I grew up in a small town surrounded by family farms, and back home the sight of cattle grazing in pastures is still common. When I was a child I ... Read More

OK, Buddhists may not have invented democracy. History professors argue that the Athenians invented democracy ca. 500 BCE. However, as democratic government was getting underway in Athens, the First Buddhist ... Read More

In Asia, hungry ghost festivals are held in the summer. My sangha in New York, however, has moved our hungry ghost observance to be close to Halloween. There are some ... Read More

Buddhist monks in Thailand used over one million glass beer bottles to build a temple, according to the website Green Upgrader. And it's a handsome temple, too; Green Upgrader has ... Read More

Paul Bloom, a professor of psychology at Yale, writes about the self in the November issue of The Atlantic. In "First Person Plural," Professor Bloom explains that the brain is ... Read More

Photo Caption: A garuda guards a temple lotus pond. Photo Credit: © Aleksandrov Valentin Mihaylovich | Dreamstime.com

The Rev. Danny Fisher sent blog love to the About.com Buddhism Blog, and now it's my turn to spread the love by calling out some especially good blogs. Of course, all ... Read More

Saturday, several hundred parents gathered in downtown Montreal to protest a religion curriculum mandated by the government of Quebec. Courses on morals and Catholic and Protestant beliefs have been replaced ... Read More

Here's a thought-provoking item -- Jesse Bering writes in Scientific American that people believe in existence after death because non-existence is unimaginable. It's a long article, but Scientific American helpfully ... Read More

Emory University neuroscientists say that Zen Buddhist meditation may help treat depression, attention-deficit disorder and anxiety, among other maladies. Neuroscientist Giuseppe Pagnoni, author of “Thinking about Not-Thinking: Neural Correlates of ... Read More

Should be a short blog post. Campaign issue -- war. Buddhism is against it. OK, you say. But can we fight in self-defense, or to defend others? Must we be ... Read More

People shout hateful things at campaign rallies. Radio talk show hosts use inflammatory rhetoric to frighten and anger listeners. On the Web, I've seen wishes that the "other" candidate would ... Read More

Taking care of planet Earth is an issue of particular interest to Buddhists. I am happy to report that neither presidential candidate is anti-Earth. Senators John McCain and Barack ... Read More

There's a lovely article and photo gallery of Buddhist centers and temples in San Francisco in today's New York Times. Unfortunately the captions and text that go with the photos ... Read More

His Holiness the Dalai Lama was hospitalized in New Delhi today with severe abdominal pain. I will add details to this post as I learn them. Update: Surgeons removed a ... Read More

We've looked at John McCain's stand on separation of church and state; now we'll look at Barack Obama's. The Obama campaign web site has a section called Faith, and there you ... Read More

Religious freedom is one of the campaign issues of interest to Buddhists. Where does Republican presidential candidate John McCain stand on separation of church and state? I was surprised to find ... Read More

Photo Caption: Buddhist monks clean the dust from the 15-meter-high Great Buddha at the Todaiji Temple in Nara, Japan. The Great Buddha was completed in AD 752. Photo Credit: Koichi Kamoshida/Getty ... Read More

With one month to go in the U.S. presidential election campaign, I've been thinking of issues that might be of particular interest to Buddhists. Then we can explore how the ... Read More

Here's a news item to discuss, from the north Wales Daily Post: Peace campaigner Siân Cwper, 61, of Llanfrothen, near Penrhyndeudraeth, Gwynedd has withheld more than £2,300 in protest against her ... Read More

In 1960, presidential candidate John Kennedy assured America that he would not allow the Vatican to dictate U.S. policy. Today there is heated discussion within many Christian denominations about how ... Read More

Neither of our U.S. presidential candidates is running against the death penalty, but it may be an issue in some state elections. In any event, in all of the vast ... Read More