Winter 1984 Vol. 1 #2
Winter 1984 Vol. 1 #2
Introduction
The founding editors welcome you to Issue Two with a brief statement of intent.
Features
Two weeks before the birth of his daughter—and ten years into his career as a Western vipassana teacher—Jack Kornfield sat down to reflect on life, including his early Peace Corps years, being a monk in Asia, and becoming a psychotherapist and householder.
Emmanuel (a spirit channeled by Pat Rodergast) counseled Insight Meditation Society staff on how to respond to allegations of spiritual teachers’ abuse of power and sexuality.
Ruth Denison talks about the personal history and serious commitment to mindfulness that form the foundation of her irreverently playful teaching.
An intimate letter describes the gifts of practicing with “Rutchen.” It ran as a sidebar to our Ruth Denison interview, alongside the lively images that follow.
In another sidebar, Barbara Gates shares her personal experience of Ruth Denison’s retreat center, with practical details for those who may want to visit.
Jeanne Hay describes how A. H. Almaas’s Diamond Approach, a technique for working with body, mind and spirit, helped her get through an impasse in her vipassana meditation practice.
Poems & Not Poems
A response to a poem from Inquiring Mind’s inaugural issue.
Wes Nisker described this original “Ode” as “an attempt to begin an ecstatic form of devotion in the vipassana tradition.” (An updated version of this poem ran in the Spring 2015 issue.)
A prose poem about what “the Dolly Llama hisself said.”
When the sound of running water
becomes simply
the sound of running water . . .
Practice
Joseph Goldstein responds to retreat participants’ questions during a three-month course in Barre, Massachusetts.
The Dharma & the Drama