Monday, March 23, 2026 · 天火 · tianmu.org
Buddhist
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Texts
Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana TraditionAn ethnographic introduction to the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT) — the largest mainstream Gelugpa Tibetan Buddhist organization in the Western world, founded at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, in 1975 by Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche.Insight Meditation Society and Spirit RockAn ethnographic introduction to the Insight Meditation Society and Spirit Rock Meditation Center — the lay Vipassana movement that brought Theravada insight meditation to the Western mainstream, trained a generation of lay teachers, and served as the direct upstream source of secular mindfulness.Kwan Um School of ZenAn ethnographic introduction to the Kwan Um School of Zen — the Korean Seon community founded by Seungsahn Sunim in Providence, Rhode Island in 1972, now the largest Korean Zen organization in the Western world, distinguished by its lay-accessible teaching structure, the 'don't-know mind' epistemology, and its early development of formal ethics accountability mechanisms in Western Buddhism.New Kadampa TraditionAn ethnographic introduction to the New Kadampa Tradition — International Kadampa Buddhist Union, the Gelugpa-lineage organization founded in Cumbria, England, in 1991 by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso: one of the largest Buddhist institutional networks in the Western world, and the center of the most significant ongoing inter-Buddhist political controversy in the West — the Dorje Shugden dispute.Plum Village — The Tradition of Thich Nhat HanhAn ethnographic introduction to the Plum Village tradition — the engaged Buddhist community founded by Thích Nhất Hạnh, grounded in Vietnamese Thiền, the philosophy of interbeing, and the conviction that contemplation and social action are not two.Rigpa InternationalAn ethnographic introduction to Rigpa International, the Nyingma Dzogchen organization founded in London in 1979 by Sogyal Rinpoche — the most widely-read transmitter of Tibetan Buddhist death-and-dying teaching in the Western world, and the community whose 2017–2018 abuse crisis became one of the most thoroughly documented institutional accountability moments in the history of Western Buddhism.San Francisco Zen CenterAn ethnographic introduction to the San Francisco Zen Center — the first and largest Sōtō Zen organization in the Western world, founded by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi in 1962, and the community whose crisis over dharma authority became one of the defining institutional reckoning of American Buddhism.Shambhala InternationalAn ethnographic introduction to Shambhala International, the Western Buddhist and contemplative organization founded by Tibetan master Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche — the most consequential transmission of Tibetan Vajrayana to non-Tibetan Western practitioners, the inventor of secular Buddhist training, and the community whose institutional crisis defined Western Buddhism's reckoning with teacher authority.Soka Gakkai InternationalAn ethnographic introduction to Sōka Gakkai International — the world's largest Nichiren Buddhist organization and the most racially diverse Buddhist movement in the United States, founded in 1930 by two Japanese educators and transformed by Daisaku Ikeda into a global lay Buddhist network of twelve million members in 192 countries.Thai Forest TraditionAn ethnographic introduction to the Thai Forest Tradition — the twentieth-century revival of kammaṭṭhāna forest monasticism begun by Ajahn Mun Bhuridatta and transmitted to the Western world through the lineages of Ajahn Chah and Ajahn Lee Dhammadharo.Thai Forest Tradition — Western LineageAn ethnographic introduction to the Western lineage of the Thai Forest Tradition — the transmission of Theravada Buddhist monasticism to the Western world through the disciples of Ajahn Chah, the most significant Theravada Buddhist presence in the contemporary West.