“Who said Hong Kong is too small? In size perhaps but not in its soul and personality. Every corner in this city giving you full of surprises, if not every hour but at least every day….” ― Baris Gencel Some of my favourite cities and towns are Wanaka and Queenstown in New Zealand, Haarlem in the Netherlands, […]
Buddhism
Celebrating Vesak at Hong Kong’s Sri Lankan Buddhist Cultural Centre
Last month, I had a truly inspiring and uplifting Vesak (the annual celebration of the Buddha’s life) among Hong Kong’s Sri Lankan Buddhist community. The families comprising the island’s immigrants and expats here come from diverse backgrounds and work in many different trades. What binds them together is a sense of community and duty to […]
The Calling of Buddhist Dialogue with the Other
Today I wish to celebrate Vesak with an interfaith twist. It’s a public holiday here in sunny, hot Hong Kong, but tomorrow Buddhistdoor Global will be attending an Iftar dinner held by the city’s Muslim community, with guests from the Christian, Baha’i, and Confucian communities. I believe deeply in the maxim of comparative theology (you […]
How Do We Return to the Path?
A spiritual path is a challenge to continually become something better than what we were. It’s a commitment to adapt to new conditions. Temptations and toxins encircle us all the time. It wasn’t a coincidence that the first monk who called me a student was a boxer in his youth in Burma. As a monk […]
Hong Kong’s Buddhists Plug into the Belt and Road Initiative
By Arun Kumar Yadav Over the past few years, several major Buddhist institutions in Hong Kong, including the famous Chan monastery of Po Lin, have expressed their interest in participating in China’s monumental Belt and Road Initiative. Another such group is the Institute of Maitreya Studies, a non-governmental organization based in Hong Kong. On its […]
Exploring Todai-ji Temple, Kofuku-ji, and Deer Park in Nara
Nara, the capital city of Japan’s Nara Prefecture, is one of Japan’s most popular tourist destinations. In March 2018, when I was in Japan for a second time (I was attending a conference), I had an opportunity to visit this ancient capital. On 25 March, three of my friends came to Kobe from Tokyo to […]
Into the Dharmadhatu: China, India, and Asia’s Buddhist Destiny
At a recent meeting with Buddhistdoor Global, British-born Lokamitra, who has long been involved in Indian (particularly Dalit) affairs since the 1970s, ended his presentation on his institute, Nagaloka Centre in Nagpur, with an observation: “The future of the world will be strongly influenced by relations between India and China. The Buddhist connection can contribute […]
The Rooster of Reality
Every day, we face the world through our senses. We become absorbed in sights and sounds that make up our reality, and we become convinced, no matter how dream-like it may be, that the picture painted is real. But, when we analyse the nature of that reality, we seem at a loss to know exactly […]
Buddhist Media: Sketching the History of a Vibrant Discipline
Yang Renshan and one of his sons. From Weibo Here’s a bit of a Zen koan: how do you keep still in the Colorado rapids? How do you maintain that mental gap in between events – the gap that allows you to respond to those events in a considered way, with compassion and insight, rather […]
Buddhism and Today: Ancient Principles, Contemporary Conscience
Buddhism. It’s a millennia-long religious story that begins at Lumbini, at the foothills of the Himalayas in Nepal, where the historical Buddha, Prince Siddhartha Gautama, was born. There, he lived in comfort, until, the legend tells us, he was motivated to begin his journey to Buddhahood after seeing a white-haired, wrinkled old man dressed in […]