“Do you see the glass half full or half empty?” a therapist asks Nadia Colburn. That's not the question, she says. In truth, the glass is already broken. In the monastery dining room no one speaks. Chairs scrape across the floor; a serving spoon hits the inside of a pot. Someone coughs. I’m already seated at the table with Simone while Eric and Gabriel stand in line [...]
Emptiness and Existence
The Dalai Lama takes us step by step through the famed logic of Madhyamika, the Middle Way that defeats all extreme views of reality. To generate the type of love and compassion that motivates you to seek buddhahood, not for yourself but for the sake of others, first you must confront suffering by identifying its types. This is the first noble truth. From the time we are born [...]
Shikantaza is Understanding Emptiness
Suzuki Roshi explains that the purpose of Shikantaza -- a practice commonly known as "just sitting" -- is to actualize emptiness and move beyond our interpretations of reality. When we remember there is another world beyond our limited experience, we can empty ourselves of preconceived ideas and accept things as they are. Shikantaza is to practice or actualize emptiness. [...]
Wherever You Are, Enlightenment Is There
"Even in our imperfect practice enlightenment is there," says Suzuki Roshi,"We just don’t know it." In our practice the most important thing is to realize that we have buddhanature. Intellectually we may know this, but it is rather difficult to accept. Our everyday life is in the realm of good and bad, the realm of duality, while buddhanature is found in the realm of the [...]
Does No-Thought Mean No Thought?
Working with thoughts is a central practice in Buddhism. But what does that mean exactly? Are we trying to stop thoughts or not? Are there thoughts after enlightenment? Wing-shing Chan on how Chan Buddhism addresses these questions. In a famous Chan lineage story we hear that the Fifth Patriarch’s leading student, Shen Hsiu, composed a verse that equated practice with [...]
The Doors of Liberation
No self, no form, no goal: Thich Nhat Hanh on the truth we’re distracting ourselves from. Dualistic notions, such as birth and death, being and nonbeing, sameness and otherness, coming and going, are the foundation of all afflictions. Meditating on the three doors of liberation helps us throw away these notions. The three doors of liberation, which are taught in every [...]
What is emptiness?
A Zen master might whack you with his stick for asking such a question, never mind what he’d do to us for trying to answer it. Nonetheless, here goes. Emptiness is the central insight of Buddhism, and what makes it unique among religions. According to Buddhism, neither we, nor other beings, nor any phenomenon in the universe, has a permanent, separate, and independent core, [...]
The Daughter I Love
Photo by Sharon Holoviak. With the help of Thich Nhat Hanh’s teachings on emptiness, Stephen Holoviak realizes that to fully know and accept his autistic daughter he must let go of his hopes and dreams for her. Our daughter, now thirty, is autistic, nonverbal, and has pervasive communication issues. She was an infant when diagnosed in 1981. Back then there was little [...]
Empty Splendor
To have a genuine appreciation for the world we must see it directly, says the late Traleg Rinpoche. The tantric path teaches us how to cut through our concepts and confusion so we can experience reality in its full vividness and clarity. Vajrayana, or tantric, Buddhism places a great deal of emphasis on the mind and how it works. On the tantric level, we ask what the mind [...]
Understanding Emptiness & Interdependence
Emptiness and interdependence—they’re more than concepts; they’re key to realizing real-world benefits in our lives. His Holiness The Karmapa helps us put our wisdom into practice. How do you relate to this infinite ground of possibility that your life is built on? How can you create a meaningful life within whatever shifting circumstances you find yourself? Buddhist [...]
