Archives: BD Articles
We Give What We Hope to Receive
According to Dawa Tarchin Phillips, the work in the Buddhist BIPOC community is about recognizing the need for dignity, safety, and access—and then offering those same things.
I Will Follow in the Direction of Hope
Larry Ward looks at the path of leadership, and how we get entangled along the way.
It’s About Time : 20 Years of Buddhadharma
Editor Koun Franz introduces the 20th anniversary issue of Buddhadharma: The Practitioner's Guide, which looks back at where Western Buddhism has been, and what might lie ahead.
Buddhadharma Book Briefs for Fall 2022
Joie Szu-Chiao Chen reviews Lauren Shufran’s "The Buddha and the Bard: Where Shakespeare’s Stage Meets Buddhist Scriptures," Rachael Stevens’ "Red Tara: The Female Buddha of Power and Magnetism," a new translation of Dogen’s Zuimonki, and more.
It’s Time to Redefine “We”
How, asks Brian Joshin Byrnes, do we as Buddhists come into genuine contact with the people and places we reject?
Learning Is the Path Forward
Sonam Kachru reminds us we are all on a path of learning—and that we always have a long way to go.
How Are We Meeting This Moment?
Stephanie Kaza invites Buddhist communities, and specifically Buddhist leaders, to take a serious look at how they are—or aren’t—responding to the climate crisis.
How do I maintain my faith in Buddhist teachings?
Willa Blythe Baker, Josh Korda, and Tenku Ruff answer a practitioner's question about losing faith in the institutions of Buddhism and the dharma itself.
Welcoming Faith
For Myokei Caine-Barrett, how we welcome the various parts of our traditions is a reflection of how we welcome others.
Oh Tara, Protect Us
In this teaching, Thubten Chodron comments on a prayer to the buddha Tara to protect us from the eight dangers.
How do we retain passion while accepting all of life equally?
The teachers are asked "How do we retain passion while accepting all of life with equanimity?"
How do you know if you should practice with one Buddhist teacher or another?
the teachers are asked "How do you know if you should be with one teacher or another?"
How can I engage with emotions in a way that turns me towards the Dharma?
The teachers are asked how to engage emotional provocations and self-centeredness in ways that turn us toward dharma practice and life.
How Do We Make Sense of Rebirth?
Questions around rebirth—from how it works to whether it’s even real—have energized and divided Buddhists for millennia. In this excerpt from his book "Rebirth," Roger R. Jackson unpacks the complexity of it all and offers four basic approaches to incorporating it (or not) into our own practice.
Buddhism, Nonviolence, and the Moral Quandary of Ukraine
How does Buddhism make sense of war? In the abstract, the teachings are straightforward. But according to Bhikkhu Bodhi, if we find ourselves supporting those who are fighting back in Ukraine, then we have to ask some hard questions—and maybe accept some uncomfortable truths.
Zen in Vietnam: The Making of a Tradition
A century ago, Buddhists in Vietnam—and in much of Asia—started rewriting their traditions, and in some cases even their history. Alec Soucy explains how what we think we know of Vietnamese Buddhism points to a much more complex reality.
Wisdom Seeks for Wisdom
In this teaching from 1965—taken from the oldest extant recording of his talks—Shunryu Suzuki Roshi explains what it means to understand your true nature.
Buddhadharma Book Briefs for Summer 2022
Joie Szu-Chiao Chen reviews Through the Forests of Every Color by Joan Sutherland, Renunciation and Longing by Annabella Pitkin, The Dharma in DNA by Dee Denver, and more.
Listen, Contemplate, Meditate
These instructions, which appear across traditions, sound so simple that we may imagine they’re self-explanatory. Lama Karma Yeshe Chödrön invites us to look deeper.
Is Buddhism about ethics or enlightenment?
Bhante Sumano, Jisho Sara Siebert, and Gaylon Ferguson explore the meaning of ethics and enlightenment on the Buddhist path.