Buddhadharma: The Practitioner's Quarterly Winter 2017

ANN GLEIG is an assistant professor of religion and cultural studies at the University of Central Florida. In April 2017 she received the University Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award. She completed her PhD in religious studies at Rice University in 2010, focusing on Buddhism and Hinduism in modernity. Her forthcoming book about current trends in American meditationbased Buddhism is being published by Yale University Press in 2018. JEFF WILSON is an ordained minister in the Hongwanji-ha tradition of Shin Buddhism and a professor of religious studies and East Asian studies at Renison University College, University of Waterloo. He has published pioneering research on the history of same-sex wedding ceremonies in North America and is the author of Buddhism of the Heart and Mindful America. ROGER JACKSON is professor emeritus of…

Buddhism is like a great river. It is, as an old blues song says, “long, deep, and wide.” The river of dharma has been flowing for a long time: 2,600 years from one point of view, forever from another. Those of us who care about Buddhism’s future in the modern world need to take a long view—to think decades ahead, maybe even centuries. The wide part refers to spreading the dharma as far as possible, making it accessible to all those who would benefit from it. We publish Lion’s Roar magazine to fulfill this mission. It’s where Buddhists speak to the wider society, offering wisdom, heart, and life-changing practices to benefit people’s lives, our society, and the future of the earth. The deep part may prove the most important. For…

REBECCA LI: As an antidote to the pernicious arrogance that gives rise to thoughts like “I’m doing something so selfless— aren’t I great?” we can practice gratitude for the opportunity to serve. In particular, we can be grateful for all of the causes and conditions that have made it possible for us to practice and to help other beings through our practice. Such causes and conditions might include the fact that our health, family, and financial situations are not so desperate that we cannot think of anyone else, or perhaps that had the opportunity to study with good teachers who inspire us to practice for the sake of all beings. We can also recognize the direct and indirect supports we continually receive from countless others who make our study and…

IN 2011, MORE THAN two hundred Buddhist teachers, mostly American, gathered at the Garrison Institute in upstate New York to discuss the state of Buddhism in the West. Organized by firstgeneration American baby boomer teachers such as Lama Surya Das and Jack Kornfield, as well as popular Generation X teachers such as Noah Levine and Sumi Loundon Kim, the Maha Teacher Council focused on three main themes: “the promise and the pitfalls” of the secularization of the dharma, the challenges of adapting the dharma to new contexts “without losing depth,” and passing the teaching torch “from elders to the next generation.” This invitation-only event was the subject of much commentary on Buddhist media and in the blogosphere. Some participants raised questions about the invitation process, probing the issue of which…

TRANSLATOR’S INTRODUCTION Milarepa (ca 1051–ca 1135), Tibet’s great singing yogi, is arguably the most renowned figure in Tibetan culture, the quintessential Tibetan folk hero. Milarepa committed grave crimes at an early age, then later had a radical change of heart. He sought out and followed a spiritual master, finally attaining the ultimate state of awakening within a single lifetime. Though Milarepa’s own practice tradition was the Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, followers and practitioners of all the Buddhist lineages in Tibet reflect and meditate upon Milarepa’s life story and songs. Copies of Milarepa’s Life and Songs can be found in nearly every Tibetan-language or dharma library. The version of Milarepa’s life story and songs most widely read today was compiled by Tsangnyön Heruka (1452–1507) approximately 350 years following the protagonist’s…

IF YOUR INABILITY to cut off ceaseless thought has ever left you feeling hopeless or inadequate, you’re not alone. Anyone who has practiced earnestly for any length of time has likely wrestled with the thinking mind, motivated by a desire to evolve away from delusion and toward awakening or enlightenment. We may wonder what we’re missing, always searching for the secret code we believe will unlock the door to enlightenment. We read endless dharma books, which might lead us to that door but ultimately leave us standing outside, desperate to get in. Perhaps we even take our deluded selves to a Buddhist teacher or center to receive guidance, hoping to fix whatever it is that prevents us from seeing the light. But what if our deluded minds aren’t a barrier…