Three sages in the west appear in response to Shakyamuni Buddha’s promise From Shakyamuni Buddha’s reply to Queen Vaidehi’s three requests in the Contemplation Sutra, we
I first traveled to Ladakh in the western Himalaya 15 years ago, after being invited by a lama I met on the beach in front
“To see the Buddha” means “to achieve samadhi” In the Contemplation Sutra, Queen Vaidehi requests that the Buddha teach her how to be reborn in the
A typical understanding of the afterlife and a poor knowledge of the Pure Land The Land of Bliss, one of the Buddha’s splendid pure lands
The dancing mind is another mind. In Vajrayana Buddhist Cham, dance is yoga, the dancing mind the whole point—the center of the experience. Monk-dancers are
If a competition were held to select the most popular sutra in Buddhism, the following sutras would very likely be among those nominated: The Heart Sutra.
The story of Butcher Jing in Tang dynasty China The following episode is recorded in Part 28 of Collected Records of the Buddha:* In Chang’an, during
The earthquakes in Nepal were not merely geological—some of humanity’s oldest symbols got jumbled and tumbled. Mount Everest and the Kathmandu Valley have been wonders
The question of lust in Pure Land practice For a Pure Land practitioner, the simple answer to the question of whether Amitabha-recitation can help one
The general concept of merit-dedication By definition, bodhisattvas are those who follow the Buddhist path in order to deliver other sentient beings from suffering. In
Travelers to Japan notice the impressive gates that mark Shinto shrines, in Japanese, torii, as well as the shimenawa, referring to a type of rope made from
Pure Land practitioners are puzzled by a moral dilemma Despite the fact that aspiring to be reborn in the Land of Bliss is the same
