Killing the Buddha

Killing the Buddha is an online magazine of religion, culture, and politics. It began on November 13, 2000, when Peter Manseau and Jeff Sharlet invited readers who are both hostile and drawn to talk of God to join them in building an electronic Tower of Babel, a Talmudic cathedral of stories about faith lost and found. They named it after a saying of the Chinese Buddhist sage Lin Chi. Think of it like this:

After years on his cushion, a monk has what he believes is a breakthrough: a glimpse of nirvana, the Buddhamind, the big pay-off. Reporting the experience to his master, however, he is informed that what has happened is par for the course, nothing special, maybe even damaging to his pursuit. And then the master gives the student dismaying advice: If you meet the Buddha, he says, kill him.

Why kill the Buddha? Because the Buddha you meet is not the true Buddha, but an expression of your longing. If this Buddha is not killed he will only stand in your way.

In 2003, Utne Reader declared KtB one of the “fifteen websites that could shake the world.” Now, for more than a decade, through deaths and resurrections and few torch passings, KtB is still shaking it. In 2010, CNN said, “Killing the Buddha makes religion interesting again.”

KtB is much more than an online magazine. Under the umbrella of Margins of Faith, our 501(c)(3) nonprofit, we work to increase understanding about today’s living religions in relation to pressing social issues through public engagement and education. This includes:

• Publishing books with major presses, including Killing the Buddha: A Heretic’s Bible (Free Press, 2004), named one of Publishers Weekly’s best religion books of the year, and Believer, Beware: First Person Dispatches from the Margins of Faith (Beacon Press, 2009), which Library Journal called “shocking, exhilarating, and never dull.”
• Independently publishing pamphlets and chapbooks;
• Organizing live events around the United States, including readings, film screenings, panel discussions and lectures;
• Making space for spirited dialogue about a variety of marginalized issues, including the American prison system and LGBTQ concerns;
• Sponsoring retreats and workshops to support up-and-coming writers and artists.

We can only accomplish these things with the generous support of our readers. Please consider giving to KtB today.

KtBniks

Killing the Buddha is created by a community of writers, artists, and editors including but not limited to the following:

Founding Editors
Peter Manseau
Jeff Sharlet

Editors
Garrett Baer
Ashley Makar
Quince Mountain
Nathan Schneider
Meera Subramanian
Brook Wilensky-Lanford

Special Projects Director
Paul W. Morris

Contributing Editors
Patton Dodd
Kiera Feldman
Erik Hanson
Ray Hsu
Beatrice Marovich
Eric Scott
Laurel Snyder
Mary Valle
Jeff Wilson

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