Nepalese ritual dancer Prajwal Rata Vajracharya poses in front of a Buddha statue on exhibit in the Royal Academy of Arts in London. The statue is part of an exhibition ... Read More

There are parts of Asia where Buddhist monks are many, but Buddhist nuns are nowhere to be found. And where nuns are found, often they are not given the same ... Read More

His Holiness the Dalai Lama donned a red-and-yellow tie-dyed apron and served pesto pasta to the homeless at a San Francisco soup kitchen yesterday. The event was arranged by The ... Read More

Douglas Todd writes for the Saskatoon Star Phoenix that Buddhism is way cool. "I just want to remark on how struck I've been by the way many North American searchers ... Read More

Chip Brown's "Enlightenment Therapy" in this weekend's New York Times magazine is about a Soto Zen teacher, Louis Nordstrom, and his struggles with Zen and his own inner narrative. I ... Read More

Ian Johnson of the Wall Street Journal writes movingly of the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation, the Chinese-speaking world's largest nongovernmental charity. In particular, the story is about Tzu ... Read More

For me, Earth Day comes with a big, fat SHOULD on its shoulder. I SHOULD do something green. I SHOULD write about it here on Buddhism Blog. Yet I've been ... Read More

President Barack Obama has nominated Mercedes Marquez to be Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and Development, Department of Housing and Urban Development. Today critics are up in arms because Ms. ... Read More

There is terrible violence going on in Sri Lanka right now. Mark McDonald reports for the New York Times that today there is heavy fighting between Tamil and government troops ... Read More

Christian Today published an article complaining that Christians in Burma are forced to give money to pay for Buddhist festivals. The festival in question is the Burmese New Year "water ... Read More

Lawrence Osborne's article "Are Buddhists Violent?" in Forbes presents a challenging view of Buddhism and gives us a lot to think about. Osborne, a former resident of Bangkok, comments on Thailand's ... Read More

In the Washington Post, Michael Gerson discusses a new book called How God Changes Your Brain, co-authored with Mark Robert Waldman. Waldman says brain imaging studies show that religious practices ... Read More

Today is the first day of Laotian New Year,

Many years ago Bill Cosby had a popular comedy routine in which one of his children asked him questions like "Why is there air?" that were a challenge to answer. ... Read More

I recommend highly this opinion piece by Ian Baruma from Canada's Globe and Mail. It's a very balanced answer to the question, Are Tibetans better or worse off under Chinese ... Read More

Yesterday I stumbled on a book review that I thoroughly enjoyed reading. The book being reviewed didn't interest me, but the reviewer, David Edwards of Medialens, had some great insights ... Read More

To recap: In February the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan elected the Rev. Kevin Thew Forrester to be its new bishop. The Rev. Forrester practices Zen meditation and received Zen ... Read More

In Japan, April 8 is Hanamatsuri, "Flower Festival," a day to celebrate Buddha's birthday and appreciate spring flowers. The photo shows a Japanese Buddhist temple bell. Photo Credit: 8mitsu, Flickr.com, Creative ... Read More

This past Sunday Soto Zen teacher Dosho Port came to our urban Zen center and led a half-day retreat followed by a half-day workshop on Dogen's Zazenshin. Here's a group ... Read More

I'm issuing a haiku challenge -- let's try to write some real spring haiku! As I wrote in the blog about this time last year, the form of poetry called haiku ... Read More

Can a Sicilian American former Buddhist monk and Gulf War veteran find happiness in California with a pretty Tibetan exile? Yes! And what a sweet story! Read about Giovanni and ... Read More

His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI "addressed Buddhists in his annual message for the Buddhist Feast of Vesakh," according to the Catholic News Agency. Vesakh, variously spelled Vesak, Vesakha, Wesak, and ... Read More

Since the Saffron Revolution of 2007, many Buddhist monks have had to flee Burma (Myanmar) or are being held as political prisoners by the military junta that rules Burma. This ... Read More

Burmese children in traditional dress attend a Buddhist novice monk ordination ceremony in Tachilek, Burma (Myanmar). The occasion of a boy being ordained a novice monk is celebrated as grandly ... Read More

Ann Holmes Redding is -- well, was -- an ordained Episcopal priest who announced two years ago that she also is a Muslim. This week the Rev. Redding was informed ... Read More