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The Buddhist Review
Back Issues
Thanissaro Bhikkhu speaks about tradition, sexism, and following the Buddha’s rules
A Resource Book Guide
Lessons of the Forest: Shakyamuni Buddha was born under a tree, became enlightened under a tree, and died under a tree. Thai forest monasticism emulates the Buddha’s lifelong connection to the natural world and is considered the tradition closest in form to the path of the historical Buddha. Now, it has been conveyed to the […]
Ajahn Amaro, the co-abbot of Abhayagiri forest monastery in northern California, on the renunciant life, divesting the heart of baggage, and feeding the mosquitoes.
An Account of the Eighth Austere Practice
In late 1947, the great meditation master Ajaan Chah (1918-1992) arrived at Khrong Forest Monastery. He found that if he wanted to stay at this wat, he would have to follow the traditional thudong (dhutanga) practice of dwelling in a cemetery. He forced himself to try. If I tried to reason with myself I’d never […]
Buddhadasa explains why “Dhamma is the Ecology of the Mind”
The Story of a Thai Forest Tradition
A lay practitioner and revered teacher, Kee Nanayon offers a female voice rarely heard in a tradition dominated by monks Thai society, like most societies, has done little to support women in dharma practice, but nevertheless, laywomen and ordained nuns have played a crucial role in transmitting the Buddha’s teachings. As a result of the […]
I have covered my badge with black tape so it will not reflect the light. The January midnight air is colder than the gun in my hand, a .357-caliber Magnum revolver, made of blued steel, so it won’t reflect light. It has etched wooden handles so it won’t slip. I am standing silently outside the basement […]
The one-l lama, He’s a priest. The two-l llama, He’s a beast. And I will bet A silk pajama There isn’t any Three-l lllama. –Ogden Nash In 1956, the British firm Secker & Warburg published The Third Eye: The Autobiography of a Tibetan Lama. It remains in print to this day, the best-selling book about […]
Whoever said poetry or Buddhism was anything unusual?
Lama Drama If Thinley Norbu Rinpoche has the severe philosophical and practical problems with Western Buddhist teachers, groups, and students that he claims to have, then it should be plain and clear that factual examples need to be given support to these very serious criticisms. If this chafing indeed exists as he says, then it […]
Publisher’s Weekly—Barometer of the Book Industry—Tells Us Who’s Jumping on the Bandwagon
Gita Mehta considers the ancient Buddhist king in the context of a nuclear-armed India and finds his legacy never more relevant.
I have a new spade this winter, heavy, a little stiff, and very sharp. As I work digging a fresh bed for Bleu de Solaize leeks, I think of my friend Agaja’s twenty-year-old spade. Agaja is a friend and a great gardener. Over the years we have dug in tandem, shoulder to shoulder, many a […]
By Bhikkhu Nyanasobhano
Thin, flat, and hard, the kyosaku remains the icon of tough Zen training
Do I Have a Witness? An Anglo-Catholic from Massachusetts,who is now a Buddhist nun in the Nipponza Myohoji order, a Japanese Buddhist peace movement, had a dream. Sister Clare Carter, as she is still called, along with Ingrid Askew, an African-American actress and stage director, wanted to commemorate the slave trade of the thirty to […]
By Shinichi Inoue
What is the sound of one hand clapping? What was your face before you were born? These Zen koans have seeped into the English vernacular as “riddles.” What characterizes a riddle, however, is to ask a question, then gleefully wait for the (often ridiculous) “right ” answer. These days Washington has produced a veritable glut […]
By Peter Sís
By China Galland
RE: what President Clinton will come back as in his next life
The following story is based on a Chinese Buddhist scripture called Bayu-jing, or The One Hundred Parable Sutra. It was originally translated from Sanskrit into Chinese in 492 C.E. by Gunavriddi, a Buddhist teacher from central India. Translated into English for the first time by Kazuaki Tanahashi and retold by Peter Levitt, this story is […]
By Alexander Berzin
U Sam Oeur
Wes Nisker speaks with Tricycle about his new book
Why is Buddhism closer to science than other religions? The Buddha taught that everything has causes and that only understanding can yield spiritual freedom. Since the Buddha saw that nothing is unchanging, the “Supreme Scientist” rejected the idea of divine creation. He insisted that faith without knowledge cannot make one free and advised his students […]