I’ve written about them before here and on Shambhala SunSpace, but this not-unimportant post-punk turned full-on rock band is back (again) and referring to Buddhism in the press for the coming release of their new album, Choice of Weapon. As I say, this isn’t the first time; The Cult’s last album had some Buddhist themes, and singer Ian Astbury has spoken about his affinity for Tibetan Buddhism before, even writing a piece called “The Buddhist Way” for SPIN back in ’09.)

And The Cult’s weapon of choice? (more…)

So now Andrew Sullivan, who has touched on meditation in his videoblog before, is now going on at some length about Buddhism in a new installment.

The person who made me aware of the video’s existence criticizes Sullivan’s take as “shallow.” He goes on: “Again with the ‘extinguishing of the individual,’ the nihilist error. The point being, of course, that *no* independent self can be identified or proven as having *ever* existed as an entity beyond false concepts imputed on the dependently arisen, temporarily-hung-together, psychophysical array – i.e., there’s nothing to extinguish except erroneous ideas that keep us in cycles of dissatisfaction. Who wouldn’t want to extinguish those? All Buddhism asks is that we give up false ideas. But don’t expect a political commentator to embrace that any time soon. [...] I do agree with him that Merton’s cool, though.”

What do you think?

UPDATE: The same person who commented above now writes with this update:

“A reader has followed up with Andrew, quite intelligently and gently. I don’t know what’s the matter with me. Maybe my perception of his attitude set me off. Also I said ‘nihilist’ when I should have said ‘eternalist.’ Now who’s the dope?” Click here to read the followup post.

From Scott A. Mitchell of the Institute of Buddhist Studies — he’s also the blogger behind the fun and enlightening blog The Buddha Is My DJ, and a longtime friend of the Horse — comes a very nice note:

“I wanted to let you know about a book that might be of interest to your readers. It’s called “Buddhism in the Modern World,” edited by David McMahan. The reason your readers might care — apart from it being a pretty accessible book about the various iterations of Buddhism in the contemporary world — is that the last chapter, by me, is about Buddhism and media and pop culture. And I make several references to the Worst Horse because, well, if you’re gonna write a chapter about Buddhism and pop culture, you gotta mention the Worst Horse!”

Well, dang, Scott. Thanks for that. I can’t wait to see the book — luckily, it’s on its way.

As for you, dear reader, to order yourself a copy, just click here. And let us know what you think when you’ve had a look.

Photp by Kristin Dos Santos (w/permission)

Thanks to friend Konchog Norbu for the heads-up on this one — it’s hardly news, but it’s kinda cool when celebs go public with their interest in dharma. Seems David Duchovny (of Californication, X-Files, and Larry Sanders-crush fame) just did a retreat at what sounds to be Zen Mountain Monastery, and he’s told Perez Hilton’s pet-gossip site (yes, you read that right) TeddyHilton.com about the experience.

Again, not news, but at least Duchovny’s not looking for star treatment. “I’m a beginner,” he says, “I’ve only been meditating for a little while. You pay a fee to go for this weekend and what I didn’t know is that even though you pay a fee they put you to work immediately. You go there and first you bus some tables after you eat and they had me working in the garden everyday for an hour-and-a-half. It was fun, I was shoveling horse shit out there. You pay money and then you shovel horse shit!”

Zen, life…. Sounds like Duchovny is getting the basic gist of it.

More here.

I just learned that that’s how comedian Eddie Pepitone identifies and markets himself. (A documentary by the same name is also forthcoming.)

So is he Buddhist? I can’t really tell. His new album is called “A Great Stillness.” That seems like something, no? A Google search turns up a reference or two or three to Pepitone from Zen teacher Brad Warner — who counts the comic among his favorites — and some gags from the Pepitone’s Twitter feed:

• “Watching Saturday Night Live is like watching a Buddhist monk light himself on fire except for no reason.”
• “As a buddhist child I got teased a lot for renouncing all thought.”
• “I studied zen Buddhism with Maharishi Gus Lobotomovich and he always said “shit, did you hear that?”

And here’s a quote from a new AV Club interview with Pepitone: “You wanna give life meaning against all of this pain and anguish. You’re trying to give it meaning and you’re trying to be happy, but you have all this stuff that is in the way. And that’s the stuff I talk about.”

Know anything about the Bitter Buddha? Let us know.

In South Africa, that’s what Boxing Day has become.

Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? So have yourself a Happy Day of Goodwill today. Who cares what the date is?

When I was a young, bitter punk rock kid, much of the (very small amount of ) light I saw in the world usually came from seeing that others had as caustic and cynical a take on things as I did. One exception, though, was Pianosaurus, a band that absolutely slayed on their instruments – all of which were children’s toys. Their record, Groovy Neighborhood (left), was playful and non-cynical. To my best friend Josh and me, it was summer freedom on vinyl.

I always wondered what happened to those guys. Well, now I have some answers, thanks to Marc Maron and the newest installation of his fantastic comedy-insider podcast, WTF, which features non-comedian Dr. Stephen Dansiger – psychotherapist, happy family man, and lifetime musician who’s played with some great bands, including Pianosaurus. So: why is this relevant to this blog? Well, Dansiger is also a Zen meditator now. (He’s friends, too, with Josh Korda of Dharma Punx.) And he talks about all of this, and how he’s gotten to the other side of some seriously rough times, on WTF. Click here to listen online. Or download via iTunes.

Warning: if you’re not comfortable with the word that the “F” in “WTF” represents, this won’t be easy listening for you. But it’s a good listen nonetheless.

You may have seen a post on Gawker today about how the ”UC Davis Pepper Spray Cop Is Now a Meme.” Now, by way of Occupy Lulz on Facebook (and the Facebook friend who brought the below to my attention), comes this, um, arresting contribution to the meme:

The “Pepper Spraying Cop” continues his beat across the internet. You’ll find some of his many tragicomic manifestations at his new, dedicated Tumblr, which includes a few more run-ins with religion, Eastern and Western.

The Pittsburgh band White Wives has released their new video, “Hungry Ghosts” — something many Buddhists will know about, but which the great music site Consequence of Sound is covering, too:

Small mouths, bloated bellies, thin necks. No, this is not a description of our high school prom dates but of the fabled hungry ghost, a supernatural being often filled with more desire than one could possibly consume. Completely driven by unfulfilled cravings, they want nothing more than satisfaction that’s never quite enough. Sound familiar? Pittsburgh-based White Wives dive head first into this age-old yet always relevant theme in their video for “Hungry Ghost”, a garage-punk/alt-rock anthem that serves as the third track off their debut LP, Happeners.

Here’s the video — and head over to CoS for more info and White Wives tour dates.

White Wives – Hungry Ghost from Cluster 1 on Vimeo.

It’s the oddest thing — just the other day I was reading online about the NBA logo, and how it’s modeled after the player-turned-front-office-great Jerry West.

And so just now a co-worker brings me the October 24, 2011 issue of Sports Illustrated and points out this paragraph:

The logo, created in 1969 and modeled on a photo of Jerry, was apt in a way that the NBA couldn’t have dreamed: a white, ghostlike figure, frozen forever on the run. But a Buddhist artist would have sketched that phantom a different way. The Hungry Ghosts of Buddhism have pinhole mouths, long necks so thin that they can’t swallow and absurdly bloated bellies — forever starving but unable to ear, forever seeking gratification from old needs never met. The fate of most of the gods.

That’s an accurate-enough written rendering of the mythical Hungry Ghosts — but what on earth it’s doing in a story about Jerry West is beyond me. The article does paint West as one of “the gods” of the court, but I don’t get the “if a Buddhist artist sketched the logo” part here. That’s totally out of thin air, isn’t it?

Somebody, enlighten me!

(Perhaps The Lakers Forward Formerly Known as Ron Artest has the answer?)