I've learned that Buddhist symbols, icons and calligraphy are popular subjects for tattoos. So, I thought it would be fun to put together a Buddhist body art photo gallery, ... Read More

Is somebody writing a screenplay? This story has everything you might want in a movie -- action, drama, Buddhist monks. Well, OK, everything I might want in a movie. A first-person ... Read More

The epicenter of yesterday's 5.4 earthquake in southern California was directly under Wat Buddhi Buddhist Temple of Chino Hills. Thawatchai Imprapra, a monk from Thailand, told reporters the monks were ... Read More

"Buddha's Warriors," a report by Christiane Amanpour that seems to be about activist Buddhist monks, will be shown on CNN this Saturday and Sunday at 8 pm Eastern Time. I ... Read More

Anita Thompson says that her late husband, Hunter Thompson, used to call himself "a teenage girl trapped in the body of an elderly dope fiend." This weekend Ms. Thompson ... Read More

This description of Sri Lanka's Esala Perahera festival made me laugh. The 11-day-long celebration in the central city of Kandy shines like Mardi Gras and rocks like Carnival, but without the ... Read More

Following up yesterday's post on Colorado's student financial aid policies -- Colorado was giving financial aid to students at some religious colleges but not other religious colleges, including Naropa University, ... Read More

The state of Colorado is guilty of religious discrimination, according to a federal appellate court. Colorado had provided taxpayer-funded financial aid to students at some religious colleges, but not to ... Read More

New York's Catskill Mountains were once known for its "Borscht Belt" resorts and summer camps for New York City kids. But today it's becoming a center for spiritual retreats. The Canadian ... Read More

The film website Green Cine has posted a list of "The Most Spiritually Affecting Buddhist Movies." Here's the list: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring (Korean) The Thin Red Line Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Come ... Read More

Agence France Presse reports that this Sunday, Cambodia's Buddhist monks will vote in a general election for the first time in a decade. Ten years ago, Buddhist monks led protests against ... Read More

There was a lovely segment about Green Gulch Farm on CBS "Sunday Morning" yesterday. Green Gulch Farm is a Zen practice center just north of San Francisco, affiliated with the ... Read More

We've just gone through the Dhammapada. What should be next? Vote now and join us for discussion.

Today's Washington Post features a story about political activism in Burma (Myanmar) since the May cyclone that killed more than 100,000 people. A "diffuse network of students, militant Buddhist monks, ... Read More

The Times of London reports allegations that two Nyingmapa monks were killed by Chinese paramilitary police at their monastery in western Sichuan province last weekend. According to Tibetan sources, the ... Read More

I can't tell you how much I don't want to get mixed up in the Dalai Lama-Shugden controversy. Unfortunately, hundreds of Dalai Lama supporters and Shugden devotees clashed in the ... Read More

Alastair Leithead reports for the BBC that there may have been a third Buddha at Bamiyan, Afghanistan, one even larger than the two destroyed by the Taliban in 2001. In ... Read More

I blogged last week about science professor and blogger PZ Myers and his threat to commit "profound disrespect and heinous cracker abuse" on a communion wafer. This was after PZ ... Read More

This is hysterical -- Lama Surya Das on the Colbert Report.

Every spring, I see mallard ducks paddling about in a nearby pond followed by their squirming brood of gold and yellow teacup-size chicks. But by mid July there is nary ... Read More

This cartoon by Tom Myers of the San Francisco Chronicle is too cute.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama is delivering a series of lectures this week at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. Sunday he received an honorary doctorate from Lehigh, and you an read ... Read More

David Zimmerman, Director of Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, has posted details of the battle for Tassajara. Zimmerman was one of the five priests who stayed to fight the fire that ... Read More

Last Thursday, five priests of Tassajara Zen Mountain Center faced down the huge California wildfires to save their monastery. TZMC is the oldest Soto Zen monastery outside of Asia and ... Read More

PZ Myers is biologist and professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris, and he doesn't care much for religion. I enjoyed meeting PZ at a blogger conference a couple of ... Read More

One of the most common subjects of Tibetan Buddhist iconography is the Wheel of Life, or Bhavachakra. You may have seen it. The Wheel is held by a monstrous bull-faced ... Read More

The San Francisco Zen Center reports that wildfire entered the grounds of Tassajara Zen Center this afternoon at 2:15 Pacific time. Director David Zimmerman called SFZC from Tassajara to ... Read More

Update -- the Monterey County Herald reports, Fire officials say they expect the flames from the Basin Complex Fire to reach the grounds of the Tassajara Zen Center some time today. Eric ... Read More

Over the past several days California wildfires have threatened to consume Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, the oldest Buddhist monastery in the Western Hemisphere. After most guests and residents evacuated on ... Read More

Yesterday Zen teacher Norman Fischer visited our Zen center to talk about and read from his new book, Sailing Home: Using the Wisdom of Homer's Odyssey to Navigate Life's Perils ... Read More

As California wildfires continue to creep closer to Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, Sitting With Fire reports that a team of firefighters will be wrapping Tassajara buildings with protective foil. "The ... Read More

What is "angry monk syndrome"? John Whalen-Bridge, co-editor of a series of books on Buddhism, coined the phrase to refer to the growing political activism of Asia's Buddhist monks. In ... Read More

The wildfires threatening Tassajara Zen Mountain Center near Big Sur, California, moved no closer to the monastery on Friday and Saturday. However, the blogger of Sitting With Fire reported last ... Read More

A few days ago a Canadian journalist reported on the strange absence of Buddhist monks from the streets of Lhasa, Tibet. Now Jane McCartney of the Times of London reports ... Read More

Today's Monterey County (California) Herald features a story by Dennis Taylor on the effort to save Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, thought to be the oldest Buddhist monastery in the Western ... Read More

Fires continue to creep toward Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, according to the San Francisco Zen Center web site. As explained in the three previous blog posts, TZMC is a Soto ... Read More

Tassajara Zen Mountain Center near Big Sur, California, remains in jeopardy from uncontrolled wildfire. A crew of monks remains at Tassajara to fight fires and save buildings. As of this ... Read More

Latest word from California is that wildfire has not yet touched Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, although the threat is still very real. Tassajara is the oldest Japanese Soto Zen monastery in ... Read More