Source: Star Tribune

On March 17, 2001, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported on the influence of the Dalai Lama on Dr. Zorba Paster's new book, The Longevity Code, about how to live "'a longer, sweeter life.'...He underscored the value of volunteerism, not just for the receiver, but for the giver as well...'The wise person, as the Dalai Lama says, benefits by volunteering,' [said Paster]...The Dalai Lama...wrote the forward for Paster's book."

Source: The Houston Chronicle

On March 17, 2001, The Houston Chronicle reported on Sister Carletta LaCour, who teaches Tai Chi at the Christian Renewal Center in Dickinson, Texas. "Though part of the benefit of practicing the moves is physical, LaCour also emphasizes the spiritual." She sees no incongruence between Catholicism and Tai Chi.

Source: The San Diego Union-Tribune

http://www.signonsandiego.com/

On March 16, 2001, The San Diego Union-Tribune published an editorial by Mohamed El-Bendary, a doctoral student at Louisiana State University in which he condemned the Taliban's destruction of Buddhist statues.

Source: Chicago Sun-Times

On March 10, 2001, the Chicago Sun-Times published an article on James William Coleman's book The New Buddhism: The Western Transformation of an Ancient Tradition about American-born converts to Buddhism. "Most are baby boomers, almost all are white and all practice meditation" and are trying "to make Buddhism more egalitarian, more feminist and more socially conscious...Recently critics have suggested that the 'new Buddhism' is subverting Buddhism itself...Americans seem intent on co-opting and commercializing it,...

Source: Los Angeles Times

On March 9, 2001, the Los Angeles Times reported that "leading Southern California Muslim scholars...denounced the ruling Taliban's destruction of Buddhist statues in Afghanistan as contrary to their faith's laws and traditions...The Los Angeles meeting...reflected growing efforts by a network of Muslim intellectuals and human rights advocates...to challenge, on the basis of Islamic law, oppression that they believe is being falsely imposed in the name of Islam...In a unanimous statement, eight intellectuals said the Taliban's...

Source: The New York Times

On March 6, 2001, The New York Times reported on Tibetan immigrants in America. "Tibetan exiles have argued for decades that Tibetan culture will die if Tibetans scatter across the globe." 9,000 Tibetans live in America in all, scattered over 30 cities, with the largest concentration of about 2,000 people in New York City. The Tibetan leadership sent many of these as ambassadors "to make additional friends for Tibet." Although they serve this role to some degree, they feel themselves torn from "their Buddhist faith and their...

Source: The San Francisco Chronicle

On March 2, 2001, The San Francisco Chronicle reported on artist and musician Karma Moffett, who delights Bay Area audiences with his "Tibetan Bell Experience -- A Symbolic Journey to Tibet,"...

Source: Star Tribune

February 27, 2001, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported on "a deep stirring within the Twin Cities' Tibetan community to welcome for the first time" the Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama is visiting the Twin Cities because of all the support he now has there. "The local Tibetan Buddhist community began forming in 1990...The Tibetan American Foundation of Minnesota (TAFM),...in Minneapolis keeps about 1,000 Tibetan Buddhists in touch with their culture. That figure...makes the Twin Cities the second-largest Tibetan community in the...

Source: St. Petersburg Times

http://www.sptimes.com/News/030301/NorthPinellas/A_season_of_spiritual.shtml

On February 25, 2001, the St. Petersburg Times reported on Jack Churchward, a Clearwater, Florida youth who has been identified "as the reincarnation of a lama, or high-ranking monk, who died sometime around the first World War." After he demonstrated compassion for ants as a 4-year-old, his parents' "meditation teacher, a monk from Tibet......

Source: The Morning Call

Source: Los Angeles Times

On February 17, 2001, the Los Angeles Times reported that, for the past six years, a "monk known as Mu Ryang Sunim...has devoted his life to building a Korean Zen Buddhist meditation and retreat center 120 miles north of downtown Los Angeles...Last year, more than 1,500 people, mostly members of the Southern California Korean community, attended an opening ceremony for the majestic temple at the Mountain Spirit Center." Mu Ryang explained that "the purpose is to create a place where people can come to leave behind their problems......

Source: The Columbus Dispatch

On February 16, 2001, The Columbus Dispatch reported on the Interfaith Association of Central Ohio, which has 350 members from Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism, Baha'ism, Islam and Judaism. All are volunteers. "The missions of the association...are to educate its members and the public about customs of different faiths and to provide interfaith public worship and ceremonies related to local and global concerns." The association's projects, which range from peace-training programs in public schools to the creation of...

Source: The San Francisco Chronicle

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Theological-Union-Looks-Outside-of-Christianity-2952371.php

On February 15, 2001, The San Francisco Chronicle...

Source: Rocky Mountain News

On February 4, 2001, the Denver Rocky Mountain News published an article about a new book by James William Coleman, entitled The New Buddhism, The Western Transformation of an Ancient Tradition, an in-depth look at Buddhism and the path it took to becoming part of mainstream American life. "Coleman traces Buddhism from its ancient roots to American poets Emerson, Thoreau and Whitman, through the 1950s beat poets, into the LSD experiences of the 1960s, the boom years of the 1970s, the sexual, financial and alcohol scandals...

Source: The Boston Globe

On February 3, 2001, The Boston Globe published an interview of Lama Surya Das. Born into a Jewish family on Long Island as Jeffrey Miller, "Surya Das, who lives in Concord, has studied Buddhism for three decades with teachers including the Dalai Lama, and he has become a Buddhist teacher himself." In the interview Surya Das answered how his message differs from that of an Asian Buddhist teacher: "I'm trying to make Buddhism more accessible to Westerners. So I'm less monastic, emphasizing seclusion less and integration in daily life...