Shambhala SunSpace » Rod Meade Sperry – From The Worst Horses Mouth

Rod Meade Sperry is the Shambhala Sun’s editor of web publications, and the brain behind TheWorstHorse.com, a site that has lovingly (and somewhat irreverently) documented the intersection of Buddhism, pop-culture, and subculture since 2005.

Trailer: Jesus and Buddha join up in “Saint Young Men”

The Phuket News tells us today about Saint Young Men, a Japanese manga tale which has now evolved into an animated film.

As we’re told, the artist behind it “portrays Jesus Christ and Gautama Buddha, the founders of Christianity and Buddhism, as two cool guys who share an apartment on their trip to Earth. The plot evolves as both characters encounter new challenges in modern society.” And some are up in arms about it all — in Thailand at least — saying the film’s portrayal of Buddha and Jesus as caught up in worldly life is disrespectful.

It’s not in English, but you can watch the trailer above. The film is to be released in early May.

By Rod Meade Sperry - From The Worst Horses Mouth on

April 24, 2013 – 7:33 pm

| Tagged Humor, Pop Culture, Video | Comments (0)

X-Men’s Wolverine: A Zen Buddhist?

Is Wolverine a Buddhist? Well, that may be pushing things, but as Jeffrey Kripal’s book Mutants and Mystics: Science Fiction, Superhero Comics, and the Paranormal says, “Wolverine spent some time in Japan as a boy, speaks fluent Japanese, and practices Zazen.” (He also, as Kripal adds, has practiced tai chi.) And now that he’s got a new film, The Wolverine, coming out this summer, we see in both the advertising and the film itself that a little of his background is coming into play. See one of the film’s posters to the left, which makes sly use of a pseudo-sumi-e style, and the film’s trailer — which includes some temple-based brawling, as well as, as The AV Club puts it, “lots of sulking and ninjas.” Enjoy, fellow comix fans, after the jump: Continued »

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March 27, 2013 – 2:17 pm

| Tagged Movies, Pop Culture, Video, Zen | Comments (1)

Buddhist tattoos: Not always a hit, especially below the belt

Just one of the tattoos from TheWorstHorse.com, this one submitted by Gary Steinberg of the Metta Foundation.

Over at TheWorstHorse.com, I’ve done lots of coverage of Buddhist tattoos. (For example, here, here, and here.) I’ve found them to be a fascinating subject, and for a few reasons. First, because they can be, and often are, beautiful. Second, because people’s reasons for getting them run the gamut from the absolutely inane to the sincere and aspirational. Third, because there’s a sort of built-in controversy-and-discussion factor: getting a Buddhism-inspired tattoo can be just another gesture of spiritual materialism, or at least seen that way. As someone who has a clutch of tattoos, some dharmically inspired, I think it’s valuable to look at the motives behind getting them, especially long, long after the scabbing has dropped away: Do our dharma-tattoos still have the meaning we saw in them? Did they ever to begin with?

There’s another controversial aspect, too, one that’s often quite culturally driven: some think that getting them is just downright disrespectful in any case (most specifically, in cases below the waistline). British tourist Antony Ratcliffe learned this the hard way, getting deported by Sri Lankan authorities last week for sporting a Buddha face on his arm. Continued »

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March 19, 2013 – 3:05 pm

| Tagged Art, In the news | Comments (8)

The “cellphone for Buddhist monks”?

I guess sometimes “an app for that” isn’t enough. You need a whole phone. Even if you’re a Buddhist monk! According to the copy published with an article about it on tech-site Trendhunter.com, “This rotatable Nokia phone is made specially for Buddhist Monks… this Tibet Nokia phone is perfectly in harmony with the universal law of life and death. The red saffron color is traditional for Buddhist monks and makes this phone even more religious.” (I’m glad they avoided hyperbole.) Though actually a couple of years old, the phone does seem to be real and have various Tibet- and Buddhism-related features. You can read more about those here.

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March 15, 2013 – 2:33 pm

| Tagged Pop Culture, Tibetan | Comments (1)

Meet Ruin, “the first Buddhist punk band”

Ruin, the “first Buddhist punk band,” figures in our May magazine’s Buddhism-and-music feature (as well as its title, “Ruin, Beasties, and Constant Craving”), but the band’s story is fascinating, and sprawling, all on its own. Here it is, told in the band members’ own words after they agreed to be interviewed on my site, The Worst Horse, shortly after its launch in 2005.

By Rod Meade Sperry

Ruin are legend in certain circles: fans of classic Philadelphia punk rock keep the name alive with fansites and made a 90′s “ReUnIoN” a cause for celebration. Even the reclusive Leonard Cohen was apparently a fan. But (unless you’re from Philly) chances are, you haven’t heard Ruin, or even of them. Back when they were first together, punk was fully underground, bands playing dime-a-dozen club shows advertised solely on flyers stapled-gunned to telephone poles.

But Ruin truly stood apart. Founded by one Glenn Wallis, the band was meant to be an antidote to sitting around and getting wasted. It worked — and then some. Ruin’s music still sounds great today, even a bit timeless for that of a band born in the early days of punk. Their influences (Stooges, MC5, Motorhead, and yes, Leonard Cohen) come out in the songs, but there are extra hits of urgency, theatricality, and musicianship, too. And, something else: Buddhism. Continued »

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February 6, 2013 – 3:48 pm

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Ted Nugent: “Hunting is Zen meditation”

New-millenium hit machine and revered, never-irrelevant political theorist Ted Nugent has told CNN that hunting is: “Zen meditation in its definitive form, plus you get meat out of it.” Really. Here’s the story.

I’ll grant that hunting may make use of “meditative muscle” but ol’ Ted is missing one serious distinction here. The first Zen precept is No killing. If you’re going out your way to do the opposite, that’s probably not “Zen meditation.”

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February 5, 2013 – 10:04 am

| Tagged Pop Culture, Zen | Comments (2)

“Welcome to meditation, Liz Lemon!”

Liz Lemon, putting her special new "meditation candle" and "meditation stool" to the test.

Comedy fans are mourning the loss of NBC’s 30 Rock, a show that shot jokes so quickly that having the remote in hand was often necessary to rewind and catch them all. But the show, whose last episode aired last night, was way more than rapid-fire one-liners: Tina Fey’s Liz Lemon was the relatable cynic, loaded up with snark and self-defense reflexes — but with a good and striving heart underneath it all. She was the show’s moral compass.

Last season, Lemon even took up meditation. It was a quirky, one-off, pop-culture moment: Liz’s meditation practice never came up again. But the episode arguably set the tone for this year’s season, which found Liz not only continuing to seek real meaning to her life outside the TGS writers room, but even driving her executive “work husband” Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin, in the role of a lifetime) to question his sharkish ways and try to uncover his own, lasting happiness. Here, for 30 Rock fans new and old alike, is Shambhala Sun digital editor Rod Meade Sperry’s look at that episode, as originally posted here after it aired last March.

Tonight, on NBC’s 30 Rock, Liz Lemon started meditating. Lemon is of course the character portrayed by Tina Fey, who plays what we sort of imagine is a version of herself, in a workplace that we sort of imagine is a version of the Saturday Night Live set. Lemon is smart, cantankerous, wordy, nerdy, cynical. Maybe even slightly nebbishy, if that’s possible. Point is: she’s on the opposite side of New Agey, and not someone we’ve been led to believe could ever be interested in meditation. (Or, as my cablebox’s TV listings described it, Liz’s “new hobby.”)

And yet… Continued »

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February 1, 2013 – 7:19 am

| Tagged Humor, Meditation, Pop Culture, Your Practice | Comments (4)

“Zen with us”? No, thanks.

Few words are as misused as “Zen,” especially in marketing and advertising. This latest example, though, is perhaps beyond the pale.

A few different online friends sent word (and photos) of this product; this shot’s courtesy of Brad Warner — an actual teacher of Zen. But you don’t need to be a Zen teacher to see that this vitamin pak advertisement, with its scantily clad models selling us “inner peace,” is more turn-off than on. As you may know, such examples of Buddhist thought and imagery in marketing, dubious or not, have come to be sometimes known as “Dharma-Burgers” — and this one is particularly cheesy.

And what’s with that main tagline? “Zen with us”? Have they really just tried to repurpose the word “Zen” to mean “have sex with”?

By Rod Meade Sperry - From The Worst Horses Mouth on

January 10, 2013 – 3:51 pm

| Tagged Buddhist concepts, Pop Culture, Zen | Comments (1)

The newest video game? “The Buddhist”

From Engadget.com

Engadget has an interesting little item about a video game “meant to adhere to the tenets of Buddhism by divorcing it of ‘the hero / heroine-driven linear narrative’ present in so many of the games we’ve come to know and love.” Click through here to check it out at Engadget.

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December 18, 2012 – 9:06 pm

| Tagged Art, Pop Culture | Comments (2)

Video: Portlandia’s “Meditation Crush”

You might enjoy this preview clip from the coming season of Portlandia, the much-talked-about show featuring Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein in a seemingly endless parade of lovingly-rendered semi-stereotypes. It’s called “Meditation Crush,” and it may just ring true for you; many meditators have been on at least one side of this experience.
.

(Talk about facing reality!) Portlandia returns in January; click here for more.

By Rod Meade Sperry - From The Worst Horses Mouth on

November 8, 2012 – 1:53 pm

| Tagged Humor, Meditation, Pop Culture, Video | Comments (0)

Yamantaka // Sonic Titan’s explosive musical fusion comes to life

Fantastic musicianship, exploration, Buddhist themes, theatrics…. Yamantaka // Sonic Titan — self-described as a “psychedelic noh-wave opera group fusing noise, metal, pop and folk music into a multidisciplinary hyper-orientalist cesspool of ‘east’ meets ‘west’ — were fantastic at their Halifax Pop Explosion performance this past Friday night. See more photos of the band on our Facebook page, and hear them for yourself at: http://yamantakasonictitan.bandcamp.com/.

This pre-Explosion article about the band, from The Coast, is worth your time, too. And watch for more in our coming look at the many new and adventurous forms that Buddhism-inspired music is taking, in our March 2013 magazine.

By Rod Meade Sperry - From The Worst Horses Mouth on

October 22, 2012 – 10:51 am

| Tagged Events, Music, Pop Culture | Comments (0)

Music and meditation go hand in hand at San Francisco Zen Center

Barn Owl's "From Our Mouths A Perpetual Light" LP features a "four-armed demon warrior-yogi' on its cover.

In the public’s minds, Zen temples are probably most often envisioned as bastions of quietude and order. But the pioneers at San Francisco Zen Center—which just celebrated its fiftieth anniversary—see something more. They see a realm where statues of bodhisattvas can collude with sculptures made of sound.

Hence Zen Center’s adventurous musical programming which, more and more, is involving respected and unusual acts. (The anniversary celebration, too, incorporated sound and movement with a performance called Resounding Compassion; a performance by video artist Bill Viola is up next on November 9.)

So: how did all this come to be?

As SFZC Program Director David Zimmerman explains, a member of the local arts-and-events collective The Bold Italic began sitting at the Center and suggested that meditation and music programming might go hand in hand. It’s proven to be, as Zimmerman tells me, “a wonderful dharma-gate outside the traditional.” (Click through for more including video of lovely atmospheric SFZC performances by the bands Barn Owl and Date Palms.) Continued »

By Rod Meade Sperry - From The Worst Horses Mouth on

October 19, 2012 – 2:29 pm

| Tagged Dharma Centers, Diversity, Events, Music, Video | Comments (1)

Adam Yauch’s “Bodhisattva Vow” skateboard decks go on auction for charity

The late musician/filmmaker/pro-Tibet worker/human rights advocate/Buddhist Beastie Boy Adam Yauch once wrote out the lyrics to his classic song, “Bodhisattva Vow” (off the Beasties’ 1994 LP, Ill Communication) — and not on paper, but across three skateboard decks. Now those decks will be auctioned online for in a charity effort for the Tony Hawk Foundation, which seeks to help create and build public skateparks in low-income communities across the U.S.

For more, check out the rest of the story by way of Rolling Stone.

And for more on Yauch and his connection to Buddhism — which “Bodhisattva Vow” beautifully conveys, even if only in part – check out this classic Yauch/Shambhala Sun interview from back in the day. (Which is to say, the Ill Communication era.)

[October 9th update: Photos of the skate decks have been made available and we've shared them here.]

By Rod Meade Sperry - From The Worst Horses Mouth on

September 20, 2012 – 10:49 pm

| Tagged In the magazine, Music, Pop Culture, Sports | Comments (3)

Check out “Sambhogakaya,” from the new Dzogchen-inspired album by Sir Richard Bishop and W. David Oliphant

Two respected figures from the independent-music world have released an album inspired by Dzogchen — “The Great Perfection” — the main teaching of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. (You can watch the video for one of its tracks, “Sambhogakaya,”below.) As music site TinyMixTapes.com reports:

“Sir Richard Bishop (of Sun City Girls and a ton of solo work) and W. David Oliphant (of Life Garden, Maybe Mental, and a ton of solo work) … [have released] their first collaborative album, Beyond All Defects, through their own ChodpaMedia label. The set was recorded last December in Phoenix, with Bishop playing acoustic guitar and Oliphant producing sounds through computer software and a MIDI controller. Bishop’s guitar on the record was frequently detuned, bowed, and beaten, as ‘treated’ by Oliphant. Continued »

By Rod Meade Sperry - From The Worst Horses Mouth on

September 13, 2012 – 10:04 am

| Tagged Buddhist concepts, In the magazine, Meditation, Music, Teachings, Tibetan, Video | Comments (0)

Help Kickstart “Seeking Heartwood,” a film about Buddhism in America

Adam Eurich is a young filmmaker with a goal: to make a film surveying and sharing the best of what Buddhism in America has to offer. “I quit my job,” he says in the new Kickstarter trailer for his film-in-progress, Seeking Heartwood, “sold all my useless stuff, and hit the road… But this film is not about me. It’s about the Buddha’s message…”

Watch the trailer here, and then visit the Seeking Heartwood Kickstarter page if you’d like to pitch in to help Adam make his film.

By Rod Meade Sperry - From The Worst Horses Mouth on

September 10, 2012 – 12:01 pm

| Tagged Buddhist concepts, Dharma Centers, Movies, Video | Comments (1)

Trailer: Jesus and Buddha join up in “Saint Young Men”

X-Men’s Wolverine: A Zen Buddhist?

Buddhist tattoos: Not always a hit, especially below the belt

The “cellphone for Buddhist monks”?

Meet Ruin, “the first Buddhist punk band”

Ted Nugent: “Hunting is Zen meditation”

“Welcome to meditation, Liz Lemon!”

“Zen with us”? No, thanks.

The newest video game? “The Buddhist”

Video: Portlandia’s “Meditation Crush”

Yamantaka // Sonic Titan’s explosive musical fusion comes to life

Music and meditation go hand in hand at San Francisco Zen Center

Adam Yauch’s “Bodhisattva Vow” skateboard decks go on auction for charity

Check out “Sambhogakaya,” from the new Dzogchen-inspired album by Sir Richard Bishop and W. David Oliphant

Help Kickstart “Seeking Heartwood,” a film about Buddhism in America

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