Blazing a Bodhisattva Trail in Cuba, with Ven. Zhihan

The reinvigoration of the Chinese Mahayana tradition in Cuba has largely been thanks to a single Buddhist monk, Taiwan-born Ven. Zhihan. Ven. Zhihan was already an established name in Vancouver, where he had founded the Bodhiyana Foundation, an educational non-profit devoted to spreading the Buddhist teachings. Ven. Zhihan is a charismatic and thoughtful religious leader, […]

Mahayana in Cuba: Chinese Forebears

Lined by small restaurants, shops, laundromats, cultural societies, medicinal establishments, and leisure and education clubs, Barrío Chino in Havana is perhaps the largest “Chinatown” in the Latin American world, with a history dating to the 19th Century. This is the locus where the earliest recorded presence of people practicing Buddhist customs in Cuba can be […]

Frederik L. Schodt’s “My Heart Sutra: A World in 260 Characters”

The pithy Heart Sutra is celebrated as perhaps the most profound Mahayana Buddhist scripture that remains relatively famous and accessible, frequently appearing not just onstage at pop stars’ concerts in China but also referenced in East Asian films and Japanese manga. For forty years, this Buddhist text has hung on the bedroom wall of Frederik […]

Budding Buddha: A Conversation with Artist James Stanford

James Stanford, “Budding Buddha.” From artfixdaily.com James Stanford is a longtime Buddhist artist with a distinct aesthetic and inspiration. Last November, he donated his “Budding Buddha” art to the Art for Tibet exhibit and auction at Gallery Eight in New York, which was organized by Students for a Free Tibet. Can you describe a bit your background in […]

Woodenfish and Shenzhen: Building Networks with Researchers in Buddhism and Science

On 22 August,  I travelled with my wife from Hong Kong to Shenzhen in Mainland China to present a paper at a conference titled, Buddhism, Science, and Future: Brain Science and Mental Well-Being. The Woodenfish Foundation, an international Buddhist educational NGO, organized this conference at the Interlaken OCT Hotel Shenzhen from 23–24 August. Woodenfish was an […]

Kumarajiva Project: A 60-year Tibetan-Chinese Translation Initiative from Khyentse Foundation

Statue of Kumarajiva outside the Kizil Caves. From China Discovery There are two “buzzwords” in the Buddhist world today. One is obviously mindfulness and has dominated contemporary discourse for decades. The other is translation, and despite being overshadowed by mindfulness to some extent actually remains one of the most important activities of the global Buddhist […]