Forum: When I’m Sixty-Four

How Buddhist Communities Can Help Their Aging Members

Introduction By Lewis Richmond

Nowadays one can’t help noticing the sea of gray hairs at dharma programs and centers. The baby boomers who came of age in the 1960s and 1970s, and who often began practicing the dharma then, are growing old—not that they readily acknowl­edge it. Meditators long accustomed to sitting cross-legged are now sitting in chairs; youth­ful dreams of enlightenment have been sup­planted by more immediate concerns about health, loss of vitality, finances, and adult children in crisis.

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Are We Really Meditating?

Elizabeth Mattis-Namgyel examines common misconceptions about Buddhist practice that can derail even the most seasoned practitioners.

What is meditation practice? When are we genuinely practicing and when are we just going through the motions, caught in unexamined assumptions about prac­tice? I often ask myself these questions so I don’t succumb to spiritual vagueness and because I want my practice to continue to grow.

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Take a Hard Look

You might not think your practice has selfish motivations, says Bardor Tulku, but if you take a close look, you may be surprised by what you find.

No one has ever achieved buddhahood through selfishness. If it were possible to achieve buddhahood through a selfish motivation, then we would certainly have achieved it because we are all masters at selfishness. And yet it appears that we have not done so. All buddhas have achieved buddhahood through altruism; all sen­tient beings remain sentient beings because of selfishness. What does our selfishness consist of? It consists of “i want”: i want pleasure, i want wealth, i want security, and so forth.

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Lost in Beantown

Boston newcomer Brian Arundel struggles to make sense of the locals’ reckless driving, knack for obscenities, and seeming disregard for the welfare of strangers.

"If we learn to open our hearts, anyone, includ­ing the people who drive us crazy, can be our teacher.” —Pema Chödrön

There’s this thing that drivers do here when the light turns green: shoot out and turn left in front of you, before you can make it through the inter­section. My fellow transplants call it the “Boston left,” and it’s so engrained in local culture that it’s actually more common than not.

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Commentary: Newtown and the Three Poisons

by Guo Gu

My teacher, the late Master Sheng Yen, once said some­thing very simple, but which requires a lifetime of practice to actualize. I share it with you in this difficult time: “Wisdom does not give rise to vexations; compassion has no enemies.”

Wisdom is to be free from greed, hatred, and ignorance, which are the three root vexations. Compassion is to act with­out opposition. Siding with those who agree with me is greed; opposing those who don’t agree with me and wishing they would go away is hatred; not being able to see this mechanism is ignorance. Do our decisions and interpretations of what we experience foster vexations? Do greed, hatred, and ignorance live in us? How many times in our life have we tried to blame others for our suffering? How often do we see things in oppo­sition, as victim and victimizer, good and bad? 

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First Thoughts

DO NOT STAND BY

In this message to Buddhadharma’s readers, Jack Kornfield talks about the response of Western Buddhist leaders to the ethnic violence incited by Burmese monks and abbots.

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Ask The Teachers

Buddhist teachings talk about having no distinction between “self” and “other.” But they also talk about using meditation to discover one’s “true self.” if we’re trying to diminish the gap between self and other, how does discovering one’s self help in that process? When i meditate, i discover more about myself, but that seems to get in the way of dropping my sense of self. So this confuses me a lot!

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What Are You Waiting For?

Clinical therapist Tamara Kaiser asks why Buddhist communities have not adopted ethical standards long accepted by the rest of society.

What happens in your sangha if a member has a conflict with a spiritual teacher over alleged psychological or sexual exploita­tion? Is there room for open discussion about the conflict, or is any such discussion automati­cally interpreted as a violation of “right speech” and suppressed? As a therapist and, for want of a better term, “spiritual seeker” whose practice includes meditation, I have followed the discus­sion regarding sexual and psychological exploita­tion in the American Buddhist community for a number of years. I first became acquainted with these issues in the Buddhist community through my husband, a longtime Zen practitioner and meditation teacher. In my own profession, I have worked extensively with boundary issues in my roles as a therapist and supervisor of therapists (including those who have been sanctioned by a licensing board for violations of the profession’s code of ethics) and also as a teacher of therapists and their supervisors.

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Serving Others, Transforming Ourselves

THE ARTS OF CONTEMPLATIVE CARE: PIONEERING VOICES IN BUDDHIST CHAPLAINCY AND PASTORAL WORK
Edited by Cheryl A. Giles and Willa B. Miller
Wisdom Publications, 2012
$34.95; 368 pages

BUDDHIST CARE FOR THE DYING AND BEREAVED
Edited by Jonathan S. Watts and Yoshiharu Tomatsu
Wisdom publications, 2012
$22.95; 312 pages

Reviewed by Frank Ostaseski

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A Bow to Women’s Wisdom

RECEIVING THE MARROW TEACHINGS ON DOGEN  by Soto Zen Women Priests
Edited by Eido Frances Carney
Temple Ground Press, 2012
$18; 266 pages

Reviewed by Steven Heine

Nearly eight hundred years ago, the celebrated Japanese Zen master Dogen gave a remarkable sermon revealing his egalitarian attitude toward women, an attitude reflected in both his teachings and writings. With the publication of Receiving the Marrow, a collection of essays edited by Eido Frances Carney, eleven accomplished Zen women priests share their understanding of Dogen’s teachings, as well as their appreciation.

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