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

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…

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…

CASE 24, BLUE CLIFF RECORD Iron Grindstone Liu went to Guishan. Might as well gather together, touching the difficult. Playing her part, this experienced old woman does not play by the rules. Shan said, “Old cow, you’ve come!” Point—search the grass shadows with a probing pole. It’s hard to say who you meet when turning in that place. Grindstone said, “There’s going to be a great assembly at Mount Tai, will you go too?” The arrow did not miss the target. In Tang Dynasty, beat a drum; in Korea, dance. The release was most rapid; coming to acceptance was the slowest. Guishan lay down. Strike—yes! Who turns thus to face Guishan, knows to distance herself, dissipating the mist, having other fine considerations. Grindstone went out. Celebration—yes! Meeting the pivot and…

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…

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…

BUDDHIST PRACTITIONERS are all too familiar with the ups and downs of meditative experience, but most have no idea why certain experiences occur while others never happen. When our practice hits a low point, we don’t know how to pull ourselves out. And even when our practice is strong, we don’t know how to sustain it. In truth, on those rare occasions when we do slip into a peaceful, clear state of mind in meditation, we’re most often like a blind cat that has caught a dead mouse. Human experience is complex; what shapes our lives changes from moment to moment with our perception. From the Yogacara, or consciousness-only, perspective, our subtle momentary mental states, or factors, determine the quality and experience of our lives. We are habituated to behave…

Wisdom Publications, 2017, 632 pages; $39.95 Decades in the making, José Ignacio Cabezón’s Sexuality in Classical South Asian Buddhism is a massive, ambitious, and important project. Given its in-depth investigation of the subject, and Cabezón’s status as one of the world’s premier Buddhologists, any practitioner or scholar concerned about Buddhism’s relationship to sex and sexuality would do well to wrestle with this book. For many, though, this will prove a challenge. The world of classical Indian and Tibetan Buddhism Cabezón introduces will be unfamiliar, even weird, to many contemporary Buddhist readers, despite the fact that their own practices and lineages are directly descended from it. Modern Buddhists, especially those who have only been exposed to the minimal and highly selective Buddhist sutric and commentarial literature available in English, may be…

Shozan Jack Haubner’s SINGLE WHITE MONK (Shambhala 2017) is self-deprecating, blunt, humorous, and profoundly troubling. Haubner was a close disciple of the Zen teacher Joshu Sasaki, whose reputation crumbled when his long history of sexually abusing female students made headlines. He begins with a set of autobiographical vignettes before offering a sustained reflection both on the sex scandal that consumed his community and on his teacher’s last days. His introductory notes on death are powerful—“A nurse once told me that patients always die exactly as they lived”—while a story about him waking up and stepping in a bucket of his own urine before kicking it through his paper shoji screen is hilarious and worthy of a sitcomto- be. Yet Haubner’s account of his teacher’s sexual abuse, and of his own…

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…

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…

I. THE EIGHT PRIMARY MINDS or CONSCIOUSNESSES 1. Seeing-consciousness2. Hearing-consciousness3. Smelling-consciousness4. Tasting-consciousness5. Tactile /kinetic consciousness6. Discriminating-consciousness7. Self-referential consciousness8. Storehouse consciousness II. 52 MENTAL FACTORS A. ALWAYS-ACTIVE 9. Sensory contact10. Sensation [of pleasure/pain/neutral]11. Intention12. Conception13. Attention B. SPECIFIC 14. Aspiration15. Appreciation16. Recollection17. Concentration18. Intelligence C. WHOLESOME 19. Faith / Trust20. Self-respect / Conscience21. Consideration / Contrition22. Lack of greed23. Lack of hatred24. Lack of delusion25. Diligence26. Serenity /Joy27. Careful vigilance28. Equanimity / Detachment29. Non-harmfulness D. MENTAL VEXATIONS 30. Attachment31. Aversion32. Ignorance33. Arrogance34. Afflicted skepticism35. Afflicted views E. SECONDARY MENTAL VEXATIONS 36. Wrath37. Vengeance38. Dishonesty39. Maliciousness [verbal]40. Envy41. Miserliness42. Pretension43. Concealment44. Cruelty 45. Conceit46. Shamelessness [of oneself]47. Inconsideration [for others]48. Restlessness49. Mental fogginess50. Lack of faith or trust51. Laziness52. Carelessness53. Forgetfulness54. Distraction55. Non-introspection F. INDETERMINATE 56. Regret57. Sleep58. General investigation59. Precise analysis…

Oxford University Press, 2017 264 pages; $35 In his great poem, “Song of Myself,” Walt Whitman reflects: I think I could turn and live with animals,they are so placid and self-contain’d,I stand and look at them long and long.They do not sweat and whine about their condition,They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins,They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God,Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things,Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago,Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth. Like many of the Transcendentalists, Whitman had a passing knowledge of “Asiatic” philosophies, but his take on the animal realm owes more to Western Romanticism…

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,…