B. Alan Wallace 29th November, 2017
Prof. B. Alan Wallace, dynamic lecturer, progressive scholar, and one of the most prolific writers and translators of Tibetan Buddhism in the West, talks on “Mind, Emptiness and Quantum Physics” for the general public at LTWA Buddhist Philosophy Hall. more...
0 Comments
Hillary Diane Andales Published on 1 Oct 2017
The core concept of relativity is interesting in that it shatters the singularity in perspective that we have become accustomed to. more... BY CHRISTINE SKARDA| JANUARY 12, 2017
Christine Skarda has been on retreat for the past twenty-five years. She offers advice on preparing for a successful retreat. Let go of the idea of a perfect retreat placeThere is no such place! After all, this is samsara, not nirvana. When we think about doing a retreat, we tend to recall famous practitioners and want our retreat to be like theirs: done in perfect isolation, with no distractions, no interruptions, and filled with spiritual accomplishments. Sounds good, but this ideal comes from a selective reading of their actual retreat circumstances. more... Mindfulness has to be principled, otherwise it’s just a guy in California eating a raisin really, really slowly
Zoe Williams Saturday 11 November 2017 The problem with mindfulness is that it spread across the world unhinged from the philosophy of human goodness that was supposed to underpin it. A sniper has to be mindful, in the sense of living in a state of complete presence and awareness; but he wouldn’t do much for the Dalai Lama. It doesn’t have to be religious necessarily, but mindfulness has to be principled, otherwise it’s just a guy in California eating a raisin really, really slowly. This was the starting point for the Foundation for Developing Compassion and Wisdom, a modest but global organisation calling itself Buddhism’s “secular wing”. It’s just round the corner from my house, as fortune would have it, and I’ve imbibed the benevolent self-acceptance that suffuses its scruffy south London headquarters – above a vegan cafe, next to a Buddhist film archive – but you do your own work on the 16 Guidelines app. Every day, you choose a value to live by and spend five minutes thinking deeply about what it means. more... A large trial in schools showed no evidence of benefits, and hints it could even cause problems
By Cindi May on October 31, 2017 Mindfulness involves a conscious focus on and awareness of your present state of mind and surroundings, without judgment or reaction. Mindfulness is rooted in Buddhism and was developed in the 1970’s as a therapeutic intervention for stress in adults by Jon Kabat-Zinn, who founded the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Over the past several decades, the practice of mindfulness has evolved into a booming billion dollar industry, with growing claims that mindfulness is a panacea for host of maladies including stress, depression, failures of attention, eating disorders, substance abuse, weight gain, and pain. Not all of these claims, however, are likely to be true. more... Robert Wright NOV. 6, 2017
Not long ago I was accused of something I hadn’t realized was a bad thing: clarity. Adam Gopnik, reviewing my book “Why Buddhism Is True,” in The New Yorker in August, wrote: “He makes Buddhist ideas and their history clear. Perhaps he makes the ideas too clear.” Underlying this allegation (which I vigorously deny!) is a common view: that Buddhist ideas defy clear articulation — and that in a sense the point of Buddhist ideas is to defy clear articulation. After all, aren’t those Zen koans — “What is the sound of one hand clapping?” and so on — supposed to suggest that language, and the linear thought it embodies, can’t capture the truth about reality? more... Research suggests that as the brain grows dependent on phone technology, the intellect weakens
By Nicholas Carr Oct. 6, 2017 So you bought that new iPhone. If you are like the typical owner, you’ll be pulling your phone out and using it some 80 times a day, according to data Apple collects. That means you’ll be consulting the glossy little rectangle nearly 30,000 times over the coming year. Your new phone, like your old one, will become your constant companion and trusty factotum—your teacher, secretary, confessor, guru. The two of you will be inseparable. more... BY YONGEY MINGYUR RINPOCHE| OCTOBER 26, 2017
The teacher-student relationship in Vajrayana Buddhism is intense and complex. It is easy to misunderstand and can even be misused. The respected Tibetan teacher Mingyur Rinpoche explains Vajrayana ethics, how to find a genuine teacher, and what to do if a teacher crosses the line. As a Buddhist teacher, I am often asked questions about meditation and profound Buddhist principles, like interdependence and emptiness. I am happy to share what I know on these topics. But I have noticed that people rarely ask me about ethics and how to live a virtuous life. more... Matthieu Ricard, Contributor Humanitarian, Buddhist monk, Author, Photographer
09/24/2017 All Buddhists are not vegetarians, and Buddhist texts do not unanimously condemn the consumption of meat. Certain sutras of the Great Vehicle, the Mahayana, however, do so unequivocally. An example is the Lankavatara Sutra, which states: “So as not to become a source of terror, bodhisattvas established in benevolence should not eat food containing meat. . . . Meat is food for wild beasts; it is unfitting to eat it. . . . People kill animals for profit and exchange goods for the meat. One person kills, another person buys—both are at fault.” more... In this adaptation from his new book, Why Buddhism is True, Robert Wright explains how evolutionary psychology supports the Buddhist diagnosis of the human predicament.
By Robert Wright SEP 15, 2017 At the risk of overdramatizing the human condition: Have you ever seen the movie The Matrix? It’s about a guy named Neo (played by Keanu Reeves), who discovers that he’s been inhabiting a dream world. The life he thought he was living is actually an elaborate hallucination. He’s having that hallucination while, unbeknownst to him, his actual physical body is inside a gooey, coffin-size pod, one among many pods, rows and rows of pods, each pod containing a human being absorbed in a dream. These people have been put in their pods by robot overlords and given dream lives as pacifiers. more... Closer To Truth
Published on 5 Jul 2016 Some claim consciousness, our inner awareness, is part of a 'cosmic consciousness'. Not only is consciousness the deepest reality, but also it brought into existence the totality of reality. This would mean that mind, the mental, is fundamental and primary, while the entire physical universe is derivative and secondary. more... Renowned expert and author on compassion and happiness Matthieu Ricard, who himself took part in seminal research in the connections between neuroscience and contentment, is often called the ‘happiest man on earth'. more...
BY YONGEY MINGYUR RINPOCHE| AUGUST 9, 2017
“The one time people ask me about ethics is when scandals or controversies happen in Buddhist communities,” says Mingyur Rinpoche. But, as he notes, ethical conduct has always been central to the Buddhist path. Here he explains what it means to live a virtuous life, what a student a should look for in a teacher, what to do when serious ethics violations occur, and more. As a Buddhist teacher, I am often asked questions about meditation and profound Buddhist principles, like interdependence and emptiness. I am happy to share what I know on these topics. But I have noticed that people rarely ask me about ethics and how to live a virtuous life. It is true that meditation is important in the Buddhist tradition. There’s no question about that. The same can be said about studying Buddhist ideas and philosophies. But in many ways, ethics and virtue are the foundation of the Buddhist path. more... BY FRANCESCA FREMANTLE| AUGUST 8, 2017
Francesca Fremantle on the wheel of life and how the Buddha deconstructed it. The Buddha described all worldly phenomena as having three characteristics: impermanence, suffering and nonself. We suffer because we imagine what is not self to be self, what is impermanent to be permanent, and what, from an ultimate viewpoint, is pain to be pleasure. Existence with these three characteristics is called samsara, which means we are continually flowing, moving on, from one moment to the next moment, and from one life to the next life. Samsara is not the actual external world or life itself, but the way we interpret them. more... BY SAM LITTLEFAIR| AUGUST 8, 2017
The Dalai Lama said that when a teacher commits ethical misconduct and disregards Buddhist ethics, students should make the misconduct public. The Dalai Lama said that when a teacher commits ethical misconduct and disregards Buddhist ethics, students should make the misconduct public.In a talk last week, the Dalai Lama addressed recent allegations of misconduct in Buddhist communities. In July, famed Tibetan Buddhist teacher Sogyal Rinpoche was accused of longstanding abuse of many students. In response, Sogyal said he would be “taking a step back” from teaching. The Dalai Lama addressed Sogyal Rinpoche in his talk, saying “Sogyal Rinpoche, my very good friend. Now he is disgraced.” more... Jacob spoke with Mandala associate editor Donna Lynn Brown. Mandala: What led you to look at how Madhyamaka (Middle Way) philosophy1 intersects with mindfulness? Lindsley: I’ve spent a lot of time mulling over the Madhyamaka view of self as empty of inherent existence, and working with its meditations that help show that the true self that we think exists really can’t be found. This has convinced me that, as Buddhism maintains, our wrong view of self creates suffering. But I also have a background in psychology, so I wanted to see how mindfulness—so important in psychology now—gets at that root cause of suffering. What I found was that mindfulness-based therapies do not deconstruct the sense of self in the same way as, say, Gelugpa-style meditations. So I wanted to explore how mindfulness therapies understand the self they posit, and transform our relationship with it, compared to how the Gelug teachings do that. more... 30/04/2017 - Dalai Lama: Spirituality Without Quantum Physics is an Incomplete Picture of Reality1/5/2017 KALEE BROWN APRIL 26, 2017
“Broadly speaking, although there are some differences, I think Buddhist philosophy and Quantum Mechanics can shake hands on their view of the world. We can see in these great examples the fruits of human thinking. Regardless of the admiration we feel for these great thinkers, we should not lose sight of the fact that they were human beings just as we are.” – The Dalai Lama For a long time, science and spirituality were considered to be opposing views, creating this polarization of both subjects. You were either a “Man of God” or a “Man of Science,” with no middle ground. However, we’re now observing a merging of both science and spirituality through quantum physics and the study of consciousness, shattering old thought patterns and putting an end to the previous “tug of war” between the two subjects. more... Dzogchen Explained
BY ROGER R. JACKSON| APRIL 13, 2017 Roger Jackson reviews Heart of the Great Perfection: Dudjom Lingpa’s Visions of the Great Perfection, Vol. 1 by B. Alan Wallace. From the Spring 2017 issue of Buddhadharma: The Practitioner’s Quarterly. The first Tibetan Buddhist retreat I attended, right out of college, was an intensive weekend at Tarthang Tulku’s Nyingma Institute in Berkeley in the fall of 1972. The retreat concluded on a most auspicious note, with the arrival of none other than Dudjom Rinpoche, the head of the Nyingma lineage. As a friend visiting from upstate exclaimed afterward, “My first day in the Bay Area, and I get to meet the holiest man in the world!” more... BY DZOGCHEN PONLOP RINPOCHE MARCH 29, 2017
In Buddhism, wisdom is not something we acquire or develop — it is who we really are, the true nature of mind. Through Mahamudra meditation, says Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, we relax into the emptiness, clarity, and awareness of ever-present buddha wisdom. Buddhism is rich in methods for working with the mind. One of the most renowned and powerful is the ancient wisdom tradition known as Mahamudra. Originating in India, the view and practice of Mahamudra gradually spread across Asia and today has reached the West. As a philosophy, it aims to communicate clear knowledge of the true nature of the mind. As a meditation practice, it is designed to bring about that experience swiftly and unmistakably. more... |