Buddhist Geeks

…knowing that Buddhists have done this for centuries and that I can read and appreciate Kūkai’s Siddhaṃ calligraphy and he could read mine. That is what makes the calli- in calligraphy. – Jayarava, Buddhist calligrapher [1]
Calligraphy, the art of beautiful writing, has a deep history in much of Buddhist Asia. At one level, the art of writing can be an act of merit: repeatedly copying sutras or mantras. It can also be a practice of mindfulness: being absorbed in the moment, focusing fully on the movements of the hand, the flow of the ink, the feel of the pen or [...]

The dojo of Morogoro
Africa. Is it possible to make a Soto Zen sangha flourish in a small rural town in Eastern Africa? Apparently, it is. This article describes the dojo of Morogoro town, in rural Tanzania, but also explores my feelings of amazement when I visited it. For years, I have asked myself how to reconcile the need to attend the sangha back home, in Europe, with my deep passion to work in developing countries as a humanitarian nutritionist.
In February this year, during a sesshin in Spain, I asked my Zen Master Roland Yuno: “…I have lived for [...]

“The men of old knew that life comes without warning, and as suddenly goes. They denied none of their natural inclinations, and repressed none of their bodily desires. They never felt the spur of fame. They sauntered through life gathering its pleasures as the impulse moved them.” – Yang Chu (4th century BCE)
Every morning, Raymond Barnett puts a teapot on low and steps out of his house at Valley Oaks Village, a collaborative housing community in northern California, for a 40-minute walk. By the time he gets back, the water is just at a boil, and Barnett—a 65-year-old Vietnam veteran, [...]

In a perfect world, I would be writing this as a completely recovered person. In a perfect world, I would not fall into the thirteen percent of the adult American population suffering from anxiety. Yet, part of working with anxiety is learning that this is not a perfect world.
There is serenity that most people associate with spiritual practice. ‘He meditates, so he must be pretty calm and collected.’ I take that comment a step further and say that many people who take up spiritual practice approach them as the key to serenity. ‘I will meditate, resulting in my calm [...]

You would certainly recognize your signature on a piece of paper, but do you know your own emotional signature? We all have one. It’s our predictable way of reacting to situations. Your friends probably recognize your emotional signature better than you do. When you get into a fight with your partner, for example, they can predict just how it will go. They know if you’re likely to slam a door, storm out of the house, or call your mother. They know if you’ll be processing the argument for days or immediately shut down and clam up. How do they know [...]

Har-Prakash Khalsa: Given that, in your own words, “enlightenment is a multi-faceted jewel”, is there a description of enlightenment that you like?
Shinzen Young: In this regard I tend to go towards my Buddhist background. Scholastic Theravada Buddhism says that three things go away at the initial experience of enlightenment. It’s very significant that it’s put in terms of an elimination process; something goes away, rather than an attainment, a “getting” of something. So enlightenment is not yet another thing that you have to get. And meditation as a path to enlightenment could be described as merely setting [...]

JG: You know, there’s a fair amount of controversy now as people try to sort out the difference between teachings based on reality and those that are the product of the religious imagination from earlier eras. I guess Ken Wilber might say we have moved from a magic/mythic level of development to the modernist, rational level of development, to the post-modern and integral levels. And so there’s this admixture of stuff—unrealistic stories that are the result of the magic/mythic orientation of the time periods in which they were created, as well as plenty of material that is based on actual [...]

As a young girl, I lived in a small southern town where little was known about Buddhism. When I asked about the Buddha I was told, “Oh, he believed that all life is suffering.” Later, I started to question—What is suffering (dukkha)? I wondered why it sounded so gloomy. I had a lot to be grateful for and at the same time, I felt a longing in my heart that ached. How could both of these be true? As this discontentment grew, so did my frustration with the black and white contradictions of the world.
Growing up, I [...]

“Enlightenment is the ego’s ultimate disappointment.” -Trungpa Rinpoche
Joel Groover: You had been discussing what enlightenment is and isn’t, from your perspective.
Kenneth Folk: We need to get away from the idea that enlightenment is a cosmic bliss out. I find that to be a pernicious and highly prevalent misconception. Everybody wants to think, “Okay, I’m going to get enlightened and then my life will be pleasant all the time. I’ll have a beatific smile on my face. I will wear flowing white robes. Everybody will love me and bow down and kiss my feet. I will never say anything rude or [...]

Photo by: _william
INTRODUCTION
Maha Ati: Natural Liberation Through Primordial Awareness [1] is a general introductory overview of the path popularly known as Tibetan Buddhist Dzogchen. It is based in the Longchen Nyingthik tradition, Rigdzin Jigme Lingpa’s (1730-1798) revision of Kunkhyen Longchen Rabjam’s (1308-1363) original transmission of Maha Ati. Longchen Nyingthik is rooted in the Nyingmapa or “Ancient School” synonymous with the “Early Dissemination of the [Buddhist] Doctrine” as it found its way to Tibet from India prior to the end of the tenth century CE. The essay also attempts, by way of comparison, to place this tradition side by side with [...]