buddhism

'Eco-monastery' opening at Siddhartha's birthplace

Lumbini, the UNESCO World Heritage Site so marked for being the birthplace of Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism, will soon also be home to an "eco-monastery."

The Lumbini Udyana Mahachaitya World Center for Peace and Unity (LUM), which began construction in 2006, opens this April in Nepal. It will be the largest Buddhist temple and meditation hall in Lumbini, but aims to leave the smallest carbon footprint.

The lighting system for the 48,600-square-foot structure will rely entirely on solar panels to generate electricity for its lighting, as well as incorporating the use of natural light in … Read more

Buddhist leader calls video games 'emotional therapy'

Ogyen Trinley Dorje--the only senior Buddhist leader recognized by China, Tibet, and India--was recently interviewed during a visit to Delhi, India, where he gave his views on politics, hip-hop, and video games.

While certainly not your average 24-year-old, he's clearly in touch with how video games can make us all feel better. He's also apparently a Mac fan.

Well, I view video games as something of an emotional therapy, a mundane level of emotional therapy for me. We all have emotions whether we're Buddhist practitioners or not, all of us have emotions, happy emotions, sad emotions, … Read more

'Buddha phone' launches, plays Nirvana

MP3 playback? Check. Two cameras? Check. Built-in mobile Buddhist altar? Che... Wait, WTF?!

You read correctly. The Odin 99 has landed on the streets of China, and a single tap of the phone's dedicated lotus-leaf button will load a private, customizable, animated altar.

The idea is to allow Buddhists to perform their dedications and rituals conveniently when away from home. You can simulate incense burning and purification rites and play music to help you meditate wherever you happen to be.

As far as our knowledge goes of inventions that seamlessly converge religion with phone calls, this takes the gold … Read more