This planet that we call home is in crisis: pollution and rising water levels affect us all. Only through cooperation can we face this challenge.

Message from His Holiness the Dalai Lama on the occasion of the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP26).

Introducing the Three Different Types of Dharma In general, the Dharma teachings can be divided into the Hinayana and the Mahayana teachings. The word “dharma” means “something that holds its own self-nature.” To think of dharmas as being anything that takes or holds anything...

Preface In September 1993, I attended a regional conference of Western Buddhist teachers in the San Francisco area of the United States, cosponsored by the Spirit Rock Insight Meditation Center and the Green Gulch Zen Center. I had studied Buddhist history during the course of...

The Demonstration of Powers The demonstration of powers has played an important role both in helping to establish Buddhism in certain countries and in weakening its prominence in others. For example, the Central Asian masters who brought Buddhism to northern China in the third...

Inherent Dangers in Changing Religions Finding relevant themes and adapting them to our native cultures is important because, in general, it is difficult to change religion or worldview. Some go to extremes and become fanatic supporters of their new creed and intolerant, rabid...

Another important issue when transmitting and adapting Buddhism to new cultures concerns the preservation of the old traditions and the creation of new ones. Is it necessary to preserve all the traditional Asian schools of Buddhism in the West? Is it important to introduce...

One of the greatest sources of problems so far in the transmission of Buddhism to the West has been people’s attitude towards spiritual teachers. Practitioners often deify the masters and sometimes act like mindless slaves, or at best like little children in their presence,...

We have seen that Buddhism did not survive the destruction of its monasteries in India, in part because it did not provide unique institutions and family rituals for its lay adherents, did not appear to play a socially useful role, and had over-adapted and been absorbed into a...

Lessons from  We must beware the danger of adapting Buddhism in a manner that shortchanges society through its failing to provide for the full needs of all its followers. In addition, we need to take precautions against Buddhism not seeming to play a useful role in...