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Michael Wenger explains how studying the sutra opened up his sense of practice.
The Lotus Sutra puts all Buddhist practitioners on the way to Buddhahood.
In this excerpt from the Lotus Sutra, buddhas and believers gather in the sky to hear the preaching of the Wonderful Law.
Japan’s single-practice masters
It is perhaps the most significant text in East Asian Buddhism, but the Lotus Sutra’s seminal role in shaping Western Buddhist practice is scarcely acknowledged. What is the hidden influence of this enigmatic text?
Princeton’s Jacqueline Stone explains the unique place of the Lotus Sutra in Buddhist history
A skeptical George Johnson takes in the Dalai Lama’s inaugural “Dialogues between Neuroscience and Society” lecture at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience.
In his recent book, The Universe in a Single Atom, the Dalai Lama argues for the immateriality of mind. B. Alan Wallace explains why this just may make perfect sense.
Kate Wheeler finds new inspiration at the Dalai Lama’s thirteenth Mind and Life conference.
Jazz and Buddhism get together at Yoshi’s
The Schopenhauer CureIrvin D. YalomNew York: Harper Perennial, January 2006384 pp.; $13.95 (paper) “Nice things are nicer than nasty ones.” his perfectly constructed sentence, from the 1954 Kingsley Amis novel Lucky Jim, wittily expresses one of the more important sentiments in twentieth-century English literature. But it is perhaps a sentence in both senses of […]
How British Colonel Francis Younghusband invaded his Shangri-La before falling in love with it
Drawing on Tibetan Yogic practices, Reggie Ray takes on the modern crisis of disembodiment.
Spying on the winged monarchs of decay
Loving the other without losing yourself
The Buddha
I am reading Jonathan Cott’s book On the Sea of Memory: A Journey from Forgetting to Remembering, an expansive and exciting investigation of memory and its role in forming our sense of self. Cott, a successful journalist and author, is a friend of mine. Several years ago I witnessed his struggle to recover from a […]
LOSTABCWednesdays, 9/8c A closed eyelid fills the screen. Suddenly it swings wide open, and the pupil, at first dilated, immediately contracts, as if reacting to brilliant light. That’s the first shot of the first episode of Lost, ABC’s phenomenally successful dramatic series, now in its second season. Several variations of this image recur in […]
Roger Housden on the virtues of being taken advantage of
A journey to the site of the Buddha’s first sermon
SITTING FRONT ROW CENTER, through childhood and into adulthood, we watch our parents’ lives unfold. At once familiar and shrouded in iconic mystery, our parents are variously idolized or blamed by us. Usually with time—if we’re lucky enough to get to know them in adulthood—our parents shrink to the size of everyday human beings whose […]
Beyond the House of the False Lama: Travels with Monks, Nomads, and OutlawsGeorge CraneSan Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2005320 pp.; $24.95 (cloth) Once, while in the Central Highlands of Vietnam, I met several Buddhist monks who invited me to visit their monastery in Dalat, a destination that had not even been on my original itinerary. The trip […]
“Poems are maps to the place where you already are…”
BLAZING A TRAILJapanese nun Eshun (1362-ca. 1430), the Irresistible One TO ESHUN, the whole world was kindling—peasants rebelling against harsh conditions only to be tortured and executed, constant battles between samurai bands, a broken court, endless poverty and endless greed. Eshun never married, refusing to even consider it. Her older brother, Ryoan Emyo, […]
But who’s listening?
GEORGE JOHNSON (“Worlds Apart,” page 80) writes: “I was surprised whenTricycle asked me to go to Washington to write about the Dalai Lama’s controversial appearance at the Society for Neuroscience’s Annual Meeting. My review of his recent book on science and spirituality in the New York Times Book Review had angered some Buddhists—one called me […]
The master’s touch
The transformative power of a single moment of insight
Big Box Dharma In an effort to bring Buddhism back to the people, Thai Culture Minister Uraiwan Thienthong recently proposed building “solace corners” in department stores and malls. Two malls have signed on, but not everyone thinks taking the dharma to market is such a good idea, with several senators objecting to what they interpret […]
DHARMA HAGGLINGAfter reading the interview with Mu Soeng in your Winter 2005 issue (“Dharma for Sale”), I had two thoughts. First, Mu Soeng must disapprove of Vimalakirti. Vimalakirti was a businessman and a landlord who gambled, watched sports, and had servants. Second, Mu Soeng’s recommendations about the appropriate Buddhist lifestyle seem odd. He […]
Perfect Love, Imperfect Relationships: Healing the Wound of the Heart John Welwood Boston: Trumpeter, 2006 224 pp.; $19.95 (cloth) Love is always there, waiting for you. You just need to learn how to let it in. That’s the overriding message in psychotherapist and best-selling author John Welwood’s latest guide to better living, and Welwood is […]
Selections from the index to Daily Afflictions: The Agony of Being Connected to Everything in the Universe by ANDREW BOYD, a collection of the wisdom of the apocryphal Brother Void abyss 91 diving into 78 gazing into xixbitch drunken, moody son-of-a 9catastrophe 93 total 41cheerfulness premature 81crisis deeper into 13 existential 99 no way back […]
A small Philadelphia sangha marks the crossroads of Buddhism and Quakerism.
Ajahn Sumedho recounts the joyful unfolding of a deep appreciation for his teacher and parents.
Stephanie Kaza on buying, being, and becoming