Could it be for being gone so long? First in Europe, now nearly two weeks in Laguna? I find myself in a strange place, almost entirely lacking in motivation. I have plenty to read--too much, really--but find it hard to get myself together enough to pick up a book. This afternoon, I slept for an hour after lunch, did yesterday's NY Times crossword puzzle, and sat and wondered what to do next. Checked in on the Huffington Post, and checked out again...
Funny thing, Ellie was in this same kind of place until recently. Now she's down in her new studio, working away for hours on end. And I sit here wondering what to do with myself.
Next week, starting Monday, I'll be back in the office. Maybe something will grab me then. Maybe not.
Is it too early to switch on the TV?
Thursday, April 30, 2009
100, and Still Counting...
I was distracted by other things during the President's 100-day press conference last night, when it was running live, so I missed it altogether. I did find a way to record it on a later re-run, and am watching it as I write this morning. What impresses me most is that he does actually listen to the questions and answer them. Unlike most politicians, who manage to twist a question in such a way that they can provide a neatly potted answer; they listen to the question that they want to hear, rather than the one that's asked. It seems to me that Obama listens to the question carefully, takes it in, and thinks it through aloud, on his feet, as he comes up with his answer. And when he speaks, he seems to be fully in command of a vast range of information, and draws on it with confidence and ease. You can see a finely tuned intelligence at work.
Clearly, there are issues on which he speaks with extreme care--more care than some of his listeners out here in the public sphere would wish. I myself could wish he had been more forthright on the topic of torture, and had appeared less compromising about the prosecution of those who permitted or practiced it in our name. On this subject, the measured quality that seemed admirable in addressing other issues seemed unfortunately evasive. On the other hand, I understand that complex legal and political implications make such circumspection inevitable. It is impossible for a United States president to blurt out things that I, as a private citizen, can pronounce as if they were self-evident truths.
All in all, it was an impressive performance. Compared to what we were subjected to in the last administration during Bush's few press conferences, this event was a triumph of both language and content. The derisive, dismissive attitude of the last occupant of the White House in response to the media was an embarrassment to us all. His resort to simplistic ideology as sufficient reason for every action and intention was, if not laughable, exasperating. Last night's event left me feeling, still, that we are in good hands. The man is not infallible--but at least he knows this himself.
Clearly, there are issues on which he speaks with extreme care--more care than some of his listeners out here in the public sphere would wish. I myself could wish he had been more forthright on the topic of torture, and had appeared less compromising about the prosecution of those who permitted or practiced it in our name. On this subject, the measured quality that seemed admirable in addressing other issues seemed unfortunately evasive. On the other hand, I understand that complex legal and political implications make such circumspection inevitable. It is impossible for a United States president to blurt out things that I, as a private citizen, can pronounce as if they were self-evident truths.
All in all, it was an impressive performance. Compared to what we were subjected to in the last administration during Bush's few press conferences, this event was a triumph of both language and content. The derisive, dismissive attitude of the last occupant of the White House in response to the media was an embarrassment to us all. His resort to simplistic ideology as sufficient reason for every action and intention was, if not laughable, exasperating. Last night's event left me feeling, still, that we are in good hands. The man is not infallible--but at least he knows this himself.
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 4/30/2009
You cannot describe it or draw it. You cannot praise it enough or perceive it. No place can be found in which to put the Original Face; it will not disappear even when the universe is destroyed....
~ Zen Quote by Mumon
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Act Normal (2006)
Act Normal (2006)
Robert T. Edison was born and raised in Nottingham, England. When he was fourteen years old he began to practice Buddhism. At eighteen he became a monk and went to Thailand where, for a decade, he spent his time in monasteries. He became the first Buddhist monk in Iceland when he moved there in 1994 and founded a Buddhist sect. Five years later Robert decided to “disrobe” and get married. After sixteen years of celibacy Robert had to deal with being “normal” – getting employment, paying his bills and dealing with the needs of his partner. After four years in “the real world” Robert travelled back to Thailand to become a monk again. Act Normal was filmed from 1994 to 2006 and is a unique exploration of one man’s twelve-year search for some kind of love.
Build Your Own Podcast
This morning, I permit myself a boast. Well, more accurately a boast on behalf of my daughter, who has put together this excellent website as a part of her work for an advanced degree in librarianship and archives (the latter being her own particular interest.) One part of her contribution to this attractive, user-friendly site--for which she deservedly received high praise from her professor--is a set of easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions for setting up your own podcast. So, if you've been thinking about that possibility... may I introduce you to my daughter?
My own podcast, The Art of Outrage continues to come out at Artscene Visual Radio after more than two years--though not quite so regularly as before. Having written about the contemporary art scene in Los Angeles for national art magazines for many years, I have found the podcast an interesting new way to keep my hand in. Well, my voice. The programs I put together consist largely of interviews with artists, curators, art dealers and writers, looking at art that is either outraged (mostly political and/or social, then, in orientation and content); or outrageous--flaunting the mainstream orthodoxy, whatever it might be at any given moment in art's currently fast-moving history.
All in all, I'm still a writer, and this form of communication comes more comfortably to me than the audio and visual media. Still, it's fun to experiment, and I always learn from trying something new and challenging. So, as Charles Osgood says at the end of his excellent CBS Sunday Morning show, "See you on the radio..." If you have the time, that is, and the inclination!
My own podcast, The Art of Outrage continues to come out at Artscene Visual Radio after more than two years--though not quite so regularly as before. Having written about the contemporary art scene in Los Angeles for national art magazines for many years, I have found the podcast an interesting new way to keep my hand in. Well, my voice. The programs I put together consist largely of interviews with artists, curators, art dealers and writers, looking at art that is either outraged (mostly political and/or social, then, in orientation and content); or outrageous--flaunting the mainstream orthodoxy, whatever it might be at any given moment in art's currently fast-moving history.
All in all, I'm still a writer, and this form of communication comes more comfortably to me than the audio and visual media. Still, it's fun to experiment, and I always learn from trying something new and challenging. So, as Charles Osgood says at the end of his excellent CBS Sunday Morning show, "See you on the radio..." If you have the time, that is, and the inclination!
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 4/29/2009
The mind that does not understand is the Buddha. There is no other....
~ Zen Quote by Ma-Tsu
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Zen Koto - Michael Vetter
Zen Koto - Michael Vetter
Michael Vetter was born in 1943 in Oberstdorf Allgäu. He studied theology and between 1970 and 1982 spent most of his time in Japan as a Zen monk.
A self taught musician and painter he became known as a performer and composer of experimental music for recorder.
He was discovered by Karlheinz Stockausen in 1969 and was invited to participate in his then current "intuitive music".
Although Vetter dedicated himself in the 1970s to a systemmatic framework of musical concepts he was increasingly engaged in developing the expressive possibilities of the voice.
Depositfiles
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Build Your Own Spaceship...
Readers of my travelog, England/France, might recall that I had the good fortune to have dinner one evening with the science writer Piers Bizony and his family. After dinner, in his recently-built study behind the house, I was awed by some of the books Bizony has produced about space exploration and the universe beyond our earth, with their spectacularly beautiful and mind-bending illustrations (like this one...
... but not actually this one. You'll have to check out his books to see what I mean.) Anyway, he was kind enough to let me have a copy of a (by Bizony's standards) tiny--and affordable!--new paperback, How to Build Your Own Spaceship: The Science of Personal Space Travel, and I have just finished reading it.
“Tiny” is a wild misnomer. The book may be small in size and length, but it covers a truly amazing amount of material—much of which was surprising and fresh even to one who has followed the adventures of human beings in space since the first Sputnik dazzled us with its little, insistent beep and its infinitesimal point of light across the night sky. In part, the book is a potted history of these events, put together by one whose evidently vast knowledge is shared easily and without pretension with the lay reader. The progress from Sputnik through man’s landing on the Moon to today’s exploration of the planet Mars and the possibility of future visits there—a matter of little more than half a century—is hard for the intellect to grasp. Bizony walks us through these monumental achievements with casual grace and an engaging sense of humor and perspective.
In part, too, the book is true to its title: it’s a companionable reference guide to the technology involved in building a spacecraft, getting it off the ground, and navigating it beyond the confines of Earth’s gravity. For one who, like myself, finds the technology of your average automobile hard to fathom, Bizony manages to make the reader comfortable even when he’s way out of his depth. Thanks to readable prose and the obvious passion of my guide, I found myself enjoying even those paragraphs where I hardly understood a thing about, say, the construction materiel or the propulsion fuels he was writing about. I trusted him enough to just go along for the ride.
The reason for this, I think, is the nice conceit implied in Bizony’s title: that he’s actually talking, with clear-sighted pragmatism, to someone who might take him up on his challenge. In fact it's not really a conceit. He assumes a reader as passionate as himself to participate in the grand vision. And indeed, as he makes clear, there are those people out there—not simply the outlandishly wealthy who are already funding non-governmental space projects that are within an ace of actualization, like Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin project, already advance-selling seats to (not quite so wealthy, but still very well-heeled) thrill-seekers for brief sorties into sub-orbital flight starting possibly as early as 2012. Many of these people, like Branson, are in it for the fun—not to mention the business opportunity. But also, as Bizony is at pains to remind his readers, there’s all kinds of room in the space game for amateurs who can afford to venture no further than their own front door. He is skilled in engaging us in the possibilities.
The nay-sayers about space exploration, of course, are legion. My own sympathies lie most with those who insist that we need the money more urgently for schools and health care than for interplanetary travel. That rightful—if pedestrian—wisdom is outweighed for me, eventually, by the belief that the need to feed our imagination and to create a vision for the future is just as great as the need to find solutions to our terrestrial problems, many though they be. Bizony’s delightful book opens the door—and the eyes—to realistic possibilities that do not involve the expense of taxpayer dollars but rather those of enterprising individuals who are in it for the sheer joy of adventure and the excitement of ever-new discovery.
... but not actually this one. You'll have to check out his books to see what I mean.) Anyway, he was kind enough to let me have a copy of a (by Bizony's standards) tiny--and affordable!--new paperback, How to Build Your Own Spaceship: The Science of Personal Space Travel, and I have just finished reading it.
“Tiny” is a wild misnomer. The book may be small in size and length, but it covers a truly amazing amount of material—much of which was surprising and fresh even to one who has followed the adventures of human beings in space since the first Sputnik dazzled us with its little, insistent beep and its infinitesimal point of light across the night sky. In part, the book is a potted history of these events, put together by one whose evidently vast knowledge is shared easily and without pretension with the lay reader. The progress from Sputnik through man’s landing on the Moon to today’s exploration of the planet Mars and the possibility of future visits there—a matter of little more than half a century—is hard for the intellect to grasp. Bizony walks us through these monumental achievements with casual grace and an engaging sense of humor and perspective.
In part, too, the book is true to its title: it’s a companionable reference guide to the technology involved in building a spacecraft, getting it off the ground, and navigating it beyond the confines of Earth’s gravity. For one who, like myself, finds the technology of your average automobile hard to fathom, Bizony manages to make the reader comfortable even when he’s way out of his depth. Thanks to readable prose and the obvious passion of my guide, I found myself enjoying even those paragraphs where I hardly understood a thing about, say, the construction materiel or the propulsion fuels he was writing about. I trusted him enough to just go along for the ride.
The reason for this, I think, is the nice conceit implied in Bizony’s title: that he’s actually talking, with clear-sighted pragmatism, to someone who might take him up on his challenge. In fact it's not really a conceit. He assumes a reader as passionate as himself to participate in the grand vision. And indeed, as he makes clear, there are those people out there—not simply the outlandishly wealthy who are already funding non-governmental space projects that are within an ace of actualization, like Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin project, already advance-selling seats to (not quite so wealthy, but still very well-heeled) thrill-seekers for brief sorties into sub-orbital flight starting possibly as early as 2012. Many of these people, like Branson, are in it for the fun—not to mention the business opportunity. But also, as Bizony is at pains to remind his readers, there’s all kinds of room in the space game for amateurs who can afford to venture no further than their own front door. He is skilled in engaging us in the possibilities.
The nay-sayers about space exploration, of course, are legion. My own sympathies lie most with those who insist that we need the money more urgently for schools and health care than for interplanetary travel. That rightful—if pedestrian—wisdom is outweighed for me, eventually, by the belief that the need to feed our imagination and to create a vision for the future is just as great as the need to find solutions to our terrestrial problems, many though they be. Bizony’s delightful book opens the door—and the eyes—to realistic possibilities that do not involve the expense of taxpayer dollars but rather those of enterprising individuals who are in it for the sheer joy of adventure and the excitement of ever-new discovery.
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 4/28/2009
He who wherever he goes is attached to no person and to no place by ties of flesh; who accepts good and evil alike, neither welcoming the one nor shrinking from the other - take it that such a one has attained Perfection.
~ Bhagavad-Gita
Monday, April 27, 2009
Angels' Waltz - Sada Sat Kaur
Angels' Waltz - Sada Sat Kaur
Journey to the heart of peace and feel the gentle flow of healing energy. On this exquisitely relaxing release, Shajan uses beautiful melodies and sensual, serene harmonies of piano, guitar, flute, and keyboards to create a calming and soothing atmosphere which is ideal for Reiki, Yoga, meditation and massage. Shajan used his knowledge as a Reiki master and designed the music on this recording to help people let go of stress and slip into a receptive, peaceful state. Experience the quiet ecstasy of relaxation through his blissful waves of healing energy and music. This music makes it easy to relax!
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A Wasps' Nest
A night of uncomfortable dreams, only one of which I remember in any detail, and one other only in broad outline. The latter had to do with discovering, to my huge sadness and pain, that what I had imagined to be the love of my young life turned out to have been an illusion. Where I had thought to play an important role in the life of the object of my passion, I discovered in some way that I had meant nothing to her--that she scarcely even remembered me. I woke in the middle of the night in great despair...
I do recall some detail from later dream, closer to morning time. It found me clearing out a big storage tank of old stuff--things that had been thrown there higgledy-piggledy over the years and left neglected. The huge metal container, incidentally, was also filled with icy water: to reach the objects at the bottom would require climbing down into the water and bringing them out.
I had two assistants for the unenviable task. One of them I recognized as Daniel, my real-life assistant, who however played no major role in the dream. The other was a bright young woman whose identity was unknown to me.
We retrieved as much as we could without actually climbing down into the tank, and I realized that I could not ask my helpers to do the really awful part, climbing into the cold water. I was not even sure what was down there at the bottom, trash or treasure, but I prepared myself for the shock of the cold and stepped down into the tank--which mysteriously, but thankfully, was suddenly empty of the water I had feared. Instead, though, I began to notice something worse...
Wasps. (They're called yellowjackets by most people over here, but I have always called them wasps.) At first just a few of them, buzzing loudly. But then more and more. "Oh my God!" I yelled. "Oh my God!" And Daniel was asking me what was the matters. "Wasps," I said. I realized I had climbed down into a wasps' nest.
I needed help. The wasps were now swarming over me. I felt a thousand of them, glommed on to my lower back like a brace. More and more of them. At my request, the girl assistant swung open the top to the adjacent tank--these things were like dumpsters--to let the wasps escape, but they started swarming over her, gathering her mouth. She was panicked. "I can't speak," she started to say--but soon the wasps had covered her entire mouth, sealing it closed...
At which point I woke. I usually have some sense of what a dream could mean, but this one has me totally bewildered. Could it be connected to the earlier dream, when I had felt so rejected? What was Daniel doing there? And who was this young girl? I know that I have recently been rummaging among old memories, which may well be represented by all that stuff at the bottom of the tank. Intriguing, though...
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 4/27/2009
The living meaning of Zen is beyond all notions. To realize it in a phrase is completely contrary to the subtle essence; we cannot avoid using words as expedients, though, but this has limitations. Needless to say, of course, random talk is useless. Nonetheless, the matter is not one-sided, so we temporarily set forth a path in the way of teaching, to deal with people.
~ Zen Quote by Qingfu
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Ram Dass interviews Thich Nhat Hanh
Ram Dass interviews Thich Nhat Hanh
Perhaps the most calming interview ever given.
Ram Dass interviews Thich Nhat Hanh at the State of the World forum, September 1995
Youtube
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 4/26/2009
When you're deluded, every statement is an ulcer; when you're enlightened, every word is wisdom.
~ Zen Quote by Zhiqu
Saturday, April 25, 2009
More on Torture... and More
Roger's comment after yesterday's entry about the torture issue left me wondering, uncomfortably, if I had abandoned some of the ideals and principles of my younger years. Would I have felt differently about the matter, say, twenty years ago? Thirty? Fifty?
Sadly, in some ways, I think the answer is Yes. Re-reading my entry, I found evidence of compromises I would have been unwilling to make back then. And I have sympathy--no, admiration--for those who reject such compromise. I think of another friend, whose work and dedication I much admire, who has also given up on "democracy" as we know it here, and on the promise for change. He is one of those stand-out independent thinkers who strives, constantly, for the fulfillment of a vision of a way of life that is free from the toxic influence of politics and greed; and who distrusts all politicians equally.
I wonder to what extent age has tainted my ideals. People do tend to become more conservative as they age, and it saddens me to contemplate the possibility that the socialist ideals I embraced in my young years may have been sacrificed along the way. But then I remind myself that my ideals have always been tempered by a measure of that British pragmatism I learned from an early age.
Having started this entry and put it on hold to allow for a walk down to the Saturday market, I ran in to a friend down in the village and struck up a conversation about the state of the world. I knew him to be an old lefty peacenik type, and before long we found ourselves talking about the conflicts taking place in the Middle East. I was not surprised to hear him insist that we should be out of there immediately, out of Iraq and Afghanistan, and that we should keep our noses out of the events in Pakistan. And of course this followed naturally on what I'd been thinking earlier, about ideals and pragmatism. I felt once again that inner struggle between the heart and its revulsion against every form of violence and warfare, and the head that reminds me of the Taliban's encroachments in Pakistan, the militant Islamic vision of international conquest by a medieval, fundamentalist world view and the barbaric means by which they seek to impose it, their ruthless dedication to terror and suppression to achieve their ends...
My friend reminded me of the catastrophe in Iraq. I'm sorry, I don't see all this to be anything like Iraq. To begin with, there's not just the suspicion of nuclear weapons, there's the fact of Pakistan's possession of them. If there's anything approaching the appeasement of the 1930s, it's the current situation in that country, where a weak government seems unable to control the advance of the growing ranks of an angry minority and could all too easily succumb to their fanatical power. What then? Is the world to stand by and wring its hands, hoping for the best? When, if ever, will enough be enough to satisfy the appetite for power and control, when the militants have made it clear that they intend to extend their vision of the Caliphate to the entire human race? It's abundantly clear that these are not people you can talk to. At what point, then, will it become a matter of resorting to violence?
The idealist in me rebels against war. The Buddhist in me reminds me that violence breeds only violence. The pragmatist insists that we can't simply abandon the Middle East to those who have made unambiguous their intent to rid the world of any vision other than their own. I would not want to place my trust in the hope that they do not have the power to do so. At the very least, it seems not improbable that they could seize power enough to create a catastrophic global conflict--starting with with India and Israel.
Perhaps the best I can do, as Voltaire suggested at the end of his satirical rant in the story of Candide, is to tend my own garden, peacefully. I can, after all, achieve nothing particularly useful by compromising my ideals. Than Geoff (Thanissaro Bhikkhu) has offered much the same advice: Is there anything you can do? he asks. Of course not. Then quit worrying about events over which you have no control and attend to your own integrity.
I get that. And yet... I agonize.
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 4/25/2009
One single still light shines bright: if you intentionally pursue it, after all it's hard to see. Suddenly encountering it, people's hearts are opened up, and the great matter is clear and done. This is really living, without any fetters -- no amount of money could replace it. Even if a thousand sages should come, they would all appear in it's shadow.
~ Zen Quote by Chuzhen
Technorati Tags: Buddha Buddhist Buddhism Meditation Dharma Compassion
Friday, April 24, 2009
Born Again Buddhists.
Heard this joke today,"What did the Buddhist say to the Born-Again Christian missionary?"
"No Thanks. I've been born again many times!!"
"No Thanks. I've been born again many times!!"
O.k. so that's a bad joke but at least I got you to stop thinking about your worries for a moment.
Moving on, I was reading that FOX News here in America (known for its conservative, Christian slant) will be interviewing the Dalai Lama. The news channel is asking their viewers to come up with some of the questions to be asked of the Buddhist monk. So I was scanning some of the questions posted on their website--some are serious, some ridiculous like, "Who will win the American League baseball championship?" I think that person thinks the Dalai Lama is some kind of fortune teller.
Then there was this one, "Can I share with you the Gospel of Jesus Christ?" As if the Dalai Lama hasn't heard it before. I am convinced that this well-read, well-traveled, highly intelligent, Dalai Lama who has been apart of countless inter-faith forums knows well the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And I am sure that he finds much good in it and finds a lot of agreement in the teachings of Jesus. And he would probably listen to someone explain it to him again with a smile and a nod or two. He is very polite and understanding of people much more so than most of us including myself.
That said, I have found that many (not all) Christians think that the only reason that people aren't Christian is because they haven't heard "the gospel." These Christians (not all by any means) can't imagine that a person can have a happy, spiritually fulfilling life without the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Surely once they hear "the gospel" (these Christians think) they will drop Buddhism and become Christian and those who don't are dismissed as "not truly understanding" the gospel of Jesus. That or they say that we "know it to be true" but we reject it to try and thwart the plan of "God."
They can't fathom someone understanding "the gospel" and then saying, "No, I think I'll stick with Buddhism." To them it's like someone being handed a diamond and saying, "No thanks." The problem is that they are blinded by duality and can't see that Buddhism has its own diamond to cherish. They don't realize that for us, Christianity is but one diamond in a fisherman's net (Indra's net) of diamonds sown in at each knot in the net. All the diamonds are beautiful and just because the diamond you know is gorgeous doesn't mean that the diamond I know isn't.
Can't we just enjoy the diamonds instead of arguing over whose diamond is brighter? I'm not saying that all religions are the same but they all (or most at least) have the same roots in believing that we are apart of something bigger than ourselves. I can rejoice for the peace and joy that Christians find in their religion without it taking anything away from my own branch in the universal path of peace and love. May all awake from the great slumber.
Joseph Campbell said, "All religions are true. You just have to understand what they are true of."
~Peace to all beings~
Sun Rising East
Sun Rising East: Zen Master Seung Sahn Gives Transmission
Record of the 1992 Dharma Transmission and 20th anniversary celebrations, plus interviews with four zen masters.
Seung Sahn Haeng Won Dae Soen-sa (Korean: 숭산행원대선사, Hanja: 崇山行願大禪師) (c. 1927—November 30, 2004), born Dok-In Lee, was a Korean Jogye Seon master and founder of the international Kwan Um School of Zen—the largest school of Zen present in the Western world. He was the seventy-eighth teacher in his lineage. As one of the first Korean Zen masters to settle in the United States, he opened many temples and practice groups across the globe. He was known for his charismatic style and direct presentation of Zen, which was well tailored for the Western audience. Known by students for his many correspondences with them through letters, his utilization of Dharma combat, and expressions such as "only don't know" or "only go straight" in teachings, he was conferred the honorific title of Dae Soen Sa Nim in June 2004 by the Jogye order for a lifetime of achievements. Considered the highest honor to have bestowed upon one in the order, the title translates to mean Great honored Zen master. He died in November that year at Hwa Gae Sah in Seoul, South Korea, at age 77.
Gassho to Martin for the link.
Google Video
(A Note...
... to followers of The Buddha Diaries: the latest travel log of our recent trip to England and France can now be more easily read in chronological order by clicking on the link in the right hand sidebar.)
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 4/24/2009
Just think of the trees: they let the birds perch and fly, with no intention to call them when they come and no longing for their return when they fly away. If people's hearts can be like the trees, they will not be off the Way.
~ Zen Quote by Langya
Thursday, April 23, 2009
The Torture Issue
We are witness to the unseemly spectacle of former senior officials of this country twisting language and thought processes--as they once twisted the law--to justify their condoning of the use of torture. The question, sadly, is no longer whether our interrogators were authorized by these men to torture captured or suspected terrorists, but how to bring those responsible to account--and to do so without the appearance of a partisan vendetta.
The often asserted boast that we are "a nation of laws" has the hollow ring of a cliche these days. At the national level, we had thought to re-establish the principle with the disgrace and resignation of former President Nixon. Then came Reagan and Iran-Contra--a scandal that sadly pales in comparison to the activities of the Bush Administration.
But mockery of the law reaches deeper in our culture than merely in our national politics. Who can doubt but that our current economic fiasco was caused by people who casually stretched and twisted and broke the law in order to enrich themselves? Who can trust the fairness of our legal system when our jails are filled with minor drug offenders--some victim to the atrocious three strikes law--whilst white collar criminals go scott free? When some of our states continue to practice the barbarity of capital punishment despite ample evidence of its discriminatory application? And, to get right down to the level of individual responsibility, who among us can claim to faithfully observe the traffic laws or the tax code? We have become, it seems to me, a nation of scofflaws rather than of laws. Laws, it seems, are made to be observed by others, not ourselves.
My primary hope for Barack Obama is not that he find a fix to our economic woes--a symptom, surely, rather than a cause; nor that he simply lead us out of war and back to peace; nor even that he find solutions to problems caused by our neglect of basic education and health care for our people. My primary hope is that he lead us into a new and more honest understanding of who we are, so that we can "move forward"--as he likes to say--with a greater clarity of purpose, a real sense of justice, and a clear conscience.
It's all very well, at this point, to throw up our hands and say we didn't know. Blame the bad guys who misled us and committed these dreadful acts without our knowing it. We refused to buy that argument when we heard it from the average German citizen after World War II, but now, it seems, we have no problem selling it to ourselves.
I have found myself wishing, with many other liberals like myself, that Barack Obama would do the "right thing" and initiate prosecutions against the miscreants at the top. I myself have been dismayed that the only people to suffer consequences have been those low-ranking "bad apples" from Abu Ghraib. They have unfairly taken the rap for their superiors, including Rumsfeld and his gang of memorandum-writing sycophants. I do share the belief that this national disgrace should not be swept under the rug.
I believe that we should have at the very least a truth commission to investigate the entire mess, with as much transparency as possible, and that we should leave the question of prosecutions open until we have explored every avenue of responsibility. We should do it, not as an act of retribution but as an act of self-examination, in order that we not repeat nor tolerate such barbarity ever again. And when, and if, we have managed to carry the investigation beyond politics, then, and only then, should we consider the need for punishment.
A Zen Life - D.T. Suzuki - Michael Goldberg
A Zen Life - D.T. Suzuki - Michael Goldberg"A ZEN LIFE - D.T. Suzuki" is a 77-minute documentary about Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki (1870-1966), credited with introducing Zen Buddhism to the West.
D.T. Suzuki had an excellent grasp of written and spoken English, combined with an exhaustive knowledge of Eastern and Western religions and philosophies. He was highly successful at getting Westerners to appreciate the Japanese mentality, and Japanese to understand Western logic. The effect he had on Western psychoanalysis, philosophy, religious thinking, and the arts was profound. His numerous writings in English and Japanese serve as an inspiration even today.
Dr. Suzuki first lived in the United States from 1897 to 1908. In 1911 he married an American, Beatrice Lane, who helped him with his work until her death in 1939. After the War he traveled and taught extensively in the United States and Europe. Of note is a series of very popular open lectures he gave at Columbia University. Many renowned Western philosophers, artists, and psychologists were affected by his writings and friendship, including Carl Jung and Erich Fromm, Christmas Humphries, Father Thomas Merton, Martin Heidegger, Karl Jaspers, Dr. Albert Stunkard, Alan Watts, Richard De Martino, Robert Aitken, John Cage, Alan Ginsberg, and Gary Snyder.
Gary Snyder calls D.T. Suzuki "probably the most culturally significant Japanese person in international terms, in all of history."
Along with Gary Snyder, there are exclusive interviews of many people respected in their own right who knew D.T. Suzuki in person, including his secretary Mihoko Okamura, and rare footage of Thomas Merton, John Cage, Erich Fromm, and Suzuki himself.
There have been few people capable of bridging the logic of Americans and Europeans and the Eastern approach to life as well as he. Indeed, one of the goals of Zen is to transcend dichotomies. The main purpose of this documentary is to "bring D.T. Suzuki alive," and serve to motivate people in the West and Japan to know themselves better while respecting one another. Daisetz Suzuki's message is all the more important now, in light of contemporary conflicts stemming from divergent ways of thinking.
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Stephen Batchelor Documentary
Stephen Batchelor DocumentaryThis thirty minute documentary on Stephen’s work was broadcast on national television in Holland on 20 April, 2008 as "Boeddhisme Zonder Geloof" ("Buddhism Without Beliefs"). It is in English with Dutch subtitles. It was made by Jurgen Gude and Jaap Verhoeven for the Boeddhistische Omroep Stichtung (BOS), "the first independent Buddhist Broadcasting Foundation in the West to produce and broadcast Buddhist programmes within a country’s Public Broadcasting System".
Link
Thanks to Jeff at Full Thangka for the link.
Altai Sayau Tandy-Uula - Huun Huur Tu
Altai Sayau Tandy-Uula - Huun Huur Tu
Overtone singing, also known as throat singing, overtone chanting, or harmonic singing, is a type of singing in which the singer manipulates the resonances (or formants) created as air travels from the lungs, past the vocal folds, and out the lips to produce a melody.
Throat singing is both a generic and a specific term. Generally, the term is applied to any singing style which entails the application of a harsh voice or some other constriction. Specifically, the term refers to a type of Central Asian and Siberian overtone singing.
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Zen Garden - Steve Millington
Zen Garden - Steve Millington
This mesmeric album features Steve Millington’s most imaginative and soothing music accentuated with the sounds of nature. The Zen Garden, with its flowing stream and beautiful birdsong is the ideal place to escape the stresses of everyday life.
tracklist:
01. First Light
02. Bamboo Flower
03. Winter Sunshine
04. Lotus Blossom
05. Spirit Paths
06. The Serenity Stream
07. Of Wind and Water
08. Reflections
09. Heaven and Earth
10. Twilight
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Saltwater Buddha: A Surfer's Quest to Find Zen on the Sea
I'm flattered that people want to send their books to The Buddha Diaries, for the kind of brief, informal comment/response I give to those I like, or those that interest me particularly. I'm especially thrilled when I hear back from an author I have written about. I have been doing this for many years now, professionally, in the world of contemporary art; for a period back in the 1970s I was the go-to man for poetry reviews for the Los Angeles Times; and later, in the late 1990s, for books related to spiritual inquiry, for the same newspaper. Once in a while I have heard back from an artist or a writer and it's always a special pleasure.
So it was good to hear once more from Jennifer Cody Epstein a couple of days ago, to let me know that her novel, The Painter From Shanghai is now coming out in paperback. (If you're interested to read what I first wrote about the book, you can click here.) Delighted for Jenn... May she find many new readers...
Now comes Saltwater Buddha: A Surfer's Quest to Find Zen on the Sea, by Jaimal Yogis, former surf bum and now a journalist surf bum, writing mostly for San Francisco magazine. In part, the book is an engaging romp through some of the country's great surfing sites, from Hawaii to (yes!) Brooklyn in the dead of winter. In part it's a kind of Bildungsroman--the lit crit word for a novel of education. We follow Jaimal through childhood and teenage years to an early adulthood spent in search of self and some other purpose in life than riding the waves. The narrative is a bit hip and slangy, its tone appropriate to the age, and it catches the culture to perfection; it conjures what landlubbers like myself--even those of us who frequent the surfer city of Laguna Beach--imagine the surfer's life to be. It also, pleasingly, rides over easily at times into truly lyrical descriptions of the meeting points between land, and sky, and ocean.
That's all enough to appeal to the surfer audience. If you're like me and get sucked in by the title, you may at first find the Buddhist angle to be a bit too offhand and glib. Stick with the story, though, and the inner growth of its narrator, and you'll find a lot of Buddhist wisdom sloughed off as easily as water off... well, a wet-suited surfer's back. Little nuggets that threaten at first sight to look like casual cliches turn out to glisten appealingly because the metaphors are precise and fitting, and because they reflect something of the quintessential simplicity of the Buddha's teachings. Not least, too, because Yogis comes to keenly understand the continuity between the physical and the spiritual, the particularity of a life lived in the world and the lessons of the Buddha.
Along the way, be it said, Yogis takes us through some vividly hair-raising experiences, from vertiginous waves to a stomach-churning episode on a fishing boat caught in an Atlantic storm. His story is also, in part, an adventure story in which the sea is a powerful antagonist, at once the siren and the ogre, irresistible and terrifying in its sheer, monstrous power. For this author, it's a voracious and demanding lover, and he is skilled at summoning its ever-changing presence.
Others may disagree, but I like best the Jaimal of the end of the book--the one who has faced a number of his demons and has learned to to be honest with himself. The one who begins to see a way to grow beyond his ego's consuming need to find and conquer the waves, to compete, and to prove himself--to "paddle," his metaphor for that ninety-nine percent of drudge work and effort that accompanies, in all creative work, the one percent of inspired production. At the end of the book, surfing in a white fog, it's this Jaimal who writes: "It's a bit unsettling. Looking back toward the beach, I might as well be lost at sea: nothing but white in front, nothing but white behind, to the sides--white... [and] when I accept the fact that I can't mark my place, can't predict where I'm floating to, it becomes fun in a different way: completely intuitive." There's "Nowhere to paddle to," he concludes. "Nowhere for the currents to drag me from." And realizes that "finally I'm doing it: Zen surfing."
Okay, I'll admit the surfer dude gets on my nerves a bit, but that may just be the old geezer in me, impatient of youth and its laid-back excesses. Or maybe just envious. But it turns out that this dude, through the practice of his art, the special skill that he hones with passionate dedication, does learn to jettison along the way those delusions of "self" that get in the way of actual experience, as they do with all of us; and affords us glimpses of the perfect union that can exist between mind and body, thought and being. "Here's the thing I learned through all of this," he writes. "I am not what I think I am. I just am."
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 4/23/2009
Fit speech stems from fit thought most often.
~ The Buddha
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Master of Shakuhachi - Tajima Tadashi
Master of Shakuhachi - Tajima Tadashi
The shakuhachi has been much abused in the later half of the 20th century, by non-Japanese artists seeking to capitalize on its sensitive sound and hip Eastern origin to make incoherent mood music for health food stores. The reality of the instrument is one of quiet strength. The traditional version of this bamboo flute is large, over a foot and a half long with a large outside circumference. It achieves its unique sound from the musician's ability to balance the force needed to fill such a tool with air and the control to make it not only melodious, but contemplative. Tajima Tadashi performs a series of solo songs, all from the meditative tradition, created not for performance or ritual, but as a tool for the musician to achieve a state of meditation and to challenge himself in his art. These pieces show an accomplished artist pushing himself to the limit, not with wild virtuoso flights but with considered and complex melodies that are as ephemeral as snow and as strong as wind.
tracklist:
01 - Hon Shirabe.flac
02 - Shika no Tone.flac
03 - Shingetsu Cho.flac
04 - San An.flac
05 - Tsuru no Sugomori.flac
06 - Yamagoe.flac
07 - Ukigumo.flac
08 - Koku.flac
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Meditation[Zen] - F.A.B.
Meditation[Zen] - F.A.B.
It is said that the chanting of the Buddhist sutras can open the chakras (energy centers) of the human body. Continue on your path to enlightenment with "Meditation [Zen]," Pacific Moon’s companion album to "Meditation [Satori]" and "Meditation [Rinne]." Like its predecessors, "Meditation [Zen]" is perfect for meditation, relaxation, yoga, bodywork and massage.
tracklist:
1.Hannya Shingyo
2.Miyama
3.Shiori
4.Somabito No Mura
5.Nagamichi
6.Konoma Yori
7.Yumeji
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Chinese Buddhist Music (Zen Mantra) - Various Artists
Chinese Buddhist Music (Zen Mantra) - Various Artists
In the Indian religions, a mantra (Devanāgarī मन्त्र) is a sound, syllable, word, or group of words that are considered capable of "creating transformation" (cf. spiritual transformation). Their use and type varies according to the school and philosophy associated with the mantra. Other purposes have included religious ceremonies to accumulate wealth, avoid danger, or eliminate enemies. Mantras originated in the Vedic tradition of India, later becoming an essential part of the Hindu tradition and a customary practice within Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism. The use of mantras is now widespread throughout various spiritual movements which are based on, or off-shoots of, the practices in the earlier Eastern traditions and religions.
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OK baytong (2003)
OK baytong (2003)
On hearing the news of the death of his sister, a Buddhist monk leaves the temple where he has lived since childhood and struggles to adjust to life on the outside as an uncle to a young niece and as a businessman running a hair salon in a small Thai town in a southern province. He even must learn to ride a bicycle and zip up his trousers without injuring himself. He is confronted by a flood of feelings - sexual, for a woman and family friend across the street; as well as fear and hatred for the Muslims, who he believes is responsible for his sister's death and other sorrows in his life.
BTJunkie
Jet Lag
It's a not very funny business, this jet lag. I'm wondering if it gets harder--like everything else!--with age. I certainly can't remember ever having it this bad. It's not just a matter of feeling dead tired virtually all day and sleeping poorly at night--a time when the body persists in thinking that it's daytime. There's that, yes. But for me, this time, I'm experiencing various other symptoms. Balance, for example. I feel like I'm about to fall over half the time, and keep bumping into things. I'm ill-tempered and easily upset--ask Ellie! And along with the anger, there's a sense of overwhelming sadness and uncertainty. I'm trying to be Buddhist about the whole thing, watching the feelings rise and fall, breathing away the physical discomfort, reminding myself of impermanence... All good stuff. But it's getting on for three days now, and I wish it would go away. I've heard it said that it takes a day for every time-zone crossed. That's nine, from Paris. Eight from England...
I've also often heard it said that this is an evolutionary effect: that the human body was simply not designed to cross nine time zones in as many hours. Our technological advances have far outpaced the slow progress of evolutionary change. But then I watch a child playing a computer game, completing with amazing speed and dexterity the kind of tasks that my old fingers navigate with ponderous clumsiness, and I wonder if the evolution argument holds true. I wonder if those who travel long distances as a regular part of their lives--a Hillary Clinton, say--have learned to adapt more successfully than I?
So, any home remedies out there? Curiously, there was an article in one of the newspapers--the International Herald Tribune, perhaps?--the day we left. It said that there was no remedy that had been proved effective... Ah, well.
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 4/22/2009
Giving properly means doing so confidently and without too much encumberments.
~ The Buddha
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 4/21/2009
Living well favours a serene death and rebirth in a happy state.
~ The Buddha
Monday, April 20, 2009
The Journey from the Center to the Page
The Journey from the Center to the Page - Jeff Davis
At once inspirational and instructional, The Journey from the Center to the Page artfully illustrates how yoga philosophies and practices can be an invaluable ally to the writing life.
With wisdom for writers of any level and in any genre, nationally known yoga and writing instructor Jeff Davis shows you how yoga’s principles and practical tools can deepen your writing process and increase your versatility as a writer. A grounded guide to the body-mind-imagination connection, this book shows ways to:
Re-connect with your deeper intention for writing
Sustain concentration and confidence when writing
Make time to write what matters most to you
Write with an authentic voice Draft, re-vision, and revise with an embodied writing process. Write with a more visceral style replete with fresh imagery, intimate detail, metaphor, and rhythm
Convert fear and anger into powerful stories and satire
Cultivate compassion for complex characters—whether real or fictional
Create an authentic writers community
THE STUDY AND PRACTICE OF YOGA Volume 2
THE STUDY AND PRACTICE OF YOGA Volume 2 - Swami Krishnananda
Patanjali's Yoga Sutras are aphoristic prescriptions in the form of pithy one-liners for leading the mind into deeper states of absorption in the state of Samadhi,where the individual merges with the Absolute.A tranquil mind is a pre-requisite for attaining the higher states of awareness and the Yoga Sutras are a graduated manual for the achievement of this goal. The aphorisms in their original form can not be undestood easily.Swami Krishnananda's commentary is easy to decipher and reader friendly,lucid style probes into the aphorisms and lays before seekers the approach to understanding the mind and it s machinations,and how the hurdles that make meditation difficult can be overcome.The rendition and style in which this has been made possible is a tribute to Swamiji s love for truth. This series of two volumes is an all encompassing spirtual guide.The teachings are progressive in content and begin where most seekers find themselves when spiritual aspiration dawns and the need for higher understanding is felt.Ther reader is led gradually through the different aspects of practice and mind management. Volume I,which covers the Samadhi Pada,the first of the four sections of the Yoga Sutras,and provides a good introduction and in-depth understanding of the philosophy and practice of yoga including the levels of consciousness that are attained,has been printed first. Volume II covers the Sadhana Pada and Kaivalya Pada which go into further detail about the practice of yoga using the aphoristic rungs of Patanjali Yoga sutras as a veritable stairway on the path of the ascent of the spirit.Nothing is left unsaid as Swamiji brings the teachings together in two volumes as a complete treatise on this spiritual path.
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Thanks, Everyone
I just want to take a quick moment today to thank everyone who followed our European travels, and especially those who wrote in to comment. I did not, as you know, respond to comments while I was on the road, but I did read them, and was heart-warmed by words from old friends and new. Some I will be unable to respond to, except by a return comment, because I lack email addresses. So please, if you'd like to get in touch, use the email contact information that you'll find on the site rather than the comments column, which does not permit personal response. So good to hear from you all. Warm thanks...
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 4/20/2009
Death is not to be feared so much by one who has lived wisely.
~ The Buddha
Yoga Practice for Energy
Yoga Practice for Energy
"Yoga Practice for Energy" is a different kind of workout. Filmed at the beach on Maui, the sessions Awakening, Centering, Creativity, Reflection, and Surrender offer movements that follow the cycle of the sun through the course of a day. Viewers are encouraged to first try the entire tape several times, and then use the sessions that correspond to their needs at any particular time. For example, if you've just trudged in the door from a hectic day, you may want to use the Reflection session, in which "a cooling, tranquil series of forward bends and hip openers let all activities of the day seep in like watercolors setting into paper." Almost no narrative accompanies the five practice sessions, and if you are a beginner you may feel lost at first viewing.
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Synthesis of Yoga - Sri Aurobindo
Synthesis of Yoga - Sri Aurobindo
"Truth of philosophy is of a merely theoretical value unless it can be lived, and we have therefore tried in The Synthesis of Yoga to arrive at a synthetical view of the principles and methods of the various lines of spiritual self-discipline and the way in which they can lead to an integral divine life in the human existence". Index.
The Synthesis of Yoga first appeared serially in the monthly review Arya between August 1914 and January 1921. Each instalment was written immediately before its publication. The work was left incomplete when the Arya was discontinued. Sri Aurobindo never attempted to complete the Synthesis; he did, however, lightly revise the Introduction, thoroughly revise all of Part I, “The Yoga of Divine Works”, and significantly revise several chapters of Part II, “The Yoga of Integral Knowledge”. More than thirty years elapsed between the first appearance of the Synthesis in the Arya and the final stages of its incomplete revision. As a result, there are some differences of terminology between the revised and unrevised portions of the book.
In 1948 the chapters making up “The Yoga of Divine Works” were published as a book by the Sri Aurobindo Library, Madras. No other part of The Synthesis of Yoga appeared in
book-form during Sri Aurobindo’s lifetime. In 1955 an edition comprising the Introduction and four Parts was brought out by the Sri Aurobindo International University Centre. The present edition, which has been checked against all manuscripts and printed texts, includes for the first time the author’s revisions to the Introduction and Chapters XV– XVII of Part II, and an incomplete continuation of Part IV entitled “The Supramental
Time Consciousness”.
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Music For Reiki And Meditation - Shajan
Music For Reiki And Meditation - Shajan
Journey to the heart of peace and feel the gentle flow of healing energy. On this exquisitely relaxing release, Shajan uses beautiful melodies and sensual, serene harmonies of piano, guitar, flute, and keyboards to create a calming and soothing atmosphere which is ideal for Reiki, Yoga, meditation and massage. Shajan used his knowledge as a Reiki master and designed the music on this recording to help people let go of stress and slip into a receptive, peaceful state. Experience the quiet ecstasy of relaxation through his blissful waves of healing energy and music. This music makes it easy to relax!
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Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
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Ziddu
Swami Vivekananda is regarded in India as a patriot and saint. He came to the United States and spoke at the World's Parliament of Religion in Chicago.After the Parliament, the Swami traveled throughout the United States and England lecturing and giving the Western world his best teachings on Vedanta, teachings that seemed customized for the particular needs of the western mind. His first book on the yoga of meditation was assembled and published as Raja Yoga. Later came out a collection of his talks on the intellectually demanding approach Jnana Yoga, and finally, talks on the yoga approaches that suit most people Karma and Bhakti Yoga. A series of private talks to his most serious students at Thousand Islands Park in New York was later published as Inspired Talks.
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Sunday, April 19, 2009
Arriving Home...
... and driving to our house through downtown Los Angeles, we noted that the temperature stood at 99 degrees. Our home in the hills was slightly cooler, at 95. Having left England only a few hours earlier with temperatures in the fifties, it was something of a shock.
From home, then, a few last words about our last day in England. The morning was devoted to a bit of grocery shopping--we always bring home a good stack of tea bags, and had also decided to make sandwiches for the plane. And a good cup of coffee on the main street in Harpenden. The off to lunch with the family at another pub, The Wicked Lady, where we all posed for a picture by our waiter...
... and I for one with each of my granddaughters...
I seem to have missed the chance for one with Joe. Too bad.
A good lunch, then, and a drive into St. Albans, where Ellie and Diane had chosen to indulge in a different kind of shopping whilst Matthew and I took the children down to the lovely park below the cathedral. We fed the ducks and swans...
... and found a moorhen's nest, with mother-to-be sitting on it in the middle of the lake...
... and a grassy slope that proved to be great for rolling down...
... somewhat to Matthew's distress, since it produced results like this...
... with the children's clothes. "I'll be dead meat," I think his comment was, anticpating Diane's reaction. We managed to assuage our guilt, however, with a stop at the ice cream van...
By one of those no-coincidence coincidences, we ran into my friend Ben and his son-in-law at the park, and accepted their invitation to stop by for a cup of tea. A great opportunity for Ben and I to sit in the rather chilly sunlight behind the house and engage in further conversation about the strange directions and indirections of our lives.
Back to Harpenden for an excellent chicken dinner, family pictures on the wide-screen television, after a few technical hitches. And then bed. Up early this morning to catch the flight to Los Angeles and the return home.
From home, then, a few last words about our last day in England. The morning was devoted to a bit of grocery shopping--we always bring home a good stack of tea bags, and had also decided to make sandwiches for the plane. And a good cup of coffee on the main street in Harpenden. The off to lunch with the family at another pub, The Wicked Lady, where we all posed for a picture by our waiter...
... and I for one with each of my granddaughters...
I seem to have missed the chance for one with Joe. Too bad.
A good lunch, then, and a drive into St. Albans, where Ellie and Diane had chosen to indulge in a different kind of shopping whilst Matthew and I took the children down to the lovely park below the cathedral. We fed the ducks and swans...
... and found a moorhen's nest, with mother-to-be sitting on it in the middle of the lake...
... and a grassy slope that proved to be great for rolling down...
... somewhat to Matthew's distress, since it produced results like this...
... with the children's clothes. "I'll be dead meat," I think his comment was, anticpating Diane's reaction. We managed to assuage our guilt, however, with a stop at the ice cream van...
By one of those no-coincidence coincidences, we ran into my friend Ben and his son-in-law at the park, and accepted their invitation to stop by for a cup of tea. A great opportunity for Ben and I to sit in the rather chilly sunlight behind the house and engage in further conversation about the strange directions and indirections of our lives.
Back to Harpenden for an excellent chicken dinner, family pictures on the wide-screen television, after a few technical hitches. And then bed. Up early this morning to catch the flight to Los Angeles and the return home.
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