Seek a deeper understanding of the fundamental and enduring questions that have been raised by thoughtful human beings in the rich traditions of the East.
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No Words
You’ve said that you were once a poet who practiced Zen but over the years became a monk who practices poetry. Could you say more about this? My interest in Zen started in high school, but it wasn’t until I was in graduate school that I learned how to meditate. It was then that I met my teacher, Joshu Sasaki Roshi. I vividly remember my first sanzen [private interview] with him. He asked me, “What do you do?” I stupidly replied, “I’m a poet.” He laughed, rang his bell to dismiss me, and said, “You’ll never be a poet.” Soon after this exchange, Sasaki Roshi gave me a koan that took me several months to answer. When I did finally answer it—without the use of any words—he said, “Now you become poet!” More » -
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From Mysticism To Murder
SHAINBERG: What did Aum hope to achieve by its horrific acts? More » -
Topping the Charts for Freedom
In your book you speak openly about your childhood with a father who routinely beat you and a mother who was unable to intervene. How has your practice of Buddhism helped you make sense of the past? What happened happened; I can’t undo it. I’ve learned that it’s stupid to live in that unpleasant experience forever. The most painful situation took place long ago, but as you relive it you make yourself suffer over and over again. The main question is how much you want to break free of your patterns and dissatisfaction regarding what you’ve been through. More » -
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The Experience of Change
Daniel Goleman: What is the Buddhist understanding of Time? How can we relate our sense of the process of time to our experience of the present moment? His Holiness the Dalai Lama: In Buddhism, the concept of linear time, of time as a kind of container, is not accepted. Time itself, I think, is something quite weak. It depends on some physical basis, some specific thing. Apart from that thing it is difficult to pinpoint—to see time. Time is understood or conceived only in relation to a phenomenon or a process. DG: Yet the passage of time seems very concrete—the past, the present, aging. The process of time seems very real. More » -
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In the Dukkha Magnet Zone
Tricycle: How can medicine be a vehicle for Buddhist teachings in this country? Jon Kabat-Zinn: Hospitals and medical centers in this society are dukkha magnets. (Dukkha means "suffering" in Pali.) People are drawn to hospitals primarily when they're suffering, so it's very natural to introduce programs to help them deal with the enormity of their suffering in a systematic way—as a complement to medical efforts. When we set up the Stress Reduction Clinic, the question was: Would people accept an intensive meditation-based training program to learn how to take better care of themselves? Would they be willing to roll up their sleeves and work hard on themselves?—a question that isn't very prevalent in the United States. More »
