Table of contents for Summer 2024 in Buddhadharma: The Practitioner's Quarterly

This book reminds me of the early times. . . Somehow this book really connects the early 1970’s and the 21st century, and shows us how, due to this dedication and devotion to the spiritual path, to the lineage, to Lama Yeshe and to Lama Zopa Rinpoche, one is able to look beyond the material world to something powerful and profound. —YANGSI RINPOCHE I love Big Love. It’s a fantastic piece of work. —STEPHEN BATCHELOR The publication is an indispensable addition to any substantial library of Tibetan Buddhism. . .. Lama was a gift to the world who just keeps on giving, a wish-fulling tree that continues to fulfill the wishes of thousands of enlightenment trainees around the world. —GLENN MULLIN Big Love just arrived and it’s fantastic. So many color…

THE GENERATION of the 1960s—my generation—was the first in the West to practice Buddhism in appreciable numbers. In those days, the sense of upheaval was very strong and, for young men facing the Vietnam draft, immediate and dire. I remember this all too well. I left college in 1968 with a very hazy future. At any moment, I could be drafted to fight in what I considered to be an unjust and futile war. And just a few short years before that, everything had seemed so bright. The war in Vietnam shattered my generation, leaving us dazed and confused. It was also the era of the psychedelic revolution (which had, ironically, come about as a result of Cold War CIA experiments). This promised a way out: though we might have…

THE FIVE PRECEPTS were my introduction to Buddhist ethics. I had read them early on in my practice and thought that their simplicity made them easy to carry out. After all, how hard was it to not kill, for example? But the more I practiced, the more I realized that sila, ethical conduct, was not only about abstaining from basic harmful behavior, but also about developing behaviors of body and mind that moved in the direction of good will and benevolence. Which is to say that I realized I would not go very far in my practice if I discounted the importance of developing sila. That is because moral conduct is absolutely crucial to developing the higher stages of Buddhist practice, namely samadhi and pañña (Pali; prajna in Sanskrit), concentration…

AS A BUDDHIST and an economics professor, I continually aspire to integrate my spiritual practice and my economics work, with the intention of creating a better world for all beings. Today, we face a number of interrelated crises on a monumental scale: climate catastrophe, widening social and economic inequality, and seemingly endless wars resulting in the deaths of countless individuals, combatant and civilian alike. Species are becoming extinct at an unparalleled speed. Family farms are unable to survive in the face of extreme heat and unproductive soil. Small island nations are at risk of sinking into the ocean as our sea levels rapidly rise. People everywhere are suffering from flooding, fires, droughts, and life-threatening heat waves. In the midst of all of this, how do we, as Buddhists, live ethically,…

CONCENTRATION is like a diamond; it is a brilliant focusing of our energy, intelligence, and sensitivity. When we concentrate fully, the light of our abilities shines forth in many colors, radiating through all we do. Our energy gains a momentum and clarity that allows us to perform each task quickly and with ease, and we respond to the challenges work offers with pleasure and enthusiasm. As we develop our ability to concentrate, we discover a vital quality that sharpens our awareness and increases our appreciation of all experience. But it is not always a simple matter to build up this concentration. The mind tends to follow its generally undirected inclinations, and we are easily lured away from the work at hand. This means that our energy becomes scattered and dispersed,…

NORMAN FISCHER (“Ethics, Meditation, and Wisdom,” pg10) Dogen says, “To study Buddhism is to study the self.” This is true also for practicing sila: we study our mind and our reactions to what we say, do, and think. Can you come closer in to your experience and see more clearly the inner difference between the effects of wholesome and unwholesome activity? What is your motivation in practicing sila? Can you explore this more deeply and honestly than you ever have before? NIKKI MIRGHAFORI (“How Right Action and Loving-Kindness Work Together,” pg24) A two-step reflection, with the first step being primary: Notice a stream of thought through the lens of nonjudgmental awareness and discern which value it represents. Then ask yourself: does this thought embody a treasured value (like gratitude and…

IT’S A SAD MOMENT, because this is the final issue of Buddhadharma as a print journal. For the last twenty-two years, we at Lion’s Roar have been proud of Buddhadharma and loved working on it. We know that dedicated readers like you have appreciated its high quality and the deep dharma it has offered. Sadly, in today’s media environment a high-quality, small-circulation quarterly like Buddhadharma is no longer sustainable. And at a time when most people are getting their information online, we want to offer the benefit of this outstanding content to a much larger digital readership. So we are moving Buddhadharma to a new digital space on LionsRoar.com dedicated to offering educational content to everyone who wants to deepen their practice, study, and knowledge of Buddhism. The overall mission…

THERE IS SO MUCH I love about Buddhist teachings. Many have brought me delight simply upon being introduced to them. Awe at first sight. This sense of joy, of being touched by beauty and profundity, has been similar to the exultation felt when understanding an elegant mathematical equation, seeing a painting, or reading a poem that captures a refreshing, insightful, or unique perspective. I am grateful that my acquaintance with many of the Buddha’s teachings has continued to deepen over time, and they have kindly revealed layers of subtlety and meaning, and unleashed inner and outer transformation. Two such teachings, which at first glance appear unrelated (since they live on different Buddhist lists, yet, upon closer exploration are all but inseparably intertwined), are the teachings of right or wise action…

ONE OF THE MOST distinctive teachings of the Thai Forest Tradition is its insistence that the three parts of Buddhist training—virtue, concentration, and discernment—are intimately interconnected and have to be developed together. What this means in practical terms is, (1) you don’t have to wait for your virtue to be perfect before practicing concentration, or for your concentration to be fully mastered before developing discernment. All three have to inform one another continually for any of them to grow in the right direction. (2) When you’re practicing the higher levels of concentration and discernment, you haven’t outgrown the need to stick with the precepts. The higher levels of the path need continual grounding in virtue in order to maintain their integrity. Ajaan Lee, writing in The Path to Peace and…

THERE’S A HELPFUL formula to keep in mind when considering our actions and their effects on us and the world: what we think is what we say, is how we act, is where we live, is who we are. In other words, how we understand ourselves and the world shapes the self, which shapes the world, which shapes the self. Thus the importance of training our minds, as the Buddha counseled us to do. Thus the need to see clearly how what we think, say, and do affects not just our own lives, but everything we touch. This is why I like to think of sila or morality in terms of clear seeing rather than virtue. Instead of labeling actions as either “good” or “evil,” we can reflect that skillful…

A Collective Awakening Regardless of what work we do, part of our work is to help bring about a collective healing, transformation, and awakening for our own well-being and for the sake of our planet. The insight of interbeing can help in this, but we need a collective awakening. Every one of us has to work to produce this collective awakening. If you’re a journalist, you can do this as a journalist. If you’re a teacher, you can do this as a teacher. Without this awakening, nothing will change. Awakening and awareness are the foundation of all change. Each of us has to sit down and look deeply to see what we can be, what we can do today to help relieve the suffering around us, to help reduce stress,…

THE SANSKRIT TERM dhyana is translated as “meditation.” As Buddhism has spread across Asia, different communities have come to interpret dhyana practices in various ways. Theravada Buddhists, for example, understand dhyana—translated into the Pali language as jhana—as a fundamental aspect of right concentration on the noble eightfold path: when the jhanas are practiced sequentially, they can transform the mind, and eventually lead to awakening. Shaila Catherine skillfully unpacks and explains this process in The Jhānas: A Practical Guide to Deep Meditative States (Wisdom). Catherine describes the jhanas as “states of happiness that can radically transform the heart, reshape the mind, imbue consciousness with enduring joy and ease, and provide an inner resource of tranquility that surpasses any conceivable sensory pleasure.” The Jhānas, previously published in 2008 as Focused and Fearless,…

THOUGH we’d only had the honor of editing Buddhadharma together for about a year before the long-debated decision to go all-digital was finally made, we of course echo Melvin’s lament for the print journal, his praise for all who’ve worked on it—not least of all Seth, our always skillful art director, with his finely tuned eye and enormous heart—and the hope that you’ll join us for Buddhadharma’s new incarnation. While we’ll miss the thrill of unboxing each new issue as it arrives from the printer, we’re eager to explore the many possibilities for Buddhadharma in its new form. So we’ve been readying a fully redesigned Buddhadharma area of the Lion’s Roar website to continue our work, offering quality, curated text as always (including digital access to BD’s invaluable print archive)…

ACCORDING TO A CERTAIN Pali sutta, there was a monk (or bhikkhu) called Bhaddāli, a disciple of the Buddha who failed to follow his teacher’s rule about eating only one meal a day. After he realized his mistake, he spoke with his teacher about the deleterious effects of ignoring the training rules laid down for monks. The Buddha explained that, in neglecting the training rules, even a monk who spends time in a retreat hut in a secluded wilderness location will fail to “realize any superhuman distinction in knowledge or vision worthy of the noble ones.” A monk who does follow the training rules laid down by the teacher, on the other hand, will accomplish all four of the meditative absorptions (jhana), recollect his own past lives, understand the cycles…

HAVING BEEN BOTH A HOUSEHOLDER and monastic Buddhist practitioner, I’ve come to see Buddhist ethics as more than moralistic guidelines. Rather, they serve as tools to cultivate mindful awareness and uncover our deeper awakened nature. After all, the core of the Buddhist path, as I see it, isn’t about becoming a “good Buddhist” or attaining Western-style ideals of virtue. The buddhadharma is primarily concerned with comprehending (and remedying) the root causes of suffering—for ourselves and for others. By working diligently to alleviate and ultimately eliminate these causes, we pave the way for the blossoming of buddhahood, or awakening. Buddhist ethics encompass more than what might initially meet the eye. Within Tibetan lineages, we organize them into three distinct categories. The first comprises the Pratimoksha, or individual liberation vows. These are…

THE IDEA OF RIGHT livelihood has been close to my heart since childhood, though I had no idea such a concept existed when I was a kid. I just knew I didn’t want to turn out like my dad. Nearly every evening when I was growing up, my mom and I would wait for Dad to come home from work. He was always late, and by the time he sat down to dinner, the food was cold despite Mom’s best attempts to keep it warm. Once the mealtime conversation started, much of it revolved around Dad’s discontent with his job. He felt perpetually overworked and stayed long hours to try to catch up—hence his tardiness to dinner. He complained endlessly about his boss. I sat there and witnessed my father’s…

Everything there is, is preparing to disappear.—Ajahn Chah (1918–1992) A Note From the Art Director To the hundreds of artists whose works have appeared in the pages of Buddhadharma since its inception, we owe enormous gratitude. My aspiration/intention in selecting art has always been that the art penetrate the heart/mind of the reader before language, establishing an environment where the written teachings can truly blossom as experience. Thank you for bringing that aspiration to life. ¶ Working on this publication has been a Buddhist graphic designer’s dream come true. I hope that collaborating on Buddhadharma has enriched your journey as it has mine. The journey continues online at: lionsroar.com/buddhadharma.…