This week, I wanted to share information about sources of
information related to Buddhism and meditation that are available on the
internet. This is not intended to be a comprehensive ranking or listing. It
only reflects my opinion and experience about learning some aspects of Buddhism
from internet sources.
Web Sites
Here are some of the web sites that I have found useful
along with a brief description of each.
The mission of MABA is to practice, preserve, and promote
the teachings of the Buddha. This site has a few online articles and an
extensive collection of podcasts of dharma talks given at MABA. It also has a
link to past issues of Rightview Quarterly, a magazine dedicated to helping us
on our path. This is the web page for the home monastery of my teacher, Carl
Jerome. This has a Chan Buddhism tradition, the tradition I have been studying.
Chan is the Chinese ancestor of Zen Buddhism.
This is a web site that provides an online eMagazine and
many free articles and ebooks about various aspects of Buddhism. It has so much
information that it can be somewhat overwhelming. It helps to have a specific
topic in mind.
This web site is all about meditation. It includes several
free meditation guides. A big emphasis is mindfulness of breath. They have a
monthly newsletter with links to their blog. I recommend that you start with
that.
This is the online presence of the magazine of the same
name. There are links to articles about popular topics in Buddhist studies,
including How to Meditate, and articles by and about several well-known
teachers. The site also a link to the publication, BuddhaDharma, The
Practitioners Quarterly. I recommend that you sign up for the newsletter.
The web site includes an extensive collection of online
articles about various aspects of Buddhism. It also includes links to an online
magazine, Chan Magazine. I recommend that you start with reading their Selected
Articles.
The web site includes an online meditation course, a
collection of texts from the Pali Canon, and a large online library of articles
about meditation. It also includes a copy of the excellent book, Mindfulness in
Plain English by Ven. Henepola Gunaratana.
Blogs
Here are some blogs I regularly read, a brief description,
and what I get from them.
This is by my teacher, Carl Jerome. He writes about one
article a month for his students on topics related to his Buddhism classes. A
main emphasis is using meditation and Buddhism to reduce stress. Here is what
he says about his teaching: " I assume that it is my responsibility as a
teacher to shine a light on the Path in ways that allow students to see clearly
how to reduce their everyday stress and anxiety (
dukkha)."
This is by Stephanie Noble, a meditation teacher and author.
She is a good writer and focuses on how to apply Buddhism to everyday life.
Here are a few quotes to give you a flavor of her writing: " We didn’t come
into this life to sit on the sidelines and watch!" and " Once you
have begun a meditation practice and find you are noticing your thought
patterns, you can begin to hear the words you are using to talk to yourself,
especially when you do something you didn’t intend to do."
This is by Ven. Kongmu, a Chan Buddhist monk. He has been
pretty busy lately with other things and hasn't had much time for writing. I am
hopeful that he can get back to it more in the future.
This is by Marcus Santer. It's a source of daily inspiration
for qigong practitioners. He has written a short article for every day of the
year. I actually follow on twitter instead of checking in on the blog every
day. He also has a website at
www.qigong15.com where he links to his free
qigong lessons. He uses this to promote his paid online lessons.
© 2012 Eric Borreson
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