I really don't watch much TV anymore. When I want to catch up on the
shows I'm interested in, I turn to Hulu. A few weeks ago, began noticing ads on Hulu for a website called "Kiva"
that allows people all over the world to make micro-loans to
entrepreneurs primarily in developing countries. To be honest, I
thought the idea sounded interesting but I didn't think much of it.
And then recently, I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts, "Stuff You Should Know"
and Josh & Chuck began talking about starting a team on Kiva to
bring their listeners together to make a difference.
Well, now my interest was piqued so I decided to check the site out.
Photo! (Click on the link to see it, because Glamour owns the photo.)
This seems like an incredibly lightweight (ahem) topic for a Buddhist blog post, but returning from almost a solid week on retreat at Shambhala Mountain Center, a good bit of it contemplating mindfulness of body, this news hit like a ton of bricks.
In advance of their annual Leading Figure award to a
religious figure who has done the most to advance the cause of humanism and
peace, the Geneva-based International Coalition for the Advancement of
Religious and Spirituality (ICARUS) has chosen to bestow a special award this
year on the Buddhist Community."We
typically prefer an under-the-radar approach for the organization, as we try to
embody the spirit of modesty found in the greatest traditions," said ICARUS
director Hans Groehlichen in a phone conference Monday. "But with organized
religion increasingly used as a tool to separate and inflame rather than bring
together, we felt we had to take the unusual step of creating a "Best Religion
in the World" award and making a bit of a stir, to inspire other religious
leaders to see what is possible when you practice compassion."
Last week I saw a young woman get attacked on the street, in what I always thought of as a really safe neighborhood, in broad daylight. As she walked past a supermarket, a man rushed at her and grabbed her waist and at her face. He didn't try to steal her purse or anything or even take her anywhere. It was literally like he just had some split second impulse to grab someone. It made absolutely no sense. The woman screamed and immediately three guys from inside the supermarket came rushing out, their price guns clattering to the ground as they tore the guy off of her (the D'Agostino Heroes?) One of them screamed at the man, "You will not touch her again! You will back off from her!" The man who had grabbed her looked like he didn't even know what he had done. He looked so utterly confused, like he had no memory of what just happened. The three guys from the supermarket cornered him against the outside wall of the building while one of them called the police.
I take delight in the endless multiplicity of form. I especially delight in my iPhone. And when I bought my new 3GS at 9am Friday morning, after the briefest of waits at a local store, I was delighted. I did...
So the confirmation hearings for Sonia Sotomayor are set for July 13. Let the projections begin!There are lots of projections out there, but the most mystifying yet illuminating may well be this one, sent to me for this week's Buddha...
Welcome to One City. You've lived here your whole life, whether you know it or not. One City blog is an outgrowth of The Interdependence Project, a Buddhist-inspired nonprofit organization led by Ethan Nichtern, dedicated to teaching the insights of Buddhism, meditation, mindfulness, and interconnectedness in the 21st century world.
If you're interested in how your mind works, are interested in meditation (but don't want to pretend you live in ancient Asia), care about the world, are into media, love contemporary culture, and above all, really dig the truth of interdependence-that nothing happens in a vacuum--then this blog is for you.
Ethan Nichtern
Author, founding director of the Interdependence Project, and the host of the I.D. Project’s popular weekly podcast » Posts by Ethan Nichtern
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