in India, the Untouchable castes are also called “the Broken people.” An English-speaker would think that this means they are psychologically or spiritually broken, and in indian culture, that is also one meaning of the term. But “the Broken people” has a more specific historical meaning. The Broken people are descendants of tribes that had… Read More The Broken People

Offering maitri bhavana for Nepal and all those affected. Two major earthquakes hit the centre of Nepal, on April 25, 70 km from Kathmandu, 7.8 and 6.6 Richter scale, half hour apart, and a ‘”seemingly endless series of aftershocks” average 4.5 Richter scale. The death toll from the 7.9 magnitude earthquake that struck Nepal on… Read More Nepal earthquake: rescue continues as death toll exceeds 2,500

Part 2: Studies of Sexual Exploitation in Buddhist Communities From the Editor of Engage!, Shaun Bartone: Jack Kornfield conducted a survey of dharma teachers* in the mid 80s (published in Yoga Journal 1985) which showed that 63% of all Buddhist teachers surveyed (celibate and non-celibate) had sexual contact with their students, and over 85% of non-celibate Buddhist… Read More Rising Up to End Sexual Abuse in Buddhist Communities: Part 2

[Engage! is proud to introduce a new contributor to the blog, Alycee Lane—Editor.] When hate is so “murderously sweet” by Alycee Lane After the release of a video that showed members of the University of Oklahoma chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) on a bus chanting “There will never be a nigger in SAE./There will never… Read More Practicing Compassion When Hate Is So “Murderously Sweet”

I was asked to be part of a vocal piece staged at the NSCAD Academy building for their student show: No End of Insight. It was a 2-hour piece; three of us were stationed at landings on the central staircase. At first I doubted whether I could do vocal improv for two hours straight. As… Read More No End of Insight: Performance Art as Awakening

[Editor: this post was written in response to an online retreat by David Loy for Tricycle magazine, going through his thesis in “The New Bodhisattva Path”. I wanted to reproduce it here before I lost it completely. I love David Loy’s work and find great merit in most of what he teaches. However, I disagree with… Read More Evolutionary Diversity and Self-organizing systems

Buddhist Peace Fellowship board member Funie Hsu hopped on the phone with Arun, cultural critic and creator of the Angry Asian Buddhist blog phenomenon (blognomenon!), to ask him about Orientalism, racism, representation, and other causes and conditions for all the anger. http://www.buddhistpeacefellowship.org/bpf-and-the-angry-asian-buddhist/ Asian Buddhist writers are 3 times less likely than white Buddhists to appear in major Western Buddhist… Read More BPF Interview with Arun, the Angry Asian Buddhist