Guan Her Ng He Hua Temple’s name was bestowed personally by Master Hsing Yun. The Chinese characters, “荷華,” symbolize the Netherlands and its most famous floral motif, the tulip. In addition, it also represents a lotus flower in a river. The temple’s mission is not only to give the neighborhood color and joy, but more […]
Buddhism
Am I a Buddhist?
Graham Lock I have recently seen a few YouTube vids of talks and discussions in which renowned Dharma teachers assert that there can be no Buddhism without rebirth, and in a couple of cases they go as far as to say that those who don’t believe in rebirth shouldn’t call themselves Buddhists. Debates about this […]
Descent
Steve Braff The left wing tips down into a lazy bank right above the bilious white cloud skyscrape to the horizon – an immensity that almost eclipses the jagged profile of distant range that Everesting place of the so many aspirants fallen. I stare into that expanse and try to take my measure. Humbled, we fall […]
Venice of the East: The Beautiful Ruins of Ayutthaya
Raymond Lam Ayutthaya is a city situated at the heart of Thailand’s maritime and overland history. Its main attraction, Ayutthaya Historical Park, boasts a period of spiritual piety and medieval might dating back to 1351. It has seen Hindu-Buddhist interaction, Chinese and Japanese trade, economic and political cooperation with the Portuguese, French, English, and Dutch […]
On Killing People
Graham Lock Watching scenes of barbarity on the news or reading about them in the newspaper, I have sometimes wondered whether there are any circumstances in which I would be willing to kill someone, or more realistically in my case (if I had a gun in my hand I would probably shoot myself in the […]
Walking on the Path
Sherri Maxwell I had several beginnings in studying/committing my mind to Buddhism (since 1997) and exploring what that phrase meant, but had not found my way until I landed in Hong Kong. I was on the underground/metro/MTR and saw amongst a homogenous sea of Asians a bald, Caucasian man dressed in Tibetan-style robes—a monk—with an eagle tattoo on […]
Setting the Stage
John Cannon A careful reflection of the path I have followed while “shuffling my way along this mortal coil” brings into sharp relief some of the events that have moulded me as a person from youth onwards: founder, teacher and administrator of a cultural and language programme for Chinese immigrant children in Toronto; two solo […]