Please enjoy this discussion with Bhante Chandima and Vanessa Sasson on her wonderfully imaginative novel on the life of the Buddha’s wife, Yasodhara.
Vanessa is a long-time Buddhist scholar with an impressive resume, who has recently moved into creative writing, as she wanted to express the ancient stories in ways that academic writing cannot. She was recently kind enough to talk with me about my own little creative writing efforts. In my spare time, I’ve been writing a novella about the end of the world and enlightenment. She gave me great feedback, basically that it wasn’t a novella at all, but an unfinished novel. 
but also 
Here she’s in discussion with Bhante Chandima, a Sri Lankan monk in Montreal, who has been very active and innovative in his approach to Dhamma via Youtube.
Creativity and imagination are core parts of the Buddhist tradition, and they always have been. We created the worlds oldest and largest collection of stories and myths, the Jatakas. Each generation engages with scripture in a creative way.
I’ll be teaching a course at Barre that will touch on this soon. Check it out!
