Buddhism in the Twitterverse

by William Harryman

The assignment: to write an article on the top ten Buddhist Twitter users.

I’ve never been very good at following directions. As I went through the Buddhists that I follow on Twitter, it quickly became apparent that there are those who are well known as magazines, meditation teachers, and writers. Then there are monks, lay Buddhists, and others who tweet on Buddhism but are not so well known.

[As an aside, Soren Gordhamer recently wrote an article for Huffington Post on how to use Twitter as the Buddha might, were he alive to tweet the Dharma.]

So this first group of Twitter users contains a lot of names you might recognize, but all of them are worth following for news and Dharma tweets. The second group is comprised of people you may or may not know, but who certainly have a lot to add. Consequently, there will be more than the requested ten names.

In no particular order, despite the fact that I numbered them so could keep track of where I was on making the list (the first link is to the Twitter page, the second link is to a website or blog):
1. Shambhala Sun – Shambhala SunSpace – One of the best known Buddhist magazines, founded by Chogyam Trungpa.
2. Tricycle Magazine – Tricycle – Another of the big names in Buddhist magazines.
3. Lama Surya Das – personal site – Lama Surya Das was in the first wave of American’s to study Tibetan Buddhism, and has since authored many fine books for general readers.
4. Roshi Joan Halifax – Upaya Chaplains – I first read Roshi when she was married to Stan Grof and have enjoyed seeing her evolution as a writer and Buddhist.
5. Brad Warner – Hardcore Zen – Brad is author of Hardcore Zen and two other books. He brings a punk ethos to his very traditionalist Zen teachings.
6. Genpo Roshi – Big Mind, Big Heart – Genpo has taken the Voice Dialogue approach to shadow work and adapted it to meditation. His biggest backer is Ken Wilber’s Integral Institute.
7. Ethan Nichtern – One City – Ethan is another of the younger generation of Buddhist authors and the author of the One City blog at BeliefNet. See also One City.
8. Susan Piver – her blog – Susan is one of my favorite Buddhist writers, appearing widely in the Buddhist world, including Shambhala Sun.
9. Buddhist Geeks – Buddhist Geeks podcasts – Buddhists Geeks have quickly become the leading Buddhist podcast on the web, seriously Buddhist, seriously Geeky. You should follow the BG’s host, Vince Horn, too.
Buddhist tweeters you might want to know and follow if you don’t already.
1. ~C4Chaos – personal blog – ~C was one of the first and best integral bloggers, but recently he has become one of the leading Buddhist bloggers with his #openpractice project.
2. Hokai Sobol – personal blog – Hokai is a lecturer, translator, publisher, Buddhist meditation teacher, Shingon Koshi, and integral agent; he lives in Croatia.
3. Rev. Danny Fisher – personal blog – Reverend Danny is a Buddhist Chaplain now serving as Coordinator of the Buddhist Chaplaincy Program at University of the West.
4. Justin Whitaker – American Buddhist – Justin is a well-known blogger in the Buddhist world and he tweets on Buddhist ethics.
5. Bodhipaksa – personal blog – See also Wildmind Buddhist Meditation, Bodhipaksa teaches meditation and dharma in the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order lineage.
6. Lama Yeshe – personal blog – Lama Yeshe is a Tibetan monk posting some great dharma.

There are many more great Buddhist Twitter users and this list is somewhat subjective in that these are the Buddhists that I follow and enjoy. You might have a different list. To find new Buddhists to follow, try a hash-tag search, for example, #Buddhism, or #Buddha.

Finally, you should be following Waylon Lewis of Elephant Journal for all the best in Buddhism and beyond.

If I missed someone that you follow and recommend, please leave a note and a link in the comments.