Category: Notes
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What to do?
The last couple of months have been a lot. I don’t think I’m the right person to reflect on everything happening on Pennsylvania Avenue right now. I don’t think the world needs yet another mediocre middle-aged white guy spitting his opinions all over the internet. I mean, if I wanted to do that, I’d get…
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What’s in a name?
Last month, the Institute of Buddhist Studies celebrated its 75th anniversary. Not part of the pubic celebration was a kieshiki service officiated by the BCA Bishop, Rev. Marvin Harada. A keishki service, sometimes called an “affirmation service,” is a short service wherein people affirm their commitment to the Buddhist path and are given a homyo or dharma…
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Once again asking for your support
In 2023, I rode my bike from here to LA, 545 miles, with a couple thousand other people, to raise money to fight HIV/AIDS. It was an amazing, wonderful, exhausting, life changing experience. One I would highly recommend to anyone crazy enough to ride their bike nearly 100 miles every day for seven days. As…
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Recordings of book talks
Over the last six months or so, I’ve given several public talks and lectures and whatnot about The Book. The most recent of which was at the Dharma Bum Temple in San Diego. That event was live-streamed on YouTube and video can be found on their channel here. Back in November, there was a panel…
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Updates: book events
A couple of book-related event updates. First, for those in San Diego or thereabouts, this Saturday, January 13, I’ll be speaking at the Dharma Bum Temple at 11:00 a.m. Here’s an event page with all the details. Unfortunately, I won’t have any copies of the book, but you can still get it for a decent…
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Rev. Dr. Seigen Yamaoka
Rev. Dr. Seigen Yamaoka passed away last month. And to be perfectly frank, I am not sure that I have fully processed this loss. In the coming weeks, I am sure there will be more “official” obituaries, memorials, biographies, and so on, about Yamaoka-sensei from both the Institute of Buddhist Studies and the Buddhist Churches…
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#aarsbl23
View this post on Instagram A post shared by scott mitchell (@djbuddha2011) The last time I was in San Antonio was 2016, for the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion. In some ways, it feels like a lifetime ago. In others, the more things change, yada yada yada. If AAR is your thing,…
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You may have heard
It’s been a minute, as the kids say [citation needed], since I posted an update. And I have a few updates. First up: the book Random people who stop by my office have told me that they’ve enjoyed the book. And there’s this exceedingly kind review on Buddhistdoor. And since the last time I updated…
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books, bikes, and hackers
Less than forty-eight hours before I left home to ride my bike across California, I discovered that this site had been hacked. It’s not the first time I’ve encountered this problem — though it’s been a long, long time. Long enough that I didn’t really feel like dealing with the laborious task of reviewing all…