July–September 2013, Volume 40
Features
Where Does the Buddha Live Now?
Buddhism was founded twenty-five hundred years ago in India by Siddhartha Gotama, who attained supreme enlightenment to the Dharma, or the Truth, the knowledge of which can liberate all people from suffering. He preached the Dharma for forty-five years, helping countless people find spiritual liberation, until his death at the age of eighty.
The Lotus Sutra, however, reveals that Shakyamuni is not really dead, but that he entered nirvana and is the Eternal Buddha, who is everywhere. His entry into nirvana is a skillful means that encourages us to follow in his footsteps. He is like the benevolent fathers depicted in the sutra’s parables and is always with us, wishing all of us to attain the supreme enlightenment he did.
However, in our turbulent times, 2,500 years since the time of the historical Buddha, it is especially hard to sense the existence of the Eternal Buddha. Some people, overwhelmed by skepticism, have no belief in the divine. This issue will offer advice on how to seek the Buddha.
Features
Align Our Values with the Buddha’s
by Yasuo Hideshima
The Buddha Is Not Everywhere: Where Does the Buddha Live Now?
by Gene Reeves
The Buddha does not live everywhere. But this does not mean that there are places from which the Buddha is simply and completely absent. The Buddha is everywhere we look for him, but you and I can never look everywhere. We can only look somewhere.
Where Does the Buddha Live Now?
by Yasuaki Nara
If I am asked where the Buddha is, I can only reply that it is the place where we meet the Buddha while walking along the Buddhist path.
Where There Is Peace, There Is Buddha: The Sublime Attitudes in Daily Living
by Ruben L. F. Habito
[One’s appropriate] responses [in daily situations] arise from the heart of one filled with peace, a heart overflowing with loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity. As we ourselves learn to live in this way, we are given a glimpse of where the Buddha resides in our day and age.
Seeing the Buddha in Our Midst
by Paula Arai
On my path of seeking, I have learned it is easy to see the Buddha in flowers. It is more difficult to find the Buddha among the weeds. . . . Where the Buddha lives is not a question of where to look but how to see.
Where the Buddha Lives Now
by Taigen Dan Leighton
Where can we find the Awakened One and the relief of suffering in our own world and in our own lives? With the Buddha somehow still alive and underground bodhisattvas at work right now, we must take responsibility and join the buddha-work and the flowering of Dharma encouraged by the Dharma Flowering Sutra.
Reconnecting with Everyday Life: Buddhism through Simple Gestures in the Café de Monk
by Levi McLaughlin
Buddhism, in practice, need not be formal or dramatic, and perhaps Buddhist ideals are realized most clearly when they manifest in informal settings that encourage honest, extemporaneous expression
Niwano Peace Prize
Let a New Age of Tolerance Dawn Niwano Peace Prize Acceptance Address
by Dr. Gunnar Stålsett
The Niwano Peace Foundation awarded the thirtieth Niwano Peace Prize on May 16, 2013, to Dr. Gunnar Stålsett, bishop emeritus of Oslo, the Church of Norway. Bishop Stålsett was chosen for his distinguished leadership in promoting interfaith dialogue and cooperation for world peace as well as for his unabated endeavors for peace by leading reconciliation efforts and performing confidence-building activities in conflict regions. The presentation ceremony took place in Tokyo. This is his acceptance speech.
Essay
Coventry’s Peace Message: How Can Spiritual Ideals Help to Preserve Peace and Human Security?
by Alan Hunter
Peace is a great blessing and a fundamental need for civilization; human security argues that people should also be blessed with at least minimum food, shelter, and safety.
