Gerald “Strib” Stribling is the author of Buddhism for Dudes: A Jarhead’s Field Guide to Mindfulness (Wisdom Publications, 2015). His past incarnations have included farm hand, steelworker, U.S. Marine, elementary school teacher, and social services professional. Strib volunteered to teach English to children in Sri Lanka as a personal response to 9-11. There he studied with some of the most highly revered monks in Theravada Buddhism. During three of his seven months in the island nation, he actually resided in a Buddhist monastery.
He wrote Buddhism for Dudes as a not-so-subtle, basic examination of the essence of Buddhist philosophy. It’s short and funny and to the point. “Way too much Buddhist information is too complicated to wade through, and some of it is fairyland voodoo, full of metaphysical improbabilities. Buddhism isn’t a religion, it’s a way to live a happy life. This is not hard stuff to understand.”
Not Sure How to Help Those Who are Down? Just Begin by Showing Up.
By Gerald "Strib" Stribling 22 veterans a day commit suicide in the United States.A few years ago someone from the U.S. State Department asked me to send a copy of my book to a recently-discharged combat Marine who had attempted suicide. My marine’s way...
Do Buddhists Believe in God?
By Gerald "Strib" Stribling My eight year old granddaughter is an over-thinker. Much of her exposure to religious thought has been Buddhist. My daughter, her mother, is Buddhist, and Pearl and I have hung around together quite a bit. I taught her...
What is Insight (Vipassana) Meditation?
By Gerald "Strib" Stribling Vipassana Meditation, or Insight Meditation, is Buddhism’s oldest form of meditation, practiced before the time of Buddha by the more ancient inhabitants of the Ganges Valley. Most other forms of meditation...
You Can’t Get Mopey about Things You Can’t Control (A Friendship Story)
By Gerald Stirbling A guy I’ve been friends with for 40 years and I were canoe-camping once on the Black River in Arkansas. Lance was a major in the Army, a West Point grad who was once described as “big as a skinned ox.” He and I...
Right View: Seeing the World Through Buddhist Eyes {The Eightfold Path}
By Gerald Stribling Wednesday Something is sapping my strength. My old doctor, Doctor Becky, tried to figure out why. She was my doctor for 25 years. She threw her hands up in the air, finally, and said that I was just getting old. This...
I Laugh at Pain
By Gerald Stribling Pain, physical pain at least, has always struck me as funny. Your pain is not funny, but mine is. It’s the only way I can explain my tendency to laugh out loud whenever I am in acute pain. I figure it’s one of those...
Thoughts on Christmas from a Grumpy Buddhist
By Gerald "Strib" Stribling I don’t like Christmas, never did like Christmas. My kids used to get me drunk to get me to help put up the Christmas tree. When I was young, Christmas used to make me feel lonely, and after I got married in...
The Zen of Despicable Me (and How to be Happy)
By Gerald "Strib" Stribling My granddaughter Oona Pearl and I have a tradition of watching Despicable Me II whenever we’re alone together. For one thing, my two oldest granddaughters and my step-granddaughter are the spitting images of Margo, Edith and...
Confessions of a Buddhist Super Villain: Buddhism at the Source
By Gerald Stribling Knowing what matters most, matters most. I had no real intention to study Buddhism and become a Buddhist when I first went to Sri Lanka in 2002. But, immersed in Buddhist culture, I basically couldn’t help myself. I was on a volunteer...
Cultivating Fearlessness: Being a Protector Amidst the Violence
By Gerald "Strib" Stribling Because everything in life is relative, there are no absolutes---even when it comes to the Buddha’s Five Precepts. Are you so committed to Buddhist non-violence that you wouldn’t kill the rabid dog that’s about to bite your...
Buddhism Shows Us We Can Choose How to React
By Gerald "Strib" Stribling I’ve been reading Stephen Batchelor’s latest book, and probably his magnum opus, After Buddhism: Rethinking the Dharma for a Secular Age (Yale, 2015). By my standards, it’s a pretty important book. I’m reading it very slowly,...
What I Have to Show So Far After 42 Years of Meditation
By Gerald "Strib" Stribling In April 1975 I was working as a security guard before starting graduate school at the University of Louisville. Toting a gun was no big deal for me, as I was a former serviceman. The fall of Saigon that month affected me...
The Resolution for Hate & Violence is not More Hate & Violence
By Gerald "Strib" Stribling I’ve been a big fan of Daryl Davis since I first heard his story on This American Life maybe 15 years ago. He’s the African-American musician who in 30 years has made friends with hundreds of Ku Klux Klan members. I’ve heard that he...
The Secret to Understanding Buddhist Ethics
By Gerald "Strib" Stribling A job coach I once worked with during my deadbeat dad days describe the elevator speech as the pitch you can deliver about what you have to offer, be it a product, an idea, or yourself as a prospective employee, to a stranger on an...
Old School Mindfulness {Part I}
By Gerald "Strib" Stribling I was told so many times as a child and young man to get my head out of my ass, that it became a kind of a mantra for me. “He’s a good student,” many a 1950’s-era elementary school report card read in the comments section,...