Issue 47 (Spring/Summer 2021)

This issue comes over a year since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s been an event that has touched nearly everyone’s life, and changed most people’s lives considerably, although a year ago few of us thought that it would last so long! Our cover photo notes one significant change that the pandemic has brought to many Buddhists’ lives; rather than traveling to see our teachers, we are now listening to teachings online.

Given the tumultuous times we are living in, with disturbing emotions and violence often marking the human experience around the world, the editors decided to start this issue with the wisdom of H.H. the 17th Karmapa on the topic of non-violence. Following this, Lama Jigme Rinpoche conveys us to the highest level and gives us the birds eye view of perception in an article on the nature of phenomena, in an excerpt from his book The Handbook of Ordinary Heroes: The Bodhisattva’s Way.

In an adaptation of a 2002 lecture, Lama Ole Nydahl then takes us deeper into our own inner landscape with an explanation of disturbing emotions, and how to transform them into wisdom. This is one of the first articles published in Buddhism Today that have been developed based on lectures from several years ago, and many hours of careful thought and editing went into this one. In future, we will have more articles like this, to share and preserve these precious teachings in written form.

Continuing the theme of issue 46, Lama Ole and Hannah Nydahl offer their insights about retreats in a reprint of a 2006 Buddhism Today article, chosen for this issue since many Buddhist practitioners are now using the solitude of the pandemic as an opportunity to delve deeper in their meditation practice in retreats.

As context and historical information on the source of these noble teachings throughout this and other issues of Buddhism Today, Manfred Seegers provides us with the start of a three-part series of thoroughly researched articles on the history of the Kagyu lineage. In our next two issues, we will present Seegers’ overview of the origins of the lineage and its development, and then lastly the third article in the series will complete the arc with the essential teachings of the Kagyu tradition, as handed down and practiced until today.

Finally, continuing our series on Buddhism and Science, Tom Vanasse’s fascinating article about the neuroscience of meditation gives the scientific viewpoint on one of the effects of meditation on the brain.

We hope you enjoy this issue of the magazine as much as we enjoyed putting it together for you!

The Editors

Editorial Board

Editors
Jonathan Bradley, Blakesley Burkhart, Annik Foreman, Carola Hannemann, Bruce Underhill

Art Director/Production
Anilou Price

Digital Director
Alex Katalkin

Copy Editors
Nancy Beall, Kathleen Dwyer, Annik Foreman, Joe Lyman, Catherine Walker

Graphic Designers
Alex Katalkin, Milla Kicilinska, Anilou Price, Bozena Sudnikiewicz

e-Publications Editor
Michal Moskal

Photography
Guadalupe Alvarez Rascon, Volker Anders, Philipp Dronov, Volen Evtimov, Jason Langer, Maciej Majewski, Marcin Muchalski, Ginger Neumann, Bojana Vurdelja, Zsuzsanna Wellinger

Circulation Manager
Benjamin Ritchey

Marketing and Subscriptions
Ryan Hoffnagle, Jim Macur, Benjamin Ritchey, Jerome Sala

Finance
Benjamin Ritchey

Tech Support
Alex Katalkin, Jeremy Kunzinger

marpa lotsawa (1012–1096)

The Kagyu Lineage, Part 1 (Yogis, Lay people, and Monks, and Lineages of Spiritual Instruction Versus Established Schools)

The Kagyu Lineage, Part 1 (Yogis, Lay people, and Monks, and Lineages of Spiritual Instruction Versus Established Schools)By /

The following article is the first in a three-part series of articles, offering an outline of the origin and contents of the Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. The first article uses the Kagyu lineage as an example to explain the roles of the Buddhist practitioners in Tibet, and what actually constitutes a lineage or tradition within Tibetan Buddhism precisely. In our next edition, the second article will provide a brief overview of the origins of the lineage and its historical development up to the time of the Third Karmapa, in the early fourteenth century. The third article will discuss the essential teachings of the Kagyu tradition, as handed down and practiced until today. All three articles are based on the 2009 Master of Philosophy thesis by the author, and have been slightly worked over for this magazine.

The Kagyu Lineage, Part 1 (Yogis, Lay people, and Monks, and Lineages of Spiritual Instruction Versus Established Schools) Read More »