Women in Buddhism Guides
Women in Buddhism Throughout history women have played a vital role in the preservation and presentation of Buddhism. The Buddha himself expressed deep respect for his mother and as several contemporary Buddhist scholars have pointed out, women have played a significant role in helping to shape and preserve Buddhism. That is certainly true for Buddhism [...]
Continue Reading >> Knowing How to Be Satisfied An excerpt from Alive Until You’re Dead by Susan Moon. What is given to us is the chance to become human beings together. Even the challenges and the difficulties are given to us. We didn’t ask for these challenges, but they are given, and what is given is a gift. [...]
Continue Reading >> Reunion of Mother and Son The following is an excerpt from The Woman Who Raised the Buddha By Wendy Garling Foreword by H.H. the Fourteenth Dalai Lama The Woman Who Raised the Buddha$18.95 - PaperbackBy: Wendy Garling Add to Cart Just as Mahaprajapati’s life was upended when Maya died, it was about to happen all over again. [...]
Continue Reading >> Create a golden dragon twirler to send heartfelt wishes out into the world! For centuries, dragons have been represented in cultures throughout the world, though attitudes towards them differ. Chinese Emperors used the dragon as symbols of power, nobility, and divine descent for at least 6,000 years. We can find many dragons on furniture, clothing, [...]
Continue Reading >> “the only war that matters is the war against the imagination.” —Diane di Prima Onehandclapping, CC BY-SA 3.0 We just learned that Diane di Prima passed away on October 25th, 2020. While we did not publish any of her extraordinary stand-alone works, she and her work appear in many Shambhala Publications books. Though I had [...]
Continue Reading >> Yvonne’s dear friend and colleague, Zen priest and teacher Jisho Warner, composed the following obituary of Yvonne Rand. You can also view our profile of Yvonne here. Yvonne Rand, September 23, 1935 – August 19, 2020 no wind, yet the windbells keep on ringing —Kokan Shiren Yvonne Rand (née Boye), a significant member of [...]
Continue Reading >> The History of the Zen Nuns’ Practice Excerpt from Naked in the Zendo Early in my Japanese monastic practice, I had a wonderful trip to Eiheiji, the head temple for Soto Zen in Japan. Eiheiji has the stature and grandeur of the Vatican in Rome. Its scenery, dignity, deep practice, and beautiful furnishings inspire reverie [...]
Continue Reading >> Kshanti Paramita An excerpt from Deep Hope If this present moment is lived whole-heartedly and meticulously, the future will take care of itself. —Alan Arkin, An Improvised Life We’ve all heard it before, these directives that suggest we could get off, or at least pause from, whatever trajectory our habits have set us on. But [...]
Continue Reading >> Sign Up for 5 Free Videos and a Meditation Practice from Pema Chödrön! ENTER YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS TO RECEIVE A SERIES OF 5 VIDEOS AND A MEDITATION PRACTICE. In her first new book of spiritual teachings in over seven years, Pema Chödrön offers fresh wisdom, heartfelt reflections, and the signature humor and insight that have [...]
Continue Reading >> Sutra 5 An Excerpt from The Mama Sutra I’m speeding down Sir Francis Drake Boulevard on a glorious fall day, running through yellow lights, completely stressed out, trying to get to the meditation hall on time. I’m teaching the daily yoga classes at a women’s meditation retreat at Spirit Rock, a Buddhist retreat center in [...]
Continue Reading >> The following is an excerpt from Inseparable Across Lifetimes by Holly Gayley A Letter from Tāre Lhamo The tenth letter Tāre Lhamo sent to Namtrul Rinpoche during their correspondence. This is a duet that Tāre Lhamo composed between Devī and Pema. Devī means “goddess” in Sanskrit and translates the second part of her name, Lhamo, [...]
Continue Reading >> We Won’t Last Forever | An Excerpt from Let the Whole Thundering World Come Home
Death A Long Distance Call On a Wednesday morning, sitting in my old blue Volvo in a parking lot after just getting a facial—my cheeks redolent with cream, all pores clean—I called the Cancer Center in Santa Fe, persuaded an oncologist to look up my chart. The oncologist I was assigned to was on vacation, [...]In the world of religion, some things stay the same, while many are constantly adapting to meet our new world of the internet and cell phones, scientific discovery, increasing awareness of gender and race dynamics, multiculturalism, the numbers of people identifying their religion as “none” or “spiritual but not religious,” and so much more. We [...]
Continue Reading >> Sacred Are the Trees: A Retelling of Ancient Stories from Biographies of the Buddha by Wendy Garling, author of Stars at Dawn Why Trees? Those familiar with the Buddha’s biography know that all major events in his life took place under trees. He was born under a shala tree (shorea robusta), for example, as his [...]
Continue Reading >> Thubten Chodron is an American Buddhist nun in the Tibetan tradition. A student of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and other Tibetan masters, she became a nun in 1977. She is abbess of Sravasti Abbey, a Buddhist monastery in eastern Washington State. She is the author of several books, her most recent being Don't Believe [...]
Continue Reading >> Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo, author of Into the Heart of Life , Reflections of a Mountain Lake, and Cave in the Snow, and who is profiled in the recently released Dakini Power, just returned from a pilgrimage in China, following the footsteps of Xuanzang and visiting the Four Sacred Mountains and four Buddhist rock grottoes. [...]
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