When it comes to drawing inspiration from the Buddhist teachings for management practices, one monastic scholar half-jokingly argued that every entrepreneur should learn from the Buddha. Why? Because there is no corporation in history that can compete with the 2,500-year tenure of the Buddha, with the same global presence and branches on every continent. The teachings, vision, and mission of the Buddha have been passed on from generation to generation, and many practitioners (successors of the Buddha) have had to overcome unbearable hardships and challenges to continue this legacy, especially when they venture out into new grounds. The Buddhist teachings attempt to adapt themselves to local circumstances and lifestyles, without losing sight of the core principles and values. It offers a very inspiring localised and customized solution by which the Buddha’s legacy is adjusted to meet human needs.

I have recently been preoccupied with the notion of identity. I confess, however, that my reflections were not inspired by a sutra or a commentary by a Chan patriarch. Instead, as a writer for Buddhistdoor Global, I had left some thoughts about two Hong Kong films on our Tea House blog,* that unwittingly reveal something about the unreality of identity, through the radically different scripted personalities of the protagonist, who features in both films. The story goes that actor Tony Leung noticed that the personality of Chow Mo-wan, the main character, had changed so radically between films that it was hard to recognize that he was playing the same person. In response, he asked director Wong Kar-wai if he could grow a mustache so he could concentrate on the role of what he felt was a different character altogether.

It’s often interesting to watch one’s own ego in action. I recently had a discussion with a couple of friends on life’s purpose and the value we place on the things we hope to accomplish.

Last month, I introduced the overall concept of lily padding as a combination of location-independence and letting the Dharma take the lead. During my seven years of jumping from lily pad to lily pad, I have found that it is during house-sitting that the Dharma has the most to teach.  The first article in this series* described how tonglen breathing can help to dissolve the collective fears that surface when strangers hand over their home and pets to me. But what happens once the door closes and I become the keeper of a new temple-of-sorts?

Michael Dobbs-Higginson, ordained as a lay Buddhist monk in Japan at age 22 and erstwhile Merrill Lynch chairman, shares his unique life story in his new memoir A Raindrop in the Ocean: The Life of a Global Adventurer. The most fundamental period of his life was his stay at a Buddhist monastery on a mountain in Japan, where he battled hardship to find untapped reserves of resilience that would last him a lifetime.

Two Buddhist temples, Wat Pa Maha Chedi Kaew in Thailand and Wat Charok Padang in Malaysia, are constructed completely out of glass bottles and due to their unique aesthetic characteristics, have become popular tourist destinations as well as unique examples of recycling waste. 

I did not have an opportunity to learn about Buddhism until 1993, during my second year of graduate school in the United States. I remember that on the last day of our finals for that year, I told myself that I needed to make a decision on how I was going to continue my graduate studies. I felt mistreated by my advisor and I didn’t think I could go through it to finish my graduate studies. I therefore had a choice: change advisor or quit school.

The notorious Great Pacific Garbage Patch, an ugly reminder of humanity’s willful neglect of the natural environment, is big. Really big. Estimates of its extent range from the size of Texas to greater than the entire continental United States. Yet a resourceful entrepreneur from the Netherlands, 22-year-old Boyan Slat, is confident that he can halve the amount of plastic waste floating in the Pacific in as little five years using an innovative modular system that is poised to launch sooner than expected.

Yeshi Dhonden, a Tibetan monk who earned renown after working for some 20 years as personal physician to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, today continues draws visitors from the Tibetan diaspora and all over the world seeking alternative treatments for a variety of health conditions ranging from back pain to cancer and degenerative diseases. “If the sick come to me, I will take care of them,” says Dhonden from his private clinic in McLeod Ganj, a suburb of Dharamsala in the far northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. (France 24)

Sri Lanka has long attracted Buddhist monastics and scholars from around the world with its rich Buddhist heritage and resources. While the nation’s monastic centers and universities are renowned hubs of Buddhist education, the island’s forest hermitages are also high on the list of attractions for those seeking to practice and study Buddhism. Recently, two Western monks have taken to social media to express the spiritual joy of living in the beautiful wild hills of the island’s Central Province.