Back in the days of the Buddha, nirvana (nibbāna in Pali) had a verb of its own: nibbuti. It meant to “go out,” like a flame. Because fire was thought to be in a state of entrapment as it burned—both clinging to and trapped by the fuel on which it fed—its going out was seen as an unbinding. To go out was to be unbound. Sometimes another verb was used—parinibbuti—with the “pari-" meaning total or all-around, to indicate that the person unbound, unlike the fire unbound, would never again be … [Read more...]
Understanding the Meditative Process
Jason Siff
A Weekend With Jason Siff When preparing for my weekend of teaching at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, my initial schedule started with a forty-five meditation sitting followed by a talk on structured and unstructured meditation practice. Fortunately, the staff reminded me that this wasn’t really a meditation retreat, and that starting off with a long sitting with no context might not be the most appropriate thing to do. As the participants began arriving, it became clear that many … [Read more...]
Buddha in the Forest (Samyutta Nikaya 7:18)
Andrew Olendzki
A Tiny Dot in a Vast Universe
Issho Fujita
An interview with Issho Fujita For the last eighteen years, Reverend Issho Fujita has been the resident teacher at Pioneer Valley Zendo, a Soto Zen practice center in Charlemont, western Massachusetts. He has taught a weekend retreat on Dogen Studies at BCBS each year for the last ten years. He has recently decided to move his family back to Japan. The Insight Journal talked with him about his hopes and aspirations in such a move. Would you talk a little bit about what it was like growing … [Read more...]
Lights Upon the Path: Great Faith, Great Courage, Great Questioning
Martine Batchelor
At BCBS, September 2004 This evening I would like to follow up on what Stephen was saying in the morning about being careful, about energy, and about protecting, but I would like to look at the subject more from the perspective of the Zen tradition. Zen talks about cultivating three great attitudes—great faith, great courage and great questioning—and I think it is here that we find a continuation of the Buddha’s teaching about care, energy and protection. Faith, I think, corresponds to the … [Read more...]
Understanding the Hindrances
Andrew Olendzki
Interconnected…Or Not?
Andrew Olendzki
When I look up the word “connected” in my dictionary, I find synonyms such as “bound,” “fastened,” and “attached.” Last I heard, these were not considered a good thing in Buddhism. So why do we hear so much about “interconnectedness” these days? Was the Buddha really teaching us that “all things are interconnected?” The explanation usually given is that this is what is meant by dependent origination. But is it? As sometimes happens, I think in using this term we are seizing upon a notion from … [Read more...]
The Buddha’s Last Word: Care
Stephen Batchelor
At BCBS, September 2004 I would like to spend some time this morning exploring a very important idea the Buddha developed—the idea of care. Now many of you may not be familiar with this particular term, at least not put this way: care. It’s usually translated... well, actually it’s not usually translated as anything, and that’s part of the problem. APPAMĀDA The word in Pali is appamāda, which is actually a negative term. The a-, as in Greek, means “not,” and pamāda translates as something … [Read more...]
