Art and Buddhism Art and Buddhism: The Shambhala Sun offers a wide selection of articles from authors, actors, artists and musicians who temper their artistic discipline with Buddhist wisdom.
Richard
Gere, Leonard Cohen, Alice Walker and bell hooks are but a few of the
talented artists whose lives and work have been enriched by Buddhism.
The Shambhala Sun is pleased to present the work of these and other
artists.
Just click any article's title to start reading.
Continuing
our celebration of the Shambhala Sun’s 30th anniversary, we showcase
seven artists whose work manifests the qualities of awakened mind, with
commentary by the Sun’s art director, Liza Matthews.
Mystery, suspense, science fiction—Andrea Miller
profiles Kim Stanley Robinson, Susan Dunlap, and Cary Groner, three
Buddhist-inspired novelists who make up stories to tell deeper truths
about life.
"To give oneself over to the objective business of writing," says Pico Iyer, "is to see how subjective the whole business of the self and writing is."
And to a remarkable extent, Leonard Cohen
is succeeding. Sarah Hampson had a rare opportunity to spend an
afternoon with the famed singer and poet. He's got the wisdom of age but
he's still the essence of cool—the perfect reflection of his years of
Zen. In
honor of the fiftieth anniversary of "Howl," the Shambhala Sun presents
this exclusive autobiographical talk by the late poet and cultural icon
Allen Ginsberg, narrating his spiritual journey from Blake to the Buddha.
There are two sides to singer-songwriter
Amanda Palmer of The Dresden Dolls: the “just sitting” meditator and
the crazed composer. What side wins when they duke it out?
The late Beastie Boy Adam Yauch brought
Tibetan music and Buddhist philosophy to their album, Ill
Communication. He talks to The Shambhala Sun about hip-hop, hardcore,
helping people, and "gettin' stupid."
Her new album, Watershed, reflects the dramatic changes in her life since she became a committed Buddhist. k.d. lang talks for the first time about her Buddhist teacher and practice.
Characters
are taken over by their desires and make bad choices—that’s the appeal
of noir fiction, says writer Brian Haycock, because we’re all
struggling with our desires. Here, he offers a hardboiled story with a
Buddhist twist. Her masterpiece The Year of Magical Thinking, written after her husband's death, is a meditation on the human mind both pointed and profound. David Swick profiles Joan Didion, a great American journalist observing her own mind and experience.
This is the best time to be alive, says Alice Walker,
because there is so much work to do—so many poor to house and feed, so
much opportunity for self-realization, the earth itself to be saved. The
Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, poet, and essayist talks about her
spiritual practice, the importance of resolve, and the charming
perfection of her imperfect cat.
For bell hooks, fighting oppression doesn't require anger or conflict—just opening our hearts and speaking the truth fearlessly. Barry Boyce tells the story of this renowned feminist and social critic, and how she came to embrace activism without enemies and a visionary kind of love.
A surprising conversation about being black and Buddhist in America with award-winning writer Charles Johnson.
If he's unlucky, he says, they call him "wild and untamed." A conversation with Dzongsar Khyentse about what it's like for a traditional Buddhist teacher to also live the life of a filmmaker.
An excerpt from Leonard Koren's gem, Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets and Philosophers, considered a classic statement on this Japanese aesthetic.
The author of The Artist's Way and The Vein of Gold in conversation with Samuel Bercholz, founder and president of Shambhala Publications.
Richard Gere talks about his many years of Buddhist practice, his devotion to his teacher the Dalai Lama, and his work for Tibetan freedom.
More Related Articles:• Howl of Resistance, by Stephen Mooney
• The Late Allen Ginsberg and Beck in Conversation
• Alex Grey: The Mission of a Visionary Artist, by Steve Brooks
• Web Exclusive: David Guy on the Zen of Writing, by Andrea Miller
• Richard Gere Knows What Counts, by Trish Deitch Rohrer
• Happiness Is..., by Richard Gere and Matthieu Ricard
• Thanks for the Dance, by Pico Iyer
• Writers and the War Against Nature, by Gary Snyder
• "There's No Place to Go But Up," by Maya Angelou and bell hooks
• Rivers Cuomo: A Difference You Can Hear, by Jeff Pardy
• Radiohead's Thom Yorke: The View From the Stage, by Judy Bond
• Concept Becomes Experience: A Composer's Journey, by Peter Lieberson
• Steven Seagal Speaks, by Stanley Weiser
by Steve Brooks
Links:
• Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
• The Gere Foundation • k.d. lang • Leonard Cohen • Maya Angelou • Allen Ginsberg
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He Has Tried in His Way to Be Free
Adam Yauch: Check His Head
The Zen of Joan Didion
Wabi-Sabi For Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers