Well, I’ve purchased Sting’s newly-released CD of melancholy mandrigals by Renaissance composer John Dowland (1563-1626). It should arrive from Amazon any day. The collection is super lute-y, I hear, and capable of transporting you to 16th-century England in a flash! Amazon reviews are profoundly mixed, however, and some early buyers are “sending out an S.O.S.”…

Lama Surya Das has added an item to his blog in which he quotes recent remarks made by the Dalai Lama at the University of Buffalo. “The Dalai Lama himself cautioned us lovers of peace and tolerance last week about what he aptly termed ‘misplaced forbearance,’ citing as an example complacent acceptance and tolerance of…

“A sensitive person has a great need for the sacred. One needs to protect one’s very fragile soul against the turbulence and grossness, vulgarity and ruthlessness one finds in the world. How can one be in the world and not of the world? … How can one preserve one’s attunement where one’s soul is being…

Best thing I read all week on the Amish community’s response to the murder of five of its children was this editorial from The Dallas Morning News, written by Beliefnet’s own “Crunchy Con” blogger Rod Dreher. “In our time, religion makes the front pages usually in the ghastliest ways. In the name of God, the…

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