Tibetan Buddhist monk, Palden Gyatso, spent 33 years imprisoned by the Chinese and drew deep on his Buddhist practice to survive his brutal treatment. He escaped to the West to tell his story, and when I met him in London he told me about his experiences and reflections…
Many Buddhist traditions claim that they are reliable and authoritative because they inherit a lineage of realised masters dating back to prestigious teachers of the ancient past. That sounds impressive and appealing but the Buddha advised us to check out the truth of a…
It’s 50 years since Buddhist teachers started arriving in the west in the early 60s and Buddhism crash-landed into the counterculture. So what have we learned about western Buddhism? An article for The Guardian
The young Kalu Rinpoche, reborn ‘tulku’ of a respected Tibetan Buddhist teacher, has posted a video detailing sexual abuse by Buddhist monks, his tutor’s attempt to murder him and his descent into drug addiction and alcoholism. His testimony should lead us to question t…
A review of Stephen Schettini’s heartfelt and vivid account of becoming a Tibetan Buddhist monk and his valuable reflections on what it means for westerners to practice Buddhism