Of all the caves at the Ajanta complex, I found Cave 26 to be the most intricate, with the unmistakable sense of, “yes, this is it.” We were looking at the literal, physical transition between the earliest days of itinerant wanderers (sramanas) and the days of settled monastic institutions. Unlike the other caves that I felt […]
Postcard from Raymond
Postcard from Raymond: Prayers in the Darkness (Cave 4, Ajanta)
Of the many caves I visited at the Ajanta Caves complex, I felt myself encountering a particularly acute sense of timeless sacrality at Cave 4, one of the earliest cave monasteries. I think it was the vast main chamber that drew me in like a little child, as if I were in the presence of something, […]
Postcard from Raymond: Entering a Sanctuary of Sanctity (Cave 2, Ajanta)
It had been about five years since I visited Ajanta, one of the oldest surviving complexes of rock-cut caves carved into the hillside. Apart from ongoing restoration work by the Archaeological Survey of India, little had changed, including the bright and sunny, humid weather and the understandably large crowds that came from all over India […]
Postcard from Raymond: The World is Your Temple
I have a beautiful portable shrine that is dedicated to the worship of Amitabha Buddha, the central Buddha of the Pure Land school and the most popular object of reverence in Chinese Buddhism. Owners of a shrine this size can take it anywhere around the world with them. Elegantly carved out of wood, it fits […]
Postcard from Raymond: Taking Care of Your Magic Dragon
There is a magical dragon dwelling inside every one of us. Leonard Lipton and Peter Yarrow’s Puff the Magic Dragon, which was masterfully sung by folk group Peter, Paul and Mary, is a melancholic song about losing the capability for imagination, for wonder. When I first heard this song as a kid, I thought that […]
Postcard from Raymond: “Monk’s Posture”
This image, shot by photographer Ding Zuhe and called, “Monk’s Posture,” won first prize in the China category for National Geographic’s 2017 photography contest. Here are six people, all in some form of sleep, lethargy, stupor, or unconsciousness. There are two women (the one in the foreground looks older), and four males: a child in […]
Postcard from Raymond: Involving the Young, Then and Now
The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Program in Buddhism and Contemporary Society hosted an intellectually stimulating and cozy 7th TLKY Canada Foundation Conference at UBC on 4 November, with academics and Buddhists sharing their findings and thoughts on the role of youth in Buddhist literature and practice.
Postcard from Raymond: Holy Chamber
The darkness inspires awe, even as the divine faces around me are illuminated for my mortal eyes. The cavern’s patterns, the motifs, the mosaics, the chapels, the shrines. Mortal channels of traceless wisdom and compassion. Tangible expressions of immaterial insight. Within this cool shroud of black, with only a streak of warm illumination from the […]
Postcard from Raymond: We Never Truly Die
One of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh’s most eloquent and moving teachings is a summation of Buddhist doctrine about life after death: we do not leave this world until full, total enlightenment. We are integrally part of it and even when our personal time expires on this beautiful but hurting planet, we don’t disappear. […]
Postcard from Raymond: The Unseen is the Real
There is a mysterious, imperceptible force from beyond the observable universe yanking our galaxy in a certain and irresistible direction. We can’t stop it. The cosmic phenomenon known as “dark flow” is controversial, but it describes a flow or peculiar velocity of galaxies towards the Centaurus and Hydra Constellations. The gravitational anomaly called the “Great […]