John Stevens: 1947-2025 Read More Image: Masakatsu Agatsu, True Victory Is Victory Over Oneself, by Morihei Ueshiba It is with deep sadness that we share the passing of our beloved author John Stevens. John transitioned peacefully on July 21, 2025. John Stevens was a Zen priest and was a professor of Buddhist Studies and Aikido

On Malas from The Art of Awakening: A User’s Guide to Tibetan Buddhist Art and Practice This is the fifth of a series of articles on The Art of Awakening: A User's Guide to Tibetan Buddhist Art and Practice  is an extraordinary resource and essential for practitioners and artists. Topics for these short excerpts and

On the Eight Great Stupas from The Art of Awakening: A User’s Guide to Tibetan Buddhist Art and Practice This is the fourth of a series of articles on The Art of Awakening: A User's Guide to Tibetan Buddhist Art and Practice  is an extraordinary resource and essential for practitioners and artists. Topics for these

On the Symbolism of Deities from The Art of Awakening: A User’s Guide to Tibetan Buddhist Art and Practice This is the third of a series of articles on The Art of Awakening: A User's Guide to Tibetan Buddhist Art and Practice  is an extraordinary resource and essential for practitioners and artists. Topics for these

On the Vajra and Bell from The Art of Awakening: A User’s Guide to Tibetan Buddhist Art and Practice This is the second of a series of articles on The Art of Awakening: A User's Guide to Tibetan Buddhist Art and Practice  is an extraordinary resource and essential for practitioners and artists. Topics for these

On Wrathful Deities from The Art of Awakening: A User’s Guide to Tibetan Buddhist Art and Practice This is the first of a series of articles on The Art of Awakening: A User's Guide to Tibetan Buddhist Art and Practice  is an extraordinary resource and essential for practitioners and artists. Topics for these short excerpts

Kazuaki Tanahashi Learn More A Reader's Guide to Kazuaki Tanahashi, the poet, artist, activist and modern-day Zen master Related Reader Guides Zen in Japan Early Zen in Japan  |  Dogen: A Guide to His Works Rinzai Zen | Hakuin Ekaku: A Reader's Guide The Samurai and Zen  |  Zen up to the Meiji Restoration  Chan

It is with deep sadness, mixed with appreciation for such a fruitful life, that we share the news that prolific author and a great scholar of East Asian art, Stephen Addiss, passed away on May 11th, 2022. Stephen was a Professor of Art at the University of Richmond in Virginia. A scholar-artist, he has exhibited

The Power of Art This short essay was written in 1987, when no one had any idea whether the Cold War would ever come to an end. We are still in a global crisis, but in another form. The Necessity of Political Art Art in a period of widely-perceived global crisis can never be the

Clarify Your Definitions We have all been in gardens—even very costly ones—that we find oddly uninspiring. There are the landscapes around mansions where money has been lavished on moving trees, building pools, patios, and fire pits, and planting lush lawns, yet we don’t much enjoy being in those spaces and may even find them stale