To understand how to practice mindfulness in daily life, says Gaylon Ferguson, we have to look at all eight steps of the Buddha's noble eightfold path. In his first teaching at Deer Park, the Buddha praised mindfulness: “The Noble Eightfold Path is nourished by living mindfully.” From the beginning, the path of awakening includes all aspects of our human lives: [...]
About Gaylon Ferguson
Breathing Lessons
Richard Rosen, Larry Rosenberg, Edward Espe Brown, and Gaylon Ferguson compare breath practices in yoga and three schools of Buddhism—Theravada, Zen, and Tibetan Buddhism. Exhale and Hold Richard Rosen on the Breath in Yoga American yoga students have been fascinated with asana, the physical "postures" taught in American yoga classes for the last fifty years. Yet [...]
How Your Mind Works
What is this thing we call “self”? We assemble it ourselves, according to Buddhist psychology. Gaylon Ferguson breaks down the five-step process of ego development. William James, one of the founders of modern psychology, wrote in 1890 that our earliest experience of the world is of “a great blooming, buzzing confusion.” While modern research shows that newborns have more [...]
Is Meditation Enough?
Sharon Salzberg, Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, and Gaylon Ferguson examine the central role of meditation in Western Buddhism and explore how other practices, such as study and ritual, may or may not be necessary. With introduction by Norman Fischer. The introduction of Buddhism to the West has necessarily involved comparing and contrasting various aspects of Buddhism with our own [...]
Gods & Kings for Modern Times
All Things Shining: Reading the Western Classics to Find Meaning in a Secular Age By Hubert Dreyfus and Sean Dorrance Kelly Free Press 2011; 272 pp., $26 To Uphold the World: A Call for a New Global Ethic from Ancient India By Bruce Rich Beacon Press 2010; 256 pp., $23 After a recent visit to my doctor for an annual physical exam, I thought about the anxiety-reducing [...]
Happy Together
When we stop focusing on ourselves, we begin to see that our happiness is dependent on the happiness of all beings. Gaylon Ferguson examines the political, social, and environmental implications. The times we live in keep asking us a simple question: Is walking the Buddhist path and all this meditating on the cushion leading to mindful living? Individually and [...]
Shamatha–Vipashyana: It’s Our Original Nature
Gaylon Ferguson says through the practice of both shamatha and vipashyana we bring our mind back to its original state. In the tradition of the buddhadharma that traveled from ancient India to Tibet (and, more recently, to various points west), the two main kinds of meditation practiced are shamatha (peaceful or calm abiding) and vipashyana (insight). These are two [...]
Was the Buddha an Atheist?
Confession of a Buddhist Atheist By Stephen Batchelor Spiegel and Grau, 2010; 336 pp., $26 (cloth) Spiritual Atheism By Steve Antinoff Counterpoint Press, 2009; 151 pp., $14.95 (paperback) Thirty-seven years ago, I became a Buddhist. Here is how it happened: I formally entered the Buddhist path in a short ceremony called “taking refuge,” an ancient ritual [...]
Community: Extending the View of Sangha
Gaylon Ferguson on the importance of sangha communities in the Buddhist tradition. We are human beings walking a path of liberation, and the value of community is linked to our fundamental humanity. As Suzuki Roshi said, “Buddhanature is just another name for our human nature.” As human beings, we are strongly affected by those around us: we share in their joys and sorrows, [...]
Born to Be Kind?
On Kindness By Adam Phillips and Barbara Taylor Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2009; 114 pp., $20 (cloth) Born to Be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life By Dacher Keltner W.W. Norton and Company, 2009; 336 pp., $25.95 (cloth) A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster By Rebecca Solnit Viking Press, 2009; 353 pp., $27.95 [...]
