A List of Great Buddhist-Themed/Relevant Blogs
by Danny Fisher
[This post has been updated as of 2:35 p.m. EST on 9.16.08.]
Over at peaceful turmoil today, author tinythinker has an intriguing post about whether or not the Buddhoblogosphere is “losing steam.” The author writes:
- Does it seem to you like the Buddhist corner of the blog universe is losing its mojo? Or is it simply undergoing a transformation? There is no doubt that many long-time popular Buddhist-themed blogs, such as Republic of T and The Buddhist Blog, are still up and running strong. But many other popular blogs with a Buddhist emphasis or perspective have gone the way most blogs do into disuse or permanent deletion. Even so, one might expect that many new bright stars would be on the rise. Fine new vessels catching inspiration in their sails to make that voyage from a start-up project to an established voice in the online community. Are there really so few diamonds in the rough waiting to be polished? Or is the interest in Buddhist blogs not sufficient to sustain the popularity and word of mouth of the newcomers?
My own feeling is that there are many wonderful and vibrant Buddhist blogs out there–some that offer several posts a day, and some that offer lengthier essay-style posts every now and then. Certainly, most of them have not achieved the same level of recognition or popularity that the blogs tinythinker mentions have. They definitely deserve that sort of recognition and popularity. With a little help–from inclusion in things like Beliefnet’s “Blog Heaven,” perhaps–they might. We’ve also got to be better about communicating with one another and joining things like the Buddhist Blog Webring. We’ve got to be aware of each other if more blogs are going to catch on.
To that end (and because tinythinker asked for links), I’d like to share a list of the Buddhist and Buddish blogs that I follow regularly. (Apologies in advance if I forgot any friends of this blog.) Let me know what I missed in the comments. And if you’ve got a Buddhist blog of your own, let us know–there’s no room for modesty here! : )
Very cool. Thanks.
“-there’s no room for modesty here!”
Ahh, maybe we just don’t want to appear to concerned with getting noticed because that would be a sign of an inflated ego. It brings up a funny (if not accurate) image of a bunch of folks making what are essentially attention-getting/ego-fueled products who are worried about getting too much attention. ;^)
Oh, and I can add a few:
Dharmakara’s Prayer
Ecumenical Buddhism
A Buddhist Catholic Blog
Echoes of the Name
Amida-ji Retreat Temple Romania
African Pure Land
Plus all the blogs at Fraught with Peril, particularly:
Real Life with Ryuei
Hey y’all.
Those are some awesome rolls de la blog! Who knew their was so much.
Over at the One City Blog, we take a slightly different approach, giving people who practice meditation a chance to write and comment about politics, 21st century culture, practice, art, love, hate, and whatever else they want to sound off on. We have some really talented (and publishing) writers working for us, and it’s become a joy to behold. We really like the idea of a blog BY meditators, instead of a blog just ABOUT Buddhism.
Is it cool if we add you to our blogroll over their Rev. Danny?
Keep up the good work
Hello,
Gerald Ford from the Level 8 Buddhist blog here. Thanks for the nod above.
Speaking from experience, blogging is a hugely time-consuming process, and unless you hit upon the topics of:
* Tibet
* Zen
* Meditation
Most people will not bother to read your blog. That can be pretty discouraging if you happen to fall outside these spheres.
Second, I’ve been blogging more or less or three years (though I have also deleted/started new blogs as many times), and what I’ve noticed is that the Internet Buddhist community is definitely not like the real one. I was lucky enough to be part of a large Buddhist community in Seattle, but now live in Ireland where communities are much more scattered. Although I hvae the same Internet community as before, I still feel a tremendous disconnect. Something’s definitely lacking in Internet-and-book Buddhism, and unless you find a real community, it’s hard to get over.
So, for some people, I suspect that come to this realization as well and decide to focus on life and less on blogging. I think that’s a very reasonable approach, and it’s been a motivation for deleting blogs. Later though, I miss expressing what I found in real life to others, and start up blogs again.
I guess that’s the healthiest approach: thoroughly grounded in a Buddhist community in the real world, but sharing its insights with those who cannot do so.
Best wishes!
-Doug M. (a.k.a. Gerald Ford)
I can’t speak for Danny, rigdenpoet, but I also enjoy blogs about the impact of Buddhism as well as the practices of different groups. All theory and and study without faith and practice isn’t really Buddhism anyway, is it?
(And no please I am not inviting anyone into a debate over what Buddhism is :^P)
tinythinker: Thanks for all the good links. (I can’t believe I forgot Ray over at Dharmakara’s Prayer!) And the modesty comment was just my way of telling readers not to avoid mentioning their blogs out of some misplaced fear of being perceived as “attention-seeking/ego-fueled.” Going back to one of my points in the post, I hope we can all become better aware of what’s out there in the Buddhoblogosphere. That might be part of the problem you perceive: we don’t always know who/what is out there.
Ethan (rigdenpoet): Great to hear from you here. I appreciate your points about what it is that makes the One City Blog more than just a blog “ABOUT Buddhism”. I struggled with the title of this post because I wanted to make room for all kinds of blogs–particularly those like the One City Blog (“BY meditators,” but not necessarily “ABOUT Buddhism”). In the end, borrowing a word from tinythinker’s post, I settled on “Buddhist-Themed/Relevant”. That may not have been the best designation, but I employed it hoping that it would be something of a catch-all. And, of course, I would be delighted to be included on your blogroll. Thank you. Keep up all your good work.
Doug: I think you make a great point about the generally narrow focus on “Tibet, Zen, and meditation.” It certainly seems to me that a lot of good blogs from other South/Southeast Asian and East Asian traditions are slipping through the cracks. Two of my very favorite blogs are Bhikkhu’s Blog and the new, Nichiren-focused BuddhaJones. I don’t see them on enough blogrolls, and they’re fantastic.
Danny-la,
You rock.
A font of constant inspiration.
Hope yer well.
NV
Wow, I wondered if that was Lisa Jones who used to have a site by that name which also discussed Nichiren Buddhism (in particular her conflicted feelings about loving Nichiren Buddhism after having left the Soka Gakkai). It looks from the “About” section that it is not. Still, it’s an interesting place!
Rev. Fisher,
I think the term “falling through the cracks” is a very apt term. I can see the momentum changing and Pure Land Buddhism, which used to be a laughing stock in the West, is gaining more serious attention than before, but there is a lot of inertia.
Like you pointed out, people still tend to look down on Asian Buddhists as somehow primitive or victims of “cultural accretions”, but some really good Buddhist bloggers living in Asia are changing that view as well.
A couple suggestions on that front:
Marcus’s Journal (British fellow living in Korea who has lots of good experience there)
and:
Singaporean Humanist (a great blog from Singapore about life and Buddhism from the Chinese perspective)
Hey Danny,
Thanks as usual for the plug, but for also coming up with a grea blogroll. I’ll have to take some of the links and add em. TY Agin!
Hooray for tinythinker and Danny Fisher. Both are fishers of Buddhist blogs, finders of fine-to-outstanding Buddhoblogospheric erruptions to replace Buddhoblogs that have fallen through fissures in the Internet.
I agree with Danny that there are oodles of wonderful Buddhoblogs out there — but it does become necessary to update one’s blogrolls and readers to, sadly, evict defunct blogs and, happily, add new vibrant Buddhoblogs to the queues.
Hi Danny, and thanks for a great list and for your own informative and compassionate blog! Also thanks for including Mystery of Existence
Per
Danny, I’ve recently been in contact with Barry over at http://www.oxherding.com/ a great and fresh blog I had no idea existed!
amazing! what a treasure trove! thanks so much for including change therapy in it.
anyone who is interested, please submit your buddhist post to my monthly buddhist blog carnival, here:
http://www.moritherapy.org/article/september-buddhist-carnival-the-delusion-edition/
Thank you Rev. Danny for including my blog (Amida-ji retreat temple-Romania) among the blogs you read. This is an honor to me.
Here is another very good blog on Jodo Shinshu that is very much read but unfortunately I am the only one who added it to my links:
SHIN UGLU BLOG at http://www.shinuglyblog.com
Another one is a German Jodo Shinshu blog at
http://www.jodoshinshudeutschland.blogspot.com
I am open to any method of collaboration between Buddhist bloggers which can be useful to everybody.
Great list!
A couple more good ones….
http://littlebang.wordpress.com/category/all-posts/
- a regularly updated blog based on the activities of the ‘Little-Bang’ Sangha.
and
http://dhammaleaves.wordpress.com/
– a great blog by a Dharma brother of mine.
(And thanks for the plug Gerald!)
All the best,
Marcus
just noticed my inclusion.
Gassho…
Also there’s an excellent Buddhist blog at http://jayarava.blogspot.com/
A few more for the list:
http://jayasiddhi.blogspot.com/
http://www.arcanology.com/
http://amidatrust.typepad.com/dharmavidya/
http://www.danielgoleman.info/blog/
Hi Chaplain Danny,
This is an awesome list. (and thanks for including me on it, of course!)
I wanted to let you, and everyone, know that I’ve been working on something similar for a couple of months down over at buddha-world.org. It’s a very very basic directory of Buddhist stuff on the web. I add to it when I can, but since I’ve got many eggs in many baskets (or whatever the appropriate metaphor is!), it’s hard to keep up.
Anyway, thanks as always for your insightful work.
Thanks for all that…but would love to know what you can personally recommend by way of say Top 10? I’m never gonna check alll those out.
Hi, great blog
I thought I’d poitn you guys in the direction of this blog, which deals with aspects of Buddhism (from a Western-Thai perspective) and productivity in an interesting way:
http://www.cheewit.net
Enjoy
Thank you very much!
I've started one that vaguely deals with buddhism, but will deal with it more directly in the not-to distant future.
http://www.homebrewdharma.blogspot.com