Tibetan Buddhism- A Summary After the Chinese communists annexed Tibet and severely oppressed the Tibetan people, thousands of Tibetans, including the Dalai Lama, fled their homeland. Many came to the West, bringing with them their religion, which is the focus of their cultural identity and which they have imparted to a growing number of Westerners. [...]

Perhaps no Eastern religion is considered more chic and intellectually sophisticated in America today than Zen Buddhism. Offering an autonomous path to mystical enlightenment that does not demand acceptance of Eastern mythology and culture, Zen is well suited for the “post-modern” American. Yet, J. Isamu Yamamoto maintains, Zen is actually an anti-intellectual approach to truth [...]

Theravada Buddhism- A Summary Theravada Buddhism in North America is primarily associated with Southeast Asian Americans. It is a religious tradition with roots that go far back to the early days of Buddhism 25 centuries ago. Today the religious beliefs of Southeast Asian Americans are quite varied because this group includes peoples with diverse histories [...]

Buddhism and Christianity- A Summary In recent years Asian immigration to North America has risen dramatically, and with these people has come their Buddhist faith. At the same time many non-Asian North Americans have adopted Buddhism as their religion. In order to present the gospel effectively to both of these groups it is clear that [...]

The accident report read, “Cause: Act of God.” I was in a train station in Japan, making a pilgrimage to the head Buddhist temple Daisekiji at the foot of Mount Fuji, when a young man — in perfect English — warned: “Beware the winds of Himeiji!” Three and one-half hours later, I was leaning over [...]

The alarm clock read midnight. I groggily swung my feet onto the knot-holed floor; it creaked as I felt my way through the darkness. Outside the window, the faint stars barely illuminated the encroaching forest. I lit a candle stuck to a plank of wood — my altar — and bowed deeply to the unsmiling [...]

Diana Eck is Professor of Comparative Religion and Indian Studies at Harvard University. She is one of the most eminent scholars in the West on Far Eastern religions. I received invaluable insights about Hinduism from her classes in the early eighties. On the dust jacket of The Good Heart (a collection of the Dalai Lama’s [...]