Western Buddhism: The 50 Year Lessons
Posted: 11/4/11 01:41 PM ET

It's been about 50 years since the bulk of the Asian meditation masters arrived here -- Japanese, Korean, Tibetan, Vietnamese and so on. Many of us have spent our whole adult lives trying to practice and absorb what they taught us. I've been thinking recently about the "50 year lessons" that we have gleaned during this time.

Some of the lessons have been transformative, others disappointing. Many of the lessons we learned the hard way -- by making mistake after mistake (which is what my teacher Suzuki Roshi characterized as the basic quality of Buddhist practice, even for teachers). In this and the next post I want to present my 50 year lessons, at least those I have thought of so far.

More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lewis-richmond/western-buddhism-50-year-lessons_b_1029461.html

Western Buddhism: The 50 Year Lessons (Part II)
Posted: 01/27/2012 3:13 pm

A few weeks ago I began a series of posts called "Western Buddhism: The 50 Year Lessons." In that post I mentioned three lessons: enlightenment is not what we thought, meditation is not good for everything and religious corruption is universal. Outside of ethnic enclaves, Buddhism is really quite new in the West. Even the word "Buddhism" itself -- a term coined by 19th century European scholars to categorize it as a world religion along with other "isms" -- is not quite right. There is no such word "Buddhism" in Buddhism. The Buddha himself used the word marga, which simply means "path." Buddhism is a wisdom path, a long, difficult, and complex journey. It takes time and effort, and mistakes are part of it.

I would like to continue my exploration of 50 year lessons with two more: Prejudice Against Women Runs Deep, and Conflict is Part of the Path.

More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lewis-richmond/western-buddhism-the-50-y_b_1229200.html