It has been heartbreaking to watch my adopted city tearing itself apart and becoming awash with anger and hatred. The events that have led to this are well known both in Hong Kong and around the world and I am not going to rehearse them here. I did in fact sketch my own narrative of […]
Thanksgiving (Inspired by Francis of Assisi)
Brother Wind, you are so usefuland humble. Without asking foranything, you refresh our lungs.Thank youBrother Fire, you do not charge foryour warmth or shut off our lights whenwe are not able to pay the bill.Thank youSister Water, you quench our thirst andhonor our bodies with your life force.Thank youMother for not checkingour passports.
Nritya Mandala Mahavihara’s 10th Anniversary
From 21-22, Prajwal Ratna Vajracharya’s center in Portland, Orgeon, celebrated its tenth anniversary, with much of the discussion centered on its unique position as the only Nepalese Buddhist temple in the West: it is well known that the unique expression of Newari Buddhism is gaining both academic and popular attention in Europe and North America. […]
A Perfect Stillness
There is a perfectstillness to these stories. The first instance of a gravitational wave. Anyways, is there anevent that has a bigger explosion of gravitationalwaves than two black holescolliding?Can three or more black holescollide at once? Would that be the sound of God,a ripple in Time – a wave of gravitythat only humans can hear?The sound of God is a […]
Observations on the Indo-Mongolian Buddhist Partnership
It was no coincidence that just a fortnight after the third Samvad conclave from 6–7 September in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolian President Khaltmaagiin Battulga paid a state visit to India from the 19th to 23rd. This month has seen, from the perspectives of both Mongolia and India, a significant diplomatic victory over some years in the making.
Nirvana
Nothing to blow. Nowhere to hide. Just white-hotslashes in your eyes. Strong to the core. Driftingon the edge. Savaging the twisted wreckage,leaving only a statue of Diana, the Roman goddessof the hunt. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. His work has been included in such publications as the Hazmat Review, Moria Poetry […]
Design for Wisdom: 84000 hosts a “Doodle” Contest
Preservationists of Tibetan Buddhist Canon crowdsource a doodle to Milton Glaser logo New York: August 26, 2019— The year 2020 will mark 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha’s first 10 year anniversary, and in a two-month contest respectfully inspired by Google’s homepage doodles, 84000 is crowdsourcing a temporary “doodle” for their existing logo, designed by the globally […]
Soul Cliche
The growling thunder of my soul. That’s a cliche, isn’t it? But even clichescan tell the truth. In wild isolation, my soul feels crowded by thespecial conditions of living. As if it’s under a crateof cinderblocks, eighty thousand metric tons. I know. Never to use the word ‘soul’-not if you want to be a good poet. But that’s like […]
Mongolia’s Buddhist Diplomacy and India’s Union of Religious and Foreign Policy
The Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF), along with Indian, Japanese, and Mongolian partners, hosted its third Samvad (which, in Hindi, means “dialogue”) conference in Ulaanbaatar over last Friday and the weekend. As reported in BDG’s news article on the conclave, Mongolian political and religious leaders took this event very seriously. In his closing speech on the […]
Daydreamers
Despite my urgent need to tap into somethingthat is necessary for my time, I am left with a visionof numbers. My pagan blood and sleeping momentson the beach. Why do I still want to be Jimmy Buffett? Idle and brutal from all eternity, like Rimbaud, sittingon a park bench with my two best friends.The wind blowing. The day glowing. […]