I remember first listening to the magical Imee Ooi over the speakers of a souvenir shop at Ngong Ping Village, which leads to the famous Po Lin Monastery in Hong Kong. It was 2010. Her songs, which are contemporary renditions of Buddhist dharanis, mantras, and passages from Buddhist texts, evoke aural Pure Lands. Her ethereal, […]
Raymond Lam
Frederik L. Schodt’s “My Heart Sutra: A World in 260 Characters”
The pithy Heart Sutra is celebrated as perhaps the most profound Mahayana Buddhist scripture that remains relatively famous and accessible, frequently appearing not just onstage at pop stars’ concerts in China but also referenced in East Asian films and Japanese manga. For forty years, this Buddhist text has hung on the bedroom wall of Frederik […]
Visuals of Compassion: Artist Rima Fujita on her new exhibit, “Karuna”
Rima Fujita is a long-time painter of Buddhist art with a distinctive style that focuses on vivid colours and fairytale-like landscapes and figures. A keen devotee of Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion, she is holding a solo exhibition titled “Karuna” at Isetan Art Gallery in Shinjuku, Tokyo. We caught up with Rima to learn more […]
A Conversation with Choje Lama Wangchuk Topden on Spiritual Leadership and the COVID-19 Era
Kathmandu has a special place in Choje Lama Wangchuk Topden’s heart. He was born there on 20 November, 1983 and the Nepalese capital has had its fair share of international exposure since the devastating earthquake in April 2015. “There is an interesting contrast between the recovery effort for the earthquake, and the present disaster that […]
Ajahn Brahm’s “Karuna-virus” – A book for these times
Why do we tell stories? Throughout history, the storyteller was the sage, the wise one. Stories have a mythic, primeval place in human society and culture. They are expressions of our deepest intuitions, our oldest folk memories, and our sense of ultimate destiny. At a social level, they speak to our times and advise us […]
The Pedagogy of Prajwal Ratna Vajracharya: Student-Teacher Perspectives
Prajwal Ratna Vajracharya does not need much introduction in the world of Buddhist dance. Much has been written and shot about Charya Nritya, but less often discussed is the pedagogical interplay between teacher and student – the dance, in a sense, between the transmitter of knowledge and those to whom knowledge is being transmitted. While […]
Vello Vaartnou: A Life Devoted to Dharma
Buddhistdoor Global (BDG): You’ve been living in Australia for some decades now. But you have also spent many years building stupas, 8 of them by yourself, and created original thangkas. How did you balance so many projects with your teaching and practice in Australia?
“Unlocking Buddhist Written Heritage” at the British Library
From 7-8 February, the British Library hosted a conference titled, “Unlocking Buddhist Written Heritage.” This conference featured many veteran names in Buddhist textual studies, many of whom our website has covered and interviewed over the years. The conference was held in partnership with SOAS and supported by The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation.
Love and Unity Must Rise to Meet Sorrow and Anxiety
I’ve written briefly about my afternoon at World Religion Day in Hong Kong, which was organized by the local Baha’i community. It took place only a couple of weeks before the coronavirus crisis took hold in Wuhan and spread across China and the world. The virus has plunged the global community into a crisis – […]
Celebration and Mourning: Two Sides of Togetherness
Last Sunday I attended World Religion Day 2020, which was co-organized by the Baha’i Community of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Network on Religious Peace. While our cosmopolitan city has (in my opinion) a ways to go in catching up with New York or London in terms of culture, there is one field in […]