This article is adapted from a one- day workshop offered by Sylvia Boorstein at the Bane Center for Buddhist Studies on April 5, 1997. Since that time, Sylvia has also taught a ten-week course on Paramis at the Spirit Rock Meditation Center in California. We begin this day of practice in the traditional way of honoring the Buddha and all those others who have awakened to the possibility of living a fully wise and compassionate life. We take refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the … [Read more...]
News - Article
The Path of Concentration and Mindfulness
June 1, 2015This article is adapted from a workshop offered at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, February 23-25,1996 by Thanissaro Bhikkhu, Abbot of Metta Forest Monastery, San Diego County, California. Many people tell us that the Buddha taught two different types of meditation: mindfulness meditation and concentration meditation. Mindfulness meditation, they say, is the direct path, while concentration practice is the scenic route that you take at your own risk because it's very easy to get … [Read more...]
A Philosophical Assessment of Secular Buddhism
February 3, 2015I can't pretend that this lives up to a philosophical assessment of Secular Buddhism, so in honor of Stephen Batchelor's leadership for this conference, let me just call this my "confession." Everything about my own life would appear to align with a secular form of Buddhism--I could be the poster child of the movement. Although I've been existentially engaged with Buddhism for half a century, I've never at any point been able to: Join a particular sect or lineage Take vows Wear medieval … [Read more...]
Mapping the Mind
January 2, 2015For 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...]
Secular mindfulness: potential & pitfalls
November 5, 2014This article is based on a presentation at last year's conference at BCBS on Secular Buddhism. Introduction Imagine for a moment that you are a health & fitness trainer—you work with people who go the gym regularly and work out daily, to support them in their efforts to cultivate a perfectly-toned body. Over the past few years you've noticed that many other people in society are beginning to do some exercise—they don't work out daily, but perhaps they attend a weekly yoga class or go … [Read more...]
Some (mostly secular) thoughts about Emptiness
October 7, 2014This article emerges from a paper presented at last year's conference at BCBS on Secular Buddhism, which in turn arose from a period spent writing a book on A Philosophy of Emptiness. This entailed a largely non-Buddhist and widespread consideration of concepts of emptiness from Taoism and Buddhism, through Greek thought, Christian mystics and Romantics to the contemporary world of science, philosophy and art practice. Here I will concentrate on ideas of emptiness in Buddhist teachings and their … [Read more...]
Neuro-Bhavana: A Video Series with Rick Hanson
August 8, 2014Welcome to a new turn in Insight Journal offerings. For some time, it has been our aspiration at BCBS to offer our teachings through new media via the internet. Rick Hanson, whom as you may know has taught at BCBS several times, encouraged us to offer his teachings from April of this year as one of our initial projects. The course in total runs 240 minutes, edited into 11 videos, from a weekend course by Rick Hanson that took place at BCBS in April of this year. It includes several … [Read more...]
Natural Buddhism
May 14, 2014Note: This article was developed from one of 20 presentations made at the BCBS conference on secular Buddhism held in March of 2013. Gil Fronsdal is the primary teacher for the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California; he has been teaching since 1990. He has practiced Zen and vipassanā in the U.S. and Asia since 1975. He was a Theravada monk in Burma in 1985, was ordained as a Soto Zen priest in 1982, and in 1995 received Dharma Transmission from Mel Weitsman. He received a PhD in … [Read more...]
How is the Medium Changing the Message?
April 14, 2014Although we think of technology as a new influence, in fact, markets, technologies, and the teachings of the Buddha have shaped each other in complex reverberations since earliest times. At the conference on secular Buddhism held at BCBS one year ago this month, Ken McLeod led the assembled scholar-teachers through an exercise to examine Western Buddhism through the lens of Marshall McLuhan's "four effects" from McLuhan's Laws of Media. Insight Journal asked McLeod to expand on these ideas about … [Read more...]
Silent Illumination
February 14, 2014"Silent Illumination," or mozhao, is often associated with the Caodong (Jp. Soto) School of Chan (Jp. Zen), and specifically with master Hongzhi Zhengjue (1091-1157). Never before had anyone articulated this teaching so clearly. Hongzhi was prompted to write about Silent Illumination because it was so misunderstood and unfairly criticized. He wished to show that Silent Illumination was the realization of Chan, the awakening of one's true nature. In Buddhism, there may be different expressions … [Read more...]