Lecture announcement

From the Vanderbilt News Service: 
Buddhist scholar to lecture on consumerism and ecology at Vanderbilt; David Loy speaks on March 18
Buddhist scholar David Loy will discuss how that religious tradition offers a fresh spiritual perspective on consumerism and ecology during a lecture at Vanderbilt University.
Loy, who holds the Besl Family Chair of Ethics/Religion and Society at [...]

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Reading for March 3

The Threefold Purity
By Pema Chödrön
“To begin with, just give up any expectations of yourself. That’s a simple good instruction for how to do Buddhist meditation.”
Buddhist meditation is about dissolving our fixation on ourselves, on the process of meditating, and on any result we might gain from it. Through meditation, we begin to get the hang [...]

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Documentary screening

The Nashville Peace and Justice Center is hosting a free screening of the documentary, Prisoner of Rangoon, on Sunday night, February 24. It will be shown at Cafe Outloud at 1707 Church Street at 7:00 p.m.
Details: The Prisoner of Rangoon is a thirty minute television documentary about the life of Aung San Suu Kyi, [...]

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Reading for February 25

 Note: this reading was originally scheduled for discussion on February 18 but has been postponed to February 25.
Song of Fools
by Bonnie Myotai Treace
In the spirit of April Fool’s day, I wanted to address the fools. Though Zen is a tradition that takes its integrity from the fact that it doesn’t “fool around” in terms of [...]

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Reading for February 11

People who do not know how to practice the way therefore want to get rid of afflictions. Afflictions are originally void and null; you are trying to use the way to seek the way beyond. — Pao-chih

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The Lotus Blooms in the Mud

The lotus flower is revered in Buddhist lore because of the way it grows and blooms. Lotus plants thrive in muck and mud, yet they produce some of nature’s most glorious flowers. The Buddha taught that the muddy, murky condition of the mind is the very place where our own Buddha nature thrives. We don’t [...]

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