Progressive Buddhism @ BlogSpot | October 1, 2008

The word “progressive” implies a movement beyond tradition and dogma. I have chosen to connect this word with Pure Land Buddhism because I am convinced that this school of Buddhism has a pressing need to progress beyond some of its traditional doctrinal understandings and premodern supernaturalism to remain [...]

This article is featured on: Buddhism and Sex & Spirituality
An interview with Bhante Henepola Gunaratana

In a perfect world, the opening line of this introduction
would have read: “This issue of What Is Enlightenment? would not
be complete without the following interview with the Buddha.” This is not
a perfect world, of course, [...]

By the Shaman Sun
Following up on the previous blog about meditation, I’ve been digging around for some interesting links on how meditative states correlate with brain waves. Here’s a basic rundown on how:

(Graph from crystalinks)

The brain itself emits electromagnetic energy, and this brain activity differs according to its state (sleeping, awake, thinking etc). There is [...]

This article is featured on: Buddhism and Sex & Spirituality
An interview with Jetsunma Ahk�n Lhamo

I first heard about Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo, the first Western woman to be recognized and enthroned by a Tibetan rinpoche as a tulku (an enlightened teacher who reincarnates in whatever form can most benefit all beings), when I read about her [...]

Mystery of Existence
One of the many “open secrets” out there is that well-wishing for others tends to calm social anxiety.
If I am in a situation that triggers social anxiety in me – such as giving a talk or teach – and I take the time to find sincere well-wishing for others, the nervousness subsides.
And if [...]

In This Together @ BlogSpot

Mental Outlook
There is a positive outlook on each day and hour. The mind is orientated to the now. Appreciation abounds. The mind is quiet more and more. The reduction in judgment is noticeable. There is awareness of breath, body, mind, surroundings and that every present being within. There is an orientation [...]

An interview with H H Penor Rinpoche

Andrew Cohen: Rinpoche, many people in the West are becoming interested in the Buddha-dharma. You’re a monk. And the Buddha himself was a monk. What are the virtues of monkhood for the spiritual aspirant?

PENOR RINPOCHE: In sutra, the Buddha taught that being a renunciate and [...]

An interview with Peter Masefield

Twenty years ago, as a doctoral candidate at the University of Lancaster, the Buddhist scholar and Pali translator Peter Masefield made an assertion that struck many in his field as not only bold but perhaps even heretical. “It is simply fallacious to assume,” he wrote, “as most writers on Buddhism appear [...]

An interview with Joseph Goldstein

ANDREW COHEN: Joseph,
you seem to be someone who has given up the world to devote your life
to the practice of meditation and the pursuit of liberation, and also
[...]

Authored by Peter Masefield

It is always intriguing to wonder what the founder of what was to become, sometime after his death, a major world religion, might think were he to witness the way in which his original teachings had come to be understood, and practiced, by much later generations with different cultural backgrounds in other [...]