Find out more about Steve’s course at BCBS this September 23 - 28, 2016, Mindfulness, Insight, and Nibbāna: In this Very Life. Find out more about Steve’s online course starting September 27, 2016, Introduction to the Manual of Insight. Insight Journal: Can you tell us about Manual of Insight by Mahasi Sayadaw? Steve Armstrong: Kamala Masters, a team of translators, and myself have been working on this for fifteen years. Manual of Insight, recently published by Wisdom Publications, … [Read more...]
Outline of Abhidhamma
The Abhidhamma is a body of literature that emerged shortly after the lifetime of the Buddha, comprising the third of the “three baskets” (Tipitaka) of the early Buddhist canon. The word also refers broadly to a body of thought whose roots are in the psychological teachings and meditation practices of the suttas (the discourses) and whose branches reach far into the mature philosophical discussions of the Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna traditions. The Abhidhamma is essentially an attempt to … [Read more...]
Mapping the Mind
For the last couple of years I have been participating in and contributing to the Mind & Life Institute's Mapping the Mind initiative. Among scientific researchers this topic primarily involves mapping out the wiring and firing of various neural networks in the brain, and indeed for those with strong materialist inclinations (which includes most scientists) mapping the mind can only really mean mapping the brain. For practitioners of Buddhist meditation, however, the situation is entirely … [Read more...]
Jhāna Practice and True Happiness
Shaila Catherine has been practicing since 1980 and teaching since 1996. After studying and practicing extensively with Pa Auk Sayadaw at the Forest Refuge, she wrote a book at his suggestion on jhāna practice and its relationship to vipassanā. In August of this year, she will bring jhāna teachings and her enthusiasm for the suttas to bear on the subject of happiness, in a course at BCBS. Insight Journal asked her to talk about how she arrived at this point, and her plans for the course. … [Read more...]
Talking with Andrew Olendzki About His New Roles
Andrew Olendzki has been part of Barre Center for Buddhist Studies since its earliest days, bringing it to life, managing its operations and teaching countless courses to many grateful students. After moving into a full-time role as Senior Scholar in recent years, to focus more on scholarship and teaching exclusively, he is now continuing that role part time and embracing a new role with the Mind and Life Institute in Amherst and Hadley, Massachusetts. Insight Journal asked Andy to talk about … [Read more...]
New rivers, new rafts: The Secular Buddhism Conference
Here some clansmen learn the Dhamma—discourses, stanzas, expositions, verses, exclamations, sayings, birth stories, marvels, and answers to questions—and having learned the Dhamma, they examine the meaning of those teachings with wisdom. Examining the meaning of those teachings with wisdom, they gain a reflective acceptance of them. They do not learn the Dhamma for the sake of criticising others and for winning in debates, and they experience the good for the sake of which they learned the … [Read more...]
Honoring a Life & Legacy in the Dhamma: Mirka Knaster on Munindra
A young man in the East Bengal region of India, born in 1915 to a Buddhist family that traces its roots to the time of Siddhattha Gotama, raised in a home that respects both study and practice, reads every book he can get his hands on. Becoming fascinated with the Dhamma, he comes to work for the Mahabodhi Society, a group devoted to reawakening Buddhism in the land of its birth. Through this work he comes to meet with everyone who is anyone among those spurring the emergence of Buddhism in … [Read more...]