Armstrong to re-evaluate ‘violent’ history of religion
Karen Armstrong is tired of hearing the phrase: “Religion has been the cause of all the major wars in history.”
Posts Tagged 'Buddha'
Pulleyn to teach meditation for everyday life
A shelf mushroom growing from the side of a tree spurred John Pulleyn’s interest in Zen Buddhism. He was walking through the woods with a friend the summer before his senior year at Oberlin College when he saw the mushroom and muttered aloud that it was disgusting.
‘Love yourself before loving others’ holds true in Vipassana teachings
“You, yourself, are the person who is most deserving of your love,” said Lukasik, who will return for his second year as a teacher-in-residence during Week One for the Mystic Heart Program, an initiative within the Department of Religion.
Armstrong: Suffering, compassion central to all world religions
Karen Armstrong is not too big on happiness — she said it’s overrated and never sticks around long enough. She has found that the world’s major religions don’t concern themselves much with happiness; rather, it’s focusing on suffering that’s important.
“The religions are not about finding some outer palacio where we will … be blissed out, but [about learning] to live creatively and kindly and realistically with our pain,” Armstrong said.
Compassion key to ease suffering, Armstrong says
T.S. Eliot wrote in the poem “Ash Wednesday,” “Because I cannot hope to turn again,/ Consequently I rejoice, having to construct something/ Upon which to rejoice.”
Karen Armstrong’s livelihood as an author of books on world religions is what she has constructed to find happiness. She was a Catholic nun before attempting teaching and even television broadcasting. These careers all ended disastrously.
The Chautauquan Daily 