Many people look to Siddhartha Gautama as an example of someone who attained nirvana, a buddha. Every other week in this column we look at what it might be like if Siddhartha were on his spiritual journey today. How would he combine Buddhism and...
Western Buddhists, of course, aren't the only ones working with 21st-century Buddhism; Asian Buddhists and artists are too, albeit in an very different context. Buddhist imagery and practice have a much larger and more historically dominant...
This podcast features a lecture and discussion at IDP Austin with Ethan Nichtern and Dr. Michael Uebel in which they discuss self-aggression and self-loathing as it relates to Buddhist practice and philosophy.
I'm addicted to books about Buddhism; I have somewhere between one and two thousand of them. In my estimation one of the very best is Foundations of Buddhism, by Rupert Gethin.
While you're sitting there carefully considering your options, intellectually debating the relative merits of different ways to make the world a better place, someone a lot less in touch with their insight and compassion is busy actually doing...
"Play is literally an opportunity for re-creation - an opportunity to re-create yourself. When you play with abandon, you enter into the present moment."
This podcast features a lecture by Lara Adler titled the Energetics of Food. Lara Adler is a Holistic Health Coach, specializing in conscious, ethical eating and helping individuals bridge the gap between belief systems and practical day to day...
I'm a Facebook fan of Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche. Admittedly, when I first "liked" him, I did it because 1) my feed was constantly being updated with Buddhist friends I admire "liking" him 2) I love his face. No. Seriously. I...
Take a 2,600-year-old spiritual tradition from Asia and drop it into the blender of postmodern American consumer culture. Add science and multiculturalism to taste, and mix at Internet speed. This is 21st-Century Buddhism -- a weekly blog for the...
I was really lucky to get to go to UFC 121 this past Saturday with my wife and her nephew, and thanks some friendly string-pulling, we had fourth row seats right next to the cage. My wife at one point shouted, "we have better seats than Jon...
When we begin by taking care of the body and paying attention to its workings, we find ourselves focusing the mind, settling the breath, and learning much more about the nature of reality than we’d know by extroverted thinking alone. There...
"There will come a day when a carrot, freshly observed, will spark a revolution."
--Paul Cezanne
Where's that from? A buddhist blog? An arts blog? No: an unexpected ally in the move toward awareness of interdependence in food...
"The only way you can endure your pain is to let it be painful."
"Though it may seem that rationality is stable and emotion is unstable, the reverse is the truth. Deep emotion is much more stable than is rationality."
-...
This week's Podcast features an interview with ID Project Founder Ethan Nichtern and Michael Stone, leader of the Center of Gravity Sangha. This is the second of a two part interview.
I was reading a piece by Thich Nhat Hahn about emptiness, which got me thinking about being filled up, which got me thinking about a gas station just on the Jersey side of the George Washington Bridge. (Occasionally there is...
Looking over the comments analyzing the impact of IDP's new "This Body Will Be A Corpse" T-shirt, the overriding concern of many revolves around its alleged ostentatious presentation that may very well inflict more damage on others...
Over the years, I’ve found it increasingly frustrating that Yoga is continually reduced to “a body practice” and Buddhism “a mind practice.” This makes no sense at all. Anyone who has practiced deeply in both...
IDP Board member and blogger Jon Rubinstein forwarded this fascinating article to me, Morals Without God from the NY Times. It reminds me of the position of Sam Harris, wondering if it is possible to develop human ethics and wholesome...
Knowing that I am a product of my environment as much as I am a steward of it, these reminders are a way for me come back to the present and relate with reality as it is currently unfolding.
This week's Podcast features an interview with ID Project Founder Ethan Nichtern and Michael Stone, leader of the Center of Gravity Sangha. This is the first of a two part interview.
Yesterday, IDP released a new and somewhat controversial T-shirt based upon the Four Reminders of (Meditation) Practice. Emblazoned across the front in bold white lettering, THIS BODY WILL BE A CORPSE’s all capitals message greets any...
