In this commentary from the Summer 2018 issue of Buddhadharma: The Practitioner's Quarterly, Justin von Bujdoss reflects on changing the way we think about lineage. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed. In our climate of unending gun violence, extreme rhetoric in domestic and international politics, and environmental crisis, I find myself needing to lean not only on my practice [...]
Compassion Has No Enemy
In the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012, Chan Buddhist teacher Guo Gu looked at how to understand violence through the lens of the three poisons. My teacher, the late Master Sheng Yen, once said something very simple, but which requires a lifetime of practice to actualize. I share it with you in this difficult time: “Wisdom does not give rise to vexations; compassion [...]
The Fourfold Sangha Still Matters
The monastic path has failed to take hold in the West, says Tibetan Buddhist nun Ayya Yeshe. She argues that it's time to renew the fourfold sangha. From the Spring 2018 issue of Buddahdharma: The Practitioner's Quarterly. Western monastics are an endangered species. At least seventy-five percent of Western monastics in the Tibetan tradition disrobe; the rates in other [...]
Statement: Myanmar’s Buddhist Leaders Must Take a Stand Against Ethnic Cleansing
In a public address on September 19, Aung San Suu Kyi addressed the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar, saying she is "deeply concerned" about those caught in the conflict, but Myanmar’s government needs time to investigate "what the real problems are" in Rakhine state. With hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fleeing their homes in Myanmar, more than 200 Buddhist teachers and community [...]
We’re Just Getting Started
Buddhadharma editor Tynette Deveaux reflects on the past fifteen years of the magazine, and reveals the exciting changes to come. When the first issue of Buddhadharma went to press fifteen years ago, we had an important and heartfelt goal; to create a journal for committed Buddhists of different traditions who wished to delve deeper into their practice, study the dharma, [...]
Why Buddhist Communities Should Include Children
Jodo Shinshu minister Jeff Wilson on why teaching children the dharma is genuine bodhisattva work. I’ve noticed that you can basically divide North American Buddhist communities into two types: those with children present and those without. Many other things, such as styles of practice, lineages, race, class, institutional size and stability, and so on often fall into [...]
Ordinary Buddha
Master Linji, better known in the West as Rinzai, shook up the Buddhist world by telling his students to drop their enlightenment agenda and simply be their true, ordinary selves. Thich Nhat Hanh examines Master Linji’s teachings on the “businessless person,” who has nothing to do and nowhere to go. Many students of Buddhism are the children of Master Linji, even if they don’t [...]
Shaping Buddhadharma’s Future
Earlier this year, our not-for-profit foundation underwent a name change. If you were a reader of our other magazine, Shambhala Sun, you surely noticed, as both the foundation and that magazine changed their name to Lion’s Roar. If you’re strictly a Buddhadharma reader, however, this change might have passed you by. The lion’s roar was said to be the Buddha’s own metaphor [...]
Healing and the Reality of Death
We view our desire to get rid of disease as a desire to live. But it is often just the opposite: it is an attempt to avoid life. Illness is not so special—nor so terrible. It is a question of acknowledging that we are born alone and that we die alone, but that it is still okay. In discussing sickness, whether physical or mental, we should recognize the importance [...]
I’ll Be Praying
Greg Snyder of Brooklyn Zen Center shares a prayer — that we, as a nation shocked by racism and violence, may awaken and seize this moment. I entered my dharma transmission ceremony yesterday afternoon feeling run through with violence and grief. I go offline now and will be disconnected from all of this information for the next nine days. It is a difficult time to separate in [...]
