Roundup for Sept 26, 2006

Photo from Dave's Via Negativa. See his post, "One leaf," for a good understanding of what this depicts.

Yo, y’all. I’m going to try to blog daily for a while. There will be short posts, usually, that provide valuable links, but I won’t be reviewing the Buddhoblogosphere intently and thoroughly. Most of the links will be from the prior 24 hrs, but some stuff may go back a week if it has hidden juicy goodness.

Recent good, bad and ugly stuff from the Buddhoblogosphere …

The Clinton interview by Chris Wallace on Fox got loads of attention: C4 of ~C4Chaos writes, “Maybe Clinton overreacted, but I'm glad he did. Where is a charismatic Democratic candidate when you need one?”

Matthew Dallman of The Daily Goose writes, “It bears note that, between Wallace and Clinton, the only kind of mud slung was by the latter, when he oddly called Wallace's question a ‘conservative hit job’ as well as straight-up insulted him by impugning his journalistic integrity.”

James of Genius of Insanity writes from a liberal perspective, “I've watched this interview over and over via the web today and each time I watch it I get chills. I pump my fists, yell and whistle with pride in the real great communicator with each new viewing.”
*****
Meantime, Bill of Oaksong's Nemeton shows us that the Military Commissions Act that has been introduced in the Senate undermines the principle of checks and balances.

Amadeus of dharma::vision writes of the hypocracy and absurdity of Christians and Republicans sanctioning and accepting torture as an American tool in conducting war.

Buddha Pest [aka, Tim] of Observe the observer observes something illuminating. As his Buddha candle burns, “the more light the buddha gives the less of the buddha is present. … Bring more light, be more open to the way, and more and more of the self, the ego, identity seems to disappear.”

Bill of Intergral Options Café has been a juggernaut in 2006, making his the truly indispensable blog. He is going through a tough patch, currently. Many wish him and Kira the best as they move forward in their lives.

Bob of Dust deals with dumpsters, dry thunderstorms and gummybear-snatchers on the Adolescent Chemical Dependency Unit.

Danny Fisher of the eponymous blog writes from Asia, asking us to explore the site of Cambodia’s AIDS Project. Also, writing after a return to Bodh Gaya in India, “I wish I could communicate how good it feels to be back here again. On the one hand, I feel like a stranger in a strange land--Bodh Gaya has changed dramatically in seven years.

Linkfests:

ebuddha of Integral Practice offers a grouchy linkfest, using an insult generator he got from IOC’s Bill. Among the many insults, E calls Ryan of Integral Awakenings a “rat-faced gathering of abrupt pig droppings.” It seems to me an unkind and exaggerated depiction of Ryan’s appearance.

Tim Bomb of He’s Just Had His Coffee offered a linklist yesterday with just two items: one on Web 2.0 design, the other on the pope’s tough words.

That's all for now, folks. Good blogging and good luck.

Roundup for Sept 16, 2006

Just when you might have thought it couldn't get any more interesting, the bloggers of Buddhist bent make it so, sometimes with a little help from the antics of our president. In the last day or so in the Buddhist blogosphere ...

Will of thinkBuddha, after hearing a lecture by Stephen Batchelor, worries that we can be losing the shine on metaphors Buddha used to communicate ‘reaching the other shore.’

Stephen Batchelor suggested that Buddhism has nothing to do with Enlightenment. … The metaphor of enlightenment is drawn from the idea of the European enlightenment, an intellectual movement that is exemplified by the work of Hume, Kant and others. It may be that this metaphor, when applied to the Buddhist context, is misleading and is far from the obvious translation of the term bodhi… Translation is always a treacherous business, but a better choice of translation for bodhi might be “awakening”.

Amadeus of Dharma Vision offers a great overview of the intra-Republican squabble over America’s right to torture. Here, the beginning of the post: “It is kind of shocking when the President of the United States goes to Congress to lobby for torture. If you haven't heard, that is what President Bush did today. In a strange and surprising turn, yesterday Republican leaders shot down the President's attempt to expand torture and wiretapping power. Today, President Bush was livid.”

James of Genius of Insanity offers some excerpts from Bush’s Rose Garden press conference, yesterday, and recent appearance on The Today Show. Bush is passionate while not making a whit of sense; saying he is proposing that which is lawful when it clearly ain’t. Comments James, “If you crane your ear enough you can hear the Constitution being shredded.”

TMCG writes in her eponymous blog, “It's not so hard to extend ourselves to others... but ego, selfishness and fear get in the way.” TMCG has decided she needs a good Buddhist life coach to “kick her in the arse” since she’s finding it hard to get motivated.” Bill of Integral Options Café coaches people and kicks some arse, when necessary, albeit in the fitness realm, but he may not be quite the right person for TMCG: Bill is 36% slacker! Who’d’a thunk it about this blogging dynamo!?

Kalsang Dorje of The-universe-is-all-in-your-head has a tantrum wrestling with a demon of the moment. His post begins, “I'm done with the horseshit of blindness.”

I LOVE MY WIFE: Scott Wichmann's acting continues to dazzle critics and all others in the audience of plays he's in. The critic for the Richmond Times-Dispatch wrote a full-throttle rave, "Firehouse stages a must-see: In I Am My Own Wife, masterful acting meets the demands of challenging story," that Scott reposts in his blog, Scott Wichmann Online.

Seeing Red

The picture on the home page of the New York Times online today is of a red elephant. [A bit of the pic appears at right. See article.] The caption under the photo reads, “The British art provocateur-prankster Banksy had a splashy opening for ‘Barely Legal,’ his show in a Los Angeles warehouse, complete with painted elephant. But the question remains: Just who is Banksy?”

A similar mystery has come to the Buddhasphere – as our Buddhist mystery man terms the Buddhoblogosphere. The mysterious Miso, with an office and staff in San Francisco’s Financial District, has set down in our midst with a burley new blog, Big Red Buddha, that comes at us with high-tech features, and a clever square logo. Is Miso a provocateur-prankster? Just who is Miso?

Writes Miso on the blog’s About page, “I’m convinced that Big Red Buddha is destined to become one of America’s most respected sources for Buddhist news, information and commentary.”

Already, a major Buddhist blogger – whom I have agreed not to name – is coming out of retirement and is set to join the already-illustrious BRB team.

This Justin: The blogger of Ordinary Extraordinary finds Banksy to be extraordinary in a review posted today. Justin concludes, "Some of [Banksy's guerrilla art] is reminiscent of Dead Kennedys and Radiohead artwork - in style and social theme. Great!" Now, if only Justin would check out BRB.

== Oop. Pretty short post today. It's not ALL of the best, but certainly SOME of the best that was going on yesterday. Read and blog on, y'all!

Roundup for Sept 12, 2006

As if y’all weren’t already aware that there was some five-year anniversary of something or other yesterday, here is a recap of much of what was said about it from the IntegroBuddhoblogosphere.

Bill of Integral Options Café posts a big chunk of MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann’s impassioned speech yesterday taking Bush to task for failing to complete construction at Ground Zero in Manhattan.

Graphic in Bhikkhu's Blog.

IOC's Bill also posts a big chunk from TMC Café relating what now-famed terrorism expert Richard Clarke has to say about the ABC miniseries The Path to 9/11. Clarke who worked for three Republican presidents and for Clinton says the program was a conspiracy to put forward misinformation. Now an ABC News consultant, he says that, starkly the opposite to what the movie depicts, in the Clinton White House “there was a common fixation with terrorism, al-Qaeda, and bin Laden. The President approved every counter-terrorism operation presented to him, including many that the CIA proved unable or unwilling to implement.”

Aussie law student Tuff Ghost writes about the fifth anniversary of 9/11 in Vomiting Confetti. “The mood seems somewhat muted, particularly in the Australian coverage, with the reframing of the attacks as an explicitly American tragedy. It's a far cry from the first days after the attacks, in which there was a very real sense that wasn't just a tragedy watched by the world, but it was happening to the world as well.”

Shokai of Water Dissolves Water posted a picture of the New York skyline seen behind Brooklyn Bridge, and this quote, “Let us not look back in anger or forward in fear; but around in awareness.” -James Thurber.

Ajahn Punnadhammo, Abbot of Arrow River Hermitage near Thunder Bay in Ontario, Canada, writes in his Bhikkhu’s Blog, “Any sense of optimism about the world scene, and we had some of that in the 'nineties, naive perhaps but palpable, is gone. We are now in a period of dark international anarchy; war, terrorism, torture, the rise of the omnipresent security state.”

Nerdine who lives in Oslo, Norway, writes in My world at the moment what she was doing five years ago. “I was still a student at that time, and remember my mom called me and told me that a plane had hit one of the twin towers in New York. I remember I didn't really believ her, but ran home and put on the TV, and watched what seemed like a badly directed film.”

Canadan K’vitch of the eponymous blog writes where she was five years ago. “I was in bed when the first plane hit. My clock alarm, set to the local talk news station, came on and announced the first hit. I was still waking up when they announced the second plane hitting. Being half asleep, I thought, ‘Another plane hit? What a coincidence!’ Then they said something about the Pentagon being hit, or maybe the Washington Monument (it was early and reports weren't totally accurate). I decided to get up.”

Zenmar, “the zennist,” writes a provocative essay in his blog The Buddhist, titled “remembering 9/11.” He writes, “It is because of America’s historical intoxication with power and conquest that the catastrophe of 9/11 happened. The so-called terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York were completely American made.”

Matthew of freedomforall.net begins his 9/11 post …

It is the fifth anniversary of September the eleventh and everyone is making lots of noise about it. It was indeed a horrific and unwarranted act, debased and obscene in every way. I do not wish to pretend that it was not that.

However since September the eleventh, 2001, a total of approximately fifty four million, seven hundred and fifty thousand children have died needlessly in the third world because of the economics of market forces that the terrorists so hated.

George of Sentient Developments quotes an OpEd piece in the UK Guardian written by Slavoj Zizek. Here’s most of George’s chunk: “The difference of the war on terror from previous 20th-century struggles, such as the cold war, is that while the enemy was once clearly identified as the actually existing communist system, the terrorist threat is spectral. It is like the characterisation of Linda Fiorentino in The Last Seduction: most people have a dark side, she had nothing else. Most regimes have a dark oppressive spectral side, the terrorist threat has nothing else."

James of Genius of Insanity posts a picture of firemen raising an American flag and writes, “May they always be remembered, their families held in our arms and supported.”

ebuddha of Integral Practice writes, “Today of course, is 5 years since 9/11. I'm not sure how other people marked this occasion. I spent some time this morning in meditation and prayer, wishing, visualizing peace for all people.”

John of My Zen Life in “gifts of sitting” posted a picture of cushions.

In an entry titled “The Obligatory Post,” Bill of Oaksong Nemeton begins with these words, “It's strange, but today's date is having little emotional effect on me. Maybe I'm an unfeeling asshole, or maybe it's because the media has beat the subject to death until I'm numb. Personally, I think it's because my memories of 9/11 are part of a period in my life that I just don't associate with the life I live now. …”

Roundup for Sept 5, 2006

A quick roundup of great and quite recent posts in the Buddhoblogosphere and other matters of interest.

Kalsang Dorje knows he will one day die. In a post in The-universe-is-all-in-your-head he wonders how he can make things such that his life will have had meaning. He writes, “Ultimately, what I would like my life to be is a culmination of all of the good human qualities that exist.”

TMcG of the eponymous blog is interested in death, also. She writes, “For a decent $3500, you can pick up 'The Cocoon' a soy-based resin coffin that will decompose in 10-15 years and is CO2 neutral.”

Here, a central sentence in a quote Tyson of tysonwilliams.com posted of words of Sogyal Rinpoche: “From a Buddhist point of view, doubt is a sign of a lack of complete understanding and a lack of spiritual education, but it is also seen as a catalyst in the maturing of faith.”

Cliff of This Is This almost says something dumb at an airport bar. Well, actually, he does say something dumb. But before being too hard on himself for being a tad slow, he takes solace in knowing that there is another there dumber than he is. One other. His post’s title is wonderfully clever, anyway: “Flight of the Humble Me.”

stumble bum of m o u n t a i n w o r d bopped in for a quick post. He quotes Anais Nin re how we see things.

Things are looking up for Chodpa of Luminous Emptiness. Her Labor Day post begins, “Is there anything more beautiful in this world of ours than a deep blue, almost clear sky, with traces of white puffy cloud?”

OK, what’s the deal guys? Recent posts by James of The Buddhist Blog and Sujatin of lotusinthemud are similar. Check it out: James’s 8/28 post ; and Sujatin’s 8/28 post . Again, James’s 9/2 post; and Sujatin’s 9/2 post. Then, too, there’s the mystery of Tom’s post in Thoughts Chase Thoughts [8/31]; and Bill’s of Integral Options Café [9/2]. GMTA?

Is anybody else getting sick to death of the Pass The Loot ministry of the formerly-cool Mel? Capitalism is fine; but grifting is something else, again.

Jack of Mind Mountain [formerly known as Jack's Mountain] has his meditation disturbed by a giant cockroach.

Hokai of hokai’s blogue begins a post that quotes Timothy Freke, “... Waking up is not a state of disembodied ‘enlightenment’. It is an ecstatic state of individual ‘enlivenment’!”

Cliff of everyday zazen writes, “making a fresh start is an illusion. i can turn over a new page but it already bears imprints from the previous page and the one before that. the present is the consequence of my past actions.”

Mark Walter of eternal awareness asks and answers this question: “If I have something to convey that is beyond words, how can I use words to convey it?”

Whoa! A wonderful rambling post by Mike Doe of Doe-Do begins with Battlestar Galactica, meanders through thoughts of memory loss, his sex life, books he’s reading, a chance of rain, and then it is all wrapped up in a bow of questions of identity. Who am I?

Chris of i am the cyclingplatypus is in the early days of an all-September photoblogging regimen. Here’s day four.

chalip of Zen Under the Skin cites two good blog finds, both submissions to Buddhist Blogs WebRing which she manages and both from India: Cockoo’s call and The Red Blood. Rama, the blogger of Cockoo’s call, has just concluded a long series with photos that show people who serve in his city of Calcutta. Amit kumar Singh writes passionately about the terrible problem of corruption and disparities of earnings in a post in The Red Blood titled “I wept twice amidst the cry of corruption.” In the rest of her post, chalip discusses her feelings regarding disparities based on class in Buddhist temples or practice centers in America.

Zataod of Zen and the Art of Dreaming writes about his latest nocturnal adventure, which includes this line, “What does one do with a homeless person one encounters in a dream. She is a product of my unconscious dreaming mind. Yet, I still want to ignore her and not acknowledge that she exists.”

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!