So much spiritual hucksterism...so little time...

I'm a busy guy of late, what with work, family, and the various practices in which I'm engaged.  So, here's a few quick pointers on the absurdity I read nowadays...

• Chogyam Trungpa might have been skilled in various ways,  but a guy you should drop everything for? I think not.  Or at least stop pretending  "enlightenment" thing (at least such as "was" his)  is any more than being really really good at reversi or something.
• Scientology? Geez, in this  day and age?  The very word should connote "people meat grinder."
• I'm still flabbergasted that folks "follow" Dennis Merzel. He has varying levels of "closeness" with him, that - guess what? - depend on how much you're willing to fork over every month.  And all of them, all of them, will help you "awaken the world" and "raise global consciousness." Wow! what -a- bargain! 
• And, obviously somebody, or at least one Maurice Shonen Knegtel,  in the "Big" "Mind"  "sect" (group? cult?) decided that they had to put some masking tape on "Big" "Mind" to try to attach it to  Zen/Chan.  You can imagine why. 

Of course we Mahayana Buddhists vow to save, or help  all sentient beings ourselves, in the sense of the transcendence of suffering.  But in no way is that a function of how much we can pay nor how much abuse we're willing to take, or whether we check our brains at the door when we go for some sort of teaching.  

Also don't believe everything Maurice Shonen Knegtel wrote there at that link, as if I had to write that.  Especially this part is risible:

Teaching, practice and realization took place in everyday activity, like farming, walking through the mountains, drinking tea, cleaning, or just talking. Probably they did not sit that much in formal zazen, and the early Masters rarely talk about sitting practice. Zen was not yet formalized with rituals and ceremonial practices, as it was later in Sung China (Tenth to Fourteenth Century A.D.), Korea, Vietnam and Japan. Early Chan was a living religion, not dependent on forms like teisho (formal teaching), zazen (formal sitting) or daisan (formal interview). Enlightenment was found and expressed in daily activities. And the way of teaching of the old Masters was very similar to that of Gautama the Buddha. Students were led to a place where they are one with the Dharma and express it. Genpo Roshi’s Big Mind process offers the same living religion in a playful game of giving voice to whatever dharma is coming up and by skillfully practicing the same ‘wonder of teaching’ as Gautama the Buddha and early Chan Masters did. 

 It's risible because its Orientalism and revisionism just oozes right through every word, including the instances of "a" and "the."  That Lin Chi didn't depend on his teishos - even if they weren't called that - is absurd.  What the hell does Shonen think he was doing when he ascended the high seat? He wasn't thinking "Gee, this is just like what 'Big' 'Mind" is going to be in a thousand some-odd years." 

And for Void sakes, "Big" "Mind" isn't an "everyday" activity!   There's 8.6% unemployment! Their everyday activity, I assure you, isn't mucking around with "voices."  The "everyday" activity of the working monastics (and laity) consisted of, you know,  activities performed every day. No special process or mind games were needed, playful or not.

These guys have completely forgotten, it seems, what it is to be ordinary.  And, it seems, Shonen might have confused the Dharma with a "conflict of interest," the conflict of interest being his personal investment of time and energy and effort, and I'd bet, gelt, into the Merzel Thing, and, of course, the practice of the Dharma.

All right.  Enough of my rant for today.

間 (ma), Parent Practice, Mac Arthur Park, the iPhone

In helping my son with a project for school I have oddly enough had to teach my son the value of leaving something out.  Clearly every engineer knows that this discipline does not come second nature to most engineers, and we have a term for the opposite ingrained tendency: creeping featurism.  The opposite tendency is an aesthetic that has been referred to by some as  "間  (ma)" - which translates as interval, space, etc. 　A Japanese word which expresses this in the opposite sense is 間も無く (mamonaku), which means basically in a very short time - "no interval," from the kanji.  You hear the word on the shinkansen when they announce in Japanese that the train is about to arrive in a station.

I haven't been that much aware that this is a strategy Apple builds into its products until I read about it recently, but in helping my son with his project I noticed that this principle is all around.  It is why overall horrid song MacArthur Park sold phenomenally well: it has a hook.  It is why Rush Limbaugh is still there after all these years: the Oxycontin addled demagogue repeats right-wing talking points well to the masses so they get the "hook."   (And Glenn Beck, since he's been  going off the metaphorical  reservation, is the natural target for other right-wingers now.)  It is also a good explanation of Suzuki-Roshi's idea of the Worst Horse.

We in the West like to hold up the "Renaissance man" as some kind of ideal, but clearly we prefer  that with a more carefully chosen set of features than "everything."  If you can do one thing well, or make something that is so incredibly excellent in one or two features, you can leave out something, and people seem to like it better; you can include your version of "Someone left the cake out in the rain..." it seems, and it seems to make the whole thing better as far as we humans can tell.  Very strange.  But that allows me too to embed a really otherwise sucky song in this blog post.  Enjoy!

Doubtful that will enlighten you today, but it's just a Note in Samsara, you know.

What's up with the Tricycle blog?

Tricycle a few months ago removed its blogroll from its blog, and evidently in the process changed the RSS feed for its site.  I have been thinking about removing the Tricycle blog  from my own blogroll, come to think of it, though it remains a convenient "handle" to see what the well-funded Buddhist press in the US is churning out and how they're trying to exploit online social networking trends. Otherwise, I think Tricycle and its ability to propagate Buddhist ideas and values is becoming marginal at best.

As I mentioned in a recent post on Frederick Lenz, Tricycle employee James Shaheen is on the advisory committee board of the Frederick Lenz Foundation - clearly in my view a conflict of interest with the stated mission of the Tricycle Foundation - I cannot imagine the what parallel universe in which hawking Frederick Lenz's "Buddhism"  is in any way consistent with the Tricycle Foundation's desire to make "Buddhist views, values, and practices broadly available."   (Then again, Genpo Merzel seems to be on the same committee of the Lenz Foundation! ) Nor can I see how his participation in the Lenz Foundation helps make Tricycle  "the most inclusive and widely read vehicle for the dissemination of Buddhist perspectives."  The "mission" of the Tricycle Foundation is purportedly:

...to create forums for exploring contemporary and historic Buddhist activity, examine the impact of its new context in the democratic traditions of the West, and introduce fresh views and attainable methods for enlightened living to the culture at large. At the core of the Foundation’s mission is the alleviation of suffering that Buddhist teachings are meant bring about.

 I'm trying to parse the above.  It's not easy.  By "forum" I might assume that they mean "an assembly, place, radio program, etc. for the discussion of public matters or current questions;" I hardly think they man a "law court or tribunal" but they might possibly mean a public square "where legal and political business is conducted,"  albeit not in an ancient Roman city or town. 

Can a magazine or a foundation "introduce fresh views and attainable methods for enlightened living" to the culture at large?  I mean, I wouldn't rely on a magazine to teach me how to swim,  or to judge my own 書道 or how I was raising my son, or how I was getting along with my wife or even - eventually - rely on a book or literature to gauge whether I was performing singular value decomposition on a given matrix properly or even making a meal! And Tricycle aims  to introduce to us, dear reader "attainable methods for enlightened living.

Can you see my point?   Their stated mission seems to involve the tacit assumption that they can assume the role of providing methods for enlightened living.

And I haven't even gotten to the point about Buddhism transcending versus alleviating suffering!

Moreover,  I think we can see the results of such muddled expressions of "Buddhism"  in the recent entries and selections from the Tricycle blog.

 Is knowing that a Watkins review of "spiritual power" people includes the usual New Age hacks people going to help all beings?  Is criticizing Genpo Roshi well after the animals have left the barn, well after accepting advertising and pimping "Big Mind" for years going to help all beings? Are lame defenses of airbrushed portrayals of Zen teachers helping beings?    Is being ignorant of basic science and logic helping all beings?

Don't get me wrong - at least they're mentioning some of these issues, and frankly, this was the first place I'd heard that Merzel was trying to do a "do-over" with respect to his disrobing.

But people, the issue with Tricycle stems from its muddled mission and issues inherent in associations to the Lenz Foundation. It is perhaps why I cannot remember seeing anything in Tricycle remotely critical of Lenz? Have you? I'm willing to be corrected on this point, but I think this point is worth noting.  Tricycle criticizes all manner of teachers after the fact - with, it seems to me, the possible exception of Frederick Lenz????? WHAT?  And they have a guy who's the editor and publisher as listed on an advisory committee board of the Lenz Foundation????

I will admit that when I was first investigating Buddhism in America, the information provided to me by Tricycle was invaluable in providing a context for my learning about Buddhism, and of course if they had any connections to Lenz and his ilk it was not known.  And wide propagation of associations with the Lenz Foundation - if there were any at the time, which I don't remember (until at some point the Lenz group was "supporting"  "Change Your Mind Day") would not have helped any beings familiar with the hucksterism of Lenz.

But today, I think, the only way Tricycle could even approach its mission of helping to "alleviate" the suffering of all beings would be for it to look itself in the eye and publicly distance itself from the Lenz foundation.

It might also help its blog, too.

Just remember, however your day goes, chances are very good it won't be as bad as May 21, 1946 was for Louis Slotin

Link

On May 21, 1946, with seven other colleagues watching, Slotin performed an experiment that involved the creation of one of the first steps of a fission reaction by placing two half-spheres of beryllium (a neutron reflector) around a plutonium core. The experiment used the same 6.2-kilogram (13.7 lb) plutonium core that had irradiated Harry K. Daghlian, Jr., later called the "Demon core" for its role in the two accidents. Slotin grasped the upper beryllium hemisphere with his left hand through a thumb hole at the top while he maintained the separation of the half-spheres using the blade of a screwdriver with his right hand, having removed the shims normally used.^[2] Using a screwdriver was not a normal part of the experimental protocol.

At 3:20 p.m., the screwdriver slipped and the upper beryllium hemisphere fell, causing a "prompt critical" reaction and a burst of hard radiation.^[9] At the time, the scientists in the room observed the "blue glow" of air ionization  and felt a "heat wave". In addition, Slotin experienced a sour taste in his mouth and an intense burning sensation in his left hand.^[2] Slotin instinctively jerked his left hand upward, lifting the upper beryllium hemisphere and dropping it to the floor, ending the reaction. However, he had already been exposed to a lethal dose (around 2100 rems, or 21 Sv) of neutron and gamma radiation.^[14] Slotin's radiation dose was about four times the lethal dose, equivalent to the amount that he would have been exposed to by being 1500 m (4800 ft) away from the detonation of an atomic bomb.^[15]

As soon as Slotin left the building, he vomited, a common reaction from exposure to extremely intense ionizing radiation.^[2] Slotin's colleagues rushed him to the hospital, but irreversible damage had already been done. His parents were informed of their son's inevitable death and a number of volunteers donated blood for transfusions, but the efforts proved futile.^[2] Louis Slotin died nine days later on May 30,^[16] in the presence of his parents. He was buried in Winnipeg on June 2, 1946.^[2]

At first, the incident was classified and not made known even within the laboratory; Robert Oppenheimer and other colleagues later reported severe emotional distress at having to carry on with normal work and social activities while they secretly knew that their colleague lay dying.

The core involved was subject to a number of experiments shortly after the end of the war and was used in the ABLE detonation, during the Crossroads series of nuclear weapon testing. Slotin's experiment was set to be the last conducted before the core's detonation and was intended to be the final demonstration of its ability to go critical.^[15]

The accident ended all hands-on critical assembly work at Los Alamos. Future criticality testing of fissile cores was done with special remotely controlled machines, such as the "Godiva" series, with the operator located a safe distance away in case of accidents.

That should make you a teeny bit grateful. Maybe.  I remember hearing about this in my freshman physics class, but the professor never revealed the whole story.

Fun with advertisers!

It seems I've got some doozies these days:

• Silva Mind Body Healing!

The Silva Method is based on the idea that the mind-body connection is extremely powerful in healing and with the right mental attitude and with specific practices, you can dramatically speed up healing while working with your doctor.
So has it been proven by science? Yes!

• Equisync^TM
  
  

  Did you know that people who meditate are much happier and healthier than everyone else? It‘s true. And they have greatly extended life spans, too. As a matter of fact, there have been numerous studies showing that meditation dramatically reduces, and even reverses disease of all types—including cancer.

  
  

• I can get me a Meditation Certificate!  Through the Won Institute!

The 33-credit Applied Meditation Studies program leads to a Master of Applied Meditation Studies degree (MAMS). The program prepares graduates who are uniquely skilled in the practical, professional, and theoretical dimensions of Buddhist meditation. Applied meditation can be adapted to many settings; for instance, to education, psychotherapy, social awareness, business, bereavement counseling, couples counseling, hospice care, pain management, corporate management, and Buddhist sangha building...

The program combines classroom study with fieldwork and practical experience. Sitting meditation practice is the central component of the meditation aspect of the program, while a practicum is central to the application aspect. Two intensive meditation retreats are built into the schedule to ensure deepened meditation practice.

              A sidebar on that page helpfully also informs me that

 The Won Institute is pleased to announce that Jeffrey Rubin, Ph.D.– the groundbreaking psychotherapist who works at integrating Buddhism and psychotherapy will join the Institute as a Visiting Scholar in fall 2008. Dr. Rubin will teach several workshops in the Certificate and Master's programs. The author of The Good Life, Psychotherapy and Buddhism: Toward Integration, and Psychoanalysis for Our Times: Exploring the Blindness of Seeing I, Dr. Rubin is a Dharma Holder in the White Plum Sangha and the Red Thread Zen Circle. He is an accomplished practitioner of meditation and yoga and holds degrees from Princeton, Columbia, and Union Institute.

UPDATE:

 The folks from the Won Institute respond to my inclusion of their institution here. in the comments - please read them to get their viewpoint.  I still have an essential problem with the model, as you can see in my response to them.  However, I applaud them for responding to my post here.  On reflection I don't think it's appropriate to label them as Spiritual Hucksters, but I would say I personally have an issue with the idea of this program, as opposed to training with a teacher.  I'm sure their mileage varies.  Plus, I'm still unclear as to what they're actually providing for the certificate; it's not evident to me.

   In order to get a   "certificate" in meditation the Won Institute will charge you $4400 bucks, although some kind of financial aid may be available (from the government?).  Is it just me or does anyone else here have a problem with an institution charging you $4400 bucks to meditate and then give you a "certificate" that says you did that?  While I'm all in favor of supporting temples and institutions financially, the academic model is especially unsuitable for meditation, certainly in the Zen tradition. You're done when your teacher says you're done or when you figure out that you're "done."  Which probably means you've decided that you don't need that teacher to continue on your own.

My argument with Christmas

Yesterday, in a confluence of both my normal exercise routine and unfortunate consumption of sugar at the Christmas luncheon, I was not my usual jolly self.  Actually, I'm never actually jolly.  The extent of my jolliness was limited to a luncheon discussion observation that Eagle Crest Resort in Oregon, a casualty of the real estate boom, could be re-purposed by redeveloping its underused golf course and creating a combined golf course and cemetery.   Actually I think many golf courses could benefit from such redevelopment, and that's the topic of a whole other riff.  Point is, by 5PM yesterday, I was pooped, and the last thing in the world I wanted to observe was the jolly Salivation Army representative drooling "Merry Christmas" as I schlepped into my local store for groceries.   (I long ago grew tired of lecturing them on their religious discrimination.)  My response was similar to the first lines in this clip from "The Life of Brian," sans the feminine affect:

Yes, I did say, "He's not the messiah; he's a very naughty boy." I didn't say, "Now go away," though.  Oh well.

I'm glad Uku does Christmas.  We do too.  But it's so much in your face in America. As Barbara said, it's so much dukkha this time of the year.  I think part of the problem is a Western dualism, frankly, that says this time of the year should be this and not that.  I would so shop at a store that didn't have the incessant shopworn Christmas songs.

It is very impermanent of course.  But people will get pushier, more Christmas-y towards the end of the season. Cards must be sent out. 

Much of it is a conditioning formed of years of Christmases with 5 siblings, two parents, sometimes  cousins and relatives, and one bathroom, and my parents "carpet bombing" approach to the whole gift-giving thing.  They meant well. Did the best they could, with what they knew.

And the stories I could tell...it was insane.  Every couple of years we'd be "knocking over the f*Ck!ing tree" as an old National Lampoon tradition had it, breaking expensive ornaments.   That would result in parental rage, which, I guess, was the punchline to the whole event. Not physically abusive, mind you - just shouting.  It was Christmas, you know.  We'd put a cheap white plastic wreath on a huge crucifix that hung in our living room and declare, "Jesus won the Preakness." My mother would mutter about us heathens not going to Church.  Come to think of it, I don't know why we'd associate Jesus with winning one of the triple crown races by a cheap plastic wreath put around his wooden crucified image.  I mean, have you ever seen a horse that's won a triple crown race with a wreath around it's neck?   Then again, I never watched much horse racing.  Neither did I witness many crucifixions, except those done in the cinema.

But no, jerks don't become less jerky in Western Christmas culture.  They adopt "Christmas" as the reason to be jerks, myself included.

I still don't get the jolliness thing.

But I'll do my best to have a nice Buddhist Christmas. My wish is for you folks to have a good belly laugh however you can get it.

I don't know what it's all about...but those crystals...but what about the Golden Ratio? And 水風?

Nathan tries to do good Buddhist practice blogging on this Kunzang Palyul Choling (KPC),  and their attempts to censor Waylon Lewis and Bill Schwartz, and I commend him.  I still don't know what it is all about, but I suspect it's about the truth...Now me, I love me a good Twitter Storm, blog-storm, etc. etc. and so forth.

I deeply suspect that Mr. Schwartz probably was going to say the truth about these people...because

I'd like to know more about these KPC people...but looking at their website....these people are what exactly?

The power of prayer

In the Prayer Room at KPC, a network of large and unusual crystals holds, amplifies, and broadcasts the spiritual energy of the 24 Hour Prayer Vigil (on-going at KPC since 1985). What if that very energy – of love, disciplined commitment, and longing for the freedom of all beings from suffering – could enhance your own spiritual practice? Read more

Well, I read more and for a while it looks like a conventional Tibetan Buddhist temple...yes, sharers, I've been in more than a couple of them, ...and it all looks right until...

Crystal Collection

KPC also has a large and beautiful crystal collection. Crystals are traditional Vajrayana Buddhist symbols for the pure nature of mind, and at KPC they play an especially important role in the interplay of the physical environment with the metaphysical. The crystals are specifically placed to enhance the network of spiritual energy established by continuous prayer and the virtuous activities of teaching and practicing the Dharma.

At the outset, I've got to say I've no issue with using crystals to represent something...especially lattice structures...but seriously, in a sense it can be no more, representational than other representations.  And indeed it is certainly true that "Vajrayana" is often called the "Diamond Vehicle."  But beyond that, it appears difficult to make the claim that crystals "are traditional Vajrayana Buddhist symbols." It may or may not be true,  but given the nature of the teachings of the school and the way in which its teachings are propagated,  it seems just as easy to make the claim, but, because of the nature of the propagation of the teachings, it becomes somewhat difficult to falsify, unless you're some kind of initiate into several of these schools I guess.  But I doubt it. Heavily.     It is true that the diamond refers to a type of wisdom that can slice through delusion in most of Mahayana Buddhism.  But in no tradition of which this admittedly somewhat parochial Rinzai Zen Buddhist is aware do crystals "play an especially important role in the interplay of the physical environment with the metaphysical"  where they may be "specifically placed to enhance the network of spiritual energy."

But what about the Golden Ratio?

Well, these are esthetic  issues that seem to approximate certain measurements in life, for which there has been claimed to be some basis for its connection to the description of nature.  Nothing really metaphysical there.

And what about  水風?  Many of its principles are common sense, actually, as well as an esthetic sensibility...about the "energy" in it,  though, I'm afraid that's a bit to woo for me at the moment.  But my Zendo and house are in accord with its principles generally, because it's common sense, especially in the Pacific Northwest, where you should suck up all available light in these colder months.


So enough of that.  What does KPC say the blogging /Twitter controversy's about?

New social media available on the Internet, such as Twitter and Facebook, have revolutionized society, making communication worldwide and instantaneous.  In many ways this is tremendously positive, as people now have access to much more information than ever dreamed of in the past.  The downside, however, is that the Internet also opens the door to individuals who use the anonymity (or not) on the Web to launch malicious attacks in pursuit of their personal vendettas. It can be a breeding ground for inaccurate and violent attacks against individuals and institutions.

Our precious teacher, Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo, has been a victim of such cyber attacks, just as so many others have.  On September 17, 2009 Jetsunma began teaching on Twitter in an attempt to connect with as many people as possible, people who otherwise would never have had any contact with the Dharma.  She wrote a short Amitabha practice that was easy enough for anyone to do and began doing the practice every day at 7:00 p.m. Eastern time with anyone who wished to join her, and she gave numerous spontaneous “tweachings.”   As a result, the Amitabha practice was performed simultaneously by an expanding cyber community. Unfortunately, there was a darker response, as Jetsunma soon became a target of several individuals who attacked her viciously without interruption and without cause.  These attacks affected her ability to utilize this new medium to teach....

Lately on Twitter there have been individuals making various statements regarding Kunzang Palyul Choling seeking out legal counsel in reference to the potential publication on Elephant Journal (an online publication) of an article written by an individual who did not inquire or make any contact with our organization, yet wanted to publish untruths and defamatory content about our Spiritual Director and organization.  KPC wrote a letter to the Elephant Journal advising them that the author had been engaged in an ongoing campaign of defamation and slander of our Spiritual Director, our organization, even our Lineage, and that he had demonstrated that he was unconcerned with actual facts. We advised the Elephant Journal that the author had made no attempt to contact KPC to verify any of his claims. We have no criticism of Elephant Journal in terms of its purpose, journalistic approach and stated mission.  The free exchange of ideas fundamentally is a good thing.  However, if the result of the “free” exchange of misleading and defamatory information is detrimental or damaging in any way to Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo or KPC, then KPC reserves the right to seek an appropriate remedy which could include legal action.   This is a legitimate retort and any reasonable organization would do the same in response.

 Now I've got to say, "Defamatory? What the hell are the supposed damages?" You folks claim crystals are spiritual energy thingies ore something like that.  Moreover, they refer to false things without ever saying what the false things are.

But this I know: "Tweachings" are generally not my cup of tea.  I'll have more on this later, when I investigate what they are..

_________
Update: I started poking around here. Besides the typical saccharine maxims you generally expect, you do get some inkling that there's some intra-school fighting going on here (see here and here, for example).   And I personally have no idea at all what's going on there.

But this I know:  if you see your guru on the road...

_________

So your own website doesn't exactly enhance your reputation as a Buddhist exponent.

To the best of my knowledge, everything here is true. No, I didn't contact them. I have quoted from their website which is available for all to see.

I think, as Nathan does, that the bit by Mr. Schwartz was over the top a bit.  But I am deeply skeptical of KPC, based on their own words.

Woo in Buddhism: Reincarnation and the "paranormal???"

C4chaos twittered about this plug for this bit on "the evidence for reincarnation."  It demands a reply.  One Charles T. Tart said:

I have to comment that, as a scientist who has spent more than 50 years studying the paranormal, as well as a (not very good) student of Buddhism and other spiritual development systems, belief, even if it fits with mainstream materialist scientistic dogma, is not very important if you’re trying to argue for or against the reality of reincarnation: evidence is what is important. 

The details of why I think it is reasonable to be both scientific and spiritually oriented, in spite of scientistic (not scientific, scientistic – a psychological set of dismissive materialism masquerading as science) are available in my recent book “The End of Materialism: How Evidence of the Paranormal is Bringing Science and Spirit Together.” Way too briefly, what I show there is that we have firm scientific evidence for five phenomena that are the sort of things we would expect spiritual (let’s let “spiritual” here mean more than conventional material) beings to have – telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, psychokinesis, and psychic healing), as well as good evidence for phenomena I call the Many Maybes. By this I mean the evidence does not strike me as strong and coherent enough to say these other phenomena are definitely real, but it is strong enough that it would be foolish to disregard this evidence. 

One of those Many Maybes is reincarnation. 

The primary evidence I cite is the approximately 4,000 cases in the files at the Division of Personality Studies of the University of Virginia Medical School. These are investigated cases of young children who spontaneously recalled memories of past lives, in sufficient detail that a match could be strongly made with a recently deceased person. Besides my book, an excellent feel for these kind of cases can be gotten from psychiatrist Jim Tucker’s recent book, “Life Before Life.”

This begs a response from me.  It's just asking for one.  I may come back to it later, but it reminds me of this article from Malcom Gladwell on "cold readers," and their miserable track record.

But, having perused Tart's book on-line, via Amazon, I can say that the phrase "confidence interval" does not appear in its Amazon search; scanning through what Amazon showed illustrated that in no way is the book intended to convince people who might be scientifically inclined.   If  Dr. Tart had the evidence he's claimed exists for "the paranormal," then he could easily pick up a cool $1 million from James Randi. 

On edit: I do realize I should prepare a post on rebirth and reincarnation, as well as go deeper on science versus woo and why Buddhism should as much as possible free itself  from woo.  That will take some preparation from me.

One reason I do Zen

I used to take up much of my mind with questions as to my own sincerity and authenticity.  When I got some vague notion where I was in the world, and where I wasn't in the world, I realized that it was better to be alive in the world, albeit with some risk of being sincerely insincere, rather than to dwell in the être-pour-soi, as per the waiter who pretends being a waiter, who plays at being a waiter in Sartre's L'Être et le Néant.

And then I realized there was such a thing as statements - and those modes of behavior that may be neither true nor false, but performative.

All of this was born of that feeling out of place in the world, in this body in which I animate.


I got better doing this Zen stuff.

Far and away the most popular blog entry I ever wrote...

It had nothing at all to do with Buddhism, though it wasn't exactly wrong speech. It wasn't overtly political, although one person mentioned in the post was a former Republican Congressman. It was not scientific at all.


It did however feature a picture of Cher.

Nobody can make sense of the world.

What's a Lady Gaga?

Even though I'm busy I HAD to note this...

You may never have noticed, but the NY Times style guide dictates that for people otherwise without titles like "President," they should list the name by which they're known first, and in subsequent mentions they refer to the person as "Mr." or "Ms." depending on the gender...

Slouched against the lectern at the 25th annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, a shirtless Iggy Pop snarled, “I am the world’s forgotten boy.”

No more. After years of being named finalists to enter the hall of fame, then getting outvoted, the Stooges were finally inducted this year, in an event held at the Waldorf-Astoria on Monday night and telecast on the Fuse cable channel. “After the seventh time” the Stooges were nominated, said the band’s guitarist, James Williamson, in his acceptance speech, “we were beginning to think we would have to take pride in not getting in.”
Behind him, Mr. Pop, 62, was already unbuttoning his white dress shirt, getting ready to jump, drop to his knees, strut and twist across the stage and down into the black-tie audience. Introducing him, Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day had described him as “the most confrontational singer we will ever see.” In his acceptance speech, Mr. Pop declared: “Roll over, Woodstock. We won.” 

And yes, that would mean somewhere on their website you can find a reference to Meat Loaf referred to as "Mr. Loaf."  That is, if he did not spell his name "Meatloaf."

A pity, isn't it?

And in news about other practices...

• Did you know there's a blog devoted to the things going on in the Syung Mung Moon Church?



• That "heir to the Church" Hyung Jin Moon is on Facebook? And evidently he practiced Zen Buddhism for a while...



• Some guy in Australia thinks Scientology is close to Buddhism. I beg to differ, especially about the Xenu part, the part about John Travolta & Tom Cruise, the e-meter, the fact that they don't have non-duality...