Roundup for Sept 2, 2006

Another quicky roundup of recent interesting posts and developments in the Buddhoblogosphere …

Michael of One Foot in Front of the Other wrote a great post on playing public chess in New York City. It ends with this great line – a lesson taken to heart: “I picked up some great pointers Sunday, the most important being that the beauty and intricacy of a person's mind has little or nothing to do with outward appearances.”

Go East, young man: Buddhist Chaplain Danny Fisher of the self-named blog is off on a long adventure in India. Here’s a passage from his last America-written post till 2007: “Tomorrow I am off to the village of Bodh Gaya in Bihar, India--the site of the Buddha's enlightenment. I'll be there until just after the new year, working for a Buddhist Studies program in the area.” But don’t ignore his blog for the next four months, y’all: He hopes to continue to blog when he can.

Meantime, Clarity of Clarity's blog is off to Dechen Choling – which is a Shambhala Meditation Center in France. He writes, “I'm off to Rigden Abisheka tomorrow, and I'll be gone for about 12 days. This will be the largest program ever in Dechen Choling, around 230 people. It will be given by my root guru, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche. … You could say that it's the culmination of my 12 years of practice.”

Meanwhile, Justin Whitaker is expecting to be going to Hawaii for a conference in January. He went to the prior year’s conference – last January, or thereabouts – and he liked it. Justin writes in American Buddhist Perspective, “Also it will give me two more opportunities to hone my conference/presentation skills. For the (aspiring) academic, such skills are quite necessary and like Aristotle's virtues they can only be developed by habituation.” It will also give him a great opportunity to work on his surfing skills and drinking from cocoanuts skills.

Meanwhile, again. LOTS of meanwhiles. Bill of Integral Options Café is off to Nova Scotia. Kira is going, too; they are vacationing. To prevent explosions on their jet getting there, Kira won't be allowed to bring her eyedrops. Oy, vey. [I wonder if Bill will keep up his 4am Pacific Time speedlinking-post-writing regimen when he's in N.S. We'll see.]

It’s so nice to have you back where you belong: ChaserPaul of cut to the chase had DEFINITELY, ABSOLUTELY put an end to his blog, right? Well, no. In a post titled “The Third Time is Not a Charm,” he begins by writing, “This was the 3rd time I tried to quit this addiction of blogging. I am a man who can survive 3 brain & spinal surgeries, but I can’t walk away from a poopy blog? Grrr… dammit!”

Gareth of Green Clouds has been posting recently on the meaning of life and on death. In one in his series of posts he relates the Upanishad story of Nachiketa who is rejected by his father and walks off into the forest to find Yama, the Lord of Death. Yama offers Nachiketa three blessing of his choice. Read Gareth’s post to learn the blessings wise-beyond-his-years Nachiketa chooses.

Umguy of Ideological Putty is “struck by the thought that [his] mother and father are most likely both going to die without either of them having a realization of their true nature.”

ebuddha of Integral Practice thinks about his cloud of thoughts: “Thought throws up its forms - taking its cues from silent intelligence and awareness - but these forms thrown up, like waves, or chairs, bodies - are useful for living and being guided in the world. But don't identify with these thoughts, the same way you don't identify with the other forms that can be seen from the eyes. All show up, appear, and pass away.”

Nagarjuna writes in Naked Reflections about loving everyone. “When I write or talk about wanting to love everyone, I'm sure some people think I'm out of my mind. Love the guy who messes all over your blog? Love the boss who denigrates you in front of your co-workers? Love John Mark Karr? Love Osama bin Laden?”

Mumon of Notes in Samsara likes MSNBC's Keith Olbermann. “Olbermann uses one of my favorite points: these people in Washington are our employees, not our ‘leaders.’”

Scott Wichmann in "I AM MY OWN WIFE", a one-man-err-woman-err-man show

Scott Wichmann of Scott Wichmann Online is a red-hot Richmond, Va.,-based actor [and was Blogisattva Award nommed for his post last year, “Baseball and the Bardo of Becoming”]. In his next acting gig, he will be playing Charlotte Von Mahlsdorf in the Firehouse Theatre Project’s “I AM MY OWN WIFE.” This follows a run at the Boston Globe playing multiple characters in a new play, bound for New York next year, "The Secret of Madame Bonnard's Bath." [See 8/16 Boston Herald article.]

Cliff of This Is This writes a short post that lives up to it’s title. It’s free to read, so go ahead, read it: “If Money and Taste were No Option.”

Will of thinkBuddha writes a postmodern post which thinks about what he is thinking about as he writes his words. “I have been sceptical of the idea of free will for some time. A couple of years ago I became very interested in what happens when I made decisions. And again, the closer you look at this, the more puzzling it becomes.”

Tor of Tor’s Rants is registered with PayPerPost. Tor writes, “Digital photography is not just the wave of the future; frankly, it's the wave of the present. You won't make much money selling stuff on eBay without good digital photos.”

That's a wrap, readers. Write y'all, again, in a few days. Blog on!

Roundup for Aug 28, 2006

A Quicky Roundup of recent interesting posts in the Buddhoblogosphere …

David Brazier [aka, Dharmavidya] writes an assessment of the situation in the Middle East in Dharmavidya Web. He sees Iraq in a civil war with unrestrainable Shia v Sunni violence in Baghdad. The war in Lebanon has weakened America’s position in the area since, in the perception of the Arab public, Israel’s failure to do well is seen as a loss by its sponsor, America. David further writes, “The consequences for the rest of the world are more difficult to predict, but there will be many. All this introduces a significant element of uncertainty into international relations as a whole for the next several years. With the US economic position also weakening relatively in comparison with Europe and Japan, international politics could now become a lot more complicated than it has been.”

Justin Whitaker of American Buddhist Perspective is back from Spain … without Ana. [Apparently he didn’t fold her into his luggage and bring her with him back to Montana.] Now, he has a burgeoning enrollment for the Introduction to Buddhism class he’ll be teaching at the University of Montana in Missoula [as I write, the class is overbooked by five students]… and other humdrum worries in his life of privilege. Ah, Justin.

Shokai of Water Dissolves Water tells us about making Atlanta a bit of a better place. Tanyard Creek is subject to flooding and when that happens trash can get left up in the branches of trees on its banks. Shokai is at the center of a developing community movement of volunteers to fix the situation.

Joshua of Mudita Journal does a roundup of movie previews he found at Apple trailers. Ones that intrigued Joshua include The Prestige with Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman and Scarlett Johansson; We Are Marshall, which appears to be a “sentimental and inspiring” film, starring Will Smith; and Infamous where Truman Capote is obsessed with solving a murder.

Bill of Integral Options Café tells us that Sunday was “Sacrifice Our Wants for Other’s Needs Sunday” -- a time to do something nice for some other human. A nice idea in a world where there is week after week of Glorify Thyself.

Partings and Startings and Kudos and Such

Ryan of Integral Awakening is back from a solitary five-week retreat, readying himself for school and work. He has little to say, but does link to pictures he’s taken. He advises “it's going to get real geeky this fall. REAL geeky.” [And with that last sentence fragment he links to what appears to be a quite interesting new group blogsite, Buddhist Geeks (q.v.). Hmmm.] Five weeks away, but now back in the blogosphere working doubletime, he is.

Corax’s venerated Ow, My Blog has sunk beneath waves of electrons. A future-dated post [for 9/20] appeared on my RSS aggregator, but by the time I tried to read it, alas, the whole blogsite was gone, gone, gone beyond, svaha. Corax was known for his posts in opposition to euthanasia and for the 2004 Christmastime post “The Scrooge Sutra,” which explained Dickens’s The Christmas Carol in Buddhist terms. “Scrooge” was picked up for publication in Zen Unbound and received high praise a year later from Amy Cunningham in her Beliefnet blog, Chattering Minds.

Eric’s brilliant Virtual Zen is on the ‘endangered list.’ [Only one “temporary post” since July. Home page now reads, “Site Temporarily Unavailable.”] Virtual Zen is a first-rate Personal Journal where Eric had been keeping us up-to-date on his busy life and career in Toronto.

Tyson of tysonwilliams.com has hit a milestone: 1000 posts. He tells us, “I am looking forward to another 1000 or maybe 10,000 posts in the near future! Blogging is addictive.…” Rah that, Tyson! Yowza!

Yet more tasty links ... Check out Bill Harryman's Speedlinkin' posts in Integral Options Cafe: August 27, 2006; August 28, 2006.

Roundup for Aug 24, 2006

Great posts, comments threats, buzz, and crossblog discussions in the IntegroBuddhoblogosphere on August 23 [and thereabouts] …

Feminism

Matt Dallman’s The Daily Goose links us to an anti-Feminist rant his palindromic wife had in her cleverly named blog, blog. Titled “My Secret Resentment” [and not an Allenesque "Hannah Knives Her Sisters"], the post records Hannah’s resentment with being given the opportunity she is taking to abandon close care of her daughter to further her education and, thus, her career as a filmmaker.

Jay Allen Andrew, formerly of The Pagan Bodhisattva, expresses ire with a magazine and two articles it put up and then quickly pulled in his post in The Zero Boss, “Forbes Magazine Pukes Forth Misogyny, Quickly Pulls It.” Writes Jay, “… it was dumb pushing out this crotch-sniffing crapfest to begin with. But it’s infinitely more idiotic to pretend you never pushed it out at all. Whenever you sit on the blogosphere, boys, you leave an ass imprint.”

Jack Shafer wrote of the brouhaha in a Slate magazine piece, “Forbes’ Female Troubles” and can’t understand the fuss in the blogosphere. Writes Shafer, “Some of the sensational findings presented in the Forbes piece appear to be gender-neutral and hence don't bait feminists at all.” He concludes, “it becomes painfully obvious why female careerists are more likely to divorce than non-careerists: They can better afford to get out of an unhappy marriage than their sisters.”

The Stream

James of The Buddhist Blog learns from trees. “We can have faith that we too can bend but not break.”

Troy Worman of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Blogosphere regales a popular Integral & Buddhist blog: “Numinous Nonsense [qv] is Vincent Horn’s blogmandu.”

Clarity provides a definition of happiness in Clarity’s blog: “… helping other people see who they truly are. And not be afraid of themselves.”

F. Kwan writes about her dire loneliness in foot before foot: the photoblog.

On Film

Danny Fisher is soon to head off to India for the rest of the year, but not before he added to an already boffo post, “Buddhism and Film,” in his eponymous blog. Named among Danny’s favorite films are Orson Welles’s The Magnificent Ambersons, Akira Kurosawa's Ikiru, Woody Allen's Crimes and Misdemeanors, Albert Brooks's Defending Your Life, and Harold Ramis's Groundhog Day. But, there are many others he cites that touch on classic Buddhist themes, intentionally or not. Danny also informs us, in the course of things, that dukkha literally means "a bad axel hole." Thus, it is something that makes life a bumpy ride. The long rich post is inspiring an interesting comment thread.

TMcG, in her eponymous blog, writes that she would like to see “Paris Hilton, Jessica Simpson, the Olsen Twins and all of those other horrid pop culture flakes … stuck with some snakes on a plane.”

War

With what he hopes will be his last post on the war in Lebanon, Ajahn Punnadhammo of Bhikkhu’s Blog writes “There is always a much-hyped casus belli which is nothing but a propagandistic smoke-screen” and then steers us to a heavily researched piece by Jason Godesky in The Anthropik Network, titled “Israel’s Water Wars.” Godesky skillfully shows that Israel’s chronic water-shortage problem ties in with political strategies that have led the nation into war.

Speedlinking

Don't forget to check out more bodacious finds in Bill Harryman's speedlinking posts for August 23 and August 24. And while you are in the Integral Options Cafe [qv] blogspace, enjoy all its bounty of goodness -- including posts that direct you to Bill's latest production, a picture and poetry blogzine, Elegant Thorn Review [qv].

Next Summer: A Buddhist Mega-Blockbuster Movie

Even though it is yet to be released, you have all probably heard by now of this summer's big, big movie: Snakes on a Plane.

And the reason we have heard of it is because the blogosphere encouraged, developed, created buzz, guaranteed that it not be watered down and saved its name when the studio wanted to change it to something boring. The name of the movie is already a part of our culture. "Snakes on a plane" means 'that's life' or c'est le vie. But, of course, we Buddhists know that "snakes on a plane" means dukkha, since the sence of suffering is readily apparent - since being on a plane filled with snakes cannot be fun.

It is time now for us bloggers to determine next year's big summer blockbuster and I think we should make it a bodhibuster.

Here are twelve candidate names for next year's mega-hit:

• Monks on a Plane with Snakes or Snakes on a Plane with Monks or Snakes on a Monk with Planes
• The Theravadan came from Planet Clare
• Naked Came the Buddhist
• Militant Buddhists on a Compassion Jihad
• Indiana Bhikkhu and the Lost Sutra
• Hello, Dalai: It's so nice to have you back where you belong: in Tibet!
• The Noonday Sky Blackened by Buddhists Hovering in Meditation Over Cleveland
• The Good Plague! The contagion that destroys people's egos and can't be stopped! Whereas the Black Plague was spread by rats, the Good Plague is spread by - shudder - Buddhists!
• The Diamond Sutra is Forever
• The Heart Sutra is a Lonely Hunter
• One
• You Have Me, Bodhi and no Soul

OK, Buddhists. We need your ideas, here! Please offer a title YOU think can excite a huge movie fanbase. THEN, all we have to do is decide on one, blog about it a lot and then blog about it a lot more and then blog about it again. Before you know it, we'll have attracted a healthy group of star actors eager to appear in the film [for scale], a studio will produce it, Martin Scorsese will agree to direct it, Phillip Glass will want to write the score [but we will rise up to prevent that!], and then the film will help to change the world!

Roundup for Aug 11, 2006

Ah, rapture. The Buddhoblogosphere rolls onward.

The Stream

Vince of Numinous Nonsense is on his way to being as fit as Schwartzenegger was at his age or as Ken Wilber was at age 50. I am unclear on what Vince’s intent is here. To be a hunk? Does Emily know?

whiskey has advice for beginning mystics in whiskey river.

Bob of Dust has brain rage about brain rape. His wife may not want to hang out with him anymore. Writes Bob, “it would be nice if we all came to deeper understanding of just how we ‘came to believe’ the things we believe.”

Oslo-resident Nerdine of My world at the moment is embracing her boredom and comes up with an idea.

Tyson of tysonwilliams.com delivers the bad news that Greenland’s icecap meltdown is speeding up. If completely melted, the ocean would rise 21 feet. Yipes!

Daihoji of Zen writes about terror, terror threats and wars. His suggestion? “So here's what to do. Nothing. Doing nothing is always best.”

F. Kwan of foot before foot: the photoblog writes humorously about the UK Pakistani terrorist plot that was foiled. But then adds, “… it's finally stopped me. I understand that things are different now. I once wanted to travel more than anything on earth. Now I understand that it is most likely I never will again.”

Partings, Startings, Kudos and Such

Sorry to report that Soen Joon Sunim’s blog One Robe, One Bowl seems to have vanished abruptly. Her last post on August 2 had begun, “Nose to the grindstone: that's me these days. I'm churning through two different level Korean proficiency tests (scoring in the high 90s for level one, I'm looking for things I need to review; scoring in the low 80s on level two, I'm looking for things I need to know) and finally shoving through the back 2/3rds of my Korean textbook/workbook.”

I would suppose that the nun decided that the blog was taking up time needed for other things, or was otherwise interfering with her commitments. But, boy, the blog was outstanding. One post in April, “A note on death,” was sublime.

There is great good news, however. Kit Baskin, of PaperFrog [q.v.] fame, has returned to Buddhist blogging with more minimal. It has only just begun, but it is outstanding so far in its clean and crisp design features. This is one for the RSS aggregator, y’all. Writes Kit in his second post, “I’ll probably add some things as we go along, but the presentation is in line with my growing interest in minimalism. It’s something we could use more (or less) in our cluttered lives.”

More Tasty Blog-Link Festivals of Interest to Buddhists…

Will of thinkBuddha offers Some Interesting Reading…, today, an every-Friday linkfest relating to The Scribe, a group of shall-we-say elite religion-interested blogs. The drill, called The Scribe Jamboree, expected of good The Scribers, is to offer up five favored posts from the group each week. Among Will’s selections is one from Green Clouds and a blog Gareth of Green Clouds has turned B’du Reporter onto recently, Arbitrary Marks. Two of Will’s selections take differing sides on the ‘karma question.’ Check it out.

While B’du has been remiss in posting every day, Bill of Integral Options Café has been nobly and ably keeping up his wee-hours speedlinking regimen: Check out Speedlinking 8/8, Speedlinking 8/9, Speedlinking 8/10, Speedlinking 8/11 and Speedlinking 8/12. That Bill. He’s a locomotive. His finds are primo, y’all. If you haven’t turned on and turned in to speedlinking, you oughta.

Meantime, Ian of Jinajik has some recent finds. Check out the Tibetan Tantric Manuscripts from Dunhuang, a book due out in October, published by Brill’s. The manuscripts are considered to have “revolutionized the study of Asian religions.” Also, two posts on Naïve Vajrayana Art (1) & (2). AND, an index of Sambhasa 25: Nagoya Studies in Indian Culture and Buddhism.

Mark of Zen Filter offers a newspaper article about Three Treasures Zen Community in San Diego.

And finally, Jayarava of Bricolage offers a link to a website that allows you to be an online action painter, a keyboard Pollock.

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