Sangha long with us

A thousand pardons for pausing in my week of Buddhist site reviews; I was out of town for a half-week. Let's look next at . . .

Buddhist Wisdom

Siddhartha surely would have been pleased. The homepage of this site uses line drawings on black, relieved only by outlines of varied colors. Links lead to four sections: the story of the Buddha, basic teachings and scriptures, and some pithy sayings. Small pictures of lotus blossoms and the "Om" monogram abound.

An Flash-animated presentation presents some of the Buddha's teachings, including learning by observation and the impermanent nature of the self. The show starts with a Zen-like "bong" of a bell, then proceeds with cartoon-like panels.

The story of how a prince became a religious leader is told reverently and uncritically. The section explaining the Eightfold Path is especially good; most sites of the type simply list titles like "Right Thinking." Here, right thinking is defined as "the development of loving kindness, empathy and compassion."

The sayings are well chosen, drawing not only from the Buddha but others like the Dalai Lama and Lamya Surya Das -- even the Taoism pioneer Lao Tzu. The site also has the lucid, 423-verse Dhammapada, a collection of sayings from the Theravada Pali Canon.

For dessert, may we suggest Pearls of Wisdom, the parent site. It has metaphysical ideas by women, pagans and native Americans. Also interesting are inspirational lyrics by the likes of Enigma, James Ingram, Lenny Kravitz and Alanis Morissette.