Indholdsfortegnelse for Summer 2017 i Buddhadharma: The Practitioner's Quarterly

I’ve noticed that you can basically divide North American Buddhist communities into two types: those with children present and those without. Many other things, such as styles of practice, lineages, race, class, institutional size and stability, and so on often fall into place as well along one or the other side of this dividing line. Childless Buddhism is a peculiar phenomenon, unknown in Asia but common here. There are particular reasons why childless Buddhism occurs. Many Western practitioners arrive at dharma centers as adults, without any childhood experience of Buddhism. They engage with the dharma to meet their grown-up concerns, and they shape it to their grown-up needs. Some arrive as university students, without children in tow, while others are older practitioners whose children, if they had any, have moved…

Obliterating all opposites and relativities, cutting off all doubt—what phrase can we use? The Capitol is not an inch of a step away. The greatest mountain only weighs three pounds. But tell me— on what principle do you stand to see it like this? —Translation by Thomas Cleary This is the introduction to Case 30 in the Book of Serenity, a collection of one hundred Zen stories. It tells us that if we can really understand the story that follows, we can be free of our various oppositions and dualities—in other words, free from our normal fearful ways of conceiving ourselves and the world. We think our goals and ideals are far away and we punish ourselves for not having realized them—but they, like the Capitol, are not far away.…

When I was training in a Japanese convent, a Zen nun friend taught me a way to defeat anyone in dharma combat. If someone asks you a question in the relative or concrete level (“Who are you?”), answer in the ultimate (“Don’t know”). If, on the other hand, they ask you a question in the ultimate or abstract (“What is the green dragon who comes from the West?”), answer in the relative and concrete (“Wouldn’t you rather know about the dharma?”). While this is an easy trick to “defeat” anyone in dharma combat, it doesn’t go very far toward relieving another person’s suffering. Buddhism shouldn’t be a battle to begin with. But I see battles taking place, especially in discussions of race or gender inequality. When women, people of color,…

There was a time I was so mad at my Zen teacher I could hardly look her in the eye. Everything she did seemed unskillful. I could only see her imperfections. I learned later that she was angry with me too. She was hurt and thought I was pushing her away. For more than a year, we seethed in our corners, glowering and avoiding each other. And we suffered, deeply. But after one of my spiritual companions gently but firmly encouraged me, I went to my teacher’s house to reach out. After some awkward social chitchat, she snapped, “What do you want from me?” I told her it was painful to feel so separated, and over the next hour we began, tensely, to express what had puzzled and angered us.…

Not a Moment to Lose Andrew Olendzki counts up the mind– moments in a day—and explains why each one counts. If there were six moments of cognition per second, there would be 360 per minute, 21,600 per hour, and assuming seven and a half hours of sleep each night, about 356,400 mind–moments in a waking day. In a life span of seventy-seven years, one person would experience about ten billion discrete episodes of experience. That’s it. This is the sum total of what is actually you, your world, your life: ten billion mind–moments. Let’s take this a step further and calculate that with about seven billion people in the world today, there are a total of forty-two billion per second, or two and a half trillion mind–moments per minute enacted on…

The first time I met Gelek Rimpoche, he took my head in his hands and headbutted me. I had just asked him this question: “Is it true that on some level, pain and pleasure are the same thing, and we just project these labels onto an otherwise neutral experience?” I can still remember the shock of his forehead tapping mine. Then he said, “Pain is also pain. Pleasure is also pleasure. You have read too many different books. Read one book, do one meditation practice.” Years later I learned that it was an auspicious sign for a Tibetan lama to touch his head to the head of a student. At the time, I was just stunned. I had the great opportunity to spend the next twenty-nine years as Rimpoche’s student.…

GUY ARMSTRONG • daijaku kinst • ari goldfield Buddhadharma: Let’s begin by exploring how shunyata is defined in different traditions. Guy, how is it described in the early teachings of the Buddha? GUY ARMSTRONG: There are two main meanings of emptiness in the early teachings. The first is being empty of self. Ananda asked the Buddha, “What does it mean when you say ‘Empty is the world’?” The Buddha replied, “It’s because the world is empty of self and of what belongs to a self that it’s said, empty is the world.” So the first meaning is not-self, or anatta. The second is an approach to meditation that the Buddha called “abiding in emptiness.” The Buddha’s instruction was not to add anything to presentmoment experience but to regard it as…

QI’m addicted to pornography; I have been for a long time. I have good days in my practice, but often I end up thinking about pornography in my meditation, and once it begins, it’s hard not to get stuck there. Is meditation even a good idea for me? Or am I someone who should spend less time in his own head, away from these kinds of thoughts? BODHIN KJOLHEDE: Indeed, we should all spend less time in our head. And we need meditation to do that. The pivotal issue, always, is attention: how we are using—or misusing—it. From moment to moment, it is our privilege as human beings to have choice in where to direct our attention. It is like holding a flashlight in a dark room—with a flick of…

Pamela Ayo Yetu nde, ThD, is a pastoral counselor and community dharma leader in the Insight Meditation community. When we cannot cope with life as it is, and when we cannot function enough to provide basic care for ourselves, it would be a great comfort to know that our sanghas are communities we can rely on for guidance, help, and referrals. By engaging in right knowledge, wise understanding, and skillful responses, we can become communities of integrity—places of genuine, skillful care. A Thousand Hands: A Guidebook to Caring for Your Buddhist Community will challenge those who distrust the growing overlap between Buddhism and Western psychology and psychiatric medicine. But for the rest of us, this book can be a salve of cohesion, slowing the rotation of our sangha doors— doors…

CALIFORNIA AGAINST THE STREAM BUDDHIST MEDITATION SOCIETY 4300 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90029. (323) 665-4300, Fax: (323) 665-4404, service@againstthestream.org, www.againstthestream.org • Founded by Noah Levine, author of Dharma Punx, Against The Stream has two centers in Los Angeles and Santa Monica offering weekly classes, daylong retreats, and special class series. AGAINST THE STREAM BUDDHIST MEDITATION SOCIETY 2701 Folsom St, San Francisco, CA 94110. bayarea@againstthestream.org, www.againstthestream.org • Meditation center in the Mission offers weekly classes, daylongs, class series and residential retreats. CHAGDUD GONPA RIGDZIN LING PO Box 279, Junction City, CA 96048. (530) 623-2714, FAX: (530) 623-6709, sangha@chagdudgonpa.org, www.chagdudgonpa.org • Nyingma Buddhist center in serene Northern California Alps. Founded by Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche. Daily meditation; teaching and retreat programs; individual retreat facilities. DHARMA ZEN CENTER 1025 S Cloverdale Ave, Los…