John Sojun Godfrey spent eight years living as a monk in Daitoku-ji, a Rinzai Zen monastery in Kyoto. He says he spent most of that time in silence. There were few discussions of philosophy and doctrine within the monastery, he said.

"I think the assumption is that if you are interested enough in Buddhism to become a monk that you are going to do this (learn the philosophy) anyway," he said. "I also really feel that they (other monks) don't think it's important. I don't feel that it is necessary to be able to explain what we are doing in able to do it

I understand that in Japan, people who want to learn Zen practice are given little direction except how to sit zazen. I once read an autobiography by a Japanese Zen nun, who said that on her first day in the monastery she was told only to go to the zendo and sit with Mu. So she went into the zendo, completely baffled, and finally asked someone which monk was Mu.  (Mu is not a person but the name of a koan.)

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Buddhism for Beginners originally appeared on About.com Buddhism on Saturday, December 5th, 2009 at 22:58:07.

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Lee Henderson's exhibition complicates the idea of authenticity and buddhism, but lacks an entry point Amy Fung / amy@vueweekly.com Investigating the arbitrary boundaries surrounding authenticity, specifically in relation to the practice of Buddhism, Lee Henderson's photo-based exhibition, when you have not been there, your heart is full of longing ...

Roger Ebert argues that "New Age beliefs are the Creationism of the Progressives." At progressive gatherings, he says, it is unusual for someone to openly admit to Christian fundamentalist beliefs, yet people will discuss their astrological signs and claim to have been royalty in a past life. Although he supports the right to "profess any faith, or none," Ebert thinks that "belief in the scientific truth and application of such beliefs" as creationism or palm reading should be a red flag when the believer is running for public office.

As far as that goes I tend to agree with Ebert, but this is a very slippery topic. People in the West have a tendency to dump all non-Abrahamic religions into a box labeled either "New Age" or "silly affectation." The latter is especially true when the religion is Asian but the practitioner is not.

Certainly, a lot of what is called "New Age" is just an unsorted collection of fanciful ideas and superstitions. Believing that you were a Roman centurion in a past life and hanging crystals all over your house for good luck does not add up to a spiritual path or practice. It's just clinging. On the other hand, I've met people who have made Wicca into a real practice. It's not something I relate to personally, but I respect it.

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Religion, Superstition, and the Space Between originally appeared on About.com Buddhism on Thursday, December 3rd, 2009 at 11:16:24.

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HONG KONG a ' China announced last month new regulations governing Tibetan Buddhism, including a stipulation that senior monks, known as "living Buddhas," cannot be reincarnated without government permission.

If you don't know about the Rama Page , it's worth a look to see what this guy Lenz was really about, and why it's quite absurd to conflate what this guy was doing with what the rest of the world regards as Buddhism.

At Religion Dispatches, Danny Fisher asks why there are no Buddhists on President Obama's 25-member Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Yeah, Brother Danny. I want to know, too.

If you don't mind some personal kvetching -- I associate frequently, especially on Google groups, with people of many religions who are also progressive political activists. And when the Obama Administration announced the appointees to the Advisory Council, there was much criticism from my associates of these appointees, because the panel's membership tilts more conservatively than they'd like.

But my observation that there were no Buddhists at all on the Advisory Council was met with silence. Not an issue worth being concerned about, apparently.

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Why Are We (Sometimes) Invisible? originally appeared on About.com Buddhism on Tuesday, December 1st, 2009 at 13:46:51.

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Dhammachari Subhuti from the United Kingdom paying tribute to Buddha at Siddhartha Buddha Vihar in Gulbarga on Sunday.

First, if you're ever called upon to write an opinion piece for a newspaper, do a little fact-checking first. Andy Lamey's basic premise in "Stop the lama love-in" is that His Holiness the Dalai Lama is failing as the leader of the Tibetan liberation movement and should step aside. However, one could question whether His Holiness has ever functioned as anything resembling a leader of a "Tibetan liberation movement."

His role at this point is hard to pin down, I admit. The Dalai Lama is no longer a head of state, even a head of state in exile, except in a figurative sense. The Tibetan government in exile is now headed by the prime minister of an elected parliament, and His Holiness has stepped away from running a government. Further, the many pro-Tibet activists around the globe don't take orders from the Dalai Lama and often do not agree with him.

Yes, he has failed at winning any freedom for Tibet. But the Dalai Lama's "middle way" strategy is completely rational, especially given that China has the largest standing army in the world and Tibet is, um, Tibet. Armed rebellion would almost certainly end in a bloodbath.

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Dalai Lama: Too Dogmatic, or Not Dogmatic Enough? originally appeared on About.com Buddhism on Saturday, November 28th, 2009 at 21:47:04.

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Looking for comfort after his dog's death, Richard Weissman turned to Buddhism. He is now president of a Dharma Center.

At the site Well&GoodNYC there's an article called "It's just turkey: A Buddhist primer for surviving the holidays." I'm sorry I didn't find this until late last night, after most Thanksgiving dinners were consumed. But, we've still got Christmas to survive enjoy, right?

The advice comes from Carl Sheusi, a NYC holistic coach and yoga teacher who incorporates Zen teacher Genpo Merzel Roshi's "Big Mind" teachings into his work. It's good advice for anyone from families of button-pushers, or anyone who endures holiday dinners feeling misunderstood and judged.

Instead, Sheusi says, family dinners can be upaya. "If we're going to become enlightened, we need to admit our not so favorite parts of ourselves," he says. "And there's nothing like family to help us with that."

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Surviving Family Holiday Dinners originally appeared on About.com Buddhism on Friday, November 27th, 2009 at 10:00:30.

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Patna, Nov 27 : Buddhist monks want control over the management of the Mahabodhi temple in Bodh Gaya, one of Buddhism's holiest shrines.

Daya Dissanayake at Groundviews opines : "In Sri Lanka, the Dhamma preached by the Buddha has gone through many transformations." Cancel this reply Start the Conversation Authors, please log in>> Name Email Website Subscribe to comments on this post via email Guidelines All comments are moderated .

Via Greg Zwahlen at Beliefnet, check out "First Person Plural" by Paul Bloom, published in the November 2008 Atlantic. Bloom is a professor of psychology at Yale, and he is writing about happiness. But he is also writing about the nature of selves. He says,

We used to think that the hard part of the question "How can I be happy?" had to do with nailing down the definition of happy. But it may have more to do with the definition of I.

He also writes that scientists are struggling with the concept of self, since self is not something that can be pinned down physiologically. Some scientists say that a person is a collection of systems and subsystems that interact with each other, but there is no one spot in in our heads that is always "me." Others think something within us must be the chief executive in charge; they just haven't figured out what it is yet.

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We Contain Multitudes originally appeared on About.com Buddhism on Wednesday, November 25th, 2009 at 16:34:42.

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Today is the day of the annual pre-Thanksgiving presidential photo op, in which the President of the United States gets his picture taken with a turkey or two.  Contrary to what you might read in news stories, the first president to issue an official pardon that spared the turkey's life was President George H.W. Bush, in 1989. Before that, the turkey was just as likely to be the main course at the White House Thanksgiving dinner.

Since 2005 the pardoned turkeys have been sent to either Disneyland or Disney World to be grand marshals in a Thanksgiving parade. This year's official White House turkey, Courage, and the emergency backup turkey, Carolina, will be sent to the California park and will live out their days in Frontierland.

Some animal welfare activists argue that the fragile birds ought to be sent to a farm sanctuary instead. Domestic turkeys are bred to die young. They are overweight creatures with weakened immune systems, and even the pampered presidential turkeys usually die within six months of their "reprieve."

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Pardon Us originally appeared on About.com Buddhism on Wednesday, November 25th, 2009 at 10:19:52.

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A hacker who posted a fake message on the Web site of China's famous Shaolin Temple repenting for its commercial activities was just making a mean joke, the temple's abbot was cited as saying by Chinese state media Monday.

Photo shows a 30.5-m-high brass gilt Buddha statue made in the reign of Emperor Yongle of the Ming Dynasty .