By Any Skillful Means
Fall 1996 Vol. 13 #1
Fall 1996 Vol. 13 #1
Introduction
In preparing this issue, we were reminded that although there are many skillful means—practices, styles, schools, metaphysics—there is truly only one dharma.
Features
Joseph Goldstein reflects on finding the right path, three kinds of craving, and the subtleties and nuances of vipassana.
Sharon Salzberg explains the difference between metta and vipassana, and how the two practices enrich one another.
Christina Feldman and Anna Douglas talk about finding their way to vipassana, and the value of practicing with other women.
Ayya Khema challenges the standard Western vipassana approach and advocates teaching the deep concentration states, the jhanas.
Stillness and Awareness: A Dialogue on Zen and Vipassana between Tenshin Reb Anderson and Jack Kornfield
By Barbara Gates, Gil Fronsdal, Wes Nisker
In a discussion moderated by Gil Fronsdal, senior teachers Jack Kornfield and Reb Anderson exchange insights into the differences and similarities between vipassana and zazen.
Patrick McMahon brings us on a walking retreat in the Great Wilderness, following the path of our dharma ancestors.
The Vajra Heart Takes a Turbo Spin: Steven Goodman on Tibetan Practice
By Steven D. Goodman, Barbara Gates, Wes Nisker
Buddhist scholar Steven Goodman takes us on a joyful romp through Vajrayana practices.
Breathing in, Barbara Gates explores her sometimes-noxious environment. Breathing out, she distills what she learns.
Poems & Not Poems . . . Buddha's Birthday Pageant
Norman Fischer tells us how the Buddha’s Birthday celebration at Green Gulch Farm Zen Center became a theatrical ritual.
Wendy Johnson reluctantly played the Buddha in Green Gulch Farm’s pageant—to the delight of the children in attendance.
Recounting the story of Buddha’s birth, Norman Fischer‘s poem is the script that anchors Green Gulch Farms’ annual pageant.
Mask maker and theater artist Annie Hallatt describes the creation of Green Gulch’s lively pageant and the giant gold Buddha at its center.
Reviews
Voices from Spirit Rock: Talks on Mindfulness Practice by the Spirit Rock Teaching Collective
Reviewed By Ronna Kabatznick
(187 pp., Clear & Present Publishing, 1996)
Walking on Lotus Flowers; Buddhist Women Living, Loving and Meditating By Martine Batchelor
Reviewed By Sharon Salzberg
(205 pp., Thorsons, 1996)
(212 pp., Jon Carpenter Publishing, 1994)
Teachings
The Embodied Practices of Thich Nhat Hanh: Breathing, Walking, Hugging
By Therese Fitzgerald, Arnie Kotler, the Editors of Inquiring Mind
Arnie Kotler and Therese Fitzgerald share Thich Nhat Hanh’s teachings of engaged Buddhism—the bodhisattva path for “earthlings.”
Sangha Speaks
A diversity trainer inspires Kevin Griffin and his sangha to take their practice away from the cushion and use it as a way to meet the world.
The Dharma & the Drama
Winking at human evolution, Wes Nisker sees mindfulness as the opposable thumb of consciousness—and our species’ next survival technique.