Archives: BD Articles
Endless Lifetimes, Endless Benefit
Bethany Saltman talks with Tenzin Palmo about rebirth, merit, and the bodhisattva vow.
You Can’t Meditate Wrong
Barry Magid says Buddhist practice is like looking in a mirror — there’s no wrong way to do it. The important thing is to be yourself.
What is Jodo Shinshu?
The path is easy, it is said of Shin Buddhism, "but few are those who take it." The late Taitetsu Unno explores the history of Jodo Shinshu and its core practice of reciting the Name of Amida Buddha.
Destroyed Not Destroyed
Norman Fischer looks at the koan “Dasui’s Aeonic Fire" and takes on the end of the world. It’s happening right now, he says, but probably not in the way that you think.
Enlightenment Is a Male Fantasy
Gesshin Greenwood offers an alternative to the “male fantasy” of striving for enlightenment. From the Winter 2018 issue of Buddhadharma: The Practitioner's Quarterly
The Four Layers of Consciousness
Abhidharma, Buddhism’s map of the mind, is sometimes treated as a topic of merely intellectual interest. In fact, says Thich Nhat Hanh, identifying the different elements of consciousness, and understanding how they interact, is essential to our practice of meditation.
Zen Is Not A Perfume
When Jan Chozen Bays noticed purveyors of commercial products appropriating the word "Zen," she responded with an open letter published in the Fall 2002 Buddhadharma.
Give and You Shall Receive
Reginald A. Ray argues that far from being a "lesser" practice, giving is central to all schools of Buddhism and essential to the relinquishment of ego.
There Is No Author
When Judy Roitman learned her favorite dharma text was actually a patchwork of phrases and poems lifted from other sources, she started looking into the authorship of Buddhist texts. What she found surprised her.