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10 EASTERN HORIZON | TEACHINGS
Benny: What attracted you to Buddhism? What did
Living in you feel it had to offer you?
accordance Jonathan: I was raised as a Quaker, a Christian tradition
where community gatherings are in silence. We are
told to listen to “the small, still voice within.” As a child,
with Dhamma that made intuitive sense to me, but I was never taught
exactly “how” to do that.
By Jonathan Foust
When I learned how to formally meditate at age 15, the
Jonathan lights came on. With meditation instruction, I suddenly
Foust, MA, had a technology to help still my mind and more reliably
CSA, is a senior come into presence.
teacher with In what ways would you say your life has been
the Insight enriched by the practice of the Buddha Dharma?
Meditation
Community of Countless ways.
Washington
and a I love the story when the Buddha was asked, “How can I
former president of Kripalu Center for tell if I am making progress in my practice?”
Yoga and Health. He began meditating at
15 and spent years in a monastic setting My understanding is that he said we must ask
studying with world-renowned teachers. ourselves if we are more or less afflicted by greed,
With over 35 years of experience leading hatred, and delusion.
retreats and trainings, Jonathan integrates While I still struggle in this life, I definitely have more
meditation and somatic awareness into periods of equanimity and what I think of as ‘happy
his teachings. He offers a donation-based attacks.’
weekly meditation class and internationally
recognized podcast and has taught My first month-long Vipassana Retreat was filled with
for organizations including The World amazing insights and breakthroughs. When I did my
Bank, the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House of second month-long retreat, I had high expectations,
Representatives and the DC Superior Court. but my retreat was mostly calm and peaceful. I had no
dramatic insights like I did on my first one. I felt a little
Jonathan was kind enough to provide an let down.
interview for Eastern Horizon when Benny
Liow asked him about how one could About two months after I got home, my wife turned to
me and said, “You are less stressed. You seem generally
practice the Buddha Dharma in one’s daily
happier.”
life as a householder busy with family life,
career, and other social responsibilities. I realized that while I had had no major breakthroughs
in my practice, I was indeed less caught in wanting,
aversion, and confusion.
