Wisdom from the Center of the Heart: The Life and Work of Pamela Ayo Yetunde So Far

In recent years, Dr. Pamela Ayo Yetunde has emerged as a prominent figure in the Black, Buddhist, and queer communities. As I caught a glimpse of her amidst the excited crowds at the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Toronto in 2018, a gathering of 10,000 delegates from 80 countries and nearly 200 religious, spiritual, and Indigenous traditions, her humble free spirit immediately captured my attention. Unpretentious, unaffected by the grandeur of the immense gathering, and unfazed by the power and prestige of the luminary figures assembled there, she flowed through the hallowed halls with confidence and grace. In an era of shameless self-promotion, to be simple, humble, and authentic is a distinction. In the Buddhist context, self-effacement is construed as a sign of respect for others and dedication to their well-being

Beacons of Dharma: Spiritual Exemplars for the Modern Age. Edited by Christopher Patrick Miller, Michael Reading, and Jeffery D. Long. Landham, MD: Lexington Books, 2020

While the canon is replete with biographies of individual spiritual exemplars—Paramahansa Yogananda’s Autobiography of a Yogi, Thomas Merton’s The Seven Storey Mountain, and the Dalai Lama’s Freedom in Exile come to mind—few have examined exemplars across faiths. This collection focuses on Hindu masters from many different perspectives and practices, as well as a variety of Buddhist, Jain, and Sikh masters. The editors set their focus on religious leaders and spiritual guides who have served as sources of inspiration and “dispellers of darkness.” Their introduction discusses the defining characteristics of these “beacons of Dharma,” recognizing that the Sanskrit term dharma is “polyvalent and uniquely understood within each traditional context.” (xiii) The editors invite the contributing authors to uncover new scholarship regarding the “distinctive philosophies, ethical commitments, over- all life work, etc.” of their subjects and to offer insightful proposals about “how the remedial and redemptive power embodied by each...can best serve our contemporary world.” (ix) The chapters are woven around these central themes

Sea Changes in the Lives of Japanese Buddhist Women in Hawai‘i

Three cycles of change characterize the evolution of Japanese Buddhist temples in Hawai‘i: the early years, the war years, and the contemporary period. This brief article explores women’s roles and patterns of adaptation to local circumstances over generations during these cycles of change. Special attention is given to the experiences of Japanese immigrant Buddhist women in the Jōdo Shinshū school of Buddhism. The aim is to show how Japanese women who immigrated to Hawai‘i helped shape a uniquely local flavor of Buddhism, made significant contributions to Jōdo Shinshū’s development, and helped ensure the continuity of Buddhist traditions up to the modern period

Death, Identity, and Enlightenment in Tibetan Culture

N

Challenging Bias against Women Academics in Religion

In today’s world, people access knowledge instantaneously on Internet-connected devices such as laptops, smartphones, and smart televisions. We can ask Siri and Alexa any question imaginable while driving or cooking a meal. The source for this readily accessible information is a changing array of digital, tertiary knowledge-sharing platforms. The day-to-day decisions we make, along with our opinions and views of the world, are shaped by the knowledge we glean from these sources. Bias exists on these digital platforms and matters, especially to underrepresented and oppressed populations, such as women and people of color. This volume attends to bias in knowledge presented and produced about noteworthy women academics important to the study and practice of the world’s religious, spiritual, and wisdom traditions. Its biographers seek to create inclusive historical narratives about women who are notable ii Challenging Bias against Women Academics in Religion producers of knowledge but conspicuously absent as biographical subjects across the spectrum of easily accessible tertiary knowledge- sharing platforms

Creating Religious Identity

The author, a Buddhist monastic and scholar, explores the varieties of religious identity, their sources, and their effects on society. She discusses the fluidity of religious identities in the modern world and, in particular, the various challenges to women in confronting the stubborn persistence of gender-based exclusionary practices in religious traditions

Socially Engaged Buddhist Nuns: Activism in Taiwan and North America

The last decades of the twentieth century have been a time of new visibility and social activism for Buddhists in Taiwan and around the world. This paper compares the social engagement of nuns in the Chinese Buddhist tradition in Taiwan and North America. I would like to argue that whereas nuns in Taiwan have developed a variety of approaches to social involvement, their counterparts in the Chinese diaspora in North America have had to face a set of challenges specific to overseas Chinese communities in addition to Chinese Buddhist tradition. The article concludes with reflections on the prospects for nuns\u27 social activism in Taiwan and North America in future years

Imagining Enlightenment: Icons and Ideology in Vajrayāna Buddhist Practice

Iconography has been used to represent the experience of awakening in the Buddhist traditions for millennia. The Mahāyāna Buddhist traditions are especially renowned for their rich pantheons of buddhas and bodhisattvas who illuminate and inspire practitioners. In addition, the Vajrayāna branch of Mahāyāna Buddhism presents a host of meditational deities (yidam) who serve as catalysts of awakening. These awakened beings are regarded as objects of refuge for practitioners, both female and male, who visualize themselves in detail as embodiments of specific enlightened figures, female or male, with all their enlightened qualities. These meditational deities, which are mentally constructed and insubstantial by nature, are distinguished from worldly deities (deva) who also inhabit the Buddhist pantheon and may be supplicated for attaining worldly boons. This article explores the philosophical foundations of Varjrayāna Buddhist practices, the ontological status of these archetypes of awakening, and the epistemological process of visualizing oneself an enlightened being as a skillful means to achieve awakened realization

Dying, Death, and Afterlife from a Buddhist Perspective

Since earliest times, death has fascinated, terrified, and confounded human beings. Virtually every religious tradition offers some explanation of three key concerns: the beginnings of the world, the meaning and purpose of human existence, and the end of life. The Buddhist traditions have given special attention to the meaning of life and the end of life as central topics for reflection