I once got in trouble with a roommate for referring to Italian as "degenerate Latin." I was kidding, mostly (disclaimer: I briefly flirted with the idea of majoring in Classics), but what bothered him about my statement was the primacy it ascribed to certain forms of language. It's true that modern Italian languages descend from "vulgar" (i.e. ( Read more... )

There seems to have been some mention of it in the Western press, but for those of you who don't know, Nepal is currently in the middle of a political crisis. Last night there was a mob of maybe five hundred to a thousand people passing within 50m of my house, shouting, burning torches and lighting figures in effigy on fire. Today I almost couldn ( Read more... )

A couple of people have asked me what a typical day is like for me, so I thought the topic might be of some general interest ( Read more... )

Holi is my new favorite holiday. It commemorates the son of a demon and a human woman's killing the demon, who had plans to kill his son. It also has something to do with Krishna. Mostly, though, the day is a huge waterballoon fight, where little kids run around with squirt guns and buckets (and plastic bags full of the paint used for tikkas, ( Read more... )

I keep living the same day, hurting myself in the same way, over and over again. The lines dug in my skin are thick and bloody; they trace the path of anger from your heart to mine, solid and unbroken, like iron shackles bound tight across my chest. They puncture me, dig into me, until I do not know where I begin and the shackles end, or what the ( Read more... )

happy motherfucking new year

Today a woman that I once upon a time had a crush on got married. (Not to me.) It felt good, deeply good, to be a part of the ceremony, to kiss her husband on the forehead and dance with her at the after-party and realize that this is what growing up tastes like.

I think it's easy to have canned arguments about God. The European Enlightenment can be characterized in some ways as a revolt against the authority of the Church, and the former's core values--reason, the practical, humanism--seem to stand in opposition to those of an institution that emphasizes faith, the eternal, and divinity. The outcome of ( Read more... )

Accept no limitations: not from your enemies who tell you you can't love them, not from your family and friends who tell you you must. Remember the limitless sky, in which divisions and distinctions do not exist. Remember the great kindness of others, without which we would not exist, and remember yourself, your own true nature, which was always ( Read more... )

Buddhism is a concept. The Dharma transcends science and religion, good and bad, self and other.