[Buddha-l] From Hans Gruenig

[curt]

Two short texts that I think are helpful are:

(1) chapter four of Pema Chodron's first book:
"The Wisdom of No Escape". That chapter is
the "meditation instructions" part of the book -
which consists of a series of talks she gave during
a one-month retreat.

(2) Chapter three of Chogyam Trungpa's book
"The Path is the Goal" (not to be confused with
the book "Journey without Goal"). That chapter
is entitled "The Star of Bethlehem".

The chapter from Chodron's book is more practical
and emphasizes the "how-to" aspect - whereas the
chapter from Trungpa's book is more inspirational
and evocative. Both books in their entireties would be
useful for someone starting from scratch trying to
figure out what the heck "non-dual" might possibly
mean in terms of meditation practice.

Also, Robert Aitken's little book "Taking the Path
of Zen" offers a practical and down-to-earth approach
to the practice of meditation from a "non-dual" (Zen)
point of view.

And Alan Watt's classic "The Way of Zen" would also
be good - possibly better than all of the others above.
In particular, the chapter "Sitting Quietly Doing Nothing"
probably comes as close as anyone ever has to expressing
"non-duality" in English prose.

But for extra credit you should probably have them read
selections from Robert Buswell's excellent "Tracing Back
the Radiance: Chinul's Korean Way of Zen". Chinul was
a 12th century teacher in Korea who embodied the "non-dual"
spirit of Zen - but who also didn't limit his Dharma discourses
to barking like a dog and stunts like that. He wasn't afraid
to "break-it-down".

- Curt

jkirk wrote:

> proxy postingSubject: Buddhist Non-Dual Awareness Reading Recommendations
>
> Greetings,
>
> I teach a course on Buddhism (with a "Meditation Lab" and a fair amout 
> of emphasis on the experiential) for the Philosophy Department at 
> Tulane University, and I recently attended retreats with Richard 
> Miller and Adyashanti that focused on recognizing, abiding in, and 
> embodying non-dual awareness.  For years I've focused on vipassana, 
> samatha, and metta meditation in my classes, but I'd like to 
> incorporate some non-dual awareness texts, meditations, and 
> teachings.  I asked Richard if he knew of any accessible and inspiring 
> texts on this topic in the Buddhist traditions (Dzogchen? Zen?), but 
> he only knew of classics like Longchempa's writings (such as the 
> beautiful "THE PRECIOUS TREASURY OF THE BASIC SPACE OF PHENOMENA"), of 
> which I was aware, but was not certain that they would be appropriate 
> for my purposes.  I'd love to find contemporary texts that are, 
> perhaps, the Buddhist-non-dual-awareness-discourse-equivalent of Lama 
> Surya Das's "Awakening the Buddha Within" or Gunaratana's "Mindfulness 
> in Plain English" -- that is, something clear, accessible, inspiring, 
> poignant, evocative, practice oriented, non-sectarian, and not heavily 
> laden with cultural trappings.  Do you have any book, article, 
> chapter, or other recommendations?
>
> Many thanks,
> -Hans Gruenig.
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