{"id":1342,"date":"2010-09-16T18:13:45","date_gmt":"2010-09-16T23:13:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2010\/09\/16\/just-sitting-there\/"},"modified":"2010-09-16T18:13:45","modified_gmt":"2010-09-16T23:13:45","slug":"just-sitting-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2010\/09\/16\/just-sitting-there\/","title":{"rendered":"just sitting there"},"content":{"rendered":"

My favorite line in Patrick Groneman’s account<\/a> of a group of Buddhist meditators’ attempt to bear witness, by just sitting, amidst the rival armies of 9-11 protestors in downtown New York City (anti-mosque, pro-mosque, et al) is the passer-by yelling<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is New York, don\u2019t just sit there\u2026stand up and say what you believe in.\u201d<\/b><\/em><\/p>\n

Which made me think: Isn’t that what blogging is — everyone standing up and waving their beliefs for everyone else to see?<\/p>\n

Ideally, of course, it isn’t that. Saying something is only one part of communicating; listening is the second, and attending to the ecology of speaking and thinking — the links made up of one’s interlocutors, the things spoken of and those left unsaid, the feeling and impulse giving rise to the speaking, and so on — is the third.<\/p>\n

Nathan at Dangerous Harvests<\/a> has a good wrap-up of the debates over Socially Engaged Buddhism<\/a> that have followed this summer’s symposium<\/a> on that topic. (See also Fly Like a Crow<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, this video<\/a>, shared by Santi Tafarella, stages the encounter between the “two Americas” in a way that leaves me a little uncomfortable (because of the ethical issues the experiment raises) but that at least gives us some figures: 6 for (racism), 13 against (and willing to act in defense of a Muslim American’s rights), and 22 not willing to stand up and say what they believe, or much of anything. That’s a majority. Definitely not New York.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My favorite line in Patrick Groneman’s account of a group of Buddhist meditators’ attempt to bear witness, by just sitting, amidst the rival armies of 9-11 protestors in downtown New York City (anti-mosque, pro-mosque, et al) is the passer-by yelling \u201cThis is New York, don\u2019t just sit there\u2026stand up and say what you believe in.\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[691847],"tags":[4417,123663],"class_list":["post-1342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-religion-spirituality","tag-buddhism","tag-politics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4IC4a-lE","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1081,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2009\/06\/01\/more-lessig-kelly-socialism\/","url_meta":{"origin":1342,"position":0},"title":"more Lessig, Kelly, socialism","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"June 1, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Now that I've taken the time to read the growing list of responses to Lessig's post, I have to say that I'm much more impressed with the collective hive mind -- the network of respondents he's grown around himself -- than with the Queen Bee (Lessig himself) on this matter.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Media ecology"","block_context":{"text":"Media ecology","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/media_ecology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14456,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2026\/03\/28\/chornobyl-40-upcoming-talks\/","url_meta":{"origin":1342,"position":1},"title":"Chornobyl @ 40 & upcoming talks","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"March 28, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Cross-posted from UKR-TAZ. Ukrainian Review has published a special issue on \"Legacies of Chornobyl\" that includes a fascinating interview with historian Serhii Plokhy (who seems to be writing at the incredible rate of a book a year) alongside several articles on the muliple dimensions of the accident and its impacts.\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv-ukrtaz\/files\/2026\/03\/image-4-1024x525.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv-ukrtaz\/files\/2026\/03\/image-4-1024x525.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv-ukrtaz\/files\/2026\/03\/image-4-1024x525.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv-ukrtaz\/files\/2026\/03\/image-4-1024x525.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10465,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2020\/04\/17\/comments-on-process-relational-meditation\/","url_meta":{"origin":1342,"position":2},"title":"Comments on process-relational meditation","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"April 17, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Part Two of my book Shadowing the Anthropocene (open access to all) outlines a system of \"bodymindfulness\" practice rooted in the mindfulness meditation system of Shinzen Young, but extended triadically to account for the active nature of living. Here are a couple of comments on and tweaks to that system,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Process-relational thought"","block_context":{"text":"Process-relational thought","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/process-relational-thought\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2020\/04\/moment-of-nothingness-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12628,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2022\/07\/29\/readings-on-ecofascism-and-far-right-ecologism\/","url_meta":{"origin":1342,"position":3},"title":"Readings on ecofascism and far-right ecologism","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"July 29, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"While it's easy to overuse the term \"ecofascism,\" applying it to things that don't necessarily deserve it (the debate might be a little like the one I've been following over whether Putinist Russia qualifies as fascist), it's important for anyone involved in environmental issues to have a sense of where\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Eco-culture"","block_context":{"text":"Eco-culture","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/ecoculture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/EcQmYSeE4rc\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1063,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2009\/04\/26\/green-frames-nudges\/","url_meta":{"origin":1342,"position":4},"title":"green frames & nudges","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"April 26, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week's \"Green Mind\" issue of the New York Times Magazine shows how behavioral science is making an impact on environmental policy and decision-making. In particular, Jon Gertner's \"Why Isn't the Brain Green?\" provides a useful summary of how the trendy fields of behavioral economics and 'decision science' are being\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Eco-culture"","block_context":{"text":"Eco-culture","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/ecoculture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8974,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2016\/09\/30\/sabbatical-note\/","url_meta":{"origin":1342,"position":5},"title":"Sabbatical note","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"September 30, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"It gives me pleasure to share the news\u00a0that I've been named the Steven Rubenstein Professor for Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Vermont. The position provides some teaching release and a budget enabling me to\u00a0work on my proposed project of developing a new center for eco-arts, media, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Academe"","block_context":{"text":"Academe","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/academe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"download-1","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2016\/09\/download-1.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1342\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}