similar authoritarian, abusive, greedy, narcissistic and needy traits. There is rot within bringing the whole world down. And what would be laughable if it weren't so depressing is that so many continue to think that Wilber and Cohen and Gafni and others are themselves at the cutting edge of enlightened human development, when obviously they can't walk the walk and we should be more earnest at questioning whether they can talk the talk.

Roundup for Jan 9, 2007

A central detail from a photograph in a post titled "India Post #23" by Danny Fisher in his same-name blog.

It's a beautiful day in the buddho­blogospheric neighborhood; A beautiful day for a blog-reading neighbor; Would you be mine? ... Could you be mine?...

But it may not be a beautiful day for long. Ajahn Punnadhammo in Bhikkhu’s Blog writes about the severe threat of climate change and gives us a Buddhist approach to meet the challenges. This is a must-read post, y’all; a planet saver. Writes the bhikkhu, “… Buddhism can make a real contribution. Buddhism teaches the virtue of santutthi, contentment with little.”

In his 23rd post from India, Danny Fisher presents more wonderful photographs in his blog, Danny Fisher. Be sure to click on Danny’s 18 thumbnails to enjoy the splendor of his photographs – the colors! the wonders! – in a size such that you feel you are there, with the chaplain in India. A central detail from one of his photos is at left.

John Craig of Craig Photography takes dog Kiani, coffee, but no camera on a nature hike. With text alone in an outstanding essay, John captures the beauty of a farmer’s field and a silent wood. A snippet: “Sitting on a non-moss covered log I see the white tail of a deer, then another tail and another tail. Deer heads start popping out of the low brush; I am resting in the herd’s nest.”

James of Genius of Insanity is excited that the middleground is finding both sides in the stem cell debate. Scientific research to the rescue! The latest, if you haven’t heard, is that new work investigating amniotic cells strongly suggests that they might reap powerful, curative benefits in mankind’s future – without use of destroyed embryos.

Ryan Oelke, of Integral Awakening and one of the podcasting Buddhist Geeks [qv], is kissing up to the Zero Boss [qv], maybe, which will possibly help his chances in this month’s “Blogging for Books” contest. Ryan’s entry is “Time Yoga,” which was originally posted in IA last April.

“Tonight...I douse myself in geekery, and light the match of...um...nerdiness.” So writes Bob Goodfriend in a post about three weeks ago about computer games, but mostly about BattleLore, the “big fantasy battle game,” that he had just received. Chicago Bob was begun on Dec 4, but is only now getting blasted into the buddhoblogosphere by the jet engines of Technorati. Bob’s post yesterday revealed his resolutions for the new year, which include keeping his weight down, reading and studying Buddhism, extending his leadership skills in SGI and to fight less with his wife and when they do quarrel for it to resolve itself positively. And, to be a great daddy to his daughter, Ren, born five days ago.

digitalzen of Digital Dharma wants us to know he packed up his electrons and moved to http://digital-dharma.net/. But the old address still works, too.

Renegade Buddha of the same-name blog has made a triumphant return to bloggery with twenty posts in just the last few days, after just a few posts all of last year – and those were in March. Recent posts include lots of great vids, a post on labels and praise for a quote by tinythinker of peaceful turmoil on Buddhist stereotypes, with commentary.

All for now, everyone. But I may add more stuff t'morrow.