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Did I Say That?
Bodhipaksa is an author and a teacher with the Triratna Buddhist Community. Since 2003, he has debunked some of the most popular quotes misattributed to the Buddha (see his website). His most recent...
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The Moving Mandala: Inside Bhutan’s Sacred Dance Festivals
In the world of Himalayan Buddhism, there is hardly anyone of greater influence than Padmasambhava, whom Buddhists of the region consider to be the “Second Buddha.” This great tantric practitioner,...
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The “Problem” of Religious Diversity
To tell the truth, I have no idea which element of my hyphenated identity as a Buddhist practitioner and a scholar of comparative religions is more prominent in my conviction that religious diversity,...
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Thus Have I Heard: An American Sutra
Thus have I heard: The army ordered All Japanese faces to be evacuated From the city of Los Angeles. This homeless monk has nothing but a Japanese face. He stayed here thirteen springs Meditating with...
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The Most Important Scholar of Buddhism You’ve Never Heard Of
On the morning of July 10, 1970, the front page of the Wisconsin State Journal included headlines relating to Congress rejecting a ban on sending troops to Cambodia, the US government moving to...
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How a Mother Would Tell the Buddha’s Birth Story
Every mother has a birth story. The classic myth of the birth of the Buddha—or rather, of the child named Siddhartha who would grow up to become the Buddha—goes like this: There was a beautiful woman...
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The Buddhist Roots of Hatha Yoga
Much has already been written about how little those of us folding ourselves into downward dogs or stretching backward into camels understand yoga’s history. Which is to say, not a lot. Dabblers may...
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A More Human Nature
Small talk doesn’t get much smaller than a conversation about the weather in a crowded elevator. Still, as the water drips down from our umbrellas, it’s hard to keep from saying: “This rain is crazy,...
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Buddha’s “Theory of Everything”
The voice of physicist Stephen Hawking was broadcast into space (toward the black hole 1A0620-00) after his memorial service on June 15, last year. I have no idea what utterances of his were selected,...
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Debating the Buddhist Masters
As a Tibetan growing up in small town Canada, I was always interested in Tibetan Buddhism and spirituality. Like most Tibetans, my amala (mother) and pala (father) used one bedroom of our house as a...
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An American Tantra
Most people talk about American Buddhism as if it has not quite arrived, but Lama Justin von Budjoss (Repa Dorje Odzer) thinks that real dharma is already here. Von Budjoss, who is the first dedicated...
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How did Buddhism become a global religion? An overview
The following is from Buddhism for Beginners, our Q&A-based website, designed to cover the Buddhist basics. Buddhism began in the mid-first millennium BCE, in what is now northeastern India, where...
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Performing The Ritual of Life
The Japanese Scholar and Writer D.T. Suzuki, who is widely acknowledged for his role in introducing Zen Buddhism to the West, placed great emphasis in his essays and talks on the experience of satori,...
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Who Is Misrepresenting Mindfulness?
Sahanika Ratnayake was raised a Buddhist in Sri Lanka and New Zealand but had no interest in meditation before going to Cambridge. Clinical psychologists were exploring the therapeutic potential of...
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Jamgon Kongtrul, the Man and the Myth
During an era of great sectarianism, the Tibetan Buddhist scholar Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Taye (1813–1899) learned, compiled, and transmitted teachings and practices from across traditions, culminating...
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In Defense of McMindfulness
The mainstreaming of mindfulness meditation continues at a rapid clip. According to the Centers for Disease Control, the percentage of adults meditating in the United States more than tripled, to 17%,...
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How to Read the Lotus Sutra
Known as the “King of Sutras,” the Lotus Sutra is one of the most influential texts in East Asian Buddhism. As the scriptural basis for the Tendai tradition, the dominant form of Buddhism in medieval...
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Why I Read Namtars, the Memoirs of Masters
Call it an offer he couldn’t refuse. It came not from a gangster, but from a 12th-century emperor of China, who sent a letter to Tishi Repa, first praising the Tibetan master’s spiritual qualities, and...
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The Merit Economy
Southern Ontario’s Cham Shan Temple is growing again. Physically, it is one of the largest Chinese Tiantai Buddhist networks in Canada, with ten sizable temples and Buddhist educational sites in the...
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Finally Free
Imagine all of Buddhist history condensed into a single day: Buddha’s enlightenment occurs at dawn, and our present moment falls at dusk. The great teacher Bodhidharma would arrive in China comfortably...
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