Topic: Buddhism

The view from the Ellora caves. Photo by Keren Su/Getty. All other photos supplied by the author.

In whose footsteps?

We were a group of secular Buddhists visiting the cave temples of India. What would we learn on the journey?

Martine Batchelor 22 April 2013
Martine Batchelor as a nun in Korea. Photo courtesy the author

The wanderer stilled

Leaving Europe as a young woman, Martine Batchelor was transformed by an encounter with Buddhist meditation

Martine Batchelor 21 December 2012
Kyoto - 10th of November 2009 - The writer and nun Jakucho Setouchi, Sagano district. Photo by Jeremie Souteyrat

Couched in kindness

Jakucho Setouchi is a revered nun and famous novelist, yet few know how psychoanalysis shaped her spiritual life

Christopher Harding 19 November 2012
Leonard Cohen attends the Prince of Asturias Awards ceremony at the Campoamor Theater on October 21, 2011 in Oviedo, Spain. Photo by Jack Abuin/Zuma/Corbis

A broken offering

A cracked voice, an empty bank account, a tour of duty. Who would have thought so much light could still get in?

Tim Footman 16 November 2012
Vultures at a Tibetan sky burial ritual in Dari county in northwest China's Qinghai province 27 November 2009. Photo by Alex Lee/epa/Corbis

Only connect

Buddhism and ecology both refuse to separate the human and natural worlds – and demand that we act accordingly

David P Barash 05 November 2012
Alan Watts: 'Half monk and half racecourse operator.' Illustration by Stephen Collins

Off-beat Zen

How I found my way out of depression, thanks to the writings of the English priest who brought Buddhism to the West

Tim Lott 21 September 2012