By Arun Kumar Yadav Over the past few years, several major Buddhist institutions in Hong Kong, including the famous Chan monastery of Po Lin, have expressed their interest in participating in China’s monumental Belt and Road Initiative. Another such group is the Institute of Maitreya Studies, a non-governmental organization based in Hong Kong. On its […]
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Dharma Dispatch, 16-27 April 2018: Prayers on the Korean Peninsula, Chinese IPOs, and Ambedkar Memorial
Good morning! Before the landmark meeting between South Korean president Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, which led to the official ending of the Korean War, Buddhist organizations met in South Korea to pray for peace, stability, and unification on the Korean Peninsula. On 12 April, 400 Buddhist nuns from 12 countries, including South […]
Dharma Dispatch, 2-11 April 2018: World Buddhist Forum, Vajrayana International Center, and Plastic-free Supermarkets
Good morning! The China Religious Culture Communication Association (CRCCA) has announced that the fifth session of the World Buddhist Forum will be held at the coastal city of Putian, in China’s Fujian province. The announcement was made by Chen Zongrong, vice chairman of the CRCCA, at a press conference, on 8 April in Beijing. Several senior […]
Into the Dharmadhatu: China, India, and Asia’s Buddhist Destiny
At a recent meeting with Buddhistdoor Global, British-born Lokamitra, who has long been involved in Indian (particularly Dalit) affairs since the 1970s, ended his presentation on his institute, Nagaloka Centre in Nagpur, with an observation: “The future of the world will be strongly influenced by relations between India and China. The Buddhist connection can contribute […]
What’s in a Name This Lunar New Year?
Recently there has been a surge of popular interest in tracing one’s ancestral roots. Aristocrats and noble families have been obsessed with bloodlines for centuries. For the common person, it’s always a spot of fun (and soothing to the ego?) to discover an illustrious name somewhere in the family line, no matter how distant or […]
Buddhist Values and Leadership: Zoya Sandzhieva
Politics has become somewhat of a dirty word in Buddhist life. Sometimes, this is for legitimate reasons. However, if we are to be consistent, then we should welcome and support those who become statesmen with a genuine wish to benefit their people and whose vision has common ground with our Buddhist values. Zoya Sandzhieva, minister […]
Buddhism and the Tea Leaf: One Fine Marriage
From this month till December, The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Centre for Buddhist Studies at the University of Toronto is running a workshop series on the relationship between tea and Buddhist culture, history, and practice, along with tasting and sampling sessions with tea sommeliers. In the diverse regions covered in this series (the […]
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 […]
Shaolin (2011): A Guilty Pleasure
I have mixed feelings about films that have an overtly religious element, especially when the religion plays a central role in a movie focused on bone-crunching action, head-crushing martial arts, and temple explosions. I class Shaolin, which is an overwhelmingly positive portrayal of the martial art masters in Republican-era China, as one such guilty indulgence. […]
The Buddha’s Guiding Hand in the Chinese Dream
Buddhism should not be peripheral to the Chinese Dream, that great and multi-dimensional project of national rejuvenation. The religion should be front and center in informing it. This is not simply my wild theocratic fantasy, but an idea actively encouraged by the Chinese government. It is also being propagated by Buddhist temples, media, and events […]