The government of Burma (Myanmar) has postponed announcing the verdict in the trial of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. As I explained in the previous post, Suu Kyi had ... Read More

Tomorrow a court in Burma (Myanmar) is expected to find Aung San Suu Kyi guilty of violating the terms of her house arrest. She will most likely be sentenced to ... Read More

Americans for decades have struggled over religion in public schools. Today's battleground is Texas, where six "experts" are making recommendations that could affect the religious content of textbooks sold in ... Read More

The illuminated elephant is on parade in Kandy, Sri Lanka, in a photograph taken July 27, 2009. The parade is part of the Esala Perahera, the Festival of the Tooth, ... Read More

Last spring I wrote some blog posts about the Rev. Kevin Thew Forester, an Episcopal priest who had been elected by his diocese of northern Michigan to serve as their ... Read More

If you've done a meditation retreat with someone who really annoyed you, you will appreciate Jay Michaelson's "The Emptiness of Anger" at The Huffington Post. Michaelson writes about sitting a ... Read More

At Toronto's Globe and Mail, Elizabeth Grove-White reviews the book RAPT: Attention and the Focused Life by behavioral psychologist Winifred Gallagher. Gallagher has researched paying attention and concluded that "Who ... Read More

Pico Iyer is one of the best writers chronicling contemporary Buddhism, and he has a new essay on the New York Times website. However, this passage bothered me a bit: The ... Read More

Erik Curren, a candidate for Virginia's 20th District House of Delegates, describes himself as a practicing Buddhist and Christian. The local County Supervisor, Tracy Pyles , says this makes ... Read More

"Linguistic noise" occurs when language fails to convey meaning. For example, let's say Jane uses a term that to Jane means "X," and Bill hears Jane but thinks the term ... Read More

I regret that didn't get a chance to see the film Unmistaken Child when it was in nearby theaters. The film is a documentary of the search for a tulku, ... Read More

At the New York Times, Daniel Goleman writes about Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, a Tibetan lama dubbed "the happiest man in the world." Mingyur Rinpoche is among a group of "Olympic-level ... Read More

Today is the 40th anniversary of the blastoff of Apollo 11, which landed on the moon. July 20 is the anniversary of the famous moon walk itself. This gives me ... Read More

At the blog Asian Nation, C.N. Le writes about a Buddhist family retreat at Deer Park Monastery, just outside of Escondido, California. Dr. Le, a professor of sociology and Asian-American ... Read More

At Shambhala Sunspace, James Ishmael Ford says he is looking for a new Buddhist hymn to replace his old favorite, Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujia." The Rev. Ford says, I think of ... Read More

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 ... Read More

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. ... Read More

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 ... Read More

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 ... 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 ... Read More

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 ... Read More

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 ... Read More