Bhikkhu's Blog

Why is There Something Rather than Nothing?

2010-09-08T09:58:00.001-04:00

The publication of Stephen Hawking's latest book The Grand Design has stirred some new fire into the old embers of metaphysical speculation. Specifically, the discussion centres on one of the perennial Big Questions; why is there something rather than nothing? Tough question that, probably impossible for the human mind to definitively answer. I haven't read Hawking's latest book yet, but from

Pali Tutor Upgrage

2010-07-29T10:07:00.000-04:00

Thanks to the useful feedback, I've made some changes to the Pali Tutor. The vocabulary module now accepts direct keyboard input, including the use of the Return key to initiate "Check Answer." You can still use the Pali Keypad if you prefer, or if you are not set up to type Unicode. I've also added a couple more drills to the Declension module. Coming next: more vocabularies.

Announcing The Pali Tutor

2010-07-25T19:35:00.000-04:00

Learning to read Pali is something many students of Buddhism would like to do, but many are put off because initially it seems so difficult. Admittedly, it's a shallower learning curve if you've already, at some time, studied Latin or another inflected language. I went through school so far back in the mists of time that Latin was still a compulsory subject in High School. Although I remembered

Palm Leaves to OSX; problems of Pali Fonts

2010-01-09T16:04:00.000-05:00

Pali was originally a spoken language only, and was not committed to writing until several hundred years after the Buddha's time. During the Buddha's own lifetime writing was, in India, a fairly recent technological innovation and was used only for practical purposes such as commercial and diplomatic messages. It was still considered improper to use such a vulgar medium for religious texts. So,

Questions Raised

2009-12-17T16:41:00.002-05:00

Yokie, in the comments, asksWhat we want to know (as the verdict is not conclusive) whether those 4 Bhikkhunis are still valid under the theravada tradition and is Bodhiyana monastery still valid under the theravada tradition (as we find that it is"business" as usual for the Dhammasara Bhikkhunis and AB in Bodhiyana as though oblivious of the issue).There is still a lot of obscurity in this area.

Elder's Statement

2009-12-16T20:53:00.001-05:00

While I would like to start blogging on other topics, both serious and light-hearted, I don't think we can leave the Perth Bhikkhuni controversy behind just yet.To bring everyone up to date; the World Abbot's Meeting has concluded and the western elders have issued an official statement. This statement states the position of the sangha leadership in a clear and concise manner. The statement

Enlightenment vs The Enlightenment

2009-12-16T20:36:00.002-05:00

(This post was inspired by a sentence in the statement made by the Insight Meditation teachers of Australia - "This was the original vision of the Buddha 2500 years ago, in far less enlightened times than today." Debatable sentiment that, to say the least. See an old post of mine - The Myth of Progress.)Many of the English words used to translate Dhamma concepts are problematic; unavoidably so as

Restoring Harmnony

2009-12-10T09:20:00.000-05:00

I would like to attempt a reply to the very eloquent and heartfelt note left in the comments by a poster identifying himself as "EH."This situation has unfolded like a Greek tragedy. The protagonist is a very good, upstanding monk, well known and respected internationally especially as a meditation teacher. Acting with the idea, no doubt, that he was doing something right and proper he committed

More on the Bhikkhuni Controversy

2009-12-08T09:24:00.003-05:00

My recent post on the Bhikkhuni controversy (see below) has generated a fair bit of feed-back, in private correspondence as well as in the comments, both here at at the Women's Sangha Facebook page.I would just like to add a couple of points; one correction and one explanation.First, the correction. I had imagined I was fairly well read on Thai history and on the history of Buddhism in general.

Blogging Again

2009-12-04T09:57:00.002-05:00

The Bhikkhuni Controversy

2009-12-04T09:41:00.004-05:00

On Oct. 22nd 2009 at Wat Bodhinyana Monastery in Australia the ordination of four bhikkhunis was performed under the auspices of the abbot, Ajahn Brahmavamso who participated as chanting acariya. This was the first time that women were given the higher ordination in a branch monastery of the Ajahn Chah tradition. The act was done unilaterally by Ajahn Brahmavamso without the approval of the

Life of the Buddha

2009-05-21T21:18:00.002-04:00

An excellent BBC production on the Life of the Buddha. Very well done.Here is the YouTube page where you can watch the remaining segments;Life of the Buddha.Quite a fine piece of work; the presentation of the Buddha's teachings is sympathetic and accurate, the look and feel of the dramatic scenes are believable.Any points of criticism I could make border on hair-splitting. For instance, I don't

Sri Lanka: What Next?

2009-05-20T20:33:00.000-04:00

In Sri Lanka, the Tamil Tigers have been decisively defeated, and their leader, Prabhakaran, is almost certainly dead. Modern warfare is a cruel and ugly business and the cost in civilian death and suffering is always huge, and this conflict was no exception. And like in all modern wars, crimes were committed by both sides.As a pacifist I cannot but deplore the method, and make no excuses for any

My Way or the Highway

2009-03-21T20:11:00.001-04:00

I've been thinking more about a statement I made in a recent post; that in the long history of Buddhist sectarianism there were very few splits on issues related to meditation practice. In fact, the only example I could think of was the Zen split between Soto and Rinzai. In the comments to that post Honsing said;Hence although there is no dispute over meditation, I believe for many, we quietly do

Everything You Wanted to Know About Sects

2009-03-04T20:37:00.000-05:00

Every year at Arrow River we run a book study programme. This year the group wanted something to help them sort out the different Buddhist schools and so I suggested Peter Harvey's "Introduction to Buddhism" which takes a generally historical approach and attempts to cover the gamut of all branches of Buddhism. This book is widely used in colleges for the Buddhism 101 course.This has led me to

Some Random Obama Silliness

2009-01-21T21:06:00.005-05:00

You may have heard the song, but the cartoon video is great. There's No One as Irish as Bareach O'bama.On the pessimistic side, there's a pretty persistent meme out there comparing Obama to Mikhail Gorbachev. Moribund economy, social system on it's life-support, even war in Afghanistan and then the high hopes raised by a brash young reformer.Cartoonist Ted Rall took this tack as early as last

Gaza Continued

2009-01-13T19:10:00.002-05:00

How do we hold in our hearts and minds the reality that is Gaza, the terrible crimes of Operation Cast Lead? If we aspire to follow the teachings of the Buddha the starting point, and ending point, must be the maxim, "Hatred is not overcome by hatred. Hatred is only overcome by love, that is a law eternal, spoken by all the Buddhas" (Dhammapada)It does not help anyone to view the indisputable war

Heartless in Gaza

2009-01-07T21:02:00.004-05:00

I heard an interview on CBC this morning with a Canadian who is serving as a civilian helper for the Israeli army. I felt a great sadness hearing him say that he was happy about the "operation" in Gaza, calling it "payback" and being "glad to see the other side getting some too."Where to start about the sick morality of war? The first thing that comes to mind listening to people like that is the

Global Depression, is there a bright side?

2008-12-11T20:24:00.003-05:00

(Short answer - maybe)A recession is defined as two subsequent quarters of negative growth, and a depression as a recession where the drop in GDP exceeds ten percent. These working definitions, rough as they are, are worth bearing in mind in the months to come. Our political and media elites will try very hard not to use the d-word at all. Canada's Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, already is

The Rights of Nature

2008-11-20T20:08:00.003-05:00

Ecuador has just adopted a new constitution with some very radical new ideas. One in particular represents a totally new way of relating on the legal plane to the natural environment. The new Ecuadorean constitution recognizes that natural eco-systems have an inherent right to exist.The text states;"Natural communities and ecosystems possess the unalienable right to exist, flourish and evolve

Your Brain on Blogs

2008-11-20T19:57:00.003-05:00

A kind of cool time-waster at http://www.typealyzer.com/ lets you analyze the personality of a blog writer by submitting the url. Part of the results is presented as an image showing which parts of the brain are dominant for the writer. Here's mine;The same site has two more similar features;Gender Analyzer uses software to guess the gender of a blog writer (I apparently have an 81% likelihood of

Chandrayana

2008-11-16T20:21:00.002-05:00

India has successfully hit the moon with an impact probe, called Chandrayana - Sanskrit for "Moon Vehicle." The space race appears to be on again. Beside the old players, Russia and the USA, the new players are China, Japan, India, the European Union and even South Korea. Japan says its goal is a manned base on the moon by 2030, and 2031 is currently set as the US target for a manned Mars mission

Yes They Did!

2008-11-05T19:36:00.003-05:00

Damn, it feels good. Who can remember an election result which unleashed such a surge of joy? Looking at the video clips of ordinary Americans, in cities across that fair land, cheering and laughing and dancing in the streets is enough to melt the heart of the crustiest old cynic. The slogan on everyone's lips, "Yes We Can!" is quintessential Yankee can-do optimism at its very best. And it's

Firewood Time

2008-11-02T19:34:00.002-05:00

We're currently getting in our firewood for the winter. Yes, I know, we left it late this year. We always buy ten cords of logs, and this year because of various economic factors in the local forestry sector, a supplier proved difficult to find.The logs have to be cut to stove-length with a chain-saw, split, trucked to the various buildings and then neatly stacked in the sheds. It's big job, but

We're back

2008-10-23T20:28:00.003-04:00

The long hiatus from blogging was due to more than my usual procrastination. I have been computer-less for the last two months after an unfortunate incident involving a cup of coffee and an inexcusable lapse of mindfulness. Sorry about that.

Brother can you spare $700 billion?

2008-10-23T20:21:00.002-04:00

The financial markets reflect the cumulative result of millions of individual decisions. Regarding decisions, The Buddha said that they should never be made on the basis of greed, anger, fear or delusion. It is obvious how greed and fear have poisoned the well, but I would like to focus on something a little deeper, how delusion has worked in creating the present financial collapse.Specifically,

Faint Glimmers

2008-06-13T20:18:00.003-04:00

The world scene looks pretty grim. Let's face it, this millenium hasn't exactly got off to a good start. We were supposed to get monoliths on Jupiter, not planes crashing into skyscrapers. Wars, rumours of more wars, creeping police-state fascism ("war against terra"), not to mention failing ecologies and crashed economies. And the political leadership, and even the opposition, in most countries

Where have I heard this stuff before?

2008-06-13T19:50:00.002-04:00

A new theory is challenging the Big Bang cosmology. It is called Null Physics. (Terrence Witt)From a Wikibin page about Null Physics;In short, existence is composed of nonexistence. Our universe is the internal substructure of nothingness. In Null Physics this premise is called the Null Axiom.And6. Eternal equilibrium. The universe has existed forever, so any cosmic process that produces

World-View and World-Saving

2008-06-06T19:57:00.003-04:00

My last post on the inter-monastic environmental conference has already sparked some thoughtful comments. Thanks to those who have posted.A theme in all the comments is that what I am suggesting is a tall order.I also suggest that it may be too difficult to require thinking of the Earth as sacred. Not many people are capable of thinking in this way. Hence again I suggest to look for intermediate

Monaticism and the Environment

2008-06-05T15:57:00.003-04:00

I recently attended the third Buddhist-Catholic monastic inter-faith conference at Gethsemani Abbey in Kentucky, famous as the home of Thomas Merton. There were forty participants, monks and nuns, Catholic and Buddhist from various orders and schools. The theme of the conference was Monasticism and the Environment. A timely topic, to say the least.The talks and informal conversations were very

Free WIll

2008-04-17T08:46:00.000-04:00

There was a report in the news that some neuro-scientists had determined from brain-scans that our brain actually make a decision before our conscious mind is aware of it. The scientist being interviewed seemed to believe that this finding invalidated the concept of free-will. This reminded me of a question I often get asked; does Buddhism believe in free-will?Turning to the scientific finding

Strange Doings in Lhasa

2008-04-08T08:39:00.002-04:00

This picture has been making the round. Something fishy is going on here. Of course, agentes provocateurs are a time honoured dirty cop trick.

Mind is the Forerunner

2008-04-05T11:30:00.000-04:00

Every Sunday, we have a sutta study class that I lead. The other week we did the Agganna Sutta, the Sutta on "origins," and once again I was struck by this powerful mythic vision.In this Buddhist version of Genesis, the earth in primordial times was dark and watery; an unformed primeval chaos. The first beings to appear by the force of their karma from previous world-systems were god-like

Tibet

2008-03-22T11:09:00.002-04:00

For a long time Tibetan civilization has had a powerful grip on the Western imagination. Alternately, it has been romanticized as a spiritual paradise, a Shangri-La or vilified as a last redoubt of superstitious obscurantism and feudalism. The truth, as usual, probably lies somewhere between the two extremes. While there is no denying that some of the social aspects of Old Tibet left somewhat to

Deepak Chopra's Buddha

2008-03-11T08:43:00.002-04:00

The recent bestseller "Buddha" by Deepak Chopra follows a long literary tradition of fictionalized accounts of the Buddha's life story which really go back at least to the Buddhacarita of Ashvaghosa. In modern times, the genre starts with Matthew Arnold's "Light of Asia" and continued through Hermann Hessa (Siddhartha) and Thich Nat Hanh (Old Path, White Clouds). No doubt there have been many

Compassionate Homicide?

2008-03-04T14:05:00.002-05:00

Recently the Robert Latimer case has gotten back in the news. Canadian readers will be well aware of the basic fact, but for others here is the bare-bones; On 24th Oct. of 1993 Saskatchewan farmer Robert Latimer killed his severely handicapped daughter Tracy, 12, by carbon-monoxide, running the exhaust of his truck into the cab. Tracy had cerebral palsy, was mentally retarded and paralyzed. She

Monbiot's Heat

2008-02-21T09:16:00.001-05:00

I haven't blogged for a couple of months, I've been staying mostly away from the internet for the winter. I may start putting up the odd thing now and again.Previously I've written about the climate crisis and expressed something close to hopelessness. I've just read something that gives me at least some small hope. This is George Monbiot's "Heat." If you want a very accessible over-view of the

Rahu strikes again!

2008-02-21T09:14:00.000-05:00

Last night there was a full eclipse of the moon. A very eerie sight; as the shadow of the Earth moves across the face of the moon it doesn't disappear, but turns a dull melancholy red. One can well understand how this sight must have been regarded as a bad omen before the astronomy was understood.In Thailand, the traditional belief, derived like much of Thai culture originally from India, was

What Is Wrong With Us?

2007-11-23T16:25:00.000-05:00

The tragic incident at Vancouver International airport, caught on video, highlights so much of how our society has gone wrong.Readers outside of Canada may not be aware of this situation, so here is a brief recap of the facts. Mr.Dziekanski, a Polish citizen in the process of immigrating to Canada, was killed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Mr. Dziekanski had never flown internationally

Is Buddhism Too Conservative?

2007-11-09T19:36:00.000-05:00

Two people separately sent me a link to this Mark Morford column; Does your religion dance?In it, Mr. Morford deplores the tendency of religions to become ossified, and he sees signs of this even in Buddhism (he is a Buddhist, by the way)The idea is everywhere, and not just in the obvious, sour religious outhouses of evangelical Christianity and fundamentalist Islam and rigid Catholicism. It even

Remember, Remember the Fifth of November

2007-11-04T20:08:00.000-05:00

The Brits have an odd sense of fun. Someone tried to blow up Parliament four hundred years ago and it's still an occasion for merriment, bonfires and old-fashioned vandalism. And oh yes, religious bigotry; Remember, remember, the 5th of November The Gunpowder Treason and plot ; I know of no reason why Gunpowder Treason Should ever be forgot. Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, '

Does Capitalism Have No Shame?

2007-10-25T20:12:00.001-04:00

Apparently not. Check out this column by SF Gate's Mark Morford, "Lets Get Drunk and Meditate." By the way, if you haven't discovered Morford's quirky writing yet, you are in for a treat.

"No, no, no!"

2007-10-18T19:59:00.000-04:00

"...compassion for all beings most certainly includes evil-doers!"

Any Hope for Burma?

2007-10-18T19:13:00.000-04:00

The mass protests in Burma, supported and led by the sangha, failed to topple the military regime. But for a brief moment they turned the attention of the world to the plight of that unhappy country. Given it's abundance of natural resources, Burma should be another Asian tiger, instead of an economic basket-case, near the bottom of all the UN rankings.Burma is a beautiful country, and it has a

Whatever Happened to....

2007-09-26T20:55:00.000-04:00

Calvin and Hobbes?

Saffron Revolution

2007-09-26T20:14:00.001-04:00

Everyone reading this is probably aware of the events in Burma. There is a massive uprising against the military junta. The sangha is playing a prominent, and even a leading role, in the massive, mostly peaceful protests.Some of you may wonder how proper it is for bhikkhus to be engaged in political actions of this kind. When making your judgment, here are some things to bear in mind;- The

Freedom

2007-09-05T21:27:00.000-04:00

What is freedom? The common view in the world is probably something like "the lack of restraint in doing what you want." Buddhism takes a higher view and sees the best freedom as the freedom from wants. The goal of the path is often referred to as vimutti, commonly translated as liberation and literally meaning "the breaking of chains." The arahant is one who is perfectly free, and the "master of

How Old is the Suttapitaka?

2007-09-05T20:32:00.000-04:00

A very interesting article making a scholarly case for the antiquity of the canon; How Old is the Suttapitaka by Alexander Wynn. He makes the argument that the Pali Canon was closed to new material at a very early date. One of his key arguments is that stories and doctrines that are found in other recensions are relegated to the Pali commentaries. This would indicate that the Theravadin sangha in

Truth, a Rare Commodity

2007-08-29T20:31:00.000-04:00

Truth is one of the ten paramitas (perfections) and the Buddha often stressed the importance of adherence to the truth. There are many stories in the commentaries about the power of a "truthful asservation." Telling a lie is really a grievous moral breach in the Buddhist world-view because it is a means of directly implanting delusion in another being's mind-stream, and delusion or ignorance can

Bhikkhu Bodhi Challenges Buddhists

2007-08-23T19:11:00.000-04:00

Buddhadhamma Quarterly is possibly the finest Buddhist magazine available, always presenting thoughtful in-depth articles by leading teachers and scholars. In the current issue, Fall 2007, there is a thought provoking essay by Bhikkhu Bodhi (best known as translator of large chunks of the Sutta Pitaka.) You can read a long excerpt on the Buddhadhamma website; A Challenge to Buddhists. The gist of

War is Madness

2007-08-17T20:15:00.000-04:00

The Buddha condemned war and described it as motivated "by sensual desire, just by sensual desire." In the suttas, war is pictured as "men strapping on shield and armour and hacking one another with swords, causing death and painful wounds." Ancient warfare was horrible enough, and more horrible in reality than epic movies would lead one to believe. Most wounds in battle were in the lower body,

Onward Christian Soldiers

2007-08-13T20:43:00.000-04:00

I've defined "spirituality" as the quest for the noumenous and/or the trascendental, and "religion" as the institutionalized or organized expression of spirituality. Some people may find that oxymoronic, like trying to "catch a snark with a railway share," (Hunting of the Snark) but it's a definition I can work with.There are some abuses of religion that divorce it from spirituality altogether.

Generational Myths

2007-07-31T21:44:00.000-04:00

Found this interesting observation at Duck of Minerva;For members of generation X like myself, Star Wars is one of the constitutive myths of our childhoods. The Force, lightsaber duels, the Millennium Falcon, "I am your father," "he's my brother," "I've got a bad feeling about this," and so on . . . this is what we grew up with....For members of the next generation, the "millennial" generation,

Facing Facts

2007-07-27T09:37:00.000-04:00

A few more thoughts about the climate crisis;First, the situation is beyond serious. Check out this article in the New Scientist for some hard science about polar melting.In the article James Hansen (head of NASA's Goddard Institute) extrapolates our current situation based on geological history;There is strong evidence that the Earth now is within 1 °C of its highest temperature in the past

Saving the Earth with Rock and Roll

2007-07-08T20:29:00.000-04:00

Well yesterday was 7/7/07 and the big Live Earth Concert which has saved us all just in the nick of time. By the middle of Madonna's second number, the Greenland Ice Sheet had started to refreeze and what with Al Gore's enormous investment in carbon offsets, we should all be laying in extra firewood for the cold winters ahead. Polar bears are celebrating.Sarcasm aside, this whole event is quite

We Have Returned

2007-07-08T19:57:00.000-04:00

No postings this last three weeks because I've been travelling, with Samenera Paramito, on a teaching trip to Peterborough and Ottawa. We also took the opportunity to visit Tisarana Monastery for a few days, that is the new establishment near Ottawa of which Ajahn Viradhammo is abbot. Very heartening to see how well it is getting off the ground.

Commenting on Comments

2007-07-08T19:36:00.000-04:00

From the comments to my post on Rebirth, Apichato Bhikkhu says;The three lifetime idea, along with the ‘relative truth’ of rebirth, is Brahmanism, eternalism. Buddhagosa was originally a Brahman, and along with the eternalist view of Paticcasamuppada he also ‘endorsed’ other Vedic practices as part of Buddhism, e.g. meditative practices that are totally irrelevant to the cessation of suffering,

Three Lifetimes or One Moment?

2007-06-17T19:46:00.000-04:00

Picking up on a theme in several of the comments, I'd like to jump into the very hot water of the perennial debate about dependent origination. I like to say that when I was in Thailand, I saw only two topics that would be sure to generate heated debate among the monks; the correct interpretation of the dependent origination and the allowability of cheese in the afternoon.(Not wanting to get lost

The Importance of Rebirth

2007-06-11T20:58:00.000-04:00

Barry writes;could you post on 'rebirth' re your comments agreeing with 'onemind' at 'thebuddhawaswrong.com' I would be interested to read more of your view on this matter since you place a particular emphasis on it and it is a seeming point of agreement between you and the owner of the anti-Buddhist website.To recap; OneMind had said that without rebirth, the whole structure of Buddhist teaching

Loose Ends

2007-06-11T20:43:00.000-04:00

OK, I've got the log-in problem solved. Blogger now wants me to use my email address as my user name instead of my user name. I don't remember when they changed that; certainly seems counter-intuitive and the error messages they give when you do it wrong are particularly useless even by the low standards of computer error messages. Grumble, gripe.Now, onto a philosophic issue. A couple of

Housekeeping

2007-06-10T20:28:00.000-04:00

I'm still having trouble logging in here; I need to "recover my password" every single time. Something is screwed up and I don't know what. I got some advice in an email from one of the readers here, a reference to a web-site that talks about Blogspot's software is incorrectly flagging some blogs as spam. I don't think that's the problem. Anyway, I'm working on it.BTW, I hadn't heard of spam

What's up with Google?

2007-06-07T20:59:00.001-04:00

Last couple of times I tried to log in to this blog to post, I had to go through the password verification rigamorale; anyone else have this problem lately?

Back to You

2007-06-05T20:04:00.000-04:00

Regarding my posted critique of "The Buddha Was Wrong"; the site author (a chap known by the handle OneMind) has posted his reply over on his forum (a copy can be found in the comments here also.) I've posted a riposte to that reply on his forum. You can follow the dueling dialectic here; FreeSpeech Forum.

Actually, he was spot on

2007-06-04T19:58:00.000-04:00

A friend sent me an email suggesting I have a look at a website whose author has apparently been making a lot of noise over at the e-Sangha discussion board. The site has the deliberately cheeky name "The Buddha Was Wrong." There's nothing really new here, it's the same tired old retreads of the materialist/skeptic position.Take his article on Rebirth as an example; he states that "there are

Evolution of Consciousness?

2007-05-25T20:51:00.000-04:00

Many, if not most, people nowadays are pretty sensitive to the various kinds of chauvinism; national, gender, religion, age and so forth. One pretty big one that goes unremarked is what might be called historical chauvinism or prejudice against the past. This goes hand in hand with what I've called The Myth of Progress, the casual assumption that things are continually getting better, and we're

Signs of Spring

2007-05-23T20:56:00.000-04:00

Footnote to "Mind and Body"

2007-05-23T20:48:00.000-04:00

Anonymous posted this on the "Mind and Body" thread;check out the work of the late professor Dr. John Lorber on the student without a brain who went on to graduate with an honours B.A in Maths at the university of Cambridge.Most of current knowledge is simply the 'party line' cross it at your peril.You can read about this case here: Is Your Brain Really Necessary?An excerpt;This case is by no

Mind and Body

2007-05-16T19:48:00.000-04:00

From the comments, Doug Rogers said;Mind is what the Universe does. All the causes and conditions come together to birth consciousness. In my understanding then, Consciousness is just a consequence of having a form to contain it. This is rather like Pinker's radio, tuned to a frequency and capable of receiving, like Brain/Body --> Mind. Really there isn't a difference between Brain/Body/Mind.

Don't we ever learn?

2007-05-13T19:41:00.000-04:00

After mad cow and chicken fever, you'd think people would be thinking twice about the wisdom of our industrial agricultural methods. But you'd be wrong.The latest crisis is the massive die-off of honey-bees. This is becoming a serious threat to our food supplies, which depend on the bees for pollinations.A number of possible factors are being considered; cell-phone radiation, GM crops, new

Just Plain Silly

2007-05-13T19:20:00.000-04:00

He told them not to go to warp nine. When you get old.Blue screen of death, no one hears your scream.World's most perfect map ever.Green Lama saves America (don't ask me)

Coming Soon

2007-05-08T10:08:00.000-04:00

Hello all, I've been away from the monastery on a teaching trip and have had spotty access to internet. That is my excuse for neglecting the blog; I should be back by the weekend and will try to get something new up then. Thanks for your patience. In the meantime, we continue to get some interesting comments from readers to check out.

Desire Continued

2007-04-22T15:27:00.000-04:00

Barry wrote (in the comments)What is wrong with enjoying one's food or a householder enjoying their marriage bed or any of the many beautiful and wonderful things in this human life? Surely they all belong? This is exactly what I mean by wanting to have your cake and eat it too. Phrasing the rhetorical question in terms of right and wrong is misleading. Of course, there is nothing "wrong" with

Desire (Reposted Tale of Two Similes)

2007-04-21T18:56:00.000-04:00

Some good discussion about the nature of desire in the comments section.Let's remember that the Buddha was very clear in his formulation; the second noble truth says that the cause of suffering is desire (dukkha, tanha). I detect a little bit of wanting to have your cake and eat it too in attempts to shift the problem away from desire to attachment or something else.Here is an old post from

Right Speech and the Internet

2007-04-17T20:04:00.000-04:00

Good news, since I reluctantly activated moderated comments, I've only had to delete one post. Bad news, that was a piece of spam for some financial scam, so the spam bots are finding their way past Blogspot's letter-code entry system.---------------------------It was unfortunate, but all too common, the way the comments threads had started as an intelligent discussion and degenerated into a

Time to Play Nicely Children

2007-04-15T19:34:00.000-04:00

The comments coming into this blog have descended to a level where a reader has to wade through screenfuls of nasty insults and vague threats to find the few gems where someone has actually said something meaningful and sensible.Barry has suggested that I do something about it. I've gone a step further than his idea of disallowing anonymous posting; I've enabled "comment moderation" so that I

Just for the Hell of it

2007-04-10T20:20:00.000-04:00

I can't help rather liking Pope Benedict. The man is a bit of an anachronism, but as I've said before, in times like these, anachronism is virtue. He has raised some more controversy by stating that hell is real, causing all kinds of consternation among the modernists, who apparently take objection to the Pope stating Catholic doctrine.It's fashionable these days in some quarters both Christian

In Defence of America

2007-04-08T21:00:00.000-04:00

There's been some very heated discussion in the comments section. While it's good to see that the blog is generating some interest and controversy, it's time for everyone to take a deep and mindful breath. Some of the posts have crossed the line into wrong speech. I'm thinking particularly of Rod's nasty characterization of Americans.While it's always wrong to slander a whole nationality, it's

Dangerous Games

2007-04-03T20:29:00.000-04:00

It's kind of amazing to me that high-stakes international politics sometimes looks like a school-yard squabble. Nobody wants to admit they made a mistake and say they're sorry.In the current stand-off over the British sailors held in Tehran, both sides say the capture was made on their side of the international boundary. And both sides are flat out lying. The simple truth is that there is no

Did the Buddha have a sense of humour?

2007-04-02T20:31:00.000-04:00

"A madman and an arahant both smile, but the arahant knows why while the madman doesn't."Ajahn ChahThere was a long standing taboo in Thailand against monks being photographed smiling. Ajahn Chah was the first prominent bhikkhu who allowed his image to be recorded while looking cheerful. Certainly many of his teaching stories have a playful or humourous flavour. The same could be said of many

Historicity of the Suttas

2007-03-22T21:24:00.000-04:00

I'm surprised that my posts about the sutta pitaka stirred up such a hornet's nest! I naively thought that the value of reading the scriptures wouldn't need defending.I admit to not being fully conversant with all the modern scholarship; my comment about the consistency of the texts across various cultural lines is based on Warder's "Indian Buddhism" and a few other older books. As far as I can

History is Bunk

2007-03-22T19:57:00.000-04:00

My university training was in history, and one valuable thing I got out of four years of study was a life-long skepticism about historical writing, including the off-the-cuff contemporary history known as journalism.History is a selective retelling of events based on very imprecise and incomplete sources. Quite a shocking amount is sheer guess-work. Historians quote each other and thereby

Sutta and Abhidhamma

2007-03-17T17:33:00.000-04:00

Some discussion has opened up in the comments regarding my post about reading the suttas. It occurred to me that I haven't made the most imortant and salient point; the reason to read the suttas is to hear the most undiluted Dhamma directly from the most qualified source.Who was the Buddha anyway? If you take a traditional view, as I do, he wasn't just some really smart guy. On the other hand, he

Reading Suttas

2007-03-12T20:33:00.000-04:00

I've been leading a book study once a week on the Sutta Nipata. This is a challenging and fascinating exercise. So I'll share a few general thoughts about reading suttas and post links to some helpful resources.Why read the suttas? There are hundreds of Buddhist books out there; good, bad and middling. Many western Buddhists have read dozens of them without cracking the scriptures. This is a

Long Time No Blog

2007-03-12T20:22:00.000-04:00

I just checked the blog and discovered to my embarassment that it's been almost a month since I've written anything here. And I've been deluged by requests to get back to it. (Okay, one guy asked)Anyway, my only excuse other than sloth-and-torpor is that I've been pretty busy with other projects this last while. I'm leading a sutta study seminar on the Sutta Nipata and the preparation work is

Mysteries of Consciousness

2007-02-14T21:12:00.000-05:00

There's a very interesting article posted on the Time web-site, Mystery of Consciousness by Steven Pinker. (Author of the very good book; The Language Instinct. )This article presents a light over-view of current thinking in neurology and consciousness research. Pinker states early on the nature of the so-called "hard problem," explaining consciousness in terms of brain function;The Hard Problem

Gravitic Anomaly at Arrow River

2007-02-12T20:20:00.000-05:00

Ladder stands up unsupported; scientists baffled.

Just a Few Cool Links

2007-02-11T19:51:00.000-05:00

This is pretty good tool for contemplation of impermanence; time-lapse video of a decomposing piglet.This one illustrates something very important about perception. It's really worth a look. Follow the instructions on the introduction page.This one was going viral before CBS pulled it off YouTube (coincidence? I think not.) But good viral videos never die and this page is still up (for now.)

Tech Alert: Vista and other Malware

2007-02-02T20:09:00.000-05:00

For those interested in such things;Some alarming reports have been surfacing about the degree of remote snooping and control Microsoft has built into the new Windows Vista operating system. It is top heavy with "Security" features (I'm learning to really distrust that word in general) which don't protect your computer or your files but protect copy-right holders of

Buddhism and God

2007-02-02T19:45:00.000-05:00

There were some great comments discussing my post on Buddhism and the charge of negativity. In the post, I said I might later say something about Buddhism and the idea of God. Here goes a first attempt.People who don't know much about Buddhism are often surprised to learn that Buddhism is a religion without a God. Sometimes you hear that Buddhism is actually agnostic on the question and that the

Alas, Impermanent are all Compounded Things

2007-02-02T19:44:00.000-05:00

Time-lapse video of a decomposing piglet; great contemplation of impermanence.

Nothing to Fear but Fear itself

2007-02-02T19:27:00.000-05:00

At first it seemed kind of funny, a major city, one of the most liberal and best educated in America thrown into hysterics and shut down for a day because of blinking light cartoon characters.As the Red State Son blog put it;Boston's Lite-Brite freakout is an interesting case of urban psychosis and societal paranoia. I mean, what terrorist cell would go to the trouble of constructing bombs that

Carbon Offsets

2007-01-22T19:53:00.000-05:00

Here in Canada we are probably going to have a spring election and the number one issue may very well be the environment. This has a lot to do with the bizarre weather we've been having across the country. (Still no snow to speak of here in North-West Ontario) Finally people are starting to notice. But all we are hearing so far is various tinkerings and feel-good measures. Nobody wants to face up

Is Buddhism Negative?

2007-01-19T19:59:00.000-05:00

I've just had a look at a couple of pages that critique Buddhism from a Catholic perspective.Why Buddhism Gets up the Pope's Nose (serious article with a funny name)and Catholic Encyclopedia article on Buddhism (surprisingly rude, really)The major criticism seems to be on two points; Buddhism lacks a concept of God and Buddhism is essentially negative about the world, the body etc. The former

Will they Greet them with Flowers This Time?

2007-01-10T17:24:00.000-05:00

So President Bush will be speaking to his nation tonight, ignoring his own Baker Commission, the American Congress, the American Public, the whole damned world not to mention common sense let alone decency and ordering a "surge" of troops into Iraq. Let's just hope the Democrats have enough courage and integrity to fight this madness.And don't forget that Iran is still in the neo-con cross-hairs

Some More on Climate Change

2007-01-10T17:01:00.000-05:00

Some relevant information gleaned from the web;You may have heard news reports about a funny gas smell in New York. The Wayne Madsen Report thinks it's oceanic methane;According to U.S. maritime industry sources, tanker captains are reporting an increase in onboard alarms from hazard sensors designed to detect hydrocarbon gas leaks and, specifically, methane leaks. However, the

Buddhist look at Climate Change

2007-01-08T19:33:00.000-05:00

The weather is really freaky this winter. Locally, we've been ten or fifteen degrees Celsius above seasonal norms. We've had rain in Dec. and Jan. which I've never seen before. Massive ice-sheets are breaking up in the high arctic. People across the country are starting to notice, and suddenly climate change is the number one hot political issue, causing even the Alberta oil-men of the

New Look

2007-01-08T19:08:00.000-05:00

As you may have noticed, I've changed the blog template. I've gotten one negative comment. What do the rest of you think? What do you think of the new blog style?It's an example of how elegant web-design should be doneIt's okay I guessIt's rather irritatingIt's an abomination, ugliest thing I've ever seenI liked the old one better, please go backNeither

Check Your Sources

2007-01-04T18:33:00.000-05:00

I've received some email asking about a passage where the Buddha apparently advocates a "Just War" doctrine. The passage in question;The Tathagata having given his consent, Simha continued: "I am a soldier, O Blessed One, and am appointed by the king to enforce his laws and to wage his wars. Does the Tathagata who teaches kindness without end and compassion with all sufferers, permit the

Predictions for 2007

2007-01-01T19:36:00.000-05:00

Absolute Take-it-to-the-Bank Certain1. Beings will continue to be born, age, suffer, sicken and die. In brief, samsara will still suck.2. Most humans will still be motivated by greed, hatred and delusion.3. Nevertheless, there will be, here and there, moments of wisdom and acts of kindness to lighten the load.4. Everyone of us who survives the year will be one year closer to death.Pretty Safe

Bagdhad Burning

2006-12-29T21:05:00.000-05:00

If you don't know about her already, Riverbend is an Iraqi women who has been running a very informative and lively blog ever since the American invasion.From a recent post;You know your country is in trouble when: The UN has to open a special branch just to keep track of the chaos and bloodshed, UNAMI. Abovementioned branch cannot be run from your country. The politicians who worked to put your