The Novice: Why I Became a Buddhist Monk, Why I Quit, and What I Learned" (Greenleaf Book Group, 346 pages), by Stephen Schettini: Far from home and strung out on morphine, Stephen Schettini was saved from his skid when a friend showed up at his hovel in Pakistan to force him to clean up and move on. The young Englishman traveled around India and immersed himself in Buddhist teachings (Newsday).
- Review: Novice is memoir by young Englishman about becoming a monk
(The San Francisco Examiner) - Customer Service Far from home and strung out, Stephen Schettini was saved when a friend showed up at his hovel in Pakistan to force him to clean up and move on. He travelled around India and immersed himself in Buddhist teachings (Brandon Sun)
"Unmistaken Child" (movie review)
A gentle but fervent quest to find a reincarnated Buddhist lama: The child is the rebirth of a recently deceased Buddhist master. Nati Baratz's documentary is about a five-year quest to find this elusive entity. Tasked with finding the child -- a mere baby -- is 28-year-old Tenzin Zopa, a Nepalese monk who was the late lama's acolyte and close companion. What follows is a straightforward narrative driven solely by faith and belief in... (Pittsburgh City Paper, 9/3/09)
Jet Airways introduces twice weekly Buddhist Circuit flights
Bangkok-Gaya-Varanasi -- Jet Airways, India’s premier international airline, will connect the Thai capital of Bangkok with India's Gaya and Varanasi, two important Buddhist cities on the famed Buddhist circuit, effective October... (Thailandnews.net, 9/2/09)
Crime: Former monk arrested for stealing Buddhist statues
A former Mahayana Buddhist priest at a temple in Nara Prefecture was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of stealing Buddhist statues from another temple in the western… (Japan Today, 9/2/09)
Despite Outreach, violence is up in Southern Thailand
Over the past five years, a steady stream of bombings, shootings, beheadings and other terror attacks in the country's deep south have claimed roughly 3,500 lives, both Muslim and Buddhist. Why is the violence getting worse? (Time Magazine, 9/02/09)
Calls to remove statue from Bridge on the River Kwai
The Bridge over the River Kwai in Thailand -- a monument to the suffering of Allied troops in Japanese hands -- has been overshadowed by a controversial new Buddhist statue (Daily Telegraph, 8/31/09)
