Bodhisattva
Fall 2011 Vol. 28 #1
Fall 2011 Vol. 28 #1
Introduction
In this issue we explore the many Bodhisattvas that inhabit our world, teasing out the essence of what it means to offer effort and energy for others, and how such commitment and activity can awaken us to our own enlightened nature.
Features
While some contrast the bodhisattva path with that of the arhat, Gil Fronsdal challenges this separation; he walks both paths and shows us how to do the same.
From persecution to self-sacrifice to liberation—this bodhisattva’s life trajectory challenges and inspires Sandy Boucher.
Interview with Geshe Thupten Jinpa: Compassion Curriculum
By Barbara Gates, Margaret Cullen, Sandy Boucher
In the ivied halls of Stanford University, Geshe Thupten Jinpa, the Dalai Lama’s main translator, develops a curriculum to teach compassion.
Margaret Cullen describes graduates of Compassion Cultivation: a cancer patient who takes in her suicidal nephew and a retired academic who truly learns to feel for others.
Patrick McMahon gives us a hard-boiled detective who, in pursuit of the missing bodhisattva, learns that life is not always noir and white.
Dan Leighton evokes the “bodhisattva archetype” and suggests its multitude of manifestations, from Rachel Carson to Cassius Clay.
Can we find the bodhisattva in the Theravada? Is the bodhisattva ideal implicit in early Buddhist teachings? Monk and scholar Bhikkhu Bodhi considers these questions.
Grappling with the “urgent fury” of a world at war and the wars in her own mind, Barbara Gates finds inspiration in war-veteran artists and paper makers.
Does eating meat align with practice of the Dharma? Bob Isaacson and Norm Phelps reference texts and teachings of the Buddha to argue a powerful “No.”
. . . . . Dispatches from the Field
Peace advocate Sarah Weintraub explores her dilemma as an interpreter in war-torn Colombia: struggling to see the humanness of “the Colonel” and his fellow military while doing all she can to stop them from doing harm.
Dhammananda Bhikkhuni follows her dream to manifest a giant sky-blue embodiment of compassion and healing.
Chenxing Han cares for the dying alongside Beth Goldring, founder of the Brahmavihara/Cambodia AIDS Project, whose workers don’t see themselves as “helpers” but as practitioners.
Zen teacher Hozan Alan Senauke faces his own shadow in learning to live and practice the bodhisattva vow.
Playwright Martha Boesing takes us to the streets of San Francisco, where the Faithful Fools use art, poetry and performance to shatter myths about homelessness.
Poems & Not Poems
Dharma Jewel
Listening to Compassion—Call Me By My True Names: The Collected Poems of Thich Nhat Hanh
Reviewed By Gary Gach
Poet Gary Gach contemplates the teachings and contexts of Thich Nhat Hanh‘s epic poem.
Reviews
Sex and the Spiritual Teacher: Why It Happens, When It’s a Problem, and What We Can Do About It, by Scott Edelstein
Reviewed By Alan Senauke
(252 pp., Wisdom Publications, 2011)
(190 pp., Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2010)
Endless Path: Awakening Within the Buddhist Imagination, by Rafe Martin + The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, by Gene Reeves
Reviewed By Zenshin Florence Caplow
(288 pp., North Atlantic Books, 2010)
(352 pp., Wisdom Publications, 2010)
The Heart of the Revolution: The Buddha’s Radical Teachings on Forgiveness, Compassion and Kindness, by Noah Levine
Reviewed By Martha Kay Nelson
(208 pp., HarperOne, 2011)
The Beginner’s Guide to Insight Meditation, by Arinna Weisman and Jean Smith
Reviewed By Sandy Boucher
(237 pp., Wisdom Publications, 2010)
Awake in the World: Teachings from Yoga and Buddhism for Living an Engaged Life, by Michael Stone
Reviewed By Daniel Doane
(198 pp., Shambhala Publications, 2011)
Practice
Bob Stahl leads us head to toe, through pus, blood, urine and feces, in the 32 Parts of the Body meditation, on a path to freedom.
The Dharma & The Drama
By zooming out, Wes Nisker retools our view of Earth and human beings as the central focus of the universe. In other words, let’s relax and get over ourselves.