I like the idea of some discussion about things like addiction, sex, etc… Let’s address some of the everyday issues that people are bumping up against…but that go largely unmentioned (or only vaguely mentioned) in Buddhist dialogue.

Also, I like the idea of creative content. I do NOT tend to write in an academic essayist style, but find that perhaps I could contribute more in a creative/disturbing fashion. I like to think that is how I communicate best, or at least when I am closest to what I actually want to be expressing.

Thanks. I looked at yours and Matthias’ site. Very nice.

if you’re eager to do the work yourself you could simply start a meta-blog collecting interesting ideas/books.

Matthias and I have started such a blog (in german) recently (see Kritikos und Bodhi in the blogroll). Writing a short summary and linking to the original source doesn’t take much effort and maybe it is even an advantage to have it on a separate place and not overloading the blog here.

If you do this, please leave a note. Maybe I can contribute a little comments-thread summary now and then.

Yes! I would very much appreciate a “book page” as well as some kind of list of books that have informed your thinking (Matthias Steingass, Tom Pepper, Glenn Wallis). I’ve culled several books, writers, philosophers from your various comments, but it would be great to see them in some ordered way.

Well, there might be. I meant anything that could relate to the project here. Tom Pepper is clearly a big reader and mentions books from time to time, for example, a very good little book the other day on the failure of capitalism that I otherwise would have never found.

All I have right now. Just a simple idea.

Thanks.

good points about the message forum. i can see how this blog comment form of communication in some way moderates itself. message board do tend to be a mess with trolls act. maybe dedicated threads where it would be easier to keep track of specific comment discussions. for me it’ just a matter of of going up and down on a GIANT comment page year. by the time i get to the bottom to write my comment, i forget what i wanted to write:) shorter pieces is a great idea with dedicated comments. again, just brainstorming. thanks for your insight,

I recently tried (albeit quite clumsily) to point out, in a discussion of using Buddhism to recover from addiction, that what was being described as a new Buddhist approach was just the same old psychological approach that has patently failed to solve the addiction problem for decades now. I was asked to stop interfering with the discussion, and the glowing comments about how this wonderful insight has finally completely cured participants in just one week after years of relapse continue. This kind of stuff is worse than a waste of time, its actually dangerous, and there’s no way other way to be critical of it.

As for the topic of sex, that is interesting. I never noticed before that this has never really been addressed here. I guess I don’t think much about this issue. Unlike all those leaders of x-buddhist groups who are so much farther along the path, I’ve never cheated on my wife or had an inappropriate relationship with a student. It would be an interesting topic to address though–I’ve read articles claiming that Buddhist practice will improve one’s sex life, a claim absolutely not found in the Pali canon, I’m sure.

Re #6: Alan, I think that such “creative critique” would be great. I tend to write in an academic, essayistic style, but it would be great to have some creative writing that is disturbing, in the best sense of that term, and provokes thought. Most so-called “Buddhist poetry” is meant to call a stop to thought with a complacent assurance that thinking is bad, and we should mindlessly enjoy the cloud, flower, tea, whatever. Let’s have some real poetry!

You mean the form of forum where everybody can open a thread? Or is it more about more theme-oriented threads about, for example, praxis/meditation/non-mediation, dissonances which arise from contradictions inherent in x-buddhism and so on?

Personally I have some reservations vis-à-vis open discussion forums. The history of them in the internet shows, in my view, that they are much more prey to trolls and that they need much more moderation than blog-threads like here.

To me a theme-oriented approach look more promising. It only needs some kind of ignition. Perhaps in the form of a short text to open a thread. This again has to do with the idea mentioned in the text, that we data-mine through the material in the threads here to bring up topics which are interesting.

One topic could be praxis. An initial text could be short and concise, with some citations from discussions, with links to the respective discussions, with a provocative hypothesis, a contradiction one has detected…

Another topic I mentioned here: The Question about the Original Buddha.

Saibhu, #5, a community/nonsense-page. Interesting idea. Interesting because it means also that a community of some kind is developing. We should consider this. But there has to be also a playbuddha of the month in each edition – and btw, we haven’t really touched this topic yet: Sex!

My German Konfickte des Buddhismus, which is about the approach to sex by OGB (official german buddhism), has by far the most hits on my blog. Sex sells.