He should’ve tried it with Surya Das, known in some circles as the “Deli Lama…” Read more

Friday morning’s session at the Garrison gathering of Buddhist teachers finally took off. The Next Generation contingent, a full quarter of the conference took over. This involved intimate sharing and the details are held within a covenant of confidentiality, but I can share how it was deeply moving, people revealed their hearts in sometimes profound ways. I was so glad to be part of it. It was then time for me to return to Providence. Life beckoning me back to... Read more

David Brazier took some pictures from the Buddhist Teacher’s Conference. I hope to add at least one more comment from today’s events. But, I have to leave this afternoon. Fortunately Sumi Loundon, one of the next generation Dharma teachers has promised a summary of the concluding events which I’ll host here… Read more

Discrimination in Zen and Buddhism, a Sweeping Zen Roundtable Discussion Read more

The afternoon session at the Dharma teacher conference was much more successful than the morning program. Surya Das introduced a panel including Stephen Batchelor, Bhikkhu Bodhi, Sumi Loundon Kim and Spring Washam. They each spoke briefly. I would have been happy to hear any one of them go on for an hour. Instead they sparked a lively discussion about breadth and depth in our Western dharma.I would love to see Bhikkhu Bodhi and Stephen Batchelor have at it sometime. Let... Read more

The morning session was disappointing. Vague instructions to discuss aspects of what we think/hope/worry about for the Dharma thirty years out. Broken into small groups, talked ten or fifteen minutes then on to another group. No consensus on focus. The only plus was meeting folk. But if there was supposed to be a useful point beyond that it escaped me… Then we had a break followed by a large group “discussion.” It was the low point. The only good thing... Read more

Last night was the first time in a long time that I had trouble sleeping due to heat. Well, actually, I’m one of those people who a) head hits pillow b) sleep. So, having trouble sleeping is anomalous. My goodness it is hot! It is hot. It is humid. And, as I mentioned yesterday, the only relief is in the air conditioned Dharma hall. But I’m up on the third floor, not the living hell I’ve heard for those on... Read more

This year, no change… Ryokan Well, here I am at Garrison. Turns out the reason I didn’t recognize many of the names is that the Zen contingent is quite small. Out of two hundred plus folk here, not twenty are Zen. So far as traditions go a pretty broad scope. The largest contingents would be the Vipassana/Theravada crowd, or perhaps the Vajrayana folk. But there were some Nichirin people, a few Pure Land, somebody from the Won tradition, and a... Read more

Okay, I’m packed. It’s always interesting to discover what one has forgotten. Of course, while I’ve set the stage, that’s a joy I’ll discover in all its specificity later. I do hope it’s not toothpaste… There are supposed to be 230 Dharma folk at this shindig. I quickly ran through the list of people who I could identify as Zen and there doesn’t appear to be a whole lot of ’em. Us. So, it’ll be fun to hang with folk... Read more

Tomorrow I drive down to Garrison in upstate New York for a big Buddhist teacher confab. This event has recently come to the attention of the Buddhist community writ large, and for some among the Western Buddhist commentariate this event is not particularly welcome. Elitist is a popular term near the top of the list of reasons why it isn’t a good idea. For a larger explication of concerns, including dragging me over the coals a bit for being indifferent... Read more