Steve Tjiang’s Reviews > The Best Buddhist Writing 2011 > Status Update

Finally done with this book. Some of the essays, dog-eared for emphasis, warrant rereading. They gave me good insight.

In "Undivided Mind" Rodney Smith advocates a lay buddhist life. "The most important understanding of lay Buddhism is the availability of immediate awakening. Many limit that availability only to their practice, when they should realize that availability into lay life i.e. make life the practice.

On "Something from Nothing" by Ken McLeod. Barriers to "experiencing true nature" and "emptiness". In meditation, we want to achieve something. There is nothing to achieve. It hurts to realize this i.e. we are beings trained to want to achieve.

In meditation, we embrace thoughts that confirm our self-conception but push away thoughts that don't. Need to accept everything.

Finished the essay "Stars of Wisdom". Very confusing. The language used are probably referring to concepts that I don't quite understand completely. Funny but this essay is something about that any conceptualization of reality is an incomplete picture of reality! The best part of the essay are the last page and a half that describe the process of realizing this inherent inadequacy.

Nice summary of shamatha meditation in "Right Concentration" by Ringu Tulku.

Susan Moon's essay on growing old. As her aging mother says: "I like Zen because it says you should stay in the present. That's important in old age. I'm losing interest in my past--it was so long ago! And it's pointless to think about the future--what future? There is plenty going on right now, I tell myself."

Read Pico Iyer's essay on how HH, "A simple buddhist Monk" charms people and lives the dharma, and in doing so, skillfully turns a few hearts a little bit and brings joy.

Just read essay titled "A True Kinship of Faith" by HH Dalai Lama, in this collectino of writings. Very insightful. Helps me understand how it is possible to have multiple conflicting religions. The essay probably is a distillation of his, same-titled book, which now I have to read.

The section about "Death" was inspiring. "If we keep death in front of us, if we are aware of it, we will live better lives". A great quote, the Buddhist version of "A deadline help us prioritize"

This last story mentions a TV series I should watch "Dead Like me" available on Hulu and also on Amazon and iTunes.