Articles, Audios, and More . . .

CAN BUDDHISM SURVIVE AMERICA?

Take an incisive look at Buddhism's past, present, and future.

Can this venerable Eastern religion meet our contemporary need for religious and spiritual renewal? Find out how Buddhism in the West has negotiated the sometimes high—and sometimes low—ground between its roots as a traditional Eastern religion and its current status as popular new Western religion. Can Buddhism's fundamental depth and spiritual integrity survive the transition to our materialistic and therapy-obsessed Western culture?

Find out the answers to these and other critical questions in our articles and audios featuring the Buddhist world's leading authorities and practitioners, including H.H. Dalai Lama, Joseph Goldstein, Penor Rinpoche, Roshi Bernie Glassman, and many others. (See listing below.)

  • Uncover the timeless depth and power of traditional Buddhist practices. Interviews and audios with Theravadan monk Bhante Gunaratana, modern Zen teacher Cheri Huber, Tibetan lama Dzongsar Rinpoche, and others.
  • What's sex got to do with it? Find out with articles, interviews, and audios presenting a range of views on tantra, gender, and enlightenment, with Buddhist scholar Miranda Shaw, Tantric master Barry Long, and more.
  • Discover the fantastic powers of enlightened bodhisattvas with scholar Robert Thurman in this original illustrated depiction of Tibetan Buddhism's wild side.

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Buddha
What Is Enlightenment? offers excellent articles on topics relevant to genuine spiritual seekers—authentic, uncompromising, the articles challenge readers to clarify their attitudes and understanding about spiritual life. Jeff Cox
President, Snow Lion Publications

Is Buddhism the new religion of the West?

Zen. Mahayana. Tibeta. Theravadan. Over the past thirty years Buddhist traditions and practices have been eagerly assimilated into modern Western culture. The question is, how can we make sure its heart and soul aren't getting lost in the translation?

Is Buddhism Surviving America?

Helen Tworkov

The editor of Tricycle, America's most popular Buddhist review, discusses the secularization of Buddhism in a culture “aggressively antagonistic to the pursuit of the unknown.”


A Spirituality that Transforms

Ken Wilber

America's foremost transpersonal theorist points beyond conventional religious pursuit to the revolutionary possibility of authentic spiritual transformation.


Dharma in the Marketplace

Sam Bercholz

America's largest Buddhist publisher discusses the myth of millennialism and the challenges of spiritual publishing in the New Age.


Is That Me Bleeding?

Roshi Bernie Glassman

An American Zen teacher and world-renowned social activist speaks about the compassionate action that arises out of emptiness.


Absolutely Not!

Stephen Batchelor

A penetrating dharma debate about the nature of enlightenment between the renowned author of Buddhism Without Beliefs and What Is Enlightenment? founder Andrew Cohen.


The Ethics of Interdependence

H.H. Dalai Lama

The Dalai Lama explains why we need to create a new form of ethics based on the reality of our interdependence.


The Roar of the Timeless Beyond

Peter Masefield

A distinguished Pali scholar asserts that the Buddha's transmission of “right view” was nothing less than a transcendent revelation.


The Fantastic Buddhaverse of Robert Thurman

Robert Thurman

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's . . . Buddha! Join Buddhist scholar and professor Robert Thurman as he spins amazing tales of the otherworldly capacities of cosmic Buddhahood.


Sex and Spirituality: Gender, Tantra, and Celibacy

Enlightenment is reached through the renunciation of all desires—according to Theravada Buddhism—while Tantric Buddhism tends to favor their unfettered fulfillment. Which view is correct? The experts weigh in...

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Tantra ... but Were Afraid to Ask

Miranda Shaw

The fascinating and informative discoveries of a pioneering scholar and author who journeyed to the Himalayas in search of the truth about Buddhist sexual tantra.


What Is the Relationship Between Emptiness and Beautiful Nails?

Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo

The first Western woman to be recognized as a reincarnated Tibetan tulku discusses gender, enlightenment, and being a female teacher in a male-dominated tradition.


Gay/Straight, Man/Woman, Self/Other

Jose Cabezon

Do gay people have a special path to enlightenment? A Buddhist scholar and gay rights activist disputes many common convictions about gay spirituality.


What the Buddha Taught

Bhante Henepola Gunaratana

We asked a renowned Buddhist abbot, ordained a celibate monk at the age of twelve, what the Buddha himself would have to say about the relevance of celibacy in these sexually “liberated” times.


Monasticism, Renunciation, and Enlightenment

The Buddha famously renounced the world in his quest for enlightenment, and the monastic life still figures prominently in most of Buddhism's varied expressions. Find out how this ancient tradition still thrives in today's material world.

No Independent Existence

H.H. Dalai Lama

The Dalai Lama speaks about the nature of emptiness and the meaning of enlightenment.


Enlightenment Is the Easiest Way in the World to Live

Cheri Huber

Cheri Huber, Zen teacher and founder of the Mountain View Zen Center, speaks with WIE’s Jessica Roemischer about monastic practice and the liberating power of renunciation.


The World is Unreliable

His Holiness Penor Rinpoche

Joining the monastic world at the age of four, tulku Penor Rinpoche eventually became the presiding abbot of over 400 monasteries in Tibet and was named the Supreme Head of the Nyingma Buddhist Lineage. In this rare interview, he speaks about the unique advantages of the monastic path for the seeker of liberation.


The Price of Liberation

Peter Masefield

What was the life of the monks really like in the Buddha's time? Buddhist scholar Peter Masefield presents an unembellished picture of the radical and austere life lived by those who ordained under the “Awakened One.”


There's No Escape from the World

Joseph Goldstein

One of the founding fathers of American Buddhism speaks about why he never became a monk, and insists that transcendence of the world is strictly an inner matter.