By Andrea Miller The lotus is a favorite Buddhist symbol. After all, it grows in the mud of materialism or suffering, but blooms pristinely above the water’s surface, symbolizing the achievement of purity or enlightenment. There are other plants that have similarly water-resistant and dirt-repelling surfaces but scientists refer to the phenomenon as the “lotus [...]
April 22, 2013 – 10:00 am
Because, as they say, every day should be Earth Day, we wanted to remind you that if you’re looking for some refreshing and hopeful wisdom about how to live in harmony with nature, you’ll find plenty on our special “Buddhism and Green Living” spotlight page, which includes Thich Nhat Hanh, Stephanie Kaza, Rick Bass, and [...]
His Holiness the Dalai Lama will lead the Change Your Mind, Change The World event in Madison, Wisconsin, on May 15. The conference, which discusses how neuroscience, environments, economics, and healthcare can combine to make the world a healthier, happier place, features two panel discussions between His Holiness and leaders from the fields of including [...]
Naked Mind is a new documentary that explores the effects of meditation and its potential to change society, asking the questions “What does mindfulness mean, how does it relate to human happiness, and what does it mean to practice mindfulness in today’s society?” To make the film, filmmakers Sarah Barab and Paxton Winters traveled to [...]
February 13, 2013 – 5:00 pm
The Dalai Lama Trust has announced a $1 million gift to the Mind & Life Institute in Hadley, Massachusetts, to help with administrative costs. The Mind & Life Institute, headquartered in Hadley, Mass., seeks to understand the human mind and the benefits of contemplative practices through an integrated mode of knowing that combines first person [...]
October 25, 2012 – 3:25 pm
A new Earth Dharma post by Jill S. Schneiderman. Trying out a new set of phrases for focusing my attention while sitting a four-day retreat with colleagues from the Association for Contemplative Mind in Higher Education, I sat on a rock ledge at the Garrison Institute, eyes softly resting on the castle rumored to have [...]
October 16, 2012 – 4:48 pm
The basic premise of Bruce Hood’s book The Self Illusion — that the concept of the self is constructed from our narratives, and is constantly being modified and remade — is a familiar one to Buddhists. In this video, filmed at this year’s The Amaz!ng Meeting in Las Vegas, Hood uses examples from developmental psychology [...]
October 3, 2012 – 5:28 pm
We told you about the Iron Man / Space Buddha last week. Now, a look at our own relationship with space by way of a new “Earth Dharma” post by Jill S. Schneiderman. While discussing the five skandhas (aspects) that constitute a human being during a dharma talk on The Heart Sutra—a core Buddhist text—renowned [...]
August 23, 2012 – 11:58 am
When humans are startled, we flinch, we shut our eyes, and our hearts start beating faster. It’s an automatic response that’s nearly impossible to suppress — unless, maybe, you’re meditating. There’s an oft-repeated anecdote about an experiment conducted with Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard. During meditation, he responded quite differently than most people would to a [...]
August 22, 2012 – 4:54 pm
The second annual Buddhist Geeks Conference, all about the intersection of Buddhism, culture and technology, happened this month in Colorado, and Dungse Jampal Norbu was there. Here’s his report about what he saw there. Ping, bleep, ding, swoosh. These were some of the many sounds audible at the second international Buddhist Geeks conference, where a variety [...]
By Claire Michalewicz Merit release—procuring animals that are about to be slaughtered and releasing them back into the wild—is a tradition practiced, to different degrees, by various Buddhist groups each year. It sounds like a good – and yes, meritorious – idea, but you might want to think twice before trying it. Why? Well, as [...]
This weekend, The New York Times reported on two new studies that help explain what makes people behave compassionately. Regardless of what happens to another person, David DeSteno writes, simply finding similarities between ourselves and other people, is enough to greatly increase the compassion we feel, and increase social harmony. And the similarities don’t have [...]
By Claire Michalewicz Chong-Ko, who’s being called the first Buddhist robot, was created by students at King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang in Bangkok to serve in an alms-giving ceremony. The 10-foot tall robot, dressed in a white shirt, helps out by picking up food and giving it to lay people, who then pass the [...]
A new post from Shambhala SunSpace “Earth Dharma” blogger Jill S. Schneiderman. How shall we bring the Buddhist “perfections of the heart,” such as generosity, patience, equanimity, truthfulness, renunciation, and wisdom, to the ways we interact with the earth? I sometimes find myself adopting what might be considered a generous stance of sharing equally what [...]
His Holiness the Dalai Lama has announced that he will donate his £1.1 million ($1.1 million) Templeton Prize to charities supporting children’s rights, meditation research, and science education. The Templeton Prize, which His Holiness received in a ceremony held at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London on Monday, is bestowed upon those deemed to have made [...]
