The following article by Christopher Raiche is a long overdue indictment of the doctrinal distortion perpetrated by North American Buddhists, a distortion of reality that leads to delusion and self-centred absorption. Worse, as Raiche argues, it masks the white supremacy, racism, classism and heteronormativity that is endemic in American Buddhist sanghas. #BlackLivesMatter and Living the Bodhisattva… Read More #StayWoke: White Privilege and ‘Emptiness’
There is no such thing as a single issue struggle because we do not live single issue lives. – Audre Lorde (photographed above) In the days since the police shot and killed Philando Castile and Alton Sterling, we’ve seen the gamut of reactions on social media: from outpourings of sympathy, to grief and despair, to anger… Read More Connecting the dots: why black lives must matter to the environmental movement
by Michel Bauwens originally posted at https://blog.p2pfoundation.net/beyond-development-the-commons-as-a-newold-paradigm-of-human-flourishing/2016/07/06 On June 21, I gave a presentation to a number of staffers and others at the Agence Française de Développement in Paris outlining my vision of the commons as an alternative vision of “development.” The talk was entitled “Beyond Development: The Commons as a New/Old Paradigm of Human Flourishing.” Here… Read More Beyond Development: The Commons as a New/Old Paradigm of Human Flourishing
Q. What is non-self in Buddhism? Very simply, Self is Process. That explains 99% of anatta or “non-self”. You have a self, a functioning personality, but it is all process. Most of what is “you” comes together passively; it is constructed by a myriad of material, biological, developmental and cultural forces. There are aspects of… Read More [Non]Self-as-Process
I’m moving away from the practice of Buddhism as “nirvana”, as permanent and total release from suffering. I’m moving toward the practice of Buddhism is “resilience”, as (1) the capacity to tolerate an inevitable amount of pain and suffering; (2) the capacity to mitigate suffering and its effects on our lives; (2) the capacity to use… Read More Buddhist Practice as Resilience
Ru Paul talks about his daily practice of meditation, saying “Remember who you are. You are an extension of the Power that created this whole universe.”
The following article by Toby Rollo, a scholar of colonialism, is about doing ally work as “critical solidarity.” I found the article empowering as a white person because: 1. Rollo doesn’t like the concept of “ally” as a label, and neither do I. Ally work is something you do, not something you are, or wear like a… Read More Toby Rollo: Ally Work as a Practice of Critical Solidarity
