{"id":1556,"date":"2017-01-23T20:40:27","date_gmt":"2017-01-23T20:40:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gpgrieve.org\/?page_id=1556"},"modified":"2020-10-24T21:17:44","modified_gmt":"2020-10-24T21:17:44","slug":"academic-blogs","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.gpgrieve.org\/index.php\/academic-blogs\/","title":{"rendered":"Academic Blog Entries"},"content":{"rendered":"

Meditation apps might calm you \u2013 but miss the point of Buddhist mindfulness<\/strong>,\u201d The Conversation, In today\u2019s stressful world, mindfulness \u2013 a type of popular spirituality<\/a>\u00a0that strives to focus on the present moment \u2013 promises to soothe away the anxiety and stress of modern life. The Internet is full of\u00a0popular cure-all mindfulness apps<\/a>\u00a0targeting everyone from\u00a0busy urban professionals<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0dieters<\/a>, those suffering from\u00a0insomnia<\/a>\u00a0and even\u00a0children<\/a>. . . . .\u00a0 <\/a><\/p>\n

Cosmic Pollution: The Manchester Cathedral, Video Games, and Religion,<\/strong> On Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, the Berkley Forum. Picture the following scene, which Heidi Campbell and I describe in our introduction to\u00a0Playing with Religion in Digital Games<\/i><\/a> (2014). The perpendicular Gothic spires of a thirteenth-century medieval cathedral tower over a strangely empty English countryside. Inside, the richly decorated choir stalls are empty; the sun filters through the stained-glass windows, streaking the dust-filled air and illuminating the gilded nave and the hallowed halls, which are covered with a veneer of centuries of prayer. Suddenly, there is a blood-curdling screech, and the cathedral is filled with the scurry of hundreds of spider-like creatures that fill the shadows. A blast shatters the silence, and multiple flashes of gunfire light the darkness. An archway begins to crumble; tracer bullets fill the air, leaving behind red puffs of blood. For a moment there is near-silence, with only strange growling whispers to be heard. Then, the click of reloading, and the shooting begins again. . . . . .\u00a0 <\/a><\/p>\n

Object Narrative: Virtual Meditation Cushion (Zafu):<\/strong> On Wednesday evening, January 21, 2009, I sat in Hoben Mountain Zen Retreat\u2019s zendo, a meditation hall filled with semi-circular rows of zafus (meditation cushions) laid out in front of a long wooden altar which had been decorated with incense, candles, flowers, and a large statue of Shakyamuni Buddha . . . . .<\/a><\/p>\n

Virtual Buddhist Monk Robes: Cyborgs, Gender, and the Self<\/strong> \u2013 On February 23, 2010, I logged onto the virtual world of Second Life and discovered that free virtual monk robes were being distributed at the Hoben Mountain Zen Retreat. As I describe in my book, Cyber Zen [i], Hoben is a Convert Zen Buddhist community that practices in Second Life, a three-dimensional, immersive, and interactive virtual world housed in cyberspace and accessed via the Internet . Often labeled Western, Nightstand, or Convert Buddhists . . . . ..<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Meditation apps might calm you \u2013 but miss the point of Buddhist mindfulness,\u201d The Conversation, In today\u2019s stressful world, mindfulness \u2013 a type of popular spirituality\u00a0that strives to focus on the present moment \u2013 promises to soothe away the anxiety … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gpgrieve.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1556"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gpgrieve.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gpgrieve.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gpgrieve.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gpgrieve.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1556"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/www.gpgrieve.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1556\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2185,"href":"https:\/\/www.gpgrieve.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1556\/revisions\/2185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gpgrieve.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}