Tagbuddhism

MIT Hires Buddhist Chaplain

monk with ibook

An interesting article about MIT’s new Buddhist chaplain:

Tenzin Priyadarshi’s path to becoming a Buddhist monk began when he was just 10 and he ran away from home in pursuit of the recurring “vision” he saw in his dreams of a monastery and an old man.

Tenzin, who grew up in an upper-class Hindu family of intellectuals and bureaucrats, slipped away from his boarding school one morning with the equivalent of $5 in his pocket. He left a note for his parents that he was embarking on a “spiritual quest.”

After a 24-hour train ride, he found himself at the foot of a mountain in Rajgir, India. It was at the top of that mountain where he found the very same monastery he had seen in his dreams, he said. He recognized the face of one of the monks who greeted him as the same man he had seen in his vision.

AP: From vision to Buddhism, monk finds a home at MIT

Judaism, Meditation and The B-Word

A review of three books dealing with the issues of Judaism, meditation, and Buddhism.

Many today are worried about Buddhism because they’re worried about assimilation, fearing that Jews are leaving Judaism. But “assimilation” has a second meaning, as well: to incorporate or absorb something into oneself. In this deeper meaning, the Jews always have been a people of assimilation. And from Aristotle to goulash, Temple pews to Moroccan maqamat (melodic modes), foreign influences enliven our experience of ourselves. Likewise, Slater’s meditations end with a surprisingly traditional truth: that “pursuing the mitzvot, living fully in God’s presence, may actually be the way home.”

Full Story: Forward: Judaism, Meditation and The B-Word

Nature articles on neuroscience

Doubt cast on theory that magnetic fields spark religious feelings

Dali Lama holds conference on neuroscience

It was the 12th time since 1987 that the Dalai Lama has convened leading psychologists and neurobiologists to hear the latest scientific thinking in fields related to the human mind. These meetings are organized by the Mind & Life Institute in Louisville, Colorado, which was established in the 1980s to promote communication between science and Buddhism. But much of the credit for this open communication goes to the Dalai Lama himself.

(Both via LVX23)

Grant Morrison on Trends, Comics, and Being a Carrier for Memes

One of the best interviews I’ve read with Grant Morrison has been published by Sequential Tart.

Perhaps I’m unnaturally attuned to unreal worlds and characters. At an important time in my life, between the ages of 12 and 19, I was practically autistic at home. I had a lot of fun at a boys school during the day but evenings were grim beyond Morrissey’s most rueful yodellings, spent huddled in our flat above the Finefare, drawing my own homemade comic books and writing fantasy novels with cock in hand (see Flex Mentallo #3 ). I believe utterly in the ‘reality’ of fictional characters and assume that they all exist independently of my imagination with needs and requirements of their own, like Buddhist tulpa thoughtforms. I’ve always felt that my best writing is more like channeling the voices and adventures of real characters doing this stuff in a real place – the comic as it exists in the future perhaps. Call me crazy if you like but it’s working very well for me so I’m unlikely to be convinced at this stage that my conclusions are mistaken.

Sequential Tart: Punching Holes Through Time Grant Morrison

(via Barbelith)

Tibetan Neuroscience

A Science and the Mind conference in Australia has been discussing Tibetan meditation techniques and what neuroscientists can learn from them.

“Truly great advances of any kind are about making leaps … that explode on you seemingly from nowhere,” said Allan Snyder, keynote speaker at the conference, who is working on a thinking cap using magnetic pulses to access the creativity of the non-conscious mind.

Wired: What Buddhists Know About Science

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