An SGI chapter in Springfield, Missouri, is featured in the Springfield News-Leader. The reporter, Linda Leicht, interviewed several members of the Soka Gakkai International chapter, who told how they turned their lives around through practice of Nichiren Buddhism. The article is well-written and inspirational. Enjoy!

A. G. Sulzberger writes in the New York Times about efforts in some states to regulate and license yoga teachers and studios. The states say they want to protect consumers. Whether there has been a rash of consumer complaints against yoga studios the article does not say.

One yoga teacher quoted in the article thinks the licensing trend might benefit yoga in the long run, but most consider it to be government intrusion on a spiritual practice. The latter group believes the states are mostly interested in squeezing money out of yoga studios, and Sulzberger's article provides some corroboration for that claim. The licensing fees and fines involved are causing some small yoga studios to close.

I don't want to get into a political discussion of governmental regulatory power. However, what is yoga in the West? Is it primarily spiritual or something else? In Tibetan Buddhism in particular there are a number of practices called "yoga" that are definitely spiritual, but what goes on in most yoga studios is very far removed from that.

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At The Guardian, Naseem Khan writes that western Buddhism sometimes is not viewed as "authentic." She asks if this is true, and if so, how important is "authenticity"?

I regret that Ms. Khan doesn't define "authentic, which can mean -- trustworthy or factual; matching the features of an original (as in "authentic reproduction"); not an imitation; true to an original spirit. But let's go on.

Western Buddhism has a reputation for being frivolous. This is not entirely undeserved. Westerners often approach Buddhism as some kind of enrichment activity, to be engaged on a superficial level and abandoned when it gets boring. It's also the case that there still are too few genuinely skillful (and authentic) teachers to go around. However, it's also true there are many sincere and devoted followers of dharma in the West.

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Today Theravada Buddhist monks and nuns are beginning Vassa, the "rains retreat." This is a three-month period of intensive training that begins on the first day after the full moon of the eighth lunar month of the common Buddhist calendar. Monks and nuns will remain inside monasteries and temple grounds, devoting their time to meditation and study. This year, Vassa will end on October 4.

Laypeople make merit during Vassa by bringing food, candles and other essential supplies to the temples. They also sometimes take vows to observe Vassa with daily chanting and meditation or by giving up something they desire, such as drinking alcohol, smoking or eating meat. This last practice has caused some westerners to call Vassa the "Buddhist Lent."

Theravada monks and scholar Bhikkhu Khantipalo objects to equating Vassa with Lent. He writes about the purpose of Vassa: Read more...

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama was born on July 6, 1935. The photo shows him at the Tsuklag Khang Temple on March 11, 2009 in Dharamsala, India, at an observance of his 50 years of exile. (Photo Credit: Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)

The stoic philosophers of ancient Greece and Rome wrestled with many of the same basic questions addressed in Buddhism. What is happiness, and how does one attain it? What is real? What is not real? The stoics arrived at different conclusions from Buddhism, for the most part, although in places there is strong agreement.

Oliver Burkeman explores that agreement at The Guardian in "This column will change your life. " For example, Burkeman writes, the philosopher Epictetus realized that emotions are reactions to thoughts about reality, not reality itself. Whether you are fearful about something that hasn't happened yet, or disappointed about not having something you want, it's your own imagination and desire that are making you miserable.

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Recently China's Mount Wutai was added to the list of UNESCO's World Heritage Sites. "Overall, the buildings on the site present a catalogue of the way Buddhist architecture developed and influenced palace building in China over more than one millennium," UNESCO says. "Temples have been built on the site since the 1st century AD to the early 20th century."

To pave the way for the recognition of Mount Wutai, the government of China "pulled down" much of the historic village of Taihuai. The Guardian reported over a year ago that the people of Taihuai were being displaced. Exactly what has happened to the people of Taihuai since then I do not know.

Today Xinhua, the Chinese government's news agency, says of Mount Wutai,

The increasing population around the mountain in Taihuai Town had undermined the landscape and the religious atmosphere, said Han Ruijie, director of the world heritage office of Wutai Mountain ... Since 2006, the government pulled down many inharmonious constructions to protect the "Buddhism atmosphere," Han said.

"The mountain has became more serene after the 'pulling down', which is good for religious practice," said Jamyang Molam, director of administration of the Pusading Lamasery.

Nobody likes agitated mountains, I suppose, so I am glad Mount Wutai is more serene. But I am curious about what happened to the people of Taihuai.

Amy Yee reports for today's New York Times that Tibetan monks and nuns in Dharamsala, India, are getting an intensive education in science. Yee writes, "they learned about Galileo’s law of accelerated motion, chromosomes, neurons and the Big Bang, among other far-ranging topics."

The monks and nuns were engaged in "a four-week crash course in physics, biology, neuroscience and math and logic taught by teachers from Emory University in Atlanta." Although the students were accustomed to spending many hours every day studying Buddhism and philosophy, most had never been exposed to science before, and some barely knew basic mathematics.

There are plans to incorporate a regular science curriculum into Tibetan monasteries and convents in India. Emery professors have created a science textbook in Tibetan and English. At a recent science fair, "monks gave presentations on sound waves, the origins of the universe and how the brain works."

It may be a bit late to schedule a Buddhist retreat for this summer. But for future reference, bookmark Tricycle's guide to the top 11 Buddhist retreat centers in the U.S., as chosen by readers. Most are in the northeast or Pacific coast, but the Southern Dharma Retreat Center of Hot Springs, North Carolina, made the list, as did the Shambhala Mountain Center of Red Feather Lakes, Colorado.

There are links to some websites to help you check out the schedules. I learned that Cloud Mountain Retreat Center of Castle Rock, Washington, has upcoming retreats on Vipassana, Tonglen and beginner Qigong, for example.

I would love to create a find-a-retreat-center resource for this website, too, so I've set up a "Recommend a Retreat Center" page. If you want to recommend a retreat center that's not on Tricycle's list -- or comment on one that is -- please share your experiences there.

There's a book review in the New York Times Sunday book review supplement that says something curious about Buddhism. The review, titled "No Smiting," is by Paul Bloom, a professor of psychology at Yale. The book is The Evolution of God by Robert Wright, which I have not read.

The book is about monotheism, which normally wouldn't be a topic of this blog, but bear with me on this. I take it that Wright explores how concepts of God grew and "mellowed" as human civilization came to value "goodness." I infer that Wright sees the evolution of human civilization and sensibilities as the driver of this process, not God. I infer also that Wright is not a God believer, and that he sees humans as creating God in our image. This God-creation process is ongoing.

Here's where Buddhism comes in. Book reviewer Bloom writes,

For Wright, the next evolutionary step is for practitioners of Abrahamic faiths to give up their claim to distinctiveness, and then renounce Read more...