What symbols do we recognize most in our corporatized world today? Logos like those of the apple of Apple Inc. or the arched M of McDonald’s? What about images as innocuous as the male and female figures on restroom doors, ingraining in us specific assumptions about reality and directing us to live our lives in […]
philosophy
Why We’re So Unhappy
The other day I came across a brilliant parody article from the satirical site Newsthump, highlighting how hard a basic task like buying a vacuum cleaner has become in our society. The point is not necessarily that vacuum cleaners are difficult to buy, but how much more effort it seems we must spend on mundane […]
Postcard from Raymond: “Monk’s Posture”
This image, shot by photographer Ding Zuhe and called, “Monk’s Posture,” won first prize in the China category for National Geographic’s 2017 photography contest. Here are six people, all in some form of sleep, lethargy, stupor, or unconsciousness. There are two women (the one in the foreground looks older), and four males: a child in […]
Science and Religion
Master Jingzong; English translation by Chia Chang Wang, edited by Jingtu “Religion” here refers specifically to faiths that embrace a single creator-god. Science and religion are like day and night. Science resembles the day; it wants to reveal things clearly. Religion is like the night, intending to enshroud everything. Don’t criticize religions as “superstitious,” or […]
Humanism and Zen
Authentic humanism, in Pierre Furter’s words, “consists in permitting the emergence of the awareness of our full humanity, as a condition and as an obligation, as a situation and as a project.” – Paolo Feire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed These days my Buddhist practice life spins around, tumbles through, and is, ultimately, anchored by a […]
Life, Death… All a Matter of Perspective
We like to tell ourselves that we intellectually (even if we struggle to emotionally) grasp the significance of death as the end of our present existence. But time, life, and death are nowhere near as commonsense as we think. In an article in The Independent, professor Robert Lanza lays out the concept of biocentrism: ‘the universe […]
An Introduction
Hello. I’m Justin Whitaker, a new North America Correspondent for Buddhistdoor Global. I thought I’d use my first contribution here to tell you a bit about myself. Like so many of us these days, especially in North America, my background and resulting practice of Buddhism is deeply eclectic. Unlike many, my passion for Buddhism drew […]
On Exploring Karma and Rebirth by Nagapriya
Graham Lock As some people said they liked my review of David Loy’s book (well, two people actually), I thought I would again present some musings on what I have been reading. Nagapriya’s Exploring Karma and Rebirth is not a new book (it was published in 2004), but I came across it only recently in […]
The Sage, the Wayfarer, and the Treasure in the Desert
Raymond Lam Imagine an endless desert, sparsely populated by tribes struggling to survive in a hostile wasteland. Murmuring starts to circulate in the scattered villages about a grotto of incredible treasure so precious that discovering this cave would summon miracles that restore verdant green and life to the desert. Accompanying the rumors about this incredible treasure […]
My Difficulties with the Lotus Sutra
Graham Lock I have recently been studying the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Marvelous Dharma (妙法蓮花經), usually called the Lotus Sutra in English. This sutra has been and still is enormously important and influential in East Asian Buddhism. As far as I understand it, the sutra makes three main points: firstly, that the […]