The Many Lives of Insight
Tracing the spread of insight meditation from Burma to the United States reveals how relationships between the secular and spiritual are reconfigured. By Erik Braun
Category: Winter/Spring 2016
Nurturing Necessary Conversations
Interwoven themes of voice and expression, close relationship, conversation, and community run through this issue. By Julie Barker Gillette
The Death of The Buddha’s Mother
The lore around Maya, who died soon after giving birth to the Buddha, illuminates the untold, uncounted stories of women who die in childbirth today. By Kim Gutschow
#BlackLivesMatter and Living the Bodhisattva Vow
Convert sanghas in the United States need to be mindful of the potential for reducing Buddhism to a bourgeois “spirituality” that avoids addressing racial wounds. By Christopher Raiche
Giving the Ghost a Voice
Buddhist practice has enabled this Filipino/Asian American to grapple with painful experiences around race that include feeling unseen and silenced. By Bryan Mendiola
Mistaking a Stick for a Snake
The Buddha’s teachings about distortions of perception anticipated current research on “inherent bias.” By Bonnie Duran
‘Woman Hold My Hand’
Tara (the female Buddha), Sweet Honey and the Rock, and womanist theologians offer fiercely loving examples of what it means to be free and to free others. By Rod Owens
Hungry Ghosts and the Work of Peter Matthiessen
Peter Matthiesen’s last novel, In Paradise, and earlier works explore Buddhist practice, human atrocity, and social engagement. By Ingrid Norton
Chaplaincy on the Bodhisattva Path
Chaplaincy based on the Bodhisattva vow stresses the kind of wisdom that can only be gained through the bodily practice of precepts and the correct understanding of Buddhist scriptures. By Ven. Myeongbeop Sunim
Mantra Chanting Heals and Connects
The many benefits of chanting mantras include healing the body, protecting the mind, and connecting the chanter with the divine. By Annemarie Mal
It’s Time to Restore Bhikṣuṇī Ordination
Given the clear historical evidence, it is time to restore full bhikṣuṇī ordination in Tibet. By Ogyen Drodul Trinley Dorje
Between the Breaths
Teaching meditation skills to prisoners can help them to shift unhelpful thought patterns and better manage their emotions. By Kate Crisp
Medicine’s Unique Ways of Knowing
A Q&A with Janet Gyatso on Being Human in a Buddhist World: An Intellectual History of Medicine in Early Modern Tibet. By Wendy McDowell
What Is Buddhist Ministry
We bring our own histories and experiences to Buddhist ministry. By Cheryl A. Giles
Three Films Depict Sinhalese Buddhism
In three Sinhalese Buddhist movies, Theravada religion and culture is vividly narrated, interpreted, and reimagined. By Chipamong Chowdhury
The Mogao Caves as Cultural Embassies
Cave Temples of Dunhuang: Buddhist Art on China’s Silk Road, an exhibition at the Getty Center, Los Angeles. By Marcia Reed
Three T’ang Dynasty Poems
Three T’ang Dynasty Poems translated by Mike O’Connor
Two Poems from the Abbey
Poetry by Miranda Arocha Smith
Buddhist Nuns, Past and Present
Therigatha: Poems of the First Buddhist Women, translated by Charles Hallisey, and Christine Toomey’s In Search of Buddha’s Daughters: A Modern Journey Down Ancient Roads. By Martine Batchelor
