FEATURE

DHARMA BEYOND WORDS

With this issue, "Dharma Beyond Words," Bodhi presents the third installment in its yearlong celebration of the 2550-year Anniversary of the life and teachings of Buddha Shakyamuni.

The teachings of Buddha Shakyamuni spread from their homeland of India eastward, traveling first to the nearby countries of Southeast Asia, where the tradition of Theravada Buddhism became established. They later traveled to China with Indian missionaries, where they met with and adapted to the longstanding philosophical and cultural traditions of Confucianism and Taoism. The Buddhism that became established in the East was based on Mahayana sutras emphasizing the profound view of emptiness and enlightened potential of buddha nature as the ultimate reality and birthright of all sentient beings. From China, the Mahayana tradition spread to Korea and Japan. While many lineages of Buddhism developed over the centuries in this vast region, the most well known and widely practiced in the West is Ch'an, for which the Japanese translation is Zen. The tradition of Zen emphasizes the practice of sitting meditation and sudden enlightenment—the direct realization of one's buddha nature—in moments when conceptual mind collapses. It is the Zen master who leads the student to this state of collapse, through methods famously contrary to logic and confounding to the reasoning mind. As the wisdom of Buddha can neither be shown nor grasped through conventional utterances, the tradition of Zen is rich in rich in stories, poetry and art that challenge and surprise the mind into the discovery of its original nature.

Mahayana, Pure Land and Zen: Buddhism in the Far East
by Thubten Chodron

Buddhism first came to China from Central Asia in the first century C.E. Later, it was brought from India by both sea and land routes. From China, Mahayana Buddhism spread to Vietnam beginning in the second century C.E. and to Korea in the fourth century. In the sixth century, most Chinese Buddhist traditions had reached Japan via Korea. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, many new traditions proliferated in Japan.

I Hit You Thirty Times: Selected Teachings
by Zen Master Seung Sahn

Everyone already has the true Dharma: how can it be transmitted from one person to another? Your mind is already your Dharma; my mind is already my Dharma. So this speech is a mistake, a big mistake. When the Buddha picked up a flower and Mahakashyapa smiled, the dialogue was already finished.

The Eight Kinds of Mastery: A Vajra Song of the Lord of Yogis, Milarepa Explained
by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche
When sentient beings do not recognize the true nature of their mind, that is the cause of their confusion. When they do recognize it perfectly, then they are free from all fleeting stains and they attain enlightenment. In short, when you perfectly recognize that the stains obscuring the true nature of mind are self-arisen and self-liberated, you are a buddha endowed with the two types of purity, and at that point, you have perfect mastery over the fruition. Your fruition is open, spacious and relaxed.

Emptiness and Compassionate Action
by The Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche
Working with conduct involves training on both the relative and absolute levels. We work with our relative karma by cultivating positive actions, and we work with the view of selflessness—the awareness that everything is like a dream, an illusion, or the reflection of the moon in the water—to transform that karma on the absolute level. When you can engage with and transform all your mental afflictions directly, you will have a great capacity to help to others. From profound realization, great compassion can manifest—a compassion that is much vaster and more effective because it is based on wisdom and egolessness.

Nalanda West: A Place for Contemplative Inquiry
by Lynne Conrad-Marvet

Society & Environment — The Noble Imperfection
by Rob Preece
Compassion does not arise from ideals of perfection but from a recognition of and concern for our own fallibility. At the heart of our potential for health and wholeness is the need for a fundamental quality of acceptance, an unconditional compassionate presence. If we can bring together a vision of our innate potential with the compassion that recognizes and accepts where we are as human beings, our path can be caring and honest while being rich in creative potential.