Archives: BD Articles
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.
We Cannot Ignore Buddhist Extremism
If we don’t allow our practice to include the political, asks Brenna Artinger, then how can we stand up to those who do?
Black Buddhists, Black Buddhisms
Rhonda Magee reviews "Black Buddhists and the Black Radical Tradition," by Rima Vesely-Flad.
Forum: BIPOC Buddhism
La Sarmiento, Margarita Loinaz, and Carol Iwata discuss the experiences of BIPOC Buddhist practitioners—the obstacles they face, and the contributions they are making. Moderated and with an introduction by Mariana Restrepo.
Meditation Only Goes So Far
If you want to connect with the open, spacious quality of mind, says Willa Blythe Baker, at some point you have to stop trying to meditate.
10 Steps to Tame the Elephant
For generations, Tibetan practitioners have been guided by a chart outlining the nine stages of samatha meditation. Jan Willis takes us through the map and introduces us to the characters along the way.
The View from This Shore
Koun Franz considers what it means when a path of transcendence leaves us right where we always were.
How to Practice Sila Without Calculation
How do we practice ethical conduct, or sila, without falling into judgment, and without ignoring the complexity of each moment? According to Norman Fischer, the way has always been there.
Lean Into Suffering Through Khanti
Sister Clear Grace Dayananda left the monastery, packed her life into a little van, and went out into the world to meet people where they are and where they are suffering. Here, she considers khanti, the paramita of forbearance, and the work it requires.
No Separate Thing
The abbot of Toledo, Ohio's Buddha Eye Temple on the crucial quality of vigor. Its practice, he contends, "is here in this present step. How do we walk right now? What result is in the step itself?"
Generosity Comes First
In any presentation of the paramitas, dana, or generosity, always comes first — Nikki Mirghafori explains why.
The Freedom of Emptiness
At the heart of the path of the paramitas is prajna, or wisdom—but a wisdom that goes beyond our conventional ideas about it. Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche unpacks how that kind of wisdom works.