Good morning! After five years of tests and trials, scientists on Saturday launched a revolutionary new marine waste collection system from San Francisco Bay aimed at tackling the growing environmental crisis of plastic waste accumulating in the Pacific Ocean—the now-infamous Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The ultimate objective of the project—its initial incarnation has been dubbed System […]
Dharma Dispatch, 20-31 August 2018: New 84,000 Initiative, 6th International Buddhist Conclave, and Saving Cambodian Forests
Hello! The Khyentse Foundation, founded by the renowned Bhutanese lama, filmmaker, and writer Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche, has announced the undertaking of an ambitious new initiative to translate the Tibetan Buddhist canon of sutras and shastras into the Chinese language over the next 100 years—a task that Rinpoche views as the next major translation undertaking following his […]
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, […]
Four Sacred Sites at Tam Bao Son Monastery, Quebec
In July this year, I presented a paper at the 17th World Sanskrit Conference at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. After the conference, I visited my cousin, Dalim Barua, who lives in the city of Montreal. He and his two friends recommended me to visit Tam Bao Son Monastery, a Vietnamese Buddhist temple, not […]
Improving Management at Maha Bodhi Temple
As children of the Buddha, we believe that the homeland of this world’s dispensation (sasana) is India. The reason for this grand claim, which Buddhists around the world accept, is because the Buddha attained enlightenment in the spot under the Bo Tree, where Maha Bohi Temple stands today. It is therefore with great reluctance that […]
How Huayan Led Me to Pure Land
Guan Yin Temple. From Planet Lantau (see their temple photo gallery here) The first thing a visitor perceptive in Mahayana aesthetics notices at Guan Yin (or Kwun Yam, officially) Temple on Lantau Island, Hong Kong, is the pervasiveness of Huayan symbolism and imagery in the original hall, which was built in 1910, and the top […]
Three Encounters wi ra Bodhisattva ay Compassion in Maryhill, Glasgow, Scotland
by dubh Endins. Beginnins. Nothin iver beginnin or endin. Continuity contains entropy, stasis contains movement. Nae metter how many times ra knife chops, severs, slices, divides, nothin separates. * A get in ra lift oan ra 10th floor. Ra man awready in ther came fae higher up. E could be 35, or 60; ra povurty, diet, […]
The Multifaceted Nature of Buddhist Yakshinis
The different faces of the yakshini. Drawing by the author Yakshini are mythical creatures in the Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist traditions, effectively representing the female counterparts of the male magical nature spirits, yaksha. The Sanskrit term yakshini is customarily translated as demoness. They are a class of demigoddesses, primarily tied to natural phenomena of growth and […]
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 […]
Integrating the Caravan Leader and Junzi in Buddhist Leadership
“Arise, victorious hero, caravan leader, Debtless one, and wander the world. Let the Blessed One teach the Dharma, There will be those who will understand.” I was discussing the subject of Buddhist leadership with one of our website contributors recently. I suggested that while the ten virtues of Buddhist governance articulate well what a leader […]