Those who enjoy writing (and Dharma-Burgers) may want to know that OmmWriter Dana, for Mac, is now available. What is it?

OmmWriter is a simple text processor that firmly believes in making writing a pleasure once again, vindicating the close relationship between writer and paper. The more intimate the relation, the smoother the flow of inspiration.

And why that name? As the OmmWriter site’s “Frequently Meditated Questions” page says:

Dāna is a Sanskrit and Pali word meaning giving. Sometimes it is also referred to as the practice of cultivating generosity. [...] After having created something so valuable, we figured that OmmWriter was just too good to keep to ourselves. Hence the name OmmWriter Dāna.

Yes, it’s free. Check out a video demo of OmmWriter here.

….what is it? Well, it’s the new logo for the blog known as Open Buddha. Worth a look, for sure.

Okay, this one might be more an accidental Dharma-Burger, but…: readers and fans of John Daido Loori may recall that the late Zen Roshi was fond of using the phrase “skin-bag” to refer to our bodies. More than just another way to say “this mortal coil,” this phrase (which seems to be adapted from a previous Zen master’s usage or two) was meant to instead to aid us in shuffling off our attachments to our bodies in the here and now.

And now, there’s “SkinBag” — the product (as found on the Vice website), which seems timely given Lady Gaga’s already infamous “meat dress“:

From the SkinBag website:

SkinBag is a material created by Olivier Goulet, a french transmedia artist whose vision is in the crossroads of activism and human design.

The SkinBag family is made up of synthetic skin, bags, accessories and overgarments with distinctive folded texture, flexible material, and seamless organic appearance. You can view the SkinBags as bodily extensions; external organs which serve as holdalls for items we have around us.

A carrier of mutation, SkinBag symbolizes the ambivalence between the natural and the artificial, the instinctive and the optimized, and foresee the fusion between the digital and the organic.

and, from elsewhere on the site…

The SkinBag material distinguishes itself by its pleated aspects, its wrinkles, pimples, and its ocacasionel [sic] spots. Its texture provokes attraction and turmoil, it prompts one to touch and caress.

Whether or not SkinBag is informed by Daido’s usage is unclear, but in ways — “You can view the SkinBags as bodily extensions; external organs which serve as holdalls for items we have around us” — there’s some conceptual resonance here, not just with Daido’s usage of the word, but also, for example, the Theravadin Buddhist practice of working with awareness of the body in all its beautiful, mysterious, and putrid manifestations.

For more about SkinBag, see their website. I think it’s safe to say you’ll be surprised by the breadth of their offerings.

Some folks aren’t so wild about Takashi Murakami’s pop-art pieces — like, say, “Oval Buddha,” a detail of which is shown above. I am not among them.

Check out the artist as he discusses “Oval Buddha” and other works, in these new videos from the Museum of Contemporary Art in LA. And if you’re nearby, don’t miss ‘em.

That’s right. There’s a FAIL of the “Things That Are Doing It” variety over on FAILBlog. Click here to see it. (Though I have to say, I’ve seen better.

(Wait, that came out so wrong….)

Check it. This is the Buddha. Well, sort of…:

Actually, it’s “The Buddha Before he Got Enlightened.” Or so says Jon Haward, the creator of the comic Wasted and his “Tales of the Buddha Before He Got Enlightened.” Of course, Haward didn’t “create” the Buddha, and indeed, this “fat Buddha” is not really based on the historical Buddha but on the Buddhist figure Hotei. (A very common mistake, as longtime readers of the Horse have seen.)

The above comic cover was drawn by Simon Bisley, longtime collaborator of Glenn Danzig. So it turns out there’s just one degree of separation between Danzig and Buddha. (That is, one degree other than me.) …Who knew?

I haven’t seen this comic at my fantastic local comix shop. (All hail HUB Comics!) But I’ll see if I can grab one and check it out. In the meantime, you can preview this clearly irreverent new comic here.

That’s right, and congratulations should go not only to him but to the United States for honoring such a talent, and yes, a dharmic force. For those of you who didn’t know about Merwin’s connection to Buddhism, quoth The Poetry Foundation:

“Merwin moved to Hawaii to study Zen Buddhism in 1976. He eventually settled in Maui and began to restore the forest surrounding his former plantation. Both the rigor of practicing Buddhism and the tropical landscape have greatly influenced Merwin’s later style.”

Read about his appointment to US Poet Laureate at the Library of Congress website, here.

A real quick Hulu clip from the Today Show — about a sculptor making Buddhas from cardboard.

With the news that Twin Peaks — David Lynch and Mark Frost’s unlikely ABC smash hit — is celebrating its 20th anniversary, now seems like a fine time to re-present this appreciation from the Horse’s archives. Enjoy.

A MAN LAYS DYING on the floor of a jail cell between two mountains of the Pacific Northwest. Not even two weeks ago, despite his middle-age, he’d had a head of youthfully dark hair; now, it is completely, shockingly, all-white. The sprinkler system of the sheriff’s department that holds him has been set off, creating the effect of a tumultuous indoor downpour that rains down upon the white-haired man and his captors.

One of his captors — the very one who has most doggedly pursued him — is kneeling down. The white-haired man has committed the kind of unthinkable crimes that would disgust and shake most of us to the core, but Special Agent Dale Cooper instead remains very much with the moment. He holds the white-haired man, stroking his hair, comforting him even as the horrors of his crimes are finally admitted between last gasps. Then, Cooper speaks. The words come to him naturally:

“Leland,” he says, “the time has come for you to seek the path. Your soul has set you face to face with the clear light and you are now about to experience it in all its reality, wherein all things are like the void and cloudless sky, and the naked, spotless intellect is like a transparent vacuum, without circumference or center. Leland, in this moment, know yourself, and abide in that state. . . Look to the light, Leland. Find the light.”

Though spoken as much from the heart as from the head, Coop’s words are not truly his own. Compare them with this famous passage from The Tibetan Book of the Dead, meant to be recited to the dying as they pass on:

“O, nobly-born [so and so by name], the time hath now come for thee to seek the Path [in reality]. Thy breathing is about to cease. Thy guru hath set thee face to face before with the Clear Light; and now thou art about to experience in its Reality in the Bardo state, wherein all things are like the void and cloudless sky, and the naked, spotless intellect is like unto a transparent vacuum without circumference or centre. At this moment, know thou thyself, and abide in that state.” [W.Y. Evans-Wentz (translator and editor), The Tibetan Book of the Dead (Oxford, Third edition, 1957)]

Leland, though in his final moment, is surprised, almost smiling, in response to Coop’s urging that he find the light: “I see it!”

“Into the light, Leland,” Coop says, ” Don’t be afraid.”

And with that, Leland Palmer is dead.

It’s unusually moving; hardly your typical primetime TV jailhouse scene.

But this is no ordinary jailhouse, and it’s certainly not ordinary TV.

This is Twin Peaks, where nothing — not family, not FBI-men, not even the owls in the trees — is as it seems. (more…)

Check this out:

So, what is it? io9 has the report, and a couple more samples (including Spider-Man and Ultraman). (And no, “Buddhist comic geek” is not a slam. I’m one of’ em.)