Dimensionally Barrett

How’s everyone doing today? How was your weekend? Mine was a learning period. On Saturday, a number of people met for a Democracy Cafe sponsored by Bayou Blue Democrats . Most skewed older, but it was a good mix of people across demographics of the city. A number of discussions came up about the fraught nature of the times we’re living in but two things were readily apparent. One is that this is a group of people who are taking the right steps in calling their reps (and emailing) and if they themselves are not organizers, they get out and protest and stand with others.  Another thing I noticed is that just about everyone feels distant from leadership in Washington. Part of this is being in a state run by right wing conservatives who are, if not in lock-step with the White House, not too far from it. Mostly, though, what came out was the lack of confidence in Schumer or Jeffries as the leaders of the Dems in the House and Senate. To be suer, the house of Representatives has tended t...

Jesus and Buiddha by Xiron/Deviant Art For  Kelly Ann Morrow Recently, I was reminded of how notions of religious practice and/or dogma intersect with secular custom and why I really don’t like to identify as a Buddhist (although, yes, I am a card-carrying member thereof of the Tibetan variety.) I tend to keep my affiliation private and if someone knows my history, then fine, I’m happy to represent. I am not always certain that some Buddhists would want me to do so, perhaps for some reasons that we may encounter here.  Buddhism isn’t monolithic. This tends to rub some practitioners the wrong way, but it’s frankly obvious. Just as Christianity isn’t monolithic. Or any other group, tradition, or for that matter, individual. We - all of us - contain multitudes. That being said, the question surrounding how different practitioners encounter the world is likely to vary. An amusing - well, to me - example is, do or can Buddhists celebrate Halloween? Sure, I’ll bet there are some con...

My friend Ann Hall put me onto an article published by the CBC called “McMindfulness: how capitalism hijacked the Buddhist teaching of mindfulness” which recaps an interview (that you can listen to on the article page ) with Ronald Purser, author of McMindfulness: How Mindfulness Became the New Capitalist Spirituality . The interviewer leads with a quote from a review about Purser's book and it's loaded with meaning: "None of us dreamed that mindfulness would become so popular or even lucrative, much less that it would be used as a way to keep millions of us sleeping soundly through some of the worst cultural excesses in human history, all while fooling us into thinking we were awake and quiet." At the very least, what "mindfulness" is supposed to do is wake us up, not put us to sleep. It is this that is at the crux of the issue. What “mindfulness” seems to be is a watered-down approach to vipassana meditation. I know that the pedagogy focus...

When my old friend Pamela Blotner asked me where I'd be in June, I probably said, "Kathmandu". I can't imagine I'd say, "France" or "Borneo". France is lovely; Borneo I don't know. But Pamela dropped a nugget about Artists Beyond Borders sometime ago and she similarly dropped it yet again, to the effect that ABB would be assembling an exhibit at the American Center in Yangon and promoting collaborations among Burmese artists for about three weeks. I don't think she was fishing for me to volunteer, but if she was, her subtle powers certainly worked because I asked when I should be there. Easy-peasy. I arrived a few days before Pamela and her colleagues, Mie Preckler and Elizabeth Addison and over the course of time, I would fall for Yangon (and by extension, Myanmar). From a human rights perspective, I'm not a stranger to Myanmar's place in - particularly - the latter part of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. I...