These poems are selected from Matty Weingast’s newest book, The First Free Women: Poems of the Early Buddhist Nuns, a reimagining of the Therīgāthā. Matty is co-editor of Awake at the Bedside and former editor of the Insight Journal. He completed much of the work on these poems while staying at Aloka Vihara Forest Monastery, a nuns’ monastery in northern California. A pdf version of this article can be downloaded here. For a while, I wasn’t sure what had drawn me in so completely. But as … [Read more...]

Jay L. Garfield is the Doris Silbert Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Philosophy, Logic and Buddhist Studies at Smith College. He chairs the Philosophy department and directs Smith’s logic and Buddhist studies programs as well as the Five College Tibetan Studies in India program. He is also visiting professor of Buddhist philosophy at Harvard Divinity School, professor of philosophy at Melbourne University, and adjunct professor of philosophy at the Central University of Tibetan … [Read more...]

Based on an exploration of the five factors of ‘name’ in the previous issue of the Insight Journal, the present article proceeds to take a closer look at consciousness in the same context of dependent arising.  A pdf version can be downloaded here. Reciprocal Conditioning In the context of dependent arising, the relationship between consciousness and name-and-form differs from other links, as these two are shown to condition each other reciprocally. According to the standard depiction of … [Read more...]

Rosalyn Driscoll is a visual artist whose sculpture, installation, collage and photography is sourced in the body and sensory perception. She animates her sculptural works through video, dance and theater, and collaborates with scientists. She is a member of Sensory Sites, an international art collective, and her work has been exhibited in the US, Europe and Asia and awarded numerous fellowships. Her book, The Sensing Body in the Visual Arts (Bloomsbury, 2020) explores the grounds for … [Read more...]

Based on an exploration of the principle of dependent aris­ing in the previous issue of the Insight Journal, the present article proceeds to take a closer look at an aspect of one of its links: the five mental factors that make up “name” in name-and-form. Name in Dependent Arising “Name-and-form” as a link in dependent arising combines “form,” as the experience of matter by way of the four elements, with “name.” The implications of this term can best be appreciated with the help of a … [Read more...]

Pamela Ayo Yetunde is a pastoral counselor and chaplain.  She teaches at Upaya Zen Center's Buddhist Chaplaincy Training Program and United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities.  Ayo is the author of the book Object Relations, Buddhism, and Relationality in Womanist Practical Theology, and Buddhist-Christian Dialogue, U.S. Law, and Womanist Theology for Transgender Spiritual Care.  Ayo and BCBS board member Cheryl A. Giles are co-editors of the forthcoming book, Black and Buddhist: What … [Read more...]

Jessica Locke is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Loyola University Maryland in Baltimore, MD.  Her research explores Buddhist and Western moral psychology, cross-cultural philosophy, and phenomenology.  She has studied and practiced Tibetan Buddhism for many years, and in her extra-academic life, she teaches meditation and has developed and facilitated contemplative workshops on white privilege, diversity, and anti-racism.   “They are, in effect, trapped in a history which they do … [Read more...]

  This article explores the basic import of the doctrine of dependent arising, based on relevant discourses and in the light of an apparent antecedent in a Vedic creation myth. The principle of dependent arising in the form of specific conditionality (and its ceasing) can be distinguished from applications of this principle in a series of dependently arising links, the most common instance of which covers twelve links leading from ignorance to old age and death.   Discerning the … [Read more...]

“While highest principle is devoid of all words,” according to an inscription on the pedestal of an eighth century Chinese statue of Amitābha Buddha, “how, without words, would its being the principle be made known?”  This line articulates a paradox of language—as both a vehicle and an obstacle to awakening—found in many Buddhist traditions.  The transformative power of words enables us to read texts or listen to a teaching that can be liberating.  Paradoxically, though, Buddhist thinkers often … [Read more...]

This was written on March 31, 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic was not yet at its peak in the United States. It is addressed to Dharma friends living in the United States, but may also speak to the experience and aspirations of Dharma friends in other parts of the world.   'Collapse' is a scary word. From the Latin prefix col-, meaning 'together,' and the verb labi, meaning 'to slip, slide, or fall,' it describes a structure falling apart or inward. I hesitated using it in the title of … [Read more...]