One by one, the Buddhist priests bowed before the altar at the Higashi Honganji Buddhist Temple in Little Tokyo, wearing robes of yellow, orange and black.

Accompanied by the chanting of the Heart Sutra in Korean, they dipped a paintbrush into a bowl of golden lacquer to gently fill in the cracks of a white ceramic lotus that had been handmade for the occasion.

The ritual, which took place last May, was drenched in meaning. The lotus flower represented the purity and potential of the Buddha’s awakening. The repairing of the cracked ceramic lotus, a Japanese art...

Roshi Merle Kodo Boyd (1944-2022) passed peacefully at her home in Durham, NC, on Sunday, February 20, 2022. A Zen Buddhist priest and teacher, she was beloved for her keen wisdom, gentle kindness, and big love. Possessed of a fierce and independent spirit, Boyd was the first fully transmitted African American Zen teacher in the United States. Her life as a Black woman, particularly those experiences that shaped her throughout her childhood in a segregated but nurturing community in Houston, TX, and her life in the buddhadharma were intimately interwoven. She was of...

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff lauded the interfaith work of Black religious communities for “saving lives” through distribution of COVID-19 vaccinations and for continuing efforts to get out the vote when he spoke at a midweek Black History Month event.

“Over the past year, Black faith communities have been working as trusted voices in their communities and getting the right facts and information out to their neighbors,” he said in remarks Wednesday (Feb. 23) at an online event co-hosted by the White House and the Black Interfaith Project. “This has led to millions upon...

The low peaceful notes of a bell floated over the Deer Park Monastery in the mountains of Escondido, California, where hundreds of people gathered recently to honor the beloved Zen teacher and poet Thich Nhat Hanh.

Nhat Hanh, who died in January at the age of 95, never lived at the mountain monastery he founded in 2000, but he visited many times to lead retreats.

Devotees say they can still see their teacher in the rustling of the wind through the oak trees, or in the form of a rock where he once gave a talk. Dotted throughout the property are small wooden signs...

Over 100 Buddhist leaders have signed an open letter addressing antisemitism following the January 15 synagogue attack at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, in which a gunman held four people hostage for 10 hours. Penned by Zen teacher Koshin Paley Ellison of the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care, the letter was shared via Google Doc for Buddhist leaders to sign.

Years before Albert Ramos finished his children’s book about an energetic pup who learns that dog toys don’t bring true happiness, he began by writing a letter.

In 2010, Ramos, five years into a life sentence for murder at Nash Correctional Institution in North Carolina, mailed off his message to Venerable Thubten Chodron, founder and abbess of ...

Nathalie Charles, even in her mid-teens, felt unwelcome in her Baptist congregation, with its conservative views on immigration, gender and sexuality. So she left.

“I just don’t feel like that gelled with my view of what God is and what God can be,” said Charles, an 18-year-old of Haitian descent who identifies as queer and is now a freshman at Princeton University.

“It wasn’t a very loving or nurturing environment for someone’s faith.”

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A traditional Cambodian celebration called Bon Khatin, also known as the "The Robe Ceremony for the Monks", took place Sunday in the heart of Brooklyn at a Cambodian Buddhist temple in Flatbush.

Cambodians gathered in their best traditional clothes to chant and bring flowers and offerings to Buddha and those who have passed away.

The women wore Sampots, which are long, rectangular cloths worn around the lower body. The monks wore their traditional robe attire.

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The major branches of Buddhism are often known as “vehicles,” or ways of spiritual practice.

So it’s only fitting that when the monks of the Pittsburgh Buddhist Center needed a major restoration of its outdoor statue of the Buddha, they turned to an auto restoration shop specializing in classic cars.

This partnership of ancient Asian spirituality and modern American craftsmanship came to fruition recently with the reinstallation of the newly refurbished, gleaming white statue at the center’s temple.

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A Buddhist juror was booted from the fraud trial of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes after she expressed growing anxiety about the potential punishment the one-time Silicon Valley superstar would face should she find her guilty.

Citing religious reasons, juror no. 4 requested she be dismissed from the California courtroom, telling U.S. District Judge Edward Davila that she practices Buddhism “for compassion ... for loving and forgiveness.”

“I keep thinking about this every day,” she continued, tearing up from behind her mask.

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After 18 years of stops and starts in the planning process, construction work has begun at a Buddhist temple on Richmond’s Highway to Heaven.

But the original plan to expand LingYen Mountain Temple has been reduced by half.

In 2014, the proposal was to expand by almost 200,000 square feet and the temple was asking to build into the farming portion of the property – encroaching more than 300 feet into the “backland,” which is supposed to be actively farmed.

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More than 1,000 attendees came to Theravada Dhamma Society of Iowa, a Buddhist temple in Marshalltown, to celebrate the completion of one of the largest images of Buddha in the United States.

Families flocked in waves on Sunday to a massive 18-feet-tall, 12-square-feet-wide Buddha statue to take pictures, pray and bring offerings. After a religious session in the morning, entertainers, including singers and dancers representing various ethnic groups within the society took to the stage. More than 30 Buddhist monks from around the state and country attended the celebration,...

Dr. Marc Lieberman, an ophthalmologist and self-proclaimed “Jewish Buddhist” who, when he wasn’t treating glaucoma, organized a dialogue between Jewish scholars and the Dalai Lama, and who later brought sight back to thousands of Tibetans stricken by cataracts, died on Aug. 2 at his home in San Francisco. He was 72.

His son, Michael, said the cause was prostate cancer.

Dr. Lieberman, who called himself a “JuBu,” retained his Jewish faith but incorporated aspects of Buddhist teachings and practices. He kept kosher and observed the sabbath, but he also meditated...

COLUMBIA HEIGHTS, Minn. (AP) — In most ways, Jalue Dorje is a typical American teen — he grew up in a suburb of Minneapolis, loving football, Pokémon and rap music.

Yet a few years from now, he’s expecting to say goodbye to his family and homeland and join a monastery in the foothills of the Himalayas — from an early age, he was recognized by the Dalai Lama and other Tibetan Buddhist leaders as a reincarnated lama.

Since that recognition, he’s spent much of his life training to become a monk, memorizing sacred scriptures (often rewarded by his dad with Pokémon cards...

Last spring, dharma centers across the United States made the difficult decision to close their doors due to COVID-19. Unable to host in-person gatherings, Buddhist centers quickly adapted to the confinement of the pandemic by shifting their offerings online. Through virtual events, Zoom meditations, and live-stream talks, sanghas were able to stay connected while practicing apart. 

Now, as restrictions ease and more people get vaccinated, some centers have begun the careful process of reopening for in-person events. For those who have missed sitting alongside fellow...