You don’t have to have read a lot of Buddhist texts to know that consciousness comes streaming through six doors, each one framed by one of six cognizing organs and opening onto one of six cognized objects. Just take a moment to explore the field of experience, and you will see that you know things in six different ways. One sphere of knowing is visual, another is auditory. Seeing and hearing are two different activities, each using separate parts of the body and distinct processing centers in … [Read more...]
Andrew Olendzki
The Radical Buddha
Every Buddha image we see reflects such calm, amused acceptance, it is not easy to appreciate just how radical a figure Siddhartha Gotama Buddha really was. Yet when we look closely at the ways he acted in the world he inhabited, and at the teachings he left behind for us all to follow, I think it fair to say the Buddha was one of the more radical humans ever to have walked the earth. The word “radical,” according to a pocket dictionary at hand, most simply means “favoring fundamental … [Read more...]
Mapping the Mind
For the last couple of years I have been participating in and contributing to the Mind & Life Institute's Mapping the Mind initiative. Among scientific researchers this topic primarily involves mapping out the wiring and firing of various neural networks in the brain, and indeed for those with strong materialist inclinations (which includes most scientists) mapping the mind can only really mean mapping the brain. For practitioners of Buddhist meditation, however, the situation is entirely … [Read more...]
Talking with Andrew Olendzki About His New Roles
Andrew Olendzki has been part of Barre Center for Buddhist Studies since its earliest days, bringing it to life, managing its operations and teaching countless courses to many grateful students. After moving into a full-time role as Senior Scholar in recent years, to focus more on scholarship and teaching exclusively, he is now continuing that role part time and embracing a new role with the Mind and Life Institute in Amherst and Hadley, Massachusetts. Insight Journal asked Andy to talk about … [Read more...]
Dhammapada 13
Dhammapada 13 yathagaram ducchannam vutthi samativijjhati evam abhavitam cittam rago samativijjhati Just as rain fully penetrates A house that has been poorly roofed, So passion fully penetrates A mind that’s poorly developed yathagaram succhannam vutthi na samativijjhati evam subhavitam cittam rago na samativijjhati ti Just as rain cannot penetrate A house that has been well roofed, So too no passion penetrates A mind that is well developed. The notion of … [Read more...]
What’s Left of the True Teaching
samaṇassa ahū cintā pupphitamhi mahāvane ekaggassa nisinnassa pavivittassa jhāyino: [Thag 920] This thought occurred to the wanderer Who was seated, single minded, Among the flowers of the forest, Meditating in seclusion: aññathā lokanāthamhi tiṭṭhante purisuttame iriyaṃ āsi bhikkūhnaṃ aññathā dāni dissate. [Thag 921] Compared to when that best of men, The guide of all the world, remained, The behavior of the bhikkhus Appears to be so different now! araññe … [Read more...]
No Hatred for Anyone
Itivuttaka 3:7d One who neither kills nor makes others kill, Neither steals nor makes others steal, Is one who has love for all living beings, And no hatred for anyone at all. yo na hanti na ghāteti na jināti na jāpaye mettaṃso sabbabhūtesu veraṃ tassa na kenacī ti. One who neither kills nor makes others kill Buddhist teachings place the greatest emphasis upon the moment-to-moment construction of experience in one’s own mind and body. This is where the rubber meets the … [Read more...]
Sāriputta Teaches Dhamma
gambhīrapañño medhāvī maggāmaggassa kovido Sāriputto mahāpañño dhammaṃ deseti bhikkhunaṃ Profoundly wise, intelligent, Skilled in what is and isn’t the path, Sāriputta, with great wisdom, Teaches Dhamma to the bhikkhus. sankhittena pi deseti vitthārena pi bhāsati sālikāy-iva nigghoso patibhānam udīrayi Sometimes he teaches it briefly, Sometimes he speaks in great detail. His eloquence, like a song bird, Bursts forth as inspired instruction. tassa taṃ desayantassa suṇanti … [Read more...]
A Protestant Buddhism?
‘Protestant Buddhism’ is a label that has been applied to certain progressive elements in the Theravāda tradition, first in Sri Lanka in the 19th century, and more recently to modernist Buddhism in this country and around the globe. It is sometimes used as a pejorative, to the extent the enterprise is regarded as tainted with orientalist and colonialist attitudes, along with the historical Euro-centrism that led the first western Buddhists to immediately begin the task of “improving upon” the … [Read more...]
The Moon Among Stars
Itivuttaka 3:7c Those who conquer the earth, teeming with beings, —Kings and priests who scurry around sacrificing— They surely do not partake in even a sixteenth part Of the heart well developed in loving kindness —Shining like the moon among all the crowd of stars. ye sattasaṇḍaṃ pathaviṃ vijitvā rājīsayo yajamānānupariyagā... mettassa cittassa subhāvitassa kalam-pi te nānubhavanti soḷasiṃ candappabhā tāragaṇā va sabbe. The full moon shining brightly against a background … [Read more...]
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