Buddhism

New Buddhist Worship Center in Houston

February 13, 1999

Source: The Houston Chronicle

On February 13, 1999, The Houston Chronicle reported on the newest Buddhist worship center in Houston, the Texas Guandi Temple. The temple honors Guandi, a "Chinese Buddhist guardian deity known for virtue, honesty, and power over evil spirits." The temple to Guandi was prompted by a hold up in 1989 of a grocery store owned by Charles Loi Ngo. Ngo prayed to Guandi during the crime and narrowly avoided death. Ngo founded the Hai Nam Association, a community group of 200 Asian families that raised the funds for the temple, in...

Read more about New Buddhist Worship Center in Houston

Plans to Build Tibetan Buddhist Center in Kansas City

February 13, 1999

Source: The Kansas City Star

On February 13, 1999, The Kansas City Star reported that the Mindfulness Meditation Foundation has plans to build a Tibetan Buddhist Monastery and an Institute of Buddhist Studies in Kansas City, Missouri. A $1 million capital campaign has been launched by area leaders to build a facility that can house classrooms, a practice center, and a small monastery for 3 to 5 monks. Patterned after Buddhist monasteries and institutes at Cornell and Emory Universities, the new Buddhist center is planning to ally with area universities and...

Read more about Plans to Build Tibetan Buddhist Center in Kansas City

Buddhist Monk in California Leaves Monastery For Isolation

February 6, 1999

Source: Los Angeles Times

On February 6, 1999, the Los Angeles Times published an article on a Vietnamese Buddhist monk named "C.E.", who has recently departed from the monastery he opened to the public in Long Beach, CA. About a year ago, C.E. opened the monastery up to the public for lessons on the dharma. A Vietnamese immigrant who has turned to the ascetic tradition of Mahayana Buddhism, C.E. drew the interest of many meditators and students in Southern California with his teachings on Buddhist scripture and his fluidity in speaking English, Chinese,...

Read more about Buddhist Monk in California Leaves Monastery For Isolation

Buddhist Alliance for Social Engagement

January 31, 1999

Source: New Age

In the January/February 1999 issue of New Age, an article was published about the Buddhist Alliance for Social Engagement (BASE), which is a social help organization based on the model of the Catholic Worker movement. Founded in 1995 by the Buddhist Peace Fellowship, BASE has attracted more than 90 participants aged 18 to 65 to programs in Boston, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Arcata and Santa Cruz, California.

Buddhist Social Help Organization Making Presence Felt in New York

January 20, 1999

Source: Newsday

On January 20, 1999, Newsday published an article on the Flushing branch of Tzu-Chi, the Buddhist Compassion Relief Foundation, which is committed to teaching and helping the poor. Tzu-Chi, which was founded in Taiwan in 1966, has grown to more than 4 million members in 17 countries. The Flushing branch, which has 2,000 volunteers, has flourished in the area by visiting hospitals and nursing homes, shoveling snow, street cleaning, helping the homeless, and offering classes in Chinese culture, language, and philosophy. Tzu-Chi relies on...

Read more about Buddhist Social Help Organization Making Presence Felt in New York

Tibetan Buddhist Community Strong in Ojai, CA

January 9, 1999

Source: Los Angeles Times

On January 9, 1999, the Los Angeles Times published an article on the Tibetan Buddhist community in the small town of Ojai, CA. Ojai, which is also home to the Krishnamurti Foundation, the Krotona Institute and Meditation Mount, has been home to the Tibetan Buddhist Dharma Center since 1989. The Tibetan Buddhist community in Ojai consists of roughly 40 members, who have a total of 37 children.

Burmese Buddhist Community Blocked From Building a Worship Center in California

December 1, 1998

Source: Tricycle: The Buddhist Review

In the Winter 1998 issue of Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, an article reported on the struggle by the Myanmar Buddhist Society of America to establish a monastery and worship center in Chino, CA. In January of 1998, Chino City officials said that they would not grant a sewer connection to the proposed worship center because it would produce unmanageable traffic volumes for the small community. In a public hearing in April, the planning commission concluded that the concern over increased traffic was exaggerated and...

Read more about Burmese Buddhist Community Blocked From Building a Worship Center in California

The Success of Buddhism in Southern California

November 14, 1998

Source: Los Angeles Times

On November 14, 1998, the Los Angeles Times published an article on the growth of Buddhism in Southern California. According to J. Gordon Melton of the Institute for the Study of Religion at UC Santa Barbara, Southern California is the only place in the world where all of the more than 100 types of Buddhism are practiced. Melton states: "Over the past 10 years, we've had a fairly high level of immigration from Buddhist countries to the Southern California area...What this means is that 40% of all Buddhists in the U.S. live in...

Read more about The Success of Buddhism in Southern California

Jewish Exploration of Tibetan Buddhism

October 23, 1998

Source: Sun-Sentinel

On October 23, 1998, the Sun-Sentinel issued an article about a series of events to take place at the Temple Beth El of Hollywood, Florida from October 30th - November 5th exploring the relationship between Judaism and Tibetan Buddhism. The events will be based around a set of screenings for a new film entitled, "The Jew in the Lotus," which is based on a 1995 book by poet Rodger Kamenetz. The book tells of a 1990 journey of eight Jewish leaders to meet with the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India. On October 31st, Temple Beth El hosted...

Read more about Jewish Exploration of Tibetan Buddhism

First American Woman Becomes "Roshi"

October 23, 1998

Source: Chicago Tribune

On October 23, 1998, the Chicago Tribune published an article concerning the official transmission of Sherry Chayat as "roshi" in the Rinzai Zen sect of Buddhism at a special ceremony at the Syracuse Zen Center on October 18th, 1998. Sherry Chayat is an adjunct art instructor at Syracuse University, an affiliate Buddhist chaplain at the university, and the abbot at the Syracuse Zen Center. Her transmission as roshi, a "venerable teacher" who is able to pass down the teachings of Rinzai Zen, marks the first time an American woman...

Read more about First American Woman Becomes "Roshi"

Buddhist Temple in Cleveland Notes Increase in Teen Participation

October 7, 1998

Source: The Plain Dealer

On October 7, 1998, The Plain Dealer reported that the Cleveland Buddhist Temple is experiencing an upsurge of student participation in Buddhist meditation classes. Dennis Edwards, a part-time volunteer instructor at the Cleveland Buddhist Temple, leads a beginners class on Buddhist meditation and says that the class attracts students studying religion at area colleges and an increasing number of high school students from local private schools.

Catholics and Buddhists Meet to Compare, Contrast Faiths

October 3, 1998

Source: Los Angeles Times

On October 3, 1998, The Los Angeles Times reported that a national-level Buddhist-Catholic dialogue was taking place at the Serra Retreat in Malibu on the weekend of October 3rd and 4th. James Fredericks, a professor of comparative theology at Loyola Marymount University, stated that the meeting was "historically important" for the understanding of Buddhism and Catholicism in this country. The event, sponsored by the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the Buddhist Sangha Council of Southern California, will hopefully spark...

Read more about Catholics and Buddhists Meet to Compare, Contrast Faiths

Soka Gakkai Sponsors Conference on Earth Charter in Florida

October 3, 1998

Source: The Tampa Tribune

On October 3, 1998, The Tampa Tribune reported that Soka Gakkai International-USA, an American-based Buddhist movement that is grounded in the Nichiren school of Mahayana Buddhism, is sponsoring a conference on October 10th, 1998 entitled, "Share the Planet, Share the Responsibility" at the Florida Nature and Culture Center, 25 miles west of Fort Lauderdale. The conference was organized to discuss the Earth Charter, which is a two-page document setting out 21 principles in order to "reinvent an industrial-technological...

Read more about Soka Gakkai Sponsors Conference on Earth Charter in Florida

Reverend Peter Gomes Reviews Thurman's Inner Revolution

July 12, 1998

Source: The New York Times

On July 12, 1998, the New York Times Sunday Book Review section included an article about Robert Thurman's book, Inner Revolution: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Real Happiness. Thurman is a professor in Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University. Rev. Gomes writes that in this book, Thurman asserts that "America is the place and that this is the time in which the Buddha's vision may have its most opportune moment" for an "exhausted culture eager to go from "me" to meaning."

Pages