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Frederick Ranallo-Higgins

@fmr-h.bsky.social
647 followers 215 following 261 posts

UCLA-ALC PhD | Senior Editor, Tricycle: The Buddhist Review tricycle.org/author/franallohiggins buddhism, occult, philosophy, religion, science, language, art, music, and other nonsense 🇺🇸🇰🇷

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Reposted by Frederick Ranallo-Higgins
The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · 28/09/2026
The United States is deporting parents without their children, leaving babies behind in America, @caitlindickerson.bsky.social reports. She spoke with the parents who don’t know if they’ll see their kids again, and the caretakers left to watch the children:
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The Babies Left Behind in America
The United States is deporting parents without their children, creating a whole new family-separation crisis.
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Reposted by Frederick Ranallo-Higgins
NPR @npr.org · 28/09/2026
The AI users included a conservative Christian in Texas, a witchcraft practitioner in Virginia and a Jewish man from California. n.pr/4d6LUbz
n.pr
A surprising number of Americans use AI for spiritual reasons. Here's what they told us
The AI users included a conservative Christian in Texas, a witchcraft practitioner in Virginia and a Jewish man from California.
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Reposted by Frederick Ranallo-Higgins
Tricycle: The Buddhist Review @tricyclemag.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Check out what we’re plugged into! In the latest issue, we highlight two dharma talks, a lecture, and a guided meditation to enhance your Buddhist practice. tricycle.org/magazine/wha...
tricycle.org
What We’re Plugged Into
Two dharma talks, a lecture, and a guided meditation to enhance your Buddhist practice
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Reposted by Frederick Ranallo-Higgins
Japanese American National Museum @jamuseum.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
JANM is proud to announce that George Takei and Brad Takei have pledged to gift their estate, currently valued at over $21 million, to the Museum. This future gift ensures that the Takeis’ passion for JANM will continue to endure for years to come. www.janm.org/press/releas...
Studio portrait of George Takei and Brad Takei.
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Tricycle: The Buddhist Review @tricyclemag.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
"Local ritual customs help shape a community’s identity and instill a sense of belonging. Even brief gestures can reorient the practitioner to the sacred and help settle the body and mind." –Zim Pickens and @fmr-h.bsky.social #DailyDharma tricycle.org/article/budd...
tricycle.org
From the Academy: Ritual
Innovation and tradition in Buddhist ritual
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Frederick Ranallo-Higgins @fmr-h.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
I've uploaded Tricycle's new Buddhist Books Reading List, a free, regularly updated resource featuring 13 key books per topic from various scholars and teachers. There are so many good books out there—hopefully, this helps. Check out our updated Buddhism For Beginners, too!
tricycle.org
Buddhist Books: A Reading List
Newcomers to Buddhism often run into the same problem: an enormous number of Buddhist books covering traditions just as varied. Scholarly histories sit
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Frederick Ranallo-Higgins @fmr-h.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
I loved editing this with Julian Butterfield, an early-career scholar and music critic researching how emotion is employed in Buddhist texts. Here, he looks at bone-shaking samvega in experimental metal music. An unusual topic that might challenge preconceptions about heavy metal music. Free Link
tricycle.org
Heavy Dharma
Waking up with metal music
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Frederick Ranallo-Higgins @fmr-h.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
I am not alone 🖤
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Reposted by Frederick Ranallo-Higgins
Long_Painter @longpainter.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Driving Into The Storm 8”x6” Oil on cradled wood panel
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Frederick Ranallo-Higgins @fmr-h.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
My interview with the UCLA emeritus professor Robert Buswell is in the latest issue. As usual, this truly wonderful scholar-practitioner offers academic understanding and personal insights in this enlightening discussion on Jinul (Chinul) and his role in shaping Korean Buddhism. Free Link
tricycle.org
The Monk Who Walked Away
The scholar Robert Buswell on Jinul, the 12th-century Korean monk who rejected wealth and prestige and shaped a tradition
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Reposted by Frederick Ranallo-Higgins
Tricycle: The Buddhist Review @tricyclemag.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
As Buddhism spread globally in the 19th and 20th centuries, new religious movements arose. The rise of new movements has continued to be a part of Buddhism’s history, carrying Buddhism into spaces where older institutions had little presence. Learn more below. tricycle.org/buddhism-spr...
tricycle.org
The Spread of Buddhism
Approximately 2,500 years ago, the Buddha lived and taught on the Gangetic Plain, near the border between present-day Nepal and India. Within a few
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DakiniSpirit @dakinispirit.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
"Combining rigor of Huayan tradition with meditative focus of Chan, insisted intellectual understanding + lived realization were a single path. This synthesis of study+practice has remained central to Korean monastic training, a balance not always reflected in Western presentation of the tradition."
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Reposted by Frederick Ranallo-Higgins
Tricycle: The Buddhist Review @tricyclemag.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
"What makes sense to some may not to others, but it may be what is most valuable for us as practitioners. You have to find your own way." –Robert E. Buswell, Jr. #DailyDharma tricycle.org/magazine/bus...
tricycle.org
The Monk Who Walked Away
The scholar Robert Buswell on Jinul, the 12th-century Korean monk who rejected wealth and prestige and shaped a tradition
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Reposted by Frederick Ranallo-Higgins
Tricycle: The Buddhist Review @tricyclemag.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
“The dharma and metal find each other in a place where heaviness becomes affirmative—locating us in our mortal, quaking flesh precisely to make us more alive.” –Julian Butterfield tricycle.org/magazine/hea...
tricycle.org
Heavy Dharma
Waking up with metal music
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Reposted by Frederick Ranallo-Higgins
Tricycle: The Buddhist Review @tricyclemag.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
"For those of us who are sincere yet struggle to see our own buddha-nature due to samsaric illusions or who practice inconsistently or only during holidays, there remains the assurance that even small efforts will ultimately lead to buddhahood." –An Tran #DailyDharma tricycle.org/magazine/an-...
tricycle.org
An Tran on Dual Cultivation
Author and Thien-Pure Land practitioner An Tran writes about the history and practice of the Vietnamese Dual Cultivation tradition.
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Reposted by Frederick Ranallo-Higgins
Tricycle: The Buddhist Review @tricyclemag.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Our Film Club pick for August dives into the deep waters of grief—not only personal, but ecological, colonial, and spiritual. Watch now at the link below. tricycle.org/filmclub/jus...
tricycle.org
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Tricycle: The Buddhist Review @tricyclemag.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Fabrications are not a problem; it’s the way they color our experience that creates suffering. According to guiding teacher Vanessa Zuisei Goddard, we can always train ourselves to use them to see things as they really are. Learn more in the piece below! tricycle.org/magazine/fiv...
tricycle.org
The Five Skandhas: Fabrications
Printable aids for the pillars of Buddhist practice
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Reposted by Frederick Ranallo-Higgins
Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Buddhism in the wild (photo by Jerry Feldman, Target Honolulu)
View of an end-cap display at Target, with a sign above it saying “Must have!” The shelves are empty.
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Reposted by Frederick Ranallo-Higgins
Tricycle: The Buddhist Review @tricyclemag.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
"One of the beautiful reminders of Buddhism is that we are among a group of people coming together to practice the 2,500-year-old teachings of the Buddha." –Wendy Biddlecombe Agsar #DailyDharma tricycle.org/magazine/med...
tricycle.org
Meditation Sickness
A new sourcebook makes the case for taking the dangers of meditation as seriously as its benefits.
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Reposted by Frederick Ranallo-Higgins
Tricycle: The Buddhist Review @tricyclemag.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
"Feeling and naming bodily sensations, and sustaining attention as they change, offer a direct experience of impermanence in real time." –Beth Robins Roth #DailyDharma tricycle.org/article/budd...
tricycle.org
The Dharma of the Nervous System
The Buddha’s teachings and modern trauma healing find common ground in embodied awareness.
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Frederick Ranallo-Higgins @fmr-h.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Tibet is being systematically erased. The cause lost its bumper stickers and celebrity champions sometime in the 2000s. Pico Iyer reviews the new Dalai Lama documentary for Tricycle — a film that opens with His Holiness telling you to have no expectations. He's not wrong. Free Link
tricycle.org
Pico Iyer: Calm in a World on Fire
In a new documentary, the Dalai Lama offers urgent tips for cultivating clear-sightedness and peace of mind.
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Frederick Ranallo-Higgins @fmr-h.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
"How do we get beyond the serotonin mind, and beyond the war mind?" Anne Waldman has been asking this question for six decades. At 81, she's not softening it. Tricycle's profile of the poet, dharma artist, and outrider who refuses to look away. #Buddhism Free Link
tricycle.org
A Profile of Anne Waldman
At 81, the poet Anne Waldman reflects on Buddhism, art, activism, and the urgent work of keeping the world awake to itself.
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Frederick Ranallo-Higgins @fmr-h.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
A Sri Lankan court just ruled that a Buddhist monk violated Buddhist principles by leasing temple land to developers who harmed the environment. Great news for conservationists—unless you've seen the elephants at the Esala Perahera 🐘 By Benjamin Schonthal @benschonthalnz.bsky.social Free link
tricycle.org
The Elephants in the Courtroom
Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court ruled that protecting Buddhism means protecting nature, so what happens when it doesn’t?
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Reposted by Frederick Ranallo-Higgins
Tricycle: The Buddhist Review @tricyclemag.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
"While everything is ultimately 'empty' of its own unchanging, essential nature, we still need conventional tools to alleviate the many kinds of afflictions plaguing us all." –William S. Waldron #DailyDharma tricycle.org/magazine/con...
tricycle.org
William Waldron: The Case for the Conventional
Mahayana Buddhism insists that truth still works, even when it isn’t absolute.
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Frederick Ranallo-Higgins @fmr-h.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
Summer 2026 is out! I had the privilege of working on several spectacular pieces. This one by Holly Gayley and Somstsobum Khyung on contemporary Tibetan literature draws on a previous study they did on narratives about 'fake lamas'. Read the attached short story by Tsering Dondrup! Free Link
tricycle.org
The Shadow of Fake Lamas
How Tibetan writers use fiction to raise awareness about sexual abuse
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Frederick Ranallo-Higgins @fmr-h.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
Meher McArthur wrote a review of this huge show at LACMA—Realm of the Dharma—and provided some little-known history on their Buddhist collection. The whole time I lived in LA, I had no idea. I knew the collection was good, but not this good. They should do this more often. FREE LINK
tricycle.org
Realms of the Dharma
LACMA’s landmark exhibition reveals a collection of Buddhist art as wide-ranging and surprising as the city that holds it.
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Frederick Ranallo-Higgins @fmr-h.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
One of my duties at Tricycle is a premium newsletter called From The Academy, which briefly looks at a topic through a scholarly lens, providing links and suggested readings. One of the highlights of my mostly non-academic job. After a year, we've started publishing them online. Free Link
tricycle.org
From the Academy: Yogacara
Tricycle's premium newsletter explores one of Buddhism's most influential yet least understood schools.
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Frederick Ranallo-Higgins @fmr-h.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
If you haven't read Sara Ann Swenson's recent book on Buddhist charity in urban Vietnam, you should. Tricycle will publish a review in the Fall issue, and here we present an except. Her book highlights LIVED Buddhism vs Buddhism as a practice, where giving and compassion are everything. Free Link
tricycle.org
Have You Eaten Yet?
What a late-night meal distribution in Ho Chi Minh City reveals about Buddhist charity, karma, and the ethics of giving
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Reposted by Frederick Ranallo-Higgins
Tricycle: The Buddhist Review @tricyclemag.bsky.social · 03/05/2026
"In a rapidly developing and hyper-connected global culture, recognizing that the 'self' is just another mental construct can be transformative, helping cultivate an unbiased, bodhisattva-like compassion." – @fmr-h.bsky.social and Zim Pickens #DailyDharma tricycle.org/article/from...
tricycle.org
From the Academy: Yogacara
Tricycle's premium newsletter explores one of Buddhism's most influential yet least understood schools.
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Frederick Ranallo-Higgins @fmr-h.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
I have been a huge Tarthang Tulku fan and reader since the 80s. One of the true masters who can skillfully deliver the dharma without falling back on it. Robin Caton from Dharma College channels her teacher just as skillfully in this excerpt from her new book 'The Undreamed Self'. Free link
tricycle.org
No Borders, No Boundaries
In Tarthang Tulku’s vision of mind, the boundaries we take to be real are conventions that can be seen through.
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Reposted by Frederick Ranallo-Higgins
James A. Benn @jamesabenn.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
A new volume on Meditation Sickness is out from University of Hawaii Press. Features a chapter by me on demonic states from Suramgama sutra. uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/medita...
uhpress.hawaii.edu
Meditation Sickness: A Sourcebook on the Dangers of Buddhist Practice
Everyone knows that meditation is good for your health and well-being. However, a percentage of people practicing meditation experience psychotic breaks and related adverse mental and physical side…
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Reposted by Frederick Ranallo-Higgins
NPR @npr.org · 15/03/2026
Associated with the Frankfurt School, Habermas was a world-renowned thinker on modernity and democracy who helped shape German post-war and post-reunification political discourse. n.pr/3Nptb1g
n.pr
Acclaimed 20th century philosopher Jürgen Habermas dies at 96
Associated with the Frankfurt School, Habermas was a world-renowned thinker on modernity and democracy who helped shape German post-war and post-reunification political discourse.
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Frederick Ranallo-Higgins @fmr-h.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
Bhikkhu Anālayo discusses the earliest layers of the Mahayana prajnaparamita and agama literature and sees more similarities than differences with the Mainstream traditions in a recent interview by Randy Rosenthal for Tricycle @tricyclemag.bsky.social Free Link
tricycle.org
Birth of the Mahayana
Bhikkhu Anālayo discusses the continuities between the early mainstream teachings and the developments of Mahayana.
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Frederick Ranallo-Higgins @fmr-h.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
Jin Park strips karma down to agency — and the argument cuts. Moral bookkeeping makes Buddhism an alibi for injustice. Korean nuns Iryŏp and Daehaeng knew better: the empty self owes no debt to fatalism. What remains is unhedged engagement, against whatever holds you inert. Free Link
tricycle.org
Karma as Active Resistance
A philosopher argues that karma is an exercise of agency that fuels Buddhist social engagement.
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Frederick Ranallo-Higgins @fmr-h.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
An interesting article on transgender Thai renunciant Ajarn Tritrinn and the community growing around her. Her selfless and compassionate devotion in the face of doubters is touching. Free Link
tricycle.org
Renunciation Without a Category
Ajarn Tritrinn, a transgender Thai renunciant, is carving a new path for monasticism beyond gender norms.
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Frederick Ranallo-Higgins @fmr-h.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
Tricycle @tricyclemag.bsky.social is now on Substack. You can read original articles and selections from our archive. I wrote a personal reflection on a Linda Heuman article about the futility of looking for an 'original' Buddhism, since, as even the Buddha tought—everything changes.
open.substack.com
Searching for the Basis of Our Faith
A scholar reckons with her desire to find the Buddha’s original words, even as she realizes there's no such thing as the "real Buddhism."
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Frederick Ranallo-Higgins @fmr-h.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
Tibetan writer Bhuchung Sonam reviews Tsering Döndrup's 'The Red Wind Howels'— banned in China—and recently translated by Christopher Peacock on @columbiaup.bsky.social Sonam provides a moving review for a book that defied limitations and made it ways through the Tibetan diaspora. Free Link
tricycle.org
A Banned Tibetan Epic Returns
Suppressed in China, Tsering Döndrup’s novel reaches English readers with an unflinching account of imprisonment, famine, death, and generational trauma.
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Tricycle: The Buddhist Review @tricyclemag.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
How does Buddhism grapple with Santa Claus? Writer Wendy Biddlecombe Agsar explores the delicate balance between truthfulness and holiday magic—asking whether it’s okay to tell a well-intentioned lie in the spirit of Santa.
tricycle.org
Right Speech and the Christmas Man
How the mother of a 4.5-year-old balances fantasy, reality, and telling the truth during the most wonderful time of the year.
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Reposted by Frederick Ranallo-Higgins
Tricycle: The Buddhist Review @tricyclemag.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
Tricycle's editors are reading books on Japanese poetry, transforming our emotions, and koan practice in everyday life. Click the link below to see what books have caught their attention lately.
tricycle.org
What We’re Reading
The latest in Buddhist publishing
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Frederick Ranallo-Higgins @fmr-h.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
This recent article by Bikash Bhattacharya has become my last-minute favorite of 2025. Hajo is a sacred site once central to Bhutanese and Tibetan devotion that now survives mostly in memory as borders, routes, and generations change. Bhattacharya offers voices from this lived tradition. Free Link
tricycle.org
The Vanishing Buddhist Pilgrimage of Hajo
A sacred site once central to Bhutanese and Tibetan devotion now survives mostly in memory as borders, routes, and generations change.
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Reposted by Frederick Ranallo-Higgins
Tricycle: The Buddhist Review @tricyclemag.bsky.social · 05/12/2025
In 1950s New York, Zen scholar D. T. Suzuki’s lectures brought artists like John Cage and Erich Fromm into conversation about Buddhist thought. Learn more about the talks that inspired a generation of Western thinkers in the link below.
tricycle.org
Midcentury Zen
Rediscovering D. T. Suzuki’s lectures at Columbia University
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Frederick Ranallo-Higgins @fmr-h.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
Happy Thankgiving!
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Frederick Ranallo-Higgins @fmr-h.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
An excellent reminder during holiday times with family members you don't see eye-to-eye with, Emma Varvaloucas talks with John Wood and Monica Guzman about practicing meaningful dialogue. It's not easy when our fundamental moral positions are challenged by family. Free Link
tricycle.org
Right Speech, Left Speech
Practicing meaningful dialogue in a time of polarization
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Frederick Ranallo-Higgins @fmr-h.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
Tommy Tran offers a brief biography of the 7th-century Korean Buddhist monk Wonhyo and his method of harmonizing doctrinal disputes. "No single doctrine was complete, but each revealed a facet of truth," Tran says, "Wonhyo emphasized the merits and limits of every perspective." Free Link
tricycle.org
Wonhyo’s Middle Path
Harmonizing truths across Buddhist traditions
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Frederick Ranallo-Higgins @fmr-h.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
My latest interview with Australian Tendai priest Jikai Tyler Dehn. Jikai is dedicated to translating all the works of Tendai founder Saicho into English. Check him out on YouTube or his website. His dedication to the dharma is inspiring. Free Link tricycle.org/magazine/ten...
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Frederick Ranallo-Higgins @fmr-h.bsky.social · 03/11/2025
#AIHallucinations
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Frederick Ranallo-Higgins @fmr-h.bsky.social · 29/10/2025
At Tricycle, we really appreciate Nikki Mirghafori's sobering clarity on AI and what the future holds. She recently talked to James Shaheen for a premium subscriber special event. Here, she talks with Steve Omohundro for Tricycle on AI, karma, and our robot future. Accessible Link
tricycle.org
AI, Karma & Our Robot Future
Two artificial intelligence scientists discuss what's to come.
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Reposted by Frederick Ranallo-Higgins
WIRED @wired.com · 27/10/2025
He’s one of the loudest voices of the AI haters—even as he does PR for AI companies. Either way, Ed Zitron has your attention.
wrd.cm
Ed Zitron Gets Paid to Love AI. He Also Gets Paid to Hate AI
He’s one of the loudest voices of the AI haters—even as he does PR for AI companies. Either way, Ed Zitron has your attention.
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Frederick Ranallo-Higgins @fmr-h.bsky.social · 12/10/2025
A wonderful reflection by dharma teacher and pilgrimage leader Shantum Seth on his first time visiting India's historic Buddhist pilgrimage sites with Thich Nhat Hanh, adapted from the latest posthumous book by TNH called Touching Peace on Parallax Press.
tricycle.org
The Art of Mindfulness
A dharma teacher and pilgrimage leader recounts his first time visiting India's historic Buddhist sites with the late Thich Nhat Hanh.
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Levi McLaughlin @levimclaughlin.bsky.social · 10/10/2025
Japan, ostensibly one of the least religious countries in the world, had its political order upended by the lay Buddhist organization Soka Gakkai. That is THE story about Friday's epochal shift in Japanese politics (thread follows):
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