[純素的生活瑣事01] Vegan Steez, the Banana Rack.

19 August 2014 [YT link]

[宗教與政治] Gods with a Lower-Case G (& Douglas MacArthur)

14 August 2014 [YT link]

Douglas MacArthur was formally deified in Chinese Daoism [道教], an interesting footnote in history, reflecting the asymmetrical attitudes toward religion-as-politics in the modern West and East. The video is only 5 minutes long; why summarize?

The Solar System vs. the Bible vs. Skepticism

06 July 2014 [YT link]

It's a clear case of the Solar System vs. the Bible... and it isn't hard to guess which side is going to win (in terms of making sense of the world outside your window), but, in this case, the Bible has something important to teach us about the history of the English language, at least.



When atheists get into debating these issues with Christians (as both Jaclyn Glenn and The Amazing Atheist have recently done) they seem to be willing to allow their opponents to misrepresent Biblical cosmology as compatible with the modern solar system (or as being identical to modern physics, aside from the added presence of a divinity at the top) --and nothing could be further from the truth. In most cases, the vagueness of Bible translations allows both sides to remain unaware of what it is that they're really debating, when they contrast ancient and modern preconceptions about the world.

Endangered Languages (閩南語 & 克里語的美洲原住民語)

05 July 2014 [YT link]

When you talk to people about endangered languages, quite often the first reaction you get is a denial that the language could ever disappear. Then, after just a few minutes of discussion, they tend to reflect on just how soon the language might be entirely extinct.



The video mentions my past work on Hokkien (閩南語, 台語, 廈門話), posted to my blog; you can find some examples of that, here: http://a-bas-le-ciel.blogspot.tw/search/label/H%C5%8D-l%C3%B3



In the video I mention an informal article that was published in Ogmios; it discusses some of the same issues using very different examples. You can find that online here: https://medium.com/@eiselmazard/endangered-languages-in-and-around-laos-an-overview-of-opportunities-1e7232a1e3a4

[關於康熙部首05] Chinese simplification, ancient and modern.

22 June 2014 [YT link]

In the Chinese written language, the radicals [部首] can obscure both the meaning and the etymology. Here's a rapid look at how that's happened, leaving us with so many puzzles in how components are assembled into complete characters.

[關於康熙部首04] Chinese isn't vegan (the many strange uses of the meat radical)

15 June 2014 [YT link]

If 國 can be reduced to 国, will we one day see 有 reduced to 厷? Although everything in this video seems like a bit of a joke, I have actually seen the word 蛋糕 changed to 旦糕... and this is an understandable "reformation" when you consider that vegans need to confirm that the 蛋糕 is made without 蛋.

[佛教中的貪腐] Corruption in Contemporary Buddhism

07 May 2014 [YT link]

Three anecdotes in ten minutes, involving Japan [日本], Thailand [泰國], and Laos [老窩/遼國].

[關於康熙部首03] The "atoms" of the Chinese written language

03 May 2014 [YT link]

"...we can't always understand the character better by breaking it down into smaller and smaller pieces; sometimes, instead, we have to put the atoms together into molecules, and figure out what the relationships between them might be."

Buddhism, Apotheosis and the History of Religion

18 April 2014 [YT link]

"...we tend to let ourselves imagine that a skeptical reading of mythology reveals something other than a myth... conversely, one interesting side-effect of this attitude toward mythology, is that we're always producing new mythology, through new interpretations that fasten onto one aspect or another of the story as 'real' and 'original'..."



This subject here is hard to guess from the title: "Atheism and Apotheosis: Regarding Religion as History". The video can serve as either an intro or an outro for the other skeptical discussions of the history of Buddhism on this channel; it does wrap up several of the recurring themes and questions.

Fan Mail or Hate Mail? (Q&A 01)

05 April 2014 [YT link]

Your questions answered! Including questions that are so misguided that they might as well be hate-mail! From problems of pious ignorance to academic fraud, linguistics, history, humantiarian work and ancient philosophy... this video isn't about anything that I'd want to talk about, no... instead, here are the answers demanded by readers like you!

Goodbye, My Daughter

03 April 2014 [YT link]

Divorce and consequences.



There is a more detailed account posted to my blog, for the few who are interested:

http://a-bas-le-ciel.blogspot.tw/2014/05/how-i-ended-up-learning-chinese-part-three.html

Why I started learning Cree (Nêhiyawêwin)

01 April 2014 [YT link]

I look really exhausted in this video, but, hey, this isn't a beauty contest.



These comments come closer to autobiography than my other videos: I reflect on my own motivations to learn Cree (Nêhiyawêwin) and the type of ethical engagement that unites my interest in First Nations with the (unrelated) languages, histories and politics I've studied on in Asia.

Why I stopped learning Cree (Nêhiyawêwin)

01 April 2014 [YT link]

My battery is my editor: the tape stops when the camera ran out of power (in mid-sentence!).



Although I had more to say (and did, indeed, keep talking after the camera shut down) I decided it wasn't an entirely bad thing to have this information in a nine minute segment. And I can't negotiate with my editor.



The article mentioned in the first twenty seconds is here:

https://medium.com/native-american-eya/9429fc06b9d9

Buddhism, Scholar vs Practitioner

30 March 2014 [YT link]

There's a presumed antipathy between the scholar and the practitioner; while this video opens with an example of that contrast being all-too-real, I argue that the more common conflict is one that sets scholar against scholar, and practitioner against practitioner.

[關於康熙部首02] Chinese is not a system of symbols

29 March 2014 [YT link]

Yeah, I said it. We use the word "system" in the vaguest possible sense when we say, "the system of Kangxi radicals", because there's almost nothing systematic about it.



Part two in a series, looking at how to learn Chinese characters by breaking them down into their component parts, and understanding their etymologies.

Atheism as an ideology (agnostic vs. nihilist)

27 March 2014 [YT link]

Ideology is everywhere used and everywhere deplored, like the disposable plastic bag; and, all the same, we dispense with one just to replace it with another --even if we struggle to keep up the illusion that we could live without them.



If you're honest enough about anything, it starts to sound like a joke; that's why reality TV turns private tragedy into public comedy. Here's my first direct commentary on nihilism: no make-up, no music, no mood-lighting, no editing... and, yeah, my blender is my co-host.

Brand New Ancient Buddhist Philosophy, Part 3

26 March 2014 [YT link]

"How far do the implications go, of this conflict between what's ancient, and what's only apparently ancient?"

"Culture is not static. Culture doesn't exist as a statue in a museum... culture only exists and persists when people actively reproduce it, when people are making it new, again and again."



Link to the first article mentioned in the video: https://medium.com/p/eaed2e5fbe40



Link to the second article mentioned: https://medium.com/p/46091f5da69



Link to the third article mentioned: https://medium.com/p/1c31959b2e56



Link to the earlier video mentioned on the closing screen:

http://youtu.be/GzOcSpxKVoA



Sexual abuse (within modern Buddhism) is mentioned very briefly toward the end of the video. For a quick study of an instructive example (involving both "East" and "West") see: http://a-bas-le-ciel.blogspot.tw/2014/02/sangharakshita-and-scandal-that-never.html

Brand New Ancient Buddhist Philosophy, Part 2

22 March 2014 [YT link]

In the last 70 years, (1) changes in the structure of political authority entailed changes in how religious legitimacy is projected and perceived, and (2) changes in technology created new challenges to religious authority, as inaccessible canons of ancient texts became more and more accessible.

The Problem of "the Exotic" in Philosophy & Religion

18 March 2014 [YT link]

This opens with an anecdote from the bad old days about monks, magic and faith-healing, then proceeds to (briefly) run through the problem of "the exotic" (as I've encountered it) in both Eastern and Western philosophy.



The drink in the blender was a combination of banana, kiwi and soymilk, for the record.

[關於康熙部首01] Why Learn the Kangxi Radicals?

16 March 2014 [YT link]

Your textbooks have probably told you two things about the Kangxi Radicals: (1) you absolutely must study this system if you're ever going to make progress with the written language, and (2) don't worry, nobody actually does it, so forgive yourself now for your inevitable failure, and just muddle along in ignorance.



This is a mixed message that reflects the mixed emotions the Chinese often have toward the "roots" and etymologies of their written language: your teachers will simultanously tell you that this stuff is crucial to understanding anything at all, yet, also, they will complain that any questions you may have on the subject are just a waste of time.



I have met many foreigners who have become fluent in Chinese without learning the radicals (and etymologies) of the written language, but they look back on this subject wistfully as part of their education that was missing. They tend to think of it as something that still impairs their work in the language (from day to day), and, for at least some people I've met, it genuinely does.



In this first video, I look at a set of examples to rapidly answer the question, "Why Learn the Kangxi Radicals?"

Buddhist Meditation is NOT a Science of the Mind

14 March 2014 [YT link]

In one important aspect, the problem with Buddhist Meditation is strangely similar to Christian Creationism. (Recorded while sick with a bad fever [發燒], BTW, so my voice is a bit creaky.)



If you've got the patience to read more:

"...we must not forget that the English word meditation denotes a European concept, not a Buddhist one. We find the term in the popular translation of the "Meditations" of Marcus Aurelius ([馬爾庫斯·奧列里烏斯] 121--180 A.D.) —scil., a title that is also translated as "private thoughts" or simply as "notes to myself". This shows the range of meanings that the English term has encompassed in recent centuries: it has been used to denote everything from Christian prayer to solipsistic thinking, and includes autobiographical reflections in-between."

From a long article: https://medium.com/p/1c31959b2e56

Buddhism, when "Interpretation" Means Fiction

24 February 2014 [YT link]

Some comments and examples following up on my earlier video "Reading Mythology but Seeing History". In modern Buddhism, to a shocking extent, "interpretation" has become a genre of fiction.

Reading Mythology but Seeing History: the Historical Buddha and the Historical Hercules.

24 February 2014 [YT link]

Why is "the historical Buddha" so controversial? As the title suggests, part of the problem is that we're reading mythology, but selectively treating it as history. An unscripted discussion of some of the issues.

Buddhist Philosophy, Known or Unknown?

20 February 2014 [YT link]

Is Buddhist philosophy something we can know (the same way that we know the philosophy of Plato, Aristotle, etc.) or is there some kind of special exception to the rules involved? (Organized religions always seem to make themselves an exception to the rules, hm?)



Circa six minutes into the tape, "...[in modern Buddhism,] anyone who reads the text is a threat to the authority of the monk in charge. It's a lot more convenient to organize your religion around silence [and] subservience to authority [than to allow] asking questions [and] debating the philosophy."



Want to know more about the textual basis of Buddhist Philosophy, and what's known (vs. unknown) today? Here's an article that's half as long as it looks, presented in both Chinese and English: http://a-bas-le-ciel.blogspot.tw/2014/03/canon-and-reason-complete-chinese.html

Why I am not a Buddhist

17 February 2014 [YT link]

Some unscripted reflections from a former scholar of Buddhism, and an ex-Buddhist. I opted for a very raw format with this clip, including an odd moment of silence. The video is unedited, and it stops at the unplanned moment when the camera ran out of battery, shutting itself down.



Here's the link to the magazine interview mentioned in the video: https://medium.com/p/9df3f5f826e4



Eisel Mazard, 2014.

Atheism, Empirical Attitudes, and Buddhism

16 February 2014 [YT link]

A discussion of Atheism, Empiricism, and one religion's claim to be scientific. Why do so many Buddhists argue that this religion is merely "a science of the mind", or "a rational philosophy not requiring faith", etc.? Given its history, what is the future of Buddhism?



[Author's blog:] a-bas-le-ciel.blogspot.com

Buddhism, Ancient vs Rational

12 February 2014 [YT link]

Why would the most ancient texts be the most rational? Here's a quick answer to the question of why so many Buddhists (and scholars of Buddhism) look at the history of the religion in these terms. There's a cultural connection between the 20th century's construction of a rationalized "historical Buddha", and the 19th century construction of "the historical Jesus"; the sequence of how the ancient texts became known in the modern West re-enforced this tendency.



Read more if you wanna: "The Opposite of Buddhism: European Colonialism and Interpretation".

https://medium.com/p/a192b6880f30

http://a-bas-le-ciel.blogspot.tw/2013/10/the-opposite-of-buddhism-article.html



The other essay mentioned as "Canon and Reason", starts here:

https://medium.com/p/b5947081e0d7



If you're wondering about the black-and-white photo in the intro:

https://medium.com/p/ce01eadb1aff