Can we imagine a world without caste?In positive terms, a social expression of nibbana might be the realization of a society in which each member can find fulfillment and be completely him or herself.

Spirit Rock Meditation Center is offering an unprecedented number of scholarships for people of color and young people to attend the month-long and 2-month retreats in early 2015.

The question of the usefulness or non-relevance of “the story” is one of the great “both / ands” of living a Buddhist life. And, all human stories, descending from the most cosmic myths down to the minor tale of the painful hangnail that snagged on a sweater thread, emerge from and reside in embodied – not abstracted or philosophical – human thought and memory. Here, for example, are two “true” stories.

The BPF Summer Gathering will bring together Buddhists and activists from over 20 states and multiple countries, for dialogues, meditation, and training in nonviolent direct action.

Mushim Ikeda, contributor to BPF's The System Stinks curriculum, is launching another year of the Practice in Transformative Action (PiTA 2) yearlong program at East Bay Meditation Center! Application deadline is August 15, 2014. ​

"In this place, everyone is welcome."These were the words of Romeo Sosa, the Executive Director of VOZ this week, in front of the small trailer in southeast Portland, Oregon, where the local day laborer training and education center is located.

[TRIGGER WARNING: This post contains information that may be disturbing to survivors of sexual assault.] “For Warmth”by Thich Nhat Hanh(from Zen Poems) 

I hold my face between my handsno I am not crying

“Great is the matter of birth and death, quickly passing, passing, gone. Awake, awake, each one, awake. Don’t waste this life.” This is the message written on the Han, a wooden instrument used in Japanese styled Soto Zen centers around the world, to call practitioners to the zendo (meditation hall).

“I don't know what else to say. I think we are going to die. It makes me sad that I cannot protect the child I made, I can't protect him from these missiles. I just can't. I don't have the superpower to end this madness.”

Lizandra Vidal and I did our yoga teacher training together back in 2011, in Washington, DC. I'm very excited to have reconnected with her and learn what she's up to — teaching yoga in Port Au Prince, Haiti, with the country's first and only yoga studio, Project Zen.

On our tour through the Four Noble Truths and how they translate to collective suffering, the first two have taken us into a thorough dissection of the nature of suffering. If we stopped there, it could be devastating.

This Keynote event is open to the public and we’d love to have you join us. The event will also mark the beginning of a weekend-long BPF National Gathering: multigenerational Buddhist activists from around the country, meeting face-to-face to deepen our practice in social justice and spiritual awakening.

As a preserver of traditional culture throughout Asia, Buddhism has often been slow to respond to pressing social issues. This was certainly the case in the aftermath of Asia’s worst nuclear energy disaster in of all places, Japan. Nuclear energy cuts across several social lines in Japan,