Honestly, I think this Dharma-Burger is cool. It makes sense, it’s safe, it seems to be well-designed: It’s the electric butter lamp.

Really. Offered by “Offering Light” who describes the product as:

We design and create innovative electric butter lamps for butter lamp offerings, Buddhist lamp offerings & Tibetan light offerings. [...]

How do butter lamp offerings become safe and clean? Make them with flameless candles! Learn how you can brighten up your world with these electric butter lamps.

Our Offering Lights are a brand new illumination on this classic Tibetan Buddhist ritual. It uses earth-friendly, super low-energy LED flameless tea lights that flicker just like real candles! Order now–you’ll love them!

I don’t have one so can’t vouch for the product but I have no problem endorsing the idea and the spirit behind it. Check ‘em out here.

PS: Thanks to online friend Ross B. for bringing this to my attention.

If “Dharma-Burgers” are incidents of Buddhism and/or Buddhist ideas colliding with mass culture, then certainly “Buddhify,” featured on the great Lifehacker site today, qualifies:

There’s not anything so new, in and of itself, about there being a meditation app. So why might Buddhify be notable? (more…)

Following the smashing success of the Wu-Tang Name generator, here comes “My Buddhist Name,” which seeks to, well, generate a Buddhist name for you.

Obviously, this is for silly/parody/entertainment purposes only. As for me? I got “The Monk Great Name.” That is not nearly as cool as “Tha Eurythmic King of Nowhere” (my Wu name) but if you want to try it yourself, click here. (And let us know what you got in the comments here.)

Hat-tip to my main man Barry Boyce.

The literary web-world has been abuzz about the death of writer Derek K. Miller. Why? Miller was a formidable writer in general, there’s no doubt. But it was the work of his final days, and the unflinching way in which he documented them — leaving us to ponder our own — that has struck the loudest chord. If you value honest, fearless writing, you’ll want to know who Derek K. Miller was.

And Miller, it can be said, loved honestly, too. You’ve got to admire that, as well. (more…)

Here now is the second installment of a two-part teaching on what the Buddha taught about gratitude, by Thanissaro Bhikkhu of Metta Forest Monastery in California. (Click here to view the previous installment.) My huge thanks to him for sharing his teachings with us.

Well-focused gratitude can also teach lessons that apply further to the training of the mind.

First are the lessons touching on the nature of human action itself. The sense that you’ve benefited from another person’s action underscores the point that action does give results; the importance you give to the other person’s motives in helping you underscores the point that the quality of the action lies in the intention behind it; and the sense that the other person went out of his or her way to help you underscores the sense that action isn’t totally determined: You feel indebted to the people who helped you because you sense how easily they might have denied that help, and how difficult your life might have been if that’s what they had chosen to do. Your parents, for instance, didn’t have to raise you, or arrange for someone else to raise you; they could have aborted you or left you to die.

So the fact that you’re alive to read this means that somebody chose, again and again, to help you when you were helpless. Sensing that element of choice is what creates your sense of debt. (more…)

A couple of times now, it has been my good fortune to present teachings by Thanissaro Bhikkhu here on The Worst Horse. For those who don’t know: Thanissaro Bhikkhu (also known as Geoffrey DeGraff, or more affectionately, “Than Geoff”) — is the abbot of San Diego County’s Metta Forest Monastery, and a highly prolific and respected teacher and translator. He’s also a warm, wonderful presence, and is gifted at making the Buddha’s teachings immediate and understandable.

I hope you’ll enjoy this, Than Geoff’s new teaching about what the historical Buddha taught about gratitude, which is being presented here (and also on Shambhala SunSpace) in two parts. Click here to see part two.

“These two people are hard to find in the world. Which two? The one who is first to do a kindness, and the one who is grateful and thankful for a kindness done.” — The Buddha, in the Anguttara Nikaya (AN 2:118).

In saying that kind and grateful people are rare, the Buddha isn’t simply stating a harsh truth about the human race. He’s advising you to treasure these people when you find them, and—more importantly—showing how you can become a rare person yourself.

Kindness and gratitude are virtues you can cultivate, but they have to be cultivated together. Each needs the other to be genuine—a point that becomes obvious when you think about the three things most likely to make gratitude heartfelt:

1) You’ve actually benefited from another person’s actions.

2) You trust the motives behind those actions.

3) You sense that the other person had to go out of his or her way to provide that benefit.

Points one and two are lessons that gratitude teaches kindness: If you want to be genuinely kind, you have to be of actual benefit—nobody wants to be the recipient of “help” that isn’t really helpful—and you have to provide that benefit in a way that shows respect and empathy for the other person’s needs. No one likes to receive a gift given with calculating motives, or in an offhand or disdainful way.

Points two and three are lessons that kindness teaches to gratitude. Only if you’ve been kind to another person will you accept the idea that others can be kind to you. At the same time, if you’ve been kind to another person, you know the effort involved. Kind impulses often have to do battle with unkind impulses in the heart, so it’s not always easy to be helpful. Sometimes it involves great sacrifice—a sacrifice possible only when you trust the recipient to make good use of your help. So when you’re on the receiving end of a sacrifice like that, you realize you’ve incurred a debt, an obligation to repay the other person’s trust.

This is why the Buddha always discusses gratitude as a response to kindness, and doesn’t equate it with appreciation in general. It’s a special kind of appreciation, inspiring a more demanding response. (more…)

Have some Buddhist books languishing on the shelf? Want to share them with people who would really appreciate and respond to them? I’ve posted a new video about doing just that, over at Shambhala SunSpace. Check it out here. (Link opens in new window.) Hope it’s helpful.

At a fundraiser over the weekend, US president Barack Obama suggested to his audience that opponents in the Republican party would do well to sit down and look inward if they really want to make changes: “It’s not like they went out into the desert and they said, ‘Boy, we really screwed up,’ and they went and meditated for a bit and came back with some new ideas.”

Sure, it’s half-joke, half-jab — and more a reference to the Christian tradition of meditation than anything else — but in politics, meditation might be helpful to everyone: Republican, Democrat, third party, no party. (more…)

Fans of the Horse’s “Altar Madness” posts — where readers submit photos and explanations of their personal Buddhist altars — REALLY should see Altar-Bot:

This is serious!

Did you know there are two Buddhism-informed politicians running in major races right now?

Check it out.

And don’t forget to vote.