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...]
A Verb for Nirvana
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...]
Interconnected…Or Not?
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
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...]
Lions in the Wilderness
Early Buddhist Appreciation of Nature This article is extracted from a paper presented on March 9, 1996 at the Harvard Conference in honor of retiring professor Masatoshi Nagatomi. In East Asia, Buddhism became easily identified with nature poetry—especially in the Ch'an and Zen traditions. The Buddhist concern for being fully present in the moment harmonized nicely with the Chinese poetic tradition of evoking a concrete natural image in touching detail. And in the Japanese aesthetic … [Read more...]
Secular Buddhism: New vision or yet another of the myths it claims to cure?
A hundred years ago, almost exactly, Karl Kraus, an eminent Austrian publicist and the German language's foremost satirist, famously claimed in his newspaper that Psychoanalysis is the very mental illness it claims to cure.1 Amusing and bitingly unfair, Kraus turned his violent dislike into a crafty aphorism. Today, we know how prejudiced and superficial his knowledge of psychoanalysis was when he wrote this, how personal slight rather than understanding led to what has become famous not for its … [Read more...]
A Classical Future: Interview with Insight Journal Editor
It was about three years ago that the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies (BCBS) first started distributing Dharma teachings by email on the full moon of each month, and about eighteen months ago the printed version of the Insight Journal became the electronically distributed full moon Insight Journal. Chris Talbott, who had been managing the production of these publications for several years, became the editor of the new offering, taking over the role from Andrew Olendzki, the BCBS senior … [Read more...]
A Conversation with Bhikkhu Anālayo
This month we have an interview with Bhikkhu Anālayo, probably best known to students of Dhamma in the West for his 2004 book, Satipaṭṭhāna: The Direct Path to Realization, which has since become a touchstone modern interpretation of that key sutta. He paid an informal visit to Barre earlier this summer as part of larger trip to the U.S. (He lives & teaches in Germany.) Bhikkhu Anālayo graciously answered some questions for Insight Journal. His 2004 book, while very approachable for those … [Read more...]
Dhammapada 13
Dhammapada 13 yathagaram ducchannam vutthi samativijjhati evam abhavitam cittam rago samativijjhati Just as rain fully penetrates A house that has been poorly roofed, So passion fully penetrates A mind that’s poorly developed yathagaram succhannam vutthi na samativijjhati evam subhavitam cittam rago na samativijjhati ti Just as rain cannot penetrate A house that has been well roofed, So too no passion penetrates A mind that is well developed. The notion of … [Read more...]
Mindfulness in Buddhism & Psychology
Christopher K. Germer, PhD is a clinical instructor in psychology at Harvard Medical School and a founding member of the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy. He is the author of The Mindful Path to Self-Compassion, and co-editor of Mindfulness and Psychotherapy and Wisdom and Compassion in Psychotherapy. He taught Training Compassion: From the Buddha to Modern Psychology, with Mu Soeng, at BCBS September 7-9, 2012. Insight Journal asked Germer to talk about some key aspects of the … [Read more...]