Transforming Mind

“Experiences are preceded by mind,
led by mind and produced by mind.”
The Dhammapada

This issue of Dharma Life is devoted to the Buddhist path of changing experience through transforming the mind. In Have Map, Can Unravel, Subhuti explains how traditional Buddhist psychology offers a framework for understanding his own mind and helping others to know the territory. Manjusvara explores how reading and writing poetry can transform consciousness (The World Made Word). And in Ways to Cross the Divide the Buddhist nun Ayya Khema expounds the Buddha”s teaching on overcoming anger.

Healing Perspective is an account of how 'Sarah' is moving beyond the painful legacy of childhood sexual abuse through forgiveness. Srisambhava's Singular Journey on a six month-long solitary retreat confronted her with her own limits and showed her a path to freedom.

In Extending a Hand Manjusura describes how he discovered that the compassionate ideal of the bodhicitta is not just a remote ideal. And in Craving –a Sober Look psychologist Mitrananda considers addiction from a Buddhist perspective and compares Buddhism and the Twelve Steps Programme for recovering addicts. Ven. Analayo, a Buddhist monk living in Sri Lanka, describes (in Back to the Source) how his study of the Buddha's meditation teaching casts new light on time-honoured approaches.