In some cultures, menstruation and childbirth are treated as polluting, not life-giving. One Buddhist text’s interpretation of ‘Blood Pond Hell’ shows how far such beliefs go – and how women respond.

Alexander the Great conquered the region around 329 B.C.E., leaving behind Greek and Macedonian settlers who intermarried ...

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or ...

Buddhism originated in the life, teaching, and personality of a remarkable Indian sage, Siddhartha Gautama, the son of a petty king whose capital was at Kapilavasta in northern India. The life span of ...

An author owns a snappy title, and then the snappy title owns the author. Robert Wright, having titled his new book “Why Buddhism Is True,” has to offer a throat-clearing preface and later an ...

In the summer of 2003, I was reading Gail Omvedt’s Buddhism in India: Challenging Brahmanism and Caste, which had just been ...

Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly invited several scholars to comment on the divisions and direction of Buddhism in America today: Carl Bielefeldt is professor of religious studies and co-director of the ...

Across the world, religions appear very different on the surface. They use different names for God, different rituals, and different sacred texts. However, when you look deeper, many religions share ...