Author: Tracy Cochran

Tracy Cochran is editorial director of Parabola. For more information, please visit tracycochran.org.

Saint Buddha

Shakyamuni Buddha. Tibetan, eighteenth century. Mineral paint and ink on canvas. National Museum in Warsaw. Wikimedia Commons. Source/photographer: cyfrowe.mnw.art.pl

How the Awakened One became a Christian saint

A Vast and Mysterious Reality, by Tracy Cochran

Buddhanath Stupa, Kathmandu. Wikimedia Commons. Photo by Tevaprapas. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

Walking in the footsteps of the first Buddhist women

Passing Through the Storm, by Tracy Cochran

Hurricane, Bahamas. Winslow Homer, 1898. Watercolor and graphite on wove paper. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Wikimedia Commons.

How can we find joy in this suffering world?

Who Are You? by Tracy Cochran

Buddha Teaching. Maha Vihara Mojopahit monastery, Trowulan, East Java. Photograph by Anandajoti Bhikkhu. Wikimedia Commons. Author: Anandajoti Bhikkhu. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

Listening for an answer beyond words

Everything is Burning, by Tracy Cochran

The Burning of the Houses of Parliament. Author unknown. C.1834, oil on panel. Yale Center for British Art. Wikimedia Commons. Source/Photographer: https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/asset-viewer/RgGPJOYOSROUkw

In a world on fire, finding the light that guides

The Night of the Hessian Soldier, by Tracy Cochran

The Capture of the Hessians at Trenton, December 26, 1776 (detail). John Trumbell, between 1786 and 1828. Oil on canvas. Yale University Art Gallery. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

A haunted inn inspires deeper questions

A Good Start, by Tracy Cochran

A Dutch Village, ‘Guernica’, and the power of remembering

We’re In It Now, by Tracy Cochran

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signing the declaration of war against Japan, December 8, 1941. Photograph by Abbie Rowe. National Archives and Records Administration

The greatest shocks can inspire the deepest wisdom

Down the Well, by Tracy Cochran

Bellin Map of the Great Lakes. Jacques-Nicolas Bellin, 1755. Native American territories are clearly delineated. Wikimedia Commons. Source: Atlas Homannianus Mathematic-Historice Delineatus, (Homann Heirs, Nuremberg), 1755

What we need is right at hand

Lucky Man, by Tracy Cochran

Gift of Marielle Bancou-Segal, in memory of the vision of William Segal, 2002. Japan, fourteenth century. Wood, gilt bronze, colored beads, crystal. Metropolitan Museum of Art (detail)

Life lessons from William Segal