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After Thay: Plum Village Reckons With the Loss of Its Founder

Thich Nhat Hanh wrote more than one hundred books, and his teachings on mindfulness, engaged Buddhism, and interbeing (his word for interconnectedness) have been influential within and beyond Buddhism. His legacy can also be seen in the formal lunch—monastic and lay students together seeking to embody what he taught. Read More

Jenifer Colpas Fernández: Young Colombian activist brings light to the displaced communities

A number of these improvements are the work of Tierra Grata, a nonprofit founded in Cartagena in 2015 to bring essential services to people in remote areas of Colombia. Tierra Grata’s co-founder and CEO Jenifer Colpas Fernández, 32, who started developing the idea for the organization a decade ago, had to leave her native Colombia to recognize its problems — and to see that there were solutions. Read More

RNS: Gajaweera on Buddhism and Sri Lanka’s Recent Protest Movement

Protests that led to Sri Lanka's President Gotabaya Rajapaksa resignation have raised questions about the role of Buddhism in the country's politics. Religion News Service interviewed CRCC's Nalika Gajaweera about the Buddhist monks who have supported the former president as well as those supporting the movement to take him out of power. Read More

LA Times: Nalika Gajaweera on How Buddhists Are Responding to Anti-Asian Violence

The March 16, 2021 killing of six women of Asian descent and two others brought Asian Buddhists together across lineages and communities to confront anti-Asian hate. A year later, the LA Times followed up with organizers of those efforts. The story quotes CRCC's Nalika Gajweera, who in addition to studying race and Buddhism, is one of the co-directors of the Asian American Buddhist Working Group. Read More

Buddhadharma: Reclaiming Our So-Called “Cultural Baggage”

You can often hear Western meditation-based convert circles use the term “cultural baggage” to refer to the ritualized acts, cosmological ideas, and devotional practices associated with “heritage” Buddhist communities. This is in contrast to the idea of a more “authentic” or “true” Buddhism that is consonant with a modern rationalized worldview. In my research among meditation-centric convert Buddhist communities, I consistently observe a reluctance to take “heritage Buddhist” practices and cosmologies seriously, with many of my interlocutors often commenting on these ideas’ incompatibility with their own interpretation of Buddhism. Read More

Brother Chân Pháp Dung: Where the Search for Simplicity Leads

Pháp Dung (the name he was given upon ordination) is among a unique set of people—those whose spirituality has led them to eschew material consumption. As part of the University of Southern California Center for Religion and Civic Culture’s global project on engaged spirituality, a team of journalists and researchers have interviewed 80 exemplary individuals committed to making the world a better place. For a significant number of these people, living simply is more than enough, it is a source of freedom. Read More