Naughty Monk

Rogue monk defrocks self
Phuket Gazette, June 26, 2008
NONG KHAI, Thailand – As every good clergyman knows, improper sexual conduct is a quick way to get defrocked – cast out of the Buddhist clergy.
Perhaps sensing that his own defrockment was inevitable, one naughty abbot in Tha Bor District decided to beat his detractors to the punch.
At [...]

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Friendly Whale

This has nothing to do with the philosophy of religion, nor with Buddhism, but I just thought it was cool. :)

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The Divine Purpose

One’s experience of religion is most authentic and true when one dispenses with a ‘What’s in it for me” attitude when subscribing to a movement (something that the West has come to understand Buddhism as: nothing more than self-help). The individualistic approach of Buddhism that many modern people take towards it is, in fact, missing [...]

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My new patron deity

Yesterday I began invoking another Mahayana divinity. He is the bodhisattva associated with doctrine, wisdom, and awareness. His name is Manjusri (Gentle Glory).
He forms the Sakyamuni Trinity alongside Sakyamuni and Samantabhadra. Depicted as a powerful, princely and majestic young man, he commonly wields a flaming sword in his right hand, representing his realisation of wisdom [...]

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Evil Philosophers of Religion

Damn it. Philosophy of Religion has always been a whipping boy to the biy boy of Philosophy: Metaphysics. Do you want to make it big with philosophy, specifically? Try metaphysics. There are many successful philosophers of religion, but metaphysics is even more prestigious. Why?
Metaphysics masters two things: Logic and language. Logic and language are the [...]

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Religion and Class Relations

“Religions should be seen in a Marxist light of class relations where possible, because this illuminates the various tendencies within the religion. For instance Islam was created by a tribe living in a rather marginal land, this explains their tendency for insurgency, bringing down empires, etc. Hinduism should be seen in the context of a [...]

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Racism, Religion and Certainty

I am convinced (ironically) that people are generally not stupid or unreflective; they are merely dogmatic and possessed of unmerited certainty. People who are not philosophers (and even some philosophers) have a natural and not so admirable yearning for certainty. I can understand its necessity in early childhood, that is, the sense of certainty and [...]

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The real Buddha Warrior

Today I was forced to relinquish my blog’s title of Buddha Warrior. That title now belongs to Thich Nu Khanh Thao.
Full link here.
“Those unfamiliar with the ethics of martial arts might think that a contact sport is not conducive to the life of a Buddhist nun. But 32-year-old nun Thich Nu Khanh Thao (Buddhist name) [...]

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Study of Religion in my generation

When it comes to prospects of teaching my thoughts actually drift to a rather worrying issue: exactly how the philosophy of religion, and religion itself, will be taught in ten or so years time. The fact is that academia has only recently recovered from the ’shock’ of postmodernism, or, more accurately speaking, we still live [...]

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Why I’m choosing Ch’an

I will take refuge this July/August in a temple that teaches Ch’an Buddhism. Why? I was thinking about it today and I came up with several reasons:
1. It is a School of Mahayana Buddhism. In other words, it emphasizes everything I have praised with reverence on this blog: the virtuous life of a Bodhisattva; the [...]

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