When I first turned onto Lockwood Road in Barre, Massachusetts, I had never seen Buddhism in the West. My time had been spent in Asia, predominantly India, practicing in monasteries filled with local people who did not look or act like me. At the time, I thought this was all that existed. Ignorant of the breadth of Dharma in the West, I belatedly realized I had missed its thirty years of fringe existence with little financial support. Even so, I hesitated to trust Western Buddhism. Much of my … [Read more...]