Trent Walker is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Ho Center for Buddhist Studies and a Lecturer in Religious Studies at Stanford University. He holds a Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies from the University of California, Berkeley, and has published widely on Khmer, Lao, Pali, Thai, and Vietnamese Buddhist texts and recitation practices. Trent began his training in Cambodian Buddhist chant in 2005, under the guidance of Koet Ran, Prum Ut, Yan Borin, and Preah Maha Vimaladhamma Pin Sem. His online multimedia … [Read more...]
Mindfulness in Different Buddhist Traditions
In modern day meditation circles, different understandings of mindfulness frequently exist side by side. Finding a meaningful way of relating one form of mindfulness to another can provide a model for coming to terms with the variety of Buddhist teachings nowadays available in the West. Different Constructs of Mindfulness The theoretical construct of mindfulness and the practices informed by this notion have gone through considerable development over two and a half thousand years of … [Read more...]
Bowing to Life Deeply
Ruth Denison is the founder and resident teacher of Dhamma Dena Desert Vipassana Center in Joshua Tree, California. She is the first generation of women teachers of vipassanā in the West, and has been teaching at Insight Meditation Society in Barre since its inception in 1976. Ruth shared her life story and thoughts with Insight's editors while teaching at IMS in the fall of 1996. Ruth, you have a fascinating and unusual life story to tell. Can you share some of it with us? How did you get … [Read more...]
May All Beings Practice Dying
Rodney Smith lives in Seattle, Washington, where he has been running a hospice. He has also set up hospices in Texas and Massachusetts and teaches workshops nationwide on working with death and the dying. He has been offering vipassanā retreats at IMS for many years, and has recently completed a book called Lessons from the Dying, to be published by Wisdom Publications. You were on staff at IMS in the very early years, weren't you? What was it like in those days? When I first came on … [Read more...]
Finding Our Place
Myoshin, you have been teaching at IMS and other retreat centers quite a bit these past few years. How did you first get involved with Buddhist meditation? I grew up in Western Canada, and from a very early age was drawn to nature. I found a sense of belonging there, a refuge from a chaotic and often painful world. It was in high school that I first read the book Siddhartha [by Herman Hesse]. This book touched a sense of possibility in me that I'd also felt from being in nature. Something was … [Read more...]
A Ripple in a Pond
I know how reticent monks are to talk about themselves, but I cannot help but begin by asking about your own Jātaka story. How did you wind up as a Buddhist monk living in England? Well, where does it all begin? I suppose around the age of six or seven I started to recognize something of what death was about: that we all die. I remember talking to my brother about it and he said, “Oh, don’t think about it, it will be all right.” Now he is a businessman and I’m a monk. (Laughs.) I remember … [Read more...]
It Can Be Very Simple
Ajahn Sundarā, a senior nun from the Amaravati community in England, spent the three-month vassa, or rains retreat, at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies in the summer of 2001. She spoke to us just before her departure. Thank you, Ajahn, for taking the time to talk with us this morning. Let me start by asking you something simple: What do you feel is the essence of dharma? [Laughter.] This is not such a simple question... The essence of dharma is liberation. Liberation from dukkha, … [Read more...]
A Beautiful Paradox
Paula, I know you would not describe yourself as a dharma teacher, and yet you have deep connections to IMS, don’t you? Yes, I do have a long and significant history with IMS. I would say I am a teacher and practitioner of peacebuilding, who has been deeply inspired by the dharma for about 20 years. I was a psychotherapist at the time I began sitting, drawn to meditation to understand my inner life at a deeper level than I had access to through psychotherapy. I became involved in the … [Read more...]
Climbing to the Top of the Mountain
You have lived in a forest monastery in Sri Lanka for many years, Bhante. What brings you to America? I originally came to the U.S. to visit my father and sister. But for twenty-five years I have been afflicted with a chronic headache condition, which has resisted every type of treatment I have tried to date. My father suggested I arrange a consultation at The Headache Institute of New York, a clinic in Manhattan. Thus for the past few months I have been taking treatment at this clinic. Is … [Read more...]
Becoming More Clearly Human
The Venerable Sayadaw U Paṉḍitābhivaṃsa is one of the most renowned teachers in the tradition of the Mahāsi Sayadaw. U Pandita continues to act as guiding teacher of the Panditārāma meditation center in Burma, and offers students from around the world the wisdom he has gained over seven decades of integrating in-depth theoretical study with intensive practical application of the Buddha's teachings We are very grateful, Sayadaw, that you have agreed to talk with us today. Your remarks will be … [Read more...]
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