Passing Dharma Around the Generations
Spring 1992 Vol. 8 #2
Spring 1992 Vol. 8 #2
introduction
The editors tell how this issue came about, with its focus on the teaching of, and awakening to, dharma in our smaller and/or larger families—our blood families, our classrooms, our communities, our country, our planet.
Features
Jack Kornfield sees a loss of connectedness as the source of many problems in the world today, from the depleted ozone layer to dysfunctional families. To reconnect, he looks to the Buddha’s discourses on mindfulness as a guide to conscious childrearing.
John Seed gave up practicing insight meditation after the rainforest suddenly took over as his teacher. He says that the natural world will reveal all the dharma we need to know, if we listen deeply enough.
For Wayne Muller, spiritual awakening itself involves letting go of our family lineage, leaving behind “our primary identity as children of these particular beings” and claiming “a deeper lineage as a child of the earth.”
Newly an empty nester, Susan Moon explores the meaning of “family” and its relationship to sangha.
Joseph Chilton Pearce suggests that instead of teaching prescriptions that boil down to “Don’t do that, do this,” we must model a better way of being.
Working with children and the homeless, Judith Stronach learns that when people let themselves share a moment together, both exchange realities, give and receive a lesson, and are changed.
With guidance from generations of grandmothers, Barbara Gates and her three-year-old experience the teachings of the natural world.
Patrick McMahon tells stories of parents and children who are sustained and inspired by traditional tales and rituals: the pilgrimages of the old Ch’an monks, the parable of the Buddha leaving home, celebrations of Hanukkah, Buddha’s Birthday and solstice.
Poems & Not Poems
A selection of poetry and “accidental dharma” by schoolchildren, curated by Patrick McMahon, Will Staple and Judyth Gong, California Poets in the Schools.
Reviews
The Legacy of The Sacred: Two Books
Reviewed By Suzie Rashkis
States of Grace: The Recovery of Meaning in the Postmodern Age, by Charlene Spretnak (377 pp., Harper San Francisco, 1993)
In the Absence of the Sacred: The Failure of Technology and the Survival of the Indian Nation, by Jerry Mander (466 pp., Sierra Club Books, 1991)
(204pp., Random House, 1991)
Compassion In Action: Setting Out on the Path of Service, by Ram Dass and Mirabai Bush
Reviewed By Sharon Salzberg
(300 pp., Harmony/Bell Tower, 1992)
Betsy Rose’s In My Two Hands, recorded at a Zen monastery, is a “country-eastern” blend of folk hymns, lively chants and meditation ballads from various sacred traditions.
Practice
Andy Olendzki explains that the only way we can be sure of passing around the dhamma—from one person to another or from one generation to the next—is by bringing it to life.
In this excerpt from a book in progress, Joseph Goldstein offers reflections and instructions on mindfulness meditation.
The Dharma and the Drama
Wes Nisker joins the families of the counterculture—the beatniks and the hippies—as they introduce the teachings of the East to balloon-filled auditoriums and Human Be-Ins.