The central metaphor of Buddhism is that of a path – a path that leads from Samsara to Nirvana, and a path that encompasses the cultivation of ethical conduct, meditation and wisdom. Soon after I began to mediate relatively seriously, I was introduced to the mapping out of the path in terms of stages of […]
meditation
Khamtrul Rinpoche: Living a Blessed Life
A religious teacher might not necessarily have much to share, unlike those of us (journalists, theologians, academics, and other guilty parties) who enjoy writing about them. That is the perspective of His Holiness Dokhampa Shedrub Nyima, the 9th Khamtrul Rinpoche (whose tulku lineage is affiliated with the Kagyu and Nyingma schools). He carries the message of […]
Is There Something Buddhist About Mario? (Seriously)
On 27 October the video game Super Mario Odyssey was released worldwide by Nintendo for the Switch platform. It’s pretty safe to say that very few people in the world (except yours truly) is thinking about how this game series relates to Buddhism. And I can already guess what you’re thinking. You assume I’m writing […]
Bodh Gaya
A poem about the life of the Blessed One. By Tom Donovan It is a place and nothing more, No different to behold despite particulars Than any village in the district. Still it is here, In the public park, Under the pipal tree, On my mat of kusa grass, I have apprehended the sorrow Of […]
Flying Mindfully by Air France
We had been flying to Madrid from Hong Kong with a layover in Paris’s Charles de Gaulle Airport. The purpose of our journey was to attend the conference “1st World Encounter Teresian Mysticism and Interreligious Dialogue: Theravada Buddhism and Teresian Mysticism – Meditation and Contemplation Pathways to Peace,” which was held from 27–30 July at the International Centre of […]
Global Travels, Local Practice
This month I am far from my birth home in Montana and my adoptive home in Seattle. I am in China, currently in a monastery outside of Ningbo called “Golden Mountain.” As I told a friend recently when discussing my travels, there is a saying, attributed to Native American wisdom, that a person should not […]
Digging in as a Meditation Teacher and Practitioner
Justin Whitaker These are very peculiar times that we are living in. Growing up in a rural Rocky Mountain state in the U.S., it is easy to say that I’ve just been out of touch with the world. But I ask, and keep asking people, “what do you think of this world we live in […]
Musings on Mindfulness and Metta
Graham Lock Last December, I took part in an 8-day metta meditation retreat at the Hong Kong Insight Meditation Society’s meditation centre at Fa Hong Monastery on Lantau Island. The retreat was led by Visu Teoh, an experienced and well-respected teacher of vipassana and metta meditation based in Penang, and well known in Hong Kong […]
Wagging the Tail at Digital Dilemmas
Ratnadevi Last week I had a Skype call with Raymond Lam, Buddhistdoor’s senior writer, to discuss my new blogging venture. At some point I mentioned that I have trouble attracting interest for some of my courses. He replied that Facebook is now what the telephone and email have been in previous decades: if you don’t […]
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 […]