Thích Nhất Hạnh was a Vietnamese Thiền Buddhist monk, peace activist, prolific author, poet and teacher, who founded the Plum Village Tradition, historically recognized as the main inspiration for engaged Buddhism. Known as the "father of mindfulness", Nhất Hạnh was a major influence on Western practices of Buddhism.
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896–1977) was a spiritual, philosophical, and religious teacher from India who spread the Hare Krishna mantra and the teachings of “Krishna consciousness” to the world. Born as Abhay Charan De and later legally named Abhay Charanaravinda Bhaktivedanta Swami, he is often referred to as “Bhaktivedanta Swami”, "Srila Prabhupada", or simply “Prabhupada”.
The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), known colloquially as the Hare Krishna movement, is a Gaudiya Vaishnava Hindu religious organization. It was founded on 13 July 1966 in New York City by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Its main headquarters is located in Mayapur, West Bengal, India.
Kenneth Earl Wilber II is an American theorist and writer on transpersonal psychology and his own integral theory, a four-quadrant grid which purports to encompass all human knowledge and experience.
Engaged Buddhism, also known as socially engaged Buddhism, refers to a Buddhist social movement that emerged in Asia in the 20th century. It is composed of Buddhists who seek to apply Buddhist ethics, insights acquired from meditation practice, and the teachings of the Buddhist dharma to contemporary situations of social, political, environmental, and economic suffering, and injustice.
What the Bleep Do We Know!? is a 2004 American pseudo-scientific film that posits a spiritual connection between quantum physics and consciousness. The plot follows the fictional story of a photographer, using documentary-style interviews and computer-animated graphics, as she encounters emotional and existential obstacles in her life and begins to consider the idea that individual and group consciousness can influence the material world. Her experiences are offered by the filmmakers to illustrate the film's scientifically unsupported ideas.
Bhakti Tirtha Swami, previously called John Favors and Toshombe Abdul and also known by the honorific Krishnapada, was a guru and governing body commissioner of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. He was the highest-ranking African American in ISKCON.
Kirtanananda Swami, also known as Bhaktipada, was a Gaudiya Vaishnava guru and the co-founder of New Vrindaban, a Hare Krishna community in Marshall County, West Virginia, where he served as spiritual leader from 1968 until 1994.
Radhanath Swami is an American Hindu Gaudiya Vaishnava guru, community-builder, activist, and author. He has been a Bhakti Yoga practitioner and a spiritual teacher for more than 50 years. He is the inspiration behind ISKCON's free midday meal for 1.2 million school kids across India, and he has been instrumental in founding the Bhaktivedanta Hospital in Mumbai. He works largely from Mumbai and travels extensively throughout Europe and America. In the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), he serves as a member of the Governing Body Commission. Steven J. Rosen described Radhanath Swami as a "saintly person respected by the mass of ISKCON devotees today."
Hinduism in Mongolia is a minority religion; it has few followers and only began to appear in Mongolia in the late twentieth century. According to the 2010 and 2011 Mongolian census, the majority of people that identify as religious follow Buddhism (86%), Shamanism (4.7), Islam (4.9%) or Christianity (3.5). Only 0.5% of the population follow other religions.
Sadhguru is the founder and head of the Isha Foundation, based in Coimbatore, India. The foundation, established in 1992, operates an ashram and yoga centre that carries out educational and spiritual activities. Sadhguru has been teaching yoga since 1982. He is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Inner Engineering: A Yogi's Guide to Joy and Karma: A Yogi's Guide to Crafting Your Destiny, and a frequent speaker at international forums.
Indradyumna Swami is an initiating guru in the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, which belongs to the Gaudiya-Vaishnava sampradaya. He is a disciple of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada who introduced the Gaudiya Vaisnava, or Bhakti Yoga, tradition to the western world and formalized its spread by founding ISKCON in 1966.
Hare Krishna views of homosexuality, and especially the view of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) towards LGBT issues, are similar to their views of heterosexual relationships, i.e. because the living entity is identifying with the body, any attraction based on the desire to gratify the body and its senses is symptomatic of illusion and can be purified by progressively elevating the consciousness. Put simply, both hetero- and homosexual attraction is due to an illusory attachment to the temporary body. Same-sex relations and gender variance have been represented within Hinduism from Vedic times through to the present day, in rituals, law books, mythical narratives, commentaries, paintings, and sculpture. The extent to which these representations embrace or reject homosexuality has been disputed within the religion as well as outside of it.
Beyond Our Differences is a 2008 documentary film.
The Road to Fallujah is a 2009 American documentary film directed by Mark Manning and written by Manning and Natalie Kalustian.
Engaged spirituality refers to the beliefs and practices of religious or spiritual people who actively engage in the world in order to transform it in ways consistent with their beliefs.
An ISKCON guru is a person who is permitted to initiate disciples into the International Society for Krishna Consciousness system. The guru system has undergone several changes and reform since its beginnings in the 1960s. Upanayana as a traditional "sacred thread ceremony" of the Gayatri Mantra, commonly known Hindu Samskara, is complemented by Pancaratric mantras of the Gaudiya Vaishnava sampradaya and follows the principal initial nama initiation ceremony, referred to respectively as brahmana diksa and Hari nama diksa.
ISKCON Temple Chennai, also known as the Sri Sri Radha Krishna Mandir, is a Gaudiya Vaishnavism temple in Chennai, India. The temple is dedicated to Supreme Lord Krishna and His divine consort Radha. It was formally inaugurated on 26 April 2012.
Awake: The Life of Yogananda is a 2014 documentary about the Indian yogi and guru Paramahansa Yogananda who came to the West in the 1920s to teach yoga and meditation. The film is in English with subtitles in seventeen languages.
Kailasa Candra Dasa, also known as J. K. Goodwin, is an American Gaudiya Vaishnava teacher, sidereal astrologer and author with a small number of students. In 1972, he joined the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in Madison, Wisconsin. After the passing of ISKCON founder A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, he opposed ISKCON's "zonal acharyas", beginning in 1978 and 1979. He is co-founder of the Vaishnava Foundation, a nonprofit organization incorporated under the name Metamorphosis League for Monastic Studies. He works out of the United States. He continues to oppose what he sees as the deviations that emerged within ISKCON after the demise of A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.
