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.”
How Does “Letting Go” Work?
By Gerald "Strib" Stribling Humans tend to invest emotional capital in relationships, events and memories. It is said that time heals all wounds, but that’s not exactly true. Some poor, sad people cling tenaciously to grief, anger and disappointment. You...
How Visiting a Sacred Temple Reminded Me of My Time in the Marines
By Gerald "Strib" Stribling There is a small city high in the central mountains of Sri Lanka, a place that is arguably (mostly by Sri Lankans) the spiritual center of Buddhism. It’s called Kandy, pronounced “candy.” Since the Sinhalese language does not use...
Being a Buddhist Grandpa
By Gerald "Strib" Stribling Since I used to be a Kindergarten teacher, I have known many little girls, and in particular, Asian little girls. I have a Buddhist Sunday school full of them. Like Mark Twain, I unabashedly associate with little girls, because...
Wanna Be a Buddhist? Put Down the Books & Go Live Buddhism
By Gerald "Strib" Stribling Man, if I had a dollar for every time somebody's said to me that “you have to be an intellectual to get Buddhism,” I would have enough money for a case of beer. I laugh in their face and point to myself, "Do I look like an...
Boot Camp Happiness Training for the Mind (Because You Can Train for Happy)
By Gerald "Strib" Stribling Buddhist happiness isn’t like getting-laid happy, or first-drivers-license happy, or even my-wife-just-had-twins happy. I hate to keep harping about my short, uneventful two years in the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War,...
I’m Right, You’re Wrong: Buddhism & Right Thinking
By Gerald "Strib" Stribling My first car was a 1964 Chevrolet Impala. It was a dandy. I loaned it to my fiancee in the summer of 1972 (she wrecked it), but until then it was parked outside my barracks and used only for road trips and occasional runs into...
Want to Ease Others’ Suffering? Use Laughter.
By Gerald "Strib" Stribling I don’t like puns very much. Puns are the lowest form of humor, next to slipping on a banana peel. They’re never very funny. People don’t laugh at them so much as they roll their eyes and groan. Puns should be banned from the pages...
Sriracha, Spicy Food & Gummy Bears: Mindful Eating as a Practice
By Gerald "Strib" Stribling Having spent numerous months in the Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, I consider myself an expert on spicy foods. When I lived there I used to wait and take my shower after breakfast (cold shower!) because breakfast itself would...
Everyone Has a Critic (Even Buddha), So How Do I Handle That?
By Gerald "Strib" Stribling I get handed babies a lot—I am a magnet for smelly dogs, mentally ill people and little kids. I don’t mind smelly dogs, and I kind of like crazy people, but do not expect me to talk baby talk to your baby. If there’s an...
500,000 Women Walk into a Bar
By Gerald "Strib" Stribling I recently posted a video clip on my Facebook page my daughter sent me from the Women’s March in Washington on January 20th. My wife, sister, daughter and 6 year old granddaughter all marched together, chanting and standing...
A Buddhist Fisherman’s Brush with Karma (How to Get a Hook Out of Your Hand)
By Gerald "Strib" Stribling Everybody needs a good set of wire cutters. You’re tempting karma without a decent set of tools, but especially wire cutters. With a decent pair of cutters, you can rescue animals from entanglement with barbed wire, get your squad...
Being Mindfully Clumsy
By Gerald "Strib" Stribling God, if I weren't so fully trained in mindfulness, I'd have been run over by a bus long ago. My fortunes have found me crashing and burning many times in my life, culminating last winter when I accidentally flash-burned my butt bent...
Zen at the Rifle Range: The Levels of Buddhist Concentration
By Gerald "Strib" Stribling I like guns, especially rifles. I believe that the use of the marksmanship skills I learned as a competitive shooter in high school, and in the Marines, is an important part of my Buddhist practice. Shooting demands total...
Having an Ego is Not Bad. Here’s Why:
By Gerald "Strib" Stribling The concept of being without an ego is thought by many to be an objective of following Buddhist wisdom. Nothing could be further from the truth. First off, the concept of “ego” was invented in the late 19th Century by Sigmund...
When You’re Buddhist & Lost.
By Gerald "Strib" Stribling I have never minded getting lost. When I was a Boy Scout in Europe I got lost in both Munich and Vienna. I was hiking alone in the Bavarian Alps one time, went off the trail to take a pee, and when I returned to the trail, I forgot...