IMS Spring 2007 Newsletter
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Mahasi Sayadaw's Revolution
Deep Dive into Vipassana Copyright © 2020 Lion’s Roar Foundation, except where noted. All rights reserved. Lion’s Roar is an independent non-profit whose mission is to communicate Buddhist wisdom and practices in order to benefit people’s lives, and to support the development of Buddhism in the modern world. Projects of Lion’s Roar include Lion’s Roar magazine, Buddhadharma: The Practitioner’s Quarterly, lionsroar.com, and Lion’s Roar Special Editions and Online Learning. Theravada, which means “Way of the Elders,” is the earliest form of institutionalized Buddhism. It’s a style based primarily on talks the Buddha gave during his forty-six years of teaching. These talks were memorized and recited (before the internet, people could still do that) until they were finally written down a few hundred years later in Sri Lanka, where Theravada still dominates – and where there is also superb surf. In the US, Theravada mostly man- ifests through the teaching of Vipassana, particularly its popular meditation technique, mindfulness, the awareness of what is hap- pening now—thoughts, feelings, sensations—without judgment or attachment. Just as surfing is larger than, say, Kelly Slater, Theravada is larger than mindfulness. It’s a vast system of ethics and philoso- phies. That said, the essence of Theravada is using mindfulness to explore the Buddha’s first teaching, the Four Noble Truths, which go something like this: 1. Life is stressful. 2. Our constant desires make it stressful. 3. Freedom is possible. 4. Living compassionately and mindfully is the way to attain this freedom. 3 DEEP DIVE INTO VIPASSANA LIONSROAR.COM INTRODUCTION About those “constant desires”: Theravada practitioners don’t try to stop desire cold turkey. -
INSIGHT NEWSLETTER PAID Insight Meditation Society Permit No.2 1230 Pleasant St
INSIGHT NEWSLETTER FALL WINTER 2006/2007 IMS Schedules: Practicing with Vedana: The Retreat Center 2007 The Forest Refuge 2007 The 2nd Foundation of Mindfulness An Interview with Christina Feldman Teacher Interview In 1971, Christina Feldman began Buddhist meditation practice in northern India. She was 17 at the time, and had left her native Canada to travel and explore new IMS News horizons. Since then she has played a key role in bringing the Buddha’s teachings and Developments to the West, offering retreats at IMS and co-founding Gaia House in Devon, England. Married with two adult children, she introduced the Family Retreat at IMS in 1982, and the Women’s Retreat in 1984 – both popular mainstays of BCBS 2006/2007 our annual course calendar. Course Schedule Outline Christina, what are the On his journey towards enlightenment, Buddha’s ‘Four Foundations we know that these ascetic practices of Mindfulness’? didn’t work; they did not bring about the freedom from suffering that he First, it’s helpful to describe the historical sought. One of the turning points of context of the Buddha’s teachings. his awakening was the understanding Siddhartha Gautama - the Buddha - that the very aspects of life he was came from a society rooted in the belief trying to overcome actually held the that life was an obstacle to overcome. key to liberation. He then turned The body, the mind and human rela- towards his body, his mind, his tionships were all to be transcended. feelings and towards everything So, once he started his spiritual search, that arose in his consciousness, it was natural for him to become an seeing them as the ground for his ascetic – he left his family and spent awakening. -
Integrating Mindfulness Meditation in a Creative Process in Dance
UNIVERSITÉ DU QUÉBEC À MONTRÉAL INTEGRATING MINDFULNESS MEDITATION IN A CREATIVE PROCESS IN DANCE THESIS PRESENTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE MAS TER IN DANCE BY MONICA COQUOZ SEPTEMBER 2017 UNIVERSITÉ DU QUÉBEC À MONTRÉAL Service des bibliothèques Avertissement La diffusion de ce mémoire se fait dans le respect des droits de son auteur, qui a signé le formulaire Autorisation de reproduire et de diffuser un travail de recherche de cycles supérieurs (SDU-522 - Rév.07-2011 ). Cette autorisation stipule que «conformément à l'article 11 du Règlement no 8 des études de cycles supérieurs, [l'auteur] concède à l'Université du Québec à Montréal une licence non exclusive d'utilisation et de publication de la totalité ou d'une partie importante de [son] travail de recherche pour des fins pédagogiques et non commerciales. Plus précisément, [l 'auteur] autorise l'Université du Québec à Montréal à reproduire, diffuser, prêter, distribuer ou vendre des copies de [son] travail de recherche à des fins non commerciales sur quelque support que ce soit, y compris l'Internet. Cette licence et cette autorisation n'entraînent pas une renonciation de [la] part [de l'auteur] à [ses] droits moraux ni à [ses] droits de propriété intellectuelle. Sauf entente contraire, [l 'auteur] conserve la liberté de diffuser et de commercialiser ou non ce travail dont [il] possède un exemplaire.» UNIVERSITÉ DU QUÉBEC À MONTRÉAL L'INTÉGRATION DE LA MÉDITATION DE LA PLEINE CONSCIENCE DANS UN PROCESSUS DE CRÉATION EN DANSE MÉMOIRE PRÉSENTÉ COMME EXIGENCE PARTIELLE DE LA MAÎTRISE EN DANSE PAR MONICA COQUOZ SEPTEMBRE 2017 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I am deeply grateful to Johanna Bienaise, my thesis advisor, for her clarity, efficiency, wisdom and warmth in helping me complete this project. -
Buddhism and Written Law: Dhammasattha Manuscripts and Texts in Premodern Burma
BUDDHISM AND WRITTEN LAW: DHAMMASATTHA MANUSCRIPTS AND TEXTS IN PREMODERN BURMA A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Dietrich Christian Lammerts May 2010 2010 Dietrich Christian Lammerts BUDDHISM AND WRITTEN LAW: DHAMMASATTHA MANUSCRIPTS AND TEXTS IN PREMODERN BURMA Dietrich Christian Lammerts, Ph.D. Cornell University 2010 This dissertation examines the regional and local histories of dhammasattha, the preeminent Pali, bilingual, and vernacular genre of Buddhist legal literature transmitted in premodern Burma and Southeast Asia. It provides the first critical analysis of the dating, content, form, and function of surviving dhammasattha texts based on a careful study of hitherto unexamined Burmese and Pali manuscripts. It underscores the importance for Buddhist and Southeast Asian Studies of paying careful attention to complex manuscript traditions, multilingual post- and para- canonical literatures, commentarial strategies, and the regional South-Southeast Asian literary, historical, and religious context of the development of local legal and textual practices. Part One traces the genesis of dhammasattha during the first and early second millennia C.E. through inscriptions and literary texts from India, Cambodia, Campå, Java, Lakå, and Burma and investigates its historical and legal-theoretical relationships with the Sanskrit Bråhmaˆical dharmaßåstra tradition and Pali Buddhist literature. It argues that during this period aspects of this genre of written law, akin to other disciplines such as alchemy or medicine, functioned in both Buddhist and Bråhmaˆical contexts, and that this ecumenical legal culture persisted in certain areas such as Burma and Java well into the early modern period. -
2014.12 Harley Shapiro (Four Friends in Fellowship).Pdf
DECEMBER 2014 / JANUARY 2015 NEWSLETTER Four Friends The Gay Buddhist Fellow- in Fellowship ship supports Buddhist practice in the Gay BY HARLEY SHAPIRO men’s community. Last October, I was fortunate to experience another ad- venture in Southeast Asia. I spent four months traveling It is a forum that in four countries—Taiwan, Burma (Myanmar), Laos, and Thailand. Four special friends were my hosts during my time in their hometowns. They were all warm and brings together the friendly, graciously sharing their lives, families, and friends. I was able to arrange volunteer opportunities diverse Buddhist with NGOs, medical clinics, and schools, and to explore many aspects of the history, arts, festivals, spiritual prac- traditions to address tices, and everyday lives of these countries. I would like to introduce you to these men and share stories and Harley Shapiro the spiritual concerns photo images that illustrate the spirit and essence of their lives and cultures. It was wonderful to be able to exchange ideas and smiles with them. All four express their of Gay men in the joy and zest for life every day. They all have an important impact on their communi- ties that ripples out to the wider world. In their daily lives, they exhibit their knowl- San Francisco Bay Area, edge and practice of the four noble truths and the eightfold path. the United States, and the world. GBF’s mission includes cultivating a social environment that is inclusive and caring. Mr. Hummingbird Shin Peter Kim Chai Proud to be Gay Fo Guang Shan Buddhist Monastery, Kaohsiung Taiwan—“Mr. -
Sayadaw U Tejaniya & Ma Thet, Translator April 25 to May 9, 2015
Dhamma Everywhere: Awareness+Wisdom A Spirit Rock Meditation Center Retreat with Sayadaw U Tejaniya & Ma Thet, translator April 25 to May 9, 2015 THE MORNING INSTRUCTIONS !1 DAY 1—"EVERY MOMENT IS TIME TO MEDITATE" Since we are going to be practicing Satipattana meditation it means that we use sati or awareness as as the lead in order to cultivate five qualities. These five qualities are called the five faculties of mind. The five faculties are infinite awareness itself, sati; and then samadhi, we'll call it stability of mind; there's viriya, we'll call it right effort; there's saddha, which will we'll call faith or confidence in yourself and the practice; and lastly wisdom which is called panna. The word in Pali for meditation is bhavana which literally means "cultivation." The reason why cultivation is important is because it is the nature of mind to arise and pass away every moment. The mind is discrete. It arises and passes away. But what it leaves is a legacy for the next mind that will arise. So cultivation of the right things is important so the right legacy is passed on. So whatever you allow to live and grow in your mind, whether that quality is positive or negative, will, as you allow it to remain in the mind, grow strong and stronger because that legacy is being passed on. That is why if we want to cultivate meditation, if we want that to grow, we have practice nonstop. Meditation is not a part-time occupation. It's not a pastime. -
Insight Newsletter
INSIGHT NEWSLETTER FALL WINTER A Dharma Life: 2 0 1 0 / 2 0 1 1 The Extraordinary is Always Arising A Profile of Ruth Denison IMS Schedules: The Retreat Center 2011 Dharma elder Ruth Denison, who celebrates her 88th birthday this year, has led The Forest Refuge 2011 courses at IMS since it opened in 1976. She is one of three Westerners who received permission to teach from Burmese master Sayagi U Ba Khin, and she was the first Teacher Profile Buddhist teacher in the US to lead an all-women’s Buddhist meditation retreat. IMS News & Developments Beloved by many for her unique teaching style, she reflects here on how she came to the Buddha’s teachings and developed her own way of communicating them to her BCBS Schedule: 2011 Listing students, so that they too can taste the extraordinary in their lives. y connection to the dharma atmosphere available to us than the ordinary Mstarted early in childhood. I was way of being. I once read a woman’s born in East Prussia, where my father had description of how things looked to her a large flower nursery. To help the people after she became a nun and went to live in who came to work in the fields I would walk a monastery. It was powerful – it shifted along a row giving water to the flowers. my awareness from the ordinary way of When I looked back and saw that the water life, the ordinary way of seeing things, to was unevenly distributed, I would think, the extraordinary that is always just right “This one will be very sad” – I animated there, if you allow yourself to stop. -
News and Schedule of Events
SpiritNews and Schedule Rock of Events Summer 2016 • spiritrock.org SPIRIT ROCK NEWS | MAY - AUG 2016 Hearts Breaking Open: Mudita & Karuna A Message from Michelle Latvala, Executive Director We eagerly find ourselves in the final homestretch of completing and opening our new Community Meditation Center this summer, with three dharma spaces and a variety of programs to support your practice in daily life. We thank you for your tremendous support in bringing this vision to bear and look forward to welcoming you to our new sangha space together! • Karuna: Many of you have also been following our progress over the years with our diversity efforts — from the first People of Color (POC) Retreat in 1999, to expanding POC scholarship support for long retreats, to our commitment for our next Teacher Training to train a majority of Teachers of Color. We had a major shift last fall when core faculty for the program resigned, pointing towards foundational issues around race, equity and governance at both Spirit Rock and Executive Director, Michelle Latvala Insight Meditation Society that needed to be addressed for this groundbreaking Teacher Training to succeed. Those of us in staff, teaching and Board leadership are accountable Spirit Rock is in the midst of an incredibly transformative year. for our own actions and inactions, and the actions and inactions of those around us, that led to this resignation. Externally we are happily increasing our dharma offerings as we open our new Community Meditation Center this summer. We are engaged in a multi-levelled reckoning to better understand and learn from this opportunity in order to Internally we are rigorously working on changing the transform the conditions at Spirit Rock to better address conditions, structures and processes that have limited inclusivity, race and equity. -
Wisdom Wide and Deep
Wisdom Wide and Deep: A Practical Handbook for Mastering Jhana and Vipassana, 2011, 553 pages, Shaila Catherine, 086171623X, 9780861716234, Wisdom Publications Inc, 2011 DOWNLOAD http://bit.ly/1lKQx13 http://goo.gl/RFrhr http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/?store=book&keyword=Wisdom+Wide+and+Deep%3A+A+Practical+Handbook+for+Mastering+Jhana+and+Vipassana "If you are interested in Dharma study, this book belongs in your library."---Phillip Moffitt, author of Dancing with Life"This book can be the guide for cultivating the inner calm we long for."---Christina Feldman, author of Compassion: Listening to the Cries of the World"This handbook respects both the ancient tradition and the needs of contemporary lay practitioners, without compromising either. Shaila Catherine blends scriptural references, personal examples, and timeless stories with detailed meditation instructions. The combination of pragmatic style and theoretical knowledge produces a striking invitation for the reader to apply these instructions and master the complete practice for awakening."---from the foreword by Pa-Auk Sayadaw, author of The Workings of Kamma"Catherine has managed a difficult feat---to be simultaneously encyclopedic and charming, all with extraordinary clarity. This meditation manual is a first for the West and will surely become a classic and a support for generations of practitioners."---Kate Wheeler, editor of In This Very Life: Liberation Teachings of the Buddha"Wisdom Wide and Deep is a powerful inspiration both for those who would like a glimpse of what's possible and for those intrepid explorers of the mind who want to bring these teachings to fulfillment. Highly recommended."---Joseph Goldstein, author of A Heart Full of Peace"Written in clear, practical language, this book converts theory into direct experience. -
Front Matter Template
Copyright by Mingxiang Ya 2021 The Thesis Committee for Mingxiang Ya Certifies that this is the approved version of the following Thesis: The Power of Adversity: A Performative Investigation on Enduring Suffering APPROVED BY SUPERVISING COMMITTEE: William Bloodgood, Supervisor Sven Ortel, Co-Supervisor Jason B Buchanan The Power of Adversity: A Performative Investigation on Enduring Suffering by Mingxiang Ya Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Fine Arts The University of Texas at Austin May 2021 Dedication To ourselves. To the ability to smile bravely when suffering. To the power that rises to the sun in darkness. Abstract The Power of Adversity: A Performative Investigation on Enduring Suffering Mingxiang Ya, MFA The University of Texas at Austin, 2021 Supervisor: William Bloodgood, Sven Ortel The COVID-19 pandemic has claimed the lives, jobs and stress of many people. It has exacerbated the existing severe mental health and drug use problems. Suicide and depression are side effects of this epidemic.1 People often suffer misfortune, feel isolated and helpless, without any means to comfort themselves. However, I discovered that some people are well equipped and cope with adversity in a different way. One of the most widely spread beliefs is, Buddhism. It provides people with spiritual sustenance so that mankind can gain relief from the suffering of this world, make people hopeful through introverted and deep ways. Buddhists believe that life is endless with cycles of re-becoming. It is affected by the three marks of existence which include 1 Mark É. -
Paying the Boatman Why Would You Choose to Measure Your Life by Endings When All the Experience, the Felt Sense of Being Alive, Is in the Journey?
Body & Spirit BY PHILLIP MOFFITT Paying the Boatman Why would you choose to measure your life by endings when all the experience, the felt sense of being alive, is in the journey? get a taste of the inner freedom that is available to you. When you keep your mind awake and stable in this manner, you are also able to see yourself more clearly, and various insights about yourself arise. There is a sense of “seeing things as they are,” as one of my teachers, Ajahn Sumedho, likes to say. Vipassana meditation and hatha yoga work well together because hatha yoga helps you ground yourself in the current moment through increased body aware- ness, which greatly enhances the meditation experi- ence, while mindfulness practice brings new insights and meaning to your hatha practice. One of the benefits that can accrue to you if your hatha yoga practice includes the element of mindful- ness is the ability to start making wise distinctions in both thinking and behavior. This ability to make dis- tinctions is sometimes referred to in vipassana med- itation as “clear seeing” or “clear comprehension.” Achieving this access to clarity is most important in making those hard decisions in life which muddle the mind so much that you no longer know what you real- ly care about. However, it can be hard to grasp these distinctions when they involve the emotions, so it is helpful to start to see how they work in terms of the body and your hatha yoga practice. For instance, when you have a recurring injury or one which happens without a clear origin, it is important that you make the distinction between the symptom and the under- lying condition. -
Behavioral Health Education Team
Behavioral Health Education Team Sarah Kohansal (M.Ed., MPH, PhD) manages Behavioral Health Education program for the Kaiser Permanente San Francisco Medical Center, Health Education Department since 2018. Sarah earned her Master’s degree in Educational Administration and Policy from Boston University. She also earned her Master’s of Public Health and a PhD in Education from the University of California Berkeley. She has extensive experience in the areas of instruction, training, and curriculum development, as well as healthcare strategic management and program development. Sarah has years of experience teaching at various educational settings and managing programs in higher education. Providing the highest quality of educational services to the diverse community of San Francisco is her passion and driving force. Sarah feels accomplished when members who are receiving the educational services, feel empowered by the information. Impacting people’s lives and well-being in a positive way is Sarah’s ultimate professional goal! Behavioral Health Education Team Health Education Department San Francisco Medical Center Alicia Caldwell (LCSW, SEP) is certified in MBSR and has worked as a Behavioral Health Education Instructor for Kaiser since 2007. Her passion is customizing strategies for bringing well-being into each person's unique life, regardless of how challenging or optimal the circumstances appear, knowing that insight and freedom are always possible. Alicia teaches Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, as well as Daylong and Oncology Mindfulness classes. She has practiced meditation extensively in the United States and overseas. In addition to Buddhist pilgrimages in India, Myanmar, and Nepal, she has ordained as a Buddhist nun under Sayadaw U Tejaniya at Shwe Oo Min and under Sayadaw U Revada at Pa Auk.