By Patrick Given-Wilson | 7/18/2022
Right understanding has to illuminate every single part of the practice of Vipassana.
The Buddha called it sammā-diṭṭhi. In Pāli, diṭṭhi literally meant a view, or a philosophy. Then as now, there were many different kinds of philosophies in currency. But sammā-diṭṭhi,
right understanding, has nothing to do any philosophy or intellectual
position. Even with great devotion, an absolute and total conviction in
every single word of the Buddha, will not liberate anybody. It merely
becomes a belief-system like any other, and so it becomes a trap. The
Buddha carefully used the word sammā meaning “right”, and sammā-diṭṭhi only becomes sammā when it is practiced. This is the critical difference, and this is what purifies the individual: the practice.
By Andrée François | 6/22/2022
Andrée François
By Shelley S | 6/22/2022
Day Zero. My hand shoots up ‘enthusiastically and emphatically’ (the
centre manager’s words) when the request for an old student to sound the
first gong is asked for. In the lead up, I have tried not to let
thoughts roll around in my head of ’do I really want to’, or ‘will
anyone else want to’. I am happy to give way — especially if another
student has never gonged before. This time I am the only female
volunteer. I request an additional alarm clock.
By David Cohen | 6/22/2022
During a recent committee meeting at my local Dhamma center, we
discussed alternative ways to encourage service because our meditation
center, like many other Dhamma centers, is working through server
shortages. This essay is my attempt to dive deeper into mettā and
service and how they are essential for a complete practice.
By Andrée François | 6/4/2022
Andrée François
By RSM | 6/4/2022
This mind
waits to enlight,
to befriend.
Simply remains still
holding close,
for a moment of awareness from within.
By Pierre Robert | 6/4/2022
Elaborating
on the assertion that all beings seek happiness, the Buddha declared it
impossible for anyone to be truly happy if he or she does not refrain
from whatever harms the peace and harmony of others.
Since his
teaching entered my life, I have recognized in my quest for personal
happiness a social responsibility: my duty to be happy for the welfare
of others. After all, no-one is interested in the hurtful things
that I sometimes say about them, in enduring my blame and annoyance, in
witnessing my worries and anxiety attacks, or in my insistence that
things go my way.
By Ke Ton | 5/23/2022
The title is “Nirodha”. The seal in the upper right says: “Buddhist doctrine teaches: take all things as Impermanent and Imaginary”
By Luke Matthews | 5/23/2022
In 1980, after the hot season from April to June, few Westerners remained at Dhamma Giri. And during the rainy season that followed there were fewer still. Most of the Indian servers too had departed. Goenkaji himself had gone to conduct courses in Europe and North America.
During the monsoon Dhamma Giri is a magical place enswirled by leaden clouds and buffeted by pounding rain that abruptly gives way to dazzling sunlight. The parched hills turn emerald green with fresh grass and newborn waterfalls cascade off the surrounding mesas. How to dry your clothes and keep them from becoming mouldy, however, was an enduring problem.
By Bruce Stewart | 5/23/2022
The final installment of the essay on the Noble Eightfold path
concerns the cluster of factors that address the cultivation of wisdom,
or paññā. In the Buddha’s teaching, with a strong base of sīla, one is
well-grounded to more easily tamp down the hindrances, which leads one
to more easily develop strong samādhi. And with the sharpened mind, one
can penetrate into the laws that govern existence, and uproot the
tendency towards experiencing dukkha at the deepest level of the mind.
Paññā is also called “insight.”
By Mosami (11 years old) | 5/9/2022
Mosami
By Manish Chopra | 5/9/2022
I handed the instructions for the
location over to the chosen driver and we started making our way to the
destination. I closed my eyes for a few minutes in the back of the taxi
and the meditation process started spontaneously despite all the sounds
outside and the bright sunlight. I was delighted to note that I was able
to meditate in an unusual setting like a car ride. Taxis and flights
were a big part of my work week so it was comforting to know that I
could meditate in such environments.
By Bhikkhu Anālayo | 5/9/2022
From
the viewpoint of cultivating liberating insight, a central distinction
to be made is that between avoiding the types of joy that lead to
attachment while at the same time recognizing that there are commendable
forms of joy. These are in particular the wholesome types of joy that
come from deepening insight and learning to let go of clinging and
attachments. Finding joy in such letting go can provide an important
inspiration for dedicating ourselves wholeheartedly to the continuity of
practice and for this reason should not be underestimated.
By Patrick Given-Wilson | 5/9/2022
For centuries Ashoka and his reign were forgotten in the mists of time and history, his name hardly known, his monuments broken, burnt and buried. It was only in the 19th Century, as India opened up to the West that a series of scholars, epigraphers, and archaeologists began to reassemble and understand his achievements and his message.
By Ke Ton | 4/24/2022
Ke Ton
By Varsha Patel | 4/24/2022
On the mind's screen
Faces unknown are seen
Strangers from the past nameless to my conscious mind
Strangers from the future whom I might meet sometime
Or just random images in meditation time.
By Manish Chopra | 4/24/2022
The New Year’s Eve party across from our campsite continued well into
the early hours of the morning and the sounds of the live band and the
revelers were intermingled with the chants in the courtyard. This was
probably the first New Year celebration I had spent alone and in a quiet
manner. I reflected on the relevance of “the party’s over when the
music stops” to my condition coming into the camp having lived for all
these years in ignorance, reveling in the party of my unaware and
indulgent consciousness.
By Bruce Stewart | 4/24/2022
This third installment of my four-part essay on the Noble Eightfold
Path explores the cluster of factors that fall under the umbrella of
samādhi. Samādhi is commonly understood in this tradition as collecting
and calming the mind so that it can be focused on the observation of
reality for the purpose of cultivating wisdom/insight. However, it can
more broadly be defined as the calm abiding of mind and body.
By Bruce Stewart | 4/8/2022
Sīla is not merely about
moral and ethical considerations; it is also spiritual in nature, the
very foundation on which any strong practice is built. It is interesting
to note that the tenets of sīla are not intended as commandments.
Rather, sīla is undertaken as a “training.” The Buddha seems very clear
about the importance of sīla, which comprises three of the eight steps
of the Noble Eightfold Path. So in conformity with that teaching, our
tradition gives great importance to maintaining sīla in our lives.
By Manish Chopra | 4/8/2022
At this stage, I was now completely convinced that hard as it may be,
I would continue to put in every effort humanly possible to maintain
the practice of Vipassana meditation when I resumed my regular life. The
significant changes in my energy level, concentration power, attention
span, creativity, mind-body coordination, temperament, and numerous
other faculties I had experienced through the use of this technique were
palpable, especially when I didn’t even know that such a big delta was
even available as headroom for potential improvement.
By Luz Donis | 4/8/2022
On birth waters giving
way to ruptured membranes
the waves of samsara
Crying with pain
not knowing
what is to gain
riding the waves of samsara
By Mosami (11 years old) | 4/8/2022
MosaamiMosaMosamimi
By Halina Sobrado Wydrzycka | 3/27/2022
There is no way to sit and meditate hour after hour without renouncing, surrendering. Surrendering to the process itself. To
continue to hold on to the mind is an ordeal. There is no way to attend
to stillness while clinging to the mind, this wild animal pulling in
all directions.
By Silvia Escorel | 3/27/2022
Leaves of gold
shine
on
the fresh white snow
and
my heart soars as my boots sink.
