


Literature as a Way of Living, Part Two
On practicing the spiritual exercises we find in…

Literature as a Way of Living, Part One
The spiritual exercises we can find in literature

The Mind in Language: Jane Hirshfield’s The Beauty
I found myselfsuddenly voluminous,three-dimensioned,a many-roofed building in moonlight. So writes Jane Hirshfield in her collection The Beauty (Knopf 2015). She is describing a startling moment

Tensions Between Literary Creation and Buddhist Practice—Ramya Jirasinghe Talks about Poetry, Dharma, and Why She Writes
During my years of watching and analyzing the Buddhist world, one observation has consistently come to mind: Buddhists have been slow to make art for

Why Haiku Holds the Flavor of Zen
Furu ike yakawazu tobikomumizu no oto The old ponda frog jumps inkerplunk Matsuo Basho’s (1644–94) haiku—that mind-altering frog vanishing into an ancient pond—has become so

The Light of the Lotus Moon: The Art and Wisdom of Otagaki Rengetsu
“Fluttering Merrily” by Otagaki Rengetsu, Japan, 1840s–50s, calligraphy and painting in ink on paper mounted as a hanging scroll; Private Collection, Switzerland

The Familiar Oddities of Ikkyū Sōjun
Dr. Andrew K. Whitehead is Assistant Professor of Philosophy in the Department of History and Philosophy at Kennesaw State University in Atlanta USA. He specializes

A Pilgrimage to Pu Tuo Mountain
In the winter of the Year of the Snake, 2013, two laywomen accompanied me to Pu Tuo Mountain (?????s), where we stayed in the Guan

The Dancing Buddha
Her feet tread the earth and the high skies Neither the same nor different to wise eyes Everything she does, she does completely Those who