I know how reticent monks are to talk about themselves, but I cannot help but begin by asking about your own Jātaka story. How did you wind up as a Buddhist monk living in England? Well, where does it all begin? I suppose around the age of six or seven I started to recognize something of what death was about: that we all die. I remember talking to my brother about it and he said, “Oh, don’t think about it, it will be all right.” Now he is a businessman and I’m a monk. (Laughs.) I remember … [Read more...]
Taking Responsibility for Our Thoughts: Reflections on the Vitakkasaṇṭhāna Sutta
Mark Muesse
One of the first insights of vipassanā practice is the recognition that the mind has a mind of its own. When we finally begin to attend to the dynamics of our thinking processes, we realize that thoughts often seem to arise of their own accord, with little or no apparent prompting or direction. Where do these thoughts come from after all? It might seem that our thoughts are thoroughly beyond our control, that we have no choice about the kinds of things that drift across our minds. Are we … [Read more...]
The Wings of the Bodhisattva
Joanna Macy
These words are extracted from a course offered by Joanna at BCBS in October, 2000. In every tradition, the spiritual journey seems to be presented in two ways. One is like a journey out of this messy, broken, imperfect world of suffering, into a sacred realm of eternal light. At the same time, within the same tradition, the spiritual journey is also experienced and expressed as going right into the heart of the world—into this world of suffering and brokenness and imperfection—to discover … [Read more...]
The Distortions of the Mind: Aṅguttara Nikāya 4:49
Andrew Olendzki
These verses from the Numerical Discourses give the traditional list of the vipallāsas. This Pali word is sometimes translated as “perversions” of the mind; but I find this language too strong and prefer the expression “distortions” of the mind. The term is composed of a prefix (vi-) which carries the sense of division, separation or removal; another prefix (pari-) meaning around, or complete (as in our related word peri-meter); and a verb (-as) which can be taken as meaning “to throw.” … [Read more...]
Body People, Mind People
Larry Rosenberg
One of my early teachers was Shivananda Saraswati, who was about 85 years old when I first met him. He was traveling on the Greyhound bus, and I was so impressed that I became his traveling companion. He was a Vedandin monk, and told me that Vedantins were often great scholars who practiced a kind of awareness called ‘witnessing,’ but who could also be condescending about bodily care, seeing it as a burden and obstacle to liberation. However, Shivananda observed that his fellow monks were … [Read more...]
Stealing the Scent (Saṃyutta Nikāya 9:14)
Andrew Olendzki
This lively exchange between a forest-dwelling monk and a benevolent deity is filled with poetic movement and gives us a glimpse of the care with which some people practiced in the time of the Buddha. Since the working definition of stealing was “taking what has not been given,” the Devata is correct—in a very strict sense. Notice that the monk at first reacts defensively, denying that he is doing anything wrong, and then tries to shift the blame to others who do even worse. After recognizing a … [Read more...]
