We perceive human immigration primarily as a political issue today. It has been a social phenomenon as long as there have been people. Immigration has been a feature of hominid life from long before Homo sapien sapiens. Homo erectus immigrated out of Africa to Eurasia...
In discussing behavior in the hondo during a dharma talk recently I mentioned that the genkan (entranceway between the outside to the inner, the sanctuary, is a liminal space. A space between the sacred and the mundane or profane. Stepping across the sill at the door...
‘Symbols; institutional, religious, commercial, are all around us. We respond to them based upon our experiences with the entity that the symbol represents, as well as the visual message conveyed by the graphics and an understood meaning. When an image which has a...
‘Mid-February I had the opportunity to participate in the ‘Hizmet International Conference: Responses to Contemporary Challenges’ held in Long Beach, California. What is Hizmet, what was the conference about and what is Hizmet’s relationship to Tendai Buddhist...
‘May you live in interesting times’, is a Chinese curse that might describe the world we live in. More so for people who are plugged into the many streams of information, disinformation and misinformation that abound in our world. How I long for what the Japanese...
In the morning before breakfast Shumon and I conduct a daily gongyo. Before starting the service we sit in front of the Butsudan (family Buddhist altar), that is located to the left of the shumidan (the front altar with the main Buddha image) and offer our prayers. It...
