Category: Buddhist Wisdom
Charting the Future of Buddhist Translation
The world’s leading Tibetan–English translators, Buddhist scholars, and lamas meet to plan for translating the Tibetan Buddhist canon.
Blowing Smoke
Logan Beaudry befriends a strange newcomer and fellow smoker during a weeklong Rinzai retreat and learns how not to respond to the question, Where are you from?
The Revolutionary Lotus Sutra
Paul Copp reviews "Readings of the Lotus Sutra", edited by Stephen F. Teiser and Jacqueline I. Stone.
Book Briefs – Fall 2009
Brief summaries of Buddhist books from the Fall 2009 issue of Buddhadharma magazine.
Fearless Simplicity
An excerpt from “Fearless Simplicity,” by Tsokyni Rinpoche, from In the Face of Fear: Buddhist Wisdom for Challenging Times.
Erring and Erring, We Walk the Unerring Path
If we use them as opportunities to work with our mind, all our mistakes, confusion, and difficulties become an unerring path of awakening.
Any Last Thoughts?
Andrea Miller interviews Simon Critchley, philosophy professor at the New School and author of The Book of Dead Philosophers.
Hard Times, Simple Times
When you sit, teaches Norman Fischer, "noticing the breath and the body on the chair or cushion, noticing the thoughts and feelings in the mind and heart and perhaps also the sounds in the room and the stillness, something else also begins to come into view." Life.
About a Poem: Pico Iyer on a haiku by Kobayashi Issa
Pico Iyer on a haiku by Kobayashi Issa.
Books in Brief: Thich Nhat Hanh’s “The Blooming of a Lotus”
Claire Heisler reviews the revised edition of The Blooming of a Lotus, by Thich Nhat Hanh (translated by Annabel Laity).
Sylvia Boorstein on death: Any day might be the day
Sylvia Boorstein recounts a story to exemplify the suddenness of death, and how we must confront that reality.
The Smoking Monk
Should Buddhists smoke? The fifth precept of Buddhism tells us to "refrain from taking intoxicants." This seems pretty clear.
Books in Brief – July 2009
Brief summaries of Buddhist books from the July 2009 issue of Lion's Roar magazine.
For no mere mortal can resist…
Steve Silberman shares an anecdote about a Tibetan death ceremony.
Shin Buddhism and the power of story
An excerpt from Shin teacher Kentetsu Takamori's new book Something You Forgot… Along the Way: Stories of Wisdom and Learning.
A Japanese folktale: Yaichiro’s battle
Thersa Matsuura's debut collection of short stories, A Robe of Feathers, is a darkly insightful look at how myth and reality can blur.
Would You Help Your Parents End Their Lives?
Damien Keown's book review is a vital discussion: where and how assisted suicide, compassion, and the end of suffering might interrelate.
What is Pramana?
Pramana as defined by Andy Karr, a Buddhist teacher in the Vajrayana tradition.
Beyond No-Self
While insight into the truth of no-self, is an important step, says the Dalai Lama, it doesn’t go far enough.