Robert Thurman: Buddhism As A Civilization Matrix

Posted on May 15, 2008
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Robert Thurman, the great American Buddhist, gave a talk in Vancouver last month, and with a few edits the whole thing has been made accessible in 10 video clips hosted at YouTube. All 10 clips are also embedded in Thurman’s website, which he currently titles after his new book coming out in June, Why The Dalai Lama Matters.

In his talk Thurman presents his great theme, that Buddhism is a matrix of civilized behavior, and among other attributes he lists education and the examination of reality as key to the nature of civilization. He describes his talk as a discussion of “Buddhism in the context of the crisis we face as a struggling species on an overstressed planet.”

Thurman further summarizes his talk:

“When the eminent British historian Arnold Toynbee said in 1971 that the most important event of the 20th century was the encounter of the West with Buddhism, he did not mean merely the entrance of one more world religion onto the scene. Buddhism is more than a “religion” as we currently use the term, and includes a scientific vision, a multi-faceted educational system, and a resilient ethical way of life.”
- Robert Thurman at UBC’s Chan Centre

Here are the ten clips with my selected highlights from his talk.

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Disruptive Obama

Posted on May 4, 2008
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Is government the friend of sustainability or its enemy? The most generous opinion on this matter from sources I consult is that government is slow, and this alone renders it inadequate to the emergency needs of the current global eco-decay.

Enter now the disruptive force of Senator Obama, whose adherents at any rally are notable for their diversity, sprawling across the whole demographic spectrum of America.

Obama is a disruptive force like any other disruptive technology. And disruption is always worth a generous look, to see if change for the better may be coming.

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Digital Nomads Are Changing the World

Posted on April 17, 2008
Filed Under News | 2 Comments

Wireless communication is changing the way people work, live, love and relate to places - and each other, says The Economist in one of its Special Reports last week called Nomads at last.

We are all becoming digital nomads, says the report’s author, Economist correspondent Andreas Kluth (20-minute mp3 interview with him here), who explains that this is not your grandfather’s telecommuting, because no one is tied to the home office - or any place special for that matter.

Read on for highlights and lively stories from the report

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Jon Lebkowsky Interviews Clay Shirky

Posted on April 3, 2008
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It’s worth reading every word when Jon Lebkowsky and Clay Shirky come together and publish a conversation. This happened last month, and promises to continue next month.

Clay Shirky, inveterate thinker and writer about the Internet, fresh from launching his book, Here Comes Everybody, is the person to talk to about how social groups organize themselves and take action that brings results, using the Web platform to do the heavy lifting.

Jon Lebkowsky, co-player in everything since dirt became digital, and deeply steeped in sustainability issues and today’s bright-green economic advances, is a man who works with the ways in which we’re changing our world.

The conversation is ripe with promise of action, and change.

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Resume Down, Blog Up

Posted on March 19, 2008
Filed Under Web 2.0, Reputation | 5 Comments

I saw the feed headline from Bob Warfield, who referenced Zoli Erdos, who in turn quoted Seth Godin - all to the effect that the resume is not only useless but counterproductive. As I said last month, your blog is both your resume and your job search.

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WSJ Says Get Blogging

Posted on March 17, 2008
Filed Under Promotion | 3 Comments

The Wall Street Journal today (March 17, 2008) ran a good story about blogging, advising its small business readers to pay attention to blogs, and to start using their own as a prime marketing tool. I’ve summarized the story for those who prefer to learn in under two minutes why they should, and how they can, get blogging for marketing success.

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Blogging - The Professional Campaign

Posted on March 14, 2008
Filed Under Business Management, Web 2.0 | Leave a Comment

This is an email I sent to someone I was trying to help get started on the Web. He’s a profound thinker with much to say and write, and wants to evolve from his current profession into a new one that supports his real interests, as a corporate keynote speaker and writer on his specialized themes.

See what I had to tell him, and please offer your insight and comments.

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Blog On Company Time

Posted on March 5, 2008
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I was scheduled to give a presentation at South by Southwest Interactive this year, on a presentation called “How to Blog at Work Without Getting Dooced.”

At SXSW Interactive we’re going to expand on the Dooce lesson and show the reasons why every employee and employer must blog, and furthermore how to do this in almost no time. Better than this, and what I was going to talk about, we’ll show why the employee blogger is now star talent in today’s market conditions and could actually become the official company blogger.

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Sustainable Business Practices

Posted on March 3, 2008
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Going green is stabbed with a two-pronged fork: the complicated and slow effort required, and the low odds of getting any positive encouragement along the way. So how does a business start developing sustainable business practices, and go green?

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Success By Blogging - a Case Study

Posted on February 26, 2008
Filed Under Promotion | 1 Comment

An associate in Denver sent me a case study he’d made of his client’s success since I set up a blogging campaign for the client three years ago. It was touching to see how it all worked out for the client. Note that all this happened without any additional promotion: it was just personal networking and offering valuable service that allowed the client to carve out his global niche - but it was the blog that gave him the necessary vehicle.

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