Archive for February, 2009
Thursday, February 26th, 2009
Podcast: Living Unapposed | Infinite Smile
In this podcast, Michael shares his view of what it means to no longer oppose anything. Rather than letting this guide us into a bland state of dormancy and avoidance, non-opposition helps us engage more constructively in life.
via, Infinite Smile.
No Comments » - Posted in Podcast, Theory & Practice by Michael McAlister
Thursday, February 26th, 2009
Bernie Madoff’s malfunctioning mirror neurons
Salon offers up an interesting article this morning questioning the way Madoff’s mind works.
I suspect we all wonder what, if anything, Madoff feels when directly confronted by those he has utterly destroyed. He cooked the books and perpetually lied to his investors. He pulled off the ongoing deception with an utter insensitivity to others. If [...]
No Comments » - Posted in People, Theory & Practice, Writing by Michael McAlister
Wednesday, February 25th, 2009
Economics 101 Meets Buddhism
Digital Dharma offers us a cool link to a discussion on merging Buddhist practice with economics.
Chances are, your college economics course didn’t involve much meditation. But after completing a fellowship at the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society, Amherst College economics professor Daniel Barbezat decided to introduce meditation, along with other Buddhist practices, into his [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Politics, Theory & Practice, Writing by Michael McAlister
Tuesday, February 24th, 2009
Yale shrink uses Buddhist concept to uproot addictions
I guess I timed my last podcast well…
New Haven Register: A Yale psychiatrist is bringing together neuroscience and Buddhist practices to help people overcome their addictions. Dr. Judson A. Brewer has conducted studies with alcoholics and cocaine addicts and now is beginning research to help people quit smoking.
The article goes on:
Addicts use their drug or [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Theory & Practice, Writing by Michael McAlister
Monday, February 23rd, 2009
Podcast: Our Addictions | Infinite Smile
ISmile208 – Our Addictions | Infinite Smile.
In this podcast, Michael discusses the most primal of all addictions. The addiction to our sense of being a separate self defines what Buddhists call delusion. Our tendency to depend on our self-created stories about what is true and what is not true generates our suffering, according to Michael. [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Podcast by Michael McAlister
Wednesday, February 18th, 2009
Podcast: I Am Offering You Nothing | Infinite Smile
In this podcast, Michael discusses the practice with a group of beginners. Issues concerning the simplicity of bowing, the wonder of his baby daughters vomiting, and the reminder of how short our time together actually is.
ISmile207.
No Comments » - Posted in Podcast by Michael McAlister
Monday, February 16th, 2009
Shambala International: a victim of Madoff
According to the Denver Post, the Agile Group, headed by longtime Dharma supporter Neal Greenberg, has been rocked by Bernard Madoff’s swindle. This could have dire implications for Shambhala.
Another potential victim of Agile’s collapse is Shambhala International, which is listed as an under-5-percent owner in the Agile Group, according to documents filed with the Securities [...]
No Comments » - Posted in People, Writing by Michael McAlister
Monday, February 16th, 2009
Just Let the Ego Bless the Economy!
Here’s an interesting post. Dr. Susan Corso offers some advice that sounds like something that could come from The Secret:
It’s time to BLESS THE ECONOMY, and quit winging and moaning about how bad it all is. Now don’t misunderstand me. I’m not in denial. It’s bad, that’s a fact, but it is not made so [...]
No Comments » - Posted in People, Theory & Practice, Writing by Michael McAlister
Monday, February 16th, 2009
Talking About Bad Feelings Helps Control Them? Really, now?
Check out Wired’s post on UCLA psychologist Matthew Lieberman’s recent study of labeling emotions. At first blush it may seem like this supports the idea that any of us using the vipassana technique of “noting” or “witnessing” where we name whatever emotion arises in our experience as it is happening, are now practicing with science [...]
3 Comments » - Posted in Theory & Practice, Writing by Michael McAlister
Friday, February 13th, 2009
In the face of fundamentalist intimidation
Andrew Sullivan writes of the moving case of John Hari:
I linked to Johann Hari’s excellent defense of free speech in the face of religious intimidation here. The piece was eventually published in India – and this is what happened:
That night, four thousand Islamic fundamentalists began to riot outside their offices, calling for me, the editor, [...]
2 Comments » - Posted in Fundamentalism, People, Writing by Michael McAlister
Thursday, February 12th, 2009
Disappointment in Your Spiritual Teachers
Great post.
I’ve written about this before but it’s always helpful to revisit the issue.
What do we do when our spiritual guides don’t quite measure up to our own expectations of them? Can recognizing their limitations actually help free the wisdom the have to offer us?
Bows, Integral Life.
2 Comments » - Posted in Chapter 8 - Commitment, Theory & Practice, Writing by Michael McAlister
Thursday, February 12th, 2009
Mötley Crüe’s Tommy Lee as Bodhisattva
Wow. I never would have guessed that Tommy Lee would be so concerned with spiders’ rights to “rock out.” I guess incarceration was helpful.
TOMMY LEE: I practice Buddhism, and I definitely believe there’s someone higher and greater than all of us out there, you know…It was a couple of years ago. I was in jail [...]
No Comments » - Posted in People, Theory & Practice, Writing by Michael McAlister
Thursday, February 12th, 2009
Podcast: Truly Stopping
In this podcast, recorded at San Damiano Retreat Center in Danville, California, Michael proposes that when we truly stop, we don’t leave room for the ego to manage our experience. Instead, something greater takes over allowing for us to respond appropriately in each moment.
Infinite Smile » ISmile206 – San Damiano Intensive: Truly Stopping.
No Comments » - Posted in Podcast, Theory & Practice by Michael McAlister
Thursday, February 12th, 2009
An Overview of the Lotus Sutra
Barbara O’Brien, over at About.com offers us a nice piece on one of the most famous of all Buddhist texts.
Of the countless scriptures of Mahayana Buddhism, few are more widely read or revered than the Lotus Sutra. Its teachings thoroughly permeate most schools of Buddhism in China, Korea and Japan. Yet its origins are shrouded [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Theory & Practice, Writing by Michael McAlister
Wednesday, February 11th, 2009
Huckabee v. Maher: digging deeper or digging in?
“Not knowing is closest.” – Ji Jang
Bows, elephantjournal.
No Comments » - Posted in Fundamentalism, Video by Michael McAlister
Wednesday, February 11th, 2009
Little Buddhas: meditation in the classroom
What if our educational system had meditation as part of the curriculum?
Math tests, soccer matches, the cafeteria bully. Grammar diagrams, global warming, dad losing his job. Now add this to some 8-year-olds’ schedules: a second- period class on dealing with stress.
Before graduating another generation of workaholic, road-raged adults, a number of California schools are intervening [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in Theory & Practice, Writing by Michael McAlister
Friday, February 6th, 2009
Tasty stuff from KW
Here we find an assortment of audio spiritual goodies from Ken Wilber’s blog.
No Comments » - Posted in People, Podcast by Michael McAlister
Friday, February 6th, 2009
Supply, Demand and Bow: Buddhist Economics
One of Thailand’s newspapers, The Nation, printed an article by Thanong Khanthong in which he shows his prescience:
Here is what I wrote in 1998:
“The impending collapse of the global capital system could heighten the interest of economists and thinkers on Buddhist economics, expounded by Thailand’s candidate for this year’s [1998] Nobel Peace Prize, the Venerable [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in Politics, Theory & Practice, Writing by Michael McAlister
Thursday, February 5th, 2009
Marrying Psychotherapy and Meditation
This is an interesting article about the relationship between psychotherapy and meditation.
Psychotherapy is a distinctly Western idea, especially in its current, most popular form—cognitive-behavioral therapy. It’s about identifying problems (“diagnoses” in medical terminology), discovering ways to deal with them, and setting objective goals or end points.
Then meditation:
Unlike psychotherapy which has an end, one learns to [...]
2 Comments » - Posted in Theory & Practice, Writing by Michael McAlister
Thursday, February 5th, 2009
I heard God on Chicago’s streets
This is interesting. It looks like a more deeply integrated approach to “loving thy neighbor” is showing up in DC.
In his remarks today at the National Prayer Breakfast, President Obama retold the story of his journey to Christianity:
“I believe this good is possible because my faith teaches me that all is possible, but I also [...]
