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Wednesday November 11, 2009

A minute of silence

by Greg Zwahlen

I don't mean to take anything away from U.S. war veterans, but I think this quote from Kurt Vonnegut (in Breakfast of Champions) is apt this morning:

When I was a boy, all the people of all the nations which had fought in the First World War were silent during the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of Armistice Day, which was the eleventh day of the eleventh month.

It was during that minute in nineteen hundred and eighteen, that millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering one and another. I have talked to old men who were on battlefields during that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the sudden silence was the voice of God. So we still have among us some men who can remember when God spoke clearly to mankind.

Armistice Day has become Veterans' Day. Armistice Day was sacred. Veterans' Day is not.

So I will throw Veterans' Day over my shoulder. Armistice Day I will keep. I don't want to throw away any sacred things.

Over at the Fayette County News, Trey Alverson published an insightful reflection on that passage:

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Filed Under: Armistice Day, Veterans Day

posted by Greg Zwahlen @10:54am Permalink email icon

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Tuesday November 10, 2009

Categories: Buddhism, Hardcore Dharma, Meditation, Talking Dharma

Building and safeguarding Buddhism in the West

by Greg Zwahlen

People study meditation and Buddhism for all sorts of reasons, with varying levels of interest. That said, it seems safe to say that the vast majority have modest aspirations for it, modest levels of interest in it, and modest levels of commitment to it. That's not a bad thing. It's wonderful, actually. It's normal, it's healthy, and it's exactly what one would reasonably expect. Most of the people I hang out with fit this description, and thank goodness they're here.

In a very real sense, people with a casual interest in Buddhism and meditation are the foundation of dharma in the West, without which there would be little or no dharma here at all. The scholar Thomas Tweed, writing about this in Westward Dharma: Buddhism beyond Asia, wrote "sympathizers have been an important part of the story of Buddhism since the 1880s . . . [the] tens of thousands who . ..do not affiliate formally with Buddhism formally or fully are an important part of the tradition's history in America" (pgs 75-76). Tweed coined the term "night-stand Buddhists" to describe the contemporary representatives of this demographic.

There simply aren't enough teachers to teach everyone with this level of interest in meditation and Buddhism. However, the good news is that it seems to be possible for facilitators to give introductory instruction with only a relatively modest amount of experience themselves.

In order to keep this situation healthy and thriving, however, it is also important that there is a certain percentage of the Buddhist population that is deeply trained and knowledgeable, able to guide the smaller number of people who wish to explore the dharma further and deeper, able to address more thorny issues in an informed manner, and able to protect the integrity of the overall situation. Basically, we also need more masters of scripture (āgamadharma) and realization (adhigamadharma).

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Filed Under: Buddhism, Buddhist Geeks, Daniel Ingram, education, Judith Simmer-Brown, meditation, Thomas Tweed, Yogachara

posted by Greg Zwahlen @ 1:40pm Permalink email icon

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Tuesday November 3, 2009

Categories: Buddhism, Hardcore Dharma, Meditation

Why I am not a "Tibetan Buddhist" (anymore)

by Greg Zwahlen

If you've received meditation instruction at a Shambhala center, or at an Insight Meditation Center, a zendo, or the ID project, the very first thing you probably learned was that it is possible to look directly into your own experience, using your breath to stabilize your attention somewhat and as a jumping off point. This technique is endorsed by Śākyamuni Buddha himself, right there in the Satipatthana Sutta (Sanskrit: Smṛtyupasthāna Sūtra), so it has to be just basic, foundational Buddhism, right?

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Filed Under: Buddhism, Chogyam Trungpa, Dzogchen, Leah Zahler, Mahamudra, meditation, mindfulness, Stephen Batchelor, U Goenka

posted by Greg Zwahlen @ 2:13pm Permalink email icon

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