And now for something completely different: Doomsday Book is a forthcoming Korean sci-fi/thriller film which, among other things, includes the story of a sentient robot who, on the poster asks, “On the last day of Earth, shall I be saved?” According to Beyond Hollywood, the robot “works at a temple, [and] finds enlightenment. A robot repair man named Park Do-Won (Kim Kang-Woo) and a Bodhisattva Hye-Joo (Kim Gyu-Ri) then try to protect the robot from the robot company.”
After the jump: the film’s loud, action-packed trailer. (more…)
“Dharma-Burgers,” as I’ve said, aren’t some new fast-food sandwich — though they can be every bit as dubious as a Mc-DLT and a super-sized “New Coke.” A “Dharma-Burger” is, actually, any example of Buddhist ideas or imagery employed in the marketing or production of (usually non-Buddhist) services and consumables. Sometimes they’re okay. Sometimes, they’re beyond the pale. What do you make of this one?
That’s right. It’s the sign for a Portuguese strip club called the Buda Bar. (more…)
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…)
Huge thanks to the eagle-eyed Sam DeWitt for giving me the heads-up about Yamantaka // Sonic Titan, a band which, according to Pitchfork, “blends philosophies of Buddhism, meditation, and mantra with the band’s love of extreme sounds like black metal, industrial, and noise. Their name, for example, pins a reference to the Buddhist deity Yamantaka with a song title from doom metal band Sleep’s Dopesmoker.” [A true classic, sez the Horse. And so far, YT//ST seems to be very much my cuppa tea, too.]
You can listen to the band’s whole new LP online here.
There’s a video, too:
YAMANTAKA // SONIC TITAN – COUNTING TRACK from LZKA on Vimeo.
More from Pitchfork:
Pitchfork: What‘s the narrative behind your new rock opera?
Alaska B: We’re Buddhists, so it’s about the Buddhist concept of struggle to enlightenment. The sound started out trying to approximate the energy of rock’n'roll — that strong psychic energy that’s been carried since the 50s. We had this idea that when you see Tantric Buddhists, it’s people making a lot of noise together; it’s this long journey where you start in one place and don’t know exactly where you end. We were trying to imagine the same vibe but in the rock’n'roll context– replacing those sounds with our sounds.
Ruby Kato Attwood: Our aim when we perform is to create an empty space– a sacred space– compared to what’s called the Samsaric world, which is ever-changing and full of chaos.
Check out the full Pitchfork piece, which has LOTS more to it, here. It also includes online streams of three songs. Whaddya think?
Perhaps you know of Buddhist teacher Ethan Nichtern and his first book, One City: A Declaration of Interdependence. (A great book that I was truly honored to work on back when I was at Wisdom Publications.) I hope you do. Well, now Ethan has released his second book; only it’s not a dharma book — at least not in a traditional way. Ethan’s new book is a novel.
It’s titled Your Emoticons Won’t Save You, and it comes out in a variety of electronic formats this week. My congrats to Ethan; I know he poured a lot of himself into writing this book. But then, that’s how he does things. Read on for a description and a link. (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.
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.
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.
I often think about the luck I’ve had in getting to speak to the comedian, Mike DeStefano. Mike had been around a long time, then went on NBC’s Last Comic Standing — and almost won.
I got to speak to him a couple of times, one of which was for an audio interview for Shambhala SunSpace. It’s good stuff and I do recommend you checking it out. But if you really want a concise taste of who Mike was, check out this new piece, “Uneasy Rider,” culled from the WTF Podcast for “These American Lives,” a NYT piece curated by Ira Glass about people who died in 2011.
Mike was hilarious, and a beautiful, fearless guy.
(Thanks to the great Sam DeWitt for the heads-up on this one.)
