Roundup for Oct 10, 2006

Miso, the meistro of Big Red Buddha is interviewed in the latest addition to the Buddhist ezine the worst horse. It’s a terrific interview, titled “Buddhism gets its Onion,” that is clever and funny as hell. Plus, you find out a lot about Miso, but not more than he’ll allow. A good job of interviewing is done by the even-more-mysterious-than-Miso webmeister of the worst horse. Good stuff, y’all.

Here, a tasty tidbit from the interview, instructions from Miso on how to handle a ticked-off Buddhist: “…[I]t’s helpful to remember we Buddhists are easily distracted. I try to keep a book handy with some exotic teaching by a brand-name Buddhist personality. Just toss it in the direction of a ticked-off Buddhist, and they'll quickly become engrossed in its novelty. Shiny bits of foil may have the same effect. Once the ticked-off Buddhist's attention turns from you, back away slowly. Works like a charm.”

In his blog Naked Reflections, Nagarjuna does a great job breaking down and commenting on a brilliant Glenn Greenwald article that analyses the significance of the Foley sex scandal. The scandal and cover up is a crystallizing affair that exhibits the hypocrisies, madness and power greed of the Republicans to the public, as well as exposing the Republicans for all their duplicity and doublespeak. [Btw, congratulations are past due Nagarjuna for an earlier post of his that was excerpted by John Hughes of ipsoSacto for Blog Watch and then appeared in the Sacramento Bee Sunday Forum section on 9/24, in the weekly department "Surfing USA." The original, full post, titled “That’ll Show Them for Calling Us Violent,” appeared on Sept 18 in Naked Reflections.]

A new voice in the Buddhoblog chorus y’all need to be turned on to is natasha, a “twentysomething, british, free spirit in France” who writes feminish. Her primary interest is feminism, but she is keen on zen, meditation and British politics, too. Her link-rich post yesterday was mostly on “the veil thing,” a hot feminism topic following last month’s boob thing. I love the fresh, non-sugary positivism, while still being edgy and smart, found in natasha’s writing.

Here’s how she ends her post,

And the thing is (“what is the thing, Natasha?”), the thing is - these discussions [on veils/burqas/boobs] are better than any I’ve ever had offline. Honest. Go read.

A couple of book recommendations in the last day or two sound intriguing: Deep-thinker Bill of Integral Options Café has put The Trouble With Diversity: How We Learned to Love Identity and Ignore Inequality [amazon link] on his future-reading list. The book argues that we should be worrying about economic privilege instead of social identity in our search for civil justice. The stinking rich and their playboy and lazy girl progeny float above the hoi polloi in their castles in the air, leaving the rest of us on the ground tussling over scraps. Sounds about right.

Meantime, James of Monkey Mind alerts us to a forthcoming re-issue of a book from Susan Murphy, called Upside-Down Zen: Finding the Marvelous in the Ordinary [amazon link] after seeing an advance copy. Writes James, “Quite simply, Susan Murphy gives Zen a Western face with an Australian accent. And it’s right on! Not a false note throughout. She presents an understanding of Zen that is faithful to the tradition, but which is now deeply and truly our own. Which is, of course, exactly how Zen needs to be presented. She wiggles a finger at us, winks, and gently invites us into the ancient conspiracy.”

Honest. Go read!

Roundup for Oct 8, 2006

Detail from photo in Tyson of tysonwilliams.com's flickr collection of photographs taken at the Buddhist Relic Tour Exhibit.

Bill of Integral Options Café writes about the six necessary conditions that must be ripe or right for change to occur in a person’s life. Apparently, only those with means can change. Who else could afford all the therapists, teachers, leaders, study and travel that’s necessary?

Miso of Big Red Buddha writes of an Integral Buddhist named Bill “on the mend after an experiment in the horizontal integration of asymmetrical self-realization techniques goes awry.”

The Buddhist Relic Tour came to Toronto and Tyson of tysonwilliams.com snapped some cool photos and otherwise enjoyed a full day at the exhibit. Am I the only one, or are there others of you hoping that from these relics we ought to one day be able to map Buddha’s DNA? I don’t know what good or harm it might do, but I’d still like to see it done.

John, the Inveterate Bystander, warns of the real threat of another Bush war in the Middle East, launched against Syria and Iran. [Considering the US military recruitment problems and depletion of supplies and risk of further inflaming the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan, I cannot see how Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld would dare act so boldly and recklessly. If one house of congress falls to the Democrats, surely that would tie the Administration’s hands.]

Seamus, The Contemporary Taoist, alters his plan such that rather than abstaining from booze and reefers, he will imbibe moderately. On his first evening under the modified plan, he seems to have exceeded his set limits by more than a little. Is Seamus wise to seek a middle way or is he a rationalizing alcoholic?

Both Joshua and beesucker wrote about the Amish tragedy yesterday. Joshua of Mudita Journal quoted and linked to Sam Browne’s conservative Rants and Raves blog that was insightful speculating on the motivations of the shooter. beesucker of Authentic Personality wrote about the concern the Amish community has for the family of the shooter. Wrote beesucker, “Very beautiful. This sincere effort to heal is inspirational.”

Cliff Conquers the World

This is so cool. Cliff’s This is This was listed #5 in MSN UK’s recent survey of the Top Thirty Must-Read Blogs. Cliff mentions the honor in a post yesterday. Here’s the online survey on MSN_UK, btw. The MSN piece says that “more than a quarter of the UK [is] now writing an online journal,” which means that out of these 25 million bloggers OUR CLIFF, BUDDHISM’S CLIFFY, made the TOP FIVE with his blog! By now, Bill Gates prob’ly has This is This on his RSS aggregator. This is soooo cool.

MSN UK’s Top Ten Must-Read Blogs are

1. Biffovision
2. Stray Dog and the Chocolate Blog
3. My Boyfriend is a Tw#t
4. Wide Awake Wesley
5. This is This
6. A Cultured Left Foot
7. 2012 Olympics Competitor
8. Arseblog
9. New York Addick
10. Corridor of Uncertainty

There’s our Cliff, right in the middle of these upper tier of the upper tier. Yowza! [Hmmm. I wonder if Wide Awake Wesley might be a Buddhist.]

I also found that This is This ranks #45 on The British Bloggers Directory, which uses technorati technology, so I would guess this ranking is based on popularity measured by count of in-links or other traffic statistics. The description of This is This in the Brit Blog Directory reads thusly, "This ain't something else. Occasional daily life with outbreaks of funny and the chance of philosophy from the far east - Risk of songs."

So, This is This has it all: Critical acclaim AND popularity. If Cliff was in high school, he'd be Prom King. And to think, we're talking about a BUDDHIST blog. [But, yeah, the, a, 'humor thing' helps -- or, should I say 'humour thing' (sorry, Brits).]

Writes Cliff, modestly, "I can’t explain how much I thinks this rocks. I honestly can’t, and I’m supposed to be the guy with the good speaking, and writing them - um… with, you know, the words. Without them, I’m kind of jingling my change."

Roundup for Oct 7, 2006

This time in the Roundup, Synchronicity and a bountiful harvest.

Synchronicity, Somewhat

Detail from photo in My Zen Life. One of John's less prefered places to sit.

At 7:53am Pacific Time, yesterday, whiskey of whiskey river posted a quote that begins “There was also another reason why it was now possible to paint. …” Twenty-one minutes later, John of My Zen Life posted a picture of the bathroom in the house his family had recently moved into and put up an entry titled “day-glow lime green.” He writes, “can you believe the previous owners actually did this to the downstairs bathroom??” Of course, John may not be using paint so much as a sledge hammer.

Detail from graphic in ~C4Chaos. A frame from the evolving film "I AM."

At 2:54pm Pacific Time, C4 of ~C4Chaos's post hit the electron highway regarding an online film project called “I AM.” C4 writes, “It's a free movie. What makes this film especially cool, aside from its very meaningful message, is that it's also probably ‘the first major open-source film project in history’ wherein everyone is invited to co-create the film. I'll look forward on how this film would evolve over time.” Sixteen minutes later, Mike Doe of Doe-Do put up his post “Learning to be me!!” It his wonderful long thoughtful post, Mike writes, “Over the last few months I have been working a lot on letting go of various beliefs about myself – mostly negative but also some positive. The beliefs about me are not who I am. They are constraining things that paint a false picture.”

Blog Harvest

This is a great find: Bill of the IOC recommends a Buddhist pop-culture ezine, the worst horse. I checked it out – as Bill suggests – and found it chockablock with interesting stuff. I hadn’t heard of it; apparently it’s been around since February. Though parts of it are written in diary/blog fashion there is no RSS feed, unhappily – but I will be sure to bookmark it.

First off, the site recommends several wonderful blogs very familiar to frequent B’du readers: TMcG, Big Red Buddha ["Buddhism gets its Onion”], My Zen Life, The Buddhist Blog and Tyson Williams. Others blogs mentioned that are active – that B’du will be sure to pursue as a collector of beautiful buddhoblogs -- are Moonpointer, Monkey Mind, ok smile, Ottmar Liebert, and Living Tonglin.

I am especially happy to learn from the worst horse of Monkey Mind, a new blog written by James Ishmael Ford, who recently mentioned B’du reporter and something he wrote in a sermon, "Mindful Politics," he gave in front of the First Unitarian Society in Massachusetts where he is senior minister. Btw, James mentions four blogs he expecially likes in a recent post in Monkey Mind. He doesn’t provide links, so here they are: Hardcore Zen [by Brad Warner]; Philocrites [by Chris Walton, blogging as Philocrites]; Zen Blog of the Vimala Sangha [by Lew Richmond, et al]; and The Everyday Zen Foundation Blog [by Zoketsu Norman Fischer]

Mark of Zen Filter has had a spurt of activity this new month with five recommendations thus far – including the Zen Blog of the Vimala Sangha [which has an “interesting discussion on bowing”]; a post from the blog of the Savitri Era Learning Forum [“As if meditation were a debt”]; and a link to a post about Dogen and the Game of Go in the blog Numenware.

Also, Digitalzen of Digital Dharma recommends the venerated 'toon website Dharma the Cat. And B'du recommends Tao Diary, blogged by Crash. Crash is taking his spirituality in a new direction. He writes, "I have turned to Buddhism because it has a concrete method of doing things. ... The Buddha ... operationally defined what he meant by compassion, and gave a concrete plan of how to achieve a state of loving-kindness. Not only that, but there is good evidence (which will come in later posts) that the advice the Buddhists offer squares almost perfectly with modern psychological studies."

Since it is Friday, both Will of thinkBuddha and Mike of Unknowing Mind have written bodacious Scribe Jamborees. [Both blogs are part of the elite Daily Scribe network which asks its membership to have a linkfest on Fridays.] Among the many links in each blog's jamboree post, Will honors Mike's post "encouraging us to go where there is no path," and Mike honors a post of Will's on Mindfulness and the Enigma of Life.

tinythinker of peaceful turmoil informs us that there are no longer any Buddhist blogs in Beliefnet's haven of great spiritual blogs, Blog Heaven. Paper Frog got punted at the time blogger Christopher Baskind mothballed PF for other endeavors; WoodMoor Village Zendo got dropped more recently -- though Nacho's blog continues in operation at full force. Writes tiny, "I have no idea why Woodmoor would be removed, but it and/or one or two of several other blogs (Danny Fisher, Lotus in the Mud, Green Clouds, The Buddhist Blog, etc, just to name a few) would also be right at home in the list. I guess we'll see what happens (as always)."

Roundup for Oct 2, 2006

Detail from one photo in Lorianne of Hoarded Ordinaries' "Festival of the Trees"

Both Lorianne of Hoarded Ordinaries and Dave of Via Negativa worked on Lorianne’s compellation for Festival of the Trees, an arborous blog carnival. Great links, and what beautiful photographs! A tall post with grandeur and stature, like a mighty redwood! Both whiskey of whiskey river [here] and Dave of V.N. [here] quickly put up entries in their blogs to bark a revelrous herald for Lorianne’s magnificent post.

Bill of Integral Options Café tells us he was heavily into goth music and culture in his youth and retains a love and interest in much that is goth, now, as a full-fledged adult. After confessing to once having had black-purple hair, he writes, “Generally, I was fascinated with all things morbid. It seems semi-logical to me that someone who was interested in goth might eventually become a Buddhist. The goth fascination with death, decay, pain, and suffering all lends itself to the first noble truth: life is suffering.”

John, the Inveterate Bystander, asks “Where is Riverbend?” Riverbend is a young woman, in her early 20s, who started the blog Baghdad Burning in August of 2003 but hasn’t been heard from since August 5 of this year. In her post for that last day, she writes about murderous threats received by people in the city from Sadr’s followers asking them to leave, or else.

John’s inquired about what might have happened to Riverbend, but received no substantive response from worried correspondents. John ends his post with the following words and then a link to Baghdad Burning

I hope that she turns up, and if she does wonderful. I fervently hope she does. If she does not, you should know about another unwilling victim of Bush's "liberation" of Iraq.

Bill of Oaksong’s Nemeton opens the brand-new month telling us that his blogging might be light for a spell, in part because of a “Top Secret Life-Changing Decision.”

Joanna of Hummingbirds Don’t Sing is excited about Technorati, her profile there, and Mama Cass. Sadly, having just registered her blog, she has no in-links to HDS. Well, hell, this B’du post oughta fix THAT.

Roundup for Oct 1, 2006

Detail from one of a Flckr collection of photographs by Al of In Pursuit of Mysteries, taken at a match between the Shevil Devils and Outlaws on Sept 30.

Both Al of In Pursuit of Mysteries and Sean of Deep Surface posted interesting pieces on roller derby. Al attended a match between the San Francisco Shevil Dead and the Oakland Outlaws and has pictures and made a YouTube vid. Sean went to a screening in Austin of the 1972 film Unholy Rollers [imdb] that was introduced by Quentin Tarantino at a theatre called the Alamo Draft House. The crowd was rambunctious as was the movie.

Al writes, “[R. and I] had a good time knee deep in cheap beer and kitsch.” Sean writes, “Unholy Rollers was an awesome spectacle. There were several sex scenes, many exposed breasts, and the protagonist went from bad to worse in an interesting way. If you can find it, rent it immediately.”

Both bloggers remarked on the revival of the ‘sport.’ Says Al, “The Bay Area is part of a revival of Roller Derby that is currently occurring. Seattle is another hotspot of activity.” Says Sean, “Apparently this niche sport has come back, at least in Texas. If the exploitation movie was accurate, the violence between skaters is mostly staged like professional wrestling. The sport appears to be a cross between wrestling and Nascar - with skates - and more fun to watch than either one.”

Do either Al or Sean delve into the close Buddhism connection to Roller Derby? Well, not so much, no. Perhaps they’ll do so in follow-up posts.