One of the most widely practiced of all Japanese art forms is ikebana, or flower arrangement. The word “ikebana” literally means “living flowers,” suggesting that while
Imagine this: a young woman, heavily pregnant and in labor, makes the journey to a grove of trees sacred to the local goddess. The village
Spirit is without name, without form. Spirit does not occupy a specific place, but is everywhere at the same time. Spirit is beyond of the
James Sanford and his colleagues in their wonderful volume Flowing Traces (Sanford et al 1992, p.3) point out that “Buddhism’s beginnings in Japan had the arts at
It is said that the Buddha taught 84,000 different methods for the liberation of sentient beings because of the diversity of sentient beings in their
Qianfo’an (千佛庵), the Temple of One Thousand Buddhas, better known as Xiaoxitian (小西天) or the Little Western Paradise, is located in present-day Xi County, Linfen
Mutual amazement at what the other does not find extraordinary is a situation I regularly encounter when speaking with monk dancers. They usually cannot believe
Alexandra David-Neel (1868–1969), a French traveler and a prolific writer, is variously celebrated for being “the first Buddhist in France,” “a fearless explorer,” “the first
In 2006, Taiwanese-American artist Echo Lew (b.1951) was visiting Shanghai from his home near Los Angeles. One night, he found himself standing on a street
Venture into remote places and you will find a joyful purity. During our recent summer fieldwork in Himachal Pradesh, northern India, we distributed copies of
Between the full moon of September 2016 and the full moon of September 2017 there will be worldwide commemorations of the 2600th anniversary of the
In this article, I would like to reflect on how to read Japanese Buddhist texts. To explain my strategies for approaching texts distant in time,
