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16-year-old high school soccer player finds the middle way
Sixteen-year-old Jimmy O'Leary, a high school junior at St. John’s Prep, an all-boys Catholic school in Danvers, Massachusetts, made the Boston Globe this weekend for taking up an interest in Buddhism. Says his soccer coach, Rene Novoa, who began coaching O'Leary six years ago: “All of a sudden, he was more calm, he was more collected when things didn’t go his way. More » -
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Buddhism: Religion, Science, Both?
The "secularization" of Buddhism in the West has its countless proponents. But its secularization may often be little more than a wrong-headed denial of its religious roots. At least that's what we hear from our favorite Buddhist Geek Vincent Horn, who has posted to the Interdependence Project's "One City" blog, hosted by Beliefnet. While Horn acknowledges some of the positive effects of the secularization of Buddhist practice, in general, the trend doesn't sit well with him: [L]et me be clear about what I mean when I say, "making Buddhism secular." I mean, specifically, the attempt to strip away the cultural trappings of the tradition, while preserving and re-packaging the "essence" of the tradition (which usually has something to do with meditation practice). More » -
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Does Buddhism serve as a bridge?
Can Buddhism strengthen ties to the church? An article in Sunday's Denver Post suggests that it does. Author Electa Draper investigates a growing interest in the meditative and spiritual aspects of Buddhism amongst Christian Americans, finding that many employ eastern religions as a tool to forge a deeper connection to their Christian beliefs. For many Christians cut off from the past, or alienated from the faith of their upbringing, Buddhism has served as the bridge to ancient wisdom. "The problem is the contemplative tradition in the Christian Church has had its ups and downs over the centuries," said Father Thomas Keating, a Trappist monk and leader in the Centering Prayer movement, a modern revival of Christian contemplative practice. "We sensed that the Eastern religions, with their highly developed spirituality, had something we didn't have," Keating said. More » -
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Internet Dharma Talks from Jampal Norbu Namgyal
Yesterday, Jampal Norbu Namgyal, the tweny-one-year-old son of Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche, gave his first dharma talk to his father’s entire sangha. The talk—called "From the Cushion to the Grocery Store: Developing Positive Habits"—was part of a new series of free weekly dharma talks delivered via internet by Rinpoche, his wife Elizabeth Namgyal, and Jampal. The series, currently airing from Boulder and Crestone, Colorado, is called the Link, and takes place every Sunday at ten o’clock, mountain time. More » -
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Can meditation be bad for you?
Newspapers and magazines are full of stories about the positive effects of meditation practice, so it was only a matter of time before we'd begin reading about about its perils. The Vancouver Sun's Douglas Todd writes today that New York psychoanalyst Micheal Eigen and philosopher Ken Wilbur, both meditators, express concern about meditation's potential ill effects. Can contemplative practice feed our narcissism and mask serious problems? More » -
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Norman Fischer: "For the Time Being"
The New York Times hosts a blog called "Happy Days," and Buddhists have been turning up there lately. This isn't surprising. As the Times explains, it's about the "search for contentment": The severe economic downturn has forced many people to reassess their values and the ways they act on them in their daily lives. More »
