Indholdsfortegnelse for Fall 2015 i Buddhadharma: The Practitioner's Quarterly

Many dharma communities are led by a teacher—usually the founder—who typically occupies a dominant role in organizational governance. If there are several teachers, a teachers’ council may form that holds as much or more power than the organization’s board of directors. But the depth of a dharma teacher’s teaching and spiritual ministering, while at the heart of any meditation community, does not indicate they have the needed skills for organizational development and management. Teachers, often by their community’s own design, disproportionately influence their sangha’s decision-making. This hierarchical model might work in Asia, but it can feel incongruent in the West given the democratic ideals of North American culture, the values embodied by our separation of church and state, and the checks and balances serving to protect against the confluence of…

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS in Burma have brought the world’s attention to the ongoing conflicts between Buddhists and Muslims in South and Southeast Asia. But while the media may present the Buddhist–Muslim conflicts in Sri Lanka, southern Thailand, and Burma as fundamentally the same at their core, they are not. Far from this, these three conflicts stem from specific regional issues and politics. Furthermore, each conflict emerges out of an important historical context. However, through globalization, these conflicts are beginning to overlap. SRI LANKA: EMERGING FROM CIVIL WAR Sri Lanka is currently recovering from a twenty-sixyear civil war (1983–2009) between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). While the civil war was principally over the LTTE’s desire for independence, it came to be infused with religious symbolism…

CASE 31: ZHAOZHOU TESTS THE OLD GRANNY THE CASE A monk asked an old granny, “Which way is the road to Mount Wutai?” The old granny replied, “Straight ahead!” When the monk took a few steps in that direction, the old granny remarked, “Yet another fine monk goes off like that!” Later, the monk brought this up to Zhaozhou, who said, “Wait till I go and check out this old granny for you.” The next day Zhaozhou went to the old granny and asked the exact same question. Her answer was the same as before. When Zhaozhou returned, he gathered his congregation and said, “I’ve seen through the old granny of Mount Wutai for you all.” WUMEN’S COMMENT The old granny only knew how to sit within her headquarters tent…

The Dalai Lama and the Emperor of China by Peter Schwieger (Columbia 2015) offers new insight into the history of reincarnated leadership in Tibet, focusing on the Dalai Lamas and their relationship with Mongol, Manchu, and modern Chinese rulers. Schwieger explains how the line of Dalai Lamas emerged, beginning with Gendun Drupa (1391–1474), a disciple of the Gelukpa school’s founder, Tsongkhapa (1357–1419), and flourishing by the time of the Great Fifth Dalai Lama (1617–82), whose support from Mongol powers elevated him to the height of Tibetan authority. The union of religious and political leadership in the figure of the Dalai Lama gained acceptance among Tibetans and Mongols, but with the death of the Great Fifth and conflict among Mongol groups, the leaders of China’s Qing Dynasty became increasingly involved in…

The Fine Art of Failing In her commencement speech at Naropa University, Pema Chödrön explains that if there’s one thing we all need to practice, it’s how to fail well. When Naropa asked me for the topic of my talk, I decided not to give it to them because I thought if I did, they wouldn’t let me do it! My talk is inspired by a quote from Samuel Beckett that goes like this: “Fail. Fail again. Fail better.” I thought if there is one skill that is not stressed very much but is really needed, it is knowing how to fail well. The fine art of failing. There is a lot of emphasis on succeeding. And whether we buy the hype or not, we all want to succeed, especially…

HERE IS THE NINETY-FOURTH case from the koan collection The Book of Serenity: Once when Dongshan was ill, a monastic asked him, “You are ill, teacher, but is there anyone who doesn’t get ill?” Dongshan said, “There is.” The monastic said, “Does the one who doesn’t get ill look after you?” Dongshan said, “I look after him.” The monastic said, “How is it when you look after him?” Dongshan said, “Then I don’t see that he has any illness.” We all suffer from illness from time to time, and usually when that happens, our practice goes out the window. The illness becomes compelling and we forget about whatever else we were trying to do. We are completely occupied with the illness, which we don’t like, so we become crabby and…

Tantric Buddhism of the Himalayan region, also known as Vajrayana Buddhism, is a rich and esoteric tradition extending initially from a body of texts called the yoganiruttara tantras, which began to appear in Buddhist communities around the sixth and seventh centuries in Northern India. Vajrayana, within the tradition itself, is understood to originate from a range of sources, including the historical Buddha, who was said to have expounded tantra during his lifetime at Dharanikota. Some tantras are attributed to primordial buddhas, such as Vajradhara or Samantrabhadra, who exist outside the context of time and space. And some, primarily emerging within the Nyingma and Bön lineages, are categorized as terma, or “treasure teachings,” that have been unearthed over the centuries by terton, “treasure finders” within the Himalayan region. Vajrayana has a…

Why would someone who is interested in enhancing their general sense of happiness and well-being get involved in Buddhism when they could more easily learn what they need to know from secular mindfulness? Buddhism, after all, feels to some like an exotic Eastern religion, cloaked in cryptic chanting with mysterious rituals, and often taught by robed Easterners or senior Westerners. Why not just go to the essential training of mindfulness and learn it free from all the religious trappings? This is the question a small group of Vipassana teachers pondered last year. Stand-alone mindfulness seems to offer tremendous benefits for many facing emotional and psychological difficulties. Statistically, many more Westerners are entering mindfulness meditation training through secular mindfulness than through traditional Buddhist practices, and according to current research, secular mindfulness…

MEDITATION CENTERS 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. CALIFORNIA TENDAI MONASTERY PO Box 811, Cobb, CA 95426. (707) 295-7733, vkleary9@yahoo.com, www.caltendai.org ❖ A training monastery for bodhisattva monks practicing Japanese Mantrayana: fire offering (goma); mountain walking asceticism; Ajikan meditation; and vegetarian diet. 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…

Q When I hear Buddhist teachers say, “Don’t believe everything you think,” I’m not sure I understand. How can I know which thoughts to believe? For instance, I seem to constantly have an unbidden thought that I wish I weren’t married to my spouse. But then I think, well, I’m a Buddhist, I don’t have to believe this thought. Besides, this is not something I would discuss or act on—it would totally devastate my wife. I hold to other Buddhist-inspired thoughts as well, such as be kind and don’t hurt people, and I try to follow the bodhisattva vow, putting her happiness ahead of mine. But this nagging, unbidden thought won’t go away. When does not believing your thoughts become something like disassociation or even lying instead of something wholesome?…

Perhaps no aspect of the Buddha’s teaching has been both more misunderstood and neglected than right concentration. Yet right concentration is obviously an integral part of the Buddha’s path to awakening: the final item of the noble eightfold path, it is exemplified by, and sometimes even defined as, the jhanas. Before his awakening, the Buddha remembered an incident from his childhood when he had experienced the first jhana; upon further reflection, he concluded, “That is indeed the path to awakening.” The word “jhana” literally means “meditation”; it comes from the verb jhayati, which means “to meditate.” Many times, the Buddha would give a dhamma talk and close it by saying, “There are these roots of trees, these empty huts—go meditate (jhayati).” From this usage of jhayati, it seems certain that…

IT IS A FINE THURSDAY IN SEPTEMBER. My brother is visiting; we are about to go out for breakfast when Kakumyo calls. What’s up? His voice is serious and the words instantly fade out of reach. I hear only “Kyogen” and “heart attack” before I yelp. What! No! and then I am coping: Okay, I’m coming, which hospital? And then he says, Wait. And then he says, He died. When I hang up, my brother is hovering beside me, confused. I try to explain, already ticking off the list of what I need to bring: my rakusu, my tablet, a copy of the exhortations. The dog? What should I do with the dog? My brother shifts from foot to foot: What happened? Tell me what happened. And then I just…

Recently, for the first time in my life, I had a full-blown panic attack. I woke up in the middle of the night with my heart thumping, and with electric jolts running through my body. Luckily, from my work as a clinical psychologist, I knew what was happening. But I can understand why many people who have panic attacks feel as though they are having a heart attack and dying. I spent the predawn hour jogging through my neighborhood, trying to work through the anxiety coursing through my body. And then I spent the next four days practicing with panic. Not coincidentally, I had a blessing ceremony and celebration event scheduled for the following week to mark the occasion of becoming a teacher in the Koan Zen tradition. I hadn’t…