One of the earliest Buddhist events to take place in New Zealand was a three-month retreat led by a Canadian Buddhist teacher known as Namgyal Rinpoche, on the shores of Lake Rotoiti, in 1973. This article will provide a qualitative case study of the retreat, and show how the practices and motivations of the group reveal and challenge the assumptions of some of the theoretical frameworks scholars have used to interpret the spread of dharma to the West.

… what do Buddhists do in the absence of resources to set up temples and attract monastics?

Today, thanks to a Canadian passport, I’m entering my father’s homeland for the first time.

A documentary about Tibetans and the struggle to preserve their culture under Chinese occupation.

… among practitioners, Zazen is affectionately known as “just sitting”

A brief introduction to West Coast Zen.

On my electric pottery wheel, a lump of freshly kneaded gray clay has already been set out for me, a gift that always makes me feel more than a little incompetent.

The wife of a Soto Zen priest writes about pottery, her Japanese community, American family, memories and loneliness in this gorgeously well-written diary of her year (mostly) apart from her beloved husband during his formal monastic training in Japan.