Buddhist Links

Harvard University’s Pluralism Project has for more than twenty years been systematically collecting and collating information and resources about various faith traditions. Whether you’re seeking a quick overview, an in-depth analysis or a varied collection of items about Buddhism, this is a good place to start. http://pluralism.org/resources/tradition/index.php?trad=3

Dalai Lama. “Welcome to the official website of the Office of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.  His Holiness is the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people. ” The website contains everything from news about the Dalai Lama to his teachings to his travel/speaking schedule. http://www.dalailama.com/

BBC on Buddhism. The BBC religion website has an excellent, simple, compact, easy-to-read overview of Buddhism. After looking at the religion “at a glance,” you can peruse succinct material about beliefs, ethics, customs, history, holy days, people and subdivisions.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/buddhism/

The Patheos Religious Library provides a well-organized, well-presented, comprehensive overview of various faith traditions and the subsections within the faith traditions. For a good introduction to Buddhism’s origins, history, beliefs rituals and worship, and ethics and community, check out http://www.patheos.com/Library/Buddhism.html.

The Harmony Project website contains a section called “Sacred Paths,” which examines some fourteen faith traditions. The presentation of each faith includes an overview essay, written by someone familiar with that faith tradition but not necessarily an adherent. It also includes interviews  with adherents, who talk candidly about their faith journey. There also are recommended books for further study. For Buddhism, go to http://theharmonyproject.org/buddhism.html.

TheTrueJapan.com. Dallen Nakamura, founder of the online publication TheTrueJapan.com, sent the Interfaith Council of Central Florida a link to an article he’d written that he felt might be of interest to us. Nakamura, who was born in Hawaii, moved to Japan many years ago and “completely fell in love with the culture, the people and the food.” So he started writing about such topics—“creating articles to provide people with useful information in a fun and easy-to-read way.” Of course, Japan is more than just culture, people and food, so his interests range to a wide variety of additional topics as well, including Buddhism. Nakamura describes his article—titled “Buddhism: A Look Into the Beliefs, Practices & History”— as “thoroughly researched” and “filled with detailed information, images and videos to make the concepts easy to understand for readers.” Check it out. It’s quite likely you’ll agree wholeheartedly with his assessment.