The woman who is said to have composed this poem was Pajapati, the Buddha's step-mother and a Queen of the Sakyas. Her younger sister was Maya, married to King Suddhodana only after Pajapati herself was unable to conceive an heir. Queen Maya died in childbirth, and it was Pajapati who raised Gotama as her own son. After his enlightenment, Pajapati also left the palace and became the first of the bhikkhuis, the order of nuns. The third stanza suggests that her attainments included the … [Read more...]
Lions in the Wilderness
Andrew Olendzki
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...]
Going for Refuge
Thanissaro Bhikkhu
This article is adapted by Thanissaro Bhikkhu from the workshop he taught on "Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha: The Triple Refuge” at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies on June 16-18, 1995. The act of going for refuge marks the point where one decides to take the Dhamma as the primary guide to the conduct in one's life. It means that one's relationship to Dhamma practice has matured from simple involvement into a commitment. To understand why this commitment is called a "refuge," it is helpful to … [Read more...]
The Unifying Quality of Dharma
Corrado Pensa
Corrado Pensa is the guiding teacher of the Association for Mindfulness Meditation in Rome and a professor of Eastern Philosophy at the University of Rome. He is a former psychotherapist, and each summer for many years, Corrado has joined Larry Rosenberg in leading the "old yogi" retreat for experienced meditators at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre. He shares some of his thoughts with Insight's editors. How did you develop an interest in eastern philosophy, and in the inner … [Read more...]