Ajahn Sundarā, a senior nun from the Amaravati community in England, spent the three-month vassa, or rains retreat, at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies in the summer of 2001. She spoke to us just before her departure. Thank you, Ajahn, for taking the time to talk with us this morning. Let me start by asking you something simple: What do you feel is the essence of dharma? [Laughter.] This is not such a simple question... The essence of dharma is liberation. Liberation from dukkha, … [Read more...]
How to Understand
Joseph Goldstein
Joseph had been scheduled to speak with a group of people at CIMC the day after the tragic events of September 11th. Here are some excerpts from that talk. I’m glad we are able to come together this evening and share some reflections about the events of September eleventh. More than ever, it is timely and necessary to connect more deeply with ourselves, with each other and with the many suffering beings in the world. The question looming large for most of us is how to understand what … [Read more...]
Stillness and Insight
Christina Feldman
These excerpts were taken from a program offered by Christina at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies in September of1999. Samatha is a Pali word meaning stillness, tranquility or calm. Samatha practice involves a sustained, unwavering attentiveness to a single focus or object. Whenever the attention is drawn to other thoughts, sensations or sounds, one simply lets go of them, and attention returns to the object. In the deepest development of samatha, the absorption states, there is a … [Read more...]
Healing or Harming
Andrew Olendzki
A question that has been coming up a lot lately in various discussions is this: “According to the teaching of the Buddha, is violence ever justified?” The short answer is “No.” But in a longer answer that probes more carefully some of the practical dimensions of the human condition, there may be grounds for modifying this position. Perhaps the situation is not dissimilar from the two levels of truth found articulated in Buddhist philosophy, whereby something can be conventionally true but, … [Read more...]
A Simple Matter of Choice?
Gloria Taraniya Ambrosia
These remarks are exerpted from a Bhavana Program on Intention offered at BCBS in June of 2001. When we first look at the issue of intention, we might have the sense that it is all just a simple matter of choice. But when I reflect upon this phrase, I find myself putting a question mark at the end of it. A simple matter of choice? Maybe yes, maybe no. Let’s have a look and see what is happening when we make choices. First of all, we should recognize that in Buddhist teachings the idea of … [Read more...]
Leaving No Trace
Nancy Waring
This article is one of a series of occasional submissions by long-term practitioners at Cambridge Insight Meditation Center. The purpose of this series is to highlight the on-going practice sessions at CIMC and how these sessions are bringing new understanding and clarification to those enrolled in those sessions. These submissions have been approved by the guiding teachers at CIMC. A member of our ongoing “Old Yogis” practice group at Cambridge Insight Meditation Center (CIMC) recently told … [Read more...]
The Moon Released (Theragāthā 871-873)
Andrew Olendzki
Of all the monks and nuns who awakened under the guidance of the Buddha, none was more notorious than the author of these verses, the robber and murderer Aṅgulimāla. Originally named Ahimsaka (the harmless one), he was the son of the brahmin chaplain to the Kosala king and became a brilliant student in the medical school at Takkasilā. On account of a number of intrigues perpetrated by his jealous classmates, he set upon a course of ambushing victims on the road and cutting off their thumbs in … [Read more...]
Tapas
Paul Fleischman
Battering upon the gummy silence I no longer feel any lever against this world. The deaths are too many, The births are too many, The headlines chronicle too many hatreds and wars. I have grown grey as much from the searing of ineffectuality as from individual decay. All I have left is a pencil, a voice, and a holy fire To reassert that beaches and rivers remain baptismal and beautiful, That youth remain fervent and devoted, That joy remains the only great liberator. I will strike … [Read more...]
