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January 2013 Shambhala Sun magazine

Inside the January 2013 Shambhala Sun magazine

Featuring Thich Nhat Hanh in "the country of the present moment"; next-gen Buddhists on their struggles and successes; tough talk from about Buddhism from Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche; Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche's dharma art teachings and more.

this issue's editorial:
• Enlighten Us

"Our task," writes Shambhala Sun Editor-in-Chief Melvin McLeod, "is the development of genuine dharma in the modern world, and the seeds we plant now are vitally important."

feature section: thich nhat hanh at plum village

• In the Country of the Present Moment

Andrea Miller visits Plum Village in France to explore how Thich Nhat Hanh's community is practicing the five mindfulness trainings. Could these be the basis of a better, kinder world?

• Creating an Enlightened Society

Now more than ever, says Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh, we need a new global ethic of compassion, understanding, and peace. Buddhism can help.

• You Don't Need to Be a Buddhist

Thich Nhat Hanh tells Andrea Miller that anyone can use the five mindfulness trainings.

Shambhala Sun
RELATED SHAMBHALA SUN SPOTLIGHT:

• Thich Nhat Hanh: His best from the Shambhala Sun

more features

• Not for Happiness

If it feels too good, it's probably not Buddhism. According to Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, real-deal dharma involves painful honesty, uncomfortable change, and serious transformation.

• Unconditional Beauty

Painting, calligraphy, photography and flower arranging—all in the service of a creative, genuine life. Honoring the 25th anniversary of his death, we present the dharma art teachings and artworks of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche.

RELATED SHAMBHALA SUN SPOTLIGHT:• The Teachings of Chögyam Trungpa

• No Gap: Writings from the Under 35 Project

Reflections from Ben Hutchison, Subha Srinivasan, Stacy Chivers, Susan Yao, Jenna Hollenstein, Brian Otto Kimmel and more young and gifted Buddhist practitioners.

• We Need to Be Warriors

The world needs people who are wholeheartedly engaged with life, says Sakyong Mipham. That takes bravery.

RELATED SHAMBHALA SUN SPOTLIGHT:

• Sakyong Mipham: His best from the Shambhala Sun

• Please Come Back

That was Melody Ermachild Chavis' prayer, until she finally accepted that her father would never return. But had he been there for her all along?

• With Mindfulness You're Less Likely to Kill the Person Holding Up the Line

A Q&A with Seth Greenland, author of The Angry Buddhist, a novel that offers a steamy mix of murder, manga kitten tattoos, and a fierce congressional election.

• Dancing in Foam & Other Adventures

They say that wherever you go, there you are. But as Anne Cushman discovers in Spain, it's also true that travel gives you a fresh take on yourself.

• Love and Emptiness

Norman Fischer reviews The Heart Attack Sutra: A New Commentary on the Heart Sutra, by Karl Brunnhölzl, and Thunderous Silence: A Practical Guide to the Heart Sutra, by Dosung Yoo.

• Books in Brief

Andrea Miller reviews new books by Mary Paterson, Stephen Cope, Thubten Chodron, and more.
• About a Poem: Red Pine on Ch'eng Hao's "Casual Poem on a Spring Day"

Plus: The Mindful Society: Dispatches from the Mindful Revolution, from the editors of MINDFUL.

Shambhala Sun, January 2013, Volume Twenty One, Number 3.

To order a trial subscription to the Shambhala Sun, click here.

Shambhala Sun

Bill Viola: Reasons for Knocking at an Empty House: Writings 1973-1994

Reasons for Knocking at an Empty House is a powerfully austere observation of the perceptual experience of the self in isolation, subjected to extended duration. Viola writes that this work is "an attempt to stay awake continuously for three days while confined to an upstairs room in an empty house. Recordings were made from a stationary black-and-white camera to chronicle the effects of the relentless passage of time on a solitary individual. The space becomes increasingly subjective as events slide in and out of conscious awareness and the duration becomes more and more brutal." Subtle transformations in light and sound, and the use of a wide-angle lens to create spatial ambiguities, further distort the viewer's perception of time and space, illusion and reality.

Chosen to represent the United States at the 46th Venice Biennale, Bill Viola, a New York artist living on the West Coast, is recognized internationally for his work in video and sound installations. This book brings together a selection of essays, notebook entries, drawings, and descriptions of projects that map Viola's personal course through the readings, observations, experiments, and associations that form the groundwork for his art. Each work illustrated is accompanied by a description by the artist, as well as comments on the work's origins from the artist's notebooks.For the last 25 years, Viola has used innovative multimedia technologies to explore the phenomena of sense perception as a language of the body and avenue to self-knowledge, integrating many disciplines and philosophies to reveal contemporary art's relevance to the modern world. His views have deep roots in mysticism, poetry, philosophy, Eastern art, shamanism, Chinese Taoism, Sufism, and Zen Buddhism. Viola's chief concerns today are to draw attention to the upset ecological balance of nature by focusing on the connection between our inner and outer lives, on the conception of the self as part of the whole.

"The larger struggle we are witnessing today... [is] an ecological drama where the outcome rests not only on our realization that the natural physical environment is one and the same as our bodies, but that nature itself is a form of Mind." Bill Viola

BillViola.com

Chögyam Trungpa: True Perception

Genuine art has the power to awaken and liberate. The renowned meditation master and artist Chögyam Trungpa called this type of art “dharma art”—any creative work that springs from an awakened state of mind, characterized by directness, unselfconsciousness, and nonaggression. Dharma art provides a vehicle to appreciate the nature of things as they are and express it without any struggle or desire to achieve. A work of dharma art brings out the goodness and dignity of the situation it reflects—dignity that comes from the artist’s interest in the details of life and sense of appreciation for experience. Trungpa shows how the principles of dharma art extend to everyday life: any activity can provide an opportunity to relax and open our senses to the phenomenal world.

An expanded edition of Trungpa's Dharma Art (1996), this book includes a new introduction and essay.

“Trungpa’s notion of dharma art is an approach to art as meditation, an attitude of directness and unselfconsciousness in creative work. Lief’s inspired selection and careful editing make this an essential book for those committed to view that the artist should be a spiritual teacher.”—Publishers Weekly

Chögyam Trungpa (1940–1987) was a meditation master, teacher, and artist who founded Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, and an international association of meditation centers known as Shambhala International. He is the author of numerous books.

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