WZEN offers a webcast (“Sounds from Zen Mountain”) from the teachers of the Mountains and Rivers order, along with Cybermonk, through which a senior monk will answer online questions about dharma.

A Buddhist blog webring has links to Buddhist bloggers.

Read a Jan. 19, 2000, story from Beliefnet.com exploring whether there’s a divide in American Buddhism between “Asian Buddhists” and “New Buddhists” – converts from other ethnic and cultural backgrounds.

Read a Feb. 26, 2001, story from Salon.com about baby boomer Buddhists who favor a more secularized style of practice (“no chanting, no incense, no monks and certainly no bowing”).

Read the transcript of a July 6, 2001, Religion & Ethics Newsweekly story on PBS about tensions in American Buddhism, in part between the religion as it’s practiced by Asian immigrants and by converts in the West.

Joel A. Carpenter is a professor of history at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich., where he also directs the Nagel Institute for the Study of World Christianity. He also is the former religion officer for the Pew Charitable Trusts and former director of the Institute for the Study of American Evangelicalism.

Asma Afsaruddin is chair of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at the University of Indiana.

Read a story from the June 26, 2001, Village Voice about the involvement of black women in Buddhism.

Helping Hand is an Islamic global humanitarian relief and development organization that focuses on Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Kenya and Iraq. Its American office is in Detroit.