Ban Offshore Drilling

Buddhism has a reputation for being passive, and there are good reasons for this. All that meditation  and mindfulness we do appears passive.  And in the beginning many of us do have to mindfully hold back reactions, and refrain from falling into old active patterns that used to get us into trouble. But there is a time for apparent passiveness, and a time to act, a time to be engaged. Continue reading “Engaged Buddhism Needed” »

I’m reading Stephan Batchelor’s new book Confessions of an Atheist Buddhist, and I must say it resonates deeply with me, not because I’m an atheist, but because I went on a similar curvy path of confusion through Buddhism. Fortunately, I didn’t spend years and years on that twisty road like Batchelor did. I saw through the religious BS of Buddhist traditions over a 6 year span instead of decades. Continue reading “Bringing Buddha’s Ideas Back to Buddhism” »

In my early years, my grandfather would sit in his big green chair and lecture someone until he was in a full-blown tirade over the topic. It was the family joke that once he was in that state, you could get up leave the room, go into the kitchen, make yourself lunch, and return to find him still spewing, without a clue that you’d ever left his presence. He was literally lost and in another world of his own making. Continue reading “Engaged or Lost in Conversation” »

The hype and hysteria are building, especially with the upcoming election. I watch as volleys of arguments surge back and forth, as people become heated and irate, and as viewpoints, ideas, and opinions get lost in this quagmire of mental churning. Unfortunately, that’s all it is. A lot of angst that does nothing for improvement in the long run, and just causes a lot of anxiety in the present. Let it go! Continue reading “Viewpoints, Ideas, Opinions, and more Viewpoints” »