2011
[This is the beginning of a series of posts reflecting on how I found myself drawn to monasticism despite (or perhaps because of) my upbringing in the Bay Area and providing insight into how the relatively secular environment in which I grew up prompted me to look deeper into the meaning of life.] [Audio clip: [...]
I was raised without religion. My parents are rational, intellectual, and basically atheist – one comes from a vaguely Christian family, the other from a slightly Jewish one, and they never really made anything of it. They are both professors; they don’t believe, they think. So I had to wonder what they would make of [...]
We are a lost generation, desperately clinging to anything that feels real, but too afraid to become it ourselves. We are a defeated generation, resigned to the hypocrisy of those before us, who once sang songs of rebellion and now sell them back to us. We are the last generation, a culmination of all previous [...]
[Admin’s note: Buddhist Global Relief just hosted a 18-mile peace walk from San Jose to Palo Alto, CA on Sept 11, 2011, ten years after 9/11. Ajahn Guna, a Theravada monk living in Berkeley Buddhist Monastery led the walk and many members of the Berkeley community joined the walk. The event was quite successful with [...]
…we are deeply driven by biological impulses and genetic predispositions, heavily programmed…. But …it is possible to learn how to better understand and direct our own minds, and to overcome some of our programming. After reading an earlier post in which I wondered what my subconscious might be doing behind my back, a friend sent [...]
My last post on Late-Capitalist Youth looked at Nietzsche’s call to control our passions, in order to gain a sense of freedom and new direction for our lives—but the Buddha looked at self-overcoming as well. To move towards a new patterning for our desires, we need to have some space for the conditioned systems of [...]
I’ve been wondering to myself, what does the name Earth Store mean? Earth Store (Chinese: 地藏 Dìzàng) session started on Sunday, and just like in other retreats, we will be spending a good deal of time reciting Earth Store Bodhisattva’s name. Partly because of this, and partly due to my own curiosity, I’ve been wondering [...]
So what went wrong? As Lacan and Zizek point out, our dissatisfaction begins with a sense of lack. For Lacan this lack is basic to our psyche. Why did each of us get so confused and dissatisfied with such a simple project? We are conscious and aware. If we have enough to eat, a place [...]