A quick guide to articles by guest bloggers.
From a college student
From Kadampas worldwide
From someone working in NYC
From a Buddhist nun
From a 91-year old
From a Kadampa in Japan
Japan, first-hand account of the March 11 2011 tsunami
From a friend on her deathbed
From a social worker
Meditation helps me be a better social worker and vice versa
Dealing with anger: more from our social worker
Meditation versus action: more from our social worker
Dia de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead: more from our social worker
From a Kadampa nun
Transforming a great sadness: a Buddhist nun’s tale
From a Buddhist dad
Advice from a Buddhist dad on making practice a priority
5 tips from a Buddhist dad on making time for a daily practice
Our job as a parent is to become irrelevant
Our job as a parent is to become irrelevant, part 2
If you would like to submit an article about how you apply Kadampa Buddhism to your daily life, please leave me a message in the comments.
Hi Luna,
I’m a Kadampa nun recently dianosed with cancer, and I just want to thank you for your wonderful website, which has been like a friend to me on many occasions. You’ve probably heard this many times, but whenever I have received a new article from you in my email, it has seemed to speak to exactly what I was going through… thank you so much, it’s so great to have such a down-to-earth and relateable (yet deeply profound) description of finding personal experience of dharma, from someone who’s clearly vastly experienced. Also love your sense of humour! For example, I just loved the recent picture of the squirrel wishing for the Buddha’s acorn hat 🙂
Yay Kadampa Life!!!
This comment has made my day 🙂
I will be making prayers for you to realize the illusory body quickly — these meaty old things are hopeless.
Do introduce yourself to me at a festival if u are going, perhaps we could have tea.
love xxx
Lots of Love to Kelsang Lamden from Salt Lake City, Utah!
I wish you be free of any suffering, happy and healthy. Yay!
This blog is so nice and helpful.
Christian.
Hi Luna,
I have recently produced a paper called ‘It’s only Thoughts’. It is essentially about non-duality in Modern Science and Buddhism. I am an active member of the NKT here in Salisbury (near Southampton Theckchen Centre) UK… Would you be interested in reviewing it for an appearance somewhere on your wonderful site??
Much Love,
Neil
PS – loved your David Bowie article; but I remain his biggest fan! LOL.. 🙂
yes i would 🙂
if u go to Luna Kadampa’s FB page, you can private message it to me that way.
Life on earth has become more complex than in Gautama Buddha time. Perhaps humanity/life has its own Karma. We must each follow our own path.
? Guest article ?
What Would Buddha Have To Say If He Were Here Today
I had an interesting chat last evening near Ulverston with a lady who is “interested” in Buddhism, who is a neighbor, has been to Manjushri Centre various times, as a visitor, and has had many encounters with Buddhists over the last few years. She works as a “Nutritionist” in the local Health Food Store, is active in various ecologically minded projects in the local community. She has interests in conventional personal growth pursuits as well, helping people to apply similar macrocosmic ecological principles to internal mind/ecological issues (conventional concepts of personal psychology and interpersonal peace).
Anyways, during a short and very enjoyable countryside walk she expressed her disapproval at what he has concluded is Buddhist disinterest in the environment and global environmental apathy. She was quite critical of some of Manjushri Centre’s ecological practices, using a certain peat compost for example, as being an uneducated and dangerous disinterest in the environment. I know nothing about these issues (which possibly proves her point).
She said athough modern Buddhists seem to be not very ‘clued in’, that Buddha would have had a lot to say if he were here. I was not very comfortable with my responses, or, to be more specific, with the inablity of my responses to interest her more in Buddhism.
I woke up as happens quite often, with my mind cogitating highlights of my previous 24 hours of conventional reality. Often a few words cluster together and there is a spontaneous manifestation of a succinct synthesis of ‘all that’. Here it is:
Georgie took me out for a stroll
She talked about our world and Petroleum
She said “What would Buddha have to say, if he were here today…
What would Buddha have to say, if he were here today?”
Georgie thinks we should turn it around
We gotta stop messin’ up the ground
We need to be environmentally conscious, stop bein’ so obnoxious
What would Buddha have to say, if he were here today?”
Georgie thinks Buddhists are too apathetic
She says that we just don’t get it
She says that we never say a word, about what we’re doin’ to the world
“Now what would Buddha have to say, if he were here today?”
So my questions are the following:
1) How do we defend our focus on inner ecology, and our apparent disinterest in outer ecology?
2) How do we help someone like Georgie who has a sincere and apparently virtuous interest in reducing suffering in our conventional world, understand that Buddha’s teachings are congruent with personal and collective moral discipline? (I am already intuiting ‘Nirvana’ as the same ecologically conscious destination/result that we are all seeking, but at the time it seemed a great leap to quickly and succinctly describe the leap from earth to Nirvana). I feared becoming ‘bogged down’.
3) We are living in what we Buddhists regard as degenerate times and the degeneration of our environment is a part of this predicted process. Does this make us in a way unavoidably fatalistic, and apparently apathetic? This is the way I appeared to myself yesterday.
4) We are able to influence our personal karma through purification practices; are we able to influence collective environmental karma? If so, should we be more ecologically optimistic?
5) I suspect that this whole ‘environment’ issue is related to Buddhist ‘cosmology’ and also I think I am seeing that there is possibly a grasping at permanence in the environmentalist’s perspective. Although I was tempted to discuss impermanence of the planet with Georgie I encountered some reluctance in my mind. I feel this reluctance sometimes when contemplating discussing impermanence or emptiness wirth a mother.
Sean in Windermere
6) Would Buddha have a lot to say about the way we are treating our environment if he were here today?
I think I forgot an important question here, Luna 🙂
7) If Budhha would have something to say about how we are treating the environment today what do we imagine he might say?
This is all pretty interesting, in fact.
Hi Luna – I’m trying to find an entry I read awhile back about an older person reflecting on not being able to attend a festival (or some type of Dharma event). I thought it was a guest entry, but can’t find it. I want to pass it on to a friend. Can you point me in the right direction? Thanks so much.
I have updated this page and hope you can now find what you are looking for.
Hi Luna,
I’d like to send you an article. May I email it to you?
Yes.
I’d like to write for your blog, what are the submission guidelines?
Hi Denise, that’s a good question! Generally, anything that illustrates how Kadampa Buddhist teachings and meditations are helping people with their daily lives. About half the readership are Kadampa Buddhists, the rest are not, so ideally the article will be accessible to a wider, interested audience (and written without too many technical terms, unless they’re explained). I look forward to seeing what you write 🙂
hi Luna.. i dont know about kadampa buddhism but i am zen buddhism friendly! i do a lot of meditating. check out my site.. if you dont like it you’ll know 🙂
look to la luna!
I’ve been looking for a site like this for quite some time now. I’ve been studying Buddhism for about 2 years now. Kadam Morten Clausen has been my teacher (at the White Plains, NY sangha). Kadam Morten suggested I look this site up, and here I am!
And i’m glad you are!