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 […]

Weightless Noises

Wounded, we feel witnessedby time-by 200 years of war,a theater of bitter clouds and the breeze rippling the surface.  When we glint at the sun, we sail through the carnage.  That electrical charge. Thatslanderous appetite of a morning’suncertain future.  When we glint, we are back in time.The sound of piercing skin, thunder and other weightless noises. George Cassidy […]

Spiritual Colossi: Buddhism and Christianity in China and America

As the United States launches its long-awaited trade war against China, I wonder whether something subtler, but just as significant, is bubbling under the already tumultuous surface. I pondered for a short while whether this observation held any water. After all, indirect pressures or persuasions, rather than outright pronunciations and their enforcement, characterize the influence […]