Sophie Cunningham
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Buddhism

I first became interested in Buddhism through books, and then through attending the Sydney Zen Centre. Since a retreat in Nepal to Kopan Monastery in 1998 my focus has been on Tibetan Buddhism. I am an avid reader on the subject but an erratic practitioner. While my heart lies with FPMT (Lama Zopa's Federation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition) I am not a member of any group. I find I need the distance to think through (and write about) issues surrounding Buddhism. My second novel, Dharma is a Girl's Best Friend, is about a woman who became a Buddhist nun in the late '60s so my current focus is doing research that allows me to write about her life - which means Tibetan Buddhism in India and Nepal in the late Sixties.

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Most Recent

Speaking for Buddha
When I was asked what my religious beliefs were on the recent census form, I wrote 'Buddhist' in the 'Other' category. I argued with friends about that. They could see no proof that I was a Buddhist and thought I was pretending to be Buddhist to be cool. They thought I was feeding into John Howard's version of Australia: an Austra-lia where everyone has a religion, an Australia where religion has become a weapon to be used against people. I was contributing to what Gary Bouma, Professor of soci-ology at Monash University and an Anglican minister, has called a gross overestimation of Buddhist numbers. When I interviewed him several years ago Bouma thought many more people professed vague allegiance to the ideals of Buddhism than were card-carrying members. Buddhism was, he said, 'the religion to have when you're not having a religion'.
Get thee to a nunnery
Monica, a former high-flying Sydney publicist, lives in a remote Buddhist monastery in Tashi Jong, a tiny village in far northern India.