“From the beginning, all beings are Buddha.” 18 th century Master Hakuin’s “Song of Meditation” All beings are from the very beginning Buddhas. It is like water and ice: Apart from water, no ice, Outside living beings, no Buddhas. Not knowing it is near, they seek it afar. What a pity! It is like one… Read More You are Already Awake

i have changed my sangha and my teacher. I left two sanghas that were led by male Tibetan gurus. I have officially joined the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. My new teacher is woman, a teacher of bhakti yoga. It wasn’t until after I made these changes that I noticed something very obvious: I changed all the male Buddhist… Read More Cult of Personality

When I meditate on my cushion, I can see out my bedroom window. I’m on the 7th floor, which is about the level that birds like to fly. The seagulls fly just above the rooftops. I love it when they fly right past my window. This morning I watched two seagulls chase each other, playing “tag” as… Read More Bird Fly Mind

I started reading Gil Fronsdal’s Ph.D. Dissertation, “The Dawn of the Boddhisattva; Studies in the Religious Ideal of Ancient Indian Buddhists with particular emphasis on the earliest extant Perfection of Wisdom Sutra.”. One of the questions he considers is the emphasis on ‘compassion’ vs. ‘emptiness’ in the early Indian Bodhisattva tradition. I can tell you from… Read More More Evidence of Buddhist Bhakti

The central teaching of the Buddhas Four Noble Truths is that “there is suffering.” But what is suffering, really? I think it’s time we developed some kind of realistic definition of what suffering is. Did you eat today? Do you have some kind of secure roof over your head, warmth and decent clothes to wear?… Read More What Suffering?

Engaged! is happy to present the work of a new contributor, photographer Rowan St. John. We present three photos here with the artist’s permission. Please click through to the website to see the complete photoessay. What really spoke to me were the shots of street scenes in the region of Dharamsala. There are scenes of the everyday… Read More Rowan St. John: Photo Essay on Yungdrung Bon Tradition in India

A Warning for the Underclass and Privileged Classes Posted on Jan 11, 2015 By Chris Hedges    Broken pens were placed in a pool of simulated blood Friday outside the French Consulate in Istanbul in memory of the victims of the shooting at the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. AP/Emrah Gurel The terrorist attack in France that took place at… Read More Chris Hedges: A Message From the Dispossessed