10.06.2023 Illuminating Buddhanature Big Mind. True Nature. Basic Goodness. Ultimate Reality. Whatever you call it, the Fall 2023 edition of Buddhadharma: The Practitioner's Guide is here to illuminate the essential Buddhist concept of buddhanature. Think that this concept is simply beyond you? This issue may very well change your mind. Features include Lopen Karma Phuntsho of Tsadra Foundation’s Buddha-Nature project on “Why Buddhanature Matters”; Vanessa Zuisei Goddard on how the famous Mu-koan helps us see the nature of reality; Rev. Blayne Higa on the founder of Shin Buddhism’s “spiritual insight of imperfection and radical acceptance”; Karl Brunnholzl on how Nagarjuna and Maitreya spoke of buddhanature and emptiness; and meditations and reflections from Margarita Loinaz, Tsokyni Rinpoche, Lama Palden Drolma, Guo Gu, Myokei Caine-Barrett, Qalvy Grainzvolt, and other wise teachers and spiritual friends. Plus: an interview with Insight Meditation Society cofounder Joseph Goldstein, Buddhadharma on Books, exclusive online reading, and more. Have a look inside, and thank you for your practice! —Rod Meade Sperry, Editor, Buddhadharma: The Practitioner’s Guide + Lion’s Roar Special Editions        Why Buddhanature Matters Lopen Karma Phuntsho, writer-in-residence for Tsadra Foundation’s Buddha-Nature project, takes a look at the history and development of the Mahayana concept of buddhanature. Being preoccupied with what is fake and unreal shrouds our mind and puts us in denial of the real truth. People who are supercilious and preoccupied with ordinary mundane things often reject any higher truth. Even when someone follows the spiritual path seriously, the focus is on the contrived and conditioned practices rather than being in the natural state of the free, open and unfabricated nature of the mind, here and now. Buddhanature teachings help us focus on this ultimate truth instead of rejecting it. ADVERTISEMENT Buddhadharma on Books: Fall 2023   Joie Szu-Chiao Chen reviews seven new dharma books from the fall publishing season.   Murphy’s prose, gorgeous and fluid, burns with the urgency of a love letter to Mother Earth and the passion of a rallying cry to care for her. She constantly reaches inward to Zen and outward to indigenous wisdom to contemplate our plight and illuminate our innate goodness, showing that engagement with a crisis can be serious yet exuberant, grounded yet imaginative. Meditations on Buddhanature Four Buddhist teachers share concise instructions for recognizing the luminous nature of mind. Most of us live within the confines of our identity as a discreet, separate self that is desperately trying to stabilize its own existence. However, we all carry the natural freedom of our essential nature, though unrecognized. As expressed at the beginning of the Heart Sutra: “Indescribable, inconceivable, and inexpressible, the perfection of sublime knowing is unborn and unceasing—the very nature of space. It is the realm of your own self-knowing, timeless awareness.” LION’S ROAR PROMOTION