The Venerable Sayadaw U Paṉḍitābhivaṃsa is one of the most renowned teachers in the tradition of the Mahāsi Sayadaw. U Pandita continues to act as guiding teacher of the Panditārāma meditation center in Burma, and offers students from around the world the wisdom he has gained over seven decades of integrating in-depth theoretical study with intensive practical application of the Buddha's teachings We are very grateful, Sayadaw, that you have agreed to talk with us today. Your remarks will be … [Read more...]
From Burma to Barre
Jake Davis
The Liberation Teachings of Mindfulness in the Land of the Free Jake Davis grew up just a few miles from IMS. He first became involved in insight meditation through the young adults ’ retreat there. He went on to spend more than a year as a Theravada monk in Burma, learning the language, studying texts and practicing meditation. The Dhamma Dana Publications project, hosted by BCBS, is in the process of publishing Jake's book Strong Roots for free distribution, with the ongoing support of … [Read more...]
Meditation and the Therapist
Paul Fulton
Paul Fullon Ed.D. is Director of Mental Health Programs for Tufts Health Plan, an Instructor of Psychology in the Dept, of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and is the president of the Boston-based Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy. These comments are excerpted from a talk given at the bi-annual meditation retreat for psychologists and psychotherapists at BCBS in July 2003. When we look closely at some of the empirical studies conducted on the effectiveness of psychotherapy, … [Read more...]
Whose Life Is This, Anyway?
Andrew Olendzki
I don’t know many people in this country who really believe in rebirth—do you? I often meet Buddhists of various sorts, and yet it seems that most, like myself, have inherited from their cultural upbringing the “one life to live” model of the human condition. It makes me wonder how much of Buddhism we are really capable of absorbing. When we see how much of who we are now is embedded in our habitual responses to specific conditions in a world we each create from our unique illusions, what … [Read more...]
Keeping the Wheel Rolling
Andrew Olendzki
Sāriputta (also known by the name Upatissa) was the Buddha’s leading follower, particularly praised for his wisdom. These verses, containing eight syllables per line, have been extracted from a longer poem of thirty seven verses preserved in the Theragāthā. They describe man who continues to spend his time in solitary meditation in the forest, even after having attained the full awakening of the arahant. The elder keeps the dharma wheel of the Buddha’s teaching rolling by such dedication to … [Read more...]
Making a Joyful Effort
Christina Feldman
Christina Feldman has been a dharma teacher for many years and is the author of several books. The founder and guiding teacher of Gaia House in Devon, England, she teaches regularly at both IMS and BCBS. These remarks have been taken from a talk given at IMS in February of 2003. This evening I’d like to speak about joy in the practice and about joyful effort. Meditation is never meant to be approached as an ordeal, a grim task of chipping away at a rock face. The Buddha once said that this … [Read more...]
The Net of Brahmā: 62 Flavors of Wrong View (Dīgha Nikāya 1)
Andrew Olendzki
This chart outlines at a glance the first discourse of the Dīgha Nikāya, the Long Discourses of the Buddha, which lays out a number of different ways in which people can hold mistaken views about the nature of the self and of the world. The first eighteen views are based upon speculations about the past, while the final forty-four all have their root in speculation about the future. In both cases we see the drawbacks of “hammering it out with reason,” but we also see how easy it can be to … [Read more...]
