Excellent Blog

The atrocities in India against the Dalit community are reported in an excellent blog.

There's a wonderful new Buddhism and vegetarianism web site called Shabkar.org.

It's not dharma, but Jon Stewarts commencement speech is one of the funniest things I've read in a while.

I've greatly enjoyed Subhuti with Subhamati's book called Buddhism and Frindship, available at Windhorse. I am currently enjoying very much Sangharakshita's The Yogi's Joy.

a spiritual interpretation

I know Alison Krauss' song Maybe probably is about worldy romance, but the lines, "Tell me that I'm smart enough to deal with all the information/Spinning inside my head" could be a bit of a Buddhist teaching about our ability to truly see reality. Tagore's Gitanjali is not about worldy romance, it's about his love for God. Well, Buddhism is non-theistic, but it's inspired me to give a spiritual interpretation to the song Maybe. He in the song is the Buddha, and flying the coop, is about our mental habit of losing and not accepting the wisdom of the dharma. I suppose when you feel deeply into the dharma, everything is dharma. I'm not making any claims about my spiritual depth, I'm just talking about my ideals and hopeful focus.

BNN leads in conversion converage

I find the Buddhist News Network web site the most informative about what is going on in India. A recent article estimates that 2.5 million people have converted to Buddhism in India since Ambedkar's conversion 50 years ago.

The prison retreat was very good. I got to develop my friendship with Vajramati on the drive up and back, and in the inbetween times. Spending time with all those who participate was great. Of course the prisoners were interesting too, though I, out of propriety, didn't ask the question most on my mind--why were they there? It's a strong sangha in Concord. Bodhipoksha gave a good talk.