Engaged Buddhism
Engaged Buddhism: 50 Collected Essays, Interviews & Profiles 2020-2025
John H. Negru
ISBN 9781998248223 / 264 pages, 6.14"x 9.21" / Available May 2026
Teaching the Buddhism of the future, not the past, is the focus of these essays.They were first published in my regular column, Bodhisattva 4.0, on the Buddhistdoor Global website or as features on the Lion’s Roar website, between 2020 and 2025. Deep bows of gratitude to the editors and staff at these publications for their ongoing dedication. Thanks also to the many kalyanamitra who have accompanied me on this journey with friendship, advice, humour, encouragement, and inspiration.
These fifty essays are presented here as a chronicle of the people working to benefit all beings and the Earth itself at the intersection of Buddhist practice, civil society, and our increasingly technologically-driven future. They can be read in any order. It is my hope that these pieces will inspire you to contribute your own awareness, attention, and action to these contemporary challenges. John H. Negru
Contents
Foreword
2020
1 Happiness
2 Magic
3 Life Hack
4 Kali Yuga
5 Buddha Stuff
6 Do Not Resuscitate
7 Makers
8 Games
9 Code
10 Petitions
11 Veg
12 Bodhimandala
2021
13 Ksitigarbha, Liveblogging from Hell
14 Ajahn Sona, Off the Grid
15 UX for Buddhists
16 The Ox Herder’s Diary
17 Buddhist Spiritual Care
18 The Good Ancestor
19 Ajahn Sucitto, Down to Earth
20 Buddhism, Circa 2030
21 The Earth Holder Community, Branching Out
2022
22 Tomorrow
23 We’ve Turned Another Page
24 Adulting
25 The Future Is Canceled Until Further Notice
26 The Chakravartin
27 Supply and Demand: How Are We to Do More with Less?
28 Tensegrity
2023
29 Ripples in the Pond
30 The Yin and Yang of Teaching
31 Modern Koans
32 A Guided Tour of Indra’s Net with Yingzhao Liu
33 Head-Scratchers
34 No Inside, No Outside
2024
35 Rising Above the Blame Game
36 Crystal Mountain and the Wheel of Protection
37 One Earth Sangha: Celebrating 10 Years of EcoDharma
38 The Barre Center for Buddhist Studies: EcoDharma Beacon
39 EcoDharma in Asia: 2024 and Beyond
40 A Conversation with Tim Ream, EcoDharma Teacher
41 The Shambhala Touching the Earth Collective: Crowd Source EcoDharma in Bloom
42 Seeing the Invisible: Prison Dharma
2025
So, you want to be a Buddhist author, eh? A six-part series
1- 43 The World of Buddhist Publishing
2 - 44 The Changing Nature of Buddhist Practice
3 - 45 A Deeper Dive into Buddhism in Print
4 - 46 Metadata
5 - 47 Artificial Intelligence
6 - 48 Bringing It All Back Home
49 Post-Charismatic Buddhism and the Sangha Crisis Nobody Seems to Be Talking About
50 How Buddhist Spiritual Care Can Help Frontline Workers in the Caring Economy
John Harvey Negru is publisher at The Sumeru Press, Canada’s leading indie Buddhist book publishing company. He is also the author of three other Buddhist books: Understanding the Chinese Buddhist Temple (2010); Understanding the Tibetan Buddhist Temple (2018); and Bodhisattva 4.0: A Primer for Engaged Buddhists (2019).
Mr. Negru has been involved in many Buddhist community development projects and environmental causes over the past 50 years, and has been a technological design educator for more than 30 years. In that latter capacity he is the author of three books on technology subjects and more than 1000 articles in technology magazines.
