In June, 230 Buddhist teachers gathered at the Garrison Institute in Garrison, New York, for the Maha Teacher Council, a conference on the future of Buddhist practice in North America. Following the conference, we asked 11 participants the following question:
Buddhism is very diverse—some would even say that the different traditions represent different religions. What was the common Buddhist thread that brought you all together?
We feature their responses in “A Common Thread,” from the current issue of Tricycle. Pat Enkyo O’Hara, abbot of The Village Zendo, had this to say about what held the conference together:
Impermanence: It was like we were all flowing down the river in a boat, pointing to the moving shoreline: youth, diversity, social responsibility, brain science, electronic dharma, Western wisdom. Then we noticed that the boat was moving, too.
Read 10 more teacher responses to the Maha Teacher Council here.
Image: from the Flickr photostream of fras1977
Thank you for subscribing to Tricycle! As a nonprofit, we depend on readers like you to keep Buddhist teachings and practices widely available.
Subscribe now to read this article and get immediate access to everything else.
Subscribe NowAlready a subscriber? Log in.