culture

Portraits of American Zen

The Scene   |   James Roberts  |   May 18, 2012, 8:10 am

A couple weeks ago, my friend Jesse’s piece entitled “Strangers” won the 2012 Ippy Award for Best Photo Essay. He’s been working as an independent photojournalist for a number of years, having contributed to a number of publications, including Buddhadharma.... Jesse recently finished another photo essay entitled “Ordinary Zen,” shown below.  The essay features an intimate look at four Zen practitioners, through their own words and Jesse’s photos [...]

Beyond Alienation

The Mind  |  The Scene  |  The Tribe   |   Douglas Powers  |   September 5, 2011, 7:46 am

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 [...]
Youth, without much self-reflection, certainly feels the fluidity and markless flow of emotions, thoughts and overwhelming stimuli, and has reacted with various defensive postures from back-to-the-land movements to in-your-face hedonism. Looking at the contemporary world with all its challenges and possibilities, I am reminded of Nietzsche and his admonishment of modern mankind’s quest for freedom [...]
Last Friday was a full moon, and a lunar observance day in all Buddhist traditions. Thanks to last week’s Monastic Immersion Program at DRBU, I was lucky enough to spend some time at Abhayagiri Monastery, a Thai Forest monastery just a short distance north of the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas (CTTB). The monastery is [...]

Gone forth for ten days

The Monastery  |  The University   |   James Roberts  |   July 6, 2011, 7:00 am

The Monastic Immersion program has just kicked off with last Tuesday night’s orientation. The idea of the program is to learn Buddhism by living and practicing in a Monastery and maintaining the monastic schedule.   Thirty participants from a wide spectrum of religious and educational backgrounds will come to CTTB to participate in the program for [...]
The symbols, structures and beliefs we use to organize and sedate this endless river of impressions and habits are provisional and temporary illusions of stability. Emotions, thoughts and perceptions are moving through our awareness in constant flux. The symbols, structures and beliefs we use to organize and sedate this endless river of impressions and habits [...]