buddhadharma summer 2015 form versus essence cover

Inside the Summer 2015 Buddhadharma magazine

Take a look inside the Summer 2015 issue of Buddhadharma, with features on koans, ritual, and dream yoga.

By Lion’s Roar

Click here to watch the full version of this issue’s Dialogue, in which Josh Korda and Koshin Paley Ellison discuss spiritual bypassing.

Features

Waking Up from the Dream of a Lifetime

Buddhist practitioners have long understood that the illusions we encounter in dreams are the same ones we encounter in waking life. Andrew Holecek shows us how the Vajrayana techniques of dream yoga help us wake up to reality.

Performing the Dharma

Gesshin Greenwood moved to Japan, shaved her head, and adopted the forms of a Zen nun. Now, five years later, she’s wondering where she—and the tradition—would be without them.

Form vs. Essence

Is ritual a deep practice or merely cultural? Five Buddhist teachers explore the tension many of us feel between ritual and the essence of the dharma.

Thanissara: A Fine Line

John Daido Loori: The Dharma Must Be Danced

Shinshu Roberts: Just Bow Anyway

Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche: Don’t Be Naive

Tulku Thondup Rinpoche: Stepping-stones to Wisdom

Looking Beyond the Lens

In this commentary on the classic poem The Song of AwakeningKodo Sawaki Roshi explains that if we want to see the world of the Buddha, we must first learn to see with a buddha’s eyes.

The Homeless Monk

It’s been fifty years since the death of “Homeless” Kodo Sawaki. Shohaku Okumura recounts Sawaki’s journey and uncompromising approach to the dharma.

Forum: Koans: How They Work and How They Work on Us

Joan Sutherland, Judith Roitman, and Bodhin Kjolhede examine the practice of koan introspection, how different traditions approach it, and how the way we engage with them is changing. Introduction by Ross Bolleter.

The Spirit of Practice

If we’re not careful, says Ajahn Munindo, we can get attached to the technique of meditation and lose touch with its spirit. Sometimes we need to take a more creative approach.

Ruth’s Uncompromising Way

Ruth Denison, a pioneer of vipassana in Europe and the United States, passed away in February at the age of ninety-one. Nina Wise remembers her as a compassionate and fearless innovator.

Departments

Commentary

Koun Franz: We Can’t Escape Form

First Thoughts

Ask the Teachers

Does our practice weaken in old age?

In Focus

Planting Zen in Portland

Dialogues

Josh Korda and Koshin Paley Ellison

Feature Review

Waking, Dreaming, Being, by Evan Thompson

Reviewed by Marissa Krimsky

Journeys

David Rothblatt: Touching the Ground

Lion's Roar

Lion’s Roar

Lion’s Roar is a non-profit media organization offering Buddhist wisdom and mindful living to benefit our lives and create a more caring and just world.