Climate Change and Migration Have Everything to do with Each Other; That’s Why I’ll March at the Peoples Climate March and May Day Thanu Yakupitiyage, Contributor U.S Communications Manager at 350.org PHOTO BY CHRISTINE IRVINEPeoplesClimate March 2014 It’s pretty ironic that among Donald Trump’s first policies in his agenda was a crackdown on immigrant communities,… Read More Migration and Climate: the Peoples Climate March

David George Haskell April 4, 20173:40 AM ET, originally published at NPR.org. I reach up into a sugar maple tree’s low branches and pluck a leaf. My fingers hold a seemingly unremarkable leaf, grown on a tree next to a suburban driveway. This leaf is not what it seems. I dip the leaf in alcohol, then… Read More Life Is The Network, Not The Self

It’s important to understand Buddhism’s relationship with the State throughout its 2600 year history. Early Buddhism may have been a populist revolt of the tribal Sramana against monarchist city-states aligned with the Brahmins. (I say “may” because such a premise requires much more historical evidence than I can present in this brief outline). One website… Read More Buddhist Futures: Beyond Class, Capital and State

I just read a lovely little book by Jeffrey Armstrong* called Karma: The Ancient Science of Cause and effect (Mandala Wisdom Library, 2007). It’s an explanation, in laymen’s terms, of the concept of karma and rebirth, taken from the Vedas. It’s not an explanation of Buddhist concepts of karma and rebirth. Armstrong states that all… Read More Non-Self is the Only Buddhist Concept

Member of Malcolm X Grassroots Movement Gains Momentum in Jackson, Mississippi’s Mayoral Race Sarah Jaffe originally published at truth-out.org In 2013, radical attorney Chokwe Lumumba was elected mayor of Jackson, Mississippi on a platform of economic self-determination for the people of Jackson, but his untimely death cut his plans short. Now, Lumumba’s son, Chokwe Antar Lumumba… Read More Black Grassroots Economic Justice

I was introduced to the music of Fabrice Liut through the Insight Timer meditation app, which features a catalogue of recordings of ‘ambient’ music for meditation. While much of this music is predictable gongs and flutes, the music of Subvers, aka Fabrice Liut of Lyon, France, is truly brilliant: complex and challenging, with strong atonal and… Read More Fabrice Liut: Subvers Music