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, [...]

by Maureen Murdock, PhD author of The Heroine’s Journey and The Heroine’s Journey Workbook I wrote The Heroine’s Journey 30 years ago when women of my generation sought validation from patriarchal systems and found them not only lacking but terribly destructive to the feminine psyche. We were the children of the post-Sputnik era who were encouraged to [...]

by Maureen Murdock, PhD, author of The Heroine’s Journey and The Heroine’s Journey Workbook “We are a community in which every life and every person counts.” —Angela Merkel Across the world, nations led by women are handling the scourge of the Covid-19 virus better than male leaders. The above quote by German Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks [...]

A Vision for the Future of the Great Traditions A Religion of Tomorrow This is a book about what a possible religion of tomorrow might look like. It is meant to apply across the field of the Great Traditions; I believe that all of them will, in fact, most likely end up incorporating many of [...]

by Rebecca Hazell The Buddha is well known in popular culture. He is seen as wise, benign, friendly, and peaceful. You can find commercialized representations of him in images ranging from good luck Ho Tai figures to garden statues of him sitting and typing on a laptop. Imagine what a ruckus would ensue if Jesus [...]

The Sweeper: A Buddhist Tale by Rebecca Hazell tells the story of Padme, a young servant girl, who meets the Buddha as she is sweeping her master’s house. When she laments that she is so busy that she would never have time to meditate, the Buddha gives her the instruction to “sweep and clean.” This simple [...]

In this chapter from The Life and Visions of Yeshé Tsogyal, Acharya Judith Simmer-Brown explains some of the travails Yeshé Tsogyal went through, including a contested betrothal and a journey through hell, to become the mother of the buddhas, accomplished in faith, courage, and kindness. To order the full book, click here. by Acharya Judith Simmer-Brown In 1959, [...]

One of the greatest joys for me as an editor at Shambhala Publications is when I work on books by people I have long admired. This was most definitely the case when Shambhala had the good fortune to become William Scott Wilson’s publisher several years ago. I first encountered his work when I was a [...]

With the introduction of firearms, the art of bow shooting was in danger of disappearing. However, this art was one of the principal disciplines of bushido, the Way of the Samurai. As a means of keeping this tradition alive, the annual Toshiya archery contest was instituted. The site of the contest was a temple in [...]

The Golden Ass of Apuleius by Marie-Louise von Franz Nobody ever took apart a myth better than the great Dr. von Franz, one of C.G. Jung's foremost disciples. Maybe the foremost. Here she analyses the wildly entertaining second-century Roman novel about a man who gets turned into a donkey, and uses it to show us [...]