Exploring the heritage, beauty, and intricacy of Japanese Buddhist sculpture with Yujiro Seki
japanese buddhism
Shinzo Abe (1954–2022) – Japanese Buddhist diplomacy is now an open question
The assassination of the former Japanese PM is a blow to Japanese Buddhist diplomacy
The Grace of Gold: Buddhist Exhibit Highlights at The British Library’s “GOLD: 50 spectacular manuscripts from around the world”
In lieu of physically attending a private viewing of The British Library’s “GOLD: 50 spectacular manuscripts from around the world,” I was privileged to enjoy a rich and informative virtual tour of the exhibit in the early hours of the Hong Kong morning with others that could not be in London this month. Gold is grandeur. […]
Octopus Buddhas and Aliens: The Story of Tako Yakushi
One of my favorite films about aliens is Arrival (2016), based on Ted Chiang’s Story of Your Life (1998). It portrays otherworldly visitors as enlightened extraterrestrials with a literally timeless grasp of language and causality. Aside from being spacefaring travellers and inhabiting spacecraft that leave no residue, traces, or pollution, the advanced creatures of Arrival perceive time […]
Soka Gakkai in Latin America: New Frontiers for Women
The worldwide organization of Soka Gakkai is classed as a “new religious movement,” which is characterized by lay leaders and pastors, a vibrant and proactive missionary philosophy, and a core message that is easily replicable and attractive. In Soka Gakkai’s hermeneutic, the Lotus Sutra is the core scripture that contains the essence of the Buddha’s […]
Nikkei Dharma: The Story of Jisen Oshiro Roshi
In our last BDE highlights entry, I mentioned the name of Jisen Oshiro Roshi, a priest that has devoted her life to propagating the Dharma in Peru. Born in Argentina Roshi, affectionately known as Aurora, is a nikkei burajiru-jin. Born in Argentina in 1946, Roshi is a pillar of the Peruvian nikkei community as well […]
A Buddhist Prayer for Peace in Kyiv
Shortly before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a small group of Buddhists, affiliated with the Nipponzan-Myōhōji-Daisanga, gathered in Kyiv’s majestic Mikhailovska Square to pray for peace, chant the Lotus Sutra in the Nichiren tradition of “Namo myoho-renge-kyo,” and call for an end to Russo-Ukrainian hostilities. The Nipponzan-Myōhōji-Daisanga is a Nichiren-aligned movement founded in 1917, consisting […]
Havana Zen: A Japanese Tradition Arises in Cuba
One of the fastest-growing schools of Buddhism in Cuba is that of Japanese Zen, which has enjoyed a long and rich history in Latin America. It found roots in other countries earlier, most famously Brazil thanks to waves of immigration by Japanese people since the early 20th Century. However, thanks to a visionary pair of […]
The Radical Other Power of Shinran (1173–1263): A Normative or an Outlier Position in Mahayana Buddhism?
A one-day Zoom symposium was held on the 11th, sponsored by the International Association of Shin Buddhist Studies (IASBS) and the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Program in Buddhism and Contemporary Society at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver. “The Radical Other Power of Shinran (1173–1263): A Normative or an Outlier Position […]
The TLKY International Conference 2021 Interview Series – Prof. Wu Jiang
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 […]