By Tracy Simmons Religion News Service NEWPORT, Wash. (RNS) There aren't a lot of Buddhists in America -- around 3 million or so, according to the... Read more: Video, Sravasti Abbey, American Buddhism, Buddhist Abbey, Buddhism, American Buddhist Sangha, Sravasti Buddhist

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With bare-knuckle book titles like Hardcore Zen and Sit Down and Shut Up, author Brad Warner is not your hippie Aunt's idea of a tranquil, exotic spiritual master. With a pedigree in punk rock and garage-psychedelia, and a two-decade stint in the trenches of Japanese monster movie marketing, the 47-year-old native of Ohio is nevertheless a certifiable Zen master, part of a tightly-held So...

It's difficult to find a meaningful application of religious concepts in the world of sports. After all, ultimate truths about the order of the cosmos and the outcome of a fundamentally profit-driven athletic competition might be even further apart than apples and oranges. However, watching the finale of this year's NBA Finals aroused such feelings of karmic justice that I cannot help bu...

There are a tremendous number of mantra-based songs in the American Buddhist soundscape, particularly the mantra for the bodhisattva Ārya Tārā. For now, let's set aside who or what bodhisattva Tārā (Sanskrit. "star") is except to say that she arose as a bodhisattva with 21 different forms in Mahāyāna Buddhism, and as a tantric meditational deity in Vajrayāna Buddhism. The most common Tārā...

A quick quiz: Name this religious figure: A shimmering spirit appears to a young wife in a dream, tells her that she will give birth to a son who will change the world and then enters her womb. When the boy is born, wise men proclaim that the child will grow into a religious leader. As a young man, he retreats to the wilderness where he sits in deep contemplation until the devil appears ...

A white pelican sails south across the darkening sky, heading deeper into the high desert marshlands. We follow in the hope it's leading us to a flock we can photograph before the afternoon rain sets in. The first warning drops splash dust on the washboard road as a flock of ibis flap madly against the north wind. A large mink runs across the road, dives into the canal, emerges on the ...

This morning, I awoke out of a deep sleep with the memory that I'd been dreaming of my films -- all of them in a row like children -- and somehow in the dream it was clear that each of them was a birth for me. Each one pushing out of me; each one now on the earth; each one making their way and doing what they were meant to do in the world. I couldn't remember much more ... I couldn't sh...

By David Giambusso c. 2011 Religion News Service NEWARK, N.J. (RNS) The Dalai Lama has a message for Newark: Peace does not come easily, but the strategy for attaining it is simple. Flanked by blue orchids, Buddhist monks and a security detail from the U.S. State Department

"After this, I think I can retire," said my friend Varun Soni, the Dean of Religious Life at USC. At 36 years old, he is one of the youngest deans in the country and the first Hindu to hold a position of this kind. I've known Varun for over ten years, since he attended Harvard University's Divinity School with my brother, and we've been friends ever since. A second-generation Indian ...

"I'm not saying God is, you know, causing earthquakes -- well, I'm not not saying that either. But I'll tell you this ... There's a message being sent. And that is, 'Hey you know that stuff we're doing? Not really working out real well. Maybe we should stop doing some of it.' I'm just saying." -- " target="_blank">Glenn Beck People! Beloveds! Glenn Beck is absolutely right. Ther...

There are few poets as underappreciated today as Michael McClure. For close to six decades now, he has been writing visionary poetry, lauded by many of the most original American minds of the second half of the twentieth century--figures such as Robert Duncan, Robert Creeley, and Allen Ginsberg. McClure seems to have been at the center of many of the most important artistic developments...

Dear Radio Diary: I didn't want to jinx it, so I haven't written about this until now. But seeing as we've just been signed on for another year, here's the scoop: For the past 8 months, I've been producing and co-hosting an hour-long "radio party" that airs on radio stations in LA and Denver and podcast. The show's name is Boomer Alley Radio. The host - aka "my boss" - aka the person...

"In the beginning was the Word," according to the Bible. God's words created the universe; He spoke us into being. Words created our world -- literally. Words have power -- to uplift or to tear down -- to inspire or to incite -- to heal or to hurt -- to create or destroy. Words define our reality -- for better or for worse. In the aftermath of the massacre in Tucson, we hear much debate ...

Today, all over the world, Zen Buddhists are celebrating the day of the Buddha's enlightenment. Known in Japan as "Rohatsu" (literally, the 8th day of 12th month) this Bodhi Day marks the defining event in the legend of Shakyamuni Buddha: his enlightenment experience. After sitting through a night of doubt and temptation -- in the form of the many kinds of mental obstacles that cover t...

China's recent passive-aggressive behavior on the world stage is unfortunate but not unexpected. President Obama is handling the PRC's non-collaboration with great skill and savvy. He realizes the Middle Kingdom's ancient cultural imperatives and contemporary geo-political objectives dictate a balance of caution and steely firmness. If he stays the course, push-me-pull-you tension bet...

If one were to describe the makeup of the universe in one word, the most apparent word would be "motion." The word we use to describe the motion of objects through space is "energy." All objects are made up of both, as you'll recall learning in high school physics that what we perceive in life to be solid is actually not motionless; in fact that table, the chair you sit on, and all other ...

In an age when the word "reality" has become synonymous with nasty behaviors on TV shows and "truth" seems impossibly divided between political cults, perhaps we could find a better sense of both in what we lightly call "myth." The tales of the gods and goddesses that we have told ourselves since humanity's first light may seem irrelevant in today's world except as bed-time stories, but t...

Many people look to Siddhartha Gautama as an example of someone who attained nirvana, a buddha. Every other week in this column we look at what it might be like if Siddhartha were on his spiritual journey today. How would he combine Buddhism and dating? How would he handle stress in the workplace? "What Would Sid Do?" is devoted to taking an honest look at what we as meditators face in th...

Fear is an interesting animal. It sneaks up on you when you least expect it and takes on a life of its own, a fun fact of which I was reminded in Thailand last year. The morning after an incredible day of elephant riding in the jungle ('cause that's how I roll) raging red bumps erupted all over my legs. Very nasty business. Call me a wimp, but the mysterious-ailment-in-a-strange-country...

Twelve years ago, I went to see the Dalai Lama with the small seeds of a big dream: a movement of young people from different traditions building bridges of interfaith understanding through service. Last week, I had the chance to thank His Holiness personally for speaking encouraging words to a 22-year-old kid with a head full of radical spangles. The Dalai Lama was in Bloomington, India...

Socrates was a pretty fearless guy -- even death didn't faze him. In fact, about the only thing that scared the gadfly of Athens and father of Western philosophy was the new technology of reading and writing: He never put pen to papyrus, fearing that reading would foster forgetfulness and thwart the quest for wisdom. How do we know this? Because Plato, Socrates' star pupil, embraced re...

Can you tell me What is Wisdom while standing on one leg? This was the challenge put to a rabbi of old. King Solomon said that wisdom was the knowledge and judgment to know right from wrong. He received his vaunted wisdom from God in a dream; would that we too had such dreams! "Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding, for he is more profitable than silver a...

Last night PBS aired The Buddha, a new TV special about the sage's life, impact, and particular relevance to our own bewildering times of violent change and spiritual confusion. By filmmaker David Grubin, the documentary features the work of some of the world's greatest artists and sculptors, who across two millennia have depicted the Buddha's life through art rich in beauty and complexit...

Last night PBS aired The Buddha, a new TV special about the sage's life, impact, and particular relevance to our own bewildering times of violent change and spiritual confusion. By filmmaker David Grubin, the documentary features the work of some of the world's greatest artists and sculptors, who across two millennia have depicted the Buddha's life through art rich in beauty and complexit...

When I met my teacher, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, in 1971, I felt an overwhelming sense of connection. At the time I was attending the Berklee College of Music in Boston, and studying yoga at a nearby studio. Rinpoche came to our yoga studio to lead a weekend meditation workshop shortly after arriving in this country via England, via India, via Tibet. What struck me right away about him wa...

When I met my teacher, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, in 1971, I felt an overwhelming sense of connection. At the time I was attending the Berklee College of Music in Boston, and studying yoga at a nearby studio. Rinpoche came to our yoga studio to lead a weekend meditation workshop shortly after arriving in this country via England, via India, via Tibet. What struck me right away about him wa...