In this new series with Bro. Ananda Kumaraseri, we’ll explore the Buddhist teachings in the context of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Bro. Kumaraseri will focus on how we can reorient our thinking to one of authentic Buddhist liberation, so that we are no longer constrained by old assumptions and biases that are hurting our chances […]
ecology
A Buddhist Response to the Coronavirus Pandemic
Recently on the PBS News Hour, David Brooks called COVID-19 a national stress test for how well and long we can maintain our collective faith in institutions and each other. Indeed, the coronavirus has shaken the very foundations of society as we all know it. But to call it a stress test is, given what […]
Olympic
Chinook salmon chant on sandstoneintestine-intuition in an agebefore teachers they emanatefrom the roots of the Naupakalike sea spray George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. His work has been included in such publications as the Hazmat Review, Moria Poetry Journal, Chronogram Journal, Ampersand Literary Review, The Angle at St. John Fisher College, and 3:16 Journal. George’s blogs, essays and letters have appeared in USA Today, The Wall […]
When Daybreak Knows
I am trying to honor her.Her terms. Her words.Her voice. Her mountains.Her wildflowers. Her falsehoods and her fiberglass pauses on the screen. I ama child with her, opening painted windows that werenever closed to begin with. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. His work has been included in such publications as the Hazmat Review, Moria Poetry […]
At the Edge of the Sea (for Rachel Carson)
Death is the one event that everyone knowsnever happens the way it is supposed to.Death is a secret realm. It has an entrance with fountains scented with lavender masking the stenchof blood. On the loudspeakers, the rhythms of eternity.On the front door, a quote by Rachel Carson: each grain on a beach is the result of processesthat go […]
Towards a Biology of God
Such a familiar sound.Black bear digging for pine cones.The folding of the earth’s crust, no onewas there to show them how to tie a knot orsew a pelt. Under extreme pressure, the edgesof eons rubbed against each other, the touch ofan earthquake on the elbow and a volcano inbetween the toes. Deep trenches keeping us fromseeing each other. […]
Seen from the Surface of Mars
Beneath the scars hiddenin the crevasses, two solareclipses can be seen from the surface of Mars.A place where all creaturesknow how to suffer together. A place where forever wild meanssomething more than a bumper sticker.A place where the seas of our galaxycast doubt on the prospects of living.Where everything is an ancient memory,and Hubble’s children are illuminated […]
The Earth Which Preceded Us
From australianmuseum.net.au Insects are on your family tree. Ladybug ancestors and crustacean offspring.A family tree is years of hesitation. From microbes to plants. A chain ofinnumerable mutations. Flatworms andsponges following the design of turtle arms. We are part of a family tree that is more thana metaphor. The birds feed off our limbs. The Cycads and Conifers spread in every direction.Damp, […]
2019: A Year for Pastoral Caregiving to the World
Today we published a Buddhistdoor View advocating a “pastoral” perspective on the world. In the editorial we mean “pastoral” in its broadest, oldest possible sense: the act of listening and bearing witness, beyond even its common religious connotations, modern psychotherapeutic applications, or activist implications. This is the space of the shepherd: ever guiding yet ever open. […]
Moral laziness, vegetarianism, and government intervention
This month Thomas Wells, a philosophy professor at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, offered a plea for more active government intervention in our lives. He couches his request in the language of ethics: particularly his own moral laziness. He writes: Some years ago, for instance, I worked through the arguments around animal rights and decided […]