Dreamworlds of Shamanism and Tibetan Buddhism - Angela Sumegi

Dreamworlds of Shamanism and Tibetan Buddhism: The Third Place - Angela Sumegi
Dreamworlds of Shamanism and Tibetan Buddhism explores the fertile interaction of Buddhism, shamanism, and Tibetan culture with the subject of dreaming. In Tibetan Buddhist literature, there are numerous examples of statements that express the value of dreams as a vehicle of authentic spiritual knowledge and, at the same time, dismiss dreams as the ultra-illusions of an illusory world. Examining the "third place" from the perspective of shamanism and Buddhism, Angela Sumegi provides a fresh look at the contradictory attitudes toward dreams in Tibetan culture. Sumegi questions the longstanding interpretation that views this dichotomy as a difference between popular and elite religion, and theorizes that a better explanation of the ambiguous position of dreams can be gained through attention to the spiritual dynamics at play between Buddhism and an indigenous shamanic presence. By exploring the themes of conflict and resolution that coalesce in the Tibetan experience, and examining dreams as a site of dialogue between shamanism and Buddhism, this book provides an alternate model for understanding dreams in Tibetan Buddhism.


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The American Encounter with Buddhism - Thomas Tweed

The American Encounter with Buddhism, 1844-1912: Victorian Culture and the Limits of Dissent - Thomas Tweed
In this landmark work, Thomas Tweed examines nineteenth-century America's encounter with one of the world's major religions. Exploring the debates about Buddhism that followed upon its introduction in this country, Tweed shows what happened when the transplanted religious movement came into contact with America's established culture and fundamentally different Protestant tradition.

The book, first published in 1992, traces the efforts of various American interpreters to make sense of Buddhism in Western terms. Tweed demonstrates that while many of those interested in Buddhism considered themselves dissenters from American culture, they did not abandon some of the basic values they shared with their fellow Victorians. In the end, the Victorian understanding of Buddhism, even for its most enthusiastic proponents, was significantly shaped by the prevailing culture. Although Buddhism attracted much attention, it ultimately failed to build enduring institutions or gain significant numbers of adherents in the nineteenth century. Not until the following century did a cultural environment more conducive to Buddhism's taking root in America develop.

In a new preface, Tweed addresses Buddhism's growing influence in contemporary American culture.

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Film Review: Wheel of Time

I watched Werner Herzog’s 2003 movie, Wheel of Time the other night, and was powerfully reminded of the difference between Buddhism as a religion—in this instance, the Tibetan variety—and Buddhism as a teaching and a practice that I follow with enthusiasm. Herzog’s movie documents in two parts—the first in Bodh Gaya, the second in Graz, Austria—the Kalachakra Initiation ceremony for the faithful. The first, in India, was cut short by the illness of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, so the Austrian event provided a convenient opportunity to show the completion of the ceremony.

Herzog himself was at first ambivalent about the project, hesitant about the adoption of an eastern religion into Western culture. As he put it, colorfully, in an interview with BBC’s Channel 4 with reference to the Graz ceremony, “Wouldn't it look strange if you were in Bodh Gaya and saw 10,000 Tibetans in Hassidic outfits celebrating Yom Kippur?” An exaggeration, as he himself readily admitted. But his ambivalence reveals itself in the film, as we watch monks chanting and prostrating, creating the awesomely beautiful and intricate sand mandala, and as faithful laypeople make sacred pilgrimages, thumb through long strands of beads, erect strings of prayer flags and twirl their ritual time wheels. Watching the film, I felt like something of an intruder on a practice that remained foreign to me in so many ways, even as I was intrigued by the rituals and awed by the sounds and colors, the “trappings” of the religion.

Not being a religious person, though, I found myself sharing Herzog’s discomfort. To feel the full impact of religious Buddhism in the heart requires a lot more belief than I can muster for any religion, and simply to indulge a fascination for the exoticism of its customs, ritual apparel and paraphernalia seems condescending and inauthentic. Watching the movie, I got stuck between these two irreconcilable attitudes, and failed to achieve that "suspension of disbelief" that Coleridge required for fiction, but which I think is equally applicable to all art forms, even documentary film.

That said, I did find myself seduced, once more, by the Dalai Lama's universal message, repeated at several moments in the course of the film: that we humans are all one, and that compassion for each other is the core of every religion. As Herzog said, in the same interview, to qualify the hesitation cited above: "Yet of course I fully agree with the Dalai Lama on one of his basic views that he voices over and over again - only through understanding other religions will we eventually create lasting peace on this planet.” Bottom line, though, as I hear the Dalai Lama's words, it's not just an understanding and tolerance of other religions that we need, it's the recognition that they all agree on that one fundamental principle: Do unto yourself as you would have others do unto you; or, Love thy brother as thyself.

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 2/28/2009

Alms and offerings are not useless. There is fruit and result, that is, consequences and effects, both of good and bad actions.

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Buddhism:The EBook - Damien Keown, Charles S. Prebish

Buddhism:The EBook - Damien Keown
An invaluable new learning tool for introducing Buddhism. It surveys the entire tradition--giving welcome attention to contemporary developments--but it does so much more. It liberates students from the tedium of flipping pages and connects them immediately to carefully chosen riches from the net. Whether we're in the Ivy League or a community college, our students have been waiting for this eBook. Keown has taken a visionary step. Links, pictures, online resources, and price, this eBook shows us the future of academic publishing. There's no good reason for students to be forced to buy an expensive stack-of-paper textbook anymore when they can have all this, instead. Keown have taken a visionary step and we can take ourselves and our students along with them.

Extensively revised and updated, Buddhism–The eBook, Third Edition is a self contained textbook for an introductory course on Buddhism. Designed for undergraduate level study, it provides everything students and teachers could expect from a printed text and more.

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 2/27/2009

In this very life, get to know the Path. Realize It and make It your own. More than any earthly power is the Entrance to the Stream. A "Stream-Enterer" is one who has entered the stream leading to Nirvana. Some return and some do not.

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Japanese Temple Buddhism: Worldliness in a Religion of Renunciation - Stephen G. Covell

Japanese Temple Buddhism: Worldliness in a Religion of Renunciation - Stephen G. Covell
There have been many studies that focus on aspects of the history of Japanese Buddhism. Until now, none have addressed important questions of organization and practice in contemporary Buddhism, questions such as how Japanese Buddhism came to seen as a religion of funeral practices; how Buddhist institutions envision the role of the laity; and how a married clergy has affected life at temples and the image of priests. This volume is the first to address fully contemporary Buddhist life and institutions—topics often overlooked in the conflict between the rhetoric of renunciation and the practices of clerical marriage and householding that characterize much of Buddhism in today’s Japan. Informed by years of field research and his own experiences training to be a Tendai priest, Stephen Covell skillfully refutes this "corruption paradigm" while revealing the many (often contradictory) facets of contemporary institutional Buddhism, or as Covell terms it, Temple Buddhism.

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Haunting the Buddha: Indian Popular Religions and the Formation of Buddhism - Robert DeCaroli

Haunting the Buddha: Indian Popular Religions and the Formation of Buddhism - Robert DeCaroli
Early European histories of India frequently reflected colonialist agendas. The idea that Indian society had declined from an earlier Golden Age helped justify the colonial presence. It was said, for example, that modern Buddhism had fallen away from its original identity as a purely rational philosophy that arose in the mythical 5th-century BCE Golden Age unsullied by the religious and cultural practices that surrounded it. In this book Robert DeCaroli seeks to place the formation of Buddhism in its appropriate social and political contexts. It is necessary, he says, to acknowledge that the monks and nuns who embodied early Buddhist ideals shared many beliefs held by the communities in which they were raised. In becoming members of the monastic society these individuals did not abandon their beliefs in the efficacy and the dangers represented by minor deities and spirits of the dead. Their new faith, however, gave them revolutionary new mechanisms with which to engage those supernatural beings. Drawing on fieldwork, textual, and iconographic evidence, DeCaroli offers a comprehensive view of early Indian spirit-religions and their contributions to Buddhism-the first attempt at such a study since Ananda Coomaraswamy's pioneering work was published in 1928. The result is an important contribution to our understanding of early Indian religion and society, and will be of interest to those in the fields of Buddhist studies, Asian history, art history, and anthropology.

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Dancing in the Dharma: The Life and Teachings of Ruth Denison - Sandy Boucher

Dancing in the Dharma: The Life and Teachings of Ruth Denison - Sandy Boucher
Devotees of meditation and Eastern spirituality as well as dance enthusiasts will appreciate Boucher's authorized biography of Ruth Denison, dancer and pioneering teacher of Buddhism in the West. Born in pre-World War II Germany, Denison immigrated to the U.S., where she embarked on a serious study of Buddhism with some of the midcentury's greatest teachers. She brought a strongly feminine, body-centered approach to spiritual practice at a time when this was regarded as radical if not subversive. Boucher, a longtime student of Denison's, presents a smoothly flowing chronicle of the achievements of a Buddhist teacher who, after 30 years of international instruction, is no longer marginalized but rather respected for her innovations. Boucher's life repeatedly intersects with Denison's, making this a dual tale of development and discovery and, therefore, doubly compelling. Many will find inspiration in the story of Denison's survival of her Nazi-shadowed youth, Hollywood years, international studies, creativity, and spirituality.

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Sarasvati Riverine Goddess of Knowledge - Catherine Ludvik

Sarasvati Riverine Goddess of Knowledge: From the Manuscript-carrying Vina-player to the Weapon-wielding Defender of the Dharma - Catherine Ludvik
This is a fascinating depiction of the transformation of the Indian riverine goddess from the manuscript-carrying vina-player to the Buddhist weapon-wielding defender of the Dharma. Drawing on Sanskrit and Chinese textual sources, as well as Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist art historical representations, this book traces the conceptual and iconographic development of the riverine goddess of knowledge Sarasvati from some time after 1750 B.C.E. to the seventh century C.E. Through the study of Chinese translations of no longer extant Sanskrit versions of the Buddhist Sutra of Golden Light the author sheds light on Sarasvati's interactions with other Indian goddess cults and their impact on one another.

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The Dharma's Gatekeepers: Sakya Pandita on Buddhist Scholarship in Tibet - Jonathan C. Gold

The Dharma's Gatekeepers: Sakya Pandita on Buddhist Scholarship in Tibet - Jonathan C. Gold
This book describes a Buddhist view of scholarship. It is a study of the Gateway to Learning (Mkhas pa ’jug pa’i sgo), a thirteenth-century Tibetan introduction to scholarship by the great luminary Sakya Pandita. The Gateway is in many ways a unique product of its author’s time, place, and worldview. Yet the brilliance with which Sakya Pandita grasped the intellectual issues of that time and place, and the clarity and depth with which he expressed his worldview, make the Gateway a classic of world literature with lessons that resonate in our time.
The Gateway’s principal audience consisted of the most ambitious scholars among the Tibetan monastic establishment, and these were students who struggled, above all, with the complexities of understanding their scriptures in translations from Sanskrit. Sakya Pandita consequently reflects with greater depth than any other premodern Buddhist on the nature of translation, and on the challenges that the dharma faces during its travels among diverse cultures and languages. The many translated Buddhist scriptures and treatises available to Tibetans during this time contained a bewildering variety of doctrines and practices. So Sakya Pandita provides a unique hermeneutic theory that allows for a diversity of interpretive conventions, each legitimate and applicable in its in scriptural context, while yet defining true mastery as comprehension of all contexts. The intellectual repertoire that the Gateway describes is justified by its claim to continue the practices of the true original san·gha established by the Buddha in India. So Sakya Pandita explicitly elevates this scholarly community to the role of just arbiter not only of its elite membership but of the legitimate possibilities of linguistic meaning itself. These are distinctive views of learning and expertise that are rooted in traditional undo-Tibetan Buddhist thought and entwined around the specific frameworks and needs of Sakya Pandita’s thirteenth-century readership.

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Encountering Buddhism: Western Psychology and Buddhist Teachings - Seth Robert Segall,

Encountering Buddhism: Western Psychology and Buddhist Teachings - Seth Robert SegallCreatively exploring the points of confluence and conflict between Western psychology and Buddhist teachings, various scholars, researchers, and therapists struggle to integrate their diverse psychological orientations--psychoanalytic, humanistic, cognitive-behavioral, transpersonal--with their diverse Theravada and Mahayana Buddhist practices. By investigating the degree to which Buddhist insights are compatible with Western science and culture, they then consider what each philosophical/psychological system has to offer the other. The contributors reveal how Buddhism has changed the way they practice psychotherapy, choose their research topics, and conduct their personal lives. In doing so, they illuminate the relevance of ancient Buddhist texts to contemporary cultural and psychological dilemmas.

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Encountering Buddhism: Western Psychology and Buddhist Teachings - Seth Robert Segall,

Encountering Buddhism: Western Psychology and Buddhist Teachings - Seth Robert Segall
Creatively exploring the points of confluence and conflict between Western psychology and Buddhist teachings, various scholars, researchers, and therapists struggle to integrate their diverse psychological orientations--psychoanalytic, humanistic, cognitive-behavioral, transpersonal--with their diverse Theravada and Mahayana Buddhist practices. By investigating the degree to which Buddhist insights are compatible with Western science and culture, they then consider what each philosophical/psychological system has to offer the other. The contributors reveal how Buddhism has changed the way they practice psychotherapy, choose their research topics, and conduct their personal lives. In doing so, they illuminate the relevance of ancient Buddhist texts to contemporary cultural and psychological dilemmas.

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The Great Perfection - Samten G. Karmay

The Great Perfection - Samten G. Karmay
The Great Perfection (rDzogs chen in Tibetan) is a philosophical and meditative teaching. Its inception is attributed to Vairocana, one of the first seven Tibetan Buddhist monks ordained at Samye in the eight century A.D. The doctrine is regarded among Buddhists as the core of the teachings adhered to by the Nyingmapa school whilst similarly it is held to be the fundamental teaching among the Bonpos, the non-Buddhist school in Tibet. After a historical introduction to Tibetan Buddhism and the Bon, the author deals with the legends of Vairocana (Part I), analysing early documents containing essential elements of the doctrine and comparing them with the Ch'an tradition. He goes on to explore in detail the development of the doctrine in the tenth and eleventh centuries A.D. (Part II). The Tantric doctrines that play an important role are dealt with, as are the rDzogs chen theories in relation to the other major Buddhist doctrines. Different trends in the rDzogs chen tradition are described in Part III. The author has drawn his sources mainly from early unpublished documents which throw light on the origins and development, at the same time also using a variety of sources which enabled him to explicate the crucial position which the doctrine occupies in Tibetan religions.

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Dharma Moments - Danai Chanchaochai

Dharma Moments - Danai Chanchaochai
I am sure this book will achieve this and that it will prove helpful to general readers, especially those who have little previous acquaintance with Buddhism, as well as dedicated Buddhists who have little time to read and study more widely, but are looking for something to inspire them here and now." —from the Introduction by His Holiness the Dalai Lama

At home and at work, we struggle every day with hope and fear, living in the past and anxious about the future. Is there an end to suffering? By putting simple Buddhist teachings into practice in ordinary life, learn how every moment can be a Dharma Moment.

Dharma Moments captures the essence of Buddhist practice to help us thrive in the modern world. More than 40 anecdotes and personal stories illustrate how Buddhist teachings can help us break free from the trappings of materialism; loosen the bonds of anger and envy; triumph over discontent and depression; and make every moment a Dharma moment.

With sound advice about its relevance in today’s busy world, Danai Chanchaochai places the wisdom of the Dharma at the center of our lives, examining such personal and global challenges as dealing with a difficult boss, the impact of 24/7 technology, forgotten business ethics and the effect of nations at war. This wide-ranging collection of deeply personal insights and real-life stories reveals the Buddha’s most enduring principles. Dharma Moments helps us lead richer and more meaningful lives with compassion, respect, self-restraint, honesty, and wisdom.

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The Art of James R. Ure

I finally have my new art website up and running so you can check it out if you haven't seen my work yet. I have reduced prices on the prints and the originals. I have done two paintings available for purchase that are Buddhistm related. Just click on the titles below:

Lord Buddha

The Awakening

The painting below is not specifically Buddhist but does touch on Buddhist themes:

The Veil of God

PHOTO: James working on a new painting that will depict the element Earth including bamboo stalks. I am painting a series of these based on the Taoist emphasis on nature, which will include all four elements.

~Peace to all beings~

Leaving Town...

I leave this morning for the men's training weekend I have mentioned on several occasions in the past. It was a life-saver for me, back in the early 1990s, and I have served on staff many times since that first weekend. Some may recall that I was bellyaching, a while back, about not finding ways to be of service in my life; and that I received, in short order, precisely what I'd wished for: the invitation to staff this weekend. A mixed blessing, since it has already required a great deal of time and effort in preparation, and I harbor deep-seated (irrational, what else?) fears about being in a strange place with people I mostly don't know... Which may have something to do with recent posts about bad sits and sleep loss! Anyway, I look forward to it with a mixture of dread and excitement--and I can live with that paradox! Cardozo, I hope, will be posting one of my film reviews in my absence, and I'll likely be checking back in on Monday. Wish me luck, and have a great weekend.

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 2/26/2009

By being steadfast of mind, development is got, and some gain deliverance thereby. Yet there is a realm without foothold and development. It is unoriginated. Its Supreme Peace is attractive and can be comprehended by the wise. It is called Nirvana - The Middle Path of avoiding extremes makes one both see and know, it leads to peace, to discernment, to enlightenment, to Nirvana.

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Amal (2007)

What's this movie have to do with Buddhism? Not much other than it takes place in India and the main character is a Zen Master, so to speak.

Amal (2007)
Autorickshaw driver AMAL is content with the small but vital role he serves - driving customers around New Delhi as quickly and safely as possible. But his sense of duty is tested by an eccentric, aging billionaire, who, moved by Amal's humility, bequeaths him his entire estate before passing away. With only one month to discover and claim the inheritance, Amal's struggles with duty and wealth are threatened by all those around him - from a young injured beggar girl and a lovely store merchant, to the danger of the old man's upper-caste friends and siblings, all seeking to claim their share of the riches.

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Paramhansa Swami Yogananda: Life-portrait and Reminiscences - Yoga Niketan

Paramhansa Swami Yogananda: Life-portrait and Reminiscences - Yoga Niketan
The writer of this book gathered most of the material for this book directly from his personal talks with Swami Yoganandaji himself, as well as from personal talks with Yoganandajis childhood companion Satyanandaji and Swamijis relatives, friends and students. But most importantly, this writer was made aware of many hitherto unknown things via three particularly essential ways. First: this writer was blessed with Yoganandajis affection and trust. Second: this writer was directly initiated by Swamijis guru Sriyukteshvarji and he was regularly in Sriyukteshvarjis physical company. During this time, this writer was privileged to hear his Gurudev speak descriptively about Yoganandaji carrying out his duties when he was still living in India, as well as Sriyukteshvarjis own feelings at the time and the Divine Grace around such activities. And third: this writer was the exceptional recipient of Swami Satyanandajis great affection and trust. At an incalculably precious moment in a time when the secret methods of Kriya Yoga sadhana were being spread in India and subsequently in the world, the goddess of fate placed upon this writer this undertaking.

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Following Our Bliss: How the Spiritual Ideals of the Sixties Shape Our Lives Today - Don Lattin

Following Our Bliss: How the Spiritual Ideals of the Sixties Shape Our Lives Today - Don Lattin
The sixties transformed America's spiritual life. With his characteristic insight, wit, and dramatic reporting, renowned San Francisco Chronicle journalist Don Lattin takes the first comprehensive look at the spiritual legacy of that extraordinary time, viewed through the eyes of those who grew up at the center of some of the era's wildest experimentation.

The sixties brought an explosion of religious and spiritual exploration, unprecedented in its scope, fervor, and sheer creativity. Lattin reveals how and why New Age beliefs, feminist spirituality, Eastern religions, Tai Chi and yoga, spiritual healing, and other alternative practices have taken such firm root in American culture.

Lattin not only explores dramatic changes in the core American communities of faith -- Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish -- he also tells the stories of what has happened to the likes of the Moonies, the Hare Krishnas, communes and ashrams, and to the children born into various spiritual communities. He shows how religious trends today, including the booming Christian rock movement, Buddhist punks, and contemporary Catholics wrestling with sexual ethics and church authority, have their roots in debates begun in the sixties.

In this stimulating odyssey through American spirituality -- then and now -- Don Lattin makes it clear why we need to understand sixties spirituality if we want to discover who we are today.

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Anger: Wisdom for Cooling the Flames - Thich Nhat Hanh

Anger: Wisdom for Cooling the Flames - Thich Nhat Hanh
Anger. It can not only ruin our health and our spirits, but destroy lives as well. In this timely, compassionate, and important new book, the great spiritual teacher and author of Living Buddha, Living Christ provides real help for transforming the negative force of anger into a positive and useful energy, bringing harmony and healing to all aspects of our lives.

Anger can be one of the most frustrating emotions, carrying us headlong away from ourselves and depositing us into separation and dismay. Vietnamese monk and world teacher Thich Nhat Hanh tackles this most difficult of emotions in Anger. A master at putting complex ideas into simple, colorful packages, Nhat Hanh tells us that, fundamentally, to be angry is to suffer, and that it is our responsibility to alleviate our own suffering. The way to do this is not to fight our emotions or to "let it all out" but to transform ourselves through mindfulness. Emphasizing our basic interdependence, he teaches us how to help others through deep listening and how to water the positive seeds in those around us while starving the negative seeds. Serious though lighthearted, Anger is a handbook not only for transforming anger but for living each moment beautifully.

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The Mystery Of The Tibetan Mummy - The History Channel

The Mystery Of The Tibetan Mummy - The History Channel

High in the Himalayan Mountains a mysterious part of Tibet’s lost history is about to be unearthed. Revealing ancient secrets about the human mind that could have an impact on the way we live today. At 12,000 feet, the body of a Tibetan man has been found seated as if in a state of meditation. He’s perfectly preserved, even a right eye remains, locked in an eternal stare. Authorities know nothing of him, but locals worship him like a God. So who was he and how has his corpse survived today?

His existence is a mystery that Victor Mair, one of the world’s top mummy experts and his team of scientists, are determined to solve. Is it possible that this man could have actually mummified his own body? The Scientific team journey to the site of the mummy armed with the latest medical equipment and perform further tests at the world’s top laboratories.

The investigation reveals secret meditation rituals that can slow the body’s metabolism by forty percent. The wisdom hidden within this ancient culture could forever change our health by initiating a radical new approach to 21st century medicine.

Victor Henry Mair is Full Professor and a Consulting Scholar at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. After graduating from Dartmouth College, Mair entered the United States Peace Corps in 1965 and served as a volunteer in Nepal for two years. In the fall of 1967, Mair entered a program of Buddhist Studies at the University of Washington in Seattle, where he studied Indian Buddhism, Chinese and Japanese Buddhism, Tibetan, and Sanskrit.

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The Inner Kalacakratantra: A Buddhist Tantric View of the Individual - Vesna A. Wallace

The Inner Kalacakratantra: A Buddhist Tantric View of the Individual - Vesna A. Wallace

The Kalachakratantra 's five chapters are classified into three categories: Outer, Inner, and Other Kalachakra. The present work concentrates on the Inner, which deals with the nature of the human being. Wallace discusses this topic and its relationship to the larger concepts of the Kalachakratantra's theory and practice. For example, the view of the individual is shown to be inseparable from its view of the universe. The understanding of the person becomes clear only when examined in the light of the tantric yoga practices described in the Other Kalachakra section. Among the topics explored are: the Tantras's integration of different Indian Buddhist and non-Buddhist religious ideas; the parallels between the Buddhist gnosticism and that of the Judeo-Christian tradition; the birth and death of the individual's transmigratory mind and body; the Kalachakra's unique theory of karma and its approach to the nature of mental afflictions--their causes and their relation to karma.

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The Chord of Love - Ram Dass

The Chord of Love - Ram Dass

The Chord Of Love features readings from mystical eastern poetry and spiritual insights by acclaimed teacher, lecturer and best selling author Ram Dass and Bhakti yoga devotional singing by the group Amazing Grace (featuring Krishna Das, Jai Uttal, Diana Rogers and others). Background accompaniment is performed on a host of traditional eastern instruments including harmonium, dotar and tablas. The readings and music create a relaxed atmosphere lulling the listener into a harmonious sound environment. MP3 format.

1. Prayer To Hanuman
2. Reading I
3. Govinda Jai Jai
4. Shri Krishna Govinda
5. Reading 2
6. Ram Bolo
7. Om Namah Shivaya
8. Sita Ram
9. Reading 3 Ramayana
10. Sita Ram
11. Narayana
12. Reading 4
13. Devi Puja-Jai Jagatambe
14. Jai Bhagavan
15. Meditation

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If the Buddha Married: Creating Enduring Relationships on a Spiritual Path - Charlotte Kasl

If the Buddha Married: Creating Enduring Relationships on a Spiritual Path - Charlotte Kasl
If the Buddha Married is filled with the same highly practical, spiritually sound guidance that so clearly touched a chord with readers of If the Buddha Dated. Charlotte Kasl, Ph.D., is renowned for her ability to speak with depth, wisdom, and humor on important matters of the heart.

In this new book, Kasl inspires us to create fulfilling and vibrant relationships through a commitment to awareness and truth. Combining key teachings of Buddhism with elements of psychology, If the Buddha Married becomes a wise and trusted guide through the joys and thickets of relationships that last and grow.

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Freedom From the Known - Jiddu Krishnamurti

Freedom From the Known - Jiddu Krishnamurti
Krishnamurti shows how people can free themselves radically and immediately from the tyranny of the expected, no matter what their age--opening the door to transforming society and their relationships.

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Think on These Things - Jiddu Krishnamurti

Think on These Things - Jiddu Krishnamurti
The material contained in this volume was originally presented in the form of talks to students, teachers and parents in India, but its keen penetration and lucid simplicity will be deeply meaningful to thoughtful people everywhere, of all ages, and in every walk of life. Krishnamurti examines with characteristic objectivity and insight the expressions of what we are pleased to call our culture, our education, religion, politics and tradition; and he throws much light on such basic emotions as ambition, greed and envy, the desire for security and the lust for power all of which he shows to be deteriorating factors in human society.From the Editors NoteKrishnamurtis observations and explorations of modern mans estate are penetrating and profound, yet given with a disarming simplicity and directness. To listen to him or to read his thoughts is to face oneself and the world with an astonishing morning freshness.Anne Marrow Lindbergh

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Dharma Punx: A Memoir - Noah Levine

Dharma Punx: A Memoir - Noah Levine
Fueled by the music of revolution, anger, fear, and despair, we dyed our hair or shaved our heads ... Eating acid like it was candy and chasing speed with cheap vodka, smoking truckloads of weed, all in a vain attempt to get numb and stay numb.

This is the story of a young man and a generation of angry youths who rebelled against their parents and the unfulfilled promise of the sixties. As with many self-destructive kids, Noah Levine's search for meaning led him first to punk rock, drugs, drinking, and dissatisfaction. But the search didn't end there. Having clearly seen the uselessness of drugs and violence, Noah looked for positive ways to channel his rebellion against what he saw as the lies of society. Fueled by his anger at so much injustice and suffering, Levine now uses that energy and the practice of Buddhism to awaken his natural wisdom and compassion.

While Levine comes to embrace the same spiritual tradition as his father, bestselling author Stephen Levine, he finds his most authentic expression in connecting the seemingly opposed worlds of punk and Buddhism. As Noah Levine delved deeper into Buddhism, he chose not to reject the punk scene, instead integrating the two worlds as a catalyst for transformation. Ultimately, this is an inspiring story about maturing, and how a hostile and lost generation is finally finding its footing. This provocative report takes us deep inside the punk scene and moves from anger, rebellion, and self-destruction, to health, service to others, and genuine spiritual growth.

"Buddhism and punk rock," writes former skate punk, drug addict, and petty thief and current Buddhist meditation instructor Noah Levine in his memoir Dharma Punx, "obviously have some huge differences." No argument there. "But," he continues, "for me they are both part of a single thread that has been stitched through every aspect of my life." Judging by Levine's childhood, it's amazing there's any salvageable material with which to stitch. He was suicidal at age five, smoking pot and drinking beer while crashing headlong into the Bay Area punk scene by the 8th grade, and in and out of jail as a wayward teen who stole VCRs from neighbors to finance a crack habit. After he hit bottom and embraced a Buddhist path similar to that endorsed by his father, author Stephen Levine, the trappings of his previous life were largely rejected. Except for the punk rock, which Levine channeled into a Buddhist worldview. The firs! t section of the book is harrowing as Levine details his descent into addiction and does so with a simple matter-of-fact approach that makes his tale all the more compelling. Levine is a potent central character, always sympathetic even when he's neither likable nor completely forgivable. Later sections lack the same impact and consist largely of travelogues of the author's journeys around the world in search of spiritual satisfaction along with attempts to reconcile the disparate worlds of punk and Buddhism. Nonetheless, it is satisfying to see Levine return to the juvenile halls where he was once incarcerated, this time as a counselor. While there is nothing especially unique about the literary genre of reformed addict memoir, it's a genre that rarely involves punk rockers or Buddhists. Levine's unique and skillfully related journey will appeal to punks, Buddhists, and anyone interested in the idea of redemption.

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The Big Sit Day 3.

Well today is day three of the meditation challenge and I'm going strong. I have been meditating before the start of the challenge but it's great to have this chance to do this with people from all over the world, which feels like a virtual 90 day retreat. I thought of all of humanity as if meditating in one beautiful mass whether morning, noon or night I figured someone was most likely meditating while I was and that was a beautiful thought.

Oneness rose softly yet steadily and firmly into the present moment yesterday while meditating as concentration focused on the cycle of breathes. Soon I was just aware of the breathing and felt as though I was riding in a vast ocean of oneness from wave to wave as my identity slipped from my minds grip with ease. In that moment I was the ocean and the wave but neither at the same time. It made me feel small but not in an insignificant way but rather in a liberating way.

I'm contemplating the genjokoan and hope to have some insights in the days to come.

~Peace to all beings~

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 2/25/2009

Buddha, the Enlightened One, said: "The world is enchanted with pleasure." Don't let it be silly pleasure.

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Buddhism and Taoism Face to Face: Scripture, Ritual, and Iconographic Exchange in Medieval China - Christine Mollier

Buddhism and Taoism Face to Face: Scripture, Ritual, and Iconographic Exchange in Medieval China - Christine Mollier
Christine Mollier reveals in this volume previously unexplored dimensions of the interaction between Buddhism and Taoism in medieval China. While scholars of Chinese religions have long recognized the mutual influences linking the two traditions, Mollier here brings to light their intense contest for hegemony in the domains of scripture and ritual. Drawing on a far-reaching investigation of canonical texts, together with manuscript sources from Dunhuang and the monastic libraries of Japan - many of them studied here for the first time - she demonstrates the competition and complementarity of the two great Chinese religions in their quest to address personal and collective fears of diverse ills, including sorcery, famine, and untimely death.

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Visions of Awakening Space and Time: Dogen and the Lotus Sutra - Taigen Dan Leighton

Visions of Awakening Space and Time: Dogen and the Lotus Sutra - Taigen Dan Leighton
As a religion concerned with universal liberation, Zen grew out of a Buddhist worldview very different from the currently prevalent scientific materialism. Indeed, says Taigen Dan Leighton, Zen cannot be fully understood outside of a worldview that sees reality itself as a vital, dynamic agent of awareness and healing. In this book, Leighton explicates that worldview through the writings of the Zen master Eihei Dogen (1200-1253), considered the founder of the Japanese Soto Zen tradition, which currently enjoys increasing popularity in the West.
The Lotus Sutra, arguably the most important Buddhist scripture in East Asia, contains a famous story about bodhisattvas (enlightening beings) who emerge from under the earth to preserve and expound the Lotus teaching in the distant future. The story reveals that the Buddha only appears to pass away, but actually has been practicing, and will continue to do so, over an inconceivably long life span.
Leighton traces commentaries on the Lotus Sutra from a range of key East Asian Buddhist thinkers, including Daosheng, Zhiyi, Zhanran, Saigyo, Myoe, Nichiren, Hakuin, and Ryokan. But his main focus is Eihei Dogen, the 13th century Japanese Soto Zen founder who imported Zen from China, and whose profuse, provocative, and poetic writings are important to the modern expansion of Buddhism to the West.
Dogen's use of this sutra expresses the critical role of Mahayana vision and imagination as the context of Zen teaching, and his interpretations of this story furthermore reveal his dynamic worldview of the earth, space, and time themselves as vital agents of spiritual awakening.
Leighton argues that Dogen uses the images and metaphors in this story to express his own religious worldview, in which earth, space, and time are lively agents in the bodhisattva project. Broader awareness of Dogen's worldview and its implications, says Leighton, can illuminate the possibilities for contemporary approaches to primary Mahayana concepts and practices.

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The Koan: Texts and Contexts in Zen Buddhism - Steven Heine, Dale S. Wright

The Koan: Texts and Contexts in Zen Buddhism - Steven Heine, Dale S. Wright
Koans are enigmatic spiritual formulas used for religious training in the Zen Buddhist tradition. Arguing that our understanding of the koan tradition has been extremely limited, contributors to this collection examine previously unrecognized factors in the formation of this tradition, and highlight the rich complexity and diversity of koan practice and literature.
Those with a serious interest in the history of Zen Buddhism will find the essays collected here an invaluable resource. The koan, often subject of unwarranted mystification, is examined in a series of eleven substantial essays by an international group of scholars

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Zen Garden - Kokin Gumi

Zen Garden - Kokin Gumi
"Tucked into the sheltered of a quiet courtyard lies a small rectangular plot of carefully raked white gravel..."
So begins the introduction to this CD of meditative music written entirely by Masa Yoshizawa for Kokin-Gumi, whose traditional Japanese instruments and artistry creates a seamless blend of old and new, east and west.

Inspired by the simple beauty of a Zen Garden, a Japanese ensemble performs twelve original compositions, that make the perfect mood for peaceful meditation and enlightenment. Instrumentation includes shakuhachi, shinobue, hichiriki, kotsuzumi, bamboo flutes, koto, bass koto, shamisen & piano.

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A Meme: How Do You Sleep At Night?

I have never done this before. Honest. I'm not sure I should be doing it now. On the other hand, I'm truly interested in what others are experiencing in these most difficult of times.. and especially how hard times are affecting their good night's sleep.

So here's the first question. It's one that John Lennon famously posed, in song--supposedly to Paul McCartney.

1) How do you sleep at night?

Is your sleep affected by the national angst? Do you drop off easily, as you always did? Or does it take a while to get to sleep?

I was talking with a widely-respected financial whiz, the other day, upon whose judgment my wife and I have relied heavily over the years for our financial well-being, and he confided in me that he is losing a good deal of sleep over the current economic crisis and the plummeting stock market. There can be few people in America who remain unaffected by the downturn, and we ourselves--at an, um, respectable age and no longer reliant on such good things as a reliable income--are concerned about the years to come, and particularly about the length of time it might take for the economy to recover. It was hardly encouraging, in this circumstance, to learn that even a cool, wise head like this one has been losing sleep. In his NYT column last Friday, Paul Krugman wrote: "things are so bad that [even] the summarized musings of central bankers can keep you up at night."

I'm normally a fine sleeper, aside from the one or two nightly calls of nature to which I must respond. Lately, though, I have noticed that getting back to sleep is harder than it used to be. My mind is occupied, not necessarily with the global economy front and center, but perhaps--no, I'm sure--somewhere in the background. A general sense of dread. So...

2) What strategies, if needed, do you use to get to sleep? Pills? Sheep? Late night television shows? And/or...?

For me, counting sheep is useless and irritating. And breathing, watching the breath, is no longer a good option: my mind has learned, through meditation practice, that watching the breath means Wake Up! Be Alert! Not exactly conducive to the return to dreamland.

3) Do you wake up in the middle of the night, plagued by obsessive thoughts?

Actually I wake up for that trip to the bathroom. It's when I get back that the obsessive thoughts kick in. And if so...

4) What strategies do you have to get back to sleep?

Hmmm. I have to confess that, once in a while, I resort to popping half an Ambien. Otherwise, patience...

5) Are your dreams affected? Are they more anxious than before? Do they wake you up in a sweat? Or are they peaceful, innocent, undisturbed by the general malaise?

I have, yes, noticed that I have been having anxiety dreams. I have never been too at remembering any of my dreams, though. I'm lucky if I wake up with the tail end of a thread to start unraveling. Last night, a snatch: I was scheduled to give a lecture, and was boarded in a kind of dormitory with a single long corridor. I had the choice of two bathrooms for a shower before my lecture. My friend--I knew him well, but had no idea who he actually was--took one of them... and I found myself locked out of the other. So the anxiety is definitely there in the dreams, something that hangs around after I wake, in ways difficult to describe.

So how are you doing? That's what I'm keen to know. And I thought it might make an interesting meme. About a year or so ago, I kept coming across these strange beasts on the blogosphere. Not so much any more. Maybe everyone is bored with them. And I'm frankly unsure how they work, or if they're just a burdensome nuisance. But should you find it appropriate to address this theme, I'd love to read some entries on your blog sites in response.

I understand that a meme needs rules. Mine are:

Answer the questions
Link back to the original meme
Tag others to participate

I'll understand perfectly should you consider this rude, intrusive, or inappropriate. But in the spirit of authentic meme-ing, I'm tagging, herewith:

A Quiet Watercourse
Adgita Diaries
Dharma Bums
heartinsanfrancisco
Let It Be Lindsey
Marko Polo (even though he's in Greece!)
Principle of Uncertainty
Tara Dharma
Thailand Chani
When This Is, That Is

Please let me know...

And, needless to say, any other of my wonderful blogger friends are welcome to participate as well.

The Big Bang, The Buddha, and the Baby Boom - Wes Nisker

The Big Bang, The Buddha, and the Baby Boom - Wes Nisker
Some deep alternative current has begun flowing out of the spiritual adventures and identity struggles of recent generations. Of course, we didn't create the conditions or questions of this new age; we got caught in them. The ground shifted, the old gods departed, the economic and political utopias crumbled, and the traditional answers were washed away. We didn't leave home; home left us.

How did a nice Jewish boy from Nebraska become a Buddhist in California?

Join Wes "Scoop" Nisker as he takes us on a hilarious, wild ride from West to East and back again in his quest for true self and enlight-enment. Combining the best elements of memoir and social commentary, Nisker uses his own story to illuminate the Baby Boomers' roots of spiritual hunger in postwar America. His journey begins in middle America (Nebraska to be exact) in the middle of the twentieth century, travels through the heyday of the Beats and the Hippies, the birth of the modern environmental movement, and winds up in the current epi-center of Buddhism in the West -- California.

Full of colorful and immediately recognizable figures of art, religion, and popular culture -- from Alfred E. Newman to Allen Ginsberg -- The Big Bang, the Buddha, and the Baby Boom is a guided tour of both the outer and inner move-ments that have culminated in the growing culture of Western Buddhism -- a lasting, vivid picture of how the Baby Boom generation came to be identified with spiritual seeking, how they went about the search, what they have found and created, and what their true legacy is.

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The Teachings of Arnaud Desjardins

The Teachings of Arnaud Desjardins
In October, 2007, Arnaud Desjardins arrived at the Sat Loka ashram in Bozeman, Montana. His purpose was to deliver the teachings on non-duality that he had received from his guru, Swami Prajnanpad, and which have formed the basis for his own work with students for over thirty years. To effectively communicate the foundation of this teaching, Arnaud had said, would require ten days of teaching.
The teachings in this collection are a record of the talks and dialogues that occurred over those ten remarkable days. They represent the fruits of a lifetime of spiritual exploration, discovery, and realization. Throughout, Arnaud demonstrates an outlook on Advaita Vedanta (the classical Indian tradition of non-dualism) that is completely unique: an earthy, pragmatic, life-affirming approach to "being one with" that does not reject the relative in its focus on the absolute. Encompassing everything from the importance of psychological healing to the highest possibilities of human realization, and enlivened by intimate stories from his own spiritual process, Arnaud offers a perspective on ancient spiritual wisdom that is striking in its clarity, rigor, and sense of possibility.

Arnaud Desjardins, one of the most highly regarded Western spiritual teachers, was born in Paris in 1925. In the 1960's he became well known as a director and producer for French television, making a series of acclaimed documentaries on spiritual teachers from India, Tibet, Afghanistan, and Japan. These films helped bring authentic Eastern spiritual traditions to a wide audience in France for the first time. In 1965 he met his Teacher, Swami Prajnanpad, who subsequently instructed Arnaud to begin teaching and to found his own ashram. Since 1974 Arnaud has been the leader of his own spiritual community and an active proponent of dialogue between teachers in a wide variety of spiritual traditions. This is the first time he has offered in-depth teachings in English.

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The Different Paths Of Buddhism: A Narrative-historical Introduction - Carl Olson

The Different Paths Of Buddhism: A Narrative-historical Introduction- Carl Olson
For centuries, Buddhist teachers and laypeople have used stories, symbols, cultural metaphors, and anecdotes to teach and express their religious views. In this introductory textbook, Carl Olson draws on these narrative traditions to detail the development of Buddhism from the life of the historical Buddha to the present.

The book offers a comprehensive introduction to the main branches of the Buddhist tradition in both the Mahayana and Theravada schools, including the Madhyamika school, the Yogacara school, Pure Land devotionalism, Tibetan Tantric Buddhism, Zen Buddhism, and village folk Buddhist traditions. Chapters explore the life and teachings of the Buddha in historical context, the early development and institutionalization of Buddhism, its geographic spread across Asia and eventually to the United States, philosophy and ethics, the relationship between monks and laity, political and ethical implications, the role of women in the Buddhist tradition, and contemporary reinterpretations of Buddhism.

Drawn from decades of classroom experience, this creative and ambitious text combines expert scholarship and engaging stories that offer much-needed perspective to the existing literature on the topic.

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The Mystique of Transmission: On an Early Chan History and Its Contexts - Wendi Adamek

The Mystique of Transmission: On an Early Chan History and Its Contexts - Wendi Adamek
The Mystique of Transmission is a close reading of a late-eighth-century Chan/Zen Buddhist hagiographical work, the Lidai fabao ji ( Record of the Dharma-Jewel Through the Generations), and is its first English translation. The text is the only remaining relic of the little-known Bao Tang Chan school of Sichuan, and combines a sectarian history of Buddhism and Chan in China with an account of the eighth-century Chan master Wuzhu in Sichuan.

Chinese religions scholar Wendi Adamek compares the Lidai fabao ji with other sources from the fourth through eighth centuries, chronicling changes in the doctrines and practices involved in transmitting medieval Chinese Buddhist teachings. While Adamek is concerned with familiar Chan themes like patriarchal genealogies and the ideology of sudden enlightenment, she also highlights topics that make Lidai fabao ji distinctive: formless practice, the inclusion of female practitioners, the influence of Daoist metaphysics, and connections with early Tibetan Buddhism.

The Lidai fabao ji was unearthed in the early twentieth century in the Mogao caves at the Silk Road oasis of Dunhuang in northwestern China. Discovery of the Dunhuang manuscripts has been compared with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, as these documents have radically changed our understanding of medieval China and Buddhism. A crucial volume for students and scholars, The Mystique of Transmission offers a rare glimpse of a lost world and fills an important gap in the timeline of Chinese and Buddhist history.

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Mipam on Buddha-Nature: The Ground of the Nyingma Tradition - Douglas S. Duckworth

Mipam on Buddha-Nature: The Ground of the Nyingma Tradition - Douglas S. Duckworth
A comprehensive overview of Tibetan Buddhist thinker Mipam's work on emptiness and Buddha-nature.
Mipam ('ju mi pham rgya mtsho, 1846-1912) is one of the most prolific thinkers in the history of Tibet and is a key figure in the Nyingma tradition of Buddhism. His works continue to be widely studied in the Tibetan cultural region and beyond. This book provides an in-depth account of Mipam's view, drawing on a wide range of his works and offering several new translations. Douglas S. Duckworth shows how a dialectic of presence and absence permeates Mipam's writings on the Middle Way and Buddha-nature.
Arguably the most important doctrine in Buddhism, Buddha-nature is, for Mipam, equivalent to the true meaning of emptiness; it is the ground of all and the common ground shared by sentient beings and Buddhas. This ground is the foundation of the path and inseparable from the goal of Buddhahood. Duckworth probes deeply into Mipam's writings on Buddha-nature to illuminate its central place in a dynamic Buddhist philosophy.
"The author brings impressive detail and erudition to bear on this topic; he is clearly well read in the relevant Tibetan materials, the Indian background, and relevant contemporary scholarship. This book represents a significant contribution to the fields of Tibetan and Buddhist studies, and it fills a gap in our knowledge of Nyingma philosophy."

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 2/24/2009

The unrestrained mind leads to great harm.

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The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism: Its Fundamentals and History - Dudjom Rinpoche

The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism: Its Fundamentals and History - Dudjom Rinpoche
Written by a great modern Nyingma master, Dudjom Rinpoche's The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism covers in detail and depth both the fundamental teachings and the history of Tibetan Buddhism's oldest school. This, the first English translation of His Holiness' masterwork, constitutes the most complete work of its type in the West.
An absolute treasure for students of the tradition, it is also an indispensable reference for anyone with an interest in Buddhism. The book includes chronologies and glossaries that elucidate Buddhist doctrine, and it provides fascinating insights into the Buddhist history of Tibet. Two treatises form the present volume, namely the Fundamentals of the Nyingma Schooland the History of the Nyingma School. Among the most widely read of all His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche's works, these treatises were composed during the years immediately following his arrival in India as a refugee. His intention in writing them was to preserve the precise structure of the Nyingma philosophical view within its own historical and cultural context.
This is the first time this text has been available in a trade edition. Beautifully presented, this single-volume edition represents a truly wonderful gift, and features illustrations in black and white and in color, plus maps, bibliographic information, and useful annotations.
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