Two characters from Mike Judge's hit HBO comedy visit a Buddhist monastery on a trip that's less about enlightenment, more about entitlement. What happens next? Rod Meade Sperry needs to know. Spoilers and cuss-words ahead. I had the DVR on pause, queued up, as my partner came into the room. “Watch this,” I told her, and pressed play on the closing scene of last night’s [...]
About Rod Meade Sperry
Translators recognized as Santaraksita Awards are given at Tsadra Translation and Transmission conference
Gavin Kilty, a full-time translator for the Institute of Tibetan Classics since 2001, won first place in the Shantarakshita Award for Excellence in Translation at this year's Tsadra Translation and Transmission conference, which took place in Boulder, Colorado, from May 31-June 3. The honor was given in recognition of Kilty's work on Tsonghkapa's A Lamp to Illuminate the Five [...]
Forget Perfect. Just Practice.
Many of us begin meditation practice with some level of excitement and expectation. But like all things, those too shall pass. Rod Meade Sperry offers some encouragement for keeping on. Perhaps you meditate occasionally, in the park or on the bus. Maybe you have a dedicated spot in your home and a regular time to meditate. Or you study with a teacher and sit with others [...]
Five InsightLA teachers earn Theravada authorization; three others graduate from Spirit Rock’s Retreat Teacher Training Program
From InsightLA in Santa Monica, California, comes the announcement that five of the meditation center's teachers have become authorized "recognized, honored, and formally authorized in the Theravada lineage." On Saturday May 13th, Paloma Cain, Celeste Young, Lisa Kring, Emily Horn, and Vincent Horn were recognized, honored, and formally authorized in the Theravada lineage. [...]
The Dharma in Twin Peaks
Twin Peaks’s quirky-cool special agent famously upended the idea of the TV G-man. And now, after twenty-five years, Dale Cooper has resurfaced with the series' 2017 relaunch on May 21. Though followers have studied the original shows fanatically, some might have missed Cooper's significant nods to Buddhism. Rod Meade Sperry looks at one of pop culture’s most endearing, enduring [...]
Check out Father John Misty’s Buddhist-inflected song, “Leaving L.A.”
Listen to the singer-songwriter's Buddhist-legend-checking song, "Leaving LA," found on his new LP, Pure Comedy. He performed and talked about the song for BBC Radio 6. The famed music outlet NME says about the song that it's: either a remarkable 13-minute portrait of the artist as a self-loathing middle-aged man or, as the song describes itself, “some 10-verse, [...]
Listen: Lion’s Roar’s Melvin McLeod talks Buddhist “Stand Against Suffering” on CBC’s “Tapestry”
After the release of the May 2017 Lion's Roar magazine and its unprecedented "Buddhist call to action" authored by 13 Buddhist teachers (and signed by 140 more additional signatories), Lion's Roar editor-in-chief Melvin McLeod was invited to speak about it all on the CBC-Radio Canada program Tapestry. As Tapestry playfully explains itself: "Tapestry exists to go deep. We [...]
SGI-USA convenes “urgent” D.C. conference on changing nuclear weapons policy
The Buddhist organization Soka Gakkai International-USA (SGI-USA) on April 27 convened “Toward a Fundamental Change in Nuclear Weapons Policy,” a one-day conference that SGI-USA characterizes as "an urgent call for all nuclear-armed nations to accelerate action toward nuclear disarmament and avoid a new nuclear arms race." “The goal of this conference was to educate civil [...]
Dalai Lama congratulates France’s Macron on presidential win
DalaiLama.com reports today that His Holiness the Dalai Lama has issued a letter to Emmanuel Macron in response to Macron's win of the French presidency yesterday. In the letter, the Dalai Lama recalls his previous meeting with Macron, and offers prayers and good wishes, saying, "Since France is one of the pillars of the European Union, I am confident that you will be able [...]
His Holiness the 17th Karmapa to begin first-ever Canadian tour
The Karma Kagyu Association of Canada is now hosting information about a tour of Canada, his first, being undertaken by His Holiness the 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje: This visit, to last nearly a month, will begin in Toronto, proceeding to Calgary and reach Vancouver as its final Canadian destination in mid-June. Activities planned during His Holiness’ visit in Vancouver [...]