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Xuanzang: A Guide for Readers
Xuanzang Learn More A Reader's Guide to the great pilgrim of Buddhism See Also: Profiles of early Indian Mahayana figures | Tibetan Masters of the 8th Century | Tibetan Masters of the 10th-11th Centuries The Works of the Chan and Zen Patriarchs | The Works of Zen in the Tang Dynasty (618-907) The Works of Zen in the Song Dynasty (960 [...] -
Nagarjuna: A Reader's Guide
Straight from the Heart: Buddhist Piith Instructions Translated and introduced by Karl Brunnholzl Three other praises of Nagarjuna’s are included in the collection Straight from the Heart, also translated and introduced by Karl Brunnhölzl</a>. Interestingly, in these praises, Nagarjuna often refers to buddhahood in positive terms, in contrast to much of his other work, which […]
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Milarepa: A Reader's Guide to Tibet's Great Yogi
Milarepa: A Reader's Guide Learn More There are few figures more beloved in the Buddhist Himalayas than the 11th century yogi-hero Milarepa. Namkading Cave area where Milarepa spent many years in retreat Related Reader Guides: Profiles of early Indian Mahayana figures | Tibetan Masters of the 8th Century | Tibetan Masters of the 10th-11th Centuries The Kagyu Tradition | [...] -
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, [...] -
The Journey Begins | An Excerpt from The Jeweled Path
When Life Changed Forever Off to Colorado Life changed forever the day I set out in my sky-blue VW Bug heaving with everything I owned. An old carpenter’s chest, a gift from my mother and stepfather, had been carefully packed with watercolors, paintbrushes, and other art paraphernalia and small, cherished belongings. A single suitcase that [...] -
The World Is Round or Spherical | An Excerpt from Gendun Chopel
from Melong Gendun Chopel contributed both poetry and essays to Melong (“Mirror”), the Tibetan-language newspaper published in Kalimpong by the Tibetan Christian from Khunnu, Dorje Tharchin, also known as Tharchin Babu. Its full title in Tibetan was Mirror of the News from Various Regions. In the June 28, 1938, issue, Gendun Chopel published an essay [...] -
The Life of Master Yunmen | An Excerpt from Zen Master Yunmen
An Introduction to a Remarkable Life Youth Yunmen was born in 864 in Jiaxing, a town between Shanghai and Hangzhou on China’s eastern coast. His family name was Zhang; but because it was the custom for Buddhist monks to abandon their family names, he became known as Wenyan and later took the name of Mt. [...] -
Freedom Fighter | An Excerpt from The Revolutionary Life of Freda Bedi
British Feminist, Indian Nationalist, Buddhist Nun She was the first Western woman to become a Tibetan Buddhist nun—but that pioneering ordination was really just one in a life full of revolutionary acts. Freda Bedi (1911–1977) broke the rules of gender, race, and religion—in many cases before it was thought that the rules were ready to [...] -
Why Buddhism for Black America Now? | An Excerpt from Taming the Ox
The Buddhist, Black Experience Originally published in 2014 What I propose is a spiritual revolution. —His Holiness the Dalai Lama The State of Black America In his 1970 work, Buddhist Ethics, Hammalawa Saddhatissa writes in the preface, “Strictly speaking, Buddhism is not a religion in the generally accepted sense of the word, and it would [...] -
Who Is Milarepa?
See also our Reader Guide to Milarepa. Milarepa, the famous Tibetan yogi, lives on through his joyous, instructional songs and poetry. Both the new translation of The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa, from Christopher Stagg, and Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche’s exploration of his life in Milarepa: Lessons from the Life & Songs of Tibet's Great Yogi [...]
