One Dharma: The Emerging Western Buddhism

Joseph Goldstein, one of America's most well-known and respected Buddhist teachers, distills a lifetime of practice and teaching into "One Dharma," a vision of the new Buddhist tradition taking root on American soil. While some Buddhists express concern about losing traditional dharma teachings to the melting pot of American practice, Goldstein sees great potential for combining the best of all the traditions that have converged here in the West.

He tells us, "In the One Dharma of emerging Western Buddhism, the method is mindfulness, the expression is compassion, the essence is wisdom." Goldstein believes that the cultivation of these qualities is the crux of Western Buddhist practice, and that by drawing upon the best of Theravadan, Tibetan, and Zen teachings (among others), we create a new tradition that is eminently responsive and pragmatic: free from the concerns of upholding a particular dogma, we can employ the most skillful means appropriate to our life at any time.

About the Author:
Joseph Goldstein is a cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society in Massachusetts, where he is one of the guiding teachers. He is the author of The Experience of Insight and Insight Meditation. He has coauthored books with Sharon Salzberg, Jack Kornfield, and Jon Kabat-Zinn. He lectures and leads retreats nationally and internationally. He lives in Barre, MA.