Short Stories About the Dharma in China Invoking the timeless and poetic themes of illusions, heartache, and dreams, Water’s Moon, Mirror’s Flower is a series of tales about Chinese Buddhist landscapes, characters, and events with a dash of magic and eeriness. Featuring diverse themes from over two millennia of Chinese history, some of the stories feel historical, […]
Postcard from Raymond: Tianzi’s Dream
“We saw the most extraordinary sight,” a disheveled Emperor Ming would exclaim to his courtiers at daybreak. A vision of a radiant, golden… man? A deity? Something like that. He had no idea what it could compare to. It certainly looked like a human, with some unusual features like curled tufts of hair in the […]
Ju Ming: Finding what has been thrown away
Grace Ko “Hell is in the living world, but the living world also has a paradise. Which way would you go? It’s your choice entirely.” The eminent Taiwanese sculptor Ju Ming wrote these thoughts about life at his first solo exhibition in Hong Kong in 2014. His artworks are inspiring and the path in his […]
Postcard from Raymond: Pax Buddhica
Apparently it had only been a few centuries, a mere heartbeat in the eternally present minds of the holy men he had been hosting. How did one fellow – one gentle, wandering teacher – found this new religion? How did he establish a movement so great that long after his death, lords and kings would […]
Make Something
Ratnadevi When I joined Facebook a few months ago I was slightly concerned that it might turn into another of those addictions, like binge watching television series on Netflix (something I have to watch!). But so far, it hasn’t turned out that way, I am glad to say. The holiday adventures of a distant friend […]
Uncle Toby and the Fly: Compassion for Animals in Tristram Shandy
Raymond Lam On my way to the office I was listening to my favorite podcast, the BBC’s almost-peerless In Our Time. I was on the episode where Melvyn Bragg and his guests were discussing the idiocsyncratic and bonkers novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. Written by the clergyman Laurence Sterne, Tristram Shandy is the 18th-century […]
Postcard from Raymond: The View from Afar
Artist Pablo Carlos Budassi has put together a stunning “logarithmic scale conception” of the observable Universe, with the Solar System at the centre. Thanks to discoveries by physicists, mathematicians, and many others in the 20th century, we know that time and space are interrelated, and that the universe is expanding every second, with galaxies, stars, […]
What to Look Forward to This Year
Raymond Lam Our BDG contributors and columnists, our Tea House bloggers, and I wish you a very happy new year (both Gregorian and Lunar!), and all the best of health and happiness for 2017. As I’m writing this, Donald Trump has moved into the Oval Office, fresh off his inauguration ceremony as president of the US. […]
Blinded
Nina Müller Inspired by the Tittha Sutta The night was still and fresh, and not a sound was to be heard—a perfect time for the first snowflake to make its appearance, and soon it was followed by many more until the whole village was wrapped up in winter’s soft embrace. But as the sun rose […]
Building a Community of Buddhist Studies Students at Fo Guang University, Taiwan
BD Dipananda On 17 December last year, I travelled with a group of post graduate students and researchers from Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan to a Buddhist conference. This was the 2016 Buddhist Studies Graduates Students’ Conference organized by the Department of Buddhist Studies of the Fo Guang University (FGU), also known as the […]