Welcome to our series of conversations with participating speakers at this year’s Tung Lin Kok Yuen International Conference – Buddhist Canons: In Search of a Theoretical Foundation for a Wisdom-oriented Education (27–28 November 2021). In each blog post, I speak with keynote speakers and paper presenters about their subject at this conference. Register for this […]
academia
The Collective Buddhist Studies Manifesto: New Challenges, New Voices
After the havoc of COVID-19 (which has not technically ended) and renewed self-reflection by many in the field of Buddhist Studies after 2020, there is a new mood in many scholarly communities that I am in contact with. There is a sense that Buddhist Studies needs rethinking and reforming if it is to make progress […]
Buddhist Canons: In Search of a Theoretical Foundation for a Wisdom-oriented Education
There is a sea change coming to Buddhist Studies. The precarious state of the world, which is riven by environmental crises, deepening geopolitical fault lines, and social turmoil in democratic countries, means that Buddhist Studies scholars are increasingly keen to teach and research through a lens quite different to past conceptions of Buddhist academia. Philosophy […]
Kelaniya University: Looking East
I’ve long admired the monk and academic Prof. Ven. Dhammajoti, who founded the Buddha-Dharma Centre of Hong Kong, in the heart of Shek Tong Tsui near Kennedy Town. I like to call BDC one of the “big four” institutes of Buddhist Studies in our city: there’s the Centre of Buddhist Studies at The University of […]
HKU’s PhD Students Seek Spirituality Beyond Dogma
When we think about spirituality, we mostly think about specific teachings or doctrines that need to be accepted. This is a common assumption among communities with traditional faiths like Catholic Spain or Islamic Indonesia. For such communities, spirituality can be a sensitive issue because it traditionally brings to mind a place of worship or scriptures, […]
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.
Buddhism and Youth: A Symposium
University of British Columbia • November 4, 2017 There are Buddhist monastic rules, stories, and teachings that directly address those of lesser years and the issues that are thought to be unique to their stage of life. And Buddhist individuals and groups have created literature, activities, and organizations for boys, girls, and young people in general. Although young people have appeared throughout Buddhist history, Buddhists have engaged most […]
Buddhist Studies: A Vital Academic Tradition
Is Buddhist Studies elitist? Short answer: ideally, although it depends on how one defines the word. Like every humanities subject, Buddhist Studies can feel like an insular field if it’s not careful. Much of my work as a journalist who loves Buddhist Studies, a subject of which I was a devoted but hardly competent student, has […]
Balancing Spirituality and Academic Study
BD Dipananda It has now been 13 years since I balanced the duality of a monastic and a academic life and I have several key observations to share. Values of Celibacy As a Monk First, my on-going celibacy is the most dramatic hall mark of difference in my life amongst the secular laity. I have come […]
An Introduction
Hello. I’m Justin Whitaker, a new North America Correspondent for Buddhistdoor Global. I thought I’d use my first contribution here to tell you a bit about myself. Like so many of us these days, especially in North America, my background and resulting practice of Buddhism is deeply eclectic. Unlike many, my passion for Buddhism drew […]