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    Life of the Buddha: The Buddha-charita Paid Member

    This passage is from the“Buddha-charita,”the first complete biography of the Buddha, written by the poet Ashvaghosha, probably in the first century C.E. The“Buddha-charita”is made up of twenty-eight songs recounting events in Shakyamuni Buddha’s life up to the time of his great awakening. These verses speak of Shakyamuni's family and the events that surrounded the birth of the historical Buddha. Original spellings and usages from this 1893 translation by Edward B. Cowell… More »
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    Letter to the Schools of the Buddha Paid Member

    You who are disincarnate, who know at what point in its carnal trajectory, its insensitive coming and going, that the soul finds the absolute verb, the new speech, the interior ground; you who know how one returns to oneself in thought and how the spirit can save itself from itself; you who are interior to yourselves; you for whom the spirit is no longer on the carnal plane here there are hands for whom taking… More »
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    From the Academy: The Buddhist and the Buddhologist Paid Member

    By Donald Lopez
    His Holiness the Dalai Lama visited the University of Michigan from April 21 to April 23, 1994. One of the events planned for his visit was a private seminar with the faculty and graduate students of the Buddhist Studies program on the topic of the origins of the Mahayana school of Buddhism. In the past, His Holiness has shown great interest in the discoveries of Western science, going so far as to say that on…His Holiness the Dalai Lama visited the University of Michigan from April 21 to April 23, 1994. One of the events planned for his visit was a private seminar with the faculty and graduate students of the Buddhist Studies program on the topic of the origins of the Mahayana school of Buddhism. In the past, His Holiness has shown great interest in the discoveries of Western science, going so far as to say that on those points where Buddhist doctrine and scientific findings diverge, the Buddhist position should be discarded. More »
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    Tibet or Not Tibet Paid Member

    At the U.N.'s Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing this past September and the parallel Non Governmental Organizations (NGO) Forum in the suburb of Huairou several issues had delegates and Chinese officials toe to toe. Not the least of these was the issue of Tibetan sovereignty. On September 1, as the rain fell over dozens of supporters, nine Tibetan women held a silent protest. With scarves tied over their mouths, they stood holding hands for… More »
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    On Sports: Still on the Run: An Interview with Paula Newby-Fraser Paid Member

    A distinguished athlete with nine years of competitive experience, Paula Newby-Fraser is known among a growing circle of fans as a "Zen triathlete." Often called “the Ironman competition” because of its great demands on physical endurance, a triathlon is a long-distance race that combines swimming, bicycling, and running. The triathlon will be formally recognized as an Olympic sport at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. Born in Zimbabwe in 1962, Newby-Fraser spent her childhood in… More »
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    On Conferences: The Second Gethsemani Encounter Paid Member

    By Zoketsu Norman Ficher
    The first Gethsemani Encounter took place in 1996, at Gethsemani Abbey, the Trappist monastery in Kentucky where Thomas Merton, the well-known monk and writer, lived for twenty-seven years. That this first large international meeting of Christian and Buddhist contemplatives took place there was no accident. In the late 1960s, Merton met His Holiness the Dalai Lama in India, and the two made a strong connection. At the 1996 gathering, I had been astonished by the Christian monastic practice of daily recitation of the Psalms—passionate and sometimes violent poems. How in the world, I’d asked the Christians, could the recitation of such stuff serve as the centerpiece of your spiritual practice? This question opened up the meeting, as the monks poured out their hearts about their practice. I was moved but still not convinced, so I began looking closely at the Psalms. More »