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The Buddhist Review
Back Issues
How Martin Luther King, Jr., brought satyagraha to the U.S. and revolutionized the civil rights movement.
An introduction to our special section, Satyagraha: The Force of Truth
Philip Glass talks with Tricycle about how Gandhi has inspired his life and work.
By applying Buddhist ideals to present-day issues, engaged Buddhism takes the dynamics of Gandhi’s work in an inspiring direction.
Gandhi’s lifelong engagement with human imperfection changed the future of politics.
Fundamentalists here and abroad have been giving religion a bad rap lately, and so-called militant atheists have used the opportunity to take up the offensive. But according to prominent sociologist Robert N. Bellah, both sides have it wrong: they are mistaken about what religion actually is.
Just as a seed contains the whole plant, the syllables of Siddham calligraphy are concentrations of enlightened energy. This holy script played a crucial role in the journey of Tantric Buddhism from ancient India to East Asia. Text and artwork by David Schneider
What did the Buddha really mean by “mindfulness?” B. Alan Wallace describes how misunderstanding the term can have implications for your practice.
Getting Emptiness
FORGETTING THE FREAKS Andrew Goodwin’s review of Christopher Hitchens’s God Is Not Great (Fall 2007) is slanted and confused. Although Goodwin applauds the book (except where it applies to Buddhism), he uses the review as a podium from which to preach his own hostile view of theism and religion, two separate if overlapping categories he […]
After thirty years of practice, one meditator finds it’s gotten him nowhere. That’s just fine with him.
Ajaan Lee explains how the Buddha gave us the tools to free ourselves.
In an excerpt from her new book, Gardening at the Dragon’s Gate, Wendy Johnson recalls a personal pilgrimage across the mountains of Northern California.
Shaolin’s story
Artwork by An Xiao. Haiku by Andrew Schelling.
Understanding the Buddha’s paradoxical view of reality
Joseph Goldstein teaches that we can improve the way we relate to others—strangers and friends alike.
What makes some countries happy as clams (or Icelanders).
A dharma hall opens in a most unlikely place: the United States Air Force Academy.
Taitetsu Unno teaches that Buddhism is the inclusive path of optimism.
A guide to allowing a gentle and meaningful death for our loved ones and for ourselves, from Joan Halifax.
Contributing editor Katy Butler speaks with renowned architect Christopher Alexander, who has spent decades investigating the source and forms of beauty. What he has found is a pathway to God.
Loving, one step at a time
Joan Halifax, Zen teacher and Abbot of Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico, brought her experience as a pioneer in end-of-life field care to this issue’s “The Lucky Dark.” She says, “My work with dying people reminds […]
How teenagers in an impoverished Parisian neighborhood discovered Buddhism and the courage to sustain hope.
A look at some of the latest Buddhist titles, hot off the presses.
Practicing caring connection, Sylvia Boorstein learns, can bring peace—even under the threat of natural disaster.
IT IS TEMPTING, almost habitual, to view Gandhi through the prism of Western individualism, as a solitary leader who somehow lifted the entire Indian subcontinent on his shoulders and, David-like, took a stand against the Goliath of empires. But while there is no gainsaying Gandhi’s dedication and genius, if the approach to nonviolence he practiced […]
How are we meant to understand this key Buddhist teaching?