Be ready. Conversations happen anywhere and everywhere. I am sitting inside Ratan Villa’s restaurant for breakfast. I pull up Yahoo Sports and read the headlines “Brady and Patriots Win in OT.” I’m sorry that the Falcons lose; I’m happy that they managed to reach the Super Bowl. Hillary and Adam, the couple at the next …

Continue reading 12. Conversations Along the Way

I am full of anxiety given some of my past experiences with India Rail. Will we get past the touts? Will we get to the right platform? Will we board the right train even if we are on the right platform? Will we have to fight for our berth because of squatters arriving there first? …

Continue reading 11. The Amritsar Mail from Kolkata to Varanasi

Doorway The visit is a "Family Must" in Kolkata. Let me explain. Married in 1987, Mary and I were "older." We had been unsuccessful in having kids. During the summer of 1990, I was fortunate to participate in a Fulbright-Hays India grant for non-South Asian specialists. After this 6 week wonderful program ended, another participant, …

Continue reading 10. A Family Must in Kolkata

It is so obvious that it is easy to miss. Buddhists focus their religiosity on the figure of the Buddha. If I counted the first several taxi drivers, three have a Buddha statue on their dashboards, the Buddhist equivalent of St. Christopher. Given the traffic in Taiwan and Myanmar, they all need extra help! Apart …

Continue reading 9. Comparative Buddha Sightings

I can’t deny it. I’m a tourist in Bagan, Myanmar. The Bagan Tour Guide Association estimates that there were 250,000 tourists in 2015. The Myanmar Ministry of Hotels and Tourism estimates that 4.68 million tourists in 2014 spent over 1.8 billion US dollars. I am one of those tourists who spends money. Using Oriental Ballooning, …

Continue reading 8. Tourist Seeing: Ballooning over Bagan

A little background first. My family, friends, and colleagues know that sometimes I am the absent-minded professor. However, for this six-month sabbatical around the world, I’ve done some serious planning. I’ve arranged seven flights, seventeen train trips, twenty four hotels, and three prolonged stays at institutes or religious organizations as well as dozens of emails …

Continue reading 7. How To Fly With The Same Pilot Twice On One Day

Nothing is more important for Buddhists than to recognize the reality of sickness and death and to draw insights from those realities. The Venerable Master Hsing Yun states “Death is not to be feared It is simply a migration.” In his work A Moment: A Lifetime, he writes: “Talking about death has always been taboo. …

Continue reading 6. Sickness and Death: Perspectives from Fo Guang Shan

Fo Guang Shan has a rich and fascinating history and presence. Here are a few notes from observation, conversations, and reading about Fo Guang Shan. Fo Guang Shan originates from the work of Master Hsing Yun. Established in 1967, Fo Guang Shan immigrated from mainland China in 1949. With the KMT losing to the Communiists …

Continue reading 5. Fo Guang Shan Notes

We stroll into Home of Joy and Celebration  near the Buddha Memorial Hall. Cheerful young women greet us and escort us toward a small, bright chapel which cushioned benches for forty people. Another young women proudly hands us a book with photos of a “Witnessing Master” who is “officiating” a wedding. At the front of …

Continue reading 4. Family and Fo Guang Shan

At 5AM, a monk begins to clap blocks of wood together. The sound grows louder and then more quiet as he moves through the campus. At 5:30AM another monk begins to ring a bell. One, two, three, after twenty ringings, I lose track. At 5:40 AM, a monastic begins to strike the gong. Within a …

Continue reading 3. A Sensory Introduction to Fo Guang Shan Monastery