Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson is vice president of American Jewish University. He studies environmental ethics, racial and economic justice, philosophy and the interplay between religion and science.

Rabbi Lawrence Kushner is a writer, speaker and teacher at Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco. He is also a visiting professor of Jewish spirituality at the Graduate Theological Union. He wrote the book Jewish Spirituality: A Brief Introduction for Christians (Jewish Lights Publishing, 2001).

Maulana Karenga is the founder of the holiday Kwanzaa. Karenga is a professor of black studies at California State University in Long Beach.

Lion’s Roar is one of the world’s best-selling and most widely read Buddhist magazines, providing Buddhist teachings and ways to apply Buddhist wisdom to modern life issues. It was formerly known as Shambhala Sun.

Urban Dharma is a web site offering articles, essays and photographs describing Buddhism in America. Offerings have included pieces on fasting, politics, psychedelics and a “meditation on a Coke can.”

The Zen Hospice Project in San Francisco, founded in 1987, is the only residential Buddhist hospice in the United States and seeks to be open and present for those facing death. B.J. Miller is executive director.

William M. Bodiford is professor of Asian languages and cultures at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is associate editor of the Encyclopedia of Buddhism and editor of Going Forth: Visions of Buddhist Vinaya. He can speak about Japanese Buddhism, including rituals and worship of local gods.

Carl W. Bielefeldt is a professor of religious studies and director of the Center for East Asian Studies at Stanford University in California. He specializes in East Asian Buddhism and is editor of the Soto Zen Text Project, which is preparing annotated translations of the scriptures of the Soto school of Japanese Zen.

Franz A. Metcalf teaches comparative religion at California State University in Los Angeles and edits the national newsletter of the Forge Guild of Spiritual Teachers and Leaders. He is the author of Buddha in Your Backpack: Everyday Buddhism for Teens, What Would Buddha Do?: 101 Answers to Life’s Daily Dilemmas and co-author of What Would Buddha Do at Work: 101 Answers […]