rapper jay smooth offers this interesting tutorial on how to discuss racist comments with those who say them. but he takes an interesting view i wasn’t expecting, that the reason to discuss action instead of identity is to hold someone to task - to make sure your polemic will succeed. i’m used to discussing action instead of identity as a form of non-violent communication, however, to leave space for the other person.
i like the way jay smooth edits his videos, lots of cuts creating a kind of frenetic speed and pace. i wonder if that’s one of the new youtube styles of making head shot videos more interesting — a kind of max headroom inspired frenetic.
carnegie mellon professor randy pausch died this morning, at age 47, of pancreatic cancer. he’s notable for a lecture he gave last year, as part of the school’s “last lecture” series. the concept was, if you were about to die and could only give one last lecture, what would it be? but for professor pausch, who knew he had terminal cancer, this was nearly the case. his lecture is just over an hour long, but really worthwhile. and he’s hilarious. the theme of his lecture is his childhood dreams.
his specialty was virtual reality, and the virtual reality example at about the 38 minute mark made me want to stab my eyes out. until the dark ending to the virtual world, which made it all better. definitely a nod to don hertzfeld.
millions have watched his video, i recommend watching it all the way through. he summarizes his lessons from life in the final minutes, but i’m not sure they are as meaningful without the story leading up to that. what a wonderful opportunity, both for us to share in his insights but also that he could leave something so beautiful for his three children to see years from now.
hmm… what were my childhood dreams… when i was six years old, i said i wanted to be a software engineer. check, did that. i wanted to invent new things, ok. but i think most of all, i wanted to have a good relationship with my parents and stay close to them. that was dicy as a young adult, but i’m closer to them now than ever as an adult. i haven’t said that out loud before, but i’m grateful i’ve had that opportunity.
what are your childhood dreams? how are they coming along?
the yale divinity school is hosting a christian and muslim interfaith conference next week, and there will be a life webcast if you’d like to hear the dialog. the conference is tuesday and wednesday and part of thursday.
i was delighted to also read this morning some of the history leading up to this. less than a year ago a group of prominent muslim clerics wrote an open letter to christianity and to the pope specifically, noting a commonality in views between the two religions. you can find the letter on a web site hosted by the prince of jordan, specifically for this dialog called a common word.
the yale web site currently begins, “In our increasingly interdependent world, religion remains a powerful force with the potential to either foster peace or provoke conflict.” and the summary page on the common word site also remarks, “Muslims and Christians together make up well over half of the world’s population. Without peace and justice between these two religious communities, there can be no meaningful peace in the world. The future of the world depends on peace between Muslims and Christians.”
as a buddhist, i feel slightly outside this discussion but quite excited to hear about it. a buddhist / muslim discussion on the topic of peace would be wonderful too. christian / buddhist dialogs have been occurring regularly already. many westerners i know think that buddhism is completely pacifist or peaceful already, but that’s not the case historically or even generally. there are many flavors of buddhism and varying views, and one of the worst civil wars still occurring today is in sri lanka, a mostly buddhist country. and though there is a long history of muslims and buddhists living in harmony in mongolia and china and southeast asia, there is a lot still to talk about i suspect.
a topic that arises often, when i discuss buddhism to curious people, is the degree to which buddhism is like science or seems compatible with science. it is a topical question. this relates to whether or not buddhism is logical, compatible to the scientific method, and not based on faith. i suspect this also relates to ritual and superstition. i find that buddhism does have aspects that are compatible with a scientific view, but it might be a mistake to ignore the full range of buddhism. in some forms, it appears quite mystical. then this has me wondering if the comparison of buddhism to science is getting to the heart of the buddhist tradition or if we’re just reframing it into our cultural language.
western buddhism, as i experience it, has had a quality of being anti-superstitious. it is maybe depicted as more of a philosophy or a psychology — that one uses meditation for both personal and societal improvement — than depicted as a religion. i think that is a valid view to a point, but at the same time the full range of buddhist traditions is full of superstition, ritual, devotional practice, and things we might find very odd. so then the question arises, are these cultural trappings irrelevant to the western situation to be discarded? are we instead considering a more essential buddhism in the west?
His Holiness Karmapa, now 23 years old, is possibly the second highest lama in Tibetan Buddhism after His Holiness the Dalai Lama. in his recent and first trip to the U.S., he was interviewed by PBS. mostly the interview introduces him and talks about his role, but then has a few clips of the interchange. at one point, he says,
“The essential points of Buddhism are beyond culture and beyond traditions.”
but the unspoken side to this statement is that the non-essential points of buddhism are specific to tradition and culture. as buddhism comes to the west, what is the tradition and cultural aspects that are included here? or do we cut to the essence and attempt to omit the rest? is that even possible?
i wonder, and this could be a large topic, is this view of buddhism as a philosophy and psychology just our cultural trappings that we’re incorporating? or are those really closer to the essence of buddhism? is the compatibility with science (or lack thereof) something that we inject into the conversation or is that really close to the essence of buddhism?
we like to think that the world fits into nice categories: solid, liquid, gas. we think our ontologies are mostly complete. yet we still discover where they fall down. behold the non-newtonian “fluid” referred to as oobleck, basically cornstarch or potato starch and water at a ratio between 2:1 and 3:2.
some companies are trying to use other dilatant — flexible until agitated — materials to make flexible forms of body armor. examples already include skier protective suits warn in the 2006 winter olympic games and a brand of motorcycle gloves.
From what i understand, it went through my left hand holding the camera, crossed my back and exited out of my right hand holding onto the metal railing. No entry or exit wounds, just a really good zap!
monkey see, monkey do serves as a personal blog and creative outlet for
