Sumi Loundon We usually close each topic with an Abbot’s Commentary, but this time, we have a special treat for you. We invited the Abbot’s first meditation teacher, Sumi Loundon, to share her commentary on the different schools that she and Soryu learned...
It has been said that there exists in the world at least 31 flavors of ice-cream (I aspire to someday verify that claim empirically myself)[1]. The many schools of Buddhism are like all those different flavors of ice-cream: they all taste different, but they are...
Soryu often points out one type of debate that modern Buddhists tend to get into, a new type of argument: disagreements about whether certain Buddhist texts are historical. Modern people often think that if something is not historical, it cannot be true...
“Look Master, I’m focusing on the core!” With all that diversity within Buddhism, and all that potential for nasty conflicts, how is it that we are so frequently able to treat each other like we are from the same family? There are at least two...
“Say samadhi!” (Context: The history of sectarian Buddhism.) My own experience as a Buddhist was cross-sectarian. I consider my “home base” to be Zen. Zen was my first real encounter with Buddhism as a teenager, and even though I did not...
“Master, when you were young, did you also have sects?” (Context: The history of sectarian Buddhism.) According to the popular narrative, sectarian Buddhism started with a schism at the Second Buddhist Council due a disagreement over monastic rules. ...
