According to the Chinese lunar calendar, 19 February 2015 marked the beginning of the Year of the Goat. With celebrations roaring in East Asia, Buddhist communities in the West are joining in to mark the auspicious occasion.

Following the statement shared here on February 19 from Sister Chân Không, Thich Nhat Hanh’s closest collaborator, a new update on the Zen master’s health has been issued by his Plum Village community. It reads, in part:“We are very happy to report that our dear Teacher continues to steadily make extraordinary progress.

Lu Mountain Temple in Rosemead, California, has placed its collection of Buddhist relics on display this week. The “10,000 Buddha Relics Collection” is said to be the largest collection of its kind in the United States.

There is a painting in the Freer Gallery of Art’s current exhibition, Zen, Tea, and Chinese Art in Medieval Japan, that beautifully symbolizes the remarkable cultural exchange and synthesis that occurred in East Asia between the 12th and 16th centuries. The painting Bodhidharma Crossing the Yangzi on a Reed is a copy by a 15th-century Japanese artist of an earlier Chinese painting of the 5th/6th-century Indian patriarch of meditational Buddhism, Bodhidharma. Meditational Buddhism, or dhyana, was transmitted by Bodhidharma from India to China, where it was known as Chan and practiced by thousands of followers and particularly in the southeast, an area where tea was grown and drunk by Chan monks to help them stay awake during meditation. When Japanese Buddhists learned of this practice many traveled to China to study it, drank plenty of Chinese tea, and then transmitted both traditions back to Japan. Just as Bodhidharma supposedly floated along the river on a reed, Chan Buddhism and powdered tea drinking were carried across land and sea from one culture to another, landing in Japan in the late 12th century and changing its culture forever.

The Dhammadeepa Meditation Centre, located in Melbourne’s southeastern suburb of Dandenong, recently celebrated its 20th anniversary. The center was established by the chief incumbent, Venerable Akaravita Sanghananda Thero, and the local Sri Lankan Buddhist community in late 1994, and moved to its current location in late 1995. 

Copenhagen, Denmark, 12 February 2015 - A group of Danish Parliamentarians representing all eight parties present in parliament were the focus of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s first meeting this morning.

Many ancient Buddhist sites in Pakistan are deteriorating due to the lack of any proper conservation effort. According to The Express Tribune, further damage has been done to these sites through indifference and neglect on the part of the government. “Much is made by people in high office about the country’s rich cultural and historical heritage. Pakistan has on paper legislation that should work to protect and preserve its legacies. On the ground, though, the situation at most sites of historical importance is one of abject neglect,” the online Pakistani daily Dawn reported.

Copenhagen, Denmark, 10 February 2015 - As darkness lay on the sea around Trondheim this morning, His Holiness the Dalai Lama met with Tibetans who had come to see him.

Khyentse Foundation has announced scholarships for students who are enrolled in a program of translation studies or Buddhist philosophy, and who are on track to become or are currently working as translators. Applicants must already be attending an MA, PhD, or MPhil program, and are required to submit letters of recommendation, a sample of their translation work, a budget proposal, and a 400-word essay giving the reasons why they should receive the scholarship. The application deadline is 1 March, and the maximum scholarship is US$5,000.