Young Buddhist leader waits in the wings | World | Chron.com – Houston Chronicle
SIDHBARI, INDIA — Give the magnetic personality and hunky good looks of a rock star to a Tibetan Buddhist monk, and the result might be Gyalwang Karmapa, the third-highest lama in the Tibetan religious firmament.The Karmapa, as he is known, is getting more than his share of attention these days. …
An influential master shares his thoughts about Buddhism
Thinking about intellectual matters can help us analyze issues, but it does not allow us to attain direct realization and thus cannot give rise to wisdom. Doing scholarship and engaging in diligent Chan practice should be understood as two separate things. To do scholarship is to investigate questions in books by researching and intellectual thinking. To use (meditation) is not to use the mind, but to shatter all wandering thoughts so that we can experience enlightenment. If it is just for oneself, doing scholarship is not important. To spread and explain method of Chan practice to people, scholarship is still necessary.
~Master Sheng Yen
Create a New Holiday Tradition for Your Family: A Thanksgiving Tree – Holiday Family Projects
Looking for a simple but meaningful way to celebrate the holidays? Why not make a Family Thanksgiving Tree?
One indication of moral progress in the United States would be the replacement of Thanksgiving Day and its self-indulgent family feasting with a National Day of Atonement accompanied by a self-reflective collective fasting.
Robert Jensen re-flogs a dead horse. It was a terrible thing, but it’s over. Resentment is the poison we drink before waiting miserably for the other person to die.
How Sarah Palin Created a Whole New Generation of Vegetarians
Posing for photographers with her felled caribou, her child inches from its bleeding mouth, Sarah Life-Is-Precious Palin is not confused about where meat comes from. So the turkey being slaughtered in full view of the camera as she conducted an interview at Triple D Farms in Wasilla this week probably doesn’t faze her.But most Americans don’t want to see the transformations their turkey went through to get to their Thanksgiving dinner table.
How it lived, how it was shipped, who hung the struggling bird upside down on the conveyer to transport it to the awaiting blade, etc. — are not thoughts that improve the taste of the cranberry sauce. …
Seminar eulogizes king-monk who unified Vietnam Zen Buddhism
Tran Nhan Tong (1258-1308), the third emperor of the Tran dynasty, ascended to the throne when he was just 21. He achieved lasting fame for defeating Mongol invaders.He abdicated his throne when just 35 and spent the rest of his life practicing and propagating Buddhism, in the process founding the Truc Lam School of Zen (the Bamboo Forest School).
Vatican goes green with solar power
(ANSA) – Vatican City, November 26 – Benedict XVI reconfirmed his reputation as the ‘green pope’ on Wednesday when the Vatican inaugurated its first solar power energy system.Some 2,400 solar panels have been installed on the roof of the Paul VI auditorium, which is used for papal audiences in the winter and during bad weather the rest of the year.
The official Vatican newspaper, Osservatore Romano, said the panels will generate around 300 megawatt hours of ‘clean’ energy each year which will go towards providing lighting, heat and air conditioning for the auditorium and several surrounding buildings.
The system will also cut down on the Vatican’s annual carbon dioxide emissions by 225,000 kg and save the equivalent of 80 tonnes of oil, the newspaper said.
Great! Now let’s see them get going on that pesky overpopulation problem.
Thich Nhat Hanh’s “Relationships For Dummies”
A Buddhist teacher friend of mine calls his brand Buddhism Lite, and I agreed when I first saw Thich Nhat Hanh address a packed auditorium at Berkeley High School in California in 1988. His simple message and his demure persona convinced me that this guy was never going to catch on in the West.
LGBT People Have Much To Be Grateful for This Thanksgiving | AlterNet
Thanksgiving is a time to focus on the year’s blessings. And those of us who are gay or gay-friendly have plenty to savor….
Surprise: Cops Who Get Tasered Really Don’t Like It | Rights and Liberties | AlterNet
Taser warns that the device can cause burns. Moreover, the company acknowledges these burns can become infected. It warns that people who are shocked by Tasers can suffer bone fractures, hernias, ruptures and dislocations. Today, Taser suggests students be Tasered while lying facedown on the floor, eliminating falling hazards and stray Taser probes to the eye.And yet, police use these things indiscriminately.
And nobody seems to think there’s anything wrong with the police inflicting horrible pain on people on the thinnest of pretexts. As long as there’s no permanent damage, there’s no harm in it. Heck, even if there is permanent damage, it’s the victim’s fault for failing to be properly cooperative — or agreeing to do it as part of their job.
You can see why waterboarding is now considered perfectly acceptable. The authorities only use it when they believe they need to (and ok, sometimes just because they’re in a bad mood) and it doesn’t leave any permanent damage either. No harm no foul. What’s the problem?
Can robots make ethical decisions in battle? – International Herald Tribune
ATLANTA: In the heat of battle, their minds clouded by fear, anger or vengefulness, even the best-trained soldiers can act in ways that violate the Geneva Conventions or battlefield rules of engagement. Now some researchers suggest that robots could do better.
LONDON: Archaeologists have claimed that a 1,000-year-old miniature pagoda, unearthed in Nanjing, China, holds a piece of skull belonging to Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism.According to a report in the Telegraph, the pagoda was wedged tightly inside an iron case that was discovered at the site of a former temple in the city in August this year.
