Ruth Denison is the founder and resident teacher of Dhamma Dena Desert Vipassana Center in Joshua Tree, California. She is the first generation of women teachers of vipassanā in the West, and has been teaching at Insight Meditation Society in Barre since its inception in 1976. Ruth shared her life story and thoughts with Insight's editors while teaching at IMS in the fall of 1996. Ruth, you have a fascinating and unusual life story to tell. Can you share some of it with us? How did you get … [Read more...]
Faith: Its Role and Meaning in a Buddhist Wisdom Tradition
Sharon Salzberg
This article is excerpted from a workshop offered by Sharon Salzberg at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies on September 22, 1996. Sharon is writing a book on the subject, to be published by Shambhala. Faith is something very personally meaningful to me. It is something difficult to understand, and it is something that is not often spoken about within the context of a wisdom tradition—especially in the West. The last time I led a program on Faith, I heard people express disquietude, … [Read more...]
Buddhist Psychology: Classical Texts in Contemporary Perspective
Various
In the first week of December last year the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies held a five-day residential course on Buddhist Psychology. The intention of the course was to introduce students to the classical models of mind and mental processing contained in the primary texts of the Pali Canon and other Buddhist texts, and then to review this material from the contemporary perspectives of modern psychology. The program was co-sponsored by the Cambridge Institute of Meditation and … [Read more...]
A Tree Called Steadfast (Anguttara Nikaya 6.5.54)
Andrew Olendzki
Once upon a time there was a royal fig tree called Steadfast, belonging to king Koravya, whose five outstretched branches provided a cool and pleasing shade. Its girth extended a hundred miles, and its roots spread out for forty miles. And the fruits of that tree were indeed great: As large as harvest baskets—such were its succulent fruits—and as clear as the honey of bees. One portion was enjoyed by the king, along with his household of women; one portion was enjoyed by the army; one … [Read more...]
Speech as Skillful Means
Narayan Liebenson
I find speech to be a very rich area of practice. Observing the ways in which we speak can be a guide to observing what is going on in our minds. What comes out of our mouths may be quite different from what we want to come out, or may be very different from what we think is coming out. We can use awareness of speech as a guide to the inner life, as a vehicle leading to self-understanding. It is also an essential area in which to express harmlessness. In the Buddha's discourses there are four … [Read more...]
No Greater Contentment: The Poem of Bhuta (Theragāthā 522-526)
Andrew Olendzki
Three entirely different moods are portrayed so sensitively in the first three stanzas of this poem by the monk Bhūta—the first wild and clamorous, the second bright and benevolent, the third dark and mysterious. Constant among these dramatic changes of nature is the meditating monk, content in any setting. Mindful awareness allows all things to be just what they are, undisturbed by the reconstructions of the petty ego. Like the tiny figure in a Chinese landscape painting, the monk blends into … [Read more...]
