Rev. Danny Fisher

Over at Shambhala Sun Space, our friend (and my editor) Rod Meade Sperry answers the James Ure’s question, “Are some Buddhist magazines behind the times?”  Here’s a snippet that I really appreciated:

The Buddhist blogosphere reminds me of another aspect of my younger years, that of the “zine revolution.” Zines – self-published, often hand-assembled “magazines” made in very limited quantities — were the predecessors of the web, allowing people to find a niche of like-minded people, no matter how small, and to publish to and with them. The result was more than a feeling of community; it was community itself. Cruising through the Buddhist blogs, seeing all the empowered practitioners who pour their hearts and minds onto our monitors, I get that same feeling, and it’s beautiful.

And that makes a post like James’s a bit bittersweet: Such a commentary may not be what exactly what we at the Buddhist magazines would most like to hear, but to be ungrateful for it would be missing the point entirely. We’re here not just to teach you, but to learn from you, to reflect your concerns. The community we share with you depends on it.

Read the rest of Rod’s post here.  Incidentally, this response is part of some new op-ed content at Shambhala Sun Space that I’m really digging.  (See also David Loy’s post on Obama as a “War President.”)