Category: Buddhist Basics
The Basics of Goodness
What do Buddhists believe? When I’m asked that question there’s a flood of answers I could give ranging from 5 seconds (“We don’t believe, we practice.”) to 4 hours (“There was a man named Siddhartha…”). The answer I give most of the time is this: We believe that every being has […]
Read MoreThe Introvert in Me Honors the Shut Up in You
Life used to be pretty sweet. I could go about my business happily enjoying alone time, Star Trek, and computer games while the people who loved me just said, “Oh, she’s not very social” and sent me nice notes about events I was invited to, but not expected to attend. […]
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Got the News Blues? Transcend the Plot
Want a sure way to rejected by every publisher ever? Start your query letter with, “This is a character driven novel.” I guarantee you’ll be getting the “Thanks, but this is not for us” email before your tea gets cold. Characters create feelings, give insight, and spur our desires, but in […]
Read MoreImpermanence, Loss, and the Dark Sacred Night
“You lost, get over it.” I’ve heard that. I’ve seen it on Republican friends’ facebook walls and in right leaning media since November 2016. It crops up every time there is a protest, a challenge, or a searing question about helter skelter way this country is being governed. I’ve been […]
Read MoreShall We Dance?
How awesome is my wife? Walking in the house with arms full of groceries I said, “I accidentally offended a Christian woman while talking to the flowers at Kroger.” Cathy didn’t look up from the paper she was writing. She wasn’t surprised about any of the phrases in that sentence. […]
Read MoreCharity and Stone
I come from a long line of Tennessee hillbillies …er…Appalachian Americans. My grandparents on my father’s side, Charity Grace Rupard and William “Stone” Rupard, were subsistence farmers who owned land in a holler (hollow) in Laurel Bloomery, Tennessee. Where’s that? As my uncle Claude would say, “It’s right down the […]
Read MoreRight Facebook
The prime directive of Buddhism is found in the Four Noble Truths – the beautifully bulleted, clear as a bell, seed of awakened wisdom that blossomed when Siddhārtha Gautama unfolded as The Buddha. Translated over time, language, media, and my simple minded approach to things – it shakes out something […]
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