Vairochana – Akshobhya – Ratnasambhava – Amitabha – Amogasiddhi In Mahayana Buddhism, and particularly in Vajrayana (Tantric) Buddhism, the Five Dhyani Buddhas are a group of five “self-born” celestial …

In 21 May 2016, Buddhists around the world are celebrating Vesak – the birth, Enlightenment, and passing away of the Buddha Gautama. The Vesak is one of the most …

Mahayana, ( Sanskrit: “Greater Vehicle” – literally, the “Greater Ox-Cart”)  is a spiritual movement that arose within Indian Buddhism around the beginning of the Common Era and became by …

Bojjhanga (Pali: satta bojjhaṅgā or satta sambojjhaṅgā; Skt.: sapta bodhyanga) are the seven qualities that both lead to Enlightenment and also describe Enlightenment. The Buddha referred to these factors …

Ikebana or kado is the beautiful, often strikingly minimalist, Japanese flower arrangement art. Ikebana means “giving life to flowers” and kado translates as “the way of flowers”. While flower …

Theravada Buddhism is sometimes called ‘Southern Buddhism’. The name means ‘the doctrine of the elders’ – the elders being the senior Buddhist monks. This school of Buddhism believes that …

Dogen was a prolific writer who captured his knowledge and experience of Zen Buddhism in a large body of texts. Shobogenzo (“Treasury of the Right Dharma Eye”), a spiritual …

Buddha taught there are five types of factors at work in the cosmos that cause things to happen, called the Five Niyamas. The ‘five niyamas’ are the five kinds …

The Buddha was a totally realized being who manifested a human birth in India in the fifth century B.C.E. in order to be able to teach other human beings …

Eihei Dogen,  also known as Joyo Daishi or Kigen Dogen (19 Jan. 1200, Kyoto, Japan—22 Sept. 1253, Kyoto), was born into a family of the court nobility. At the age …