The Violence of Inattention
Spring 2000 Vol. 16 #2
Spring 2000 Vol. 16 #2
Introduction
Editor’s notes describe this issue’s contents.
Features
Ajahn Sumedho introduces our theme in a dharma talk affirming the power of mindfulness to transform our habitual reactivity to violence into a compassionate response.
Interview with Kiran Bedi and Lucia Meijer: Living Time, Not Doing Time
By Barbara Gates, Wes Nisker
Kiran Bedi, former warden of New Delhi’s Tijar Central Jail, and Lucia Meijer, administrator of the North Rehabilitation Facility in Washington State, are forerunners in a worldwide movement introducing meditation retreats into prisons, as seen in the film Doing Time, Doing Vipassana.
Rain forest activist John Seed brings our attention to the environmental crisis, suggesting techniques for remembering our identity with nature and the cosmos and offering ways to understand our own violence and self-destruction.
Australian Zen teacher and filmmaker Susan Murphy urges us to bring our awareness to unloved urban environments, to counter “the terrorism of indifference.”
Jerry Brown, mayor of Oakland, California, describes the challenges of bringing a social and spiritual vision to governing a major metropolis.
Judith Stronach presents the methods taught by Vietnamese Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh and Sister Chân Không to practice mindfulness in painful community and family relations.
Zen and vipassana teacher Gil Fronsdal and his dharma student Nancy Van House challenge us with some crucial questions about ethics for teachers of Buddhism.
When a rodent invades her kitchen, Barbara Gates gives up any pretense of equanimity, patience or selflessness.
Reviews
The Pilgrim Kamanita: A Legendary Romance by Karl Gjellerup. Edited by Amaro Bhikkhu, translated by John Logie
Reviewed By Peter Dale Scott, Ronna Kabatznick
(542 pp., Abhayagiri Forest Monastery, 1999, Free)
(544 pp., Wisdom Publications, 2000)
Branching Streams Flow in the Darkness: Zen Talks on the Sandokai, by Shunryu Suzuki. Edited by Mel Weitsman and Michael Wenger
Reviewed By Alan Senauke
(191 pp., University of California Press, 1999)
Essential Spirituality: The Seven Central Practices to Awaken Heart and Mind, by Roger Walsh
Reviewed By Charles T. Tart
(320 pp., John Wiley & Sons, 1999)
Practice
Marie Mannschatz reminds us how we can stay grounded while in the storm of difficult emotions.
The Dharma and the Drama
Wes Nisker explores dzogchen, noting that “oneness and you-ness don’t go together.”