10 Of the Best Websites for Buddhism

1. How to Save the World  Dave Pollard is an extraordinary thinker who has been writing for years about the intersection of environment, intentional community, and personal choices and "a better understanding of how the world really works". There is no other writer who so consistently challenges the limits of my understanding and causes me to return again and again to their ideas. Dave nearly always leads to me to an "ah-hah" moment, but sometimes it takes re-reading or marinating his essays to get it.

2. Buddhanet Hands down the most absurdly well-stocked library of information about Buddhism online, Buddhanet has everything from online meditation teachings, to an evolving Buddhist eLibrary, a massive director of Sanghas and Buddhist organizations worldwide, mp3's of chanting, teachings and Buddhist songs - all donation supported since 1995. This is one of the first places I saw Buddhism being explored online, and it is constantly being updated.

3. The Dalai Lama's Personal Wesbite His Holiness'  website includes audio teachings in many languages (check out Webcasts) as well as news updates and a photo gallery that makes me wonder why he's never done a music video.

4. Buddhist Geeks While The Interdependence Project may have the best podcasts of contemporary Buddhist classes available online, Buddhist Geeks is the leader in awesome interviews with Buddhist teachers, scholars and thinkers, all of which are meant to inspire direct action rather than just mere "flapping their gums".  Chief geek Vince Horn did a great guest post here at the IDP blog last week that drew over 170 comments.

5. Tricycle While Buddhist Geeks and the Interdependence Project rigorously strive to make teachings relevant to 21st century internet dwellers, Tricycle tends to a bit more navel-gazing, critical analysis and review. Always thoughtful, always scented by just a whiff of Nag Champa, Tricycle's online magazine and their blog are where I go when I need a more philosophical moment.

6. Kevin Kelly's Lifestream Back in the day, Wired Magazine was a mind-bending, thought-provoking hotbed of thinking about how people, technology, and the physical environment intersected. Though it's tended toward more standard coverage of toys and technology over the last few years, founder Kevin Kelly's writing about the Technium on his personal blog continues to deliver impactful ideas on a par with Dave Pollard's.  In his latest post, he proposes that The Technium  (his term for the physical world of technolgy) comprises less than 1% of all the physical atoms on earth, yet has an effect perhaps more profound than the other 99%. The Lifestream is a feed of all his writing on all the subjects he writes so eloquently about. 

7. Shambhala Sunspace When Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche brought his version of Buddhism to the West forty years ago, he framed them as the Shambhala teachings to make them relevant to a young American audience.   As Shambhala Sun magazine (the physical version) continues to serve a largely older population made up of the people who gave Buddhism its foundation in Western Society, its blog Shambhala Sunspace is finding its sea legs as it engages today's younger audience.  Editor Rod Meade Sperry is doing a fantastic job, and it wouldn't surprise me if his work with Sunspace becomes an important part of the emerging conversation about Buddhism in modern life.

8. Illuminated Mind Jonathan Mead's website about livelihood, creativity, and finding your authentic voice could easily be a pastiche of cheesy self-development crap.  Instead, he's managed to make lessons learned on his own deeply felt (and ongoing) journey to self-actualization relevant to anyone who's ever wondered "who the F am I anyways?"  I've never asked Jonatahan if he's Buddhist or if he practices meditation, but I do know this: he tests every idea that he comes up with in the lab of his own life, rejects what doesn't work, keeps what does, then writes about it in a way that makes me feel like I am up at 2AM having an amazing conversation with an old friend. Love it.

9. Elephant Journal If the Interdependence Project is the New Yorky/crunchy/environmentalist/Kumbaya/neurotic love child of Martin Luther King Jr, Allen Ginsberg and Woody Harrelson, then Elephant Journal is our easy-breezy/Bouldery-y/athletic intellectual/pine-scented/ski-pass toting/yoga-doing cousin.  Personally I'd love to see a shirtless Celebrity Buddhist Smackdown between Ethan Nichtern and Waylon Lewis, but I should proabably keep my sordid fantasies to myself. In any given day, Elephant Journal might write about yoga practice, a consumer boycott, the coolest yoga pants to buy, and the decline and resurrection of a personal meditation practice. If I turn the computer off for two hours, when I turn it back on I'm almost guaranteed there will be something fresh from Elephant Journal.

10. Ann Coulter One of the key teachings of Buddhism is to develop enough space in your own mind that you can recognize, and choose how to deal with, the three poisions of greed, anger and ignorance.  As root causes of suffering, we dedicate our practice to shining a light on the poisions in ourselves and others, in order to alleviate dissatisfaction.  I can think of no better opportunity to practice compassion or deal with our own internal reactions than being faced with a living, breathing example of the three poisions run amok.  Ann Coulter is a shining example of what happens when you (consciously or not) embrace the poisons and then package and sell them back to other people to increase their dissatisfaction without offering any hope or path to a more easeful way of being.  This may be the best site site of all the best sites for Buddhists, as it offers an opportunity to practice how we deal with unskillful emotions in oursleves, and in others.  It's easier being Buddhist in the familar environments of  Elephant Journal, Tricycle, or Buddhist Geeks -  but what happens when we are confronted with button-pushing unskillful dogma? 

I've deliberately avoided listing any sites that are commercial re-packagings of the Buddha's teachings as instant enlightement, "quadrant thinking", or new agey self development.  (you know who you are - some of your ads even show up automatically at the bottom of this page). 

What's your favorite places to visit online? What sites have I missed?