
The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, WA, writes about my friend and past interviewee Geshe Thupten Phelgye. Take a look.
Just a Buddhist Minister Trying to Benefit Beings Online




MahaSangha News reports on the 2009 International Conference for Buddhist Sangha Education:
This from the Maitreya Project in Bodh Gaya, Bihar, India:


My friend Justin Whitaker, of the great blog American Buddhist Perspective, was on the campus of University of the West (where I work) yesterday to deliver a lecture entitled "A Buddhist Reading Kant, a Kantian Reading the Buddha". It was great to see Justin again--we roomed together at the American Academy of Religion's 2008 Annual Meeting in Chicago--and he gave what I thought was a brilliant lecture. (I tend to be wary of attempts at systematic work in Buddhist Studies, but Justin may have turned me around on the whole thing!)
Luckily, our magnificent Extended Studies Coordinator Bil Owen was on hand to record Justin's lecture for Open Campus--UWest's free, open Buddhist Studies e-learning platform. Hopefully, it will posted soon, and I'll be sure to point you all to it when that happens. In the meantime, you can check out other lectures at Open Campus from such Buddhist Studies luminaries as Lewis Lancaster, Robert Buswell, John McRae, and Robert Scharf. (I know I work for UWest and I'm biased, but really: Open Campus is way, way cool.)
The Upaya Buddhist Chaplaincy Program (on whose advisory council I serve) is now accepting applications for its third cohort, which starts in March 2010.

Earlier today, I was at the grocery store to pick up a small sauce pan and a package of whole wheat pasta. I stood in line behind two sets of customers: a man with several small children, and a middle-aged couple. The man with the small children was in the process of checking out when the middle-aged couple noticed me right behind them. Seeing that I had only the pan and pasta, they invited to jump ahead of them in line. They pushed the divider between their purchases and the man's back towards them, and then placed another divider against the last of the man's purchases. I thanked them profusely as I put my things between theirs.
Human Rights Without Frontiers International (Brussels) has announced the publication of "Human Rights in China After the Olympics". It can be purchased on Amazon.com. Edited by Willy Fautré, with contributions by Susi Dennison, Emmanouil Athanasiou, Marie Holzman, Mamtimin Ala, Vincent Metten, David Matas, David Kilgour, Leah Strauss, Reggie Garcia Littlejohn, Sang Hun Kim, and Jonathan Holslag, the volume is "an assessment of human rights in China after the 2008 Olympic Games. [It] covers the death penalty, freedom of religion or belief, environmental issues, the one-child policy, North Korean refugees, Tibetan issues, and the Uyghurs." If you get a look at it, let us know what your thoughts are.
