Indholdsfortegnelse for Fall 2020 i Buddhadharma: The Practitioner's Quarterly

HAD SOMEONE TOLD Susan O’Connell, when she started her Zen journey over thirty years ago, that one day the San Francisco Zen Center would be a partner in a retirement community, she would have politely questioned their sanity. And yet today that very same Susan O’Connell is spearheading one of the most audacious Life Plan Communities ever imagined. Enso Village in Sonoma County will be the first of its kind—an inclusive, retirement community where Zen practice will influence every aspect of living from design and architecture to healthcare, cuisine and community culture. Architectural plans are being developed and approvals from the City of Healdsburg are underway. “Our focus is on mindful aging, experiencing the joys of nature, participating in environmental stewardship, and providing contemplative care for adults over the age…

Dear White People (including myself), It rips my heart out that I have had to craft yet another vapid statement about an awful, heartrending crisis showcasing our failure as white people. As Black people die, we white people make platitudes from our safe refuges. As Soto Zen priests, we are called to see the cries of the world, to save all beings, to meet suffering in the world around us. We are failing. Black people are dying in disproportionate numbers during this pandemic because of racism. The causes and conditions that lead to their increased likelihood to die from coronavirus are racism. The high rate of heart disease, obesity, and diabetes comes from racism. “Weathering” (accelerated aging due to the chronic stress of discrimination and financial disadvantage) happens to Black…

I’VE BEEN REFLECTING on the environmental crisis, and as I do, I find myself in the darkness, as I imagine we all are to some degree. And that says something, something we shouldn’t brush aside or try to make go away. This is a place for sharing truth—and the truth right now is darkness. I sometimes reflect on how I’ve been practicing meditation, morality, restraint, generosity, sharing, and simplicity for more than forty years with as much integrity as possible. I shouldn’t have to feel this bad, this hopeless, this helpless, this guilty. Yet when I look at this crisis, I’m in the dark. Recently I’ve been on retreat in the woods at Citta-viveka Monastery. Back in the 1970s, we were very fortunate to have been gifted about 150 acres…

Spacious Minds: Trauma and Resilience in Tibetan Buddhism by Sara E. Lewis Cornell University Press, 2020 252 pages; $24.95 BUDDHISM IN THE WEST is having a difficult time. With allegations of misconduct made against teachers in several of our communities, there is now widespread disillusionment and organizational chaos. Of course, similar problems exist in other faith traditions, and the #MeToo movement has been revealing these issues throughout all levels of society. Many of us are experiencing personal spiritual crises and grappling with the reemergence of pain from past traumas, oppression, and other abuses of power to which we’ve been subjected. For those in positions of privilege and seats of power, the challenge has been to listen and acknowledge that others have been suffering. We are at a cultural moment at…

LAMA WILLA MILLER is the founder and spiritual director of Natural Dharma Fellowship in Boston as well as its retreat center, Wonder-well Mountain Refuge, in Springfield, New Hampshire. She is an authorized teacher in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, having completed two three-year retreats, and the author of The Arts of Contemplative Care, Everyday Dharma, and Essence of Ambrosia. Her forthcoming book explores the body’s natural wisdom. AJAHN SUCITTO is a Theravada monk, born in Britain and ordained in Thailand in 1976. He served as abbot of Cittaviveka (Chithurst Buddhist Monastery) in England from 1992 to 2014, and remains based there as a teacher. He co-edits the website dhamma moon, which offers “practice-notes on the joys, struggles, humour and pain of the journey towards truth and freedom.” His latest book, Buddha-Nature,…

OREN JAY SOFER: The Buddha’s teaching is fundamentally hopeful. It affirms that there is a reliable way to release ourselves from suffering, to protect other beings, mitigate harm, and build a better world. I suffered from chronic illness for a few years in my thirties. For the first few months, with each new doctor, my mind soared with hopeful expectation for promising treatments, then crashed in fearful despair when it failed to deliver. Those years taught me a lot about the difference between hope based on craving and the steady energy of wise aspiration. What we might call “ordinary hope” directs our longing for happiness in an unskillful way. It places our well-being on an uncertain, imagined future beyond our control, thereby feeding craving and fixation. When the wished-for outcome…

May those who are in danger of being threatened or killed by kings, thieves, or scoundrels, who are troubled by hundreds of different fears, may all those beings who are oppressed by the advent of troubles be delivered from those hundreds of extreme very dreadful fears. May those who are beaten, bound, and tortured by bonds … distracted by numerous thousands of labors, who have become afflicted by various fears and cruel anxiety … may they all be delivered; may the beaten be delivered from the beaters, may the condemned be united with life … May those beings oppressed by hunger and thirst obtain a variety of food and drink. —The Sutra of Golden Light, translated by R. E. Emmerick(Luzac and Co., 1970) THIS IS OUR WISH as practitioners. It…

Sometimes hope can come in the form of a good story. Alicia Turner, Laurence Cox, and Brian Bocking offer just that in The Irish Buddhist: The Forgotten Monk Who Faced Down the British Empire (Oxford), though they are careful to show that this is neither a white savior narrative nor a hagiography. Through an astounding feat of historical detective work, the authors recount the life of a working-class Irishman ordained as U Dhammaloka at the turn of the twentieth century. He became a minor international celebrity for his staunchly pro-Buddhist and pro-Burmese activism, which provoked the ire of colonial authorities who saw his advocacy as a challenge to the British imperial enterprise. Unlike his contemporaries—mostly middle-class English gentlemen-monks more interested in philosophy than politics—Dhammaloka was a “poor white” drifter turned…

After studying archaeology, anthropology, and art history at university, British artist Antony Gormley (page 20) spent three years in India, where he studied meditation and at one point considered becoming a Buddhist monk. But his path instead took him deeper into his art, most of which focuses on the human body—or, as he puts it, “the nature of the space a human being inhabits.” In stark sculptures and drawings, Gormley’s usually solitary subjects evoke a loneliness and depth of experience that is sometimes surprising—especially given that they are essentially faceless. Alexandra Duprez (page 106) has lived most of her life in Douarnenez, a commune in northwest France. But it was a trip to Australia at age seventeen, and her reaction to the Aboriginal painting she found there, that inspired her…

AROUND THE PERIPHERY of the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodhgaya, India, along a path where pilgrims circumambulate, rose-colored walls of solid stone depict scenes from the Buddha’s life, hand carved in lifelike relief. My favorite of these is the scene depicting the night before the Buddha’s enlightenment, when he was visited by the maras, projections of his own delusion, desire, and aversion. The scene depicts the Buddha seated peacefully, surrounded by sensual maidens, ferocious beasts, and furious demons threatening him with spears and clamoring for his attention. I’ve always been struck by the juxtaposition of the swirling vigor and emotion of the maras and the insouciance of the Buddha. How is it possible to remain motionless and peaceful, with eyes lowered and a smile on one’s face, while threats swirl so…

CALIFORNIA DHARMA REALM BUDDHIST UNIVERSITY 4951 Bodhi Way, Ukiah, CA 95482. (707) 621-7000, info@drbu.edu, www.drbu.edu • Dharma Realm Buddhist University (DRBU) is an accredited university in northern California dedicated to liberal education in the broad Buddhist tradition. DZOKDEN 3436 Divisadero St, San Francisco, CA 94123. (415) 810-6168, office@dzokden.org, dzokden.org • Online and in-person classes on Kalachakra, Jonang Ngondro, Rimé philosophy, Zhentong-Rangtong Emptiness and Meditation. We hold special Events & empowerments throughout the USA (California, New York, Colorado, and Oregon). INSIGHT LA MEDITATION 1430 Olympic Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90404. (310) 450-1821, programs@ insightla.or, insightla.org • InsightLA Meditation is a meditation center teaching the highest quality evidence-based mindfulness practices throughout the Greater Los Angeles area. For 17 years, we have offered classes, retreats, and special events in an open and welcoming…