Sometimes when I teach I feel like I’m pretending to be someone I’m not because I see where I fail to live up to these precious teachings. I begin to doubt.
The Enlightenment Project
Rob Preece shares why the Buddhist path isn’t about trying become spiritually evolved, but about being authentic, open, and compassionate.
Starting From Enlightenment
Juhn Ahn reviews “Cultivating Original Enlightenment” by Robert E. Buswell Jr.
If You Could See the Heart Sutra
Paula Arai introduces us to the world of Tsuneo Iwasaki, who discovered a world of practice in giving (actual) shape to the “Heart Sutra.”
How the Sacred Treasure of Literacy Came to Tibet
When written language arrived in Tibet, says Patrick Dowd, it brought the dharma with it.
The Four Immeasurables Leave Nothing Untouched
If you don’t want your happiness to impede that of someone else, says Vanessa Zuisei Goddard, practice the four immeasurables.
The Lamp of Zazen
The point of zazen, says Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, is to live each moment in complete combustion, like a clean-burning kerosene lamp. In this talk at the Tassajara sesshin in the summer of 1969, the great Zen master explains Dogen’s teaching on practicing within imperfection and warns against the arrogance of the false self.
Turning to the Present Moment of Racism
How do we hold the realities of racism in our hearts, asks Doshin Mako Voelkel. And how do we hold the parts of ourselves that might want to look away?
Full-Stop Mind
The late Burmese teacher Mahasi Sayadaw helped to revitalize the Vipassana tradition with his precise teachings on meditation. His student Bhante Bodhidhamma presents Mahasi’s simple and direct method for slowing down and ultimately halting conceptual thinking.
Awareness, from the Moment You Wake Up
We’re often encouraged to bring meditation “off the cushion” and into our everyday lives—Sayadaw U Tejaniya shows us what that really looks like.
Ask the Teachers: How do we determine what is true dharma?
Bhante Sujato, Gesshin Greenwood, Avikrita Vajra Sakya answer the question “How do we determine what is the true dharma?” Question: Buddhism was an oral tradition for hundreds of years, and many of the earliest writings were lost centuries ago. If we can’t have 100 percent certainty about what the Buddha actually taught—and it seems that […]