My First Encounter with a Buddhist Monk

Aug 4, 2008 | Articles

In the first week of August, 1965, after finishing summer school, I set out to travel by car from New York to California. I was twenty years old and in September would be entering my senior year at Brooklyn College . I wanted to visit a friend who was spending the...

Finding a Place From Which to Start

Aug 4, 2008 | Articles

When one sets out to choose a religion, how does one make the right choice? Different religions offer us such different perspectives on the nature of human life, and such different paths of practice, that it is impossible to find a unifying scheme capable of...

What Does It Mean To Be Enlightened?

Aug 4, 2008 | Articles

In a conversation with an aged brahmin, the Buddha once explained concisely what is meant by a Buddha, an enlightened one: “What has to be known, that I have known; What has to be abandoned, that I have abandoned; What has to be developed, that I have developed;...

The Challenge to the Sangha in the 21st Century

Aug 4, 2008 | Articles

Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi, Speech Lanka Daily News, July 19, 2006 The Sangha — the order of fully ordained monks and nuns — is the visible representation of the Buddha in the world; for twenty-five centuries, it has sustained the continuity of the Dharma among humankind; by...

The Problem of Conflict

Aug 4, 2008 | Articles

It is one of the bitterest ironies of human life that although virtually all human beings cherish a desire to live in peace, we continually find ourselves embroiled in conflict, pitted against others in relationships marred by tension, distrust or open hostility. This...