Category: peace, environment, social justice et al

homophobia, the 4 noble truths, and the 8-fold path

today, on the international day against homophobia and transpobia, i’d like to gather a few thoughts on homophobia in view of the four noble truths, the core ideas of buddhism. there is suffering – giving birth, aging, illness, etc. in the pali text, there are two things that specifically apply here, i believe: “union with… Continue reading homophobia, the 4 noble truths, and the 8-fold path

peaceful communication – problems and solutions

in the last few months, i have had much occasion to think about the concept of nonviolent or peaceful communication. there is the general idea of nonviolent communication, and then there is nonviolent communication as it has been much talked about lately, created by marshal rosenberg. in his definition, NVC is a way of relating… Continue reading peaceful communication – problems and solutions

carried through the year by the we’moon calendar

i am a huge fan of the we’moon daytimer. to this day, i see as one of the perks of quitting my job as chief cook and bottlewasher at the skills connection the fact that i didn’t need a huge appointment calendar anymore and could go back to using the we’moon daytimer. we’moon is a… Continue reading carried through the year by the we’moon calendar

is tweeting about omid reza misayafi a negative thing?

the other day, an interesting discussion took place on twitter. i tweeted a link to the death in prison of omid reza misayafi, the iranian blogger who had been sentenced to three years in prison for blogging in ways that the iranian government found threatening. one of my fellow tweeters found that this was a… Continue reading is tweeting about omid reza misayafi a negative thing?

no-bully pink on a wordless wednesday

(update: the mosaic has, unfortunately, disappeared – but maybe you’ll find time to click on the individual pictures, below) a plethora of pink today, to celebrate anti-bullying day. to find the photographers of the images, click on the links: 1. pink club door, 2. something pink this way comes, 3. soudeh is well now!, 4.… Continue reading no-bully pink on a wordless wednesday

vancouver’s shootings and restorative justice

on tuesday, there was a shooting in my neighbourhood, on vancouver’s fraser street. pretty scary – it was less than three blocks from my grandson’s daycare. there has been a rash of gang activity and violence in vancouver in the last few weeks. like anyone else, i’m asking myself, what’s going on? what happened to… Continue reading vancouver’s shootings and restorative justice

25 things

a bunch of people tagged me on facebook with the “25 things about you” meme. i’m going to try and do this a) really quick and b) restrict my answers to the kinds of things discussed here on this blog, namely psychology, creativity/art, spirituality, books and lefty stuff (you know, social justice, peace – bleeding… Continue reading 25 things