When I grew up, I’d occasionally stay up late watching TV. About 10 minutes into a show, the screen with cut away to the first ad. I remember the images used in commercials produced by NGOs that were meant to solicit donations, which appealed to the sensibilities of audiences in the developed world. The typical […]
ethics
The Collective Buddhist Studies Manifesto: New Challenges, New Voices
After the havoc of COVID-19 (which has not technically ended) and renewed self-reflection by many in the field of Buddhist Studies after 2020, there is a new mood in many scholarly communities that I am in contact with. There is a sense that Buddhist Studies needs rethinking and reforming if it is to make progress […]
Letter to an Editor
I think I know why I like this piece so much. It’s what I strive for in everything I do. It disrupts everyone. From Generation Z to those still living from the Greatest Generation, this one has something to unnerve and destabilize everyone’s sense of moral justice. No quarter. Almost no social or political allegiance whatsoever. […]
The Problem with Kindness
There is a gulf between the secular and the religious parts of our lives. In sacred settings we talk about kindness as something valuable and orthodox. At the office, at home, in our neighborhood, in our relationships, and in our friendships, we challenge its value in daily life. I’ve found myself with this bifurcated attitude, […]
Tugging on Our Feelings about Climate Change?
Like many people following the news today, I find myself deeply worried about climate change. Scientists are offering more and more dire warnings about what to expect in just 10 to 20 years. And we’re actually experiencing weather events that have never or only extremely rarely before occurred: the massive Typhoon Mangkhut that slammed into […]
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 […]
When Nature Devours Civilization
Last night I watched Wind River, director Taylor Sheridan’s intense film about the disappearance and murder of a Native American woman, Natalie Hanson. The ambience is extraordinary, the motives for violence primal. The movie, whose protagonists are a hunter deeply embedded in the Native American community (Jeremy Renner) and a well-meaning but unprepared FBI agent (Elizabeth […]
Love Versus Principle
Master Jingzong; English translation by Foying, edited by Fojin Love rules in a family, whereas legal principles rule in a court of law. Love is the name of the game for people who are fond of each other. But those who are in conflict resort to principles. A society will not be harmonious unless love […]
Liberating Animals Destined for the Dining Table
Master Jingzong; English translation by Foyuan, edited by Jingxin Mahatma Gandhi of India once said, “The most terrible weapons are the knives and forks on one’s dining table.” Hundreds of millions of lives are snuffed out by these weapons every day. Yet, most people are unaware of the scale of the daily slaughter for food; in fact, […]
Bodhisattva Vows as Liberation Theology
I was raised in what I consider to have been a very “liberal” Catholic household. Outside our evening “grace” before dinner and weekly church service, God and religion were rarely discussed. When I was of confirmation age, I was given the option to go forward or not. I chose not. Fast-forward through the nearly 25 […]