Exploring Buddhism in modern age

With a plethora of systems of beliefs in today’s age from traditional religions to secular frameworks, the relevance of Buddhism in dealing with today’s personal and global challenges is worthy of closer inspection. With the rise of mindfulness as an evidence based practice to address a myriad challenges, recognizing and diving deeper into this foundational practice in Buddhism is another step towards healing malaise that we collectively face.

With plenty of traditional resources on the subject manner of Buddhism from amazing books by the masters to the gamut of videos/podcasts, this project is focused on providing anecdotal perspective from ordinary practitioners in the modern world. These ordinary practitioners from all walks of life and social economic backgrounds share their journey not to tout their spiritual achievement but as a glimpse into how beneficial a wholehearted practice has been in their lives.

What is Buddhism

Buddhism has all the traditional chrematistics of a religion but that may be a limited perspective when you consider it’s fundamental approach to the nature of phenomena. Learn how it’s being interpreted my modern practitioners.

From other traditions

With the migration of Buddhism to the West, it is rare of most practitioners to be born into the tradition. Although there are considerable amount of Asian immigrants that have brought their Buddhist practices to the west, for the the sake of scope, the project explores how people from other traditions reconcile their background with Buddhism.

Meditation and Beyond

With the accessibly of mindfulness in many contexts in modern life, what Buddhist meditation offer and how does it contrast to secular mindfulness. As a foundational practice in Buddhism, mindfulness is a step stone to greater insight when applied with the appropriate motivation.

Discovery and Refuge

The gateway into Buddhism in modern times is considerably more diverse than when Buddhism was introduced to the west. Certainly, the intellectual appeal of Buddhism has garnered plenty of arm chair Buddhists but the power of Buddhism comes from practice. To actually take refuge in the 3 jewels of Buddhism, doesn’t mean that it has to be exclusive from other traditions. Still, the deeper one goes the richer the practice becomes.

Establishing A Practice

Ask any one successful in their field of endeavor and without doubt, there is usually some sort of daily practice to reach that level. Spiritual transformation is rarely something that just happens over the over the course of a few years and so developing a system of practices is critical to sustaining the transformation.

Authentic Lineages

The dynamic nature of Buddhism is conducive to providing many flavors of the practice to suit different cultures and personalities. With the diversity of cultures within one nation, the manifestion of buddism can reflect that diversity. Explore the styles expression of the dharma in the three main vehicles of theravada, mayayana and varjayana. At the end of the day, the essence of teachings is liberation.

Theravada

Being the oldest school with a resurgence in southeast Asia in modern times has made this tradition more accessible through a somatic focus. Traditionally, the Theravada lineage was focused on achieving ‘Nirvana’ for one personal sake but that path isn’t as clear cut in modern times.

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Mahayana

While the Theravada path had its foundation on personal liberation, the Mahayana schools expand the motivation to seek liberation from samsara for the being of all beings. This critical point of departure is incorporated into many of the teachings and practices of modern lineages such as Zen, Thich Nhat Hanh’s and Chan.

Vajrayana

The Vajrayana path builds on many of the teachings/practices of the Mahayana path but also includes more ‘advance’ practices that accelerates the possibility of achieving enlightenment in one lifetime. Although there are Vajryana lineages in other countries besides Tibet, the bulk of Tibetan Buddhism falls into this category.

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The Dharma

The teachings of the Buddha are vast and still quite relevant in today’s world. How the dharma is culturally interpreted and practice may be different compared to eastern cultures but fundamentally the human experience across cultures has remain fairly consistent.

Explore the teachings.

The Sangha

Frankly, being a dharma practitioner in the west, can be a lonely experience. Thus, the community of practitioners is a vital in supporting one’s spiritual progress. Even though it is wonderful to have access to virtual communities, it is still significant to invest your time and energy to being part of a local sangha.

Explore more.

Adapting to Modern Times

The strength of Buddhism as a tradition is in it’s ability to adapt to different cultures and types of personalities. Learn how teachers are adapting the teachings to the modern student.

Fruit of Practice

Embarking on a spiritual journey that requires commitment and practice can be a daunting endeavor. Although one shouldn’t be attached to the the fruition of the practice, it’s still help to have some sign posts on what spiritual maturity can look like.

Obstacles to the path

Without doubt, there will be many obstacles to adopting a spiritual tradition in today’s distractible world. From building a daily practice to finding a community of practitioners, learn how others have overcome these challenges.

Global Relevance

How does Buddhist philosophy and practices support the global challenges that we are facing ? From political polarization to climate change, understanding the nature of phenomena and having sustainable personal response to these global challenges can make the difference between apathy and healthy engagement.

Practitioners with under 15 years of experience

wpadmin2022-08-04T15:05:29+00:00

Zselyke

So both of my parents are actually time practitioners, they both met lama for the first time in 1994, if I remember correctly. And I myself met my root lama first in 1996, so only a year after I was born.

wpadmin2022-08-04T15:04:48+00:00

Josh

I was raised Roman Catholic and my grandfather was a fourth degree Knight of Columbus. So, I was very intrenched with a fixed Idea of what God was and was not. As well as a lot of dogma and beliefs that I wasn’t even sure were real, that the people telling me weren’t eve sure were real either. I always suffered because I was trying to force myself to believe in a God or higher power.

wpadmin2022-08-04T15:04:24+00:00

Lennell

So I kind of grew up in what was nontraditional, if you will. And so I joke because I see that Won Buddhism as the Jehovah’s Witnesses of Buddhism.

wpadmin2022-08-04T15:00:41+00:00

Kalpana

And that's when I said, I need a break. It is a flier with one of the reverend's doing a retreat at the one Dharma Center, which is like four hours from here in upstate New York. That is my beginning of real, you know, waking up to ways of really cultivating myself under this long spiel. But now that's by way of introduction.

wpadmin2022-08-04T15:00:07+00:00

Amber

Tibetan Buddhism resonates so strongly with me firstly, because of karma. It is well known to me from past lives and now I am remembering. So it is very dear to me and has stirred deep emotion from my first exposure. I think it is probably this way with most practitioners, once it grabs a hold of you, it’s like welcoming a dear old friend back into your life after a long absence.

wpadmin2022-12-29T22:27:35+00:00

Donovan

I was going through the process of 12 step, got a sponsor, did those things that we're supposed to do. But I wasn't feeling it at all. I was just going through the motions and I was not it was not working. And so I asked someone at the treatment center when I was outpatient about how to what what I could do, like what are my options. And he gave me two names and I called both of them. And the first one to call me back was Alejandro Trouble. And that was the beginning of my of my path.