The Open Buddhist University (@buddhistuniversity.net)

Material Practice and the Metamorphosis of a Sign: Early Buddhist Stupas and the Origin of Mahayana Buddhism > Where earlier stupas were icons and indexes of the Buddha encased within indexes of his presence, later stupas were symbols of the Buddha and Buddhist theology. > This change in the material practice of Buddhism reduced stupas ’ emotional immediacy in favor of greater intellectual detachment. > In the end, this shift in the meaning ascribed to stupas created the preconditions from which the Buddhist image cult and Mahayana Buddhism emerged in the first through fifth centuries A.D. > The development of Mahayana Buddhism and Buddha images signified a return to iconic worship of the Buddha.

📰 Early Buddhist Stupas and the Origin of Mahayana Buddhism (A free, 33-page article from 2014)

Tags: #EarlyBuddhism #Buddhastatue

14.03.2026 04:25 👍 4 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0

Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability This lengthy report details the current scientific consensus on where we're at with climate change: what effects we're already seeing and what we can expect to see going forward.

📕 Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability (A free, 3070-page book from 2023)

Tags: #World #FridayReads #ClimateChange

13.03.2026 04:26 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

The Emotional Toll of Wartime Bell Deployment in Japan > Because of the war, the mission of the Shōjuin bell swung drastically...

📰 The Emotional Toll of Wartime Bell Deployment in Japan (A free, 25-page article from 2023)

Tags: #War #Buddhastatue #Modern #Things #JapaneseBuddhism #Japan

12.03.2026 04:28 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Early Chinese Buddhist Sculptures as Animate Bodies and Living Presences > Miracle tales from medieval China recorded the ability of Buddhist statues to walk, speak, emit light, and even feel pain. Consecration ceremonies, however, emphasized the sense of vision and the agency of the ritual practitioner over the agency of the statue. This essay argues that by underscoring the corporeal agency of animated sculptures, which was manifested both in their extraordinary qualities and in their vulnerability to damage, the circulation of miracle tales enabled a participatory practice in which devotees, monks and laypeople alike, were able to engage in the performative act of writing statues into life.

📰 Early Chinese Buddhist Sculptures as Animate Bodies and Living Presences (A free, 26-page article from 2016)

Tags: #Buddhism #Mythology #Buddhastatue

11.03.2026 04:25 👍 7 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

”War is the greatest crime there is.”

- Venerable Takenaka Shōgen, Oct 10th 1937

10.03.2026 12:45 👍 5 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 1

Buddhist Ontology and Miniaturization : Enacting Ritual With Nonhuman Agency > Ritual theories almost always assume that ritual is a kind of human action, which makes it impossible to explain ritual spaces or objects that were designed to enact the ritual without human participation. > The relic depository of Chaoyang North Pagoda was a completely sealed stone box that was clearly designed as a ritual space for chanting the Uṣṇīṣavijayā dhāraṇī. This ritual space—occluded from human access—contradicts contemporary understandings of ritual. > By illuminating the relic depository from the emic perspective of medieval Buddhists and applying anthropological theories, this paper offers theoretical explanations for conditions in which religious rituals were primarily enacted through non-human agency.

📰 Enacting Ritual With Nonhuman Agency (A free, 31-page article from 2017)

Tags: #Buddhastatue #Medieval #God

10.03.2026 04:24 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

"Americans Need Something to Sit On," or Zen Meditation Materials and Buddhist Diversity in North America > chimerically constructed commodities should be considered neither irrelevant nor an outrage—two common responses. Rather, they are important elements for understanding the development of any religious movement, including Buddhism in America (and maybe especially Buddhism in America).

📰 "Americans Need Something to Sit On," or Zen Meditation Materials and Buddhist Diversity in North America (A free, 21-page article from 2000)

Tags: #MaterialCulture #Buddhism #USA

09.03.2026 04:44 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Civilizational Populism Around the World > This article addresses an issue of growing political importance: the global rise of civilizational populism. > From Western Europe to India and Pakistan, and from Indonesia to the Americas, populists are increasingly linking social belonging with civilizational identity—and at times to the belief that the world is divided into religion-based civilizations, some of which are doomed to clash with one another.

📰 Civilizational Populism Around the World (A free, 22-page article from 2022)

Tags: #World #Places #Society #Ideology

08.03.2026 04:26 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

What Is the Sound of One Invisible Hand Clapping?: Neoliberalism, the Invisibility of Asian and Asian American Buddhists, and Secular Mindfulness in Education > Secular mindfulness requires an ideology of white conquest that makes invisible the enduring efforts of Asian and Asian-American Buddhists in maintaining the legacy of mindfulness practices.

📑 Neoliberalism, the Invisibility of Asian and Asian American Buddhists, and Secular Mindfulness in Education (A free, 13-page paper from 2016)

Tags: #SecularDharma #NeoliberalAmerica #USA #AsianAmerica

07.03.2026 04:16 👍 5 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

The Trees, My Lungs: Self Psychology and the Natural World at an American Buddhist Center > This study employs ethnographic field data to trace a dialogue between the self‐psychological concept of the self object and experiences regarding the concept of “interbeing” at a Vietnamese Buddhist monastery in the United States. > The dialogue develops an understanding of human experiences with the nonhuman natural world which are tensive, liminal, and nondual. > From the dialogue I find that the self object concept, when applied to this form of Buddhism, must be inclusive enough to embrace relationships with animals, stones, and other natural forms.

📰 Self Psychology and the Natural World at an American Buddhist Center (A free, 18-page article from 2014)

Tags: #USA #Tnh #Huayan #Nature

06.03.2026 04:24 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

"War" from Old High German *werra* meaning “confusion, discord, chaos” and "Monger" from Old English *mangere* meaning a “dealer or trader”

05.03.2026 04:42 👍 12 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0

"Christianity Is for Rubes; Buddhism Is for Actors": U.S. Media Representations of Buddhism in the Wake of the Tiger Woods' Scandal > Buddhism was here deployed in the service of a pre-existing narrative of conflict between conservatives and liberals and, by making appeals to secular scholars to define Buddhism, Buddhist voices were obscured or ignored. Finally, despite having their own media outlets, U.S. Buddhists were unable to effectively counter such representations either by perpetuating pre-existing media narratives nor by ignoring them altogether.

📰 U.S. Media Representations of Buddhism in the Wake of the Tiger Woods' Scandal (A free, 19-page article from 2012)

Tags: #AmericanCulture #USA #MassMedia #PublicRelations

05.03.2026 04:27 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Simple etiquette tips from 'Hello Kitty'

Public Etiquette in Japan – A Quick Reminder!
Keep your voice down & no phone calls on public transport/ Carry your trash / Smoke only in designated areas / Always queue properly / Remove shoes where required / Avoid eating while walking / Respect personal space & follow traffic rules / No tipping!

11.03.2025 10:35 👍 72 🔁 13 💬 5 📌 5

Paritta: A Historical and Religious Study of the Buddhist Ceremony for Peace and Prosperity in Sri Lanka > This ceremony centres on the recitation—usually by Buddhist monks—of extracts fron the Pali Canon, collected in a text called the *Gatubhāṇavārapāli*, *Paritta* or in Siahala *Piruvānāpotvahanse*. Its objective is to ward off danger, ensure protection and bless the sponsors. It is prevalent in other Theravada Buddhist countries such as Burma and Thailand as well, but this work is confined to a study of the tradition preserved in Sri Lanka.

📰 A Historical and Religious Study of the Buddhist Ceremony for Peace and Prosperity in Sri Lanka (A free, 51-page article from 1981)

Tags: #TheravadaChanting #Buddhist #SriLanka #Theravada

04.03.2026 04:23 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Misunderstandings: False Beliefs in Communication > What do we expect when we say something to someone, and what do they expect when they hear it? When is a conversation successful? The book considers a wide set of two-person conversations, and a bit of game theory, to show how conversational statements and their interpretations are governed by beliefs.

📕 False Beliefs in Communication (A free, 136-page book from 2023)

Tags: #Communication

03.03.2026 04:28 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Mind Cure and Meditation at Greenacre and Beyond > Leaders of New Thought were first exposed to Buddhism and Vedanta philosophy through the publications of European Orientalists and the Theosophical Society and, later, though personal contacts with Asian Buddhist and Hindu missionaries. > In addition to D. T. Suzuki, who helped to spark American interest in Japanese Zen, other important early missionaries were Anagarika Dharmapāla, a Sri Lankan Buddhist and Theosophist, and Swami Vivekenanda, an Indian monk of the Ramakrishna Order who launched the Vedanta Society in North America. > New Thought leaders, Theosophists, and Asian missionaries met in person at the 1893 World’s Parliament of Religions and continued to develop relationships for more than a decade, particularly at the Greenacre conferences in Eliot, Maine. > This chapter reveals the transnational nature of New Thought, which is typically considered to be an American metaphysical religious movement.

📑 Mind Cure and Meditation at Greenacre and Beyond (A free, 37-page paper from 2019)

Tags: #USA #SecularDharma #NewAge

02.03.2026 04:29 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Sitting in the Fire Together: People of Color Cultivating Radical Resilience in North American Insight Meditation > Describing their experiences participating in PoC group sits and activities, a recurring sentiment was the embodied feeling of being relaxed, and feeling safe and comfortable.

📰 People of Color Cultivating Radical Resilience in North American Insight Meditation (A free, 19-page article from 2021)

Tags: #USA #Race #Society

01.03.2026 04:46 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

"The Last Missionary to Leave the Temple Should Turn Off the Light": Sociological Remarks on the Decline of Japanese "Immigrant" Buddhism in Brazil > Empirical data indicate that the so-called "Buddhism of yellow color" that is predominantly associated with Japanese "immigrant" Buddhism, is constantly in decline in terms of "explicit" adherents. After some methodological observations, this article gives an overview of the relevant statistical data.

📰 Sociological Remarks on the Decline of Japanese "Immigrant" Buddhism in Brazil (A free, 21-page article from 2008)

Tags: #Brazilian #USA

28.02.2026 04:10 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Fragrant Stories: Buddhist Art in Early India > The celebrations, you can see, were not subdued meditation events. Dancing, instruments being played and so on. This is hardly restrained. This is extatic worship.

📼 Buddhist Art in Early India (A free, 59-minute video from 2023)

Tags: #Buddhastatue #EarlyBuddhism

27.02.2026 04:28 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

When Exactly Was the Age of Reason? > All of us exist within a world of deep forces that we navigate at a level that is not what we term rational. All of us exist within a context, a late capitalist world, that is by no means rational. And in such a world, are untapped, unharnessed, undirected energies and longings going to be funneled and directed by those who figure out how to do so? Absolutely. And we're not above that.

🗣️ When Exactly Was the Age of Reason? (A free, 54-minute podcast from 2020)

Tags: #World #Today #Science #Intelligence

26.02.2026 04:43 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Training the Embodied Self in Its Impermanence: Meditators Evidence Neurophysiological Markers of Death Acceptance > Meditators’ brains responded to the coupling of death and self-stimuli in a manner indicating acceptance rather than denial, corresponding to increased self-reported well-being. > Additionally, degree of death acceptance predicted positively valenced meditation-induced self-dissolution experiences, thus shedding light on possible mechanisms underlying wholesome vs > pathological disruptions to self-consciousness. > The findings provide empirical support for the hypothesis that the neural mechanisms underlying the human tendency to avoid death are not hard-wired but are amenable to mental training, one which is linked with meditating on the experience of the embodied self’s impermanence. > The results also highlight the importance of assessing and addressing mortality concerns when implementing psychopharmacological or contemplative interventions with the potential of inducing radical disruptions to self-consciousness.

📰 Meditators Evidence Neurophysiological Markers of Death Acceptance (A ✨NEW✨, free, 13-page article)

Tags: #Death #Meditation #Tmt #Dharma #Neuroscience

25.02.2026 04:45 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

www.reddit.com/r/todayilear...

25.02.2026 04:24 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

I actually see helicopter parenting as a conservative (over?)reaction to this general trend.

25.02.2026 03:07 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Between the rapid pace of change, universal education, mass media, etc this proverb is likely even more true today then it was back then.

25.02.2026 03:06 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Kids These Days: Human Capital and the Making of Millennials by Malcolm Harris

25.02.2026 03:04 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Literature for Little Bodhisattvas: Making Buddhist Families in Modern Taiwan > [Children in these picture books] have qualities that differ from what mature adults have, but they are valuable none-the-less. And actually, in the case of 一休 (Ikkyū) especially, he is often shown as being wiser in a certain way or at least more clever than the adults. [... They show that] naughty or mischievous behavior isn't necessarily an endpoint, and that change and growth are possible. [... So,] you can think about how these stories work for both children *and* for the adult caregivers who might be reading them.

🗣️ Making Buddhist Families in Modern Taiwan (A ✨NEW✨, free, 64-minute podcast)

Tags: #Modern #China #Children

24.02.2026 04:44 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

"The medium is the message."

23.02.2026 08:27 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Inclusion and Exclusion in the White Space: An Investigation of the Experiences of People of Color in a Primarily White American Meditation Community > The present study extrapolates six distinct themes related to the experiences of racialized inclusion and exclusion [by eleven participants of color]. These themes are: 1) Interpersonal Barriers to Full Participation, 2) Institutional Barriers to Full Participation, 3) Strategies for Coping with Racialized Exclusion, 4) Failures of Leadership Support for People of Color, 5) Range of POC Experiences, and 6) Promoting Equity and Inclusion. Following the explication of themes, the authors offer recommendations for primarily white meditation communities to help guide their efforts toward greater inclusion

📰 An Investigation of the Experiences of People of Color in a Primarily White American Meditation Community (A free, 18-page article from 2019)

Tags: #RaceInAmerica #USA

23.02.2026 04:50 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

"Buddhism in Syncretic Shape": Lessons of Shingon in Brazil > Given the growing dilution of Buddhist identity and its tendency toward syncretism in Brazil, this paper works with the heuristic concept of a 'Buddhism in Syncretic Shape.' Since this concept is useful for better understanding some groups in Brazil, it is suggested that it can also provide interesting insights for the study of Buddhism in the West. This concept will be developed through a detailed description of Shingon in Brazil, which has undergone a religious synthesis with Catholicism and Afro-Brazilian religions.

📰 Lessons of Shingon in Brazil (A free, 38-page article from 2003)

Tags: #TantricJapanese #USA #Brazilian #Buddhism

22.02.2026 04:42 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Cheap Talk: Disability and the Politics of Communication > The production of cheap talk relies everywhere on the depoliticisation of communication. Cheap talk displaces a shared traversal of difference with a technocratic exchange of messages. [...] This is a thoroughly sterile ecology of communication: minds making speech to transfer information to other minds. [...] It is not [stuttering] but fluency that ensnares life with a type of deathly repetition.

📕 Disability and the Politics of Communication (A free, 141-page book from 2022)

Tags: #Communication #InfoCapitalism

21.02.2026 04:21 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

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