Category: Teachings
I Married a Monk
Sumi Loundon expects the worst when she and her boyfriend ask his Zen master for permission to marry. But a personal bodhisattva has already intervened.
The Wise Woman Who Talked Back to God
The Ancient Buddhist tale of the Seven Wise Sisters has Zen Teacher Bonnie Myotai Treace thinking about the koan of gender.
Forum: Barriers to the Dharma
A discussion of race, class and education, and how they’re limiting who becomes interested in Buddhism. Featuring Paul Haller, Marlene Jones, Charles Prebish, and Guy McCloskey.
The Zen Priest’s Koan
Sojun Mel Weitsman once asked Suzuki Roshi, “What does it mean to be ordained as a Zen priest?” The answer—“I don’t know”—has been his koan ever since.
What is Khandha?
Khandha as defined by Ajahn Punnadhammo, an abbot of the Theravada tradition.
Ultimately You’re Healthy, Relatively You Die
Will Meditation make you healthy? Barbara Rhodes, Jan Chozen Bays, David Shlim, and Mitchell Levy, discuss the Buddhist view of health.
Mind Is Buddha
A simple three-word koan. Or just a one-word koan: buddhanature. So deceptively simple, yet it penetrates to the very heart of the matter.
In Translation: Great Perfection in the Palm of Your Hand
Great Perfection in the palm of your hand. The seminal text Essential Advice for Solitary Meditation Practice, by the late Dudjom Rinpoche.
What is a Yidam?
A yidam as defined by Sarah Harding, a Tibetan translator and lama in the Kagyü school of Vajrayana Buddhism.
Niutou’s Song of Mind: A Commentary by Sheng Yen
Teachings at a meditation retreat by the renowned Chan Master Sheng Yen on stanzas one through five of the Chinese classic Song of Mind.
A Zen Demonstration
“Explanation-style teaching is not enough,” says Zen Master Seung Sahn. A commentary on Case 41 of "The Whole World is a Single Flower"
In Translation: The View of the Conquerors
Vajra songs of the Dzogchen lineage, from Ani Jinba Palmo’s translation of The Great Image: The Life Story of Vairochana the Translator.
The Guru and the Great Vastness
Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche looksat the role and the influence of the guru on learning in the vajrayana tradition.
Forum: Is Your Practice Working?
A roundtable discussion with Edward Brown, Josh Baran and Tsultrim Allione on the outcomes of Buddhist practice, moderated by Melvin McLeod.
Dogo Expresses Condolences
Is he alive or is he dead? A teaching by the late Roshi Philip Kapleau on the koan, "Dogo Expresses Condolences."
The Wisdom of the Body and the Search for the Self
From the impermanent to the heroic to the sacred—The Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche on how the view of body changes and evolves in the three vehicles of Buddhism.
Trikaya: The Mahayana Buddhist Trinity
The “three bodies of the Buddha” may seem like a remote construct, says Reginald Ray, but the trikaya is present in every moment of our experience.
Intimate Distances
Speculations on the nature of self, other, boundary and embodiment by the great cognitive scientist and Buddhist practitioner Francisco J. Varela, written after undergoing a liver transplant. The scene is viewed from the side. The patient is lying on his half-raised hospital bed. Tubes, sutures and drains cover his body from nose to abdomen. On…
Khandro Rinpoche’s Tough Love
She is demanding of her students and uncompromising about the dharma, and she is a rarity—a prominent Tibetan teacher who is a woman. Trish Deitch Rohrer experiences the provocative and challenging Khandro Rinpoche. You took your twelve-year-old daughter to a children’s blessing the Venerable Khandro Rinpoche was presiding over a few years ago while on…