BCBS held a symposium July 13-16, 2017 on the topic of vedana. Conceived and organized by Martine Batchelor, this symposium was one of the Buddhist “think-tanks” the Study Center periodically organizes and hosts. This article is part one in a two-part series on vedana. Here, BCBS resident scholar Mu Soeng overviews the concept of vedana and offers a brief summary of each speaker's presentation at the symposium. Part two will be a new article from Bhikkhu Analayo on the issue of the third kind … [Read more...]

At the Vedana Symposium organized by Martine Batchelor and held at BCBS from 13 to 16 July 2017, the nature of neutral feeling was one of several topics discussed. See Mu Soeng's overview of all the presentations here. In this article, I follow up the discussion, in particular the question of whether the early discourses recognize neutral feelings as a distinct category on their own. “Feeling” has become the standard rendering of the Pali term vedana. In spite of what the English term … [Read more...]

We’re offering a final series of three presentations from the BCBS Spring 2016 Dharma and Arts Symposium this month. You can find other presentations in the April and May issues of Insight Journal Practicing Art, Practicing Ethics, Practicing Dharma Our final three presentations all combine personal narratives of practice, creative expression, and artistic development. Ruth Ozeki’s “Dharma, Ethics and Art” explores the relationship between fiction-writing and Buddhist ethics by opening … [Read more...]

This month Insight Journal offers three more presentations from BCBS’ Spring 2016 Dharma and Arts Symposium (earlier presentations are available in last month’s issue). Art as a Support for and Instrument of Buddhist Practice By way of examining historical and contemporary examples of Buddhist art-making, each of this month’s three presentations engages with the question of the relationship between imagination, artistic expression and dharma practice. David McMahon’s “The Buddhist … [Read more...]

In Spring 2016, Barre Center for Buddhist Studies held its first Dharma and Arts Symposium. As board member and artist, Rosalyn Driscoll, pointed out during the conference, it can sometimes seem to practitioners that “art-making is off the map...at worst, a distraction from the path to awakening”. As a way of putting it back on the map, artist-practitioners came together over the course of 4 days to discuss the intersections of Buddhism, dharma practice and artistic expression. Comprised of … [Read more...]