Streamin’
Jai of Blog Blog Woof Woof offers the thoughts of Ajahn Chah, which begin with this sentence: “The source of all good, evil, weal and harm lies with actions, speech and thoughts.”
Odd things can summon a mystic moment or even full-bore enlightenment: the sparkle of light on a pewter dish, the deep sound of a bell. Moose, The Contemporary Taoist has a mystic moment when he dumps a forkful of beans on his clothes. He writes, “Mystic Moments are hard to describe. … A ‘moment of clarity’ where the normal appears Divine; the small appears enormous; the subtle becomes obvious; the truth becomes apparent; the God in all common things becomes easy to see.”
Oliver, a martial arts expert and boxer at Oxford University in England, posted an entry “I’m afraid of Americans. I’m afraid of the World” in his recently minted blog Oxol. Here’s a spiffy snippit, that like the whole of his post, does not connect up to the title quite like you might suppose:
It struck me that the problems I’ve been having with annatta (the not-self doctrine) could be a result of a fundamental flaw in my conception of its purpose. My own conceptions of identity have revolved around the Western notion of a self, however, as the teaching of the Buddha is intended as a practical path to reaching enlightenment, that there is no self is not necessarily an ontological declaration. It’s simply not a relevant consideration, for if one was to reach enlightenment, processes of thought like whether there is a self or not would not enter into their thought because their perception of the world would be radically different.Nagarjuna comes out against terrorism, big time, in a post in Naked Reflections titled “Thar He Blows.”
Eric of the blog Eric Grey writes about attachment. His post begins, “Today a relative of my partner was killed when the experimental home-made plane he was piloting crashed into a golf course.”
BuddhoBlogBuzz: Morgan Spurlock and 30 Days
There is definitely a Buzzz going on in my corner of the blogosphere re Morgan Spurlock – of Super Size Me fame – and his documentary TV series on the FX network, 30 Days. I write “in my corner” because most of the buzz eminates from near where I live in metropolitan Sacramento.
I wrote an essay in the group political blog Thoughts Chase Thoughts a few days ago called “Morgan Spurlock and the 2nd Tier.” My partner at TCT, Nagarjuna, followed with his very very excellent post, “Altered Realities” in his blog Naked Reflections that included comments on many of the series's episodes. Re the first episode where Spurlock and his girlfriend tried to survive on minimum wage, Nagarjuna writes, "I acquired newfound empathy for those who are caught in this kind of lifestyle of having to literally count every penny and being thrown into emotional as well as financial turmoil by the slightest unbudgeted expense"
A comment posted by John Smulo in the TCT thread led to the knowledge of two recent posts by John in his SmuloSpace blog focusing on 30 Days: 30 Days of Purpose and 30 Days Outsourced. Seems Nagarjuna was already aware of John – there being a comment written by Nagarjuna posted to the 30 Days Outsourced comment thread when I first got there.
Here’s a bit from John’s 30 Days of Purpose post that I could say is true for myself:
What inspires me most about this show is that it chronicles human beings with strong opinions and self-imposed separations living life with people coming from a contrary place.John finds Biblical connections in what Spurlock is doing in his series, whereas Nagarjuna and I see Buddhism-related inspiration. Likely, we are all right.
Pennsylvanian Carolyn Kellogg who blogs Pinky’s Paperhaus has a recent entry about her friend, the camera guy who filmed Spurlock during his jailtime stay, which is this season of 30 Days grand finale. Interesting blog stuff! [Carolyn/Pinky, btw, has a post w/podcast from yesterday about her appearance on NPR. WTG, Pinky.]
There is also a very recent post giving us an atheist’s take on 30 Days. vjack in Atheist Revolution writes, “an atheist moving in with a family of evangelical Christians. Interesting idea, but I think they might have it backwards. … a show in which an atheist becomes more accepting of conservative Christian beliefs (my prediction) would be a big mistake. Why? Oh, just because these beliefs happen to be false.” The post generated a lot of comment, mostly in full support of vjack’s sentiments.
In a recent MySpace post, Arnold, a kendo expert in San Jose, writes, "The beauty of this show is that we get to see not a conversion, but a transformation in the thinking of the person going through the 30 days experience. Additionally, it creates a catalyst for us viewers to think about the topic as well as to contemplate and appreciate our lives."
More, More Tasty Roundup-Type Stuff
- Speedlinking 8/5/06 by William Harryman of Integral Options Cafe A bodacious collection. Philosophical and Integral. Nada on politics, today.
- Speedlinking 8/6/06 by William Harryman of Integral Options Cafe Should be up by about 5:15am on 8/6.
- Zen Filter and Jinajik were quiet. Zzzzzzzz.
