Forty scouts from the Muslim Scouts of France and the Buddhist-based Nature Scouts (also from France) gathered at a summer camp in France to promote mutual understanding and combat prejudice. The week-long camp at at the Karma Ling Institute was a chance for the children, aged 7 to 11, to ask questions, to share some vegetarian meals, and above all to "plant the seed of [...]
About Heather Wardle
Fake Buddhist monks a growing global problem
Buddhist leaders in New York City and around the world are warning the public to be cautious of the panhandling trend that takes advantage of the public's image of Buddhist monks as harmless. In many major cities around the world, men posing as Buddhist monks with shaven heads and monk's robes harass passers-by for money and react angrily when confronted. According to CTV [...]
Buddhists come together for 21st UN climate change meeting
The 21st United Nations conference on climate change starts on Monday, and Buddhists around the world are busy working to raise awareness. Most recently, the Global Buddhist Climate Change Collective, One Earth Sangha, and Plum Village jointly released a prayer for climate change so political leaders "may have the courage, clarity, and compassion to come to a wise and [...]
Aung San Suu Kyi’s party wins apparent landslide in Burmese election
Almost 20 years ago, in the Shambhala Sun, Alan Clements wrote of Aung San Suu Kyi and her campaign for democracy, "she will not be stopped." Now, Aung San Suu Kyi's political party, the National League For Democracy (NLD), has reportedly swept the polls in the Burmese election. While the results have not yet been officially announced, both Aung San Suu Kyi and incumbent [...]
Dharma Rain on fundraising homestretch to transform former landfill
A former quarry-turned-landfill in a low-income and neglected area of Portland, Oregon is being transformed by Dharma Rain Zen Center, the oldest and largest Soto Zen Buddhist temple in Oregon. In 2013 when Dharma Rain outgrew its campus, it sold its three buildings and purchased the 14-acre brownfield site and launched a multi-year capital campaign called "Lotus [...]
Prison Dharma Indiegogo campaign ends on Friday night
There are only a few days left in the Rangjung Prison Dharma Project’s Indiegogo campaign to raise funds to bring meditation practice to both inmates and corrections officers at the Rikers Island Correctional Facility, New York City's main jail complex and one of the largest in the nation. In 2013, Mother Jones magazine named Rikers Island one of "America’s 10 Worst [...]
East Bay Meditation Center’s holding Power to the Planet fundraiser
On Friday October 23, the East Bay Meditation Center (EBMC) in Oakland, California will hold a major fundraising event called “Power to the Planet: Mindfulness, Earth Justice and Stories for a New Humanity.” The evening will feature four leading environmental justice and mindfulness thinkers—Paul Hawken, Lawrence Ellis, Konda Mason, and Charles Eisenstein. It will also screen [...]
Neuroscience and Buddhism converging on the inconstant self
Science and religion have been mostly viewed as separate since the Enlightenment, but an increasing number of scientific researchers are referencing and drawing on Buddhism in their studies, especially in the field of neuroscience. An article on Quartz this week notes on that scientific researchers are coming to accept theories on the ever-changing self as taught by the Buddha [...]
Thai female monastics continue push for gender equality
Thai bhikkhunis — fully ordained female monastics — are being called "rebels" as they challenge the religious status quo in Thailand with their demands for more gender equality and the full ordination of women, according to the Associated Press. The tradition of ordained nuns or female monks – bhikkhunis in Pali or bhikkshuni in Sanskrit – goes back to the Buddha. However, [...]
Fundraising campaign commemorates 16th Karmapa
The Karmapa Center 16 has announced a fundraising campaign to purchase land in Wadsworth, Illinois and to erect a stupa, memorial, and retreat center to commemorate the parinirvana of the 16th Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje. The 16th Karmapa passed away at the American International Clinic in Zion, IL, on November 5, 1981 and the proposed land is located 5 miles west. Since [...]