Category: Teachings
Why Do Buddhas Look So Different?
Ikumi Kaminishi looks at regional differences in sculptures of the Buddha.
Find the Wisdom in Paradox
If we don’t embrace the often-paradoxical complexity of societal ills, the actions we take to solve them will be merely “Band-Aids.” Kritee on getting to the root of a problem.
Meditating on the Mind Itself
A teaching on the practice of Mahamudra by the late Kagyu master Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche.
Dogen’s 4 Key Teachings
From being to the nature of time, Dogen explored the big questions. Four experts unpack some of his most influential concepts.
The Three Minds of Zen
Zen teaches that we should maintain “a joyful mind, an elder’s mind, and a great mind.” According to Jisho Sara Siebert, they’re never far away.
Motherhood Is the Path
Like motherhood, the path to awakening demands compassion, love, and sacrifice. Jenna Hollenstein explains the parallels between mothers and bodhisattvas.
What Is Your Body?
It’s less than we think. It’s far more than we know. It’s who we are but it’s not. Contemplate the deeper reality of the body.
The Ultimate Self-Help
Our editor-in-chief, Melvin McLeod, shares why Buddhism is the ultimate self-help, despite one of its central principles — nonself.
The Dharma of Distraction
It goes a lot deeper than how many times a day you check your phone. According to Buddhist teacher Judy Lief, distraction is the very foundation of ego.
Nibbana Is Giving Up, Letting Go, and Being Free
Ajahn Chah explains some of Buddhism's most important principles, including nirvana, samadhi, and why it's important to "Be really careful!"
What Turns the Wheel of Samsara
Francesca Fremantle, from her book Luminous Emptiness, discusses the wheel of life and how the Buddha decontructed it.
Looking Deeply into Impermanence, No-self, and Nirvana
Thich Nhat Hanh teaches that by looking deeply we develop insight into impermanence and no self. These are the keys to the door of reality.
Buddha: The Great Physician
The Buddha is compared to a doctor because he treated the suffering that ails all of us. His diagnosis and cure, says Zen teacher Norman Fischer, is called the four noble truths.
To Walk Proudly as Buddhist Women: An Interview with Dhammananda Bhikkhuni
Cindy Rasicot interviews Dhammananda Bhikkhuni, Thailand’s first fully ordained Theravada nun, on women's ordination, feminism, the role of monastics in society, and more.
Your Whole Body is Hands and Eyes
Ejo McMullen on the total response of Avalokiteshvara — with a thousand arms, an eye on the palm of each hand — as the model of the bodhisattva path.
Deconstructing Whiteness
Joy Brennan shows how Yogacara teachings reveal whiteness as a constructed identity—and how they offer a path through it, to bodhisattva activity.
Motherhood Is More Than a Metaphor
Sarah Jacoby examines how even though mothering has been held up in Buddhist teachings as a model of compassion, actual mothering has never gotten much respect.
The Outer Limits of Attention
Ken Kessel on how we, as Buddhist practitioners, should pay attention — even to the things we’re not paying attention to.
In New York, Vesak 2021 in Photos
Photographer A. Jesse Jiryu Davis documented three Vesak celebrations in New York this year.