Japanese Buddhist monk Shoukei Matsumoto takes cleaning very seriously. In fact, he views it as an essential part of a healthy, positive life and Buddhist practice, going so far as to author a book on the subject that has become a bestseller in his native Japan and has recently been translated into English. 

Maia Duerr has worked as a qualitative researcher, an anthropologist, a writer, and an editor. She served as the research director of the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society (CMIND) from 2002–04 and as the executive director of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship from 2004–07. In 2010, she wrote an introduction to engaged Buddhism for the PBS movie The Buddha, and launched a blog called the Liberated Life Project that same year. This past December she released the book, Work that Matters: Create a Livelihood That Reflects Your Core Intention (Parallax Press, 2017). This month we interviewed Maia about her life and her new book.

For most outsiders, especially those in the West, Vietnamese Buddhism is typically synonymous with Thich Nhat Hanh (who incidentally resides not in Vietnam but in France). Or, going back a few decades, the now-iconic image of Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc, who set himself on fire at a busy Saigon intersection in 1963 to protest the persecution of Buddhists by the South Vietnamese regime led by Ngo Dinh Diem.

In March 2017, Buddhistdoor Global interviewed Professor Luo Wenhua, a research fellow at the Palace Museum in Beijing and director of the Research Center for Tibetan Buddhist Heritage.* In the interview, Prof. Luo introduced their project of digitizing artifacts and wall paintings in Tibetan Buddhist regions of China, which started in 2013. In August 2017, just a few months after the interview, Prof. Luo and his team made an important discovery at Badha Monastery (嘛达寺) (32°52.256N, 097°23.462E) in Serxu County, Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, in China’s Sichuan Province. In a small hall attached to the tulku’s residence (gungbar labrang), which had been closed off and forgotten after the Cultural Revolution, Prof. Luo and his team uncovered various wall paintings and clay sculptures. Owing to their relatively good condition and unique artistic style, these artifacts are considered rare examples of Tibetan Buddhist art. This article is intended as the first English-language report on the discovery.

It has been a year since I first met Win Win in the teashop where he works in Myanmar’s former capital, Yangon. Surprised and delighted that I actually kept my promise to visit him again, he muttered shyly in English, “How are you?” as he served me a cup of tea.

The conceit “I am” (Pali: asmi-māna), is said to be one of the final fetters one overcomes on the Buddhist path. Practitioners in the West often work to de-center their sense of self: breaking it down into the five aggregates, seeing all concepts as impermanent or ultimately empty. However, few teachers actively encourage the critical examination of concepts such as whiteness or the male and cis-gendered dominance in our current world.

Bhutan, a remote Vajrayana Buddhist kingdom perched in the rarified air of the eastern Himalayas, is regularly ranked among the happiest countries in the world. With a population of fewer than 800,000 people, it is also one of the world’s smallest and least industrialized countries, yet it has significant experience in maintaining the delicate balance of managing economic growth in a sustainable manner, famously encapsulated in its conservative “Gross National Happiness” (GNH) approach to economic development.

Buddhists comprise nearly 0.6 per cent (approximately 1 million people) of Bangladesh’s total population of some 163 million. Muslims are the unquestioned majority at 90.39 per cent. With such a small population of Buddhists, is it even possible, let alone ideal, for Bangladesh to adopt some form of “Buddhist diplomacy” to solve some of its national problems? As a Buddhist monastic born in Bangladesh, I’m confident that my country can draw on its Buddhist heritage to strengthen bilateral relations with Buddhist-majority countries such as Myanmar, Thailand, and Sri Lanka. As a recipient of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, Bangladesh could possibly even utilize its Buddhist voices to address problems such as the ongoing Rohingya crisis.

Earlier this week, at an event in Delhi, the Dalai Lama urged for closer cooperation between China and India, observing that the two countries shared not only a common spiritual heritage (Buddhism), but also similar interests in Asia: both nations have large populations, increasingly complex societies, and hungry economies. “I think, a great potential. . . . India and China combined are doing more compassionate work. . . . At a practical level also. Imagine two billion people working together,” he said. Alluding to the standoff on the Doklam plateau in Bhutan from June to August, he warned “Whether you like it or not, you have to live side by side.”

Details of a casket with cremated remains, claimed to belong to the Buddha, found at Gongchi Village in Jingchuan County, China, were revealed to the public on 14 November. The remains were interred on 22 June 1013, as claimed by the inscription on the casket.