It is increasingly obvious that natural limitations will soon force economic growth to cease. Buddhist teachings emphasize that this does not require a reduction in the quality of life. Read more: Sustainability, Green Living, Buddhism, Peak Oil, Economic Crisis, Green Faith, Eco-Theology, Eco-Buddhism Project, Free Market Capitalism, Economic Reform, Gross National Happine...

I came across an article in The Daily Beast the other morning entitled ""America the Angry"." In it, political consultant Douglas Schoen discusses the findings of a recent Newsweek/Daily Beast poll revealing that the vast majority of Americans are in a bad mood. As unemployment, gas and grocery prices are on the rise, so are people's levels of anger, anxiety and frustration. Three-quart...

"The institutions of our society co-arise with us. They are not independent structures separate from our inner lives, like some backdrop to our personal dramas. Nor are they merely projections of our own minds. As collective forms of our ignorance, fears and greed, they acquire their own momentum, enlist our massive obedience, and depend on our collective consent." --Joanna Macy: World A...

An eminent scholar recently came to our university campus and spoke about the role of diverse religious communities of the world and their attitudes toward the environment. He showed examples from several indigenous communities from the North America, South America, Africa and Asia. However, when he referred to the traditions of India, he used these words: "India has the most bizarre cult...

Another externality dismissed in market systems is the fate of the species. Systemic risk in the financial system can be remedied by the taxpayer, but no one will come to the rescue if the environment is destroyed. That it must be destroyed is close to an institutional imperative. Business leaders who conduct propaganda campaigns to convince the population that anthropogenic global warmin...

"Right Livelihood" is a traditional Buddhist teaching and one of the limbs of the eight-fold path taught by the Buddha. For laypeople, Buddha's teaching of right livelihood meant ethical livelihood. In the book The Buddha's Teaching on Prosperity by Bhikku Basnagoda Rahula there is this quote from the scripture "Numerical Discourses": "The layperson's objective [is to] live a long and dig...

Author's Note: On February 21st the Des Moines Register announced that a bill proposing to force the sale of Jackson Pollock's "Mural," in the collection of the University of Iowa's Art Museum, had died. This blog, about the controversy generated by the bill, and also about the cultural forces surrounding it, was composed while the bill was still under consideration. It is hopefully sti...

China's recent passive-aggressive behavior on the world stage is unfortunate but not unexpected. President Obama is handling the PRC's non-collaboration with great skill and savvy. He realizes the Middle Kingdom's ancient cultural imperatives and contemporary geo-political objectives dictate a balance of caution and steely firmness. If he stays the course, push-me-pull-you tension bet...

"The way you support yourself can be an expression of your deepest self, or it can be a source of suffering for you and others... Our vocation can nourish our understanding and compassion, or erode them. We should be awake to the consequences, far and near, of the way we earn our living." --Thich Nat Hanh, Vietnamese Buddhist Monk "I had my eyes opened. I saw that I had become part of a ...

By Chris Herlinger Religion News Service NEW YORK (RNS) In a city tired and edgy from a sagging economy, terrorist threats and a cold and wet spring, comes the Dalai Lama with a sunny message of hope. Despite a seeming endless supply of disasters and global woe, humanity