1. Shantideva, “Miracle of Awakening,” in Bodhicharyavatara (A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life), quoted in Jack Kornfield, ed., adapted by Eknath Easwaran, Teachings of the Buddha (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2007), 132.
1. Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia, “Buddhism,” en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism.
The “Four Insights on the Reality of How Things Are,” among the most fundamental Buddhist teachings, appear many times throughout the most ancient Buddhist texts, the Pali Canon.
2. A. Lutz and others, “Long-Term Meditators Self-Induce High-Amplitude Gamma Synchrony during Mental Practice,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 101, no. 163 (2004), 69–73.
3. Buddha taught the “Eightfold Path” as the way to emancipate ourselves from suffering; this consists of the following:
Right view
Right intention
Right effort
Right action
Right speech
Right livelihood
Right mindfulness
Right meditation
4. Dharma teacher refers to an ordained Buddhist priest or spiritual adviser. Dharma is a Pali word for “the truth, the way things are,” most frequently used in reference to Buddha’s teachings. A dharma teacher expounds on the meaning of Buddhist texts and helps students apply them to the challenges or circumstances of their lives.
5. Thích Nhât Hanh, The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching (New York: Broadway Books, 1999), 67.
Thích Nhât Hanh is a poet, Zen master, and author of more than thirty books on Buddhism. He served as chair of the Buddhist delegation to the Paris Peace Talks during the Vietnam War, and was nominated by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for the Nobel Peace Prize. He is the founder of Plum Village, a meditation community in southwestern France.
6. Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, 14th printing (New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, 1976), 121.
7. Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, The Joy of Living: Unlocking the Secret and Science of Happiness, 1st paperback ed. (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2007), 55.
8. This is a practice suggested by Thích Nhât Hanh.
1. A “we” version of the Twelve Steps is used by the Twelve Steps and Mindfulness group meeting at the Mind Roads Meditation Center in Saint Paul, MN. This practice is in keeping with the original Six Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous written by Dr. Bob in 1938—each of which began with “We.” In future versions of the Steps, this word was redacted because “it was clearly implied.” Dick B., The Akron Genesis of Alcoholics Anonymous, rev. ed. (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, 1998), 256.
The original Six Steps read as follows:
1. We admitted we were licked, that we were powerless over alcohol.
2. We made a moral inventory of our defects or sins.
3. We confessed or shared our shortcomings with another person in confidence.
4. We made restitution to all those we had harmed by our drinking.
5. We tried to help other alcoholics, with no thought of reward in money or prestige.
6. We prayed to whatever God we thought there was for power to practice these precepts.
2. This phrase is taken from a Daily Zen Sutra in the Buddhist tradition, “Great Vows for All.” The following version is recited at the Clouds in Water Zen Center in Saint Paul, MN (www.cloudsinwater.org).
The many beings are numberless; vowing to carry them across.
Greed, anger, and ignorance arise endlessly; vowing to cut off the mind road.
Dharma gates are countless; vowing to wake to them all.
Buddha’s Way is all embracing; vowing to follow through.
3. Richard Davidson, quoted in Sharon Begley, Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain: How a New Science Reveals Our Extraordinary Potential to Transform Ourselves (New York: Ballantine Books, 2007), 239.
Dr. Davidson says, “Our findings clearly indicate that meditation can change the function of the brain in an enduring way.”
4. Steve Hagen, Buddhism Plain and Simple (Boston: Tuttle Publishing, 1997), 7.
5. David Brazier, The Feeling Buddha: A Buddhist Psychology of Character, Adversity and Passion (New York: Palgrave and Macmillan, 2002), 42.
6. Hagen, Buddhism Plain and Simple, 8.
7. Eihei D?gen Zenji, “Eihei Koso Hotsuganmon, Lofty Ancestor Eihei D?gen’s Verse for Arousing the Vow,” in the Sutra Chant book, San Francisco Zen Center, CA, www.sfzc.org/sp_download/liturgy/29_Eihei_Koso_ Hotsuganmon.pdf.
8. Hagen, Buddhism Plain and Simple, 9.
9. Eihei D?gen Zenji, Sh?b?genz?, “On a Picture of a Rice Cake,” in a presentation to the assembly in Japan, 1242, trans. Shasta Abbey, 2007, www.shastaabbey.org/1dogen/chapter/039gabyo.pdf.
10. The phrase “feeling the body in the body” is believed to be Buddha’s words in the Satipatthana Sutra, Discourse on the Four Establishments of Mindfulness.
11. The description of qualities developed in meditation is adapted from Pema Chödrön, Comfortable with Uncertainty: 108 Teachings on Cultivating Fearlessness and Compassion (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2003).
12. Pema Chödrön, The Places That Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2002), 29.
13. Ibid., 30.
14. This practice is used in the Fundamentals of Meditation class at Mind Roads Meditation Center, Saint Paul, MN (www.mindroads.com).
1. This description of “taking refuge” is from “A View on Buddhism,” www.viewonbuddhism.org.
2. Alcoholics Anonymous (New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, 1976), 59.
3. Reb Anderson, Being Upright: Zen Meditation and the Bodhisattva Precepts (Berkeley, CA: Rodmell Press, 2001), 41.
4. Thích Nhât Hanh, The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching (New York: Broadway Books, 1999), 167.
5. Alcoholics Anonymous, 55.
6. Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, 14th printing (New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, 1976), 119–20.
7. Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, The Joy of Living: Unlocking the Secret and Science of Happiness (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2007), 47.
8. Ibid., 48.
9. Anderson, Being Upright, 41.
10. Ibid., 43.
11. Hanh, Heart of Buddha’s Teaching, 162.
12. Mingyur, The Joy of Living, 53.
13. Hanh, Heart of Buddha’s Teaching, 163.
14. Anderson, Being Upright, 44.
15. Hanh, Heart of Buddha’s Teaching, 162.
16. Anderson, Being Upright, 19.
17. Hanh, Heart of Buddha’s Teaching, 167.
18. An arahat is a “Perfected One” who has overcome the three poisons of desire, hatred, and ignorance.
19. This story is adapted from the tale “The Story of the Abusive Brahmin Brothers,” found in the Buddhist scripture Dhammapada (Sanskrit for “Words of Truth”); this text is regarded as the words of Buddha himself. A translation of verse 399, XXVI, can be found on the Web site of the Sangha of Buddhas (Jiddu Krishnamurti, Ramana Maharshi, Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Rama, Gautam Buddha, Lao Tzu, Mulla Nasruddin, Saint Kabir, Astavakra, Adi Shankaracharya), buddhasangha.blogspot.com/search/label/Gautam%20Buddha%20Dhammapada%20Stories.
20. Anderson, Being Upright, 46.
21. The teachings of Gautama Buddha were not recorded in written form until five hundred years after his death. Until that time, the stories of his teachings were passed on through oral tradition.
22. The Serenity Prayer is as follows:
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can,
And the wisdom to know the difference.
23. Adapted from Hanh, Heart of Buddha’s Teachings, 163.
1. Merle A. Fossum and Marilyn J. Mason, Facing Shame: Families in Recovery (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1989).
2. Monica McGoldrick, John Pearce, and Joseph Giordano, eds., Ethnicity and Family Therapy (New York: Guilford Press, 1982), 313.
3. Ronda Dearing and others, study by University at Buffalo’s Research Institute on Addictions (RIA) and George Mason University (Fairfax, VA, August 2005).
4. A. J. Mahari, Borderline Personality Disorder, www.borderlinepersonality.ca/.
5. Okakura-Kakuzo, The Awakening of Japan (New York: Century Co., 1904), 78.
6. Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, 14th printing (New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, 1976), 44.
7. San Francisco Zen Center, “Teachings from Meditation in Recovery: Dhyana Paramita, the Perfection of Meditation,” http://news.sfzc.org/content/view/578/461.
8. Stephen Batchelor, Buddhism without Beliefs: A Contemporary Guide to Awakening (New York: Riverhead, 1997), 67.
9. Dainin Katagiri, Each Moment Is the Universe: Zen and the Way of Being Time, ed. Andrea Martin (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2007), 200.
10. Samyutta Nikaya, vol. 1, 71, quoted in Thích Nhât Hanh, Teachings on Love (Berkeley, CA: Parallax Press, 1997), 25.
11. Carl G. Jung, quoted in Lama Surya Das, Awakening to the Sacred: Creating a Spiritual Life (New York: Broadway Books/Random House, 1999), 62.
12. The Buddhist term bodhisattva means either “enlightened (bodhi) existence (sattva)” or “enlightenment-being“ or “wisdom-being.” It is the name given to anyone who, motivated by great compassion, wishes to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all living beings.
13. Reb Anderson, Being Upright: Zen Meditation and the Bodhisattva Precepts (Berkeley, CA: Rodmell Press, 2001), 184.
14. Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, Mindfulness in Plain English (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2002), 3.
15. San Francisco Zen Center, “Teachings from Meditation in Recovery.”
16. The Fourth Noble Truth of Buddhism is the last of the Four Pure Insights into the Way Things Are, taught by Buddha in the Discourse on Turning the Wheel of the Dharma (Dhamma Cakka Pavattana Sutra).
17. Steve Hagen, Buddhism Plain and Simple (Boston: Tuttle Publishing, 1997), 108.
18. Nonviolent Communication (NVC) is a specific approach to communicating—speaking and listening—that leads to giving from the heart and connecting with ourselves and with each other, developed by Marshall B. Rosenberg, Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life (Encinitas, CA: PuddleDancer Press, 2003).
19. The questions presented here were developed by several members of a yearlong training, Entering the Way of Living Mindfully, at Mind Roads Meditation Center in 2009. The small group members are Maureen Ervin, Anne Murphy, and Ashley Zimmerman.
1. Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, 14th printing (New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, 1976), 57.
2. Ibid, 58.
3. Pema Chödrön, Comfortable with Uncertainty: 108 Teachings on Cultivating Fearlessness and Compassion (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2003), 185.
4. Brahmaviharas is the Pali and Sanskrit term for the Four Limitless Qualities.
5. Peter Harvey, An Introduction to Buddhist Ethics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), referenced in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia, “Brahma-Vihara,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmavihara.
6. “Meeting upon the Path: An Interview with DaeJa Napier,” Northwest Dharma News 11, no.6 (December/January 1999), http://brahmaviharas.org.
7. Twelve and Twelve, 59.
8. Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, in a lecture at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, April 2009, described using mental recitation in meditation as “giving the monkey mind—unsettled, restless mind—a job.”
9. Thích Nhât Hanh, The Blooming of a Lotus: Guided Meditation for Achieving the Miracle of Mindfulness, trans. Annabel Laity (Boston: Beacon Press, 1993), 8.
10. Ibid., 9.
11. Geneva Smitherman, Talkin and Testifyin: The Language of Black America (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1977), quoted in Michèle Foster, “Using Call-and-Response to Facilitate Language Mastery and Literacy Acquisition among African American Students,” July 2002, www.cal.org/resources/digest/0204foster.html.
1. Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, 14th printing (New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, 1976), 67.
2. Dainin Katagiri, Each Moment Is the Universe: Zen and the Way of Being Time (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2007), 206.
3. Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence (New York: Dell, 1995).
4. Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, “Creating a Sustainable Internal Environment,” August 2009, http://www.mipham.com/teachings.php?id=27.
Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche is the eldest son of the renowned Tibetan teacher Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. He serves as temporal and spiritual director of Shambhala, a global network of meditation and retreat centers. Sakyong—literally “earth-protector”—is a lineage holder of the Shambhala, Kagyü, and Nyingma sects of Tibetan Buddhism.
5. Ibid.
6. Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, “The Four Maras Seduce and Bind Us to Suffering,” Spiritual Now, September 30, 2008, www.spiritualnow.com/articles/214/1/The-Four-Maras-Seduce-and-Bind-us-to-Suffering/Page1.html.
7. Ibid.
8. Alcoholics Anonymous (New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, 1976), 58.
9. Katagiri, Each Moment, 205.
10. Har Dayal, Boddhisattva Doctrine in Buddhist Sanskrit Literature (London: Motilal Banarsidass Press, 1999).
11. Katagiri, Each Moment, 201.
12. Questions are adapted from an assignment for the Dismantling Habituated Patterns class at Mind Roads Meditation Center, developed in collaboration with Byakuren Judith Ragir, www.judithragir.org.
1. Dainin Katagiri, Each Moment Is the Universe: Zen and the Way of Being Time (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2007), 202.
2. Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, 14th printing (New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, 1976), 70.
3. Pema Chödrön, “Bodhichitta and Aspiration,” Web lecture, City Retreat, Berkeley, CA, Shambhala Center, www.shambhala.org.
4. Ibid.
5. Buddhist monks, nuns, and lay practitioners take the Bodhisattva Vows, reciting the following:
Beings are numberless, vowing to save them,
Suffering is inexhaustible, vowing to end it,
Dharma gates are boundless, vowing to open them,
The Buddha Way is unsurpassable, vowing to become it.
6. Definition of the word vow is from www.britannica.com.
7. Chödrön, “Bodhichitta and Aspiration.”
8. Definition of gāthā is based on the Sanskrit word ud?na, meaning “an inspired utterance,” www.britannica.com.
1. Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, 14th printing (New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, 1976), 84.
2. Eihei D?gen Zenji, “Eihei Koso Hotsuganmon, Lofty Ancestor Eihei D?gen’s Verse for Arousing the Vow” in the Sutra Chant book, San Francisco Zen Center, CA, http://sfzc.org/sp_download/liturgy/29_Eihei_Koso_Hotsuganmon.pdf.
3. Shantideva (sometimes ??ntideva) was an eighth-century Indian Buddhist. He is particularly renowned as the author of the Bodhicharyavatara, translated as A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life. It is a long poem describing the process of enlightenment from the first thought to full buddhahood and is still studied by many Buddhists today. A commentary by Pema Chödrön was published as No Time to Lose: A Timely Guide to the Way of the Bodhisattva (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2005).
This translation is from Shantideva, “Miracle of Awakening,” in Bodhicharyavatara (A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life), quoted in Jack Kornfield, ed., adapted by Eknath Easwaran, Teachings of the Buddha (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2007), 132.
4. Twelve and Twelve, 81.
5. Reb Anderson, presentation at retreat, Minnesota Zen Meditation Center, Minneapolis, MN, April 2008.
6. Reb Anderson, Being Upright: Zen Meditation and the Bodhisattva Precepts (Berkeley, CA: Rodmell Press, 2001), 30.
7. Twelve and Twelve, 89.
8. In the Sudatta Sutta, Buddha discusses the four kinds of bliss, including the bliss of ownership, the bliss of wealth, the bliss of being debtless, and the bliss of blamelessness.
9. Anderson, Being Upright, 30.
10. Twelve and Twelve, 84.
11. Anderson, Being Upright, 30.
12. “Prayer of Atonement,” from Bodhisattva Initiation Ceremony in Buddhism, quoted in Anderson, Being Upright, 28.
1. Bhikkhu Ñānamoli and Bhikkhu Bodhi, trans., “Ambalatthikarahulovada Sutta: Advice to R?hula at Ambalatthik?,” in The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha: A New Translation of the Majjhima Nik?ya (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1995), 524.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid., 526.
4. Ibid., 525.
5. Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, 14th printing (New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, 1976), 91.
6. This rendition is Thích Nhât Hanh’s version of a practice advised in “Maha Rahulovada Sutta: Big Advice to Rahula,” trans. Ven. Anzan Hoshin-roshi and Tory Cox, www.wwzc.org/translations/mahaRahulovada.htm.
7. Richard Davidson, study at Promega Corporation (WI), 1997, cited in Stephen Hall, “Is Buddhism Good for Your Health?” New York Times, September 14, 2003.
The results suggest that meditation may indeed leave a discernible and lasting imprint on the minds and bodies of its practitioners. In the Promega employees who practiced meditation for two months, the Wisconsin researchers detected significant increases in activity in several areas of the left prefrontal cortex—heightened activity that persisted for at least four months after the experiment, when the subjects were tested again.
8. Thanissaro Bhikkhu, trans., “Ambalatthikarahulovada Sutta: Instructions to Rāhula,” inMajjhima Nikāya 61, www.vipassana.com/canon/majjhima/ mn61.php.
9. Twelve and Twelve, 91.
10. Gregg Krech, Naikan: Gratitude, Grace, and the Japanese Art of Self-Reflection (Berkeley, CA: Stone Bridge Press, 2002), 26.
11. Noble silence is often practiced in Zen Buddhist retreats (called sesshin, a period of intensive meditation) where speaking or interacting with others is restricted.
12. “Upajjhatthana Sutta” [Subjects for contemplation] in Handful of Leaves: An Anthology from the Anguttara Nikāya, vol. 3, trans. Thanissaro Bhikkhu (Redwood City, CA: Sati Center for Buddhist Studies, 2003).
The five remembrances are five facts upon which all people are advised to reflect often, whether lay or monastic, male or female. These five subjects for contemplation (as translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu) are
13. Twelve and Twelve, 90.
1. Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, 14th printing (New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, 1976), 99.
2. Ibid., 105.
3. The term “buddha-mind” refers to the seeds of an enlightened mind, or essence of goodness within all sentient beings.
4. Twelve and Twelve, 98.
5. Shunryu Suzuki, Not Always So: Practicing the True Spirit of Zen, ed. Edward Espe Brown (New York: Quill/Harper-Collins Publishers, 2003), 5.
6. Ibid.
7. Twelve and Twelve, 99.
8. Adapted from Mark Epstein, Thoughts without a Thinker: Psychotherapy from a Buddhist Perspective, paperback ed. (New York: Basic Books, 1996), 43.
9. Arthur Braverman, Mud & Water: The Collected Teachings of Zen Master Bassui (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2002), 28.
10. Twelve and Twelve, 100.
11. Thích Nhât Hanh, The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching (New York: Broadway Books, 1999), 187.
Hanh is referring to a Buddhist scripture called The Lotus Sutra (Saddharma Pundarīka).
12. Thích Nhât Hanh, “Writing from Plum Village,” 2007, www.plumvillage.org/letters-from-thay.
13. All four descriptions of meditation techniques have been adapted from Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, The Joy of Living: Unlocking the Secret and Science of Happiness (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2007).
14. Rinpoche, The Joy of Living, 55.
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid., 144.
17. Hanh, “Writing from Plum Village.”
Plum Village (Làng Mai) is a Buddhist meditation center in the Dordogne in southern France. It was founded by Vietnamese monk Thích Nhât Hanh and his colleague Bhikkhuni Chân Không in 1982. Plum Village houses approximately sixty-five monks and laypersons, as well as being Thích Nhât Hanh’s residence.
1. Thomas Byrom, trans., “Crossing the Stream,” in The Dhammapada: The Sayings of the Buddha (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1976), quoted in Jack Kornfield, ed., Teachings of the Buddha (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2007), 34.
2. Thích Nhât Hanh, The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching (New York: Broadway Books, 1999), 27.
3. Byrom, trans., Dhammapada, quoted in Kornfield, ed., Teachings of the Buddha, 34.
4. Hahn, Heart of Buddha’s Teaching, 62.
5. Pema Chödrön, The Places That Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2002), 4.
Chödrön defines the “soft spot of the heart” as the innate ability to love and care about things.
6. Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, The Joy of Living: Unlocking the Secret and Science of Happiness (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2007), 189.
7. Ibid., 191.
8. Ibid., 190.
9. Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, 14th printing (New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, 1976), 115.
10. John Blofeld, trans., The Zen Teachings of Huang Po, quoted in Kornfield, ed., Teachings of the Buddha, 199.
11. Thích Nhât Hanh, Teachings on Love (Berkeley, CA: Parralla Press, 1998), 69.