Whether from The Daily Show or the morning papers, by now everyone knows about the deplorable working conditions of Foxconn, the company that manufactures Apple products. 250,000 petition signatures, delivered to Apple in six cities back in February, seem to have done little to improve the situation. Luckily, Foxconn workers continue to take matters into their own hands. via Lauren Indvik at Mashable: Some ...

Today, we're excited to announce the winner of the book In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction, by Gabor Maté: Samsarah Morgan. Thank you Samsarah, and everyone else who entered the contest! In case you missed it, some details of Dr. Maté's book are below. Even if you didn't win, we hope you're inspired to find out more about his Buddhist take on the incredibly challenging problem of ...

Just want to take a moment to shout out some of the really encouraging dialogue happening on Turning Wheel right now. As we know, disagreements on the Internet, even among Buddhists, often devolve into flame wars. Here on Turning Wheel, though, I'm grateful and inspired to have witnessed the exchange in comments on Nichola Torbett's piece, Recovery From the Dominant Culture, particularly between Nichola and ...

As Chinese medicine takes root in a new soil, practitioners have been dealing with questions of how to adapt this medicine to a new population.  There are also questions of what Chinese medicine is, or what authentic Chinese medicine is.  And in the quest for authenticity, there is a rising movement in the U.S. to reject the model of Chinese medicine as practiced in China today – in hospitals, integrated wi ...

Did you know that over 2,500 Cambodian garment workers protesting sexual harassment went on an illegal strike and occupied their factory last month? I'm a little late on this inspiring story (just found out about it through this wonderful summary of workers' struggles in August in East and Southeast Asia), but damn is it awesome. And while the sexual harassment charges against manager Faruk Ahamed are still ...

I get nervous — ornery, even — when I hear a boatload of Buddhist sweet talk about "interdependence." From what I've seen, interdependence has gained currency as a feel-good word, associated with a pleasant subjective experience of expansiveness, connection, and love. But it can be incredibly misleading when disconnected from an understanding of power. Maybe that's why I find myself intrigued by this video ...

On September 17 Mother Jones released secret video taken at a Romney fundraiser. In one of the most widely-publicized quotes from the video, Romney discusses the 47 percent of Americans who, either through deductions or low income, pay no income taxes: There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon g ...

Are you a fan of the work of physician Gabor Maté? Yep. So are we. And so is Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine, who says of him: “Gabor Maté’s connections—between the intensely personal and the global, the spiritual and the medical, the psychological and the political—are bold, wise and deeply moral. He is a healer to be cherished…” And that's why we're excited to give away a signed copy of his late ...

Growing up, I never wanted to be an acupuncturist. My mother’s acupuncture practice took her away from me, and wore her down until she collapsed each night, begging me to step on her back. At best, I viewed acupuncture as a necessary evil. Without acupuncture we would not have anything to eat but the wind, she would say, demonstrating with wheezes for dramatic effect. I was going to be a scientist – a physi ...

Wondering people's thoughts on this article, which argues that Buddhism as official state religion and cultural marker is playing a conservatizing and at times deadly racist role in Burma.  (Similar to Christianity in the U.S., let's not forget). Suu Kyi has a Buddhism problem. Specifically, she faces an obstacle in the chauvinism and xenophobia of Burma's Theravada culture, which encourages a sense of raci ...