A Buddhist Ritual Gets an Ecologically Correct Update

By Rachel Nuwer, Audobon Society, January-February 2014

"Release life," the practice of freeing caged animals into the wild to generate good karma, is now an environmentally friendly act of kindness.

New York, USA -- On a bright November day in Central Park, nine Buddhist nuns and monks with their poofy winter coats over their gray and beige robes joined representatives from New York City's Wild Bird Fund for a little karmic cleansing. Gathered around boxes labeled "thrush," "sapsucker," and "flicker," the group read and sang from prayer books in Mandarin and Sanskrit, wishing the birds well and praying that they find enlightenment in future lives.

Recent discovery of “earliest Buddhist shrine” a sham?

by Dr Richard Gombrich, The Buddhist Channel, December 17, 2013

London, UK -- The story that garnered international headlines made numerous unfounded and misinformed claims

Kuala Lumpur meet for Buddhist-Muslim peace in Myanmar ends on a

Malaysian Insider, November 20, 2013

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia -- A recent interfaith forum in Kuala Lumpur has raised the prospect of peace between Buddhist and Muslim communities in Myanmar, which has been ripped by sectarian violence since last year.

The Zen Buddhist Who Preyed on His Upper East Side Students

BY MARK OPPENHEIMER, The Buddhist Channel, Nov 18, 2013

New York, USA -- Right now, Manhattan’s Zen Studies Society, perhaps the most prestigious Zen Buddhist center in the United States, is being torn apart by lawsuits, backstabbing, and infighting. The finances are terrible, and the beautiful carriage house on East 67th Street may have to be sold to pay legal debts - or, if he wins the lawsuit, to pay damages to Eido Shimano, the 82-year-old Zen master who built the society up but also, in a way, has destroyed it.

Are You a Member of a Cult?

By Gurugaveska, The Buddhist Channel, Nov 18, 2013

Hong Kong, China -- What is a Cult?