https://klicknirvana.rietberg.ch/en Check out the impressive collection of resources about different types of Buddhism on the Museum of Rietberg (Zurich) website. On their interactive site you can browse a glossary of terms, learn more about key works of art, or listen to scholars explain the answers to questions you’ve always wondered about! The resources have been […]

In this series of webinars we explore some key aspects of Buddhism through the figure of the Buddha. Who was the Buddha? A philosopher or a divine saviour? A unique figure, or an example of a goal available to all Buddhists? How does his person relate to his teachings and to Buddhist beliefs and practices? […]

Here is a story that I find useful when discussing the five precepts (against killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, and taking intoxicants). This story is number 459 in a large collection of past-life stories of the Buddha (the Jātakatthavaṇṇanā) found in Pali and preserved by the Theravada school of Buddhism. The text was probably composed […]

Many teachers use images of the bhavacakra (wheel of rebirth, also referred to sometimes as samsāra-cakra) in class as way to prompt discussion. Here is a story of how these images came to exist. Note that it refers to a fivefold wheel, excluding the realm of the asuras (antigods, demons, demigods) that is sometimes added […]

Buddhism through 108 objects in Scotland: Object 2 – Buddha statues for sale in Edinburgh supermarket The vast majority of Buddhist images in Scotland are purely decorative, such as these Buddha statues for sale in my local supermarket. A Buddha image is bought, alongside a gnome, as an ornament for one’s garden, home or business. […]

Here is a short story about illness and anxiety from an Indian Buddhist text called the Avadanasataka. The text is a Sanskrit collection from around the middle of the first millennium CE, and more information and a full translation of the story can be found in my book Many Buddhas, One Buddha (Sheffield: Equinox, 2020). What I […]

I’m a bit obsessed with jataka stories – tales of the past lives of the Buddha. They are a wonderful way into Buddhist ideas, concerns and characters, not to mention fantastic stories in their own right. I made some teaching resources based around jataka stories for an earlier project – “Approaching Religion Through Story” – […]

Here are some resources created by Naomi Appleton and colleagues some years ago, which use stories as a way to open up discussion of key beliefs, values and traditions. They were originally posted here: http://www.storyandreligion.div.ed.ac.uk/schools/resources/ The resources are aimed at upper primary and early secondary school level, and are mapped onto aspects of the Scottish […]