Alan Ginsberg Post-Mortem Tribute (VOA 1998)
Posted in Arts, Buddhism, Poetry, Profile, Religion, SpiritualityPodcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 19:48 — 18.1MB)
Gary Snyder: Poet and Bio-regionalist (Earth Day 2009)
Posted in Americana, Buddhism, Poetry, Profile, SpiritualityPodcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 4:56 — 4.5MB)
For nearly 60 years, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Gary Snyder has combined an environmental awareness shaped by America’s Far West with a Zen Buddhist perspective that celebrates and reveres the natural world.
The Dalai Lama Interview on Conflict and Mind
Posted in Buddhism, Long form docs (15" and up), Religion, SpiritualityPodcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 20:08 — 18.4MB)
In 1995, it was my good fortune to be flown down to Atlanta to interview the Dalai Lama. It was in the middle of a very ambitious and (to me) fascinating multi-million dollar project I was producing at the time on conflict resolution, and the psychology of war, violence, reconciliation and peace. This long form doc uses some clips from His Holiness, and is leavened with dramatized excerpts from his speeches on these subjects, voiced by my colleagues at the VOA’s Tibetan Service.
May these words benefit all sentient beings!
The Ink Dark Moon: Buddhist Love/Sex Poetry from Courtly Japan (written by women)
Posted in Arts, Buddhism, Poetry, SpiritualityPodcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 4:48 — 2.2MB)
This is a story about some of the most beautiful short poetry I have ever come across. Edited by the poet Jane Hirshfield (see “Given Sugar, Given Salt” elsewhere in this blog), it is a collection of short erotic haiku-like poems written by Ono No Komachi and Izumi Shikibu, who were part of the Japanese medieval court. The themes – transience, love, loneliness, and erotic longing – are eternal, but the words come across both artful and vividly personal (not to mention steamy) across the centuries.
