This project began with a simple curiosity: Why do people turn toward the Dharma in a world already overflowing with noise, choice, and distraction? What emerged was more than a book—it became a collective unfolding. A gathering of voices, images, and communities reflecting how Buddhism is quietly transforming lives and reshaping American soil from the inside out.We’re creating two companion books:

  • One explores the transformative journey of practice—those deeply personal, often raw stories of awakening, doubt, and recommitment.
  • The other traces the blossoming of Dharma in America, capturing the faces, places, and sanghas that make up this quietly powerful movement.

This isn’t just my project. It’s ours. And there are three heartfelt ways you can be part of it:

Book Two: Many Voices, One Heart

A Visual Celebration of Buddhism in America

The second book opens the lens wider. It is a celebration—not only of what Buddhism looks like in America, but of who is practicing. It’s a love letter to the diversity of paths, identities, and cultural expressions that now make up the modern Buddhist landscape.

Drawing inspiration from the A Day in the Life photo book series and the deeply human storytelling of Humans of New York, this volume blends striking visual portraits with short, poignant reflections. The result is a documentary-style tapestry—one that honors both the ordinary and the profound moments of everyday Buddhist life.

Featuring contributions from professional photographers, sanghas, and everyday practitioners across the U.S., this book gathers the faces, places, and moments that define contemporary American Buddhism. From urban zendos to small-town Dharma groups, Black-led sanghas to immigrant-founded temples, it captures a mosaic that is as beautiful as it is unexpected.

Much of the imagery and insight comes from community-submitted stories and photos through our website—a living archive of the ways people are finding wisdom, clarity, and connection in their own corners of the world.

This is a book of breadth. Of celebration. Of remembering that no one owns the Dharma—and that it continues to flower in the most surprising places.

 

Contribute Micro Stories

“Micro Moments on the Path”We’re inviting practitioners of all backgrounds—newcomers, seasoned teachers, wanderers still unsure where they belong—to share short, true stories from their spiritual journey.These don’t need to be profound. In fact, the quiet ones often touch deepest:

  • The first time you bowed and felt something shift
  • The moment you almost quit
  • A teacher’s phrase that rewired your mind
  • Sitting in silence beside strangers, and suddenly feeling seen

If you’ve experienced even a flicker of transformation, your story belongs here.

Lama Thupten "We practice not to be perfect, but to be kind, compassionate, and awake" Liz "I used to think I just didn’t feel anger. But through Tibetan yoga, I realized I had deeply buried rage—and it was blocking me from feeling anything at all, even joy. These practices helped me unlock and transform that energy." Marc "When I think about my teacher, Geshe Jinpa Sonam, I don’t put him on a pedestal. I exalt his wisdom and compassion as a reference point: Am I getting closer to that?"
Note to Semi/Pro Photographers

Albert "Buddhist practice didn’t change who I was. It taught me to stop running from myself and finally come home" Dick and Bonnie "Nothing is separate. Plum Village helped us feel the threads that connect everything—and everyone" Kalpana "The teachings showed me: true connection has nothing to do with background and everything to do with presence."

Contribute Photography

“Images of the Living Dharma”
Inspired by A Day in the Life of Series and Humans of New York, we’re collecting powerful photographs that speak for what words often can’t.We’re seeking professional or experienced photographers to help document:

  • The quiet grace of a zafu in an urban loft
  • A teacher bowing before a modest altar
  • A gathering of robes in a borrowed church basement
  • A single meditator beneath a city overpass
  • Empty cushions, incense smoke, ritual, stillness, joy

This visual archive will give breath and body to the stories, revealing a Dharma that is intimate, diverse, and unmistakably here.