But humans are consistently inconsistent. People regularly act contrary to stated principles, and people often invent principles (including religious doctrines) after the fact to explain and excuse their own and others’ behavior. Buddhists are no different from anyone else in this regard. /end

More importantly, doctrine does not dictate behavior. The whole idea of religious people as hypocritical typically assumes that people (esp. clerics) should act consistently with whatever doctrines they purportedly espouse. 3/?

To be clear, it’s important to disrupt the notion of “Buddhism=nonviolence,” which ignores all sorts of evidence to the contrary. The author does that well. But the notion that ahimsa (nonviolence) is THE central doctrine of Buddhism is factually incorrect and distorting. 2/?

Link works for me, but try this: pwj.shin-ibs.edu/2025/7191

See Kirby's recent article, "Buddhist Exceptionalism behind Bars," here: www.shin-ibs.edu/documents/pw...

Too kind! If I could rewrite it I would fix so many things…

I was never a JET, but USJETAA is a really great organization. Definitely worth joining! They offer great programming, including things like career mentoring for recently returned JETS, etc.

I always ignore requests for things like syllabi from strangers because they seem to be requests to steal IP. Articles I do case-by-case.

This happens to me a lot. Apparently standards for AP courses require HS students to ask profs to mentor their projects. Their HS teachers can’t do anything about the requirements, so we get deluged with these requests. I ignore if they are rude (often) or politely decline if they come correct.