One Face of Liberation: Buddhist Feminism in Japan
Gereon Kopf
30 October 2017
The Zen-inspired activism of Hiratsuka Raichō
Stillness and Strength: The Great Buddha of Kamakura
Meher McArthur
2 October 2017
The city of Kamakura in Japan’s Kanagawa Prefecture is home to one of the most poetic and paradoxical works of Buddhist sculpture. The statue is
Who Am I — Self-discovery in Japanese Zen Practice
Gereon Kopf
26 May 2017
The Japanese Zen master Dōgen (1200–53) famously said, “To study the Buddha way is to study the self.”* A popular meditation manual known and used
Samurai and Monks: Lessons in Impermanence
Gereon Kopf
24 March 2017
In the last few weeks, I have been teaching the Tale of Heike (Heike monogatari) to my students at Luther College. The Tale of Heike is central to Japanese
Why Meditate?
Gereon Kopf
27 January 2017
Whenever I teach Japanese Buddhism, whether in the Americas, Europe, or East Asia, I frequently run into the same assumption among students that Buddhists, for
The Many Forms of Avalokiteshvara
Meher McArthur
25 November 2016
To many practitioners of the Mahayana schools of Buddhism of East Asia and the esoteric traditions of the Himalayas and Japan, bodhisattvas, or “enlightenment beings,”
The Buddhist Roots of Japanese Flower Arrangement
Meher McArthur
28 October 2016
One of the most widely practiced of all Japanese art forms is ikebana, or flower arrangement. The word “ikebana” literally means “living flowers,” suggesting that while
Buddhism and Creative Writing, Part Two
David Brazier
21 October 2016
James Sanford and his colleagues in their wonderful volume Flowing Traces (Sanford et al 1992, p.3) point out that “Buddhism’s beginnings in Japan had the arts at
How to Read Japanese Buddhist Texts?
Gereon Kopf
9 September 2016
In this article, I would like to reflect on how to read Japanese Buddhist texts. To explain my strategies for approaching texts distant in time,
Cosmic Contemplations: A Glimpse of Japan’s Rare Star Mandalas
Meher McArthur
2 September 2016
Japan’s esoteric Buddhist traditions boast a rich and diverse array of imagery, ranging from figures of individual deities to elaborate mandalas depicting specific deity families
The Modernization of Faith and Ideology: Victoria Montrose Discusses Japanese Buddhism’s 19th Century Transformation
Raymond Lam
26 August 2016
Victoria Montrose (“Tori” to her friends, a fittingly Japanese epithet) has been immersed in Japanese culture since childhood. Victoria was four when her American father
Spirituality as the Transformation of Daily Life: Living Buddhism in 21st Century Japan
Gereon Kopf
20 May 2016
A 2008 article in The New York Times asked the provocative question whether Buddhism in Japan “may be dying out” (Onishi 2008). Unlike other, frequent claims that