“Pour la Vie” (1901): Alexandra David-Néel‘s Forgotten Anarchist Philosophy of Life

Alexandra David-Néel’s importance as an early explorer, student and translator of Sanskrit and Tibetan Buddhism cannot be overstated. Her books remain today some of the clearest and most intimate expositions of Tibetan Buddhism as it was practiced in Tibet at the start of the 20th Century. She was perhaps the first European to write about […]

“Forgetting Self That Man Alone May Gain”

The Dharma of Dyer D. Lum, the First American Buddhist-Anarchist Tonight, on my bike ride home from work, I was visited by the spirit of the forgotten Abolitionist, Anarchist, and Buddhist, Dyer Daniel Lum. According to Tricycle, he was the first American to publicly claim to be a Buddhist, in 1875, which might make him […]

Buddhist Anarchism and Divination Beliefs in Shin Chae-ho’s The Fierce Strife Between Two Dragons

English machine translation of Kim Yong-Ha’s article Buddhist Anarchism in Shin Chae-ho’s “A Tale of Strife Between Two Dragons”

“Neither Male Nor Female”

Taking Refuge in the Dharma of Gender Dissidence I have been thinking about the idea of “taking refuge”. These days we all need some kind of refuge or another. Those of us who have a little ought to offer more. We should expand the meaning of refuge: Refuge from poverty; refuge from hate; refuge from […]

Nondominational Buddhism

Several years ago I wrote a post about the expected scope of this research project. I wanted to clarify what kind of operation I was performing in studying the intersection of Buddhism and anarchism. In that post, out of a healthy abundance of skepticism, I concluded that a reasonable outcome would be to find an […]