The love of trees in Buddhism (video)

Ashley Wells, Seven, Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly edit of Wikipedia entry Bodhi treeMassive Japanese Buddha  statue in Bodh Gaya, India (Gallery: thezensite.com)    Gandhara Buddha (buddhaskulptur.de)Wayfaring Indian ascetics and Buddhist devotees meditate beneath sacred fig trees to this day.   They begin by doing parikrama (circumambulation) around the tree as a mark of reverence.   Usually seven walkabouts are done around the lush tree in the morning...

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What Controversy? Zen's Four Vows

Barbara O'Brien (Buddhism.About.com), Special Correspondence to Wisdom QuarterlyThe Americans are onto something. If there are Gateless Gates, why not wordless words?   Controversy? I don't see a controversy, although maybe that's because I've been aware for many years that every Zen center and monastery operating with the English language is using a different translation for the Four Vows and the rest of the chanted liturgy as well.    I hadn't realized this was bothering anybody....

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Burma officially ends censorship today!

Aung Hla Tun, Reuters, Aug. 20, 2012, TheStar.com.my; Wisdom QuarterlyBurma's Saffron Revolution saw Theravada monks and lay folk protesting the government   1984 is about Burma and UK  YANGON, Burma - Myanmar abolished direct media censorship on Monday, the latest dramatic reform by its quasi-civilian regime, but journalists face other formidable restrictions including a ban on private daily newspapers and a pervasive culture of self-censorship.   Under the new rules,...

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