Buddhism
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Refreshments, Art, and Play: Reflections on Community Service
When visiting the UK last summer my wife was surprised by our experience of churches. They had art exhibitions, offerings of cake, tea and coffee, and perhaps the most impactful for my wife were the areas within church buildings where children could play with toys and read. One church we visited was running a Beatrix Potter exhibition – by its very nature child-centric – that combined many of the above noted elements (refreshments, art, and play) leaving a deep impression. These features appeared to the two of us to be services for the public good, which were offered regardless of the religious beliefs or intentions behind the organisers or the…
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Putting oneself in someone else’s shoes: Engaging inter-religious dialogues from within
The expression “putting oneself in someone else’s shoes” is used in situations in which we should try to understand what another person is feeling or the hardships they are going through. But sometimes we have to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes to understand that person’s worldviews, mindsets, and even emotions. Empathy, solidarity, and compassion arise from this mental and bodily action. In Mahāyāna Buddhist traditions compassion (Skt. karuṇā; Tib. སྙིང་རྗེ་), loving-kindness (Skt. maitrī; Tib. བྱམས་པ་), joy (Skt. muditā; Tib. དགའ་བ་), and equanimity (Skt. upekṣā; Tib. བཏང་སྙོམས་) arise from the developing process of the altruistic resolution to become a Buddha (Skt. bodhicitta; Tib. བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་), beginning with the first step of…
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Buddhism and Interfaith Dialogue in Brazil: An Interview with Patricia Palazzo Tsai
As part of interfaith week, we are interviewing a number of people connected with Practical Theology Hub about their work on interfaith dialogue. In this interview we ask our Topic Editor for Buddhism, Patricia Palazzo Tsai, about interfaith dialogue and Buddhist traditions in Brazil. Tell us about yourself. My name is Patricia Palazzo Tsai – a Brazilian Mahāyāna Geluk Buddhist practitioner. I am serving as Topic Editor for Buddhism of Practical Theology Hub, Legal Director of Associação Buddha-Dharma in Brazil, Legal Director of Sakyadhita São Paulo, and I also teach at the undergraduate program of Buddhist Theology at Instituto Pramāṇa. Besides all this I am conducting my PhD research at…
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What is generosity from a Buddhist perspective?
What is generosity? We commonly think of generosity as an action – we give food to someone who asks, we give money to someone on the streets – but generosity can involve many aspects that can be taken for granted. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, generosity (Skt. dāna-pāramitā, Tib. སྦྱིན་པའི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་) is one of the pāramitās (a word that is commonly translated as “perfection,” but actually means something closer to “something that goes beyond”), and the practice of this perfection is important for the accumulation of merit (Skt. puṇya, Tib. བསོད་ནམས་). But what is merit? In some popular understandings, merit can be explained using the analogy of money in a bank account –…
