Dharma Seed is non-profit organization "dedicated to preserving and sharing the spoken teachings of
Theravada
''Theravāda'' (; 'School of the Elders'; ) is Buddhism's oldest existing school. The school's adherents, termed ''Theravādins'' (anglicized from Pali ''theravādī''), have preserved their version of the Buddha's teaching or ''Dharma (Buddhi ...
Buddhism in modern languages".
History
"Dharma Seed began in 1983 when Bill Hamilton, a volunteer at
Insight Meditation Society
The Insight Meditation Society (IMS) is a non-profit organization for study of Buddhism located in Barre, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1975 by Sharon Salzberg, Jack Kornfield, Joseph Goldstein and Jacqueline Schwartz, and is rooted in the Th ...
(IMS) in
Barre, Massachusetts
Barre ( ) is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 5,530 at the 2020 census.
History
Located on the ancestral homeland of the Nipmuc, the area was first settled by Europeans in 1720 and referred to as th ...
, began taping the dharma talks and meditation instructions offered there. His small project soon grew into a separate nonprofit organization, and Dharma Seed Tape Library began to spread the seeds of the dharma to the world by selling audiotapes of teachings. The original mission was simply to 'preserve and share the dharma,' which Dharma Seed continues to do today — with one critical change: The teachings are now offered based on the principle of
dana, or the
Buddhist
Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
practice of generosity. "
Originally, the tapes were "for the benefit of people who were not in the hall at the time of the talk, and the immense value of this material for posterity soon became evident. In 1984 the project incorporated as a non-profit religious organization, became Dharma Seed Tape Library, and moved out into the world. We’ve been doing this for almost sixteen years now. I was one of the original directors, and have been involved since the beginning," said Judy Phillips, Director of the Dharma Seed Archive.
By 1985, Dharma Seed Tape Libraries had started to gain notoriety among Western "Spiritual Pilgrims". Dharma Seed was one of "the growing number of organizations offering high quality cassettes" for the purpose of self-transformation. The May 1985 issue of ''Yoga Journal'' encouraged its readers to take advantage of the emerging availability of "'spiritual'
cassette tapes
Cassette, also known as cassette tape, refers to a small plastic unit containing a length of magnetic tape on two reels. The design was created to replicate the way a reel-to-reel machine works with tape moving from one reel to another while bein ...
" from the privacy of their home, car or
Walkman
is a brand of Personal stereo, portable audio players manufactured by Sony since 1979. It was originally introduced as a portable Compact Cassette, cassette player and later expanded to include a range of portable audio products. Since 2011, ...
headphones. From then on, "spiritual pilgrims have never had it so easy!" After a decade, the American vipassana movement was still largely concentrated in three states – California, New York and Massachusetts. Through offering the teachings given at
Insight Meditation Society
The Insight Meditation Society (IMS) is a non-profit organization for study of Buddhism located in Barre, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1975 by Sharon Salzberg, Jack Kornfield, Joseph Goldstein and Jacqueline Schwartz, and is rooted in the Th ...
(IMS) by mail order, Dharma Seed allowed the teachings to become available to those in regions lacking significant vipassana offerings.
"On the last night of
meditation retreat the ashes of Bill Hamilton, founder of the Dharma Seed Tape Library, were brought to Cloud Mountain. Bill had lived on Whidbey Island and had many friends in the Seattle sangha. In March of that year, Bill was told he had pancreatic cancer. A woman on the retreat outlined the story of his hospitalization and surgery, amazed at how affable and pleasant he had been through his suffering. Bill had wanted to be buried whole underneath an apple tree, but since such burials weren't allowed in Washington, a small apple tree was bought, a hole dug by the pond here, and his ashes were sent."
Etymology
The organization derives its name from the concept of a Dharma seed. "Seeds like this are the ideal object of reflection in the
vipassana sense. It is not enough merely to have a bare, undigested idea of a topic like '
impermanence
Impermanence, also known as the philosophical problem of change, is a philosophical concept addressed in a variety of religions and philosophies. In Eastern philosophy it is notable for its role in the Buddhism, Buddhist three marks of existe ...
'... We need a Dharma Seed – an idea that has developed numerous facets of meaning for us. The more we reflect on the
Dharma
Dharma (; , ) is a key concept in various Indian religions. The term ''dharma'' does not have a single, clear Untranslatability, translation and conveys a multifaceted idea. Etymologically, it comes from the Sanskrit ''dhr-'', meaning ''to hold ...
, the more Dharma seeds will emerge for us, and the more genuine topics we shall have for vipassana meditation."
Oral history
Dharma Seed highlights the importance of preserving the
oral transmission Oral transmission, literally meaning "passing by mouth", may refer to:
*Oral tradition of stories, texts, music, laws and other cultural elements
** Oral gospel traditions, referring specifically to the Christian Gospels
*Pathogen transmission
...
of Dharma teachings. Alan Reder wrote that although "
ooksstill offer the greatest variety of material, plus unmatched depth and detail. However, they sometimes yield only the faintest impression of the people who wrote them, and that can make a crucial difference with wise beings whose inspiring presence is part of their teaching... Fortunately, we can also 'meet' almost any great teacher on audio and video recordings... Dharma Seed picks up where the
Buddha
Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha (),*
*
*
was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist legends, he was ...
left off 2,500 years ago: distributing the dharma without charge... The celebs you'll expect –
Jack Kornfield
Jack Kornfield (born 1945) is an American writer and teacher in the Vipassana movement in American Theravada Buddhism. He trained as a Buddhist monk in Thailand, Burma and India, first as a student of the Thai forest master Ajahn Chah and Mah ...
,
Joseph Goldstein,
Sylvia Boorstein
Sylvia Boorstein is an American author, psychotherapist, and Buddhist teacher.
Boorstein studied with Dipa Ma and is a co-founding teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, California. She is also a senior teacher at the Insight Me ...
,
Sharon Salzberg
Sharon Salzberg (born August 5, 1952) is an author and teacher of Buddhist meditation practice in the West. In 1974, she co-founded the Insight Meditation Society at Barre, Massachusetts, with Jack Kornfield and Joseph Goldstein. Her emphasi ...
– are all voluminously represented in the catalog."
Dharma centers
Dharma Seed hosts audio recordings of
Dharma Talk
A Dharma talk (Sanskrit) or Dhamma talk (Pali) or Dharma sermon (''Japanese'': , ''Chinese'': ) is a public discourse on Buddhism by a Buddhist teacher.
In Theravāda Buddhism, the study of Buddhist texts and listening to Dhamma talks by monks o ...
s given at over 40 centers worldwide.
References
*
*
*
* {{cite book, last=Kamalashila, title=Meditation: The Buddhist Way of Tranquillity and Insight, publisher=Windhorse Publications, isbn=978-1-899579-05-1, page
186year=1996, url=https://archive.org/details/meditationbuddhi0000kama/page/186 - Significance and symbolism of the concept of a Dharma Seed as opposed to the organization itself
External links
Dharma SeedDownload audio Dharma talks by IMS teachers
Dharma Overground – MCTB Bill HamiltonS Model
Buddhist organizations based in the United States
Theravada Buddhist organizations