Arts & Letters – Spirituality

Piano Sonata in B Minor, S.178 The life and career of Franz Liszt provide one of the most colorful chapters in the history of piano music. He is now principally known as a composer, but as a concert pianist he achieved staggering success. As a young man, Liszt had been entranced by the stage manner of the violinist Paganini, who inspired him to try for similar fame as a pianist....

Jiddu Krishnamurti mistrusted all religions and denounced the Eastern convention of deifying living spiritual masters. But by the time he died in Ojai, California, in 1986 at the age of 91, he had helped—perhaps more than anyone in this century—to introduce Eastern teachings on the nature of mind to the West.  In Lives in the Shadow with J. Krishnamurti (London: Bloomsbury Press, 1991), the prime subjects diminished by this mythic...

The Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) announced Tuesday that India will host its first-ever Global Buddhist Conference in November. The conference will be held from November 19 to 20 at the Nava Nalanda Mahavihara campus in Nalanda, in the northern state of Bihar, DNA India reports. ICCR president Dr. Vinay Sahasrabuddhe explained that the conference will invite a community of academics to deliberate upon one theme every year, beginning with...

The Sri Lankan government issued new laws this week to protect the country’s elephants, which are considered by many Sri Lankan Buddhists to be sacred animals. The country’s roughly 200 domesticated elephants will now receive identification cards with DNA stamps and must be taken in for medical check-ups every six months. Other restrictions include banning drunk riding and abusive training methods, limiting work hours and maximum number of riders, and requiring...