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 Awakening, Kodo 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