thinkBuddha and Monkey Mind Honored

Both Will Buckingham's blog thinkBuddha [link!] and James Ford's Monkey Mind [link!] have been honored recently for excellence.

thinkBuddha was named by the [London] TIMESONLINE, in its February 15 edition, as one of the 100 best blogs in the world. The Times' article estimates that there are now 200 million blogs on the internet. Hey, that's not bad! Will's blog is one in two million; in the upper crust, better than 99.99995% of the blogs out there. Yowza!

In the Times' bloggers' article about the top 100, Bryan Appleyard waxes enthusiastic. He writes,

Blogs let you jot down what you think, feel or know and, at the speed of light, publish it to the world. They now cover everything from quantum theory to politics to low-life celebrity gossip and intimate personal confessions. They can be vast publications written by teams of writers, or fragmented jottings from a student pad. They are the most successful, addictive, potent and radical application of all the new technologies and applications spawned by the personal computer.

Boy howdy, that!

The citation of thinkBuddha's excellence is on page five of the article, where the six best original thinkers are named, and reads as follows: “A blog that brilliantly suggested a Buddhist bus in response to the atheist and Christian advertising signs now stuck on traffic jams around the country. The Madhyamaka bus would bear the slogan: 'Neither an entity nor a nonentity moves in any of the three ways. So motion, bus and route are nonexistent'. That settles that.”

Monkey Mind got some love from the UU Blog Awards 2008, getting a silver 2nd place award in the category "Best Religious Writing or Theological Commentary" and a bronze 3rd place award in the category "Best Political Commentary - Single entry" for the post "A Briefest Reflection on American Politics and Liberal Religion."

Ford is a Unitarian Universalist minister who heads the First Unitarian Church of Providence, Rhode Island. He is also [quoting his blogsite] "a long-time Zen practitioner ordained as a Soto Zen priest and one of the guiding teachers for the Boundless Way Zen project, currently serving as school abbot."

At the Boundless Way webspace, we are told this re the UU - Buddhism connection:

"Many western-born Buddhists, particularly those of European descent, have found Unitarian Universalist congregations welcoming communities within which they could raise their children. And these Buddhists, including our three guiding teachers, have been active in returning the favor by offering Zen and other Buddhist practices within those congregations.

"Today there is an ongoing and fruitful dialogue between western Buddhists and Unitarian Universalism expressed in part through the UU Buddhist Fellowship. Boundless Way Zen sees as one part of its mission a furthering of that dialog."

Will Buckingham and thinkBuddha have been nominated for nine Blogisattva Awards. Will is the recipient of the 2008 Wordsmithing Award. James Ford and Monkey Mind have been nominees for eight Blogisattvas, including seven last year. James/Monkey Mind won in the category "Best Buddhist Practice or Dharma Post" last year for the blogpost "Briefest ruminations on the death of a child"