These powerful words echo through twenty-five centuries of humanity to reach our ears today. It makes one's spine tingle to think how many voices—now long silent—have uttered these words in each of the one hundred generations that have come and gone since Sirimanda first composed them. How many have heeded their message? How many can hear it today? This is the kind of literature that leads some to view Buddhism as holding a pessimistic outlook on the world. But in fact it is merely expressing … [Read more...]
The Nature of Compassion
Sharon Salzberg
This article is excerpted from a talk given at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies on July 27, 1994. My colleague Joseph Goldstein and I just returned from teaching in Boulder, Colorado at the Naropa Institute. Naropa was celebrating its twentieth anniversary, and it was also the twentieth anniversary of our beginning to teach in this country. It was a time filled with nostalgia and also a time for a lot of reflection: what have we done over the last twenty years? Have we done what we … [Read more...]
Theravada in the West
Various
The multifaceted challenges of contemporary Buddhism were explored during an historic weekend conference—to our knowledge, the first of its kind—held last June at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies. Twelve leading teachers of Theravada Buddhism, equally representing the lay and monastic traditions, addressed cutting-edge issues arising from the relatively recent introduction of Theravada Buddhism to the West. Throughout its long history, Theravada Buddhism has existed in a protected … [Read more...]
The Parable of the Six Creatures
Andrew Olendzki
Salayatana Samyutta XXXV.206 (SIV, 198) When a person, seeing a form with the eye, is attached to pleasing forms and repelled by unpleasing forms; or, hearing a sound with the ear, is attached to pleasing sounds and repelled by unpleasing sounds; or, smelling an odor with the nose, is attached to pleasing odors and repelled by unpleasing odors; or, tasting a flavor with the tongue, is attached to pleasing flavors and repelled by unpleasing flavors; or, touching a physical sensation with … [Read more...]
What Can I Learn From This?
Narayan Liebenson
How did you first encounter Buddhism? To talk about that I need to go into how I first began to meditate in general. I had a kind of intense inner life when I was a child....maybe because of a difficult home life I was drawn to stay inside, to stay quite inward. There was a kind of orientation to concentrate on different objects or be present with things in a certain way. I spent a lot of time alone and there was a sense of trying to use what was around me. In other words, I was brought … [Read more...]
