Years ago, during a fundraising gala for the Chan Meditation Center, I met Master Sheng Yen’s first Western monastic disciple, Paul Kennedy, and we invited
Walking the Dharma in in modern America
The American cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead famously said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed it’s the only
Aspiration and vocation on the path of a healer
Sexual misconduct and abuse by clergy is a widespread problem, as news reports and newspaper headlines all-too-often remind us, and American Buddhist sanghas are just
The first challenge I encountered during the first year of my monastic training as a postulant was overcoming the discomfort from the clothes we wore.
Many people have a romantic notion of what it must be like to be a Dharma heir. It reminds me of a Chan story about
People in the United States seem to be having difficult conversations: about politics, about race, about the economy, and about the environment. For American Buddhists,
The hills of rural Montana are not the first place one might go to find a sprawling Buddhist peace garden. But that is exactly what
Sharing the Dharma and bringing communities together
Annie Bien was just 18 months when her family immigrated to the United States via New York. Coming from Hong Kong, the Bien family was
Seeking to make sense of Buddhism in North America quickly leads one on an exciting yet complex journey. Buddhism here carries with it 2,500 years
