Ministers in the Buddhist Churches of America (BCA) began performing same-sex marriages approximately forty years ago. These were among the first clergy-led religious ceremonies for same-sex couples performed in the modern era, and were apparently the first such marriages conducted in the history of Buddhism. In this article, I seek to explain why Jodo Shinshu Buddhists in America widely and easily affirmed same-sex weddings in the later 20th and early 21st centuries. My argument is that there are three factors in particular—institutional, historical, and theological elements of American Shin Buddhism—that must be attended to as contributing reasons why ministers were supportive of same-sex marriage.

Ultimately, then, religions derive their power from the depth of their spirituality. The power of Zen, for example, flows out of Tokusan’s “Thirty Blows” or Rinzai’s “Katsu!!!” or Jōshū’s “Mu” (“Emptiness”). The power of Jodo Shinshu also originates from one single point of absolute depth: from the nembutsu.

Unno examines how religious power and influence emerge from deep inner spirituality rather than external institutions, illustrated through historical figures in Zen and Jōdo Shinshū Buddhism.

In response, Buddhist leaders divided traditional Buddhist cosmology and practices into the newly constructed categories ‘superstition’ and ‘religion.’ Superstition was deemed ‘not really Buddhism’ and purged, while the remainder of Buddhism was made to accord with Westernized ideas of ‘religion.’

So the bear became synonymous with the cycle of the seasons, even the cause of the cycle. And the willful, ritualized little death that the bear undertakes every winter a sacrifice for the world itself. The world reawakens because of this sage-like, artistic, visionary, powerful figure who secludes himself in a cave and puts himself in a dream-like state of deprivation so that spring might once again come to the world. Sound familiar?

So when in deep, rapturous meditation, we enter the state of flow, when we are one with the present moment, this is the ‘immortal nectar.’ This is why the Tibetan texts speak of amrita as the elixir of timeless awareness. It’s not an external liquid. It’s a byproduct of steeping in the awareness of the present moment which, when all the hormonal centers of the brain kick in, feels like being soaked in honey, basking in the nectar of the eternal ‘now.’

This podcast episode explains the meaning of honey in myths from around the world by appreciating it as an apt metaphor for the experience of trance.

After many years of observation I begin to perceive in Siamese religion a wise and generous pattern that accommodates the teachings of the Sage together with Hindu state-craft, and the fertility concerns of rice farmers, without doing violence to any one of them. It is a system that works, and has worked for many centuries, but today it is threatened by a new generation of thinkers, reformers, well-intentioned and well-educated, who have forgotten how symbolism works.

A brief word on how to view Thai religious “syncretism.”

At all those locations stood former temples/shrines that gods and ghosts used to occupy but were demolished to make way for urban infrastructure. Despite repeated banning and purging of deities and temples, worshippers burn incense and paper money, make offerings, and become possessed in those places. The gods’ agency seems to be exercised even after their temples and bodies are destroyed.

Tyrant, why swell’st thou thus,
 Of mischief vaunting?

An analysis of a poetic (prophetic), sixteenth century translation of Psalm 52 which shows how religions can provide a dignified response to times of tyranny.

Utilizing Norbert Elias’s figurational sociology, this article analyses how postcolonial states have built a national habitus that plays a decisive role in the politicization of religion. It focuses on examples from Islam and Buddhism and discusses how hegemonic types of politicised religions have negative impacts on democracy.

Experiment and have fun with it.

Rituals can be an artistic process, a meditation, a communal celebration, or a simple act of observation, according to Kate Southworth, a London-based artist whose works are rooted in ritual. “Rituals often have an intention,” Southworth said. “I think the framing of that intention to be as important as its enactment.”

The article explains that rituals—unlike productivity-driven routines—help people instill a sense of calm and sustain mindfulness by imbuing ordinary actions with intention and meaning. In this way, rituals can stabilize life and foster connection in an otherwise distracted, fast-paced world.

how you experience life is a representation of what you believe about it. If you attack your core beliefs about yourself and your life, you can change your thoughts and feelings, which automatically changes your behavior.

promising him special access to a better future life and even nibbāna, that possesses great appeal to him. […] When people engage in religious behavior, they are trying to see where there is a concentration of power to which they can connect themselves. So, the question is, where do you think such concentrations of power lie?

When the weizza appear, the sermons that they convey are simple, basic, Buddhist lessons. There’s nothing unusual about what they prescribe to people as the way to be good Buddhists. So, while the circumstances in which these lessons are conveyed is most unusual, their content is altogether garden-variety, Burmese Buddhism.

A discussion on Guillaume Rozenberg’s 2010 French anthropology work on miracle cults in Myanmar (Les immortels: Visages de l’incroyable en Birmanie bouddhiste), published in English translation in 2015.

Nuosu manifest potency by writing it into religious scriptures and handwrought effigies, piercing it into embroidered clothing and tattooed bodies, shaping it into public statues, and taming it into animals, all of which bring animate powers and presences to life.

On the mystical power of writing.

the neurophysiological correlates of religious chanting are different from those of meditation and prayer

[The] regional increase in endogenous generation of delta oscillations [is] not due to peripheral cardiac or respiratory activity, nor due to implicit language processing, and is associated with feelings of transcendental bliss and decreased self-oriented cognition.

The millennial statements in the Bun Phra Wet, acted out by the people, make manifest their aspirations within the Thai state. The festival creates an imaginary, a way for Isaners to conceptualize a political system in which they fully participate.

the link between Sinhala nationalism and Buddhist religion based on the conceptual framework of “Geopiety.”

like the Soka Gakkai cases, our respondents appear to be searching for miracles and spiritual fulfillment that they were not receiving by engaging solely in Christian practices. Although they might be considered “free riders” through a rational choice lens, Master Chu actually encourages this behavior

How a Vietnamese monk in Houston, Texas successfully attracted a Latino following.

For people who say they have no religious impulse whatsoever… really? You have never felt overwhelmed by, in some way inadequate to, an experience in your life? Have never felt in yourself something staking a claim beyond yourself? Some wordless mystery straining through words to reach you? Never??

Monks, these five future dangers, unarisen at present, will arise in the future. Be alert to them and, being alert, work to get rid of them.

The Saṅgha may forsake the simple life and indulge in luxuries.

Using daily and weekly data on Google searches for 107 countries, this research demonstrates that the COVID-19 crisis resulted in a massive rise in the intensity of prayer. During the early months of the pandemic, Google searches for prayer relative to all Google searches rose by 30%, reaching the highest level ever recorded. A back-of-the-envelope calculation shows that by April 1, 2020, more than half of the world population had prayed to end the coronavirus.

Prayer searches rose more among the more religious, rose on all continents, at all levels of income, inequality, and insecurity, and for all types of religion except Buddhism.

Despite the Buddha’s teachings on the arbitrary nature of language, the commentarial and grammatical traditions developed a sophisticated theoretical framework to analyse, explicate and reinforce some of the key Buddhist doctrinal terms. Also, an elaborate classification system of different types of names was developed to show that the language of the Buddha was firmly grounded in the highest truth and that some terms were spontaneously arisen, even though such a concept—that words by themselves could arise spontaneously and directly embody ultimate truth—was quite foreign to their Founder.

The recent split between the Christian Karen National Union and the Democratic Karen Buddhist Organization is a dramatic expression of the political role of religion. Religion, religious movements, and prophetic leaders are important elements in Karen identification and their relationship with neighboring peoples, states, and colonizers. Religious cosmology and rituals are not merely the essentials of their world view but also constitute modes of empowerment

A compelling look at how small tribes in the Southeast Asian hills adopt new religious ideas.

Those who fall back on God’s creative activity as the essential truth have no desire to do what should be done and to avoid doing what should not be done…

The beliefs that everything is caused by past karma, by a creator God, or by chance all lead to apathy. The Buddha teaches us to instead analyze things based on causes and effects.

Embarrassed the organizers were indeed, even dismayed, when they were showered with fervent thanks from the women participants for organizing such a wonderful spiritual experience…

This article discusses the modern reenactments of the Nunohashi kanjoe (the Cloth-Bridge Consecration [Initiation] rite) in Tateyama-cho, Toyama prefecture, and the religious and political issues they raised. Originally a popular Edo-period rite for women’s salvation, the Nunohashi kanjoe was obsolete for one hundred and thirty years, until it was reconstructed and performed as the main spectacle of the Culture Festival ibento (event) in Tateyama in 1996. A decade later, in 2005, 2006, and 2009, its reenactments were resumed as ceremonies of traditional healing. This paper follows the progression of these attempts at transforming a Buddhist ritual into a modern-day cultural event. It looks at the gap between the politics and purposes behind the reenactments of the rites, and the reactions of the women who participated in them. It further considers general issues illuminated by these reenactments, such as the nature and status of religious experiences, and the relations of religion and state in contemporary Japan.

By 2050, we project that Buddhists and the religiously unaffiliated will have the oldest populations (both will have 32% above the age of 60), whereas Muslims will remain the youngest religious group (with only 16% above the age of 60).

In Study 1 (N = 582), we found that Buddhists and Taoists (karmic religions) judge individual actions as having greater consequences in this life and the next, compared to Christians.

When reminded of their ancestor veneration beliefs, Buddhists and Taoists (but not Christians) endorsed parochial prosocial norms, expressing willingness to give more to their family and religious group than did those in the control condition.

Taken together, these results provide evidence that different religious beliefs can foster and maintain different prosocial and cooperative norms.

Buddhism does, in fact, contain transcendence and mystery and it is quite capable of taking a seat at the open table of postmodern spirituality.

I do not believe one is committed to fundamentalism by the simple recognition that some traditions are more stable or more systematic than others, and it is a serious anthropological question to ask why.

… he cuts its inner bark and takes it away, thinking it is heartwood; and so whatever it was he had to make with heartwood, his purpose will not be served.

After the incident with Devadatta, the Buddha cautions the mendicants against becoming complacent and points to liberation as the true heart of the teachings.

… the “Axial Age” presents a puzzle: why did this emerge at the same time as distinct moralizing religions, with highly similar features in different civilizations? The puzzle may be solved by quantitative historical evidence that demonstrates an exceptional uptake in energy capture (general prosperity) just before the Axial Age in these three regions.

Statistical modeling confirms that economic development, not political complexity or population size, accounts for the timing of the Axial Age.

In the 1940s, a freelance wiretapper named Big Jim Vaus got mixed up with the cops, the mob, and the most famous preacher in America.

Comparative analysis shows that the extent of segregation for different religions is much higher than that for different races and slightly higher than that for different political parties. Furthermore, we study the few cross-religion links and find 46.7% of them are probably related to charitable issues.

A global civilization is in the process of formation. This book is the result of that kind of fermentation. It focuses on the spiritual and ethical foundations and contours of such a civilization when and if genuine global dialogue is pursued. It has taken us eight years, frequent meetings, and continuous correspondence to arrive at this point. We share it with you, dear reader, in the belief that something is to be gained by learning that human experience and ideas are inevitably varied around the world, but when two persons of good will enter into a sincere conversation about their own truths, a more universal truth emerges.

… once one village area had set up a pilgrimage route, it was not long before neighbouring communities did the same

On the mimetic nature of one particular Japanese, religious practice.

In the quantitative analysis of a survey of 417 13- to 20-year-old [British] Buddhists, the 48% who had undergone a religious or spiritual experience (RSE) were significantly more likely to self-identify as a spiritual person.

Buddhists who had undergone RSEs were also more positive about spiritual teachers, a monastic vocation, attitude to Buddhism, supernatural phenomena and mystical orientation.

The temple represents an objectification of a model of the mind which underlies Sherpa religious thinking

… an interpretation of the structure and symbolism of a Sherpa Buddhist temple in northeastern Nepal

Christina of Saint-Trond (1150–1224) experienced what we would nowadays call a “near-death experience.”

Because of this meritorious deed, I have been born as a very beautiful deva and enjoy all the wonderful things that delight my heart.

A deva explains the results of taking care of one’s parents and having confidence in monks.

… memoir, a genre that gives us access to that lost Middlemarch of reflection

There I walked, and there I raged;
The spiritual savage

Onions are fallible, only
pretending to be infinite…

Remember the earth whose skin you are

Swaddled and sleeved in water,
I dive to the rocky bottom and rise

Each year, Ma collects more and more superstitions

… although objects manufactured in factories for profit are not made or handled according to Buddhist tradition, the “aura” can be produced in different ways and at different points of an object’s life

The spell overflows with concrete nouns and dynamic verbs, with-out ever committing fully to semantic or syntactic cohesion. What does such language do? How does it act in the world of the speaker or reader? The Saddharmapuṇḍarīka itself offers guarantees of efficacy, but does not explain the precise mechanism of the dhāraṇī.

Medieval, Chinese exegetes were unanimous in saying that dhāraṇī should not be translated, but offered a variety of explanations why.

In the morning when the Sun returns, it’s possible for us to hope.

Menocchio was certain that at death man reverted to the elements of which he was composed. But an irresistible yearning drove him to picture some sort of survival after death.

A riveting reconstruction of the thought-world of a particular, early-modern, Italian peasant who had fashioned for himself an unpopular popular cosmology.

The victory of written over oral culture has been, principally, the victory of the abstract over the empirical.

As with language, culture offers to the individual a horizon of latent possibilities—a flexible and invisible cage in which he can exercise his own, conditional, liberty.

… the sudden wealth generated during Taiwan’s period of rapid economic development created a need to give that wealth meaning […] Ciji provided a way of adapting traditional Buddhist rhetoric and imagery to facilitate the move from traditional “almsgiving” to “modern scientific charity.”

The Beauty of the House is immeasurable; its Kindness infinite. […] May the House in its Beauty shelter us both.

A man imprisoned in The Labyrinth of Forgotten Things makes sense of his new/old/perpetual Home.

The novel resists a simple, allegorical reading, but instead hums with symbolism and irony as it dances around its heady themes. While intellectuals will enjoy turning those over, ultimately it is Piranesi’s sincerity and emotional strength that ensure the book won’t soon be Forgotten.

I’m gripped by a somewhat peculiar trepidation as I tiptoe into the hallowed portals of the abhidhamma, my feet echoing too loudly in the cavernous austerity.

The Buddha was not a butterfly collector.

Remember this when you wake up in the morning and think you have nothing. Stand up and face the east. Now praise the sky and praise the light within each person under the sky. It’s okay to be unsure. But praise, praise, praise.

A collection of short stories about weird people.

In this world, you must be oh so smart, or oh so pleasant. Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant.

For a deeper historical look at this phenomenon, see Levman, 2017.

… everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances

A short tour of some of the world’s great religious traditions along with the author’s own reflections on what a modern, atheistic reader can glean from them in the project of their own life.

When Westerners come to Buddhism, they usually approach it through the doors of psychology, history of religions, or perennial philosophy, all of which are dominated by Romantic ways of thinking.

Thanissaro Bhikkhu takes us on a long tour of Romantic philosophy before eventually showing how Romantic sensibilities affected the reception of Buddhism in the West. Most helpful is his list in chapter 7 where he outlines specifically the differences he sees between Buddhism and Western Romanticism.

Even if you ultimately disagree with Ajahn Geoff’s analysis, this is still an important work to engage with seriously, as it forces a direct confrontation with Western religious assumptions and motivations.

Ānanda, are all precepts and observances, lifestyles, and spiritual paths fruitful?

Not all paths go up the same mountain.

The text jumps inside me to help me out.
…
So, when you’re studying Buddhism, what are you studying?
I know the answer. I’m studying me.
I’m studying me.