http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6818954/posts/summaryWed, 18 Oct 2006 15:12:10 +0000http://www.surya.org/blogger.htmlshane@surya.org (Lama Surya Das)Blogger115http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6818954/posts/summary/116252220948108640Fri, 03 Nov 2006 02:42:00 +00002006-11-30T16:20:36.663-05:00I met a great man yesterday. My old friends from my Paris days, founders of the France-Burma Aid Association, invited me to breakfast at the Harvard Faculty Club, to meet their mentor Sulak Sivaraksa, one of the grand old men of Buddhism. This brilliant and accomplished activist -- an original disciple of the highly esteemed late Thai master Ajaan Buddhadasa -- is still, at the age of 73, http://www.surya.org/2006/11/engaged-buddhists.htmlshane@surya.org (Lama Surya Das)http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6818954/posts/summary/116356457726574727Wed, 15 Nov 2006 04:21:00 +00002006-11-28T15:11:17.166-05:00Last night I saw the controversial Borat film, which I found hilarious, interesting and provocative. It's a combination of Archie Bunker, Andie Kaufman, and my friend Stephen Colbert's facetious approach to social commentary. I recommend it to you, unless you're hyper-sensitive about anti-semitism. Borat, who is actually a British comedian named Sacha Baron Cohen (who's Jewish on his parents' http://www.surya.org/2006/11/controversial-borat-film.htmlshane@surya.org (Lama Surya Das)http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6818954/posts/summary/116252159516818127Fri, 03 Nov 2006 02:37:00 +00002006-11-06T20:04:56.373-05:00I'm at my Dzogchen retreat center in the Texas foothills outside Austin, overlooking the Perdanales River a few ranches away from Willie Nelson's ranch and several miles from LBJ's -- and noticing the low river and near-drought conditions hereabouts, thinking about natural resources and the issue of clean water in the world today. The lack of clean water is going to be recognized more and more ashttp://www.surya.org/2006/11/natural-resources.htmlshane@surya.org (Lama Surya Das)http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6818954/posts/summary/116128586738699384Thu, 19 Oct 2006 19:15:00 +00002006-11-05T22:48:26.300-05:00 A mountain lion was spotted here this morning at dawn, snuffling at the garbage bin of our in Northern California retreat. All were worried; we read every year of them taking a jogger or hiker. And I wondered: what would a Bodhisattva believer in nonviolence do if attacked? Would one fight to the death, trying to kill the dangerous creature in order to survive, or not? (They are reportedly very http://www.surya.org/2006/10/mountain-lion.htmlshane@surya.org (Lama Surya Das)http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6818954/posts/summary/116191587778496872Fri, 27 Oct 2006 02:23:00 +00002006-10-30T03:22:16.106-05:00Nonviolence is a radical and challenging practice. It's interesting that we don't even actually have a word for it - instead we only use the negation of violence. That is how foreign and removed this concept is in our usual collective thinking. Nonviolence is not mere pacifism; Mahatma Gandhi used the powerful truth of nonviolent passive resistance to free his country from British Rule. He said, http://www.surya.org/2006/10/mountain-lion-part-2.htmlshane@surya.org (Lama Surya Das)http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6818954/posts/summary/111815116808196672Tue, 07 Jun 2005 13:28:00 +00002006-10-18T11:12:40.123-04:00I have noticed that if I can change the frame, the picture always looks quite different. I wonder what new and high tech specs or special eyewear can provide us with Buddha Vision. And more importantly, as my wife would want to know: How do they look on me?! How would Buddha see this is a good question to ask. Buddhism actually has some practices to help us see things through such a divine iye.http://www.surya.org/2005/06/pure-vision-buddha-vision-turning.htmlshane@surya.org (Lama Surya Das)http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6818954/posts/summary/116043262114004137Mon, 09 Oct 2006 22:19:00 +00002006-10-12T22:12:27.563-04:00People often ask me how to get started on the spiritual path. It would be easy just advise them to learn to meditate, do yoga, pray, and/or read wise words. But in public I often hear myself saying to those who seem almost like rank beginners simply to try connecting with nature. Take a walk outside every day. Nature is the original goddess and first form of spirit common to humankind. Thoreau http://www.surya.org/2006/10/think-globally-act-locally.htmlshane@surya.org (Lama Surya Das)http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6818954/posts/summary/116015893485112008Fri, 06 Oct 2006 17:53:00 +00002006-10-06T14:33:18.856-04:00 Last week I made my annual pilgrimage to visit the Dalai Lama, having been invited to give a few hour-long lectures before and after his large stadium appearance at my old alma mater, the University at Buffalo. One of the many things he said over the course of those three days in western new York was that prayer and meditation are all good and important, but not enough; we also have to actually http://www.surya.org/2006/10/standing-up-speaking-out.htmlshane@surya.org (Lama Surya Das)http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6818954/posts/summary/111125101774189833Sat, 19 Mar 2005 16:49:00 +00002006-10-04T14:50:11.536-04:00A dog is good luck in soulful form. Love has taken away my practices and left me with a dog, to paraphrase Rumi. I used to be respectable, and chaste, holier than thou. Now I am a disciple of a dog. I wasn’t always a dog person. I did not grow up with dogs at home, but grew up chasing balls in the backyard myself. I was a puppy once, a veritable household legend, full of anxiety and an http://www.surya.org/2005/03/dog-is-my-co-pilot.htmlshane@surya.org (Lama Surya Das)http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6818954/posts/summary/110599137609580437Mon, 17 Jan 2005 19:49:36 +00002005-01-17T14:49:36.096-05:00I am disappointed with the pontifications about karma that pundits have recently subjected us to in the media. December's tsunami is no ones fault and blame should not be ascribed to peoples or individuals, either individually or collectively. It seems uncompassionate to me to use on the victims of a natural disaster the whip of theories such as the law of karma -- a profound concept that is in http://www.surya.org/2005/01/bad-karma.htmlshane@surya.org (Lama Surya Das)http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6818954/posts/summary/110372441949273374Wed, 22 Dec 2004 14:06:54 +00002004-12-22T09:28:54.800-05:00May the lamp of love which eternally burns above kindle divine fire in our hearts and fan that innate spark of divinity into flame- illumining all, opening our eyes and consuming our differences, driving the shadows from our faces. As love dawns on the horizon, may our community awaken in the Kingdom of true communion http://www.surya.org/2004/12/christmas-prayer.htmlshane@surya.org (Lama Surya Das)http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6818954/posts/summary/110117443573756206Tue, 23 Nov 2004 01:23:42 +00002004-11-22T21:03:42.923-05:00Of late people have been telling me that they are so stressed out about the election and attached to its outcome that they can hardly think, or even breathe. Like myself, they wonder "What can I do? What is next. How to go on, not give up, make a contribution...." We are a nation deeply divided. Either way, somebody gets hurt in this kind of election where partisan politics plays such a http://www.surya.org/2004/11/post-election-thoughts-five.htmlshane@surya.org (Lama Surya Das)http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6818954/posts/summary/108280539151583581Sat, 24 Apr 2004 11:16:34 +00002004-06-20T15:52:34.543-04:00SURYA’S BLOG: Making Spiritual Connections April 7, 2004 I got blogged this morning by Mitch Kapor. We were walking his two labradoodles on the beach in the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge near Crissy Field, when he told me I should have a blog—as he’d told me nine or ten years ago that I should have a web page for my Buddhist center, which has turned out very well for ushttp://www.surya.org/2004/04/suryas-blog-making-spiritualshane@surya.org (Lama Surya Das)http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6818954/posts/summary/108748158393663629Thu, 17 Jun 2004 14:12:01 +00002004-06-20T15:49:01.713-04:00WEAPONS OF MASS DISTRACTION AND THE LONGING FOR A POLITICS OF PRINCIPLES I doubt we could say the same today. Personally, I long for sincere statesman to step up and lead us, but fear our country is not ready to either produce or recognize and elect a high calibre of political individual. It hurt when Wellstone of Minnesota and Tsongas of Massachusetts both met untimely death. I admired them http://www.surya.org/2004/06/weapons-of-mass-distraction-andshane@surya.org (Lama Surya Das)http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6818954/posts/summary/108444964856046608Thu, 13 May 2004 11:47:23 +00002004-06-06T15:15:23.926-04:00SURYA'S BLOG: OPENING THE BOOK OF NATURE I love water. Fortunately water and I are already practically one, at least according to my doctor. I always feel peaceful harmony around water. Whenever I see water, meditation naturally happens. Sitting on the beach I don’t even have to try; it seems as if the waves do it for me, like an outer form of the inner tide of my breathing, washing http://www.surya.org/2004/05/suryas-blog-opening-book-of-nature-ishane@surya.org (Lama Surya Das)