Buddha Break 2006.12.12

Buddhism is growing by leaps and bounds in North America, leading to a shortage of facilities for spiritual practice and meditation. As it has throughout history, however, Buddhism is adapting for a new audience.

Christmas is about as unBuddhist as you can get, but even Buddhists can adapt to the holiday of extreme want.

Visakha Kawasaki would like to remind the Dalai Lama that he is not the Buddhist pope. This brouhaha is in regards to the Dalai Lama's disapproval of Singapore Expo on "Buddhist Relics."

According to Smita Poudel, religion is never a barrier to people who want to explore the truth; religion becomes disastrous when people start interpreting religion according to their convenience.

Not all Buddhists, it would seem, have the same neuro-centric focus when it comes to discerning life from death. I'm still surprised that a Korean Buddhist family recently fought with their hospital refusing to allow the plug from being pulled for their permanently brain-dead family member. According to the Taiwanese family, the beating heart meant his spirit and consciousness were not ready to move on. Taking him off life support, they believed, would be the same as killing him. And here I thought it was just the Abrahamic religions that have some catching up to do. As Colleen Keating says, it’s not just the Christian scientists.

A monk asked Chao Chou, “What is the lone summit of Mount Sumeru?” Chao Chou said, “I won’t answer that question of yours.” The monk asked, “Why won’t you answer my question?” Chao Chou said, “ I’m afraid that if I answered you, you would fall to flat ground.”

Jeff Wilson wonders if Courtney Love is using Buddhism as her 'get out of jail free' card. Wilson has also declared a temporary moratorium on a number of phrases, words, and tropes that are all too frequently used by the media when writing about Tibet.

From time to time, it is delicious to walk in church with bare feet.