Donald Burkins's List: Mindfulness

"Knowing the World1

All things just as they are display the truth. But we have biases and preferences about how we want them to be. Lokavidū means knowing the world clearly. The world is these phenomena (sabhāva) abiding as they are. To sum it up simply, the world is arom2. That's an easy way to put it. The world is arom. If we say ''world,'' that's pretty vast. ''Arom are the world'' is a lot simpler. The world is arom. Being deluded by the world is being deluded by arom; being deluded by arom is being deluded by the world. Lokavidū, knowing the world clearly: however the world is, that's what we should know. It exists according to its conditions. So we should have full, present awareness of it. "

"This is the international home page of the organizations which offer courses in Vipassana Meditation as taught by S.N. Goenka and his assistant teachers in the tradition of Sayagyi U Ba Khin "

KARMA TRIYANA DHARMACHAKRA (KTD) is a Tibetan Buddhist monastery beautifully situated in the heart of the Catskill Mountains above Woodstock, New York. It is the North American monastic seat of His Holiness the Gyalwa Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje, the spiritual head of the Karma Kagyu Lineage of Tibetan Buddhism.

"Stephen and Martine Batchelor are Buddhist teachers and authors, who live in South West France and conduct meditation retreats and seminars worldwide. They both trained as monastics for ten years in traditional Buddhist centers in Asia, and now present a lay and secular approach to Buddhist practice, largely based on the early teachings of the Buddha as found in the Pali Canon.

This website includes written, audio, photographic and video materials that offer a broad introduction to their work. In addition, it provides their public teaching schedule, which we seek to keep as up-to-date as possible. A contact email address is also supplied, and we welcome enquiries.

While most of the information is in English, a French language section presents a number of transcribed talks, as well as a link to Terre d’Eveil, the Buddhist group in Paris for whom they serve as guiding teachers."

"Until recently, Western philosophy was largely a search for the one within the many, the Same that grounds Difference. Our century has seen the end of this project: not its realization but its abandonment. Perhaps the most dramatic refutation has come from psychology, in Freud's demonstration that our ego-consciousness is not Cartesian and autonomous but irretrievably split, buffeted by psychic forces it cannot control because it is a function of them. Others have questioned our supposedly self-sufficient self-consciousness by emphasizing the differences inherent within language. The Swiss linguist Saussure taught that meaning is a function not of any straightforward correspondence between signifier and signified, but of a complex set of phonetic and conceptual differences. Later the French critic Roland Barthes pointed out that each text is a tissue of quotations: not a line of words releasing the single "theological" meaning of an author-god but a multidimensional space where a variety of writings blend and/or clash. Today Jacques Derrida argues that the meaning of such a multidimensional space can never be completely fulfilled, for the continual circulation of signifiers denies meaning any fixed foundation or conclusion. Hence texts never attain self-presence, and that includes the text that constitutes me.

What would happen if these claims about textuality were extrapolated into claims about the whole universe? A metaphor for such cosmic interpenetration and lack of self-presence is found in the Avata.msaka Sutra of Mahaayaana Buddhism: Indra's Net."

Juniper is an extension of a long Indo-Tibetan Buddhist lineage, bringing its wisdom and practices into modern culture. By establishing this lineage in modern life, Juniper offers a spiritual path for cultivating inner calm, clarity, and strength; a healing methodology to bring assistance to those undergoing illness and other hardships; and a positive voice that will benefit humanity as a whole.

"This site offers downloads of Dhamma talks, books and essays by Thanissaro Bhikkhu of Metta Forest Monastery in various audio and text formats. Thanissaro Bhikkhu (Taan Ajaan Geoff) is a senior monk in the Thai Forest Tradition of Theravada Buddhism. All the Dhamma here is offered freely with no strings attached. The best way to repay a teacherʼs generosity is to earnestly put the teachings into practice ― to see for yourself, for your own benefit, and for the benefit of the world. To learn more about Metta Forest Monastery you can visit the website at watmetta.org. To learn more about Thanissaro Bhikkhu and the Thai Forest Tradition from accesstoinsight.org, click on these links. "

"We believe that without these thoughts, nothing can be accomplished, that we will be unhappy and unsuccessful in "life" and even in danger for our very survival. We believe that we are our thoughts and so do this thinking, thinking, thinking from when we wake up until we fall asleep and even in our dreams. "

"Buddhism Before the Theravada RSS iTunes

The Buddha did not teach in a vacuum. His teachings were directed to those who shared the social world in which he lived. John Peacock, a British scholar who studies and translates in more than a dozen languages and is familiar with the philosophical environment of the Buddha’s day, maintains that by framing the Buddha’s teachings in their original context, it is possible to recover the original meaning of teachings that have been ignored and lost by later Buddhist schools—including the Theravada. This weekend class will examine many of the ways in which Buddhist practice was radically different from the Brahmanical and Upanishadic thinking of the time and, indeed, how it differs in substantive ways from much present day understanding of the Dharma. The exploration will detail the Buddha’s shift away from metaphysical thinking to a focus on internal experience and ethical activity. In the process there will be consideration of how the Buddha’s earliest teachings diverge from much of the western philosophical tradition, and often from what has become the traditional view of the Dharma today as well."

early buddhism; buddhism and psych; etc.

Audio recordings of recent talks.

T’ai Chi Chih® is often referred to as Joy Through Movement by teachers and students. The specific movements visually identify the T’ai Chi Chih® practice. An open state of mind, sense of purpose, and sincerity enrich the practice. The way we move, breathe, and maintain our posture are physical tools for circulating and balancing the Chi. All the writing, reading, and discussion about T’ai Chi Chih® amount to nothing if you do not do the movements, consistently, with purpose, and to the best of your ability.

"Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) is designed to help people who suffer repeated bouts of depression and chronic unhappiness. It combines the ideas of cognitive therapy with meditative practices and attitudes based on the cultivation of mindfulness. The heart of this work lies in becoming acquainted with the modes of mind that often characterize mood disorders while simultaneously learning to develop a new relationship to them. MBCT was developed by Zindel Segal, Mark Williams and John Teasdale, based on Jon Kabat-Zinn's Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program."

"No need to do zazen. No need to practice. Therefore, we must do zazen, must practice. "

text

Nishijima - Buddhist Life - 3 videos
Master Dogen said - 'just to sit'

"28-Day Meditation Challenge 2012
During the month of February, we are inviting a diverse group of people to participate in the meditation program that Sharon Salzberg has laid out in her latest book, Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation: A 28-Day Program"