Occupy… WTDD? –What Would Tommy Douglas Do?

Last month, Oct. 15th, my friend Gelek and I joined the Occupy Toronto march; and we hung around St. James Park to watch the encampment get set up and we got to watch how some of the group process works.  It's inspiring. A week later, I read something activist Sujata Dey wrote (http://roverarts.com/2011/10/wwtdd-what-would-tommy-douglas-do/) in a …

“Calm and pacify your own mindstream…” (advice from Mingyur Rinpoche’s Goodbye letter)

Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, teacher and author of  The Joy of Living, and  Joyful Wisdom, departed retreat in Bodhgaya (India) this past June (2011). In a 6 minute youtube video (link below), recorded at Garrison Institute NY in July, his brother Tsoknyi Rinpoche describes the circumstances, and the effect on their family. It is inspiring. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIxOS0CafQw&sns=em …

No Nukes!

No Nukes! Because of the long-term consequences.... Because of the extremely dangerous pollution and radiation problems we are handing on to generations and generations to come in the future, I think nuclear power plants must be opposed by all compassionate people. Germany has just reinstated the Green Party's plan to shut down all nuclear power …

Some thoughts on the common toad (post election)

Here is something I re-read this morning to re-ground me in the face of the May 5th Canadian election. Since only 40% of the 60% of eligible voters who cast ballots on Monday voted for the Harper (Reform) conservative party; that means 24% of eligible voters gave majority control of parliament to the most autocratic …

Japan Disaster Relief Benefit

If you find yourself in Montreal next Monday night April 11, please come out and join us  for a fundraiser to aid the Red Cross in Japan.   Monday, April 11, door 6:30pm Sala Rossa, 4848 Boulevard Saint-Laurent, Montreal, QC April 11th is the one-month anniversary of the devastating earthquake-tsunami-nuclear-plant disaster in Japan. On this night …

Nuclear Hubris

What gets me is the time frames involved with the radioactivity and toxicity of  nuclear power.  The time frames that we are monkeying around with.   Plutonium remains dangerous to any life form for 500,000 years. It's "half-life" is 24,400 years. "And even 24,000 years is 15 times as long as something called civilization has existed." …

The Passing of Sayadaw U Thila Wunta

The Teacher of my Teachers passed away on Thursday March 17, 2011; he was 99 yrs old. He ordained my principal Teacher (Namgyal Rinpoche/Anandabodhi) in the late 1950s, and my senior Teacher (Sonam Senge/Bodhinanda) in the early 1980s. I took students to his monastery in Burma to study with him in 2003, 2005+06. He was …

Green leaves do not waste enough energy (for our scientific models)… Why?

(A conversation with Darrell Piekarz) A while back, I was listening to this CBC radio story on "the-top-10-unanswered-questions-in-the-universe", [link to the radio show is here:] http://www.cbc.ca/quirks/episode/2010/01/02/the-top-10-unanswered-questions-in-the-universe/ and it was pretty cool. It explained things in a way non-physicists could understand too. There was one story/question that really interested me: How come plants don't waste enough …

My favorite Christmas story

My favorite Christmas story is from Father René Fumeleau, a Catholic priest in Lutselk'e, Northwest Territories (NWT), Canada.  [He recounts it in a lovely audio CD of his stories, "They Gave Me a Chance"]. As a young man, Father Fumeleau was sent to a small  Dene community in the NWT for his first assignment as …

Dana

Often at the entrance to a meditation center there will be a donation bowl, sometimes with the Pali word “Dana” over it, and maybe it’ll also have a sign saying that the center or the teacher rely on donations so please donate to support the teaching. This is fine, and perhaps it is a necessary …