tricycle q & a: stephan bodian

Question: "What is your perspective on the relevance of Buddhst teachings in our day and time, considering there seems to be an awakening happening that is formless, with teachers like Eckhart Tolle not encouraging certain rituals and practices beyond presence?"

Answer: As a former Zen monk, I have tremendous respect for the Buddhist tradition and find that the fundamental teachings on the cause and alleviation of suffering and on working with the mind have timeless relevance. They derive from direct, profound insight into the nature of reality by Buddha and the enlightened teachers that followed in his footsteps.

At the same time, Buddhism has tended to become encrusted with beliefs and practices that have little to do with the experience of waking up to who we really are, which is, after all, what the Buddha (the awakened one) was inviting his disciples to do. In particular, there seems to be more of an emphasis on becoming a skilled "practitioner," which of course helps perpetuate the practice center and the organization that springs up around it, and less upon enlightenment, which often becomes a kind of distant dream, possible only for the rare few.

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