Tag Archives: Buddha

Parallels Between Darwin and Buddha: Evolution and Dependent Origination

Posted on May 28, 2015 by

Buddha’s theory is Darwin’s. I had an aha moment yesterday: Buddha’s theory of suffering and its cessation can function as a trope–a metaphor–for evolution. Buddha’s insight tracks Charles Darwin’s. Buddha was Darwin before Darwin. Put another way, Buddha discovered how … Continue reading →

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Who Is Your Neighbor?

Posted on March 13, 2014 by

Sharing with a stranger–one of the better angels of our nature–is on display in this YouTube: __________ The video is moving, but why is it moving? Why don’t we have similar responses, say, to adult alcoholics who are homeless, cold, … Continue reading →

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A Good Reason For Meditators To Exercise A Lot (And Not Just Sit On Their Asses)

Posted on July 3, 2013 by

Want to be a calm Buddha with a highly attentive and awake “diamond mind?” New research suggests that maybe you should get out from under that Bodhi tree you’re sitting under and put on some running shoes instead, for exercise, … Continue reading →

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The Lowdown on the Religions of Jesus, Buddha, Mohammad, Krishna, Moses, and Paul Kurtz

Posted on May 29, 2013 by

The six great world religions come with messages of good news and bad. Here’s the lowdown: Islam and Christianity. Good news: God and heaven are real and you can go there! Bad news: Get with the program or God will … Continue reading →

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The Tao of Emily, the Calm of Lao Tzu, and Trouble from Blake

Posted on May 14, 2013 by

Below are two couplets of flower power yin-yang from Emily Dickinson’s poem, “Awake ye muses nine, sing me a strain divine,” written in 1850 when she was aged nineteen. Insofar as anybody knows, it’s the first poem she’d ever written … Continue reading →

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What’s the Point of Having a Buddhist Meditation Practice?

Posted on April 30, 2013 by

Is the goal of the Buddhist meditator the same as the scientist (the breaking of spells and the dispelling of ignorance)? Ron Liefer, psychiatrist and Buddhist meditator, in his book The Happiness Project (Snow Lion 1997), writes the following (14): … Continue reading →

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Which Religion is Best? The Admirable Superhero Criterion

Posted on April 28, 2013 by

There are five major world religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. They can be judged by any number of criteria. Which one has the most admirable superhero? There are certainly compelling characters in four of the five: Jesus is awesome … Continue reading →

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Buddha’s Take on Suffering vs. Nietzsche’s

Posted on April 21, 2013 by

If you think about it, we respond to whatever arises into consciousness with desire, aversion, or neutrality. And the things that appear to consciousness are always in flux: they arise, they ripen, they decline from attention and disappear. Then others … Continue reading →

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Camille Paglia on the New Atheism and Contemporary Humanism

Posted on October 10, 2012 by

In an interview posted at Salon today, Camille Paglia lets loose on godless chic, arguing that it has poisoned contemporary film and art: People in the humanities have sunk into this shallow, snobby, liberal style of stereotyping religious believers as … Continue reading →

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Onward American Theocrats, Marching As To War

Posted on March 20, 2012 by

A preacher introduces Rick Santorum at a rally in Louisiana: “We don’t worship Buddha; we don’t worship Muhammad; we don’t worship Allah. We worship God; we worship God’s son, Jesus Christ!” Red meat.

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Should Atheists Insert Themselves into Religious Discussions and Theological Disputes?

Posted on January 15, 2012 by

The reason atheists can (and should) enter into religious discussions and theological disputes, judging religions, is because Jesus, Muhammad, Moses, Krishna, and Buddha do not belong to the faiths to which they are associated. In the 21st century, these figures … Continue reading →

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If You’re Angry, And Words Fail

Posted on August 12, 2011 by

Don’t shoot! Try gesture:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          . Or, how about this? (Buddhist equanimity.)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       . The above painting is from a Laotian monastery. It’s an image of the Buddha leading monks through a treacherous path. He is silent and calm, walking through … Continue reading →

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The Problem of Pure Consciousness

Posted on June 29, 2011 by

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              . Sunlight rivers through the shimmering  Sycamore tree, pools on the ground, Makes of shadow a living shoreline.  I vibrate there. The juggler’s balls are Frightfully high in the rarified air. Eight Sheriff’s deputies in four cars came, but They did … Continue reading →

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Two Paths to Self-Control: The Buddha and Jesus vs. Ulysses and Dostoevsky’s Grand Inquisitor

Posted on May 24, 2011 by

Dan Ariely, a professor of psychology at Duke University, has an interesting recent blog post on self-control, which he frames as a dual dilemma: should we intensively train ourselves to be serene Buddhas, indifferent in the presence of immediate pleasures that might undermine our larger … Continue reading →

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Change Your Mind, Change Your Brain?

Posted on December 31, 2010 by

This was in the Los Angeles Times this past month: For the Trappist monks at the Abbey of New Clairvaux, life follows a pattern centuries old. They spend their days in the field and their nights in silence. They gather in prayer … Continue reading →

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Teach Your Children (Mandarin) Well: Ian Morris Makes a Prediction

Posted on November 21, 2010 by

Ian Morris, the super-giant brained academic who belongs to, not one, but three academic departments at Stanford University (Classics, History, and Archeology), thinks we are fast entering the era of Far Eastern economic and political dominance and that it could … Continue reading →

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Lama Surya Das says that the Buddha represents “the fullest actualized potential of human beings.” My six-year-old daughter’s response: “This is wrong!”

Posted on April 12, 2010 by

In an essay at the Huffington Post today, Buddhist author Lama Surya Das characterizes in this way what the meditating stone Buddha in your spring garden symbolizes: The Buddha is actually an archetype representing enlightenment, an icon symbolizing inner wisdom, a pointer … Continue reading →

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My Daughter Won a Certificate of Merit from Her School for—Generosity!

Posted on February 10, 2010 by

My oldest daughter is six years old, and from her school today she received a certificate of merit, not for attendance or academic achievement, but just for being a generous person! Her teacher praised her for being a good friend to her … Continue reading →

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Some Perpective on the New Year: A Bit of Pessimistic Buddha-Wisdom from Arthur Schopenhauer (and Monty Python)

Posted on December 25, 2009 by

A little something to keep life and the New Year in perspective. Arthur Schopenhauer, from Book 1, Section 16 of The World as Will and Representation (1818, translated from the German by E.F. Payne): For whenever a man in any … Continue reading →

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Jack Ritchie’s Deflationary Naturalism: A Problem for Atheism?

Posted on December 17, 2009 by

Brian Leiter on Wednesday directed his blog readers’s attention to Jack Ritchie’s Understanding Naturalism (2009), quoting a recent review of the book that says in part: The attitude Ritchie recommends for the genuine or serious naturalist is metaphysical agnosticism (cf. 104, 143, 148, … Continue reading →

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