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The Buddhist Review
Back Issues
Under the vast robe of liberation, a practitioner confronts her body.
S. N. Goenka speaks to Tricycle about the crucial role of the body in vipassana practice.
Through yoga practice, Anne Cushman moves from watching her breath to being it.
John House finds his feet in walking meditation.
When did we leave our bodies—and how do we come back?
Seventh-century Buddhist sage Shantideva on the body as illusion.
They awaken, always wide awake: Gotama’s disciples, whose mindfulness, both day and night, is constantly immersed in the body. —Dhammapada, 299 In the ultimate gesture of presence, the Buddha, fighting off Mara’s armies of temptation, reached down to touch the earth, calling upon it to bear witness to the lifetimes of struggle that had led […]
Buddhist practitioner and yoga teacher Cyndi Lee offers a five-minute yoga regimen to enhance meditation practice.
An interview with Antony Gormley
Losing a head isn’t as bad as you might think.
An interview with Stephen Batchelor
Modern Buddhism—with its roots in colonial Asia—claims to return to the essence of the Buddha’s teachings. Has a new sect emerged?
Jesus may be Lord and Elvis still King, but the Dharma has come to Dixie to stay. Jeff Wilson travels the new frontier, where East meets South.
Sallie Jiko Tisdale recovers a women’s lineage of Buddhist ancestors.
When I asked my Zen teacher, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, if he had any advice for working in the kitchen, he said, “When you wash the rice, wash the rice. When you cut the carrots, cut the carrots. When you stir the soup, stir the soup.” Taking his words to heart, I found that they had […]
Donald Lopez is Carl W. Belser Professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies at the University of Michigan. Author or editor of some twenty books, including Curators of the Buddha: The Study of Buddhism Under Colonialism and Prisoners of Shangri-La: Tibetan Buddhism and the West, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences […]
Present Fresh Wakefulness: A Meditation Manual on Nonconceptual WisdomChokyi Nyima RinpocheBoudhanath: Rangjung Yeshe, 2002192 pp.; $20.00 (paper) Revered abbot, author, and Tibetan meditation master Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche presents what he considers to be the indispensable principles for modern Buddhist practitioners to arrive at liberation and enlightenment. “We have no choice,” he says, “but to use […]
In Robert Aitken Roshi’s forthcoming book, Zen Master Raven offers shrewd advice to his animal sangha.
Pay Attention, for Goodness’ SakePracticing the Perfections of the Heart: The Buddhist Path of KindnessSylvia BoorsteinNew York: Ballantine Books, 2002282 pp.; $24.95 (cloth) “A rose is a rose is a rose.” This well-known poem by Gertrude Stein conveys the intense presence of any one rose amidst all others while reminding us of the absurdity, the […]
Much as I love to grow rosy-cheeked apples and long stripes of pale green butter lettuce, I equally welcome the presence of poisonous weeds and flowers in the garden. No paradise is complete without the murmur of these dark sorcerers from beyond the fringe: snakeroot and henbane, monkshood and deadly nightshade. Chief among the poisonous […]
Is spirituality the best thing that can happen to your mate? Think again. Mariana Caplan on the unfortunate truths of spiritual boyfriends.
Honen’s “One-Page Document”: In China and Japan, many learned masters have taught that the nembutsu is to meditate deeply on Buddha. But that is not my understanding. Nembutsu is not meditation, nor does it come from study. It is nothing but reciting namu-amida-butsu and believing in our birth in the Pure Land. The Three Minds […]
For all the opinions put forth about what form Buddhist teachings should take, Western Buddhism continues to unfold in unpredictable ways. The process of assimilation will no doubt be a long one, measured in centuries rather than decades. But that Buddhism in the West will take on a distinctly Western flavor is inevitable, whether taught […]
The Monk’s Wife:A Novel About EshinniRuth M. TabrahHonolulu: Buddhist Study Center Press, 2001257 pp.; $15.00 (paper) Set in thirteenth-century Japan, Ruth Tabrah’s historical novel The Monk’s Wife tells the story of Eshinni, wife of Shinran (1173—1262), the former Tendai monk who founded Japan’s largest Buddhist denomination, the Jodo Shinshu (True Pure Land) School. Forced out […]
John Suiter reflects upon Gary Snyder’s poetic hermitage within the Cascades of Washington State.
An interview with Vipassana teacher Sharon Salzberg and an excerpt from her new book, Faith.
From dishes to dusting, from window-washing to bed-making, housekeeping provides an everyday opportunity for practice.
Philip Whalen, Zen priest, abbot of San Francisco’s Hartford Street Zen Center, and Beat poet, died on June 26, 2002, at the age of seventy-eight, after a prolonged illness. Born in Portland, Oregon in 1923, Whalen was associated with the West Coast Beats and appeared with Allen Ginsberg and Gary Snyder in the legendary Gallery […]
Kudos and Condemnation Thank you to Neta Golan (“Peace Warrior in the West Bank”) for shedding light on the reality of the situation in the West Bank. Her immense courage in providing an interview with Tricycle on the nature of the Arab-Israeli crisis is to be commended. As an agency for understanding and for positive […]
How to Raise an Ox:Zen Practice as Taught in Master Dogen’s ShobogenzoFrancis Dojun CookForeword by Taizan Maezumi RoshiBoston: Wisdom Publications, 2002180pp.; $16.95 (paper) “The Zen of Dogen is the Zen of practice,” Francis Dojun Cook tells us in How to Raise an Ox, a reissue of his collection of essays and translations from the works […]
Marc Peter Keane’s contemplations on the Japanese garden offer insights for the “philosophical gardener (or the gardening philosopher).”
An interview with Stephen Batchelor
Sergei Noskov became acquainted with Buddhism as a child, when he was captivated by the beauty of Buryat Buddhist thangkas and the ritual figurines in his family’s Leningrad apartment.
Shin Buddhism:Bits of Rubble Turn to GoldTaitetsu UnnoNew York: Doubleday, 2002224 pp.; $12.95 (paper) Imagine entering a spiritual bookstore in Tokyo and encountering a book with the title Awakening Your Inner Francis: How to Become a Catholic Saint in Seven Weeks or Less, and you will have a pretty good idea of how a lot […]
Spiritual guru Ram Dass quotes his latest book, One-Liners.
With a message from His Holiness the Dalai Lama
Q & A with Lama Surya Das
Zoketsu Norman Ficher chronicles the second international meeting of Christian and Buddhist contemplatives.