My blogroll round-up 6/15/06

Since Tom at Blogmandu is currently on hiatus from his regular round-up of Buddhist blogs, I thought I would do one for some of the blogs currently residing on my blogroll. This is not limited to Buddhist-themed blogs nor an attempt to pick up the slack for Tom, just a fun exercise...

I recently discovered Beneath the Clouds, a Shin Buddhism blog which has recently moved to a new home and had a layout makeover. It's off to a good start with the following kind of writing...

This way is open to all of us but the essential thing is to leave our interpretations and opinions of what Shakyamuni Buddha meant, what Honen meant, what Shinran and Rennyo meant, behind us. Leave behind our opinions of whether we are right or wrong, Then to listen. To stand apart from what we believe we know and listen. Standing apart with an open heart we can listen..

Soen Joon continues to bring us moving poetry, subtle yet powerful photographs, and insightful observations from her monastic training in Korea through her blog One Robe, One Bowl. A recent post involved her deepening appreciation of the chanting she has been working on...

Sound is so empty. It is only because it is empty that it has any ability to move us and startle us as music and spoken language, as poetry and birdsong, as jackhammers and thunder. I think the reason why our ritual instruments are so heavy is to keep us from happily leaving our bodies and our lives behind right us at the moment we perceive sound truly and empty into it, one emptiness into another, in ecstasy. There are times the chanting scares me, and I clutch and grip at something inside, not wanting to go with the sound. It is a very strange feeling.

A gust inside the god. A wind.

(CONTINUE...)

Kit at PaperFrog continues to combine his interests in Buddhism, social activism, and poetry in a unique and refreshing blend. He recently made some site changes, including one aimed at fighting oppression...

You'll notice a new box at the bottom of our sidebar. PaperFrog has committed to participating in Amnesty International's Irrepressible Info campaign. The little text snippets you'll be seeing are excerpts of censored material. Reposting this stuff is a small way to strike back at official repression.

At the ever-popular Woodmoor Village Zendo, Nacho has continued fighting for freedom of speech, net neutrality, the virtues of humanism, and many other causes. But it's sometimes the personal glimpses that are the most vivid and compelling (especially when offered with a touch of humor)...

The optometrist told me that we could bump up the magnification on the eyeglasses so that I could see better those things that are far away, but that since I’ve been having trouble seeing things that are close, that bump in magnification would only exacerbate the second problem. The solution? According to him, Bifocals! Horror of horrors, I responded with… "but those are for old people!"

At The Buddhist Blog James continues his unique style of citing some interesting teaching or quote and then following up with his own reflections of how it relates to his own practice...

We trip ourselves up and tighten up when we feel we are letting go too much because we want to control our life and are afraid of the "unknown." However, when we fully let go and float into the unknown--it is then and there that we find true freedom and the doorway to enlightenment opened wide. And we realize that the door was open all along.

The irrepressible Peacebang (her blog's name and bloghandle are one and the same) recently reflected on her career since being ordained a Unitarian Universalist minister...

I was ordained nine years ago today.

At the time, the ink on my Harvard M.Div. was still wet, and I was a nervous, nervous lady.

What in the world would a life in ministry be like?
I had no job.
I had no idea what was coming.

Little did I know that, nine years later, I would be in one of the happiest eras of my life.

From Even the Devils Believe, self-described as 'the musings of an independent Catholic seminarian', Chris writes about his struggles with balancing his own views and the needs of the greater community in changing the liturgy...

But for all the diversity that exists in Anglican/Catholic/Orthodox liturgy around the world, especially in independent communities, I'm finding it very difficult to tinker with things, particularly when the innovation I'm introducing hasn't been tested over and over by one of the communities I worship with. It's a constant reminder of how deeply liturgy is a "work of the people," not a work of the priests or the liturgists or the bishops. Innovation is fine, but it must represent what those present are reaching toward, not just what the priest appreciates aesthetically or theologically.

The current theme at Metacrock's Blog is the purpose of his 'arguments for God' and whether hardcore empiricists will be able to appreciate them for what they are (as opposed to what they are not)...

God arguments do something else entirely, something other than "proving" the existence of God in an absolute and undeniable way. In fact it really contradicts my theology to try and prove God in that sense. I proposed the soteriolgocial drama theory, which says that God wants us to have to make a leap of faith. Thus it would be self defeating if the kind of proof existed whereby God could be proven in such a way that it would be undeniable. God arguments offer rational warrant to believe. That means only that it is not irrational to believe in God. While this can be parled into a strong sense indicating a good probability, it is not the kind of undeniable proof the atheists are seeking.

Mark G. from Radical Civility writes about an oft-neglected yet widespread form of prejudice which is found everywhere, even in academia...

The article, Mentally Untenured, tells of an instructor with bipolar disorder at Pasadena City College. He lost his position, despite having tenure, in the wake of what appears to have been a severe depressive episode...

It gave me a glimpse of something that generally, I don’t much see in my own life these days: that mental illness is still an acceptable prejudice.

Faithful Progressive (another case of the blog and blog owner going by the same name) typically doesn't just give the news or his views of it, he also provides links, addresses, and phone numbers to encourage people to take action. This week the target is the minium wage...

The minimum wage in this country is a disgrace. Congress has raised its own salary 8 times since minimum wage workers have seen their wages rise--nine years ago. Some brave Republicans broke with their party's anti-worker orthodoxy this week, and have given minimum wage workers a glimmer of hope on this issue.

The Big Pharaoh gives one Egyptian's views on Arab politics, the Muslim religion, and anything else he feels like discussing, such as the Saudi Arabian football team in the World Cup...

The officials of Saudi Arabia's football team said that all players will be asked to refuse to take the prize if one of the players was chosen to be Man of the Match. Why? Because the Man of the Match prize is sponsored by Budweiser.

That's pretty funny because Saudis are among the most heavy drinkers I've seen in my life. Just visit Beirut or Cairo's night clubs to see for yourself.

I have one question: why do Saudi officials insist on doing some stuff that make them look rediculous.

Meanwhile at Afarensis a campaign is underway to solicit donations to aid with projects which bring science into the classrooms of public schools...

A lot of us fell in love with science because of early experiences in school -- teachers who made science intriguing, exciting, maybe a little bit dangerous. But tightening budgets are making it harder and harder for public school teachers to provide the books, equipment, and field trips to make science come alive for kids.

DonorsChoose.org gives us a way to help teachers get the job done. A bunch of us at ScienceBlogs have set up Bloggers Challenges which will let us (and that includes you) contribute to worthy school projects in need of financial assistance. We'll be able to track our progress right on the DonorsChoose site. And -- because we like a little friendly competition -- we'll be updating you periodically as to which blogger's readers are getting his or her challenge closest to its goal.

OK, well that's it for the roundup. Thanks for visiting.